King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Episode 010 Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Do you like over-sized comics? Comics with extended page counts like DC’s 80 Page Giants, 100 Page Super Spectaculars, and Dollar Comic Giants? Or how about Marvel’s King-Size Annuals, Giant-Size Specials, and Double-Sized Issues? How about the physically larger Treasury Comics? Then welcome to the King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Podcast, join me your host, Kyle Benning, on a one man mission to brave the elements and review over-sized comics in my car during my lunch hour.

As Always, you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or download the episode directly here:King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Episode 010

In today’s episode I’ll be covering one of the most commonly praised, and highly touted Superman short stories of all time. Does it live up to the Hype? Let’s find out. I’m reading the story today from the Prestige Format 64 page collected edition that hit stands on December 4^th 1996 and sporting a Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson cover and a $5.95 Price Tag.

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow was a two part story printed in the final issue of Superman and Action comics before the post-Crisis Reboot of Superman. This was Superman #423 and Action Comics #483, released on June 12, 1986 and June 26, 1986 respectively. These two issues were collected and released together for the first time in the prestige format “Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow #1” issue that was released on December 4, 1986, so 10 and half years after it was originally published. And that is the way I’m reading and covering this story today, from this prestige bound edition that marked the story’s first reprinting.

Top 10 Songs on June 14^th 1986 were:

1.       There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make you Cry) by Billy Ocean

2.       Crush on You by the Jets

3.       I Can’t Wait by Nu Shooz

4.       Holding Back the Years by Simply Red

5.       A Different Corner by George Michael

6.       No One is to Blame by Howard Jones

7.       Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins

8.       On My Own by Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald

9.       Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel

10.   Live to Tell by Madonna

Top 10 Songs on June 28^th 1986 were:

1.     On My Own by Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald

2.       There’ll Be Sad Songs by Billy Ocean

3.       Crush on You by the Jets

4.       Holding Back the Years by Simply Red

5.       No One is to Blame by Howard Jones

6.       Who’s Johnny? by El DeBarge

7.       A Different Corner by George Michael

8.       Invisible Touch by Genesis

9.       Nasty by Janet Jackson

10.   Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel

Top 10 Songs on December 7^th 1996

1.       Don’t Speak by No Doubt

2.       Un-Break My Heart by Toni Braxton

3.       No Diggity by Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre (Jock jams baby!)

4.       If it Makes you Happy by Sheryl Crow

5.       Don’t Let Go by En Vogue

6.       Just Between You and Me by DC Talk

7.       Nobody by Keith Sweat featuring Athena Cage

8.       Mouth by Merril Bainbridge

9.       The Grease Mega-Mix Featuring The One I Want, Greased Lightning, and Summer Nights by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John

10.   Fly Like an Eagle by Seal

As always, I love feedback, you can leave it here at the blog, a review on iTunes, email me directly kylebenning41@yahoo.com, or now comment on our Facebook page, which can find by searching for King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun or follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/ComicsRetroReview

The Daily Superman Newspaper Strip IV

It's unclear why Sterling Publishing didn't continue with their collected editions of this classic strip in 2006. Perhaps sales weren't what they were expecting? Maybe DC/Warner Bros. themselves didn't want to move further with any more collections of the series? Perhaps the underwhelming box office performance of Superman Returns played a part? Regardless, the series ended with just one collected volume of the daily series and one volume of the full-color Sundays, or at least that is until IDW came along. 

IDW has really made a name for themselves with gorgeous hardcover collections, especially in their "Library of Congress" hardcover editions dedicated to collecting and reprinting those classic newspaper strips. And so DC and IDW came to terms and began releasing new collections of the Superman Newspaper Comic Strip. And luckily for us, they decided to not retread the stories or strips that Sterling had already published, instead they began where Sterling left off. But not just from the Golden Age, they also began releasing collections of the Strip from the days of the "Atomic Age" and Silver Age. More on those collections from other eras later.

Based on what information I can find, IDW hasn't gotten to releasing any of the Golden Age daily strips, they instead of just continued the full color Sunday line from the Golden Age with 2 new Golden Age Sunday collections. The first volume picks up where Sterling's Sunday Classics left off, with the collection SUPERMAN: The Golden Age Sundays 1943-1946, taking over with the full color Sunday Pages starting in 1943 where the Sterling volume ended. Their second Golden Age collection, SUPERMAN: The Golden Age Sundays 1946-1949, followed suite, reprinting the rest of the full color Superman Sundays from 1946 up through 1949. I haven't gotten a chance to pick either one of these up yet, but I've paged through them and they're absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to have to add these to my personal collection soon. 

And now, the real reason you came here, the next 6 (#19-24) installments of the daily Superman Newspaper Comic Strip.

