Back in November, and February, I did posts about comic books I had purchased 50 years earlier.
Let's drop back down that nostalgic well as I look back at some of the comics I bought in May 1975.
Five decades ago? That is so hard for me to fathom.
By May of that year, DC adopted a banner across the top of the cover.
The lead off Superman story in Action#450 is by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell and features Johnny Nevada, the DC Universe version of Johnny Carson.
Johnny Nevada gets turned into a sand monster and can only be cured by the power of laughter.
Elliot S! Maggin and Mike Grell kick off a new serialized adventure of Green Arrow and Black Canary.
The story features a mysterious man named David who may have supernatural powers and is really handy with a slingshot.
Although the average comic was down to 18 pages of story and art, DC was still determined to produce comics with multiple features. Superman's battle with Johnny Sand Monster took up 13 pages leaving only 5 pages for GA/BC.
Detective Comics #450 features "The Cape and Cowl Deathtrap written by Maggin and illustrated by Walt Simonson.
This was not Simonson's first crack at the Caped Crusader; he drew the Batman/Manhunter crossover. Simonson's stylized take on Batman would set the tone for Marshall Rogers who would take over Detective Comics in a year or so.
The story would be adapted in the 1980's for an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
The back up was Robin in action against the Parking Lot Bandit.
He was a bandit who stole parking lots.
No, he stole from people in parking lots.
A pedestrian tale but notable for some cool artwork by Al Milgrom and Terry Austin a few years before they would go on to bigger things at Marvel.
Justice League of America #121 features the wedding of Adam Strange of Earth and Alanna of the planet Rann.
After Alanna dies.
And half the Justice League dies.
Then they get better and have cake.
Hmmm! Cake....
The indicia indentifies this as Superboy #210 but this was more or less a Legion of Super Heroes book with Superboy as a fershlugginer guest star. The lead story by Jim Shooter & Mike Grell pits the Legion against a super powered zombie soldier still fighting a war that was over centuries before.
What really stands out in this issue is the 7 page back up also by Shooter and Grell that reinvents Legion member Karate Kid. Primarily drawn as a standard issue generic white guy, Shooter's script ties Val Armorr firmly to Japanese culture with Grell redesigning his appearance to resemble 1970's martial arts superstar Bruce Lee.
Karate Kid would go on to get his own solo comic book series.
A few months later, some letters appeared in the Wonder Woman letter column expressing concern of Dick Giordano's rather purient cover of a disburbingly submissive Amazon Princess.
In case you're wondering what's the deal with Elongated Man and the camera, this was from when the Justice League was taking turns monitoring Wonder Woman to see if she was worthy of being in the League again. It was HER idea after she had a serious memory lapse but still, the optics were not good.
Double the money, double the fun! Here are a couple of comics I plunked down 2 quarters for each.
Superman Family #172 features the return of a classic motif from the 1960's Lois Lane title: Lois marrying some damn body and a frustrated Superman on the outside looking in. This time, Lois is getting hitched to Lex Luthor?!
Helping with those old silver age vibes is art by Kurt Shaffenberger who was Lois's main artist back in the early 1960's.
Reduced to appearances in Justice League of America and a back up series in The Flash, Green Lantern was bereft of this own solo comic book for DC Special#17 provides 3 classic reprints from the days when Hal Jordan had his own book. The issue collects 3 classics written by John Broome and Gardner Fox and drawn by Gil Kane and Joe Giella.
My memories a little fuzzy but I may have bought these 2 comics as well.
And that was what a young Dave-El was shelling out his quarters for in May 1975.
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