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Send all letters to Richard Boucher at PR-Publications@webtv.net ======================================================== Editorial Hi Gang! This month's editorial might be a bit long, so let us get on with it! First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Mark Cannon of Australia for donating over 40 pages of the book "Panel by Panel" by the late John Ryan. Thanks to Mark, these pages on the native Australian comic book heroes and heroines helped us a lot in filling in the blanks on a number of Australian characters as seen in the O.F.F. section this month. This is the kind of thing we are looking for when it comes to our foreign characters section. Two books that we are still actively seeking are "The Great Canadian Heroes" and "Northern Lights", so if you have any leads on these books let us know, as we would like to be able to add them to our newly expanded reference/source section, and of coarse, we would use the information on the site. Secondly, we would like to announce the poll results on the poll we have run for the last two months. This poll dealt with the question of "What company would you like to see a focus on", the results with over 100 responses is as follows: 1st place MLJ with over 40% of the votes I would like to thank all those viewers who participated, great going guys and gals! We will feature in November's issue the MLJ characters as they will be the majority of the profiles seen that month. And for those other company good guys and gals, we will show some of these in our year end Big Blast issue, which will feature 30 Golden Age characters! Of which, 10 will be from Timely, 10 from DC (the write in favorite), and 10 characters from a sampling of other companies. This should be a great issue. And 3rd, in our "Mystery Guest" section, no one got the identity of our first character featured in June, and reprised in July, so here is the answer. The character was covered featured on Choice Comics # 2, and his name was ATLAS! Our July entry so far, no one has guessed who he is, so here is a hint, he is covered featured in the "D" section of the Gerber Photo Journal, and for those of you who do not have these two great volume's, you can search through your old Overstreet price guides, and you will find him there under "D" as well, but it will be a black & white cover, so no color help there! Finally we will answer the most frequently asked questions about the site. They are: Q. "How can I see back issues?" Q. "How far in advance is your
site done?" Q. "Where do you get all your
information from?" And now, onto our viewer mail, and enjoy this issue of "Suits and Sorcery". Take care, God bless you all, be good to one another, and have fun! ======================================================== Hi guys, Tonight marks my second visit to your site. I must say it is very well done. Kudos to those who contribute and to you guys for putting it all together. Secondly, I would like to share with you about a late 1960's fanzine I recently found a copy of. This particular issue is number 3 of an unknown run. It is entitled 'The Illustrated Comic Collector's Handbook". Inside, it features bios and pictures of numerous golden age characters done in a rough DC Who's Who style. It was published in 1968 by the SFCA. A sampling of the characters found inside include, Captain Terror, The Dart and Ace, Zippo, VMan, Captain Jack, Captain Freedom, Mr. Scarlet and Pinky, The Black Owl, Capt. Battle and Hale, the Flyman, Wildfire, The Target and the Targeteers, Hooded Wasp and Wasplet, Mr. Satan, Spider Widow and the Raven, Kitty Kelly, Flamingo, Bomber Burns, Fearless Flint, the Woman In Red, Mr. Q,and many more. I have been trying to track down other issues of the mag (unsuccessfully, I might add). I would also like some information, if you have it, on the character the Witch, who was featured as a villainess/romantic interest to the King. She appeared in several issues of Flash Comics. Any help would be greatly appreciated, especially a visual. Lastly, I'd like to invite you to visit our Golden Age MUSH at telnet://dcu.idyllmtn.com:3333. Actually, it is a complete multi-era DC site, but our GA era kicks butt. Or if that's not your cup of tea, it is a great place to visit for a golden age chat. Tell your friends also. All are welcome. Thank you, and once again, great job! Hi David, Thanks for the kind words, it is definitely appreciated. We work very hard every month to try and bring you the best that we can. Although it's true that we get information from our viewers (86 or so to date), most of the information that you see on the site is info I've gathered over the last 20 years of research and comic book buying and trading. The book you mention is on of a series of 4 books done almost 20 years ago if I'm not mistaken, and I have been hunting those self same books for quite some time now myself. Could I convince you to photo copy the book and mail it to me? I'd pay for the cost, mailing expense and what ever you feel your time is worth. Just let me know. I have/had participated in mush games and fan fiction before, but I find my time severely limited these days, with the site stuff and a wife and such, time isn't as plentiful as it use to be, but thanks for the offer anyway. Once again thanks for writing and stopping by the site, come on back for July's "Patriots of America" issue # 7, where we celebrate Independence Day in our own special way. Richard Boucher ========================================= I'm still working on the man in green, but I believe the yellow and red crusader is Atoman, who appeared in the two-issue 1946 Atoman comic from Spark Publications. Here's what Jeff Rovin's The Encyclopedia of Super Heroes says about him: Alter Ego: Barry Dale (no relation to Joan Dale - Miss
