Stephanie Starr Day!

Mike Friedrich was born on yesterday's date in 1949. He was an innovative writer for both Marvel and DC in the late 60's and into the 70's. But his most important contribution to the form was to pave the way for Indy publishers with is Star*Reach publication which straddled the chasm between mainstream and underground comics. 

Star*Reach was a nifty experiment by its editor and owner Mike Friedrich in its day when comics were almost all produced under the strict guidelines of the Comic Code. It straddled the line between the mainstream and the underground, allowing some of the best talents in the decade to find a new voice. It was successful in many ways, pioneering in many respects the Independent Comics market which developed in the 80's and saved the format. Getting a comic which recognized sex and offered up violence with somewhat more realistic aspects was a sufficient novelty in itself. "Stephanie Starr" by Star*Reach's guru Mike Friedrich and master artist Dick Giordano is connected to the cover by Neal Adams above, but just barely.

We see Stephanie in the background, and I guess that's supposed to be her in the center but frankly it looks like a leftover image from Warp. Still and all, it's one of my favorite Neal Adams pieces, a dazzler.  To read the misadventures of the lovely Stephanie Starr in living color, check out this Beach Bum Blog link.

I was the perfect age when I tumbled to Mike Friedrich's wacky spin on the Justice League of America, taking the helm of the book from Denny O'Neil who had done so after Gardner Fox. So as only the third regular writer of such a high-profile book it was incumbent on Friedrich not to shake the Earth too much, but he did anyway. The stories always drawn capably by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella (a team I underrated at the time) and often graced with dynamic covers by Neal Adams or Murphy Anderson, are peculiar and personal not one expects in a high-octane team book. The book touched on the issues of the time such as world hunger, pollution, and more. When it came time for the JLA and the JSA to team up they did so to help an alien boy and his dog, and there was Solomon Grundy as well. The book under Friedrich was not predictable and reading it still all these years later still feels personal, whimsical, and idealistic.

Here are the covers from Friedirich's run.

Looking at those covers again, I'm struck at how on almost all of them the League is downtrodden and shown in a moment of defeat. They recover of course, but it's an interesting way to draw in readers.

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Classic Crisis #22 - A Space Boy And His Dog!

Mike Friedrich is writing the Justice League in 1971 and his single offering in the crossover series is a most peculiar one indeed.

"Earth--The Monster Maker!" was written by Friedrich and drawn by the regular team of Dick Dillin and Joe Giella. The cover is by Neal Adams. The story begins with the scene on the cover, Batman appearing with the form of a seemingly dead Flash. The scene shifts to some outer space kids named S-Kyr and E-Nes who are joy-riding in some sort of space ship when S-Kyr's little brother A-Rym and his symbiote "Dog" named Teppy get sucked into separate dimensions, A-Rym to Earth-2 and Teppy to Earth-1. But the two of them need to be together to live and they have just under thirty-eight hours. On Earth-2 Green Lantern encounters A-Rym and gets beaten up and his power ring is stolen. The JSofA (Superman, Flash, Atom, Hawkman, Lantern and Robin) investigate. On Earth-1 Flash is put in a recovery tube and Superman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom investigate his attack near Hudson University where they find Robin who joins them. Soon the two teams communicate and switch some personnel. On Earth-1 A-Rym is confronted by the two Hawkmen, two Robins and Green Lantern. Robin of Earth-1 confronts A-Rym and is injured and he and he is whisked off to recover with his Earth-2 counterpart to care for him. A-Rym promptly defeats the remaining heroes and leaves. On Earth-2 the two Superman, the two Atoms, and Flash confront Teppy who knocks out the Superman, but they recovers and the speedster team isolate him in a giant hole. Flash and Superman of Earth-2 head back to their home Earth where A-Rym has been discovered in Slaughter Swamp by its most infamous resident Solomon Grundy. The Hawks, Green Lantern, Flash and Superman face off against Grundy who is protecting his new friend and the story ends with Grundy threatening to kill them all.

