Of the 1,000,006 interpretations of Batman there’ve been over his 87 years, one of my faves is Jiro Kuwata’s manga version that was first published 60 years ago, in the June 12, 1966, issue of the Japanese magazine Shonen King.

Quickly recapping: Japan in 1966 got caught up in the Batmania that exploded out of the Adam West TV show. Batman’s American comics were translated into Japanese, but the publisher of Shonen King got the license to print original stories (though they were actually adaptations of DC tales). Jiro Kuwata was hired and his work was serialized in the weekly mag, starting with Issue #150 (aka #23/1966).

But the stories didn’t make it to the U.S. for decades, until Chip Kidd’s 2008 coffee-table book Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan. Since then, Kuwata’s work has enjoyed a cult following in the US, with DC reprinting the whole run, the TV show Batman: The Brave and the Bold animating a sequence, and writers like Grant Morrison riffing on the concept. Finally, McFarlane Toys got into the merchandising act in recent years.

(When I went to Japan a couple of years ago, I was able to score a couple of original Shonen King issues, with help from our pal Yuji Ueda, one of the world’s foremost Batman collectors. Check out his museum-worthy treasure trove.)

But wouldn’t a Bat-Manga Mego be “guruuvii”? Yes, it would. Sadly, one doesn’t exist — unless you have mad customizing skills like 13th Dimension reader Deane — aka @thats_terrific on Instagram — who built his own for himself and some friends (including yours truly, thankfully), using a headzotoys head and various other pieces, like a hand-made box by our pal Anthony “The Toyroom” Durso:

Once Deane had the goods, he went to work:

Mine arrived safely but I’m not playing with him until after Father’s Day, because it feels like a cheat if I do:

That said, nothing’s gonna stop me from reading some Bat-Manga tonight:

—

MORE

— The Pure Joy of JIRO KUWATA’s BATMAN. Click here.

— 13 BAT-MANGA COVERS: A JIRO KUWATA Birthday Tribute. Click here.

By ROB KELLY

June 12, 1981 – My Dad is taking my sister and me to the movies, where I am about to experience an adventure, set in the distant past, featuring an indefatigable, lantern-jawed hero who faces one dire threat after another.

But enough about Raiders of the Lost Ark, let’s talk Clash of the Titans!

Yes, both films hit American movie screens that day, and while Indiana Jones won my Dad’s hard-earned dollars first, it didn’t take long until we took in the other film I had wanted to see.

Clash of the Titans is the swan song for special effects legend Ray Harryhausen and producer Charles H. Schneer. I had seen their previous effort, 1977’s Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, in the theater, and other films of theirs like Jason and the Argonauts, Mysterious Island, and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad were staples on my local UHF station, Channel 48 in Philadelphia.

The film follows Perseus (Harry Hamlin) on a mission to save the Princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker), who has been betrothed to the monstrous Calibos. To win her hand, Perseus sets out on a perilous adventure, where he meets friends and foes alike. Watching all this—and occasionally interfering—are the Gods themselves, like Zeus (Laurence Olivier), Thetis (Maggie Smith), and Athena (Susan Fleetwood). Zeus in particular often regards these mere mortals as playthings, pitting them against one another for his own amusement.

The major knock (and a fair one it is) on these Harryhausen-Schneer films is that they have paper-thin-yet-also-stiff-as-a-board characters. Occasionally, the right bit of casting and a particularly committed performance from an actor managed to break through to elevate the material. A good example of that is 1974’s The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, which I think remains the gold standard for these run of films.

But for the most part, that stuff doesn’t matter too much, because what these movies were selling—and what audience members like myself were showing up for—are the startlingly imaginative action set pieces, painstakingly executed by Harryhausen. And in that regard, Clash of the Titans delivers. In fact, every time I watch the film, I come away with the belief that it’s a different Harryhausen scene that is the best. It’s the opening with the Kraken! No, it’s the scene with Calibos. No, of course, it’s Perseus’s battle with the Medusa. No, no, no, it’s the conclusion with the Kraken! And that’s not even including some of the other fun characters we meet on the way, like the Stygian Witches and Charon, the skeletal ferryman for the river Styx.

Watching with 21st century eyes, Clash of the Titans does move at what sometimes is a slow pace, and feels like a film from a much earlier era. Which, essentially, it was—Harryhausen and Schneer made their names in the ’50s and ’60s, and while I think they held their own in the ’70s (the aforementioned Golden Voyage),it was going to be hard for them to keep up in a post-Star Wars world. So while some critics at the time chided this movie for feeling so old school, watching it now, that’s a feature, not a bug — Clash is one last grand volley of capital-A adventure from two creative geniuses. In short, it holds up.

Virtually all of the Ray Harryhausen films were translated into comic books, in one form or another. Clash of the Titans is no different, sort of. Instead of a three-issue series or perhaps an issue of Marvel Super Special, COTT was adapted by American Golden Press as a one-shot, square bound, magazine-size special by writer Mary Carey with art by the legendary Dan Spiegel. I was completely unaware this thing existed until I found it on eBay many decades later, where it was often mislabeled as “treasury size.”

