It's time for another installment of my bi-monthly look back at comic books I bought 50 years ago.
What the hell did I buy off the ol' spinner rack in March of 1976?
Not much it seems.
When I was a kid, my family was poor and there wasn't always a lot of spare change for anything resembling an allowance.
So I reckon March of 1976 was especially lean in the way of spare change.
Still, I manage to scrunge up some coin from somewhere and bought a few books that month.
Let's start with a really good one: Superman#300.
Bob Oskner really steps up with a very powerful cover for this anniversary issue.
After producing the 4 issue identity crisis storyline, writers Cary Bates and Elliott S! Maggin and artists Curt Swan and Bob Oskner serve up a speculative tale called "Superman 2001". As it said on the cover, what if Kal-El's rocket land on Earth today and grew up to become Superman in the future world of 2001?
Back in the 1960's, editor Mort Weisenger frequently turned to "imaginary tales" to spin stories told outside of regular continuity. This was the first time editor Julius Schwartz turned to this storytelling device since taking over as Superman editor.
Bates, Maggin, Swan and Oskner come together one more time to craft this story of not only shifting the time of baby Kal-El's arrival on Earth to the present but also what would happen if he were raised not by an earnest couple on a farm but as a child of a government agency.
He adopts the mantle of "Skyboy" to stop the world from nuclear self destruction and also becomes "Clark Kent" in the aftermath of personal tragedy.
Clark adopts the red and blue uniform once more to save the Earth from himself and becomes Superman.
This was before the comics industry began to jack up the page count and thus the cover price for anniversary issues. Superman#300 did get a few extra pages of story at the expense of the letter column.
Justice League of America #131 brings us a god awful cover by Ernie Chan.
Gerry Conway is back at the typewriter joining regular artists Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughin for "The Beasts Who Thought Like Men", a tale I am having a really hard time remembering what the hell happened. I should cut myself some slack, I suppose. It has been 50 years.
So what the hell is going on here? A plague is ravaging the Earth causing humans to act like animals and animals to gain human intelligence. The culprit? A sonic code on credit cards designed to replace currency.
The lesson from 1976? Credits cards make you crazy. Stick to old fashion cash!
Another Ernie Chan production for the cover of The Flash#242. I will concede this cover is not all that bad. Not all that good either but not... you know what? It's bad.
"The Charge of the Electric Gang" Is by the regular creative team of Cary Bates, Irv Novick and Frank McLaughin and clocks in at 10 pages. Yep, it's the Flash's own book and he only gets 10 pages. He had to share the other 7 pages with Green Lantern.
While the Flash tries to cope with three electricity-wielding crooks, the Rogues' Gallery gathers to mourn the death of one of its members.
GL was in the middle of the Ravegers of Qys storyline by Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell and Tex Blaisdell.
I should note that after DC raised the cover prices from 25 cents to 30 cents, the story page content dropped from 18 pages to 17 pages.
For Superboy#217, we get a pair of tales from writer Jim Shooter and artist Mike Grell.
"The Charge of the Doomed Legionnaires" kicks things off as
Brainiac 5 plays a "chess game" for keeps against Marshal Lorca of the Khunds, with the Legion members as his game pieces.
The Khunds were to the Legion what the Klingons were to Star Trek.
Is it true that the explosion on the final page of the story spells out "Holy cow! Dig the fireworks!"?
Yes, it's true!
The lead story takes up 11 pages while the 6 page back up is a rare in his own book solo outing for the Boy of Steel, "Future Shock For Superboy".
We get the introduction of Laurel Kent. And a display for Mike Grell's penchant for designing women with as little clothing as possible.
Is Laurel supposed to look like Lois Lane? Yeah, I believe that was the point.
World's Finest Comics #238 has an Ernie Chan/John Calnan cover for another installment of writer Bob Haney's trippy Super Sons stories.
"The Angel with a Dirty Name" is drawn by Dick Dillin and John Calnan. And it's another one of Bob Haney's trippy tales of the Super Sons.
Clark Kent Jr. and Bruce Wayne Jr. are still doing their version of Easy Rider when they happen across a darling damsel in distress named Dora.
Through some machinations of plot, she manipulates the duo into her helping her to carry out an escape from a local prison.
The escapee? Lex Luthor, evil scientist, Superman nemesis and Dora's dear devoted dad.
The escape goes from the walls of a prison into.... OUTER SPACE!
To the planet Lexor where Lex Luthori is their hero.
And they need a hero real bad!
Seems Lexor is being devastated by a plague turning the populace into large blobs.
I bought so few comics in March 1976 and this one made the cut? Really?!?
Also making the cut of this month's slim pickings was Action Comics #460 which gave us a pair of Superman tales under a Bob Oskner cover.
"Superman, You'll Be the Death of Me Yet" by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell.
Karb-Brak is an alien from Andromeda who has assumed human form to live on Earth, the only world that can cure him of a fatal disease.
Yikes! Superman's presence causes Karb-Brak to assume his alien form again and his illness kicks in and resuming killing him.
To survive, Superman must die!
And here's a fun twist: Karb-Brak thinks Superman's secret ID is Steve Lombard? That blowhard dope?
Elliot S. Maggin and Kurt Schaffenberger collaborae on "Welcome Home to Mxyzpolis" with a spotlight on Superman's 5th dimensional imp nemesis.
For reasons I cannot surmise or recall, I did not buy Batman or Detective Comics that month.
And that is that for my flashback to the comics I bought 50 years ago in March 1976!
More comic book stuff later today with a tribute to the late Sam Kieth and in tomorrow's Your Friday Video Link.