Thunder Agents Classics Volume Six!

This is my review of the sixth and final volume collecting up the original run of Tower Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (including spin-offs Dynamo and NoMan) as collected by IDW. While these reprints are not ideal in every way, they are handsome enough and offer the vintage 60's saga in a handy-to-read format unlike any I've possessed.

These tales are less impressive than their mighty legend, not unlike the beloved EC Comics, but nonetheless they are worthy stories which showcase the strengths and weaknesses of Silver Age comics thoroughly. Wally Wood and company (Dan Adkins and Ralph Reese mostly) are at their best as are Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Chic Stone, Reed Crandall, and so many others. Artistically George Tuska and Mike Sekowsky turn in some strong work but alas the stories lack much of the spy glamour which attaches to the more atmospheric Wood stuff.

Here are the final issues of the classic original run which are included in this latest volume, which sadly does not feature one of these great recreation covers by Ryan Brown. This one is only credited to Wally Wood, though clearly it's been given a brush up. All the new material from the final issues is here right up through the finale which featured only a few pages of fresh material.

There was a delay of many months between issue seventeen and eighteen of the run. The cover of the eighteenth issue is by Reed Crandall and the nineteenth is a composite. 

A full year passes before issue twenty hit the stands. It's almost all reprints with only one new quick story reprising the origins of THUNDER and Dyanano. The cover is by Chic Stone. 

Next week the focus will be on that other Tower super agent. 

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Thunder Agents Classics Volume Two!

The second volume of THUNDER Agents Classics from IDW is chock full of vintage Silver Age goodness. With artwork by a who's who of the time, the reader can feast on some of the core stories which created the myth of this Tower Comics phenomenon. Wally Wood continues on the lead feature, but finds more help from Reed Crandall, Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska, Gil Kane, John Giunta, and especially Steve Ditko and Dan Adkins. Many of the stories are credited to Steve Skeates, something of a surprise to me.

The real surprise is the key story in this collection which includes THUNDER Agents #5, 6, and 7 along with the debut issue of Dynamo is a blockbuster tale titled "A Matter of Life and Death" written and designed by Dan Adkins, drawn by Steve Ditko and inked by Adkins and Wood.  This is the story upon which much of the Agents' reputation sits, the story which changed the game. Early in the series Egghead, a member of the THUNDER Squad died with little fanfare, but in this story one of the headline members of the agents meets his maker as Menthor is killed in action.

Unlike the ballyhooed and bombastically hyped "deaths" in modern comics which seem to occur on nearly a monthly basis, this demise was a true surprise. Heroes didn't die in the Silver Age, at least not mainstays like Menthor seemed to be. He was one of the original three THUNDER Agents before the advent of Lightning. Raven would hop onto the scene soon after, filling the void somewhat, but there was no denying the death of Menthor was a big deal in the Silver Age of comics.

Here are the covers of the issues included in the second volume.

Upcoming is the third volume of IDW's reprint series which debuts the weirdness of Manny Stallman and the end of the the threat of the Warlords and their minions. 

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Home To Stay!

I was late to the Ray Bradbury experience. I got hold of a copy of The Martian Chronicles when I was young, but it seemed just okay. In later years I got hold of more of his work and have come to appreciate him better. But truth told, I like Bradbury's stories best when they were adapted to comics form, and no one did it better than the guys at E.C. Comics, though they did it surreptitiously at first. Home to Stay! is an oversized collection from Fantagraphics of all the stories of Bradbury's adapted by William Gaines, Al Feldstein, and an amazing array of artists. 

In the early 50's comics were coming under fire, but the heat was not such that a writer of Bradbury's status considered it a problem to be associated with the format. In fact, he was a lover of comics and so after he was tipped off that some of his stories might have been lifted and altered ever so slightly, he  wrote a letter to the offices of Entertaining Comics and reminded them that they had "forgotten" to send him a check for fifty bucks for the secondary rights of the stories involved. (His letter is reproduced in this collection.) He then went on to suggest that EC and he enter a formal arrangement to bring his stories into comics form. And soon he had his fifty bucks and a new outlet to attract readers. 

EC lost no time in celebrating the new arrangement and the badge above soon began appearing on various issues of their comics when a Bradbury story was within. But after a few years, the war on comics became a bit too hot and Bradbury ask that his name no longer be used on the covers, though they continued to adapt his stories. It strikes me odd now that the writer of Fahrenheit 451 would wilt in the face of such a tirade, but as we see even today, it's hard to stand up for what's right, even when you know it to be true. Eventually EC folded and the adaptations stopped. But now we can enjoy them all over again. 

Here are the covers of the comics in which Bradbury's stories appeared. Few of the covers actually related to his particular contribution and I've noted when that's the case. 

(for the story "He Walked Among Us" based on "The Man")

(for the story "A Sound of Thunder")

(for the story "I, Rocket")

(for the story "The Screaming Woman", the only cover which features a Bradbury story with the badge)

(1965 Ballantine Books collection with Frank Frazetta cover)

(1966 Ballantine Books collection with a Frank Frazetta cover)

It was wise in the long run for Bradbury to allow EC to adapt his stories. It saved him the cost of lengthy and uncertain legal proceedings, and it proclaimed his name to comics fans for all time and spread his fame and influence. I enjoyed reading these stories, especially those rendered by Wally Wood and Joe Orlando. But other artists such as Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Will Elder, George Evans, Graham Engels, Jack Kamen, Bernie Krigstein, John Severin, and Al Williamson are well represented. Whether you get to these stories in this collection or in any of the other EC reprints from across the decades, I wish you well. 

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