 

"Solomon Grundy The One and Only" is again written by Friedrich with more sleek artwork by the Dillin and Giella team. Adams is again on the cover art. The battle with Grundy picks up with the heroes finally leaving the scene with their wounded. Meanwhile the two Robins are conferring, sharing tales of being patronized by their comrades. The Earth-1 Robin dons a new uniform designed by some Earth-2 artist named "Neal Adams" and the two head off to rejoin the fight. On the JLofA satellite Iris West shows up to relieve Black Canary who has been caring for the injured Flash. On Earth-2 the injured Flash and Superman are resting while the Green Lanterns plot a counterattack. GL of Earth-1 shares his ring power with the GL of Earth-2 and they along with the Hawkmen head back to battle A-Rym again. The Robins show up and rescue Green Lantern's ring. Robin battles a weakened A-Rym then shows him some compassion which the lost space boy responds to. The Lanterns meanwhile battle Solomon Grundy and combining their wills imprison him effectively. The assembled heroes then glean the true nature of A-Rym and Teppy and rush to get them together before the both die. The happy pair reunite and their improved lifeforce provides a beacon for their comrades to come and rescue them. The space boy and his dog head home safe and sound at last. The heroes then assess the outcome and the Hawkmen apologize to the Robins for patronizing them and the story ends with the Robin of Earth-1 wondering if he'll keep the new look.

I bought the first part of this adventure off the stands when I was young, but it would be many years before I was able to find the second half. The story is a wacky one, showing off Friedrich's tendency to offer up heavy-handed themes. This crossover too really seems to emphasize having the dopplegangers team up. The Hawkmen stay together throughout the story and while the Atom says it's "scientificaly" prudent the two Earths switch players when obviously it's just arbitrary. The heroes switch back and forth between Earths pretty willy-nilly and that makes for tough sledding when trying to keep track of the players. I love Dick Dillin's designs for the aliens though. Dillin's aliens are often not that colorful, just guys with horns and spouts on their heads most of the time, but A-Rym and Teppy are drawn almost in a bigfoot style and that adds a real dissonance to the danger they are in. The use of the Robins is strange too, as the idea of a split between the generations is explored. The Hawkmen take the roles of insenstive grumps in contrast to the Robins who are just youngsters trying to be understood. The trouble is that Robin of Earth-2 seems too old for that. I do like the Neal Adams costume for Robin. This outfit though will not get much traction until many years later when Robin of Earth-2 adopts a version of it when he joins the Super Squad variation of the JSofA.

The next crossover will be the tenth and it's a classic. Be here. 

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Classic Crisis #16 - The Spook And The Pussycat!

When 1968 rolled around things were shifting at DC Comics. New styles and new talents were emerging as the old guard gave way somewhat. This generational change came as some slid gracefully into retirement and others sadly were pushed away because of labor strife. But a book that heralded a new style of comic book was certainly The Spectre featuring the groundbreaking artwork of uber-talent Neal Adams.

