Star Trek? Too talky! Star Wars? Too flashy! Star HUNTERS? Just right! Join Mike Atchison and Paul Kien as they discuss DC Super Stars #16 -Star Hunters from 1977! Of course, we also have the August edition of The Monthly Planet, with Paul and Shawn M. Myers!
This month’s instocktrades.com selections:
https://www.instocktrades.com/products/jun240939/venom-the-saga-of-eddie-brock-tp
https://www.instocktrades.com/products/jul254685/iron-man-armor-wars-omnibus-hc-mark-bright-cvr
Visit the Daily Planet:
https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/F231EB71A50CE9/features/gallery.php?page=planet
Learn more about David Michelinie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Michelinie
https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/4B77A649CFD912/features/creator.php?creatorid=822
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“Cloud Dancer ” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Regarding David Michelinie’s name: I’ve been pronouncing it “Mick-el-EYE-nee” ever since seeing a letters column explaining that it rhymes with “Pickle my knee.”
i thought i’d read this but READ sun devils
Oh, man. I *so* hear you about wishing this would be collected, and resigned to the fact that it probably never will.
And the reason I’d love a nice Star Hunters tpb is because I’ve never read any this – neither the DC Super Stars debut nor the ongoing series – and have wanted to ever since I learned of its existence.
Anyway, great show, gentlemen. Enjoyed the conversation – which allowed me to vicariously experience the comic book in question.
If it helps any, I read the whole series as a kid, and you are not missing a thing. Even as an eleven year old child I knew bad scifi when I saw it, but a clueless relative had subscribed me to the damn series after I’d bought this special and she wasn’t getting her money back – or her money’s worth either, since it barely lasted seven issues and has never been mentioned since except for a tiny cameo in an utterly unrelated issue of Brave & the Bold. Neither the first nor last time she did that kind of thing, but this was without a doubt the very worst of her well-intentioned mistakes.
Take my advice, stop pining for this trash and find something else to read. It ends on a cliffhanger that will never never be resolved, and the plot had already gone sideways well before then. If you want a better example of an obscure scifi comic with more resolution, try tracking down First Comic’s Dynamo Joe series from 86-88. Scripted by Ostrander (with some very, very slight tie-ins to Cynosure, Grimjack’s home town) and Phil Foglio (of Girl Genius fame, or the old What’s News trip in Dragon Magazine if you grok TSR-era gaming), runs 15 issues plus a few earlier features in Mars and First Adventures, and actually comes to a ending rife with potential for a sequel series that will sadly never happen. Even the comic’s backup features set in the same universe (which also crosses with Cynosure) were better than Star Hunters, albeit almost as incomplete.
Blimey Rich, it’s nearly 50 years later, you sound really miffed about what you recognise was meant as a nice gesture.
Another great show! I don’t think that I bought this off the rack, but I did buy a few subsequent issues as they appeared. I remember enjoying it enough that I tracked down the missing issues by the mid 1980s. Maybe my first complete run! After the Man-Bat title! Echoing what Erich wrote above regarding the pronunciation of Michelinie, I think it was in Bullpen Bulletins, along with how to pronounce Wiacek ( Why a check?) and Layton (rhymes with antidisestablishmentarianism).
I so love the Monthly Planet feature! This was my “golden age.” Between your perusals of the Planet feature, and the Earth 2 Podcast’s current exploration of early 1977, I’m in nostalgic bliss!
One final thing (gee, what happened to all those comments I though of while listening?!?), regarding your coverage of DC Special 29. I don’t think anyone mentioned it, but on the cover Hourman has thrown the Atom at the Valkyrie.
Looking forward to your next Special podcast and hoping to join you one day!
I’m thinking maybe the the Richie rich blessing is true when is was in Oklahoma with my family at trade days I got my bro and my self a stack of comics for twenty five bucks and you guessed it several issues of Richie rich showed up I thought you’d like to her that story .
Another great show . Since this dc special is about the star hunters . Have you heard of the Japanese star man attack from outer space . I ask because it has a wacky sci-fi style adventure I think you’d enjoy.
Fun show can’t wait for the next episode now must return to strange Japanese tv shows I’ll try to come up with one for next time with Batman connection.
Ah, well now, me boyos! I haven’t read Star Hunters, but obviously Donovan Flint attended the Sean Cassidy/Banshee school of accented elocution.