I’m a huge fan of Spiegel’s work, and his classical style I think is a good fit for the material. The only scene that doesn’t quite have the visceral oomph of the movie is with the Kraken, who looks more like an annoyed old man in the comic than the slobbering, wild-eyed behemoth from the movie. Perhaps Spiegel didn’t have any reference material to work from (Harryhausen had to do all this stuff one frame at a time, after all). Not in any way trying to besmirch the effort here, but Clash is such a perfect big-screen type of entertainment, it’s a real shame Marvel didn’t snatch this up, give it the true treasury edition treatment, and sic someone like John Buscema or Gil Kane on the material.

But that was not the only dalliance Clash of the Titans had with the world of comics! It was also adapted into a comic strip that ran for six weeks in 2000AD, with art by Patrick Wright. The film, by design, is episodic, with Perseus going from one place to the next, either making friends or vanquishing foes. So while I didn’t have a chance to read the entire six weeks’ worth of strips, the ones I saw have a nice start-stop rhythm that works all on its own. Although, frustratingly I imagine to readers at the time, the strip concludes before the climactic fight with the Kraken, instead instructing people to go see the movie.

One piece of merchandising that I was aware of at the time, but somehow I did not take advantage of, was the line of Clash of the Titans action figures by Mattel. I guess I was still in my Star Wars All The Time phase, because I never had any of these as a kid. I see them now and think, what the hell was wrong with me? Look at these! From the gorgeous card art to the figures themselves, these toys are a thing of beauty, and a Kraken vs. Rancor Monster fight would have been one for the ages. I guess it’s fitting that I also ignored the Raiders of the Lost Ark toys, another line that I would kill to own now. I guess June 12, 1981, was just a bad time for action figures.

Despite being swamped by the cultural juggernaut that was Raiders, Clash of the Titans did well enough at the box office that Harryhausen and Schneer planned to do another film called Force of the Trojans (a title ever so slightly inspired by Star Wars?). But then in 1985, Harryhausen announced his retirement, and Schneer decided to pack it in, too. Maybe it’s good that they decided to let Clash of the Titans stand as their final effort. One last, literally handcrafted cinematic adventure that they just don’t make anymore.

Postscript: My wife and I met Harry Hamlin at a convention in 2023, and he could not have been nicer to talk to. For me, there was only ever one choice of what to get him to sign.

—

MORE

— RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK AT 45: Forever One of the Grandest Adventures of Them All. Click here.

— ‘FLASH GORDON’ AT 45: Movie of the (Wonderfully) Impossible! Click here.

—

ROB KELLY is a podcaster, writer, illustrator, and film commentator. You can find his work at robkellycreative.com.

You can read more of his REEL RETRO CINEMA columns here.

—

UPDATED 6/12/26: Raiders of the Lost Ark came out 45 years ago! Perfect time to reprint this column by Rob Kelly that first ran June 12, 2016. (It’s been slightly edited for time references.) But you know what also came out on the same day 45 years ago? Clash of the Titans — and Rob’s got a REEL RETRO CINEMA column on that too! Click here to check it out. Dig it! — Dan

—

By ROB KELLY

Forty-five years ago today, on June 12, 1981, many millions of moviegoers’ minds were blown when they first saw a little film called Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I am not going to waste any time recapping the film’s plot, since I am sure that 100 percent of you reading this know it by heart. Rather, on the occasion of its 45th anniversary, I’m taking time out to reflect on what makes this movie so enduringly great, as well as take a look at the Marvel Comics adaptation published simultaneously.

Hatched on a beach in Hawaii by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Smith (rechristened Jones on the first day of production) was conceived to be their version of James Bond. Spielberg had long wanted to direct a 007 installment, but was supposedly turned down by the producers. When informed of this, Lucas suggested to his pal he had something even better, a character based on the 1940s and ’50s movie serials that the two industry titans had grown up on, as well as a mix of other pop-culture influences.

Despite the pedigrees of Spielberg and Lucas, most of the major movie studios had no interest in making a big-budget tribute to an archaic film genre. Eventually — thankfully — Paramount Pictures decided to fund it, after it was stipulated that the production would have to remain tightly under control. Specifically, it would be producer Lucas’ job to rein in director Spielberg (who was just coming off the expensive flop 1941) to ensure there weren’t too many runaway costs while shooting.

On the casting front, Spielberg wanted Harrison Ford from the beginning, but Lucas thought he was too familiar as Han Solo. Other actors were considered, and tested, with Tom Selleck eventually getting the nod. Unfortunately for him, CBS refused to let him take time off from the TV series he was starring in, Magnum, P.I. Lucas finally relented and Ford was given the role.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the rare example where every single element, in front of the camera and behind it, is working at the peak of its powers. Spielberg had something to prove post-1941, so he approached the film’s production in a lean-and-mean manner. Every scene relays the information it needs to forward the story (either via character details or plot elements) and then moves on—there’s not a single moment of excess or bloat to be found. The screenplay, by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan (from a story by Lucas and Philip Kaufman), is ruthless in its efficiency.

