DC SpecialCast #6 – Earth Shattering Disasters!

15 responses to “DC SpecialCast #6 – Earth Shattering Disasters!”

1. I’m reading dc showcase house mystery dial h for hero . Is the quake Master in this book did he appear before or after Robby Reed’s heroic version of Quake master . Shame the two versions of quake master never got fight . Also did giant boy show in dial h for hero before legion superheroes or was it at same time does any one know ?

2. Great content and great point about Aquaman on the first page – I noticed that too… It had me looking to see if he had little wings on his ankles! One nit about the amoebas… why / how did it happen that there became TWO of them? Looks like a case of the scripter writing an explanation for two creatures being drawn in the panel and not knowing what to say? I mean, I could understand 50 or 100 amoebas… or ONE amoeba… but TWO? There were other instances of art vs. script vs. plot conflicts not meshing – e.g., With scores of people being killed on that island, and an entire island being decimated by amoebas – and scores of military forces involved in the fight…… that doesn’t seem like something that could have been “hushed up” (and who and why would have wanted to? – LOL). Finally, is it me… or was it a little lazy of the administration / production staff to have the same house ad, promoting the book that the fan has already bought… you’d think they’d be able to have advertised some other book in that spot (maybe time didn’t allow?). Anyway… ANOTHER GREAT show guys!

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3. I mixed this show with FANTASTIC POUR and took a drink every time I was mentioned. I am now hammered!

   Love hearing Chuck on the show; all his appearances on my shows were a delight.

   As you guys mentioned, the cover is a cheat, since this isn’t a big team up. But, the 70s. But that Aparo splash page is the bee’s knees!

   Great show!

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4. Great episode! I have never seen this comic before so this was a ton of fun to hear about!

   Loved hearing Chuck talking about Whitman threepacks and looking at ads and then trying to find the books in your adult life. All resonated!

   All three stories sound great. In particular, the Aquaman one sounds bananas. Whales being ingested! People being ingested! The US prepared to nuke their own land! AND Don Newton art! Crazy!

   As a Legion fan, that last one is great. Arvell Jones art is so interesting to look at. As was mentioned, I think that is the most Tinya has ever been covered in cloth in that outfit. Grell had it much more revealing.

   But this being an almost ‘prequel’ to Chemical King’s death makes it even more fascinating. I consider Superboy and the Legion #211 to be my first comic. In that, Chemical King uses his power to speed up a laser pistol’s battery to drain it so Element Lad doesn’t use it to execute Roxxas. (Why Element Lad didn’t use his powers to kill has always eluded me.) Imagine being a kid of 6 or 7 and trying to decipher Chemical King’s powers. He sped up a battery. He once made a villain’s metabolism speed up so they became hypoglycemic and passed out. But otherwise … too hard.

   In the New 52 years, a re-imagined Chemical King was created. He was sort of an a-hole. But he often teamed up with Element Lad. Together, those two were bananas powerful, creating different elements together and then speeding up the reaction.

   Thanks for the review and the great talk! Loved it all!

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5. Great discussion fellas! The house ad for this one has always made me intrigued, but I’ve never come across this. Quakemaster’s presence in Who’s Who only made me want to seek it out more, and the psuedo-tie-in to the 90s Cataclsym storyline/stunt. I’m with Chuck, I didn’t care much for that, or even No Man’s Land, which I know is beloved by a lot of fans. In the DC Universe, stretching out the premise was just kinda silly. Heck all the Super Heroes gathered to fix Metropolis after the “Fall of Metropolis” in Action #700 just a few years earlier! But I digress.

   I have always wondered what was up with the “T” on Quakemaster’s cowl? T for tectonic plates, maybe? John Calnana drew some of the earliest issues of Batman I owned, so there’s some mac n’ cheese level of comfort there.

   The Aquaman story does seem rather grim. I will say it’s interesting that we’ve been having all these discussion about the odd coloring choices for human flesh on JSA in the 90s, but here the ALL of the Hawaiians look rather pasty! I think Bob LeRose dropped the ball here. But that Don Newton art? Chef’s kiss!!!

   Thanks for the spotlight on Arvell Jones! That was a fascinating overview. He seems like a very intriguing guy, and I fondly remember his All-Star Squadron run. He did get saddled with some less than enthusiastic Vince Colletta inks on some of those, unfortunately.

   One last thought: I’d bet good money that this comic was inspired by the success of producer Irwin Allen’s diaster films of the 1970s, like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. Heck, the last act of Superman The Movie owes a debt to those films. They were very influential!

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   1. Dad thought the T was a stylized jackhammer…

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      1. And he was right.