Thanks for the spotlight on David Michelinie. One of my most treasured comics is my copy of Superman: The Wedding Album. I have signatures on the book from most of the artists. I still lack two of the writers’ signatures, Roger Stern and David Michelinie.
I’m still loving the Daily Planet feature, even if yes, the trivia questions are pretty easy. I do have to adjust my comic book brain to “Bronze Age” for a few of them, such as which JLA members are married. Clark and Lois have been wed for so long now that their marriage has almost become a given for me.
Enjoyed the entire show… so informative. Is there anything that you guys and Shawn don’t know about DC Silver and Bronze age? How do you do it? Misspent youths? Anyway, your shows have inspired me to chase down the DC specials. Keep up the good work.
I remember the ads for Star Hunters but never picked it up. Wild coincidence how this was in the works and came out just after the first Star Wars movie was released. Any idea how the sales figures were for this issue? Star Wars sparked an interest in science fiction; I wonder if it helped the sales for this.
The way you were talking about spotty distribution in the 70s – and I think I’ve heard others on the network talk about it as well – it sounds like I was lucky. I don’t remember having many missing issues or gaps in my series back then (if any), and I lived in a small down in Georgia. Of course, my main stop was a convenience store right off I-75, and I had other sources, so that could have helped.
That JLA/JSA team-up featured in the Daily Planet was my first, so it’s a sentimental favorite of mine. Not sure how many others here collect Funko Pops. Funko has a series called Comic Covers that features a Pop figure in a case against the background of a classic comic book cover. The series includes JLA #137 with Captain Marvel.
Cool podcast as always. Star hunters huh? Not familiar with somebody it seemed like a cool enough concept I do like that leader of the team. It was the lady even though I’m not sure about our POV character oh yeah you’re right. A lot of this seem to echo a lot of things that are happening now sadly, it can’t wait till the next episode.
Top show, as ever. I only ever read Star Hunters 3-7…at least I think 3 was the first, it was the one that opened with Donovan Flint stark bollock naked in space. Thank goodness for wisps of space smoke – or not. It made quite the impression.
Looking at the art for the special, it’s not Don Newton’s best, but he came on quickly over the next few years. The story would have brought me back for the regular series… well, comics were cheap back then.
Donovan’s accent was pants, but then, phonetic accents always are, sugah.
That cover logo really is a good ‘un. When I saw the credits page with the rubbish logo, I guessed Ben Oda, his story title treatments in the Bronze Age generally had a rushed look, and the Grand Comic Database says yes.
You have no one to over The Man Behind the Gun? I’m there! Right after that Leave It To Binky DC Special. Or before, I’m easy.
As ever, I loved the Monthly Planet coverage.
Now, why was Shawn sounding so amused that Arnold Drake wrote a Deadman story? He co-created him.
Isn’t it typical that you mentioned the Weird Western Tales featuring ‘Requiem for a gunfighter’ and that turns out to be the name of a just-announced DC Finest Western volume… you didn’t even have to consciously manifest!
And finally, in the ‘which comic came first?’ question, a trivia quiz that requires thinking!
Talking of questions, I know the term comes from a previous question, but why are the ‘secret questions’ not ‘surprise questions’? What’s secret about them?
Great discussion Mike and Paul. I have always been interested in dipping my toe into Star Hunters, just because of Don Newton, actually. Newton was one of, if not my favorite artists as a kid, and I was devastated when I read Dick Giordano’s Meanwhile column announcing his death. I seem to recall reading somewhere that he had a falling out with someone involved with the Star Hunters series, and that’s why he left? I can’t remember where I may have read that. It may be conjecture. Maybe the upcoming TwoMorrows book will shine some light on this. Great spotlight on Michelinie, whose work I’ve always enjoyed. I was knee-deep in his Spider-Man run that introduced us to Venom/Carnage etc. Fun times.
Another fun installment of The Monthly Planet! It’s interesting that this feature is covering comics from 50 years ago via the Daily Planet page, and over at 13th Dimension, Dan does a monthly feature on the top Bronze Age covers from half a century ago as well. That Freedom Fighters cover came up, as well as discussion on the overworked Ernie Chan/Chua, who was a fantastic artist, but was producing WAY too much work for DC covers and seemed spread thin. Not a lot of background detail on those DC covers. But I do like the covers for Super Friends #1 (natch) and JLA #136 because you get a big spotlight on the Earth-Two Batman and Robin! That crossover though has a weak ending, but I’m sure you’ll get to that next month!