After the boffo opening scene where we learn just who Indiana Jones is, what he does, and how he is in eternal conflict with the less-than-scrupulous Belloq (Paul Freeman, more on him in a moment), the larger plot is set in motion when two government agents visit Indy and his friend Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) and tell them that the Nazis are close to discovering the not-so-mythological Ark the Covenant.

I have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark hundreds of times over the years, and I never fail to marvel at this scene. In most films, having two characters come in just so they can spit out page after page of exposition would be a deadly dull scene, the kind of thing audiences know is necessary just to get to the fun stuff. But Spielberg, Lucas and Kasdan have so fully developed this world that this sequence of a couple of guys sitting around a table talking is so compelling, tense and, yes, funny, (“Uh, now what’s that supposed to be coming out of there?” “Lightning. Fire. Power of God or something…”) that it leaves you wanting more.

The cast is perfect right down the line. Harrison Ford effortlessly exudes Movie Leading Man charm, confident enough in his screen persona to give us glimpses of a hero that isn’t always in control of the situation he’s found himself in (“I’m making this up as I go”). His leading lady, Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, is the perfect Howard Hawks-ian dame who is every bit Indy’s equal. Allen as Marion is beautiful, sensitive, but also believably tough as nails (check out how she immediately grabs a metal can and starts banging guys in the head when she and Indy are attacked on the streets of Cairo).

Spielberg and Lucas originally conceived Marion as their version of a Bond Girl, which is why she was replaced in subsequent films. Spielberg and Lucas did their job a little too well, crafting a character so compelling that when it came time to make Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there was really no other choice than to bring her back.

Paul Freeman as Belloq is one of the movies’ greatest villains, a sympathetic-yet-venal doppelganger of our hero—a “shadowy reflection” if you will. He enjoys the back-and-forth with his old foe, but lacks the moral compass that guides Indy. It proves that you don’t need expensive special effects or a fancy costume to make a great villain—a great actor giving a great performance is all that you need. John Rhys-Davies is warm and jovial as Indy’s pal Sallah, full of great one-liners (“Asps…very dangerous. You go first.”) and exactly the kind of guy you want along on a grand adventure. Ronald Lacey only gets a few lines as the black-hatted Nazi enforcer Toht, but he cuts a frame not dissimilar from Darth Vader. When he enters the scene, you know there’s going to be trouble–there’s a reason why he looms over Indy on the cover to Marvel’s Raiders of the Lost Ark #1!

Speaking of Marvel’s adaptation of Raiders, it was released simultaneously as a three-issue miniseries and in magazine form as Marvel Super Special #18 (bearing a beautiful Howard Chaykin cover). I remember buying the first miniseries issue off the newsstand and being thrilled that it delivered exactly what I wanted from it—an exciting, beat-for-beat recreation of a movie I loved, done in the Mighty Marvel Manner.

Howard Chaykin cover

Written by Walter Simonson and drawn by John Buscema and Klaus Janson, it features every major story beat plus a few extra moments eventually dropped during the film’s editing—like when we learn just how Indy managed to survive the trip stowed away aboard the Nazi sub. As you might expect, there’s a lot more on-the-nose dialogue in Marvel’s version, but it’s still a lot of fun, is great to look at, and of course would be just the beginning of Indy’s comic-book career.

James Sherman cover

Speaking of Indiana Jones and comics, another source of inspiration for the character was Disney’s Uncle Scrooge, via the work of the incomparable Carl Barks. In Uncle Scrooge #7 (Sept. 1954), the famous feathered One Percenter plus Donald and the nephews visit “The Seven Cities of Cibola” and find a giant green idol that triggers a boulder to go on a rolling rampage. Sound familiar?

A few issues later (Uncle Scrooge #26, June 1959), Barks ups the ante by having the ducks avoid not just a giant boulder, but flying darts, a decapitating blade, and a tunnel that floods with water. Spielberg and Lucas have both said in interviews that they were fans of the Uncle Scrooge comic, so these moments of high adventure must have lodged themselves in the nascent geniuses’ brains, just waiting to be dusted off.

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas took everything they loved as 10-year olds, and applied their expert filmmaking skills to those elements to create a piece of entertainment that honors what came before while making something a contemporary audience could call its own. Raiders gallops from one thrilling set piece to the next — the aforementioned opening sequence in the cave, Marion’s bar, the Well of the Souls, the hidden Nazi base carved inside a remote island — our hero barely surviving each new scrape.

In many ways, the character of Indiana Jones transcends James Bond, in that his heroism is on a much more relatable, human scale—in just this film alone, Indy almost gets betrayed by an underling, rendered speechless by a comely female student, knocked on his ass by a bald Nazi goon, and gets a cigarette casually tossed on him. And, even after surviving all this, Marion manages to uppercut him with a giant mirror.

While there are films on my personal “all-time favorites” list that rank higher, Raiders is one of those movies that I just couldn’t bear not to ever see again, something I can’t say of some of the other films on that mental list. It’s so fun, so utterly delightful, and still so exciting even after 45 years that it feels as fresh as when I first saw it in a darkened theater in 1981. It’s a bona-fide classic, and if you haven’t seen it in a while, go watch it again, you’ll love it. Trust me.

