TREASURYCAST #48 – FAMOUS FIRST EDITION: ALL-STAR COMICS #3
Rob welcomes Nuclear Sub Gord Tolton to discuss one of their favorite FAMOUS FIRST EDITIONs, ALL-STAR COMICS #3, the debut of the Justice Society of America!
Check out images from this comic by clicking here!
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Thanks for letting me in on the fun, Rob.
I apologize for some of the inadvertent butt-ins. And next time, I promise to use that off switch on the headset when someone else is talking. Sorry folks for the breathing. Totally my error.
All in all, though, great fun.
I loved this comic…my copy looks like it was mauled by a bear.
My favorite story is the Spectre…it has a legit super-villain and the best dialogue:
“HA! HA! DEATH! DEATH! HEE-EE!”
“OOM’S TRICKERY!”
And I like how on the cover and the last panel, Spectre’s face looks like Dean Martin.
Least favorite is the Green Lantern. I have no memory of this story…by the end of the book, the last thing I wanted was another bunch of guys in suits.
Thanks for another excellent episode, gentlemen. Seeing how the Spectre is portrayed as a cosmic entity in modern comics, I always find it a little funny to see him in these early comics just sitting around shooting the breeze with the guys. I think I like the Spectre more when he occupies the middle ground between those two extremes. Regardless, I enjoyed your coverage of this historic issue.
I have no idea what Gord is apologising for, I heard no ‘butt-ins’, just conversation, and what a fascinating chat it was… Gord’s family backgrounds and the info about Canada coming out of the Depression – gold! Apart from the poor calf, and the burning barrel… how sad!
I’ve never had this treasury, but would have loved it. I’ve read the comic, of course, and didn’t remember Gardner Fox beginning things by calling Johnny Thunder ‘local idiot’. Rob, you are just mean! My favourite story is definitely Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s for that astonishing art; Rob is right to point out that scene of hero and heroine in sophisticated civvies, they are just smouldering hot! And how refreshing to see an African character not drawn as a horrific caricature.
That shadowy killer in the Spectre strip is genuinely eerie, while Atom looks to have invented thong panties decades before Mike Deodato made Wonder Woman require a bikini wax.
Great chat all round, the kind a book this significant deserves. Thank you.
I”m Canadian, Martin. Saying sorry on the world stage is constitutionally obligated. And butting in like a hungry steer is what rural people do, but it’s not an excuse, and I was kind of embarrassed at listening to myself do it to Rob.
Thanks, Martin.
Great conversation gents! I am always glad to hear some Golden Age & JSA discussion. If you’ve not yet seen the new CW Stargirl series yet, I’d highly recommend it as it updates the Justice Society in a very fun way.
I’m so looking forward to this being available in the UK next month!
First, I have to say how much I can relate to some of Gord’s childhood experiences, since I also grew up in a pretty rural area. My family didn’t make a living from farming, but we did have a 12-acre piece of land and my parents often liked to have livestock, like cows and sheep. So I have memories of sometimes bottle feeding calves and lambs. Also, when he mentioned getting comics in an IGA – man, the spinner rack in an IGA in a nearby town was where I found so many of my early comics.
As to the issue at hand, I had completely forgotten that I used to have it until I looked at your gallery post. It is easily the first Treasury I ever had, since I had only started to get comics sometime in the late winter/early spring of 1975. It also kind of clears up why I always thought of Ma Hunkel as THE Red Tornado – despite her unflattering appearance here, that and some of Johnny Thunder’s antics are the parts of this book I remember the best. So thanks for not only another enjoyable show, but also jogging another childhood comics memory.
I must have had this treasury as a kid because memories of all these stories definitely flooded back as you discussed the stories and I can’t imagine where else I would have read this.
I can remember being struck by the vivid Hawkman art and the crazy text boxes in the Dr. Fate story. But the panel which seems to be burned into my memory is the one of the Thunderbolt kicking Jonnie in the ass to send him to the meeting. When Rob mentioned this in the podcast my mind conjured up the image. A look at the gallery post confirmed it.
Thanks for covering this! Great issue and certainly treasury worthy.
Another episode of TreasuryCast to treasure. As a HUGE JSA fan, I’ve wanted this book for just about as long as I can remember. It’s unlikely I’ll ever find a copy, but it’s far more achievable than my ever owning an actual copy of All-Star #3. This episode is a nice consolation prize.
Impressive pod cast most impressive. Hmm, the framing bits that were the groups back then. Very weird. It’s a cool comic , but oy. Still, as basicity an Anthology it’s good. And was cool to see Fox’s work. I know him mostly from a reprint of the Flash of 2 worlds and other Barry and Jay cross overs.
What a pleasure to finally have Gord on the network! And to cover the first appearance of the JSA, to boot!
With a handle like “Earth 2 Chris”, it goes without saying I love me some JSA. I first read this comic in the Millennium Edition, and I was so happy to finally have it in my grubby little hands. Sheldon Moldoff’s Hawkman never fails to amaze me. The man nailed the Alex Raymond style of illustration. It’s a shame most folks know him for his rather stiff “ghosting” of Bob Kane’s style on Batman for 20 years, and not this.
Alan Scott has always been my favorite GL, but our coverage of JLU has made him and John Stewart vie for that position. I’ve always loved me some Jay Garrick and Hourman as well.
Add me to the chorus of folks who is just loving Stargirl. So much fun. A hit with the entire Franklin brood.
Let’s hear more Gord on the network!
Chris
Thanks, Chris,
It may take a little vigilante justice to get me back on Fire!
This is the only Famous First Edition book I got, because 1. I already had all the origins of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel in the DC Secret Origins book, and 2. Didn’t care about those “also-ran” Golden Age characters featured in those Limited Collectors’ Editions.
THIS, however, I had to have. I was always a fan of the Justice Society, and back in the 70s there was a dearth of JSA reprints available. So ofcourse I bought this.
Today, it’s one of the only Limited Collectors’ Editions I still have, probably because it didn’t have a panorama or anything on the back cover that I cut up! 🙂
It’s so great to have a voice to go with the name! Hello, Ranger Gord! I truly enjoyed hearing Gord’s tales of the Canadian prairie, and I must remember to virtually visit his museum. We are close contemporaries, but he started getting comics well before I did. Even though I grew up within 30 miles of two state capitols here in the densely populated East, I don’t recall ever seeing comics on sale in any of the store that I went to with my parents! The 60s and 70s were a great time to find comic books almost everywhere! Except where I went.
This Treasury came out about a year before I started collecting and it took me another 25 years until I bought it. Since I didn’t have it as a youngster, i didn’t re-read it excessively. (Which is what one should do with comics! Ask me about almost any comic I owned in 1977!) My edition is safely in my Treasury Edition box, but it is a prized part of my collection, despite my infrequent perusals of it! Regardless, my major take-away from this “story” is that the JSA are friends. They shouldn’t be a super-hero group where members come and go. They have their own little club. New members should be (and were) rare. Sure, they team-up with Johnny Quick or the Tarantula, but those guys were different kinds of friends. It’s not a snobbery thing. You’ve got friends at work, and you’ve got your friends on your bowling team. You can invite a friend from work to bowl, and everybody gets along great, but that person isn’t automatically on the team! In my “head canon” this extends to Shiera Hall. She likes her husband’s friends, and even lets them hang around her house when he’s not home, but she doesn’t want to join his club. So even though the group was created for the most commercial of purposes, it still feels organic! That’s why they are my favorite.
Howdy, Ward Hill Terry! Thanks for the kind words.