Subplot Kudzu

I just got a stack of 1970's comics from my Father in Law and am parsing through which ones to add to my collection and which to return to him for flea marketing. Aside from some serendipitous filling in of holes in my Justice League of America and Fantastic Four runs of this period there was also much of the Korvak cycle of the Avengers - pure '70s Cosmic, part genius, part drivel.

But I havebeen most amused by the back cover ads. Many of the classics are there - Street Ball with Rick Barry and Dr J for Spaulding, various BB gun, lego and model kit ads, and that strange one for the Super Siren to put on your bike to avoid accidents in suburbia, because your neighbors will love you for blasting an air horn to announce your presence every time you pass their driveway - but there were some ones I had never seen before that deserve shout outs.

( Ad Descriptions )

I've been enjoying Grant Morrison's All Star Superman. (the art by Frank Quitley is good, but he's one of those artists I can take or leave. Still, he's doing a good job.) If you're not familiar with it, the book is Grant doing Silver Age Superman stories within their own continuity, and he managed to nail the sense of exuberant fun, wackiness and melodrama that made the Silver Age fun. It's a wonderful antidote to a lot of the dark, depressing crap on the shelves right now. 

Issue 7 is part 2 of a Bizarro story (with Part 1 in issue 8, as befits a tale from the backwards menace). Here's the cover. x



The web site I yoinked this from got the colors wrong - on the print version Bizarro's frost vision is properly blue. But the thing I really love is that Bizarro's eyes are crossed, so his frost vision is missing Supes' head. I absolutely adore that attention to pointless detail. DC just collected the first 6 issues of this wonderful series. Do yourself a favor and give it a read.