The "Prologue" of The Spectre #3 begins in another dimension where two exceedingly alien-looking sorcerers sling spells at one another. One of the spells gets a way and slips into the orbit of Earth-2 and settle into a small-time thug named "Sad" Jack Dold. "Hang 'Em Up Wildcat -- You're Finished!" by Mike Friedrich and Neal Adams begins with Ted (Wildcat) Grant punching at some thugs in Knickerbocker City. He needs the help of the police to completely subdue the robbers, and later feels like his age is catching up to him. To quell his somber mood he dons his Wildcat gear gain and jumps on the Catocycle to cruise the town and finds "Sad" Jack heading to a museum robbery he's late for. Wildcat jumps in but is stopped by Dold who suddenly demonstrates great power over others. The hoods escape and later scheme to use their partner's new powers to commit great crimes. The pick a prize fight and again when they arrive Ted Grant is the guest of honor. He finds the robbery in progress, becomes Wildcat and intervenes. But he is stopped cold by Dold who is finding his powers are greater than he imagined. He orders everyone in the arena and over television to freeze while he goes into the ring with Wildcat and defeats him with a single thought. The section ends with Wildcat frozen prone on the canvas for the first time in his career. "Menace of the Mystic Mastermind" stars Gateway City's The Spectre. The Spectre as Jim Corrigan had seen the fight on television but was likewise frozen. When the power passed, he became Spectre and rushed to help his fellow Justice Society member Wildcat. He finds Ted Grant quite glum and feeling old and worthless. He can find Dold when he uses his powers and suddenly he feels him so he goes to fight the mystic enemy only to find the gang whom he defeats but no Dold. After giving Grant some hopeful words Spectre heads to Gateway City where Dold has come to fulfill his super-villain promise. Giving himself a wild costume he plans to level the city with an atomic blast. The Spectre arrives and absorbs the blast and then tricks Dold into using his power again at which time Spectre sucks out the sorcery from Dold and sends it back into the dimension from which it came leaving Dold helpless and sad once again. "Epilogue" shows Jim Corrigan back in Knickerbocker City to see Ted Grant, who has turned his talents to helping kids in his own gym, thus showing that even the older among us have vital purposes to perform.

I cannot but help to wonder if the message in this story has something to do with the changes at DC at the time. Probably not directly then, but I sure see parallels. As energetic and powerful as youth is, it must also give way to experience and all of us have something more to give to those around us. Nice message. The Spectre is the most successful of the Earth-2 launches of the time. While other JSofA members failed to catch on with readers apparently, Spectre did well enough in his Showcase run to warrant a ten-issue series of his own. That's not bad really. Certainly great talents like Neal Adams had something to do with that success. The Spectre also showed up a few times in Brave and Bold and proved over the years to be one of Bob Haney's go-to heroes. 

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The Last Survivors Of Earth!

I've featured these comics compiled in Justice League of America - The Last Survivors of Earth here at the Dojo a number of times, but it's because I really really like 'em. When I first discovered the Justice League of America, Mike Sekowsky was gone and Dick Dillin had just stepped in soon to be joined by inker Joe Giella after Sid Greene's retirement. Gardner Fox was soon to leave too, but not so much by his own choice and soon popped up at Marvel on one thing and then another. Denny O'Neil was his replacement and we have many of those stories here as well as most of those written by Denny's replacement Mike Friedrich. It's the latter that makes this volume so delightful. Friedrich brought a bright and (to use a modern phrase) "woke" social relevance to "The World's Greatest Super-Heroes" and they found themselves attacking fewer super-villains and more world problems like pollution, racism, and such as that. There is a bizarre unpredictability to these stories with different sets of heroes getting the focus. These stories don't feel dated to me though they are clearly wrought of a particular time and place, and that speaks well of the craft and care taken in making them in the first place.

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The Most Unusual JLA Stories Ever!

According to Mike Evanier over at his wonderful POV blog, the great Mike Friedrich is being recognized this summer at ComicCon with a Bill Finger Award. These are given to writers of comics of distinction and for this fanboy it's a pleasure to see Friedrich get get his due. I was the perfect age when I tumbled to his wacky spin on the Justice League of America, taking the helm of the book from Denny O'Neil who had done so after Gardner Fox. So as only the third regular writer of such a high-profile book it was incumbent on Friedrich not to shake the Earth too much, but he did anyway. The stories always drawn capably by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella (a team I underrated at the time) and often graced with dynamic covers by Neal Adams or Murphy Anderson, are peculiar and personal not one expects in a high-octane team book. The book touched on the issues of the time such as world hunger, pollution, and more. When it came time for the JLA and the JSA to team up they did so to help an alien boy and his dog, and there was Solomon Grundy as well. The book under Friedrich was not predictable and reading it still all these years later still feels personal, whimsical, and idealistic.

Here are the covers from Friedirich's run.

Looking at those covers again, I'm struck at how on almost all of them the League is downtrodden and shown in a moment of defeat. They recover of course, but it's an interesting way to draw in readers.

Rip Off