Stand Back, Boys! The Girls are Taking Over! Join Dr. Anj and Paul Kien as they talk about “The Daring and the Different” DC Special #3 – The All-Girl Issue! Behind a fantastic Neal Adams/Nick Cardy cover, we get previously unpublished Golden Age stories of Wonder Woman and Black Canary, a Supergirl classic, a sci-fi gem, and the first appearance of Star Sapphire! See (and hear) our fighting females do their thing!
This month’s instocktrades.com selections:
https://www.instocktrades.com/products/jun200549/supergirl-cosmic-adventures-in-the-8th-grade-new-ed
https://www.instocktrades.com/products/dec190587/wonder-woman-cheetah-tp
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“Cloud Dancer ” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Great show, Paul and Anj. And what a great issue to cover – it indeed seems excellent, and based on your gallery page, I can’t say I disagree with the general, superlative opinions of the Black Canary feature and the SF ‘Flora’ story.
Also, love the Black Flame’s look. What can I say? I’ve always had a thing for dark-haired bad girls. It’s a shame that she didn’t become a staple of the DC universe.
Also, on the writer for that Wonder Woman story: given the timing, I think you’re probably right that it was most likely written by Kanigher. However, I just wanted to make a slight correction, i.e., Kanigher took over the writing chores for WW stories not from Marston, but rather – as we now know – from Joye Hummel, who had been ghost-writing Wonder Woman under the ‘Charles Moulton’ byline from 1944 until Marston’s death in 1947.
Star Sapphire=what if Lois Lane WAS lex luthor? Yeah I could have gone with Batman/CATWOMAN but ss is MUCH werder
Fun episode. When I was a kid I would have passed over this book. All Girl Issue would have meant “Beware, cooties inside!” Fortunately as an adult, I can afford Cootie Spray. Seriously though, that Black Canary story looks absolutely gorgeous. This is another great book that I’ll have to track down. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
That was an interesting episode though i have to say the sci fi story didn’t really fit if they had done maybe doll girl adventure or something along those lines. It would have fit better or maybe the huntress . but still interesting. I have special question for you :
If you put together counter point dc special
A issue using JSA stories where earth 2 Wonder Woman when I was here mother is the one choosing the stories which stories would you chose and to make it a true JSA tittle one character must be the pro story you choose the members .
Typo should when Polly was Wonder Woman sorry
Fun show guys! Pretty sure Anj was on more Fire & Water shows in April/early May than I was.
Regarding the cover: to my eye, it looks like entirely the work of Cardy, with Neal Adams inking or maybe slightly reworking Supergirl. Maybe someone spilled coffee on the original, and Neal was in the office and jumped in to fix it?
I never knew who that weird blonde was on the cover! Now I do, thanks! Although it underscores how few female-centric superheroine stories DC had to highlight that they had to slot in this oddball piece (as enjoyable as it was). I don’t think Hawkgirl got a “solo” story until she teamed up with Superman for DCCP #37, a scant 13 years later!
As much as it hurts me to say it, Aquaman is a first class jerk in the table of contents. Sheesh.
Thank you for the fun show, Uncle Paul and Uncle Doctor Anj. I love these Golden and Silver Age stories with their wild concepts and over-convoluted schemes — with the exception being the Black Canary story, which I enjoyed as a solid, down-to-earth street crime adventure.
A few random thoughts and responses to some of your comments:
The Wonder Woman story that was actually published in Comic Cavalcade #24 is credited to “Charles Moulton” (or really Joye Hummel, as Mr. Bosnar had noted above), as are the stories in issues 23 and 25, so there is a strong chance that this Cheetah story intended for issue 24 was also written by Ms. Hummel.
The Red Kryptonite cloud that changes Kryptonians to what they wish to be was actually first shown in Superboy #101. In this story, the cloud caused a change to Krypto, who at the time had body dysmorphia issues and wished he was a handsome collie while he passed through it, later changing into “The Handsome Hound of Steel.”
Superboy didn’t recognize the Super Collie at first, but later figured out what had happened when the boy of steel recalled that he himself had passed through that same Red-K cloud some time before. At that time, Superboy wondered what it would be like to have dragon wings and… well, you can guess the rest.
