(or, the internet hermitage of tyler w. weaver)
With today's addition of DICK TRACY AND THE FROZEN BULLET MURDERS (online searches for which returned many a blender), my collection of Dell's 1936-41 Dick Tracy "Fast Action Story" (one of many Big Little Book competitors) series joins this hallowed tag – though I would, at some point, like to track down a better copy of CHAIN OF EVIDENCE…
As I seem to have shifted my collecting (re-collecting?) interests back to comics, finally starting my third era – the first being the early-mid 90s and the second being mid-late 2000s – thought it might be useful to share a few brief thoughts on why I've chosen to add what I’ve added to The Collection in this third era if only to solidify said choices for myself.
Early Silver Daredevil: easily my favorite Marvel character; I have a fascination with the yellow suit and the transition to the red and how haphazard his early issues felt: unlike other Marvel creations, there didn't feel like there was a grand design behind him and they were making it up as they went along (I know this was generally the case with the early Marvel, but it feels really pronounced with Daredevil). As I now have issues 2-7, my willpower on holding off on issue one is waning. Also have AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 16, featuring a Ditko DD in yellow suit AND Spidey - what more could I ask for?
(PS Electro would have made a fantastic full-time Daredevil villain.)
The Question: "Created by Steve Ditko" has a wonderful ring when you open up a comic. I just love the character – from Ditko's objectivist meanderings to O'Neil's left-wing eastern mystic / Kaine in KUNG FU to Rick Veitch and Tommy Lee Edwards's poetic ass-kicker (in one of my favorite representations of Metropolis ever) to the Timm-verse JLU iteration to Rucka's genius transformation of Montoya into the second Question: the character is one of the most elastic – a blank face and a suit tend to lend themselves as such – ever created; that he seems to be languishing again is more than slightly heartbreaking.
Early Silver Marvel in general: this was prevalent during my first era of collecting, largely guided by cheap back issues of early MARVEL TALES. In this present iteration, I've amassed a pretty solid collection of Lee/Ditko Spideys and the aforementioned Daredevil, but I'm also grabbing up important issues in the development of the Marvel Universe: the first Cap story in TALES OF SUSPENSE No 59; the first issue of the Hulk's own ongoing series, No. 102 (having spun out of TALES TO ASTONISH); STRANGE TALES ANNUAL No. 2, just because it includes a weird Kirby Spidey tale (I have a thing for Kirby drawing Spidey). Speaking of:
Kirby's Fourth World: have the omnibus, love the insanity behind all of it. NEW GODS, MISTER MIRACLE, and FOREVER PEOPLE first issues are in my possession as is Kirby's first DC work, SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN 133. Not an active pursuit, but I'll always pick them up should the opportunity arise.
Complete runs of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (historical import and Perez art); BATMAN: YEAR ONE (Mazzuchelli Bats); Andreyko's MANHUNTER (several holes in my collection of one of DC's best series ever – which would be a perfect candidate for Max series adaptation: it screams for a merging of GOLIATH and PEACEMAKER, maybe a bit of ELI STONE thrown in); Bendis / Brubaker DAREDEVIL runs - had them all, lost them all in one of the moves; the Moench / Jones BATMAN run (still my favorite run in the whole of the character); I also need to get my hands on ALL-STAR SUPERMAN 12, as I have the first 11 issues then moved and all of it went to hell in the proverbial handbasket.
Outside of comics-comics: 1939-41 Superman merchandise – the early Siegel and Shuster iteration and the Fleischer cartoon version remain my favorite incarnation of Supes, the cornerstone of my collection being my 1939 Ideal composition doll as well as a first edition 1942 Lowther/Shuster ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN book and a 1940 Valentine’s Card featuring Superman about to punch a puppy because apparently that was a prerequisite for pre-war romance, IDK.
All foci above are, of course, in concert with the forever interests of The Shadow (I even have a complete run of the eight-issue Archie series coming because, in my passion for historical completion, I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment) and Dick Tracy, though both tend to be more towards toys, radio premiums, and Big Little Books, but I still snap up comics whenever I see them.
Do I have any idea what I'll do with all of this? Not in the slightest: I did, after all, run a half-marathon distance with no desire to run an actual half-marathon (with numbers and people and such) and now seem to have opened my own comic shop / museum with no customers or intention to sell anything so who knows.
Good mail day.
Good mail day.
Latest arrival of a burgeoning fascination with chalkware carnival prizes (and salt and pepper shakers), this bootleg Superman from the early 40s came in a variety of paints (and occasionally doubled as Shazam / Captain Marvel) and lacks the S to avoid being sued. Picked the one that now calls my desk his home because he was less painted up (here's a particularly... interesting take) and reminded me most of the Shuster drawings / Fleischer cartoons that remain my favorite incarnation of the character.
Chalkware, defined:
Suppose stuffed animals are less likely to be used to bludgeon people to death...
Aforementioned salt and pepper shakers: my delightfully fucked up Dick Tracy and Junior set(s) from the late 30s / early 40s.:
Note: were I to do a DICK TRACY film, part of it would be an EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE homage where DT and Junior enter into a universe where they're misshapen chalkware salt and pepper shakers: hot dog fingers, eat your heart out.
Directed by Larry Peerce from a script by Hal Finberg inspired by the work of Chester Gould; starring Ray McDonnell, Jan Shutan, Ken Mayer, Jay Blood, Allen Jaffe, and Victor Buono. Unreleased; watched 2023w15 via YouTube.
Save for what I can describe only as the "drunken baritone" vocals to an otherwise Dozier-typical and snappy theme song (a la BATMAN and THE GREEN HORNET) and the standard bloodbath of the mid-late 1960s television, I can't figure why this little imperfect gem didn't get picked up to series.
An all-too-brief 28 minute, pitch-perfect blend of the Dozier-BATMAN camp with the Dozier-GREEN HORNET seriousness (that unfairly killed the show) featuring a great cast – especially Ray MacDonnell as Tracy (he'd go on to have a 40-year run on ALL MY CHILDREN) – that wasn't afraid to dive into the deep end of the fantastic when it came to villainy (Buono's Wellesian Mr. Memory is a great start – Lon Chaney Jr. was to be cast as Pruneface had this been picked up to series; makeup test photos were taken (cart before horse, example one), below) in a story that felt ripped from a Gould comic – dug the Bat-Pole inspired entrance to Tracy's home crime lab, Tracy’s Swedish microscope magnifying eyedrops, and the use of the two-way wrist TV.
Making up LCjr as Pruneface – this would have been amazing! | via
Happy to add that one of the treasures in my DT collection is this 1967 bagetelle game featuring the incarnations from this unaired, unsold pilot (cart-horse, two):
Really wish this had been picked up. Had the potential to be something special.