—

MORE

— CLASH OF THE TITANS AT 45: A Fitting Finale for RAY HARRYHAUSEN That Stands the Test of Time. Click here.

— ‘FLASH GORDON’ AT 45: Movie of the (Wonderfully) Impossible! Click here.

—

ROB KELLY is a podcaster, writer, illustrator, and film commentator. You can find his work at robkellycreative.com.

You can read more of his REEL RETRO CINEMA columns here.

—

UPDATED 6/12/26: The late, great Len Wein was born 78 years ago. Perfect time to reprint this piece from Wein’s birthday in 2023. Dig it. — Dan

—

By PAUL KUPPERBERG

I confess.

I stole mercilessly from Len Wein. Later on, I assumed his identity in the credit boxes of some issues of Green Lantern. I’m guilty, I tell you! Lock me up and throw away the keys!

OK, I didn’t so much steal from Len (June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) as I did borrow shamelessly from him as inspiration and influence when I was a wannabe and neophyte comic book writer. And the times posing as “Len Wein” weren’t for identity theft but as a ghostwriter to help the real Len out of some deadline crunches. And, while it was just another job—I’d ghosted and/or done credited fill-ins on numerous stories for various writers in the past, always for pay, of course—it was a chance to (a) practice literary mimicry, a game I enjoy, and (b) see how Len would take what I’d given him, based on a discussion or a brief paragraph or two he’d given me of the beats he needed to hit in the story, and tweak it just-so to make it work in ways I hadn’t seen.

First appearance of Swamp Thing. Art by Bernie Wrightson.

I’m sure you know the high points of his multiple award-winning, 50-year career: co-creator of Swamp Thing, Wolverine, the Human Target, Lucius Fox, and many others, writer of The X-Men, Phantom Stranger, Justice League of America, Fantastic Four, Green Lantern, Batman, and too many others to mention, as well as stints as an editor for DC, Marvel and Disney. As one of the first fans to squeeze through the closed (or slightly ajar) doors of DC Comics and turn pro, Len and his friend and writing partner Marv Wolfman, were inspirations to me during those above-mentioned wannabe writer years. I’ve already written about my earliest encounters with Len on my website. (I also used an anecdote in A Comic Moment With… column elsewhere on 13th Dimension.)

Rather than hitting those high points, I’m going to dig deeper into his career, a portrait of the artist as a young artist, mining the first three or so years of his work for some of those early stories that made me notice him and want to write like him. Len’s (and co-writer Marv’s) first sale was famously to editor Dick Giordano, Teen Titans #18 (November/December 1968), but I’m going to lead off instead with the more obscure, first published tale, for this, MY 13 FAVORITE EARLY, LESSER-KNOWN LEN WEIN STORIES:

—

The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #109 (DC, November/December 1968). If you know anything about me at all you know I was both thrilled and jealous to discover Len’s first published work was a Jerry Lewis story. Art by Bob Oksner.

—

Secret Hearts #149 (DC, January 1971). One of many anthology titles where young and beginning writers could learn and practice their craft. It didn’t hurt that the newbies saw how talented veterans like Win Mortimer (here inked by John Rosenberger) interpreted their scripts.

—

Chamber of Darkness #6 (Marvel, August 1970). Artists Sal Buscema and Syd Shores joined Len (literally in Sal’s case) for this Marvel horror anthology story, although because of the Comics Code, we called them “mystery” stories.

—

Hot Wheels #4 (DC, September/October 1970). Two words: Alex Toth. Three more words: Lucky newbie bastard!

—

Blazing Six Guns #1 (Skywald, February 1971). Len applied his talent to other genres for other publishers, here with some delightfully purple pulp prose and the equally delightful Dick Ayers. I never met John Tartaglione but I’m sure he was also a delight.

—

Detective Comics #408 (DC, February 1971). I’m pretty sure this was Len’s first Batman story (co-written with sometimes collaborator Wolfman) but I’m too lazy to do any more research. By Neal Adams and Giordano, no less. (Dan adds: Yes. It was his first.)

—

The Witching Hour #13 (DC, February/March 1971). A humorous “mystery” story that stuck with me for its title and the art of Jose Delbo.

—

Creatures on the Loose #11 (Marvel, May 1971). Another artist bent over his drawing board. Different artist, different reason, and art by Herb Trimpe.

—

The Flash #208 (DC, August 1971). Somewhere, I have this page, torn from the comic, signed by Len at my first convention in 1971.

—

Creatures on the Loose #13 (Marvel, September 1971). Don’t get me wrong. It’s a swell story by Len but having a genuine EC Comics legend like Reed Crandall draw it elevates any tale!

—

World’s Finest #207 (DC, November 1971). Old school Julie Schwartz-edited goodness (“Ya gotta shock the reader and make them hafta turn the page!”) and art by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella.

—

House of Secrets #95 (DC, December 1971-January 1972). Sue me. I’m a Jack Sparling fan.

—

Weird War Tales #3 (DC, January/February 1972). And last but not least, another Wein-Wolfman joint, this one for editor Joe Kubert, the beautifully crafted “The Pool,” with art by Russ Heath.

