Welcome to June! My, it feels like the macro-blog posts here are coming slower and slower. Patience! I've been under the weather this week with a stomach virus. Don't worry, I'm still reading books, but at a slower rate. Right now I'm on Kitchen Confidential, and Elvis in Vegas by Richard Zoglin is on deck.
I'm also still reading lots of the comics listed in my observation journal. And I've noticed that many of the recent issues come from the Silver Age of DC Comics, especially 1965 or '66. I've always been a bigger DC fan, but I'm not combative about it like some people. I still enjoy the MCU films, sans Captain Marvel. (To be fair, my brother said the chronological edit of the film is better.)
I did foreshadow something like a majority-photo macro-blog post. But why not do another comics macro-blog post? Here are some highlights from DC Comics' Silver Age, circa the mid-Sixties. Follow me . . .
The Brave and the Bold line is as solid as the Batman cartoon. This is where you'll see a lot of great crossovers a la Marvel Team-Up. Issue no. 76, for example, features a combo of Batman and Plastic Man. Issue No. 65 pairs the Flash with the pre-Grant Morrison Doom Patrol. And issue no. 84 is highlighter-worthy. Batman, undercover as an Allied agent, teams up with Sgt. Rock in a Dirty Dozen-style raid. Run don't walk!
DC's swinging comedy offerings are also worth checking out. Macro-blog favorite Jerry Lewis, along with Bob Hope, had his own series! Adventures of Jerry Lewis has Jerry's brat nephew Renfrew and a witch named Witch Kraft. In issue no. 105, Jerry meets Superman! And in issue no. 94, the trio appears in "A Boy's Best Friend is His Mummy" (see above).
Two other humor titles of note are Swing with Scooter and Angel and the Ape. Scooter reads like Archie meets A Hard Day's Night. A merry lad from Liverpool comes to small-town USA and proceeds to get chased in fits of Lisztomania. The comedy comes in with the listless, homely hometown boys. They don't see the hype and try to sabotage Scooter at every turn of his scooter. Sad to report that Scooter did not make my pre-New 52 DC Comics Encyclopedia.
Angel and the Ape are as out there as the Metal Men. Angel and the Ape run a New York City detective agency! The Ape is also a cartoonist? Humor ensues. My DC Encyclopedia says Amazonians and Gorilla Grood also tie into their backstory. I must read further!
But my favorite read, curtesy a recommendation from SAC Blog, was Bat Lash. Bat Lash is a foppish, wandering rider, a gourmand and purveyor of the finer things in life. He abhors violence, but if an outlaw were to interrupt his pleasures, he's the best gunfighter in the West. I've read his first appearance and his too-short first volume. I'm hoping to check out his later appearances as the summer goes on.
There are a few more issues I'm excited to dive into. Brave and the Bold no. 66 has Metamorpho plus the Metal Men! All-American Men of War no. 112 has a WWI gunner called Balloon Buster! Showcase no. 83 has a sword and sorcery hero called Nightmaster! Strange Adventures no. 189 has a "Monster-Go-Round!" Who needs to leave the apartment when there's so much to read?