Detective Comics #184, DC Comics, June 1952. Artist: Win Mortimer.
Revisiting some popular past Covered 365 themes with today’s books. First lets see what lies at the end of the Rainbow, how about a great Win Mortimer Detective #184 delivering the Human Firefly on a beautiful rainbow platter.
Daredevil #184 packs such a visual punch, Miller the minimalist creating some maximum impact.
I a comment yesterday Chris gave us Famous Funnies #184 as a JOWA candidate, could be, but I’m more interested in the continued sick fixation this title had with turkeys!
A great comic book cover matching each day of the year, 1 through 365. Please chime in with your favourite corresponding cover, from any era.
Detective is pretty but the action is not for me. A villain who just stands with his hands on his hips and blinds people is really boring.
Daredevil repels me viscerally. As Nerdy Nummies Batman would say, “No guns!”
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No real standouts for #185. For fun I will call it a toss up between Adventure and Unexpected because they are both excellent and coincidentally much the same. The other three that I like are Superman Family, Wonder Woman (1987), and World’s Finest, although World’s Finest loses points for being a blatant steal from the Star Trek episode aired the previous year. It seems like DC hired Adams to breathe life into Superman Family, which probably didn’t work, but he turned in some great work. I am really starting to get interested in finding some perfect copies of these $1 Adams cover books, maybe they will be dead forever but even at the time I thought they were cool.
Detective isn’t really a JOWA, but let’s have a mini contest to propose what in pocket X of Batman’s utility will mean the end of Batman’s career if the underworld discovers it. The obvious suggestion is that Robin’s safety is a risk until the belt is recovered, but I’m looking for a more creative response.
The JOWA is Flash due to the lower left quadrant.
Pocket X probably contains a clue to his secret identity in case he ever gets amnesia or is killed and all that is left is his belt, which is supposed to be indestructable. It would then tell him or the police who Batman was. Just a guess as I don’t have that issue.
Superman Family 182’s cover was pencilled by Curt Swan and inked by Neal Adams. I recall seeing a photo of the original art, in the old Comic Reader, prior to Adams’ inks and the faces were decidely Swan all the way, which I liked way over Adams rendition. Adams’ faces were generic Adams and didn”t resemble the characters’ usual look. Swan had nailed it and I recall how disappointed I was when the issue came out and Adams had changed the faces so much.
Defender of Turkeys and all JOWA comics
1920s was the decade that the United States, population-wise, became an urban country. But rural sensibilities remained. Many city dwellers still kept chickens,turkeys and even a piglet on their city property. This was also natural for new immigrants as this was normal in Europe. Thus this rustic humor and daily life was yet a shared experience, shared by millions. Thus titles such as Famous funnies, Li’l Abner’s , Ozark Ike (1945–’53) and Cotton Woods (1955–’58), and . “Babe” a beautiful hillbilly girl who lived with her kin in the Ozarks — with many similarities to Li’l Abner.
Eventually by-laws and different sensibilities arose, but well into the 1950’s there was still a market for funny animals and a rural theme and commonality.
I grew up on a farm in the sixties (Canada)…and my life had a lot more in common with the themes of Famous funnies and such, then most mainstream comics. Farm life, animals galore, silly situations that would seem foreign to urban dwellers.
Can you imagine my surprise in the 1980’s and policing in Richmond Hill Ont. and discovering the Italian communities there,all with chickens,turkeys,pigs and lambs, all within the city limits. This did end soon after. But its difficult to look at the comic tastes from 1940’s and 1950’s with a 2019 lens.
Platinum Age Comics (1897-1937)are almost unreadable to today’s audience…agreed?
Hows that for a Turkey Defense Walter?
Putting your hands on your hips means you have sass, a villain with sass is a good thing in comic books.
Loved your turkey defense Dave, birds of a feather should flock together.
As a suburban dweller with chickens David… we’re not out for the count yet. I am not sure at the time that men with sass were waving their rainbow flags just yet… but I could be wrong! You don’t suppose THe Human Firefly ( what a name) came to the same conclusion about the Dynamic Duo that Wertham did… do you?