Good trends with DC Archives- Action Hereos and JSA All-Stars
I'm really thrilled to see that DC's 40's-60's reprint line is edging into anthology archive editions, most notably the just-released Action Heroes Archives, Vol. 2 and the recently announced JSA All-Stars Archives, Vol. 1. These books collect stories focused on several different heroes instead of focusing on just one as has been the case in the past. In both cases the characters collected have some unifying characteristic, although its sometimes a bit tenuous. But I'm hoping it means we'll be able to get more obscure characters archived. It certainly means we'll get some characters more quickly- I had given up hope on seeing a Golden Age Mr. Terrific archive any time soon, but now it looks like I'll get 5 stories of his this year, which while much less than a dedicated archive would provide, is far better than none.
The Action Heroes archives collected the most significant characters from Charlton Comics's "Action Heroes" line, inclulding The Question and the second Blue Beetle (Ted Kord). The Question doesn't even have enough Silver Age material to fill his own archive, but together with Blue Beetle and the second half of Captain Atom's Silver Age run, it makes a good book. And I get a glimpse at Captain Atom, who I wouldn't otherwise have bought but enjoy seeing nonetheless.
The forthcoming JSA All-Stars archive is another matter- I want every single thing its reprinting and more. Scheduled to appear are the solo stories of JSA members Hourman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Wildcat and Mr. Terrific along with the Red Tornado, a parody character who made a guest appearance at the first JSA meeting. I figured the golden age Atom, Hourman and/or Dr. Mid-Nite would get an archive soon, but the others are more obscure. The golden age Mr. Terrific made only one appearance with the JSA and was generally not a star of the era, but I have a fondness for his stories and have tracked down several issues of "Sensation Comics" to read more (all of them from eras later than what this archive will collect).
There's enough interest in Wildcat that he could get his own archive (Even though he only appeared in the original JSA twice, the character is one of the few golden age folks still running around in the JSA today). But Wildcat's stories are frequently marred by the appearance of one of Stretch Skinner, one of the more annoying comedic sidekicks of the era (note: he's not the same Stretch Skinner from the first Wildcat story, although why they recycled the name only a few issues later is beyond me). I've always kind of figured that Wildcat hadn't gotten an archive because the tone of some of his adventures is just not what you'd expect based on the modern character.
And then there's the Red Tornado. She gradually took over Sheldon Mayer's humor strip "Scribbly". She was a working mother who fought crime with a cooking pot on her head as a helmet/mask. Really. Her 4-page stories were hilarious, and while she has a certain dedicated fan-base (among those who remember her at all), she really has a rather specialized appeal. But used (as she was in her original home of "All-American Comics") as a breather in between the more usual superhero stories, I suspect a much wider audience will come to enjoy her even though they never would have bought an archive focusing solely on her.
In general, the golden age comics were more often anthologies than solo books anyway, so this is much more true to the spirit of the originals. DC decided not to reprint the entire original issues, which was probably reasonable given how much of the earlier issues were devoted to non-superhero material of little interest to audiences today. But I'm glad that they've moved from making a separate archive for each book in which a character appeared (which is why Superman and Batman have a mess of three separate Archive series each just for their golden age incarnations) to focusing on characters no matter where they appeared (which is how most work today) to trying out releasing entire original issues when the bulk of the issues are superhero stories (Comic Cavalcade archives) or are of particular historical interest (DC Rarities archive), and now finally just resorting the original anthology concept to group characters that appeal to the majority of modern readers.
Now lets just hope they do an anthology archive or two for the Quality Comics characters so that we can see the fantastic art that they featured. I love my original Quality Comics issues that I've tracked down, and they are cheaper than issues published by DC proper. But they're still prohibitively expensive and I can't get enough of that art by the likes of Reed Crandall, Will Eisner, Lou Fine, Paul Gustavson and Jack Cole. So far out of all of the heroes published by Quality only Jack Cole's Plastic Man and the military hero Blackhawk have gotten the archive treatment so far.
The Action Heroes archives collected the most significant characters from Charlton Comics's "Action Heroes" line, inclulding The Question and the second Blue Beetle (Ted Kord). The Question doesn't even have enough Silver Age material to fill his own archive, but together with Blue Beetle and the second half of Captain Atom's Silver Age run, it makes a good book. And I get a glimpse at Captain Atom, who I wouldn't otherwise have bought but enjoy seeing nonetheless.
The forthcoming JSA All-Stars archive is another matter- I want every single thing its reprinting and more. Scheduled to appear are the solo stories of JSA members Hourman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Wildcat and Mr. Terrific along with the Red Tornado, a parody character who made a guest appearance at the first JSA meeting. I figured the golden age Atom, Hourman and/or Dr. Mid-Nite would get an archive soon, but the others are more obscure. The golden age Mr. Terrific made only one appearance with the JSA and was generally not a star of the era, but I have a fondness for his stories and have tracked down several issues of "Sensation Comics" to read more (all of them from eras later than what this archive will collect).
There's enough interest in Wildcat that he could get his own archive (Even though he only appeared in the original JSA twice, the character is one of the few golden age folks still running around in the JSA today). But Wildcat's stories are frequently marred by the appearance of one of Stretch Skinner, one of the more annoying comedic sidekicks of the era (note: he's not the same Stretch Skinner from the first Wildcat story, although why they recycled the name only a few issues later is beyond me). I've always kind of figured that Wildcat hadn't gotten an archive because the tone of some of his adventures is just not what you'd expect based on the modern character.
And then there's the Red Tornado. She gradually took over Sheldon Mayer's humor strip "Scribbly". She was a working mother who fought crime with a cooking pot on her head as a helmet/mask. Really. Her 4-page stories were hilarious, and while she has a certain dedicated fan-base (among those who remember her at all), she really has a rather specialized appeal. But used (as she was in her original home of "All-American Comics") as a breather in between the more usual superhero stories, I suspect a much wider audience will come to enjoy her even though they never would have bought an archive focusing solely on her.
In general, the golden age comics were more often anthologies than solo books anyway, so this is much more true to the spirit of the originals. DC decided not to reprint the entire original issues, which was probably reasonable given how much of the earlier issues were devoted to non-superhero material of little interest to audiences today. But I'm glad that they've moved from making a separate archive for each book in which a character appeared (which is why Superman and Batman have a mess of three separate Archive series each just for their golden age incarnations) to focusing on characters no matter where they appeared (which is how most work today) to trying out releasing entire original issues when the bulk of the issues are superhero stories (Comic Cavalcade archives) or are of particular historical interest (DC Rarities archive), and now finally just resorting the original anthology concept to group characters that appeal to the majority of modern readers.
Now lets just hope they do an anthology archive or two for the Quality Comics characters so that we can see the fantastic art that they featured. I love my original Quality Comics issues that I've tracked down, and they are cheaper than issues published by DC proper. But they're still prohibitively expensive and I can't get enough of that art by the likes of Reed Crandall, Will Eisner, Lou Fine, Paul Gustavson and Jack Cole. So far out of all of the heroes published by Quality only Jack Cole's Plastic Man and the military hero Blackhawk have gotten the archive treatment so far.