(More on Krypto’s transformation: Because the collie he was thinking of was actually one he saw in a photo, which was a TV collie named Lady [read: Lassie], Krypto was changed by the Red-K into a female collie, one that for some reason was also pregnant and gave birth to a litter of puppies before the Red-K effect wore off. The puppies vanished out of existence when this happend since they were part of the temporary Red-K effect.)
(Perhaps Krypto’s actual thoughts when he passed through the cloud [as opposed to what was written on the story page] were, “How I wish I was a handsome collie like the one in the picture… then I’d be the mother of all super dogs!”…)
At any rate, since Superboy knew about the Red-K cloud in that adventure, he thought to use it later as Superman to give him an ant head so he could communicate with a group of giant alien ants that were “invading” Metropolis in Action Comics #296. In his Red-K-altered form, Superman was able to discover that the ant creatures were merely seeking the materials they needed to repair their damaged space ship and leave in peace.
Writer John Broome also used the pen name of “Robert Starr” for his stories in other issues of Strange Adventures, so I am more inclined to believe that John Broome wrote “The Girl in the Golden Flower” instead of Gardner Fox, but that may be just me. One story detail I noticed that was omitted from your recap is that Brad Mulford INTENTIONALLY transplanted the alien flower back to the exposed window box on a windy day to “test” whether he would dream about Flora being caught in a hurricaine. Although he saved Flora from the violent windstorm in his dream, this action definitely put her in danger and terrififed her. Not cool, Mr. Mulford… not cool…
The “238 Magic Tricks” ad was created in house by DC Comics staff for this vendor in 1967, according to former DC Comics letterer Todd Klein on his blog:
https://kleinletters.com/Blog/gaspar-saladinos-comics-ads-1952-1967/
Mr. Klein focused on the lettering work by Gaspar Saladino, and not the artwork (which reminds me of Blackstone, Master Magician from my Dad’s old Marvel comics, but with a hair dye job). Since this was created by DC Comics staff, I wouldn’t be surprised if the art was drawn by Mike Sekowsky, as you had noted. The rendering of the magician’s face makes me think the art was inked by Joe Giella, but that is just a guess on my part. As you can see at the link, I did post a comment on the blog asking Mr. Klein if he knows who did the artwork, but he doesn’t.
The sapphire gem Green Lantern found at the end of the Star Sapphire story was eventually turned over to the Coast City police department and put in its public display of “unsolved mysteries” — which enabled Carol Ferris to access the gem and become Star Sapphire again in Green Lantern #26. It was also revealed in this issue that the Zamarons’ meddling with Carol Ferris’ mind in the earlier tale resulted in Carol having periodic, irresistable “urges” to become Star Sapphire again, so they intentionally left the gem behind to enable Carol to do so. “Otherwise her life will be intollerable,” they said. This sounds to me like an underhanded drug addiction reference by writer Gardner Fox at best or an awful menstruation commentary by Mr. Fox at worst…
The Zamarons were revealed as the women of Oa in Green Lantern #200, which was a few years before the Millennium event. Steve Englehart was the writer of both, so I credit him for the idea.
As always Isamu – you are the best! Thanks for your insights!
Great show… agree 100% that the cover is mostly Nick Cardy!
Meanwhile… Superman with an ant head…. look up Action 296…
Great episode gents! I’m with Rob, everyone else but Supergirl looks like a Nick Cardy drawing to me. Neal was known to punch up other’s art (often without asking anyone if he could or should, but who would argue with him?), so Rob’s theory about him touching up Cardy’s Kara may be valid, although it looks pretty much just Adams to me. And Weisinger was using Adams on a LOT of Super-family covers at the time, so his look was becoming the new Superman brand to boot.
I never knew what was inside this issue either, but it does indeed seem like a great package, especially for the time! Almost like a trade paperback sampler of female heroines and villains with the one oddball sci-fi story. But hey, it’s Toth, so who’s complaining?
Gotta admit, even though I consider myself a bit of a comic historian, I had no idea who Joye Hummel was or that she had ghost-written for Marston! I looked her up and it seems that came to light in Jill Lepore’s 2014 book The Secret History of Wonder Woman. Ironically, I bought that book for Cindy, but never read it myself!
