Captain Action - Classic Collection!

I was the ideal age (pardon the pun) to be attracted to Captain Action when he first dropped onto the scene. I never got the doll (I resist the convention to call him an "action figure") but I always wanted one and have come close to pulling the trigger on some of the modern releases of the toy by others than the original Ideal company. 

So being so enticed by the doll, I was certainly interested in the comic book which came out from DC Comics in late summer of 1968. I was just beginning my life-long career as a comic reader and wasn't at that moment as tuned into DC so I missed these issues when they first dropped for whatever reason. But I've made up for in the intervening years, collecting up all five of the originals some decades ago. But that said I still quite excited when finally a handy dandy reprint volume was announced earlier this year. I now have it, have read and here's a full report. 

Captain Action is brought to life by boy writer Jim Shooter and veteran artist Wally Wood. Under a potent Irv Novick cover these two talents combine to give us the story of Clive Arno and his son Carl. Along with his associate Krellik unearth a trove of magic coins. They are told by the god Odin that the coins can give the powers of the gods to those who possess them. Krellik is immediately interested in getting hold of the coins for his own purposes but fails and instead comes into possession of another coin which gives him evil powers. Arno for his part returns home and becomes Captain Action with Carl becoming Action Boy. They confront Krellik who also is faced with Superman. Arno gets Superman to stand down and he takes the battle to Krellik but is seemingly defeated at the end of the story. 

Gil Kane steps in to pencil with Wally Wood on inks. This is now a superior team as Kane's dynamic style is perfect for the title. Krellik allows Arno to survive but his desire for all of the coins remains. They battle and battle for possession but eventually Arno tricks Krellik with fake coins. Still he slips away as his threat is ended for the time being. As it turns out that's the last time we ever see Krellik. In the next issue we will meet Dr. Evil. 

Dr. Evil makes his debut in issue three. Also making a debut is Gil Kane...a the writer. He takes over both the scripting and the art chores with Wally Wood's help on inks. The story is wacky one indeed with psychedelic overtones. Dr. Evil is in fact one Dr.Tracy (Arno's father-in-law in fact) but he gets transformed when an earthquake triggers a massive explosion which throws him into a strange dimension. He loses his humanity but gains vast intelligence along with desire to destroy mankind. It's all Captain Action and Action Boy can do to fend off the bizarre attacks which use the very forces of nature as weapons. He is though fended off with a classic Gil Kane punch. 

But Dr. Evil turns up in the next issue which sees Gil Kane on writing and full chores. Dr. Evil with deadly race (which looks what he's turned into) and uses that knowledge to bring deadly menaces to the planet Earth. It should be noted that when Kane took over the writing he made Captain Action less omnipotent and gave limited powers such a great sight, ability to throw lightning and possessed of great strength. For his part Action Boy is reduced to mere super speed. Dr. Evil lives up to his name when he uses the ghost of his own daughter to haunt both Captain Action and Action Boy. She had been wife to Arno and mother to Carl. The attacks stop when the aliens step in to stop their former agent. 

The fifth and final issue of the brief run sees Wally Wood back on inks. The story by Kane this time features a wannabe despot named Blackwell who uses hate to whip the populace into a frenzy to support him. (Sounds too close to reality for me these days.) He's actually a split personality and his other self is the father to a son who protests against the Blackwell forces. Captain Action and Action Boy fight these authoritarian forces but alas the tale ends quite tragically. Of all the very excellent Captain Action covers this one is my favorite. 

Chic Stone is tapped to create art for a mini-comic for the Ideal Toy folks. It's mostly an excuse to shill Captain Action toys. 

This comic book package is handsome and durable. It also features a lot of Captain Action extras like the ads which permeated the comics of the time as well as original artwork by Kane. This was Kane at his finest, with pages that never stop moving and at times burst off the page into the readers face. The stories are wild and imaginative if not always logical. We also get some of letter pages as well some of the text pieces which appeared in the comics at the time. Great package and highly recommendation. 

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Captain Action!

I was the ideal age (pardon the pun) to be attracted to Captain Action when he first dropped onto the scene. I never got the doll (I resist the convention to call him an "action figure") but I always wanted one and have come close to pulling the trigger on some of the modern releases of the toy by others than the original Ideal company. 

So being so enticed by the doll, I was certainly interested in the comic book which came out from DC Comics in late summer of 1968. I was just beginning my life-long career as a comic reader and wasn't at that moment as tuned into DC so I missed these issues when they first dropped for whatever reason. But I've made up for in the intervening years, collecting up all five of the originals some decades ago. But that said I still quite excited when finally a handy dandy reprint volume was announced earlier this year. I now have it, have read and here's a full report. 