—

MORE

— How Six LEN WEIN BATMAN Comics Changed My Life. Click here.

— Legendary LEN WEIN: How BATMAN ’66 ‘Quite Literally Saved My Life.’ Click here.

—

PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. Now, as a Post-Modern Age gray eminence, Paul spends a lot of time looking back in his columns for 13th Dimension and in books such as Direct Conversations: Talks with Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators and Direct Comments: Comic Book Creators in Their own Words, available, along with a whole bunch of other books he’s written, by clicking the links below.

Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/

Shop: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/shop-1

By JIM BEARD

By now, you’ve heard the old adage that you can’t go home again; well, legendary artist writer John Byrne has and he survived the experience, proving he can still fan the flames in the hearts his fans once thought cold.

What’s that, you say? In case you haven’t heard the hullabaloo — Byrne’s returned to the X-Men.

X-Men: Elsewhen Vol. 1 is the first of three hardcover graphic novels from the man offering a simple premise: What if he and he alone picked up the story after the cataclysmic (and yeah, even controversial) events of The X-Men #137 in 1980… and ran with it.

It’s a heady thought, one that X-fans and Byrne himself have pondered all these decades, but now it’s a reality thanks to what is essentially one of the biggest, baddest pieces of fanfic ever to be produced by a guy who is one of the most popular and successful creators produced by the Bronze Age of Comics.

Elsewhen has everything you could want from that classic early X-era — Professor X, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Sentinels, Magneto, Moira, Lilandra, and a clutch of character cameos that will make your 1980s old ticker flutter with excitement. And it’s all in that singular John Byrne style that you’ve missed all these years. (Click here to check out a SNEAK PEEK.)

It’s also a few other things, and I’m here to dig into it, Bunky. Face front and let’s X it up.

I won’t spoil the story here, but suffice it to say it’s crafted as something very much of the days-past Marvel era it emulates, being both episodic… and not episodic. John has an overarching tale to tell of the post-Phoenix story, sure, but with many sidelines, many “Oh, and this is going on over here, too” type of sub-plots. His writing—no surprise—is not that of his former co-X-creator Chris Claremont, but maybe that’s a good thing.

Elsewhen is story-driven, not necessarily character-driven. There is no excessive dialogue, no too-wordy inner monologues of character development. It’s not about that, which is the point, really. This is John Byrne’s idea of where things went with the characters after the conclusion of the Phoenix Saga. And he likes action. There’s not a lot of time to sit around and ponder the meaning of mutant life. There are Sentinels to smash, wonders to see, and not a few guest-spots to highlight.

As for characters, yeah, they’re all here—but also not all here. What I mean is that this is not your modern X-Men, not the literal army of members one expects today. Elsewhen follows the classic core group of fan-faves — Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, and yes, Sprite. That’s right: Sprite. Kitty Pryde takes Pride of Show herein, and she’s very much what you’d expect of the era, cute and implacable. Jean Grey, on the other hand, is… well, that would be telling. The story isn’t really about her, but it also is, if you take my meaning. It’s all part of what makes up the back story of the book.

And that’s another unique-cool thingie about Elsewhen. It’s Byrne acting like this is taking place in the early ’80s, but it also isn’t. It’s a version of the ’80s seen through the lens of the 2020s because our artist-writer knows where it went “for real” and weaves that into the story. It’s a time-traveler’s view of the past. It’s what “should have happened but didn’t, so I’m going to fix that.” And along the way, Byrne nods to his own future-past with appearances—not just cameos—by Marvel Universe denizens he would/did eventually take on to great prominence: the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, albeit versions of them you might expect from the early ’80s. Magneto is bad here, by the way, thoroughly bad, like he used to be. Refreshing in its way.

To borrow a phrase from another big franchise, it’s all very timey-wimey if you think about it.

The book’s art is classic John Byrne, sort of. (Yes, I keep doing that, but bear with me; it’s unavoidable with a project like this.) It’s all the dynamic layouts, designs, and details you’d expect from the man at his height — stuff I’ve actually missed over the decades — but now with age having crept in. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because a reasonable, rational person will expect and accept that. John’s older, obviously (his author photo knocked me over a bit), and it shows, but what’s also evident is the sheer exhilaration he must have felt while drawing these pages. Elsewhen was crafted for him, and him alone, with no supposed intention to see it published. That’s also apparent. He says in his introduction that the work drew him on and flowed out of him, capturing something within that he might’ve thought was gone, maybe forever. I believe that. No way you can’t when you just gaze at these pages.

The inking is sometimes rough, but a sit-up-and-take-notice happens when newcomer Paul Wills steps in to lend a brush. I actually thought those pages were the best of the bunch, and I wish there were more. The coloring is nice, too, giving Elsewhen another of those peeks into the “future” — we never had colors that nice back in the day. I almost wish they could have been more flat to evoke the era.

The overall production value is top-notch. Marvel/Abrams ComicArts gave it the quality and attention it deserves. John Byrne is back with the X-Men; how could they do otherwise? When the three volumes are complete, they’re gonna look mighty nice sitting on the shelf together. They’ll be keepers.