Since Isamu is her to drop some knowledge, I think Black Flame seriously deserves a Xum’s Who page, don’t you? Didn’t she expose Supergirl to Gold K in a really bonkers Adventure comic stories a few years after this?
Carmine Infantino’s early work has a definite Milton Caniff vibe to it, and I totally dig it! You can see hints of the unique artist Infantino will become, but this is stunning stuff!
The Flora story is also gorgeous because…Alex Toth! Nuff said! It is interesting how much his work and George Tuska’s early work look alike during this period, though. The male lead looks particularly Tuska-like…or maybe Tuska was aping Toth?
The Star Sapphire story sounds fun, but pure Silver Age bonkers too. Hal not picking up on Sapphire being Carol really does make him look like he’s been out in the California sun too long. No wonder he’s so tan on Challenge of the Super Friends!
Again, great discussion guys. I think we should probably give Anj a special award for the most guest spots in a month’s time!
I’d love a Black Flame who’s who page!
Yes Chris, she is the villain in Adventure Comics #499, one of the most bananas stories in the Sekowsky era. There’s a leprauchan. Kara is tied to a giant bowling pin and they try to hit her with a giant bowling ball. And Sekowsky also had no continuity ideas – a sort of zany Haney approach – with unusual takes on Gold K and the Phantom Zone.
She also tries to strand Kal and Kara on Rokyn in The Krypton Chronicles.
A true rogue!
I can add Black Flame to the list, but one of the “rules” listed by Dad for Xum’s Who entries is to disregard any story or part of a story that doesn’t fit mainstream DC pre-Crisis continuity — such as the “incorrect” account of Grodd and Gorilla City inhabitants originally being an alien race from Venus (in DC Super Stars #14), or Katar Hol in the Dr. Light story (in the same issue) being changed to an unidentified Thanagarian policeman. So this story in Adventure Comics #400 would likely be discounted, or the “slow acting gold kryptonite” changed to a Q energy device or something…
Hey Isamu quick question
I did a review of police comics issue one on my YouTube channel a while back and I called phantom lady the first black lantern since most of her gadgets rely on black light , but now it occurs to me the condor use a black ray gun as well did you ever say in quality comics or later when these characters here in DC comics where they got their black light gadgets from? I asked I figured if anyone would know this it would be you.
The Phantom Lady’s black light projector was an invention of Professor Abraham Davis.
The origin of Black Condor’s gun was never revealed in pre-Crisis DC continuity. I do not know if someone created an origin for it in post.
Excellent show, I wish I had this comic. Thanks to Anj for the shout-out, I came here a few days back with chapter and verse on the Superman-with-an-ant’s head story, but Isamu and Dan got in first. So I have been seething, and may yet turn to crime.
OK, kidding, it’s been a really busy week, I love those boys!
The original Carol Ferris Star Sapphire costume was so much better than the current one, how can anyone not love a sci-fi cocktail waitress?
What a treat to get the previously unpublished Black Canary and Wonder Woman stories, I love that DC were using these curiosities in the Seventies. As well as Dinah and Diana’s tales, I seem to remember there was also a Jay Garrick Flash story. And that Seven Soldiers epic that DC had drawn by modern artists. I wonder if there were more… Isamu! And of course, we eventually saw unused-in-the-US Sugar and Spike stories in DC digests.
Great job on all of the episodes!
I love this show so much!
During each show I learn a lot, and then learn even more reading these comments!
The guest hosts are fantastic and I love the perspective that they add!
Thanks Paul!
Impressive podcast most impressive. Some of these are an interesting collection of stories. The mind control bit with wonder, woman. Not how I would think cheetah. Still I suppose that’s how she was in the golden age. Interesting that a Nazi agent became part of her team, not an ever want, but I guess she was reformed.
Next story. The star sapphire story was unique. I’m guessing this comic was probably published in the early 70s not the story with star sapphire but the issue y’all are reading is… Oy. That’s all I got for that. Next.
So super girl fought an enemy pretending to be her decent, but is just an enemy from the bottle city…. K. So the silver age. Can’t imagine how Stan Lee and co. Kicked their but so long with such literary masterpieces. It’s shocking I say lol. Next.
The Canary story is fine…. Cool her and Star Man teaming up. Next.
Ah an odd fifties type story cool though. Can’t wait for the next podcast.