Mountain Comics #10 – Super Friends #8

MOUNTAIN COMICS #10 - SUPER FRIENDS #8

Rob welcomes fellow Fire and Water Network All-Star Xum Yukinori to the cabin to discuss SUPER FRIENDS #8, "The Mind Killers", by E. Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon, and Bob Smith! We wrap up with some Listener Feedback!

Check out images from this comic by clicking here!

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13 responses to “Mountain Comics #10 – Super Friends #8

  1. A great last episode for this season of Mountain Comics, Rob and Xum.

    I suppose a lot of us have the equivalent of Mountain Comics. I used to vacation in a trailer park between Sauble Beach and the town of Wiarton (famous only for Wiarton Willie, Canada’s albino answer to Punxsutawney Phil). Sometimes I’d bring a stack of comics with me. Others I’d purchase in the variety stores, five-and-dime stores and smoke shops in the town and villages surrounding the trailer park. It was up there that I first discovered the X-Men. I know I bought the Strange Sports stories digest you covered up there too.

    I love the Mountain Comics feature because it’s a window into a past that’s now as far removed from our town times as 1955 Hill Valley was from Marty’s own time. (And I first saw Back to the Future up there, in Owen Sound, the nearest place with a proper movie theatre.)

    I don’t have any strong associations between my summer experiences and the Super Friends, but I was certainly reading the comic at the time. Super Friends and Spidey Super Stories appeased my parents. They had picked up some vague notion that comics were bad. (Maybe some left over memory of the great comic book scares of the 1940s and 1950s? There was a time when comics were ilegal in Canada. https://globalnews.ca/news/2685619/did-you-know-comic-books-depicting-crime-are-illegal-in-canada/) My mom seemed to be reassured by comics based on Saturday morning features. I remember once convincing her that she’d let me buy comics if I could find some based on Spidey’s appearances on the Electric Company. Less than a day later, I found Spidey Super Stories. I remember this being a massive coincidence, but I have to wonder if perhaps I did know that comic existed before I made my arrangement with my mom.

    So, she also found Super Friends to be wholesome. My first issue was #4 — still in the Wendy and Marvin era — where the Riddler and Skyrocket were causing trouble. I definitely remember picking up the stories that introduced Zan and Jayna as they hit the stands.

    Yes, the stories were simple, but Ramona Fradon’s art is great. And the introduction of the international heroes was fun too.

    Even though I was buying these kiddie comics as appeasement to my parents (well in part, it was no chore to look at Ramona Fradon art), they were obviously still letting me buy real comics too. These Super Friends issues reference the JLA’s encounter with the Legion of Super Heroes and I remember buying that one off the stands as well.

  2. I’ll look forward to this as a summer treat.

    I rarely got the Suoer Friends as it felt too kiddy for me even as a kid. Still, every so often, I’d buy and when I did, I enjoyed. In particular, the Supergirl crossover issue is great (jack o lantern backup). And the Halloween issue which introduced me ( I think) to the Demon. And the Black Orchid Issue, which start3 a life long intrigue with that character.

    Glad you covered this one! And thanks for the great show!

  3. Yes, it’s true. I loathe Marvin with every fiber of my being.

    This is one of the first SF comics I bought. The first being the previous issue that introduced Zan and Jayna. I thought Bushmaster was actually pretty cool at the time! Oddly enough, a few issues later Ramona Fradon gave us a character called Salamander with very similar mask and sucky-fingers. Kind of an odd recurring design! These issues are reprinted in DC’s Super Friends TPB from a decade or so a go as well.

    I really love the SF comics. Bridwell went out of his way to try to make these relevant to the larger DCU, packing in factoids of DC lore when they didn’t even really need any! I wish he had stayed more involved with the show as the series progressed. His contributions could have given us even more geek-out moments.

    It took me DECADES to realize ALL the panels in SF were rounded…like a TV screen! Yes, this was a “DCTV” comic after all!!!

    Fun, fun episode Rob and Xum, and I look forward to going back to the Poconos in the spring.

    Chris

  4. I admit that I prefer the Wonder Twins to Wendy and Marvin, mainly because I used to have a huge cartoon crush on Jayna. Wendy was cute (kind of in that Mary Ann and Gilligan way), but she was no Jayna.

  5. Can’t wait to listen to this tomorrow on my daily walk and I am so relieved to find out you are only taking a break until the spring. I look forward to your return, have a great winter!

    PS- I am still trying to track down what store in the Poconos we would stop at and I would get my comics. I believe it was a 5&Dime type of store. I know it was near a bakery, so I will have to ask my parents if they remember. Stay tuned. Btw, do you remember the name of the store you would get yours from?

    1. Keith–I shopped at several stores, unfortunately many of them are gone now and their names lost to the mists of time.

      I *do* remember buying comics at the gift shop in White Beauty, the marina/restaurant place on the main road. And I bought a lot of comics in the nearest “town”, Hawley, PA. In fact, when I went back there two years ago, the main newsstand/tobacco shop I bought comics at is still there!

      Speaking of, I talk about my 2015 trip back to the Poconos in this episode of Fire and Water. It was recorded right after I got back: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/episode-130-live-from-gene-hendricks-basement/

  6. This show makes me wish I had some record of all the comics I picked up at Stone’s Pharmacy in Lake Luzerne, NY whenever I visited my paternal grandparents. The pharmacy was a short bike ride away from their house, pretty much midway between there and the small market nearby. Whenever I would agree to go get something at the market, I would also get some change to spend on comics at Stone’s on the way back. I would then read that comic (or two or three, depending) several times over the rest of the weekend, drawing pictures inspired by the contents, etc. As for Super-Friends, it’s a book that I actually avoided as a kid, since I knew it wasn’t the “real” Justice League, etc. Looking back on it now, and especially with all that Ramona Fradon art, I intend on collecting the full run at some point hopefully soon. Thanks for a great series, Rob. Looking forward to Season 2!

  7. I really enjoy “Mountain Comics.” I love the palpable sense of nostalgia you have for these particular comics. I have a similar feeling for many comics of my early collecting days. I remember at which store I bought some particular books. My family also would take summer trips. In our case, it was rural Maine. There was a general store in the nearest town, and they had comics. The bulk of the comics purchased there stayed at the house, which was used by several families. So, even if new purchases were not to be had on a given weekend, there was always a pile of old comics to be read!
    I eagerly await future installments!

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