Is Elsewhen for everyone, every X-fan, every Marvel fan? No. I won’t try to gush around that one. Is it for all the Byrne Victims out there? Yes, definitely yes. This is pure John Byrne, tempered with age, absolutely, but also laced with a youth and an enthusiasm that speaks to what once was, and what could have been.

In a way, the X-Men never had it so good. Or will have. Or something like that.

—

X-Men: Elsewhen Vol. 1 is a 232-page hardcover, published by Abrams ComicArts, under license from Marvel. It lists for $39.99.

—

MORE

— SNEAK PEEK: Inside JOHN BYRNE’s Long-Awaited X-MEN: ELSEWHEN. Click here.

— PHOENIX: THE UNTOLD STORY Facsimile Edition Coming to Prep You for JOHN BYRNE’s X-MEN: ELSEWHEN. Click here.

Superman Family? Makes sense. Batman Family? Sure. Tarzan Family? OK. Super-Team Family? What?

Super-Team Family was a Bronze Age DC Comics anthology series originally edited by Gerry Conway that featured — you guessed it — team-ups. How “Family” entered into it, I don’t know, but perhaps our old pal Paul Levitz, the book’s assistant editor-cum-editor, will chime in with a comment.

Anyway, I got to thinking about Super-Team Family this week when I realized that material from the first seven issues of the series, which ran from July 1975 to December 1977, was included in DC Finest: Team-Ups — The Impossible Escape, which is dominated by Bob Haney/Jim Aparo stories from The Brave and the Bold.

Evidently, the first seven covers of Super-Team Family are included, as well as two original stories that appeared in the mag — from Issue #2, a Wildcat/Creeper (!) pairing by Denny O’Neil and Ric Estrada that was originally intended for 1st Issue Special; and from Issue #3, a Flash/Hawkman tale by Steve Skeates and Estrada.

Super-Team Family, however, had a super-funky identity crisis. It was originally designed for new stories but quickly changed to an all-reprint book. (The first installment was actually all reprints because of deadline problems.) Its reprints were generally well chosen, but, strangely, they were frequently pulled from series like World’s Finest and B&B, which would have been better homes. Some stories, on the other hand, weren’t really team-ups at all.

Dick Giordano

By Issue #8, DC opted to give the series a regular new, lead feature, probably because Jenette Kahn had arrived as publisher and she was not a fan of reprint books. The Challengers of the Unknown ran for three issues, but after that, the series took a completely different approach: a four-ish run starring the Atom and various co-stars, though the Tiny Titan usually received third billing behind, say the Flash and Supergirl, or Green Lantern and Hawkman. The final issue, meanwhile, was a Flash/New Gods mash-up.

Rich Buckler pencils, Jack Abel inks

Super-Team Family was cancelled not long before the infamous 1978 DC Implosion, with a Supergirl/Doom Patrol story scheduled for the book ending up in Superman Family.

Since then, it’s become something of an oddball footnote in DC history — a hot mess of a title that somehow managed to make it for two-and-a-half years. It’s cool that it’s been recognized in the DC Finest line — but also fitting that there’s no mention of it on the front cover at all.

* * *

Normally, a feature like this would be accompanied by a 13 COVERS gallery. But since there were 15 total, we’re giving them all to you, including the two above.

Because we’re nice like that.

Neal Adams top vignette, Giordano bottom vignette

Frank Brunner

Ernie Chan

Chan

Chan

Jack Sparling pencils, Vince Colletta inks

Buckler and Abel

Buckler and Abel

Alan Weiss pencils, Joe Rubinstein inks

Al Milgrom pencils, Abel inks

Milgrom and Abel

Milgrom and Abel

Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

—

MORE

— BATMAN FAMILY: The Coolest Batbook of the Bronze Age. Click here.

— 13 SUPERMAN FAMILY COVERS to Make You Feel Good. Click here.

I personally think that Marvel has always done a better job when showing the cosmic. Dates back to Kirby, sure, but an ethereal, spacey quality imbues their more out-there comics in a way that DC’s never has.

Here, we get the best of both worlds, with this Martian Manhunter piece by Dakota:

But it wasn’t Kirby or Starlin whom Dakota was thinking of when he did this.

“This was at a very Darwyn Cooke period for me,” sez Dakota. “I had (finally) read The New Frontier and it rocked my world, and so I was doing a lot of Cooke-style DC art for a bit.”

—

Want more of THE ART OF DAKOTA ALEXANDER? Come back next week!

—

MORE

— HAPPY PRIDE From SPIDER-MAN and Some Amazing Friends. Click here.

— 13 Groovy MARVEL VALUE STAMPS You Didn’t Know Existed — Because They Didn’t. Click here.

—

DAKOTA ALEXANDER is an American artist living in Japan. He’s worked on many projects, such as The Liberty Brigade, The Masters, Charon 13, and G.H.O.S.T. Agents. His latest is his love letter to Bronze Age superhero-horror comics, The Hunter, which is now available at his Etsy, Drums of the Serpent.

