DC SpecialCast #22 – Super-Heroes’ War Against the Monsters!

13 responses to “DC SpecialCast #22 – Super-Heroes’ War Against the Monsters!”

1. Jack ryder was ALWAYS losing his job

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2. Impressive podcast most impressive. The Superman story is not bad. The Superman story is done in more of a Wane Boring style than a swan style. Decent enough story. Not exactly surprised she didn’t notice Clark Kent. We’re talking about a man whose entire disguise is a pair of glasses.

   And somehow the entire world does not know he’s Superman. You’re just kind of roll your eyes and move forward. Yeah kind of sad that the story is resolved by dumb luck. That’s all I have to say about this story next.

   So this entire story happens because the man without fear. Is afraid to just tell the girl no. At least that was how how used to be based as he had no fear so someone realized that would be stupid and I only psychopaths have no fear. Then again that does kind of fit.

   Decent enough looking monster for the time I’ll just move along next.

   I like this story well enough, though you think the first guy would’ve realized there’s a war going on. And maybe catching a prisoner in the middle of all this craziness would not be the best idea till after the war.

   I like the story well enough, though I don’t know if the guy really gets this come up. I mean, let’s say tax year. He does give the other guy a gun they can defend themselves. It’s just to the point. That he won’t give up trying to arrest this man in the middle of the freaking war and well they’re the only one keeping each other alive

   So yeah, the end he does become a jerk
   . That Jesus the last guy goes full Les Miserables on him starting to wonder what his crime was. Did the guy still loaf of bread? Didn’t I guess you’ll be here on this dinosaur island book now it’s too bad. They didn’t continue this story. I would like to see what happened to this guy here fighting dinosaurs even though we have wrote it had no idea what dinosaurs were cause as you pointed out, a brontosaurus does not eat meat. So unless the animal this took these too men for plants.

   I’m thinking no. Still, I like the whole tour rock dinosaur hunter thing going on at the end of the story, but yeah, it does have a very EC at the end.Next.

   The Captain Marvel story is well enough. The different spirits of the seven deadly sins was reused to great effect in the first Shazam movie. Where he fought a version of Doctor Savannah. Go photos that you posted at the end with the three of you at that convention wow Sean shaved his mustache that’s a bit shocking anyway cool episode. Can’t wait to hear the next one.

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3. I think my two favorites in this issue are the Shazam family and green lantern.
   Also I heard about book called Tarzan family .
   Any chance maybe as special episode some day covering. Issue of that on this show? Just wondering . Also who is favorite Edgar Rice Burroughs character besides Tarzan.

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4. Even though I was much more of a DC kid than a Marvel one growing up, it was comics like this that would frustrate me.

   When I see the word “monsters” I think vampires, werewolves, etc. Marvel was steeped in that stuff but DC almost never wanted to have their superheroes mix with true monsters, so we get the usual cohort of aliens, dinosaurs, etc. Feh! I didn’t have this book as a kid, but I’m sure the title would have caught my eye, only to look at the cover and be disappointed.

   re: The Daily Planet–in answer to Shawn’s question, yes, The Taking of Pelham 123 takes place on a subway, so I’m sure the title of the Batman story was a nod to it. It’s a true great movie, for those who haven’t seen it.

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   1. Just wanted to chime in to second the praise for Pelham 123 – great movie!

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      1. That movie’s ending is nothing to sneeze at!

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5. Great episode but I agree with Rob. If these are monsters than everything is a monster.
   Love the Superman story with him not impacting things directly at all but taking credit for the win. Slay!

   But a few more comments.
   The Russ Heath review was appreciated. I knew that Playboy story but I never get tired of hearing it. Good on you Russ! You miss all the shots you don’t take! The one story I know involves his drawing Howard Chaykin’s Legend comic (a take on Wylie’s Gladiator story). I had Chaykin sign an issue and he said he wanted Heath to draw it but he (chaykin) had been underwhelmed with the work Heath had been doing immediately before this book. When Chaykin got Heath’s pages on the book he was blown away by the art and asked Heath why his prior stuff lagged. Chaykin said Heath told him he was bored with the other stuff and sort of mailed it in. At that point (2005), he earned some downtime.

   I love … LOVE .. that Krypton Nevermore storyline because it is so utterly bizarre. It makes little to no sense. But that is why is it great. I have the issue signed by Conway and JLGL!

   Lastly, I know I have said this before, but I can only hope that when you cover the SSSV issue where the Creeper joins the cast that I get invited as a co-host. It is where I discovered the Creeper and began my lifelong love for the character! That’s right I am inviting myself to the party!

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6. Excellent episode fellows!! While I did not have this issue as a kid, it would have been right up my alley. I was a big Green Lantern fan and I certainly wouldn’t have minded (of likely noticed) how silt it was. It’s nice to know Superman wasn’t the only hero to go to extreme lengths to protect his secret identity or avoid a marriage proposal.
   The Big House of Monsters may not have had super-heroes in the story, but it’s the only one that can honestly claim the “war” part of the title. Does anyone else think that if the “cop” character hadn’t constantly told his only ally he was going to send him back to prison, that just maybe he’d have come to his rescue? His obsession with recapturing his quarry was his ultimate downfall. Dude, you had plenty of other things to worry about! How about surviving the war AND the dinosaurs first! For all you know this escaped convict might die fighting for his country.