         The big Q, on the other hand, is a stylized DC Special logo 😉

6. Another fun episode! I remember the ads for this but I don’t remember ever seeing it on the stands. Seeing the ad again, I have to wonder if bat-cousin Shawn Myers has the same disdain for boxed ads as he does for boxed covers.

   The Batman story could have influenced helped inspire the events leading up to No Man’s Land, but the 90’S also had several popular disaster movies like Volcano

   An atomic bomb might stop chemically-enhanced oil sludge better than it might disrupt a hurricane. Then again, this is a comic book, and it might just further mutate it.

   I had seen some of the Legion at this time, but not a lot. Chemical King sounds like someone whose powers sounded impressive but they had some severe limitations.

   And what, no SSOSV-Cast??

7. Great spotlight on Arvell Jones! He is one of the top 4-5 nicest pros I’ve ever met. I purchased an All-Star Squadron print from him and the signal was so shaky in the bowels of the Charlotte Convention Center that his wife had to go up the escalator and outside the building to read my debit card for the purchase.

   Disappointed that you and Shawn have to pivot away from SSoSV, but looking forward to hearing about what will take its place.

8. I feel like Kandi is standing there looking at this weak sauce and going “Disaster? You call those disasters? There’s not communist gorilla or a Roman tiger centurion insight. I’ll show you what a disaster looks like! A Great Disaster!”

9. What a great podcast series! As a comic collector who began regularly buying comics just before Crisis on Infinite Earths, I never really knew what to expect from DC Specials. I was always surprised when I ran across them in the back-issue bins, I never knew what I was looking for, and I often didn’t really understand how to catalogue in my collection what I found. But the one thing I did know… was that I loved them. In the pre-internet days, it was almost impossible to get a handle on these books as a series – they were so random both in terms of content and presentation… digests, tabloids, or just double-sized issues. All of that just added to the mystery. So, it’s great to find a podcast willing to dig deep and uncover these often mis-understood and/or forgotten gems.

   Here are a few I’d love to see on the rotation. In no particular order –

   DC Special #26 – Enemy Ace
   DC Special Series #11 – Flash Spectacular
   DC Special Series #26 – Fortress of Solitude

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   1. Thanks Greg – appreciate the kind words. You are going to be happy with August’s episode!

10. This is one I saw ads for and couldn’t find the actual issue. I’m sure I looked at all the places in my hometown that sold comics. Since Fall of 1976, I pretty much wanted anything Batman I could get my hands on. While I don’t think I differentiate a particular artist’s style at that young of an age, I could tell the ad looked like the Brave & the Bold Batman. Even then, I knew I liked the Batman art in B&B (Aparo); Power Records (Adams); and the treasuries (Adams & Novick) better than what I saw in Batman and Detective. I think Earth Shattering Disasters was just a wee bit before Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin on Detective.

    Weirdly, I found Earth Shattering Disasters way before eBay. It popped up at a used bookstore in town at the mid 1980s, and I picked it up there. I guess someone in town found it. I was disappointed Aparo didn’t draw the story, but I thought Quakemaster was a fun enough villain for a one-off.

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11. Great show, Paul! Chuck Dill has a great voice. Sounds like a baseball play by play announcer.

    The Batman story was fun. “A costumed lunatic causing this earthquake with that strange weapon.” You mean a jackhammer, Batman? Get out of the penthouse once in a while, buddy and walk around with the 99%.

    Ah, Don Newton. It’s like I’m back at the reunion, just with Aquaman instead of Batman. Amazing art, as always. Every military character is distinctive. All figures have weight. The marine life blends with the art style of everything else instead of looking like tracings from a book. Just terrific work.

    Like Chuck, I’m a big Legion fan. So it was good to see some of my favorites in this story, especially Timber Wolf and Phantom Girl. Chemical King was always confusing to me, but I got a C- in high school Chemistry so maybe I’m the problem. And Fenton Pike may have been a mort, but you can’t say he wasn’t brave when you see his cod piece. That’s living dangerously.

    Fantastic bio on Arvell Jones, Paul. What a life! Now, he is a working class hero. His art style and poses remind me a little of Jim Starlin.

    Can’t wait for the next episode. I hear it’s up for a Peabody.

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12. Just listened to the episode and it was so much fun! I had this issue back in the day and it was great to hear you cover it.

    Two quick notes:
    1) Commissioner Gordon berating Batman for not doing enough? Sounds like Bob Rozakis was channelling the Batman 66 Commissioner!
    2) So Aquaman essentially fought Hedorah, from GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER? Holy crossover, Batman!

    I was in the car when I finished listening to the episode and wanted to get these two observations in. Keep up the great work!