Captain Action is brought to life by boy writer Jim Shooter and veteran artist Wally Wood. Under a potent Irv Novick cover these two talents combine to give us the story of Clive Arno and his son Carl. Along with his associate Krellik unearth a trove of magic coins. They are told by the god Odin that the coins can give the powers of the gods to those who possess them. Krellik is immediately interested in getting hold of the coins for his own purposes but fails and instead comes into possession of another coin which gives him evil powers. Arno for his part returns home and becomes Captain Action with Carl becoming Action Boy. They confront Krellik who also is faced with Superman. Arno gets Superman to stand down and he takes the battle to Krellik but is seemingly defeated at the end of the story. 

Gil Kane steps in to pencil with Wally Wood on inks. This is now a superior team as Kane's dynamic style is perfect for the title. Krellik allows Arno to survive but his desire for all of the coins remains. They battle and battle for possession but eventually Arno tricks Krellik with fake coins. Still he slips away as his threat is ended for the time being. As it turns out that's the last time we ever see Krellik. In the next issue we will meet Dr. Evil. 

Dr. Evil makes his debut in issue three. Also making a debut is Gil Kane...a the writer. He takes over both the scripting and the art chores with Wally Wood's help on inks. The story is wacky one indeed with psychedelic overtones. Dr. Evil is in fact one Dr.Tracy (Arno's father-in-law in fact) but he gets transformed when an earthquake triggers a massive explosion which throws him into a strange dimension. He loses his humanity but gains vast intelligence along with desire to destroy mankind. It's all Captain Action and Action Boy can do to fend off the bizarre attacks which use the very forces of nature as weapons. He is though fended off with a classic Gil Kane punch. 

But Dr. Evil turns up in the next issue which sees Gil Kane on writing and full chores. Dr. Evil with deadly race (which looks what he's turned into) and uses that knowledge to bring deadly menaces to the planet Earth. It should be noted that when Kane took over the writing he made Captain Action less omnipotent and gave limited powers such a great sight, ability to throw lightning and possessed of great strength. For his part Action Boy is reduced to mere super speed. Dr. Evil lives up to his name when he uses the ghost of his own daughter to haunt both Captain Action and Action Boy. She had been wife to Arno and mother to Carl. The attacks stop when the aliens step in to stop their former agent. 

The fifth and final issue of the brief run sees Wally Wood back on inks. The story by Kane this time features a wannabe despot named Blackwell who uses hate to whip the populace into a frenzy to support him. (Sounds too close to reality for me these days.) He's actually a split personality and his other self is the father to a son who protests against the Blackwell forces. Captain Action and Action Boy fight these authoritarian forces but alas the tale ends quite tragically. Of all the very excellent Captain Action covers this one is my favorite. 

Chic Stone is tapped to create art for a mini-comic for the Ideal Toy folks. It's mostly an excuse to shill Captain Action toys. 

This comic book package is handsome and durable. It also features a lot of Captain Action extras like the ads which permeated the comics of the time as well as original artwork by Kane. This was Kane at his finest, with pages that never stop moving and at times burst off the page into the readers face. The stories are wild and imaginative if not always logical. We also get some of letter pages as well some of the text pieces which appeared in the comics at the time. Great package and highly recommendation. 

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Super Friendly Television Stars!

Once upon a time September was an exciting time for TV viewers, because that's when all-new fresh series launched on the boob tube. And we got a glimpse of the new shows which were being launched in the Fall Preview issues of TV Guide. All of the shows were huddled together on a tight schedule spread over a mere three networks and like gladiators of ancient times fought bloody battles to capture the attention and affection of the masses demanding to be entertained. The 1970's was a heyday for Saturday morning cartoons. There was a bonanza of offerings from studios like Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Ruby-Spears,  DePatie-Freleng and others. The studios wrestled to get precious slots in that finite Saturday morning schedule, a time established for kids to enjoy shows designed to please and excite them, as well as motivate them to motivate their parents to buy sweet, sweet cereals. 

In 1973, amongst this bounty appeared The Super Friends from Hanna-Barbera, the powerhouse of the domestic TV studios. I was a Justice League of America fan, and I hated the name "Super Friends", but if it got animated adventures of some of my favorite superheroes on TV, I'd suck it up and enjoy. The show was a hit and in one form or another stayed on television until 1985. This month at the Dojo we're going to take a lingering look at the long tenure of the Super Friends.

In 1976 long after the show had proven itself, DC finally unleashed a comic book adaptation of the cartoon which had adapted its heroes. The Super Friends comic book hit the stands featuring talents like E. Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon, Ric Estrada, Kurt Schaffenberger, Alex Toth and more. It proved like its animated predecessor to be a sturdy seller and told the tales of a slightly skewed Justice League for many years until 1981. We'll be taking a look at these comics as well which proved mighty entertaining in an era when to my eye DC Comics was the superior product on the spinner racks. 

Later still there was The Super Powers, a variation on the Super Friends which drew its inspiration from toys. Jack Kirby was brought back into the DC fold to help with this project and with the assistance of many others produced some memorable and bombastic comics. 

