I never got a chance to pick up this book for myself, but luckily Digest Fan Neal Patterson came to the rescue and provides us with our first Guest Review:It's listed as Number 2, but I never found a Number 1 or any after it. Basically, Archie Comics reprinted several stories from their old horror and superhero books from the late 50s to the late 60s. The book was a pretty mixed bag:
Black Hood--Untitled story and art by Gray Morrow
The Shield--"The Menace of the Micro-Men", no credits, but clearly Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
The Fly--"The Lady and the Monster" No credits, could be Bob White on the art
Horror Story--"The Ultimate Power" art by Wally Wood
The Jaguar--"The Death Ray from Space" No credits, maybe story by Robert Bernstein and Art by John Rosenberger
The Hangman--"The Nine Lives of FalseFace" No credits
SuperTeen (Betty as a superhero)--"SuperTeen Strikes Again" No credits, maybe story by Frank Doyle and Art by Bob White
Black Hood--"The Black Hood Hits a Sour Note" story by Marvin Channing, art by Al Williamson
Steel Sterling--"The Awesome Bravo" No credits, maybe story by Abner Sundell and art by Charles Biro
The Web--"Uglyman's Ugliest Plot" No credits, maybe story by Jerry Siegel and art by Paul Reinman
Pureheart the Powerful (Archie as a superhero)--"Tarantula's Trap" No credits, maybe story by Frank Doyle and art by Bob White
Horror Story--"Time Twist" Story by Tom DeFalco, art by Chic Stone
The Fox--"The Gasser Attacks" No credits. Pretty strong Batman knock-off, right down to the Batmobile-inspired Fox Car
Black Hood --"Life's Not a Comic Book!" Plot by Gray Morrow, story and art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano
The Shield--"The Ultrasonic Spies" No credits, but clearly Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Horror Story--"The Beast in the Forest", story by Tom DeFalco, art by Jesse Santos
Chilling Adventures in Sorcery short story--"A Real Hot Talent" No credits
The Fly--"The Fly Meets The Cat Girl" No credits, could be Bob White on the art
Black Hood--"It's Murder to Beat the Odds", story by Marvin Channing, art by Al Williamson
What struck me as a 14-year-old buying this digest was the high caliber of artists involved, even if the stories were a little lame. Anyway, it was worth the 95 cents for that much content.
Wow, you're not kidding, Neal--Gray Morrow, Neal Adams, Wally Wood, Dick Giordano, Al Williamson, and Simon and Kirby? I gotta get me this book!
Thanks Neal!
9 comments:
The first one in this series is really hard to find, this one is more common.
I got this when I was eight, it made me a lifelong fan of the Archie heroes.
The Morrow Black Hood stories are from an aborted 70's relaunch that was definitely geared at adults, it's realistic and gritty (with cursing!).
Some of the other stories, especially the Steel Sterling one had the "hip" Jerry Seigel dialogue replaced with something far less silly.
>Some of the other stories, especially the Steel Sterling one had the "hip" Jerry Seigel dialogue replaced with something far less silly.<
Well, a Purist would scream... but I see the point!
Reminds me of some of Kirby's '70's dialog:
"Say - I'm "hip" to what you're saying - let's "groove" for a minute!"
Even as Himself, in ads:
"Hey, let's "rap" about what's "now," "cool" kids!"
To which I say,
"Oy vey!"
Happy Halloween,
-Craig W.
Psst...Rob...it's Neal "Patterson."
OOOOOOPS!! bad pasting and then proofreading on my part...duly corrected!
I have this one (or had). I seem to remember another Archie Digest with superheroes (Captain Pureheart and all that), but also some presumably one-offs, like "Carborundum Man" and a bunch of others.
Anybody know the title of it?
I have this digest. My first intro to the MLJ heroes. As noted it, has:
Unpublished Black Hood stuff that would later be re-published by JC Comics and Archie's Red Circle comics.
Reprints from S&K's Shield comic.
Reprints from Fly and Jaguar.
Reprints of corny "Radio Comics/Mighty Comics" stuff done by Jerry Siegel.
Yes, there was a digest #1, but it had a slightly different title: "Archie's Super Hero Special". About half of it is reprints of Archie and gang as superheroes. But there are some other stories (Fly, Jaguar, more Shield, Mighty Comics stuff like Black Hood & Web).
Funny thing is both digest were really published under Archie's "Red Circle" imprint. read the indicia.
I have the first Edition "Arhie's Super Hero Special" edition. What are they worth? Please send reply to huski (at) telus.net Thanks.
i have both and they are awesome.
never saw what the big deal was about neal adams. if i want to see photos (since he basically copied from polaroids), i'll look in the family album. and his coloring sense just makes everything look soaked in gravy.
Did I miss what year this came out?
-- MrJM
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