America) Please let me know if I'm right. Also, could you tell me how to look at back issues. Thanks, Hi Scott, Although you came up with an interesting choice for June's Mystery Guest, we have to tell you that you are not correct. If you check out our editorial in July's issue, we give a few hints/clues to where you can obtain the character information. We appreciate your effort though. I will give you a hint on the July "green guy", it would be in Volume # 1 of the Gerber book under "D" listings. Or you can look for him in the Overstreet Price Guide under "D" as well. I hope this helps. By the way, we did feature Atoman in an earlier issue, which you can see reprinted next year when we start Vol.# 2 of the GG&G. Take care! ========================================= Hi Richard, The artwork arrived on yesterday!! WOW!!!! All 9 of them!! Even Mr.Terrific, whom I wasn't expecting. Thank you, my friend!! Not only is Mr.Terrific one of my faves, but his inclusion gives me 14 pieces of your art work to grace my walls *S*. Not that I'm superstitious or anything like that, but why take chances *LOL*. You did some great work, Richard. The Fox really leaps off the page. And Steel Sterling ..... All of that raw power showed to great effect. I've never seen Blackjack look as good as you rendered him, and the same can be said of the Vision. The Vision confused Lenah a tad. She is very familiar with the synthzoid hero but the 40's character is "new" to her*S*. She liked him. Heck, I'm so very pleased with all of them *S*. Hawkman, Sandman, Mr.Terrific ...... Characters I know so well. I can't tell you how many times in my youth that I soared or leapt over roof tops with them or Batman, Superman, Captain America ... You get the idea. Heck, I suppose I still do every time I re-read one of their adventures *G*. Well, I know you understand that as well. One of things that Darrin and you do so well at GG&G (And Bill Nolan over at PFE) is stir up wonderful memories and fuel marvelous fantasies. I've never actually read a Angel story, or a Captain Commando or original Blackjack, Fox or Steel Sterling story for that matter. But just from their descriptions I feel like I missed something that would've been a great deal of fun. You fellows are doing a great job of making sure that the lesser lights of comics books history don't continue to reside in comic book limbo. And I'm pleased to get to assist. The Angel himself has always intrigued me. According to my own informal survey of Timely super-heroes, The Angel qualifies as Timely's fourth most popular character behind Namor, Captain America and the Human Torch, having had 100 stories published over a 7 year period. Yet he is notably absent from the Marvel universe. He was never, to my knowledge, revived the way the Whizzer or Miss America were. Heck, no one in the Liberty Legion spin off of the Invaders had his track record. Certainly not Blue Diamond or the Thin Man. And I can't recall a single instance of any of his stories being reprinted. The Black Marvel and Marvel Boy had their stories reprinted in the 60's and both cases these characters only had 4 stories apiece to their history. IAC, I've always been curious as to why. Well, this E-mail is actually only about 1/2 done, but it's late and I'm beat so finishing this will have to wait until tomorrow. However, I'll send this off just to let you know that I'm still breathing *L*. Be well, my friend. My fond regards to Pam. Hi Jeff, As usual it is good to hear from you. I think it was coincidence that you didn't end up on lucky # 13.:-}... After all, we wouldn't want to jinx you! At least now your actual drawings match your total in your place on the Honor Roll. I'm glad your wife is now aware that there was another Vision previous to the current one. I have always liked the old one better myself. Then again I have always felt that the Golden Age guys and gals had it all over todays heroes. There where some in the Silver Age of coarse, who were great too! Especially the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, who hold a spot in my heart all these years gone by. I think we all grew up doing just that, fighting side by side with our heroes, sharing their adventures, that was the magic of comics back then. Today that is a little harder to do, as you can hardly tell the good guys from the bad any more. Thanks, Darrin and I really feel good when we invoke those old memories for people, and if we create ideas for new fantasies by bringing back long vanished characters we obviously take this as a compliment of the highest degree. This is the whole idea, to keep the memory of the characters alive. So many of today's readers have no clue to what went on over 50 years ago, and probably will never get the opportunity to enjoy these soon to be lost treasures. This is why I think that the work we do, as well as people like Bill Nolan and Bill Black, who are heroes in their own right for preserving our heritage. Since our country has no program for saving the past works of art from oblivion, someone has to take up the cause, and that is what Darrin and I have done in our own small way. We've a long way to go, with over 1000 characters to do, it will take a while, but we will get there eventually, as long as we have people like yourself who are willing to help us out, in gathering up these great guys and gals of old, so we can give them their rightful place in history. Tom Halloway, aka the Angel is definitely a great character, why else would he have lasted as long as he did, if he wasn't. Marvel purposely buried this character in favor of their mutant version of the character name. The Angel did have one story reprinted recently in Marvel's Golden Age anthology volume # 2. Heck, both books are worth the money, as they finally resurrect a lot of old characters from Timely's past, like Citizen V and the Vision, and other lesser knowns. I understand that there will be a third volume in this series, as well as another book like the recent Human Torch # 5 reprint, only focusing on the Marvel Mystery Comics stories, which is where the Angel appeared most often. I feel fortunate sometimes to be able to actually own some of these old G.A. books, if only for a brief time, as I often end up selling these books for money to buy other books that I am still hunting for. Nature of the game I suppose. At least now I have Darrin who is scanning my present books so we can compile them onto CD-ROM format. I wish I had that technology and Darrin 10 or so years ago! Well better late than never. I can never say enough good things about Darrin, who's selfless dedication towards this preservation effort is just so awesome! He devotes a lot of time and effort into what we do, and asks nothing in return. A truly decent human being, and a great friend to boot! I guess I can't ask for anything more in a partner than that, can I? Actually, you and everyone else who have helped out are an invaluable resource that I could not do without, and this just firms up my resolve to see this project through to its completion. I'm glad to hear that your still drawing a breath every now and again. Take care my friend, and may your skies always be blue!
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