My Birthday Books - 1

So if you watched the video you'll know that for my birthday I hit upon the notion of starting to collect comic books that came out in September 1969 the month that I was born!! The idea being that these books were first clutched in their original owners grubby mitts at the same time that my mum and dad were picking me up for the 1st time and thinking, "Oh damn, what have we done??!"

So here's the books that I picked up as a birthday present to myself

Flash #191 

  

Story - John Broome

Art - Ross Andru & Mike Esposit

Cover - Joe Kubert

Graded FN+ 6.5

I ordered this off Ebay from SilverAcre Comics and it arrived on time and in good condition as far as I can see. Hal Jordan is visiting Barry & Iris for dinner and they've invited Olivia Reynolds along who Hal already knows as a rival toys salesperson. She debuted in this month's Green Lantern book #71 (See below) She later has a relationship with Hal, becomes a supervillain for a short time and goes on to have a romance with Icemaiden.

Batman #215

Story - Frank Robbins

Art - Irv Novick & Dick Giordano

Graded GD+ 2.5 (not anymore!)

The next lot of books in my blog all came from Mycomicshop.com

Oh my god, I am a clumsy idiot, I just damaged the book's cover putting it away after reading it. The very sticky sellotape stuck to the poor old cover and scuffed it in two places. These old covers are not as robust as the more modern comics it seems. I must be more careful in future, curse my stupidity!! 

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In this story Bruce Wayne has been nobbled along with the other members of the Civic Conscience Council with some manner of mind control!! Can Batman identify the villain and can Robin & Alfred stop him from destroying his ancestral home? This was a cool enough story but he practically gives away his secret identity but nothing is made of it??

Atom and Hawkman #44

Cover - Joe Kubert

Graded VG- 3.5

Hawkman

Story - Robert Kanigher

Art - Murphy Anderson

Well, that surprised me I thought the guys were teaming up in the book as partners but this is 2 separate self-contained stories instead. I am not sure if they ever did buddy up as partners in this book's run or if every issue went like this. In Hawkman's half of the book he and his wife Hawkgirl, (she doesn't deserve a title credit?), tangle with the Gentleman Ghost in a cool story. They spend most of the story bickering like old married couples sometimes do, which is pretty funny and is definitely a tale you wouldn't see in the comics today 😂

Atom

Story - Denny O'Neil

Art - Dick Dillin & Sid Greene

Ray Palmer stops a German college professor from being harassed as a Nazi by students. Atom helps the man to clear his name after he destroys his lab because he'd seen a monster. Ray travels into microscopic realms to battle the creature which has plans to invade our world using Ray's own size-changing energies.

Green Lantern - #71

Cover - Gil Kane

Graded - VG/FN 5.0

The City That Died

Story - John Broome

Art - Gil Kane & Joe Giella

Hal meets Olivia Reynolds a rival toy salesperson who uses her feminine assets to beat him to a sale. It's funny and so un-PC, this kind of antiquated story/idea is what makes old comics so much fun, to see how things have changed over the decades, it's cool. Some radiation from deep underground is sapping energy from the city, 1st from cars and machines and then from people themselves. Hal has to use all his willpower to identify and eliminate the problem.

A Green Lantern Brothers Story

Story - John Broome

Art - Dick Dillin & Murphy Anderson

This was quite a fun story, the Jordan family are having a party when the troublesome hippy black sheep of the family "Hip" turns up intent on stealing whatever he can get. Hal's sister in law Sue is convinced that her husband (Hal's Brother) James is Green Lantern and orders him to don the costume and confront Hip. Hal has to end up saving him and does so managing to maintain his secret identity whilst Sue is left even more convinced that her husband is Green Lantern.

Detective Comics # 391

Graded - GD/VG 3.0

Batman "The Gal Most Likely to be..Batman's Widow"

Story - Frank Robbins

Art - Bob Brown & Joe Giella

This book stars Batman & Robin but not in a story together. This must be from the time period that Robin (Dick Grayson) leaves to go to college. In the lead story Ginny Jenkins has unwittingly become the front for a mob extortion scam on restaurants. Her ex-beau Tim Clark works at a gym and learns of the mob's scheme he tries to warn her but she doesn't believe him so he dresses as Batman to try and rescue her. Luckily the real Batman is on hand to save both of them.