Be sure to check back at the blog often, Episode 010 of King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun will finally be available for download later today (sorry for the delay everyone), and tomorrow morning at 8:00 am US Central Time, there will once again be 6 more Daily Superman Newspaper Comic Strips!

The Daily Superman Newspaper Strip III

Now if you're like me, sure reading comics for free and digitally is swell, but nothing beats having that paper comic goodness in your own hands. As handy as digital comics are for storage and accessibility, they'll never replace the feeling of holding the physical article in my hands, and feeling the paper on my fingers. So if you'd like to get your hands on the collected editions of the Superman Newspaper Strip, here's a "how to guide" for tracking down the collections of this fine comic strip.

SUPERMAN: The DAILIES 1939-1942
This Hardcover collection (which is where I've pulled the strips from thus far) was published by Sterling Publishing in 2006, as they name implies, this collects the daily strips from the series beginning in 1939 all the way until 1942, a total of 966 daily comic strips! These strips contain the same material that Sterling also released in softcover broken up over 3 volumes. This Hardcover includes all of the additional promo art and introductory essays that were also contained in the softcover releases. When all is said in done, this Hardcover clocks in at around 600 pages of Golden Age Superman content! While it is no longer in print, you can probably track it down fairly cheaply on eBay.

SUPERMAN: SUNDAY CLASSICS 1939-1943
This Hardcover collection was also published by Sterling Publishing and released in 2006 (in perfect time to tie-into the Superman Returns theatrical release). This full color collection is dedicating to collecting in the full color Sunday strips which began on November 5th 1939, through 1943, a total of 184 full color strips! The hardcover is also loaded with extras and even includes the infamous imaginary story "How Would Superman End World War II?" that appeared in the February 27, 1940 edition of Look Magazine. Sterling also put out a single softcover collection containing the same contents as well. Look on eBay or Amazon for a cheap copy of this one, it's worth every penny.

Once our coverage of the daily strip gets to the point that the Sunday full color strips were released, look for these to also be featured.

Now onto our next six installments (#13-18) of the Daily Superman Newspaper Comic Strip!

Tomorrow will be more information on the collected editions of the Superman Newspaper Comic Strip and as always, be sure to check back into the blog daily for the next six installments of the Superman Newspaper Comic Strip, as well as regular episodes of my Podcast, King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun.

The Superman Daily Newspaper Strip II

The Superman Daily Newspaper Strip ran continuously from its debut on January 16th 1939, all the way until May 1966. The Full Color Sunday strip debuted on Sunday November 5, 1966. Due to the growing popularity and demand for Superman, Superman co-creator and artist Joe Shuster found himself swamped with work as Superman appeared more and more. He was now the regular cover feature in the anthology comic series Action Comics where he made his debut, and with May of 1939, Superman would then have his own self-titled, 64 page quarterly comic book. Add that to the demands of producing a daily Superman comic strip, and you can see Shuster's predicament. So Shuster a prominent artist of the time, did what so many other Golden Age comic artists did (any many still do today) he enlisted the help of ghost artists to assist him with the strips. Duties and involvement of ghost artists from Shuster's varied day by day and strip to strip, between the figures, backgrounds, details, and inks, often times a single daily strip had several different artists working to complete it. Some of these ghost artists who took on art duties, whether that was full or assistance, included Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, John Sikela, Ed Debrotka, Paul Lauretta, and even Jack Burnley!

And now, the real reason you're here! The next 6 installments (#7-12) of the Superman Daily Newspaper Strip!

Be sure to tune back into the blog later today to catch the Superman-themed 10th Episode of King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun, and be sure to tune back in Sunday for the next six installments (#13-18) of the Superman Newspaper Comic Strip. 

The Superman Daily Newspaper Strip I

Today, January 16th is significant in the fact that it marks the 76th Anniversary of the beginning of the daily Superman Syndicated Newspaper strip by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. After the success of Action Comics #1 in June of 1938, and the skyrocketing in popularity of the character Superman, Siegel & Shuster were finally able to take their creation Superman into the publishing market they had hoped for all along, the syndicated Newspaper Comics arena!

It's crazy to think about nowadays, but in 1938, when Superman first debuted, comic books were still in their infancy, and considered second tier to the syndicated comic strips in newspapers. The newspaper comic strips had much higher circulation, and in turn shelled out a lot more money. Those comics that weren't deemed popular or good enough for Newspaper syndication, such as Siegel and Shuster's first Superman story, had to settle for repurposing their stories for comic books. Once Superman caught fire in the pages of Action Comics, Siegel and Shuster's dream of a syndicated Superman comic strip would soon be a reality. In fact the newspaper strip debuted just 7 months after Superman's first appearance in Action Comics, and months before DC would launch a second Superman title, his own self-titled Superman #1.

The comic strip ran for many decades, and after about 10 months of black & white daily strips, Superman joined the ranks of the "Full Color Sunday" strips. Instead of bringing you these classic stories in one daily strip at a time, now you can tune in daily to catch 6 strips each day!

