This episode Paul welcomes back Dr. Anj to discuss who else – Supergirl! Super DC Giant #S-24 is like a mini trade paperback with 4 related stories of the Maid of Might and we had a fantastic time talking about it! Plus, a gallery of reader-submitted new costumes for the Girl of Steel!
And don’t forget the next installment of The Monthly Planet, as Paul and co-editor Shawn M. Myers talk about DC’s Daily Planet house ads from June 1976!
This month’s instocktrades.com selections:
https://www.instocktrades.com/products/nov2570227/supergirl-bizarrogirl-tp-(2026-edition)
https://www.instocktrades.com/products/sep247232/dc-finest-supergirl-the-girl-of-steel-tp
Visit the Daily Planet:
https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/F231EB71A50CE9/features/gallery.php?page=planet
And some links for Jim Mooney:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mooney
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/mooney_jim.htm
https://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/07mooney.html
https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/F231EB71A50CE9/features/creator.php?creatorid=107
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you mean the laughing fish! with the cat!
The best thing about JOKER 9 joker dressed like Batman and FOOLS Catwoman
you guys did’nt buy the flash for the Creeper?
Those sound like fun stories with super girl .
I wish they had done a dc special just of super girls pets
Here’s a secret questions which of super girls pets would you want as part of your family
And yes since he’s In movie even though he’s actually super man’s I think super dog counts .
I’d take super cat .
Great episode, as always, Paul! It’s always a treat to hear Doctor Anj talking anything, but especially Supergirl. I’ve been reading the current series, which I really like, and was surprised to hear Lena Luthor and Lesla Lar featured so prominently in this DC Special comic. Very cool stuff.
I have to say, though, I think my favorite part was learning more about Jim Mooney during your spotlight. Okay, I’m just going to ask the question we’ve all been thinking about: Why doesn’t this network have a podcast dedicated to STAG Magazine?!?!
Another fun Monthly Planet installment, too. But the very famous Batman story Shawn was describing, featuring the Jokerized cat attacking somebody, even mentioning the artist, Marshall Rogers, was “The Laughing Fish” story.
Listening to Anj talk Supergirl is like watching (I imagine) Michael Jordan shoot 3-pointers. The combo of joy, knowledge, and skill.
Re: the Jim Mooney history. I know Mort Weisinger must have had some good qualities, but I have never heard a single nice story about him, ever. Sometimes I wonder if his co-credit for creating Aquaman (and Green Arrow) was just him stealing credit from his artists, knowing he could get away with it.
Answering your question in the Monthly Planet segment, in 1976 DC was not doing new material in the treasuries, and wouldn’t until late 1977. The bait and switch that is Superman Salutes the Bicentennial remains the joke that never gets old. Like, WHY? It’s not like DC didn’t have hundreds of pages of “Superman goes back in time through American history” stories to reprint!
I thought I had commented on the last episode … shame on me for not.
Anyways, loving the Daily Planet section and I think it is fine right here.
And I am a firm believer in doing Super-Team Family but as its own show. Creeper and WIldcat in a story together??? Flash and New Gods??? Jean Loring going crazy??? Alan Weiss drawing Supergirl like Farrah Fawcett ???????? Yes please!
Thanks for the invite!
Paul and Dr. Anj,
What a fun episode! I could listen to Dr. Anj talk about Supergirl all day. His deep knowledge about and love for the character really shines through.
This episode also reinforced my love for the current Supergirl series by Sophie Campbell. I find the series fun and charming, but I especially love when Dr. Anj points out all the Easter eggs in the series.
Also, I miss Zod in his captain’s outfit. It added a bit of creepy camp to the character that I enjoyed. He looked like an extra from Caboret or The Producers.
Great episode!
What a splendid issue and what a splendid guest.
That rich girl who dressed as Cleopatra, Clarissa, has been in the new Supergirl series a couple of times – as Anj says, the book has a million nods to old continuity.
I’m from a mining town, all the men on both sides of the family worked down the mines, and in our house we had buckets of coal for the two open fireplaces – I was lighting fires from the age of about six.
Excellent Jim Mooney profile, Paul, and what a fine actor you had to play the great artist. It’s a shame to hear he wasn’t a big fan of his time on the strip, but yeah, Mort Weisinger.
On the subject of that Bicentennial Action Comics story with Clark Kent getting punched back to 1776 (and somehow not meeting the Funky Phantom), maybe you’re onto something… that issue was ‘novel-length’ (er, 17 pages), the climax of a four-parter introducing the villain Karb-Brak, ie three 11-pagers plus the 17pp finale. Maybe the whole sequence was originally meant to headline the Superman Salutes the Bicentennial limited collectors edition, along with a couple of Tomahawk reprints, but wasn’t ready in time, so Tom got the full page count?