Robin "Strike!"

Story - Mike Friedrich

Art - Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson

A teacher's strike threatens Gotham High and gangsters nobble the negotiator. Robin tracks them to their hideout and dishes out some fisticuff justice.

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So that's my 1st purchase of some birthday books, comics that were born at the same time that I was. I might start a podcast about these too actually, might be a bit of fun, watch this space and I'll see what happens. I definitely intend to carry on buying these 'birthday books' for myself. I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford them all but right now I suppose the main goal, what I think is called a grail book, is to get Captain America #117 to own the 1st appearance of the Falcon a superhero who kind of shares his birthday with me. Has anyone got one they want to sell?

 Samuel Thomas Wilson, known as the Falcon, was the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic books, and also the first black superhero not to have the word "black" as part of his superhero name. He has a pet Falcon Redwing that he has a natural affinity with and was created by Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan.

Stop the presses!!!

I was just researching some more 'birthday books' and found another comic book character born in the same month/year as me! Vampirella over at Warren comics! 

For those not aware Vampirella is a comic book vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and comic book artist Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine Vampirella #1 (September 1969). She started off as kind of a Tales of the Crypt "Cryptkeeper" type of character introducing horror stories before writer-editor Archie Goodwin developed the character into a horror-drama leading character.

Her 1st appearance is even more expensive than Falcon's!! Looks like I have some saving to do! I actually own some Vampirella proper books, not comics, that I bought ages ago, it was the 1st time I knew of the character, I might have to give them another read soon.

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Justice League of America - Vol.1 The Extremists

Written by rising star Steve Orlando (BATMAN, MIDNIGHTER) and illustrated by a league of superstar artists including Ivan Reis (GREEN LANTERN) and Andy MacDonald (DETECTIVE COMICS), this JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. SUICIDE SQUAD spin-off is a JLA for a whole new era--exploding from the pages of the blockbuster DC Rebirth event!

OK that's the blurb above on this new book giving you the who dunnit and all that, but how was it? Well I got this as a present from my dad and having not read any comics for a fair while now I wasn't up to date with events at all and I kind of judged the book by the cover a bit and guessed it wrong. I was thinking that this was a new alternate Justice League team called The Extremists. I saw Lobo and Killer Frost and figured it was a down and dirty team designed to do the jobs that the main JLA didn't want to sully themselves with. I seem to recall there was a team like this back in the 90's I think but I can't remember what they were called. I think Captain Atom led them and Amazing Man and maybe Booster Gold were in the team but the memory is hazy. I'll have to go through my long boxes and have a re-read sometime soon I reckon. Also I was given another book that I thought was another JLA team but was actually a prequel somehow to this. I read them in the wrong order too :( 

As a 1st book in the new series, similar to some of the others I have reviewed recently (See Saga, Super Sons, Trinity), this is very much an introduction to the team. You get the whole formation story and get some interplay between the new team members. Batman as ever is the driving force, he wants the team to be down to earth and seen by humanity rather than floating above it on the satellite. (This seem familiar too from somewhere) Black Canary is there to keep him in check and to keep him honest. Vixen has experience with the league, Lobo owes Batman for something and supplies the muscle and the attitude. Killer Frost is being offered redemption after seeming to have overcome her need to fatally feed off of others heat. The Atom (Ray Palmer's protegee Ryan Choi) and The Ray are young heroes looking to learn from their experienced colleagues. So this new team forms and pretty much straight off the bat (no pun intended), The Extremists turn up. I remember these guys when they 1st showed up they were very formidable and they have popped back every now and again. They are a cool looking bunch of evil world conquerors and could prove to be more than a match for this fledgling Justice League. Can the new team find their feet and gel quickly enough to overcome this potentially world threatening force?

This is a cool start up for this newest iteration of the League, interesting relationships are forming, some questions are being raised and one or two secrets are starting to emerge. Time will tell if I ever get to learn what happens in later books, I'll have to wait and see when my next level up day comes around again.