So without further ado, here are the first 6 daily newspaper Superman strips by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster:

Be sure to tune back in tomorrow for the next 6 installments of the Superman Daily Newspaper Strip as well as Superman themed King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Podcast Episode 010!

King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Episode 009 Giant-Size Captain America #1

Do you like over-sized comics? Comics with extended page counts like DC's 80 Page Giants, 100 Page Super Spectaculars, and Dollar Comics Giants? Or Marvel's King-Size Annuals, Giant-Size Specials, or Double-Sized Issues? How about the physically larger Treasury Comics? Then welcome to the King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Podcast! Join me, your host, Kyle Benning, on a one man mission to brave the elements and review over-sized comics in my car during my lunch hour. 

In Episode 009 I tackle Giant-Size Captain America #1, which hit stands back in September 2, 1975 and reprinted the Captain America stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby that were originally published in the pages of Tales of Suspense #59-63 that were all originally published in 1964. 

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or the Episode can be directly downloaded here:King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Episode 009

Feedback for the Podcast can be left here at the blog, via a review on iTunes, or email me directly at kylebenning41@yahoo.com. As well as the brand spanking new, just created, Facebook Podcast Page, which can be found by searching King-Size Comics Giant Size Fun on Facebook, or by following the direct link: https://www.facebook.com/ComicsRetroReview

King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Episode 008, DC Special #12 featuring Viking Prince

If you like over-sized comics with extra page counts, then you're in luck, join me your host, Kyle Benning in for the eighth episode of King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun, where I review the giant 64 page DC Special #12 from 1971, which reprints 6 classic stories starring Viking Prince, Silent Knight, the Golden Gladiator, and Robin Hood from the early days of DC's Brave and the Bold title. In this episode I once again return to recording in my car, despite the chilly mid-20's temperature outside, so it only seemed right that I cover an issue featuring the adventures of the Viking Prince scaling the walls of the high cliffs overlooking the icy fjords of 10th Century Norway.

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or download the episode directly here: King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun Episode 008.

DC Special #12 went on sale March 2, 1971 and featured a gorgeous action-packed cover by Joe Kubert featuring the Viking Prince. This issue reprints the Viking Prince stories originally published in the pages of Brave and the Bold #1, 5, and 16 by Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert, the Silent Knight story by Bob Kanigher and Irv Novick from Brave and the Bold #1, the Golden Gladiator story by France Herron and Russ Heath originally printed in Brave and the Bold #1, and the Robin Hood story by Bob Haney and Russ Heath from Brave and the Bold #9.  Nowadays Brave and the Bold is most commonly associated with they years the title spent as Batman's team-up book, but for the first 4 years and 25 issues of publication the series featured stories starring the four adventure heroes that star in this issue of DC Special. Batman wouldn't take over as the permanent half of the monthly team-up title until Brave and the Bold #74!

DC Special was a series that started in 1968 as a series of, as the title implies, special reprint issues, typically containing 64 pages of content. Some issues were tributes to specific creators like Carmine Infantino or Joe Kubert, others were issues reprinting stories from the same genre or gimmick concept, like strange sports stories and tales of heroes battling gorillas. The series lasted 26 issues with this extended page count reprint format, before devoting its last 3 issues to telling new stories that didn't have a home in any of the other currently monthly titles that DC was publishing.

On the right you can see how revolutionary and ahead of the curve Joe Kubert's panel layouts were for the time. These page compositions very much look like something from a Bronze Age or Modern Age comic page, but these were from the mid 1950's! Compare that to the layouts of Irv Novick below, which are still very detailed and great pieces of art, but follow the page composition indicative of most other DC comics on the stands at the time. Novick's panel layouts are very much the "house style" for laying out pages that DC used in most of their comics during the 1950's. 

As always, you can leave feedback for the podcast here at the blog, by leaving a review on iTunes, or by sending me an email directly at kylebenning41@yahoo.com. 

And finally we have the house ad I mentioned during the episode, it is the blandest House Ad for other DC Comics that I've ever seen. It clearly looks like they missed adding a third issue in the middle row of the page. The result is a very bland looking house ad that promotes the upcoming release of the giant-sized issue of Superboy #174 that went on sale on March 9th in 1971, and Teen Titans #33 that went on sale March 18th. According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, DC would have had Batman #231, Our Fighting Forces #131, and Young Love #86 all hit stands on March 11th, 1971, in between the other 2 dates on the House Ad. Perhaps a promotion for one of these titles was supposed to fill the void in the middle of the page in that slot but somehow didn't make it in before the issue was sent to press?

 Be sure to check back often, as new content will be published more regularly, and be sure to tune into Episode 009 of King-Size Comics Giant-Size Fun, where I'll be reviewing Giant-Size Captain America #1!