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7. As you were describing the Superman story, and then after looking at the images on your gallery page, the thought that kept running through my mind was the great missed opportunity for Lana Lang to save the day as Insect Queen.
   And speaking of the gallery page, I couldn’t help but notice that Capt. Marvel Jr. – his head at least – seemed to be drawn in a very non-Beckian style, as though some effort was made to ensure that he looked the way Raboy drew him – or maybe I’m just seeing things based on a limited sampling.

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8. Thank you Paul and Dan for a terrific show.

   Excellent In Stock Trades pick from Dan. Coincidentally, the second volume of Superman: The Silver Age Omnibus has just come out, and it is wonderful. (Someone should pitch a favourite collections show to the network… someone more talented than me, I mean.)

   I’ve never seen this DC Special, the cover is spectacular, with a nice symmetrical design, a blood-red background and a cracking ‘MONSTERS’ treatment, jumping out at us like freaky teeth. It’s just a shame ‘War Against The’ is so weirdly spaced out.

   The details about Russ Heath were really appreciated, it’s so sad such a prolific, talented artist needed help from the Hero Initiative in his latter years (had he lost Hugh Hefner’s phone number?). Just imagine if the Roy Lichtenstein estate had given him half the value of that painting stolen from his work

   Dan mentioned a lot of Heath’s covers on Sea Devils look like paintings. The extra credit there goes to longtime DC colourist and future Vice President of Production Jack Adler, who transformed covers here and on some of the war books with his spectacular wash tones (as for what wash tones involved, perhaps Chris or Rob will enlighten us).

   You lads were wondering if the Marvel Family story had seen panels scrunched together to change the page count where ⅓-page ads were involved. A quick look at the Grand Comic Database shows the story lengths as identical in DC Special and the original Marvel Family #7.

   And thanks to Shawn for joining Paul for the Monthly Planet section, the highlight of which was Shawn’s super-cute pronunciation of ‘wolf’ as ‘woof’.

   That quiz clue for the Atom travelling through time about ‘it being in your kitchen’ was nonsense, he used the telephone for regular travel, when it came to going into the past Ray Palmer jumped into Professor Hyatt’s time pool.

   I will happily surrender the Zatanna DC Super-Stars of Magic issue to Shawn if he will just attempt to say ‘wolf’ once more. Kidding, he can have it anyway, I am far too grasping.

   Yes Paul, I was yelling when you said Billy worked for Wham TV…. but i didn’t know where Jack Ryder worked either – you can bet Anj did, and yeah, Shawn is right, it was just Picture News

   Boys, its madame ROUGE, not Rogue. Oh well, at least no one mentioned ‘Zantanna’.

   While JLA was Steve Englegart’s first regular DC assignment form 1977, he did script the famous ‘Night of the Stalker!’ in Detective Comics #439 in 1974.

   See you next time!

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9. Great episode guys! I will admit, like Rob, I would be a bit disappointed by DC’s definition of “monsters” here. I have read the Superman story in the digest Paul mentioned, but none of the other stories. The GL story sounds bonkers, and its intersting to see Hal’s construct isn’t all green. He has red trunks, white whiskers, etc. Maybe the Super Friends Hal conjuring up non-green things wasn’t so off-model? The Russ Heath art is of course gorgeous, and I loved hearing more about him. There’s a great illustration of Heath, asleep at his drawing board, but still working, which Bruce Timm drew while the two worked at Filmation in the early 80s. I think I first saw it in a TwoMorrows book. Heath did the character design work for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon in the 80s, so his work is more seminal to a lot of us 70s/80s kids than folks realize. I think some of Heath’s Lone Ranger strips were just reprinted in a single comic? I need to look for that one. Oh, and as for the gray tones, as Martin mentioned, Jack Adler supplied those for several DC covers in the early 60s (even a Sheldon Moldoff Batman!), but I’m not 100% sure how it was accomplished. I’m assuming an ink wash? Rob may know.

   I really dig those Marvel Familly team-up stories when I get a chance to read them. FYI, a LOT of Fawcett’s material is actually available for free on the Internet Archive, since its technically in the public domain.

   The Monthly Planet as always is a hoot. Some of those quizes stumped me for certain! Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have Dick Grayson’s college newspaper memorized!

   Fun show, and thanks to Dan for tangenting on the early days of comic mylar bags! It’s one of those things we take for granted, but whoever came up with that deserves our praise for sure.

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   1. Thanks for having a crack, Chris!

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10. Like some previous commenters, I probably would also prefer werewolves, vampires, etc., but maybe DC was thinking of these “monsters” as Godzilla/Mothra/Rodan kaiju-types rather than Universal movie-types.

    Yes, Superman is using his super-breath in the wrong direction during the water-skiing panels. And just how is he speaking while using his super-breath? Perhaps, some super-ventriloquism is involved.

    TIL (via Google) that women proposing marriage on February 29 is an old Irish tradition referred to as Bachelor’s Day. Comic books are still teaching me things after 50 years of reading them.

    I always love those old Captain Marvel stories. He’s definitely one of my top 5 DC heroes/properties.

    The Daily Planet is always a highlight. After watching several years’ worth of DC Legends of Tomorrow, Rip Hunter is the first character who springs to mind when DC Comics and time travel are mentioned. And I also almost typed “Rip Taylor”. Rip Taylor, Time Master, would be something else entirely. Fun show as always, guys.

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