Showcase: Of Strange Suicide Squad Stories Inside Earth, Part 4
Continuing the index/history of the greatest comic magazine ever! ;-)
Strange Sports Stories ran for an unprecedented
five issues of Brave and Bold in 1963. From #45 – 49 sports tales were told with a
science fiction twist. The best way to
explain is to describe them:
1.
(#45: Challenge
of the Headless Baseball Team) The World’s Series championship pole contains an
element needed by aliens to maintain their warp drive, so they challenge the
Champion New York Jets to a Worlds’ Series!
This tale was selected by Infantino himself as one of his favorite tales
included in DC Special #1.
2.
A chemist raises
huge berry bushes; eating berries turn the chemist into the “Goliath of the
Gridiron (#45)”. But within a week, the
same chemicals that caused the enormous growth killed the plants. Uh-oh.
3.
(#46: Hot Shot
Hoopsters) 14-year old college geniuses use science and mathematics to defeat Alvania University
4.
(#46: Danger on
the Martian Links) John Broome wrote an excellent tale of Wale Marner, the
greatest golfer in the solar system of 2372, who wins the Mars Nine-Planet
Tournament. Oh and defeats an alien
invasion along the way!
5.
(#47: The Phantom Prize Fighter) A Faustian
tale: Boxer allows an alien to take over his body in six months so the alien
can survive earth’s radiation belt in exchange for being invulnerable in the
ring for half a year.
6.
(#47: Saga of the
Secret Sportsmen) John Broome’s tale of a time when sports and athletes are
outlawed! And on top of that – Uranus attacks (stop giggling)! Interestingly, people
participate in sports through what we would now call virtual reality – one wears
special glasses and you see and can participate in various sporting
events. John Broome was thirty years
ahead of his time on this one!
7.
(#48: The Man Who
Drove Through Time) A man drives an 1896 automobile so fast he goes forward in
time to 1964 and competes in the Indianapolis
8.
(#48: Duel of the
Star Champions) An Altairan kidnaps the earth representative of the
intergalactic Olympics and steals his “will to win”.
9.
(#49: Warrior of the Weightless World) Zero-gee
basketball players are sent to destroy the evil alien Creon rocket-repair
depot.
10.
(#49: Gorilla
Wonders of the Diamond) Genetically engineered baseball-playing gorillas beat
the Yankees, the Reds, The White Sox and the Dodgers then try to conquer the
world! Note that the story only said
they played Chicago
Gardner Fox and John Broome gave us
tales that could have come straight out of “Astounding” or “Asimov”. The stories were incredible for their
day. In the more cynical 21st
century, the storylines sound quaint. But taken in light of their times the
stories are wonderful pieces of science fiction for pre-teens and older!
The art was by Carmine
Infantino. His artwork was even more
stylized than Joe Kubert’s, and is definitely an acquired taste. I was never a big fan of his artwork – though
I grew to like his work on Marvel’s Star Wars - his term on Spiderwoman and his
last years on the Flash were just plain bad.
But he’s such a giant in the
industry and his interviews are so darn interesting how could you not like him
personally? Well, I will say this – his
work on “Strange Sports Stories” was the best thing he ever did!
Instead of angular and stiff, his
characters looked almost realistic. Add in
the scientific machinery at which he excels and you have a very stylized
comic.
His
most unique contribution to the series was the silhouetted text box next to the
artwork. Nearly every panel in each
story had a text box next to it describing the action, (“Suddenly a Venusian
walked onto the basketball court” along with a silhouette describing the action
– such as a Venusian walking, a man lighting a pipe, a basketball or baseball
thrown, etc.). It added a unique
dimension to the stories. So much so
that Infantino still talks about the series as being among his favorites. Mine too.
The letter columns praised the
series’ originality and requested more.
Unfortunately, there would only be the five issues. In the early 1970s, National brought back Strange Sports Stories as a horror book
rather than in the science fiction genre.
Instead of alien invaders, clawed hands sprang from the thirteenth hole,
that sort of thing. It lasted a few
issues, enough to qualify “Strange Sports Stories” as a B&B feature that
graduated to its own magazine. A later DC Special titled “Strange Sports
Stories” had superheroes vs. super-villains in a baseball game.
By the way, Infantino said in an
interview with Alter Ego that he hated drawing science fiction. This from the man who made Adam Strange the
beloved stylistic feature it was; the man whose only later work of quality was
Marvel’s Star Wars; the man who
helped make “Strange Sports Stories” one of the most truly unique series in
Brave & Bold and in comics altogether!
And remember: “Strange Sports
Stories” got its own comic book, something the Viking Prince never did. So this series ranks up there with the
Justice League, Hawkman and the Teen Titans.
Strange indeed.
Although Brave
& Bold was advertised in other comic books it never hyped itself. The Justice League audience could have been
enticed to buy the next issue featuring Cave Carson if it was hyped enough at
the end of the Amazo story in #30.
Instead it was announced the JLA would get their own magazine. Whoopie!
I’ll save up for that instead of Brave
& Bold! There was no mention of
the return of the Suicide Squad after the first run of Hawkman. Why not? Couldn’t it only have helped
sales? The first issue of Suicide
Squad’s second run (#37) blurbed that they were back “because you demanded
it!” We did? When?
If we did where were the accolades in the letter columns?
The last Strange Sports Stories ran
in September 1963. B&B had an
eight-year run of unimaginable successes and disappointing failures. But in those eight years the market had
changed beyond even Gardner Fox’s vast imagination. What do they do now?
Imagine reading the notes from the late-night
brainstorming sessions: Superheroes seem
to be the big thing again. Do we
continue our “Showcase”-style or leave that to Showcase and try something different? We can increase sales by showing superheroes
and other popular National characters, but which ones? Maybe we can split the magazine between two
characters, like Hawkman and Adam Strange in Mystery on Space. Or we can
go back to three features; with superheroes instead of Vikings,
gladiators and knights! Maybe we can
recreate the magic of the Justice League by bringing back the Justice Society
or revamp a new Seven Soldiers of Victory!
Gosh, the Justice League has been so successful even Timely is back in
the superhero game with their version: the Fantastic Four. It has an up-dated Human Torch and they
brought back Namor the Submariner!
Timely, Atlas or Marvel, whatever it’s called this week, hmmph! Who would have thought? Remember those great Human Torch-Submariner
battles? Two great heroes together in
one giant story…
Two great heroes in one …
Two …
That’s it!!!
Next:
The Team-Up Years Part One: The World’s Greatest Super Heroes
Copyright (c) 2012 Michael G. Curry
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