Comments | dr_hermes: Need a topic for your doctoral thesis?

dr_hermes

Need a topic for your doctoral thesis?

Dec 08, 2010 17:58

You might need some time to work on this. (Show your math.) How do anti-matter electrons (wait, what?)convert air into a liquid chemical?

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comics, silver age, human torch, jack kirby, larry lieber

Comments 10

syon23 December 9 2010, 04:45:38 UTC

Never mind the wonky physics, what was really strange about the Human Torch run in STRANGE TALES was how the reader was supposed to go along with the idea that no one knew that Johnny Storm was the Torch, despite the fact that in the FANTASTIC FOUR, everybody knew!Even better was how they ended the absurdity in S.T. # 106. You see , the good folk of Glenville were simply humoring the Torch's desire for anonymity. STRANGE TALES indeed!

dr_hermes December 9 2010, 09:58:27 UTC

It was whacky. Right from the start in THE FANTASTIC FOUR, their real names were public knowledge. It looks as if Johnny is in some sort of denial when in his hometown. He has a thought balloon that although everyone knows Sue is the Invisible Girl, his own identity is secret. What? How does that make any sense? And because his FF suit doesn't have a mask, whenever bad guys get his flame put out to capture him, Johnny somehow manages to keep his head lit (concealing his face).

Then we learn that everyone was just humoring him...! Well, it wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last, that he felt like a fool. I guess Lieber followed the Silver Age DC formula more than Stan Lee did and thought a secret identity was a mandatory ingredient. Then at some point, he and Stan were talking and had a revelation how silly it was.

There's an article ... ext_324132 December 9 2010, 10:06:41 UTC

in Comic Book Marketplace - #72, I think - about the Human Torch secret identity kerfluffle.

Re: There's an article ... dr_hermes December 9 2010, 20:35:50 UTC

I do have a few issues of COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE but, franly, since I started scanning, any pretense of organization has gone out the window.

You know ... ext_324132 December 9 2010, 10:03:54 UTC

Quite honestly, I don't think that those first few issues of the Human Torch series in Strange Tales could have been any better, certainly not with the mere addition of anything that made sense.

I asked Dick Ayers at a comic book convention - this would have been San Diego in the late 1990s - why they had a few issues where the Human Torch had a secret identity. he got kind of indignant and said, "The Human Torch never had a secret identity!"

OK, Mr. Ayers. Sorry to have bothered you.

Re: You know ... dr_hermes December 9 2010, 20:33:13 UTC

The Torch series in STRANGE TALES (up until the Thing became a co-star, I think) were at least fun to read. Exuberant, silly, over the top in that Silver Age way. Johnny's characterization was not overdone. He was not hip or moody, he seemed like a regular teenager who had been accidentally given super-powers. And with villains like the Plantman, Paste-Pot Pete, that artist whose paintings came to life... well, the stories didn't take themselves as the culmination of Western literature.

Mr. Ayers ext_324132 December 10 2010, 09:05:31 UTC

I don't want to leave the impression that Ayers was unpleasant or anything. I talked to him a couple of times over the years. Not as super-friendly as Jerry Robinson or Stan Freberg. But he probably barely rates at a one-third Sheldon Moldoff on the cranky curmudgeon scale.

Re: Mr. Ayers dr_hermes December 11 2010, 01:40:20 UTC

Someone could whip up an interesting chart about that theme.

Torch docsavage181 December 10 2010, 21:12:56 UTC

I always loved the way King Kirby drew alien faces!

Re: Torch dr_hermes December 11 2010, 00:43:52 UTC

Absolutely. He had a few weak areas (birds, for one) but most of the time Kirby had such a strong vision that it seemed so authentic.