Showing posts with label Lightning Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lightning Comics. Show all posts

Monday, May 8, 2017

Bring The Lightning!


It amazes me that with all the wonderful comic book work from decades gone by now available in some sort of published collection that the literal handful of colorful comics books from the short-lived Lightning Comic company has not gotten that treatment by someone.

(Some see the hand of Bill Everet on this aquatic cover. I do too. )

Lightning Comics put out only two comics. The first was the outlandishly titled Fatman The Human Flying Saucer. Aside from the unforgettable title this comic featured the Silver Age work of Captain Marvel veterans Otto Binder and the distinctive C.C. Beck.


Beck famously returned to Captain Marvel when DC revived the book in the early 70's, but with Fatman The Human Flying Saucer (real name Van Crawford who gets his oddball powers from an alien visitor), it's clear that he and Binder wanted to capture that old "Shazam" magic all on their own, populating the comic with colorful villains and even a super-heroic sidekick dubbed "Tinman" in his other guise is a youngster Lucius Pindle nicknamed "Thin Boy".


If you'd like to read the complete Fatman the Human Flying Saucer canon check out this delightful link.


The other title produced by Lightning Comics was Tod Holton Super Green Beret, a comic I've looked at here at the Dojo before. To read those stories go here.


Both of these vintage Silver Age comics, for all their flaws deserved to have a paper collection out there, something old guys like me can buy and have and hold and call our very own.


P.S. And then there is this ad below.


See comments section.

Rip Off

Friday, November 11, 2016

Super Green Beret!


Super Green Beret must be one of the most bizarre comic book series (all two issues of it) ever put onto the stands. From the short-lived Lightning Comics which also brought us the Fatman The Human Flying Saucer.  Written by veteran comics scribe Otto Binder this weirdo story plucked its premise from the Golden Age of the Big Red Cheese himself Captain Marvel and delivered the adventures of youngster Tod Holton who gots his youthful mitts on a Green Beret which enable him to transform into the adult "Super Green Beret", who though he looked like a regular soldier (more or less) was super-powered in a multitude of ways. Due to his magical nature he fought in wars from a host of eras, including the then troublesome Vietnam War. The stories were drawn by Carl Pfeufer, a veteran of comics from its earliest days perhaps most famous for his work on the Sub-Mariner for Timely.

Here are the covers to both issues of Tod Holton Super Green Beret from 1967.



To read both of these outlandish comic books in their entirety this Veteran's Day check out this link to Ethan Persoff's outstanding repository of oddball things. If you ain't ever read these before, then you ain't read anything like 'em.

Rip Off