Seven Soldiers Saturday #1

Seven Soldiers Saturdays?

Pray tell, what fresh hell is going on here?

Well, let’s start at the beginning. Back in the 1940s, the comic book company we will come to know as DC Comics puts out the first super hero team up feature, the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics.  The JSA was made up of various heroes from DC’s various publications: the original Flash and Green Lantern, Doctor Fate, the Spectre, Doctor Mid-Nite, Wonder Woman and more.

But not all the DC heroes made it into the JSA.

Which brings us up to DC’s 2^nd team of heroes: the Seven Soldiers of Victory.  

The SSoV appeared in Leading Comics and was composed of the following heroes:

The Vigilante, western cowboy hero of the range

The Shining Knight, a man from a distant age with a flying horse and a magic sword

Green Arrow and Speedy, ace archers

Star Spangled Kid and Stripsey, a crime fighting duo where the kid was the lead and the adult was the sidekick

The Crimson Avenger and Wing, a crusading newspaper publisher who fought crimes with his trusty aide, Wing

Now you may note that is a total of 8 characters. So why therefore are these collected costumed crime fighters called the Seven Soldiers of Victory? 

This is a bit embarrassing but let’s just get it out there.

Wing didn’t count.  Poorly caricatured Chinese born Wing was not considered Crimson Avenger’s partner but his hired help. 

Yes, that’s racist. It was the 1940s. What are you going to do?

Anyway….

Back in the 1940s, SSoV writer Joe Samachson produced a script that was bought and paid for but never actually given to any artists to draw and it was never published.

In the mid 1970s, DC editor Joe Orlando rummaging around the files and desk drawers came across the script and decided it was time for this story to see the light of day. One of the titles Joe was editing was Adventure Comics that was floundering around for content.

Over the course of a few short years, Adventure Comics went from a book that starred Supergirl to an anthology of adventures strips including a pirate called Captain Fear to a spotlight for the Spectre, a supernatural avenger who dealt gruesome fates to a variety of murderers before becoming the home of Aquaman.

Pretty much anything goes when it came to keeping Adventure Comics alive.

So Joe Orlando saw the unused script by Joe Samachson as a perfect filler for the book's back up feature. And there was renewed interest in the Seven Soldiers of Victory after their new appearance Justice League of America#100-#102 and subsequent reprints in the 100 page spectacular issues of JLA.

The serialization of Samachson's script began in Adventure Comics#438 with an introductory chapter illustrated by the JLA's long time principal pencilller, Dick Dillin with inks by Tex Blaisdell.

The next chapter is drawn by Howard Chaykin who employed a style to evoke the art of Frank Frazetta who drew the Shining Knight back in the 1940s. 

As we move through this series, some artists will just do their usual amazing thing (like Dick Dillin) and others will adapt their style to the era of the 1940s (as Howard Chaykin did). 

In the credit where credit is due department, the scans for these stories come from Diversions of the Groovy Age. Sadly, the Groove Agent is no longer posting as he once did but the site remains a treasure trove of comic books from 1968 to 1980. 


 Next week in Seven Soldiers Saturday #2, Green Arrow and Speedy take their turn in a magical adventure conjured by Wee Willie Wisher.