Another titles by DC which became part of its TV publishing brand was Shazam! Fawcett's Captain Marvel had proven to be the most successful comic book of the Golden Age. DC launched a lawsuit against "The Big Red Cheese" suggesting he was a rip-off of Superman. This ridiculous assertion though found purchase in the courts for years until finally Fawcett seeing sales dropping in the 50's settled out of court with the result that Captain Marvel disappeared from the comic book stands and from the imaginations of new comic readers. My only encounter with the hero was in Jules Fieffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes and then only a single evocative page. DC decided they wanted to revive the good Captain and his friends and launched the book but in an exquisite irony were forbidden to use the "Captain Marvel" name since Stan Lee's outfit had latched onto it in the meantime for a certain Kree soldier. 

Shazam! was brought to Saturday morning TV in live-action form and three seasons were produced more or less. In conjunction with spin-offs like The Mighty Isis it hung around on the screens in re-runs for many years. 

There's little doubt that the biggest DC impact on television in the 70's was Wonder Woman. As portrayed by the gorgeous Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman played on two networks for three seasons. What Superman had been to the 50's and Batman to the 60's, Wonder Woman became for the 70's. We'll be looking at all three seasons this month. What a hardship it is. (Hubba hubba!)

And it turns out the lovely Ms. Carter was not the first TV Wonder Woman. She was also portrayed by the fetching Cathie Lee Crosby, a fetching twist in her own right. 

That's a pretty filled card for the month, but I also want to slip in a look at one of my all-time favorite comic books -- Captain Action. This title only lasted a handful of issues, but they were impressive indeed. These comics were an attempt to bring a toy to the comic book page and it did so magnificently. While not a TV show, Captain Action appeared in some memorable TV ads. 

This and whatever else I can squeeze into this very hectic month. See above for a glimpse. September was once a time of great anticipation for fans of television in years past. I want to glom a little tiny bit of that excitement for the Dojo this month. Stay tuned. 

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Captain Action Classic Collection!

Well they've finally doing it! They're collecting the classic 1968 Captain Action series from DC Comics. It won't be out until late in the Spring of 2022 but if things hold up, I hope to be holding a copy of his lovely tome in my mitts early in the summer if not sooner. Captain Action as everyone here well knows was a clever attempt to market a doll to boys who had been convinced since birth that dolls were for girls. G.I. Joe landed on the beach and Major Matt Mason took it to the depths of space, but it was Captain Action who bonded the comic strips and comic books with "action figures" once and for all. He could be anyone -- Batman, Superman, Captain America, The Phantom, Flash Gordon -- anyone. But of course that wouldn't work for a series handled exclusively by DC Comics. 

The debut was written by boy scribe Jim Shooter and drawn by veteran Wally Wood with Irv Novick knocking out a dynamic cover that put Captain Action squarely in the universe that Superman made. 

By the second issue Gil Kane had joined the team as penciler of both the cover and the comic with Woody handling the inks and Shooter still the wordsmith. 

But under this dynamic cover by Kane and Dick Giordano changes were underway. Gil Kane took over the writing chores and he was still knocking out the art with the capable assist of Wally Wood on inks. This comic book looked luscious! 

Then Woody moved on and Captain Action became a one-man show with Kane handling all the creative chores aside from the very handsome lettering. 

Woody was back for the fifth and final issue to add luster to Kane's pencils which illustrated his own script. Julie Schwartz as the editorial force on this one really packed in the talent but apparently the marketplace was not ready for so much goodness and Captain Action left the newsstands for several decades until Moonstone got the rights over a decade ago. All that time I've wondered why we didn't see these great comics collected and just assumed it was like TV's Green Horner, just overcome with too much red tape and possessed by too many diverse hands to make a release profitable. But like the Green Hornet I dreamed we'd see this and now maybe we will early next year. Now how about the Hornet!

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Captain Action!

I never owned a Captain Action "doll" when I was lad. But I saw the ads and I wanted one. Around Christmas, thoughts often turn to past holidays and some of the great presents. I got some dandys, but alas I never owned a Captain Action. I've thought about getting one of the re-released figures, but then I don't know what I'd do with it, other than have it. Seems a waste of money at this point.






But I did get the great DC comics a few years ago. I was at a smaller comic book convention in Lexington, Kentucky and I found the full run between two different dealers. It was a wee bit of change, but I popped for them and have never regretted the purchases. The artwork by Wally Wood in the debut issue under a dynamic cover from the underrated Irv Novick, and the masterful work of Gil Kane in the subsequent issues makes it a lush and inviting story. The comics have a strange modern feel to them even today, despite their distinct late 60's timeliness.These comics are Gil Kane at this best.

I've tried the new series from Moonstone, and while I'm a fan of some of their efforts, the Captain Action stuff has been tepid at best. I think the first storyline was broken into too small chapters. The backup stories of Captain Action in other eras were better, but I had to knock this one off the get list. That's despite some really excellent retro-covers they've been offering by the likes of Paul Gulacy, Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano, and others. I wish the interiors were as strong as the covers. Sigh.

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