Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Another Famous Letter Writer



Okay, so he gushes a little bit--strike that.  So he gushes like Old Faithful.  Consider it's George R. R. Martin, the man responsible for the outstanding dramatic series on HBO, The Game of Thrones (and, of course, the novels which it is based on).  And what's more, consider that the thrill of seeing his name in print like that supposedly inspired him to become a writer.  I'd say he's forgiven for his enthusiasm.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Suicide Squad

DC was having considerable success launching new features and titles with their Showcase magazine, and so they decided to convert The Brave and the Bold into a similar mag, dropping the swashbucklers that had been featured in the mag so far, effective with the above issue.

The Suicide Squad (also named Task Force X) had four members; Rick Flag, the pilot and leader:
Karin (no last name specified at least in the first three issues), the blonde-haired nurse and love interest shown above, and Jess Bright and Dr Evans:
Despite the different specialties mentioned there, in practice the two functioned just as the "scientists" of the group, with little other than the glasses and the pipe to differentiate them.  Note in particular that this is a gang of four, much like several more successful series that were launched during the same era, i.e., the Challengers of the Unknown, the Sea Devils, Rip Hunter's crew and the Fantastic Four.

It is revealed in the opening story that all four members of the Suicide Squad were involved in World War II, and all of them had similar experiences where people around them all died, but left them behind to carry on the fight:
It's an interesting bit of characterization, which reveals why they are so willing to take on desperate missions for the US government.  This being the late 1950s/early 1960s, the desperate missions mostly involved monsters and dinosaurs:
There was only a modicum of characterization in the series.  We learned early on that Rick and Karin are in love with each other, and that Karin wants it to be open.  But Rick refuses because he knows that Jess and Dr Evans are also head-over-heels for Karin.  This is mentioned by Rick in every issue, but we only see it demonstrated once:
Why didn't the series catch on?  The concept of a Suicide Squad seems a good one; a few years later TV would have success with the Mission: Impossible series, which has a similar premise.  I suspect there are a couple of reasons, beyond the predictable monsters and minimal characterization.  For starters, the team is missing one critical element from the "smart guy, strong guy, woman, kid" formula that worked for the Fantastic Four, Rip Hunter, and the Sea Devils: the kid, who gives the readers someone to identify with.

Second, the timing.  The superhero craze was underway; after the first three issues featuring Rick's daredevil troupe, B&B launched one of the most successful DC features of the Silver Age: the Justice League of America.  With so many new and colorful superheros, it was hard for the Suicide Squad to stand out in the spinner racks.

DC did give them another three issues (B&B #37-39) to try to win their stripes, but they ran into a third problem.  Comics increased in price from 10 cents to 12 cents effective with the December 1961 issues, which included B&B #39.  The effect on circulation was immediate and dramatic, with almost all titles shedding 10-20% of their readers.  Under the circumstances it is hardly surprising that DC was less willing to launch a new mag.

This  post was inspired by an email from a reader named Kirk.  I tried to reply, but the recipient domain refused the message.  An aside to Kirk; the reason Andru and Esposito worked on Wonder Woman, Metal Men, Suicide Squad and the War that Time Forgot series has much to do with the editor of those features.  In every case it was Robert Kanigher.  Each of the DC editors had his own stable of writers and artists back then.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Dueling Wonders

Julius Schwartz mentioned in his wonderful autobiography, Man of Two Worlds, that there were certain elements which, when placed on the cover of a comic book, virtually guaranteed increased sales. The most famous example of this is the famed "Gorilla Effect" which I covered a couple years ago. Another certified sales technique involved having multiple images of the hero/heroine on the cover. Robert Kanigher appeared to be a fan of that particular gimmick:
This was all over the course of about five years, and these examples are just the most egregious. Kanigher found other ways to put two Wonder Women on the cover:
And there was always the option of dividing the cover into sections:
And this is even without counting the numerous "impossible" covers which featured Wonder Woman as a tot, girl and adult all at the same time:
Indeed, looking at them all, it almost appears that it was more likely to find multiple images of Wondy than single ones.