Remember team-up books? These were super-hero series that would have a regular star, who would in each issue team up with a different character (or sometimes group). Marvel had
Marvel Team-Up and
Marvel Two-in-One, which featured Spider-Man and The Thing respectively; DC had
The Brave and The Bold and
DC Comics Presents, which featured their two marquee heroes, Batman and Superman.
Those team-up books are gone now, fallen victim to a market that seems to want longer stories and less variety. Which is a shame, because these team-up books had many advantages: As a reader, you were exposed to new characters, as well as artists and writers that you may not have encountered on their regular books (this was back in the days before creative teams were changed every 11 months). For the companies, they could easily save characters and their logos from trademark & copyright limbo, and the one-off issues and rotating creators meant that inventory stories could be easily slid into the schedule. A win-win for all.
Yes, I know that
Marvel Team-Up is back, but its longer stories and rotating casts give iit a very different feel from those old team-up books. And DC is rumored to have a new
Brave and the Bold coming out on the other side of
Infinite Crisis, but it would seem to be going for a similar take.
As a kid,
DC Comics Presents was the first comic that I made a point of getting regualrly (and for many years had a subscription). On a limited budget, I liked the idea of getting a comic that not only featured my favorite character, Superman, in every issue, but also introduced me to a new character every month. Why get a comic with just Superman when you could get a comic that had both Superman
and the Elongated Man? It was like getting two comics in one!
I still have fond memories of many
DC Comics Presents issues. Some of my favorites were:
#13 & #14: With an adult Superman meeting the Legion of Super-Heroes, then facing off against a possessed version of his own youthful self!
#24: Deadman and Superman never actually meet, of course, which I thought was very cool. Plus the art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez was totally rad, as even my immature 10-year-old tastes could tell.
#26; Green Lantern is possessed (that actually happened a lot in these tales...) and creates AN ENTIRE PLANETOID OF GREEN KRYPTONITE! That is so damn cool! (Also had a free preview insert of
The New Teen Titans!)
#27-29: A three parter that introduced Mongul and Warworld, and teamed Superman with The Martian Manhunter, Supergirl, and The Spectre. Superman and Supergirl teaming up to take on The Death Star? Cool! Superman accidently 'piercing the veil' into the afterlife? Cool! All drawn by the cosmic master, Jim Starlin.
#50: Superman teams up with Clark Kent? How can that be?!
#59: Keith Giffen gives us Superman meeting The Legion of Substitute-Heroes while trying to corral Ambush Bug. Still one of the funiest comics I have ever read. Ever.
#61: Superman & OMAC. The
real OMAC. Drawn by George Perez. Stick that in your
Infinite Crisis pipe and smoke it!
#66: Superman and The Demon. Drawn by Joe Kubert. Even my barely formed fourteen-year-old tastes could tell that Kubert rocked.
#67: Superman and Santa Claus versus The Toyman. Genius. Drawn by the best Superman artists ever, Curt Swan, and with a Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez cover.
#84: Challengers of the unknown, with Jack Kirby and Alex Toth on art. Kirby & Toth!
#85: Alan Moore steps in to give us a Superman story, nominally teaming-up with Swamp Thing.
#87: A
Crisis tie-in, with the first appearance of the Superboy of Earth Prime--that's more to stick in your
IC pipe!
#90: Freaky, post-
Crisis pre-reboot team-up between Superman, Captain Atom, and Firestorm.
Annual #1: Earth-1 Superman & Earth-2 Superman. Plus Earth-3's Ultra Man and the Lex Luthors of All Three Earths! You cannot call your self an
Infinite Crisis fanboy if you haven't read this!
Counting the annuals, there were 101 issues of
DCCP before DC pulled the plug in favor of the Byrne-revamp and
Action Comics becoming (temporarilly) the new Superman team-up book. It's probably the one book that strokes my fanboy memories of the eighties the most. Hey DC--how about a
Showcase Presents colelction of
DC Comics Presents?
(cover images courtesy of the
GCD)
Turtleneck Boy is the brainchild of mini-comics creator Suzanne Baumann. She created the blank slate character, and invites other creators to contribute stories about him. I picked up #5, which includes a four-page a Pam Bliss story, and a cover by Paul Sizer.
Yes, you're seeing that right, the price on Pop Art Funnies #3 is just 15 cents for a full-sized 32-page comic (black & white with color cover). It's the project of Martin Hirchak, who draws the lead story in each issue (and sometimes other stories too) and then gets area cartoonists (like Sean Bieri & Matt Feazell, among others) to contribute shorter stories to fill out the book. Issue #4 was 25 cents, and issue #5 was 50 cents. But even at that rate of increase it'll still be a bargain for a while.
At $6.95 Potlach Project #4 is more expensive, but it's also 108 black and white pages on sturdy paper stock, so it's a good deal too. It's from Angry Dog Press, a Maryland outfit, so presumably most of the artists here aren't local to Michigan, but there's still some interesting stuff to be found here.
The most interesting anthology has to be Empty Pockets from The Wooden Book Press. All of the contributors to this 250-page black & white anthology were students in Phoebe Gloeckner's narrative art courses from Fall 2004 & Winter 2005. Not only are these stories the first published work for these artists, for many it's the first comic work that they've ever done. Tastes will vary of course, and some stories are stronger than others, but it's on the whole impressive. At $19.95 it's not cheap, but worth it I think for a peek into what just might be the next generation of cartoonists.
