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Let me begin my explanation of why you should buy the Showcase for Strange Adventures with this: if it were not for Strange Adventures, you—both Eryk Davis Ester, and you, casual reader of Legion World—would not be reading comic books right now. Because without Strange Adventures there is no Silver Age, no rebirth of superheroes, and no Legion.
But I’ll back-up.
Part 1: Strange Adventures from a Historical Viewpoint You probably know the history of the comic itself and DC Comics, and even the comic book industry, but perhaps the casual Legion World reader does not. In brief, science-fiction had always been essential to the creation of the comic book industry, and its very existence helped birth it. From Jules Verne to H.G. Wells, to the comic strips Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, science-fiction helped pave the way for comic books to come into existence. Yet the Golden Age of comic books wasn’t that greatly influenced by the genre itself—the Golden Age was part of the historical continuation of those works, but by 1939 comic books were more influenced by the pulps of the 20’s and 30’s. The Golden Age was dominated by superheroes and funny animals above everything else. In 1949 at its close, superheroes were long on the way out. And in its place the genres that would rise would be (A) Romance, (B) Westerns, (C) Teen Comics like Archie and (D) Science-Fiction / (E) Horror. (Note – war comics didn’t really hit until two or three years later). In May / June 1950, EC Comics released "Weird Science" and "Weird Fantasy" among their “New Trend” titles, and immediately the genre began to explode in comics once more; Atlas began developing their 'monster comics' and other comic book companies jumped in. Thus, DC created their first and most important and well-known science-fiction comic, Strange Adventures, in August 1950. Strange Adventures would eventually inspire (5) additional science-fiction titles from DC, which would make them the genuine leader in comic book companies for the genre.
In fact, you can argue that Strange Adventures was the gold standard of science-fiction comic books at not only DC, but in the entire comic book industry. EC Comics sad history is well-known; by 1954 they were essentially forced out of business by the Kefauver Committee and indirectly “Seduction of the Innocent”. Horror comics were overnight gone from the industry. But even before this, Strange Adventures was something different. It did not shock you; it did not try to scare you into thinking it was something cool. It simply told the best science-fiction stories in the entire industry. And that was because of one man: Julie Schwartz. When Julie and Mort Weisenger came to DC as editors, it was their science-fiction background that transformed the company. As we all know, Mort handled the Superman titles, amassing them all under his iron fist over time, while Julie handled various other comics, including the science-fiction magazines. This was first Strange Adventures, and then second Mystery in Space. Julie’s history as co-publisher of Time Traveler, one of the first science-fiction fanzines (with Mort) lended him a great deal of credibility. He had worked with Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, and even H.P. Lovecraft. And so, with a history of sci-fi before he even made it to DC, Julie knew exactly how to run and edit an anthology science-fiction title. He knew the genre, he knew the motifs, what elements to use and what science-fiction can truly do to be great: act as an allegory for some very real problems in the world.
The other science-fiction titles were edited by Jack Schiff and never reached the level of quality as Julie’s two (House of Mystery, House of Secrets, My Greatest Adventure and Tales of the Unexpected). This is because Schiff had been an DC editor from the earliest part of the Golden Age and he stuck the basic motifs and elements from back then. Though none of these comics were bad, they didn’t have the depth and far reach that each of the stories in Strange Adventures had. And a lot of this had to do with the writers Schwartz had assembled: Edmond Hamilton, a science-fiction legend; Bill Finger, whose personal lean towards making things dark and complex and even weird helped make Batman stand out from everyone else; Gardner Fox, the comic book legend; John Broome, an easy candidate for greatest comic book writer of all time, and last but not least, Otto Binder, who could create entire worlds to get across simple messages of friendship and acceptance. There was also some great stuff by Sid Gerson and Francis Herron too among others.
These writers were the Strange Adventures writers throughout the entire 1950’s. They would also be the architects of the DC Silver Age. And it was through their work on Strange Adventures (and Mystery in Space) that they helped formulate the styles, motifs, elements and structures they would then use when they created the Silver Age. It would be Julie Schwartz, whose first assignment as editor was the Golden Age Flash and Green Lantern, who would decide to bring those long written-off concepts back, feeling a bit of nostalgia for them. But first, something had to be changed to reflect the new era: if superheroes were to return, it would superheroes based in science-fiction. And that’s exactly what they were (Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawkman, Silver Age Superman, Silver Age Aquaman, Challengers of the Unknown, Adam Strange etc.). This emphasis on science-fiction was important. It added additional layers of depth to address the serious issues facing the world, and it used the momentum of the space-race in real life to revive superheroes as an actual popular genre once more, which it has remained ever since.