The Rolling Stones’ 25th studio album is due July 10 and the World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band is teaming with Marvel for a special collaboration that will feature a vinyl edition of the new LP Foreign Tongues with exclusive comics starring Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, the Hulk and Thor:

The bundles — which list for $70 each — are available for pre-order now at Complex and will be on sale at the Stones’ site later this week.

The official descriptions say that “an exclusive comic book” was created for the collaboration. What’s not immediately clear is whether each comic is different or if it’s the same comic with different covers.

Also not clear is whether these comics are the same as ones coming as part of Marvel’s 50th anniversary celebration of What If? this summer, but with exclusive variant covers. We also don’t know creative teams.

In other words, there’s a lot still to be sussed out. As they say, we’ll find out soon enough. (Insert requisite Time Is on My Side, or Out of Time, or Time Waits for No One joke here.)

—

MORE

— J.M. DeMATTEIS Returns to KRAVEN’S LAST HUNT With New WHAT IF? One-Shot. Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1964! Click here.

The first volume of John Byrne’s long-awaited three-part graphic novel X-Men: Elsewhen is due June 23. Published through Abrams ComicArts under license from Marvel, the hardcover takes a different route from the artist’s seminal Bronze Age run with writer Chris Claremont, with the canonically killed Jean Grey alive and kicking.

“Diverging from the epic finale of the original storyline… X-Men: Elsewhen presents a universe where Jean Grey’s powers and intellect have been greatly reduced, and from there, everything you thought you know about the X-Men is forever changed,” reads the official description.

Click here for more on the project, but with about two weeks to go, dig this SNEAK PEEK — and for a complete, SPOILER-FREE REVIEW, click here:

—

X-Men: Elsewhen Vol. 1 is a 232-page hardcover. It lists for $39.99.

—

MORE

— SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: JOHN BYRNE’S X-MEN: ELSEWHEN Bursts With Youthful Energy — Even Through the Age Lines. Click here.

— PHOENIX: THE UNTOLD STORY Facsimile Edition Coming to Prep You for JOHN BYRNE’s X-MEN: ELSEWHEN. Click here.

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of June 10, 1964.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of June 3, 1955. Click here to check it out.

(Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the issues that went on sale between June 7 and June 13.)

So, let’s set the scene: The Civil Rights Movement was in the forefront, here and internationally. On June 12, South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life in prison at the close of the infamous Rivonia Trial because of their efforts opposing the apartheid South African government. Mandela and the other Black defendants were shipped to Robben Island, while the white defendant was sent to Pretoria.

Mandela would serve 18 years of his sentence at Robben Island, and nine elsewhere, before he would be freed after 27 years.

Stateside, on June 10, the U.S. Senate voted 71-29 to end the longest filibuster in history. Racist senators from Southern states and elsewhere had staged lengthy speeches for 75 days, opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which sought to outlaw discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia finished the last of the speeches just shy of 10 a.m., 14 hours and 13 minutes after he started. The vote cleared the way for the bill to be approved.

Three days later, the first 300 volunteers for the Freedom Summer project to register Black voters in Mississippi — largely driven by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee — arrived at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. The volunteers were trained by members of various organizations, including the NAACP.

The ranks ultimately numbered roughly 1,000 and were about 90 percent white; one-third to one-half were Jewish. (When they soon arrived in Mississippi, they were met with heinous acts of violence that included assaults, church bombings and murder — most notably three young men killed by Klansmen. More than 1,000 locals and volunteers would be arrested over the 10 weeks of the Freedom Summer.)

In public, President Johnson was making a show of how important it was that the U.S. support South Vietnam. The previous week, he held a press conference and said that the nation was “bound by solemn commitments” to defend the Asian nation against the Communists. He referred to a 1954 letter from President Eisenhower to South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem promising to protect the latter’s government.

Behind closed doors, however, things were far less certain. It wouldn’t be revealed for years but on June 5, Henry Cabot Lodge, the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, sent a secret cable to Johnson warning against further deployment to fight the Viet Cong. Doing so would be a “venture of unlimited possibilities which could put us onto a slope along which we slide into a bottomless pit.”

Johnson ignored him.

IN OTHER NEWS

— November’s Kennedy assassination was fresh in the American consciousness and on June 7, Jack Ruby, the man who killed assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, testified before the Warren Commission, while at the Dallas County Jail. Ruby’s testimony would be made public along with the rest of the Warren Commission’s report later in the year.

— On June 11, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 took effect, prohibiting wage discrimination.

— Writer Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters were prepping for a — literal and figurative — trip from California to the New York World’s Fair. They would leave June 14 on their bus Furthur to experience the American road while high on LSD. (It was still legal.) The voyage would eventually be immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s bestseller The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

The sexually charged The Carpetbaggers, starring George Peppard and based on the sleazy Harold Robbins novel, was a big hit at the movies, despite lousy reviews. That Carroll Baker shot a nude scene for it — even though it was left out of the US release — could not possibly have been a factor. Right?

Other hits included The Pink Panther, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and the swingingest Elvis movie of them all — Viva Las Vegas, co-starring the sensational Ann-Margret.

But wait! There was also the second James Bond film — From Russia With Love, which my father thought was the best one.

Rerun season had begun, but the most popular TV shows included The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Petticoat Junction, and The Andy Griffith Show.