And it’s another terrific Monthly Planet! Shawn, if you hated Crisis on Earth S because Shazam’s Squadron of Justice was not an established group, you must’ve hated Crisis on Earth X!
So Paul bought Shawn some issues of Superman Family? Hmmm…
The best Bronze Age story with the Metal Men was the ‘Beware the Brain Children’ two-parter.
See ya later, Page Separator!
it’s the summer of Dr. Anj! I wish that I could share his confidence in the upcoming Supergirl film, but I really didn’t care for the Woman of Tomorrow series. Even though, I enjoyed last year’s Superman movie, I will have to wait and see with Supergirl.
These stories sound fun and you have to love Supergirl’s boyfriend Dick Malverne playing Lois Lane and scheming to reveal her secret identity. I also liked that Lex would turn from heel to hero when needed to protect Lena or help the people of planet Lexor. Jim Mooney draws quite a lovely Lena Thorul in the panels where she is wearing the red dress. And it’s great to see the unholy triad of Phantom Zone villains: Jax-Ur (who looks like Lex with a mustache), General Zod, and Kru-El (what a great aptronym).
I don’t have near the knowledge of the character that Dr. Anj has, but I am also a fan of the current Supergirl series by Sophie Campbell. Great episode as usual, Paul!
Fantastic episode gents! Dr. Anj of course was the perfect and really ONLY guest to cover this comic. I have a fondness for the Supergirl backups from reading a few of them in Best of DC Digest #17 at an early age. That’s when I realized the guy drawing Spectacular Spider-Man had also drawn Supergirl! Is this the first time we see Lex in his later signature colors of green and purple (although it looks more magenta inside)?
I’m a sucker for the 70s features where readers send in new costume designs, like they did with Robin across the decade. Interesting that the powers that be let Supergirl change up her look, but Robin only got one issue of Batman Family where he got to adopt new costumes! But then, Supergirl wasn’t on as much merchandise as Robin either, and therefore wouldn’t confuse potential consumers as much.
The creator spotlight on Jim Mooney was great as usual, Paul. One of the oldest comics in my collection is Star Spangled Comics #99 (Dec. 1999) with a Robin story drawn by Jim Mooney (he was the primary artist of that strip). On the cover? TOMAHAWK!!!
The Monthly Planet continues to be a fun addition to the show (I mean, it’s Shawn, of course it’s fun) but before you guys even said who wrote the World’s Finest story, which I don’t believe I have ever read, I said to myself “Haney”.
What a great issue to cover. I’m always fond of those early instances of ‘tpbs before actual tpbs,’ meaning books that reprint a complete multi-issue story arcs (a personal favorite is the Batman digest that collects the complete ‘Bat-murderer’ story – 1979’s Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #9 in case anyone’s wondering). And as usual, I quite enjoyed your creator focus on Jim Mooney – to me, it was particularly interesting to learn that he enjoyed working on Omega for Marvel.
However, as with your previous show, I find that I have more to respond to in the Monthly Planet feature. First, a correction: DC’s short-lived Starfire had a grand total of 8 rather than 7 issues. I used to have the whole set back in the day, and I have an almost inexplicable fondness for the series, even though it was – as you guys observed – a bit of a mess: four writers filed through it (Michelinie, Maggin, Englehart and DeFalco), which created some tonal shifts. The art, however, was quite consistent, with Mike Vosburg on board for the whole series as penciler, and Vince Colletta inking all but the first issue. And speaking of Colletta, since you mentioned the “Day After Doomsday” shorts in Weird War Tales, it’s noteworthy that two of them were penciled by Steve Ditko with Colletta inking – and they look surprisingly good.
As for other topics, I liked watching Saturday morning’s Isis as well, and for me the reason comes down to two words: Joanna Cameron.
And the revived Metal Men in the 1970s is another personal favorite of mine: fun stories by Steve Gerber, Gerry Conway and Martin Pasko and art by Walt Simonson followed by Joe Staton. It’s too bad that only the first four issues have been reprinted (in the Art of Walter Simonson tpb).
This was a cool episode. I read some older Supergirl stories as reprints back in the 1970s but not these. I also remember Lesla Lar showing up to fight Supergirl in Superman Family that same time.
So, back in the 60s Dick Malverne filled the Lois Lane role and suspected Linda is Supergirl. At the costume party when they’re dancing, he comments on how appropriate his Superman outfit is since she’s his date. So this means that Dick is fine with an adult male dating his underage cousin??? Were they dancing to Jerry Lee Lewis??
As for the Monthly Planet segment — Shawn, the JLA/JSA team-up that year were some of the first issues of JLA that I bought, so they hold a sentimental place in my heart. That said, Mr. Scarlet’s sidekick has one of the worse names for a sidekick in comics history. Seriously, I can not hear the word “Pinky” without thinking about SpongeBob’s etiquette lessons from Patrick.