Thus, to appreciate what John Broome did on the Flash and Green Lantern; or Otto Binder on Superman, Superboy or the Legion, or Gardner Fox on the Atom, Adam Strange or JLA or a plethora of other examples, one should check out how they originally formulated these ideas in Strange Adventures, before applying the to superheroes. By the time superheroes were something DC was willing to take a chance on, Schwartz and his writers (and artists too of course, especially Carmine Infantino and Gil Kane) had everything already in place. They had been perfecting their methods for a whole decade.
[ April 01, 2009, 08:03 AM: Message edited by: Cobalt Kid ]
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Part 2: The best stories of the entire 1950’s The Showcase begins at #54. That means all of the Captain Comet stories are out, and so is a large portion of the early Atomic Age. Which works for me, because my reading of S.A.’s first few years is a lot more scarce than post-code years. It also means by the time this Showcase starts, things were already really cooking at DC for these writers. Binder had come aboard sometime in the #40’s, fresh off the last great run of Captain Marvel at Fawcett before the company closed up shop. Hamilton was at his peak. John Broome was essentially giving a grad course on how to write a good science-fiction story each month.
#55 – John Broome gives perhaps the first comic book story about global warming in 1954, predating the actual phrase “global warming” by years and showing right off the bat the power of science-fiction
#60 – Binder shows us he’s been thinking about the Legion since ALWAYS, as one of his earliest stories features a young Earth boy journey to space where he meets up with superpowerful teens from other planets and tries to join their group. At first he struggles to succeed and ultimately shows he belongs there. As always, Binder’s themes are simple human ones, like acceptance, yet he brings things to such a cosmic level.
#61 – Binder and Schwartz understood what made good science-fiction stories work. The notion of miscommunication leading to global war or nuclear annihilation were always persistent. In an era of Cold War paranoia, these stories are deadly serious yet incredibly straightforward. As you’d expect, there are multitudes of great stories about disarmament, the Cold War, propaganda and the space-race.
#62 – “The Watchdogs of the Universe” – yet another Legion precursor by Otto Binder.
#67 – Hamilton gives maybe the earliest usage of the tried and true science-fiction motif of a subatomic universe. Both he and Binder would perfect it as Kandor in the Silver Age.
#69 – “The Gorilla Conquest of Earth” – ‘nuff said.
#71 – Any fan of Adam Strange knows Gardner Fox could be a bit formulaic in his delivery. Here we see essentially an Adam Strange story in #71 without Adam. I always thought Fox’s Adam Strange and science-fiction stories were so much better than his JLA or Atom stories (I’ve only read the tiniest bit of JSA Golden Age stuff).
#81 – A cover by Gil Kane for “Secret of the Shrinking Twins” likely shows Kane’s preference for this type of motif leading to his later co-creation of the Atom; meanwhile, the story within by Broome and Carmine Infantino contains tons of similarities to Green Lantern. Its also a very strong anti-dictatorship story, which Strange Adventures was full of.
I could of course, go on and on. But I figured I’d stick to a lot of ones that obviously influenced the Silver Age, which of course, was the real birth of the DCU as a living entity. Strange Adventures was the place where the various architects of the DC Silver Age, and therefore the DC Universe as we know it today, gained the techniques, motifs, trends and themes they would apply to the Silver Age superheroes.
I don’t know if there is a Showcase 2nd Volume for Strange Adventures yet but that should really be groovy too—Star Hawkins and the Atomic Knights! Plus the Faceless Creature! All awesome concepts!
[ April 01, 2009, 08:06 AM: Message edited by: Cobalt Kid ]
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Okay, I'm sold! But that shouldn't be a surprise, should it?
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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I feel like I still didn't do a good enough job. Strange Adventures is the pinnacle of all that was good about the 1950's Atomic Age.
Mystery in Space is also very good (I'm more spotty on my reading MiS than SA), and the others are cool in their own right but not quite on the same level.
For some of the craziest science-fiction of the 1950's, I'd check out these really groovy sci-fi titles known as Batman and Detective Comics
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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PS - it goes without saying there is an awesome gorilla type story about every three issues.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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I just wish I could convince EDE to resume his review threads... and I mean for ANYthing... I'm talking I'd read his review of ANGEL LOVE at this point...
(actually, now I *want* to read his review of ANGEL LOVE)
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EDE got me to look up Bernard Bolzano and, after reading a brief summary of his works ( ), and then Cobie's summary of Strange Adventures, I really think he'd have more fun with Strange Adventures.
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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), and then Cobie's summary of Strange Adventures, I really think he'd have more fun with Strange Adventures.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