John, Paul, George… and Jimmie! Having already conquered America, the Beatles were on their first — and, it would turn out, only — world tour. But Ringo was down for the count with tonsillitis, so he was replaced for the first eight shows by the square-jawed Jimmie Nicol. This week, the Fab Three Plus One would play in Kowloon and Adelaide, Australia. Naturally, it was madness, screaming, swooning and fainting everywhere they went. (Ringo would return June 14, in Melbourne. Nicol would fade into obscurity.)

In the U.S., the band’s first two American album releases — Meet the Beatles and The Beatles’ Second Album — were huge hits, the latter only having just been eclipsed at the top by the original Broadway cast recording of Hello, Dolly!, starring Carol Channing. Their two best-selling singles of the moment were Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You.

[The top 45 was Chapel of Love, by the Dixie Cups, while Jan and Dean’s hot-rod anthem The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena) was released June 8.] But it’s not like Beatlemania was fading or anything. Far from it: the lads from Liverpool’s first movie was due out in July, and with it, another album.

While the Beatles were enjoying extraordinary success, another wave of the British Invasion had begun — but with a lot less hysteria. Thousands of howling fans greeted the Fab Four when they arrived at JFK Airport in New York back in February, but when the Rolling Stones landed June 1, they were welcomed by… about 500. Four days later, they began their first American tour in San Bernardino, California, while promoting their initial U.S. album release, The Rolling Stones: England’s Newest Hit Makers. (Other stops included such towns as Excelsior, Minnesota, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.)

On June 13, they appeared on ABC’s The Hollywood Palace. (It was recorded earlier; they were in Omaha that day.) Guest host Dean Martin continuously belittled the band and snidely commented, “Their hair is not long. It’s just smaller foreheads and higher eyebrows.”

But it wasn’t a total flop: There were signs that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were onto something in the States.

On June 10, the band visited Chess Studios in Chicago and over two days, met Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy. They also recorded their next single, a cover of Bobby Womack’s It’s All Over Now, plus other material, including Time Is on My Side, also a cover. While in L.A., they also met arranger Jack Nitzsche, who would become one of their most important collaborators in the ’60s.

Finally, the next week, they’d end the tour with two raucous shows at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Time was on their side.

—

Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Justice League of America #29, DC. Folks, this was one helluva week for comics, one of the best I’ve ever seen. This issue marked the second-ever JLA-JSA team-up, but what elevates it beyond that is it features the introduction of Earth-Three and the Crime Syndicate of America. The Crime Syndicate is one of my fave villain teams — perhaps my fave overall. Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs (behind a Sekowsky-Murphy Anderson cover) expanded the DC Multiverse and enriched it by bringing aboard Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring.

—

The Amazing Spider-Man #16, Marvel. Webhead and Hornhead meet for the first time!

—

Tales of Suspense #57, Marvel. Hawkeye makes his debut! And Black Widow’s got him doing her evil Russian bidding!

—

The Avengers #7, Marvel. Continuing the first appearance of the Masters of Evil from the previous issue. Plus, Rick Jones plays Single Dead Sidekick and puts on Bucky’s outfit for the first time — promptly pissing off an understandably weirded-out Captain America.

—

Marvel Tales Annual #1, Marvel. Good lord, if you knew nothing of the Marvel universe, this was almost all you needed to get caught up — reprinting the first Spider-Man, Hulk, Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Sgt. Fury, Iron Man, and Thor stories. For a quarter!

—

Batman #165, DC. The third month of Batman’s New Look! To this day, this is one of the most exciting periods in the Caped Crusader’s history. The funny thing is, this cover is similar to what we’d already seen in the Silver Age — namely 1960’s Batman #130 and 1962’s Batman #146 — but that fresh coat of paint by Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella made all the difference.

Scott adds: This is another cover that I only ever saw in black-and-white, in my copy of Batman: From the ’30s to the ’70s, and it always freaked me out.

—

Space Family Robinson #9, Gold Key. The Robinson family is lost in space, more than a year before Lost in Space. Also: Kloblops.

—

Young Romance #131, DC. John Romita, still at DC. (Gene Colan, too!)

—

Blue Beetle #2, Charlton. The Silver Age days of Dan Garrett.

—

Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, Marvel. Best annual in comics ever? You can make the argument.

Dan adds: You certainly can, Scott, What a killer book. Spidey for the first time runs the gauntlet of the Sinister Six, defeating each villain — Doc Ock, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Sandman and the Vulture — one by one. Not just that, it’s a smorgasbord of Steve Ditko pin-ups and features, such as profiles of all of Spider-Man’s adversaries — even including the burglar who killed Uncle Ben — as well as beautifully illustrated explainers of the webslinger’s powers and tech. It’s one of the greatest single comic books I’ve ever read.

—

Fantastic Four #30, Marvel. Am I the only Fantastic Four fan who likes Diablo? Diablo gets no love.

—

Sgt. Fury #9, Marvel. I must have missed this chapter in my history books.

—

MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of June 3 — in 1955! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of May 27 — in 1979! Click here.

—

Comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics and the Grand Comics Database.