I just read the DC Finest Supergirl, and there are some wold stories there. Supergirl sabotaging perfectly good adoptive parents, and helping the other orphans find new parents showed that Silver Age DC child services didn’t always have the children’s interests at heart.
One thing I’ve always though Supergirl should have is an accent. She’s spent most of her life in Argo, speaking Kryptonese, so why wouldn’t she? She probably copies Clark’s Kansas-Metropolis but needs her own speech pattern, either as Linda or Kara.
As for Mon-El, wouldn’t taking him to the future and then popping him back into the Zone be better? I do think too much about these things.
In DC Rebirth it was mentioned that she had an accent, and didn’t use contractions. I don’t want her not sounding regular US, she’s the Supergirl Next Door, I’m sure her super-ears would make getting the accent right easy… or, since all screen Kryptonians seem to be trying to do British, she could be Boston Brahmin.
Impressive podcast most impressive. Ah Super Girl. I cos played as her once. She’s cool. Ah Luther being able to help his relative is cool. And he didn’t turn on her that’s cool. Glad his relative was a hero. And Helped Super girl and Super Man take out the other villains.
All in the name of family. That’s cool. The other guy is a jerk. But, glad Super girl didn’t get stuck with him. Was a cool comic. Like the different outfits she got from the fans. Glad she took out the fake her. The villain trying to replace Super Girl. Well the other bad guys took her out. Anyway wow just killed her in a 70s or 80s comic.
Was written a little golden ageish, but that was DC till the 80s other than Shooter. Well can’t wait for the next podcast.
Another great episode of DC SpecialCast. As usual, Paul and Dr. Anj make me want to read a comic I may actually own and haven’t read (as well as read the current Supergirl series because it received several additional recommendations in this very comment section.) I appreciate how the Supergirl comic was essentially one continued story. I thought the reader designed costumes were fun, too, so the Special gallery is also appreciated. I also enjoyed the Monthly Planet Feature because of the interplay between Paul and Shawn.
Speaking of those two, I just finished listening to the entire Batman Family Reunion podcast (35 episodes and two interviews, I think.) I cannot say enough how much fun it was to “binge listen” to it daily on my walks, on my commute to work, or doing yard work. The banter between these two was as infectious as it was genuine. I found myself laughing at conversations and running gags from three years ago. It was neat to hear early podcast appearances of Brett Young and his fascination with Gotham real estate. But I digress, I’m mentioning it here in case anyone is a fan of DC SpecialCast and haven’t listened to Batman Family Reunion. It’s definitely worth your time.
Just like this show. Thank you to everyone involved. I appreciate all your hard work and look forward to the next “Special” episode!
As always, another entertaining show. I always enjoy it. The Daily Planet feature is a lot of fun too. I do think it could be spun off into its own show.
Since you guys mentioned how much plot was crammed into the stories, I’m going to say I think that is why I can’t stand the glacial pacing of modern comics. The comics I grew up on gave me more story in fewer pages. You probably already knew, but the story reprinted here from Action 298 got the cover over that issues Superman story. Lex punches out a Superman statue, so Superman is still on the cover instead of Supergirl, though.
As for Supergirl, do you guys ever wonder if some of DC’s artist designed some of Supergirl’s outfits instead of fans. I’m surprised so many ladies contributed (probably because I’ve only know a couple of ladies that read comics.) One of Supergirl’s skimpiest outfits, the one she had on the cover of Adventure Comics 409 was listed as designed by a female reader. I really would have thought a guy came up with it.
My favorite Supergirl costume is the 70s blouse with the pocket S-shield, but with boots instead of the ballet slippers. I also really like the 80s outfit that debuted in Supergirl 13, at least before she added the headband.
Question here. For the the nude Supergirl commissions from Jim Mooney : How could identify the art was Supergirl? Did he leave her cape on or something to give her a distinguishing characteristics? Otherwise, couldn’t she just be random pretty blonde? Sorry to ask such a pervy question.
The ones he sent were in a changing room so uniform on ground, or streaky hanging around.
You knew it was Supergirl.
Great episode, as always. Anj is becoming the Fire and Water equivalent of the 5th Beatle.
Silver Age Supergirl stories are always ridiculous in the best way. From Cleopatra getting screwed out of first prize at the costume ball; to unwanted advances from crewcuts; to a multi-use thought control machine that also teleports (that’s better than my toaster/oven) – You guys really sold the fun.
Terrific history lesson on Jim Mooney. Good to hear he was still “working full time” into his late fifties!
Pretty groovy costume designs for Supergirl, but why didn’t they just have a static pose and have Supergirl wearing the outfits? They kind of get lost in the psychedelic backgrounds.
Like you guys, I’m hopeful for the new movie. I thought Milly Alcock was great in House of the Dragon, so I’m confident she’ll hit the pitch.