Golden Age Hercules

Golden-Age heroes had the best costumes!!

From International Hero:

First Appearance: HIT COMICS #1 (July 1940)

Joe Hercules grew up in the North Woods, and by the time he reached adulthood, he was incredibly strong. Naturally he got himself a job working at a local circus. After criminals illegally foreclosed on his widowed mother's house, causing her to die of a heart attack from the shock of being told her home was to be repossessed, Joe sought revenge. He tracked the villains to New York, where he beat up some of the gang, only to be thrown into jail for his trouble. There he chanced upon a comic telling of the exploits of Doll Man, which inspired him to break out, put on a costume, track down the leader of the gang, and force him to confess his crimes. Using just his mythic surname, Joe decided to continue his newfound career as a crimefighter.

Now let's read a fun story. "Wheee!" You go boy!

HIT COMICS #12
(June 1941)
art by Reed Crandall - cover by Lou Fine

You can download HIT COMICS #12
and lots of other awesome golden-age goodness
from Golden Age Comics Downloads!

Homage-enizing: Batman and the Flash

Updated at 9:55 AM -- Oops, I forgot to say: With special thanks to my buddy Martin for the discovery!

THE FLASH #181
(August 1968)
by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito


THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #13
(July 2008)
by Jerry Ordway

Super-Team Family #16

Just discovered!! The unpublished cover to SUPER-TEAM FAMILY #16!! Originally planned to feature the final confrontation between Wonder Woman, Beowulf and Stalker, the plans were dashed when the series was canceled with issue #15. It was destined to be a story never told...


Yeah, and if you believe all that: I've got a 10.0 ACTION COMICS #1 for cover price...

Homage-ocity: Batman and Robin

DETECTIVE COMICS #31
(September 1939)
by Bob Kane


BATMAN #227
(December 1970)
by Neal Adams


ROBIN #179
(September 2008)
by Freddie Williams II

Beowulf: Dragon Slayer

1975-1976: BEOWULF, published by DC comics and edited by Dennis O'Neil, written by Michael Uslan and primarily illustrated by Ricardo Villamonte.

This goes with this.

The JOE SHUSTER Awards

The Fourth Annual Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards

Stalker - Beware The Man With The Stolen Soul

From The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe:

In a dimension of sword and sorcery, a young boy challenged the might of the Demon Lord Dgrth, won immortality but lost his own soul. Regretting his actions, the heroic young warrior began a seeminlgy eternal quest to regain his lost soul. However, the being, now known as Stalker the Soulless, never accomplished his mission. After millennia of soul-searching and acts of heroism, his mind became dark, corrupt. At the same time, his power increased, and more and more, he looked like a duplicate of Dgrth, his bane. Finally, he decided that the only way to know final peace would be to destroy the universe itself. After causing the destruction of his own realm, Stalker went from world to world, from dimension to dimension, leaving dead heroes, gods, and whole universes in his tracks.

In 1945, Stalker was transported to Earth by a group of Nazi occultists who had attempted to summon the diabolic Koth. Absorbing the power of the Spectre, Doctor Fate, and other magic heroes, Stalker began his extermination of Earth. The Justice Society and many of their friends and allies fought Stalker's mind-controlled Nazi Disciples, and later Stalker himself. With the help from Doctor Occult, who sacrificed his own soul to give Stalker one, the menace was thwarted, and Stalker finally knew peace.

From Wikipedia:

STALKER is a 4 issue comic-book series created in 1975 by Paul Levitz (writer), Steve Ditko (penciller) and Wally Wood (inker), and published by DC Comics.

The series takes place on a world that appears epic fantasy-based, but when the protagonist travels to his world's version of the underworld, men in astronaut garb can be seen among the hordes of doomed souls, perhaps inferring that the humans on this world were originally stranded galactic travelers.

A young urchin boy trades his soul with the demonic god of warriors for the skills and toughness to survive this hostile, amoral world. He grows up to be the most deadly warrior to walk the earth, but finds it impossible to enjoy without a soul. He eventually fights his way to the demon god in the depths of hell and defeats him, only to discover that the deity has already used of the energies of the traded soul. The only way to get his soul back would be to end the existence of the god, which can only be brought about by the end of all war.

After the cancellation of the title, Stalker would not appear until the 1990's series JUSTICE SOCIETY RETURNS which cast Stalker as a now insane villain, destroying dimension after dimension in his quest to end all conflict. This notably contradicts Stalker's original characterization as an individual capable of acts of heroism and mercy to even evil opponents despite his supposed lack of a soul.

Project Superpowers: Samson

PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #3 arrived this week with a cover featuring Masquerade and The Mighty Samson!!

Samson debuted in FANTASTIC COMICS #1 (December 1939), but that story didn't feature his secret origin. And I figured an origin is better than a first appearance. I may be wrong. But the story you're going to get is from SAMSON #1, because that does feature his origin.

We also see how Samson acquired his sidekick, David, in this story. Although David made his first appearance slightly earlier in FANTASTIC COMICS #10 (September 1940).

Okay, blah, boring, read:

SAMSON #1
(Fall 1940)

You can download SAMSON #1
and lots of other awesome golden-age goodness
from Golden Age Comics Downloads!

Batman and Robin: Always be Prepared!

I'm not quite sure why they feel the need to carry it in their utility belts. Maybe just in case the mood strikes?

But, hey, at least we know that it also comes in handy for crime fighting!!

Project Superpowers: Before the Masquerade

PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #3 arrived this week with a cover featuring Masquerade and The Mighty Samson!!

Diana Adams, aka Masquerade, made her debut in EXCITING COMICS #51 as Miss Masque. One interesting thing is the story starts out: "Greed...begins a startling new chapter in the drama-packed life of Diana Adams...as once again she assumes the perilous role of Miss Masque..." The only problem being: this was her first appearance! Can you imagine the poor kids of the time scrambling to try and find her earlier adventures? Miss Masque had been preceded by The Woman in Red, perhaps the writer had gotten the two confused.

In fact, the Alex Ross design of Masquerade almost shares more in common with The Woman in Red than Miss Masque.

Alrighty, now onto the story! The first adventure of Miss Masque!!!

EXCITING COMICS #51
(September 1946)

Tomorrow @ Comics N Things: The Golden Age SAMSON (and David!)!!

You can download EXCITING COMICS #51
and lots of other awesome golden-age goodness
from Golden Age Comics Downloads!