Free Christmas Comic from the FBU

Today, I'm happy to present this downloadable holiday comic which was created for the Woolworth's stores in 1953. (Click on the link under the cover.)

 

Download Woolworth's 1953 Christmas Comic

Season's Greetings!

- Jim

Free Download - Flashback Team Up - So Falls The World!

It gives me great pleasure to present today a NEW Flashback Universe Comic! Free to download by clicking the image or link below. This issue features at titanic team up between the Creature and Wildcard as scripted by charismatic Chris Sims and wonderfully rendered by gentleman Jerry Hinds.

Download Flashback Team Up - So Falls The World!

If you are a fan of Bronze Age Action, you'll love the story Chris and Jerry have worked up for you! It's a loving homage to all those fantastic done in one Marvel Team Ups and Marvel Two-in-One stories. You won't see any lazy decompressed storytelling here. It's all fun and adventure from start to finish!

Check out some of these amazing action scenes:

 

To learn more about both Chris and Jerry, feel free to read these creator profiles from the FBU Archives:

Chris Sims Creator Profile
Jerry Hinds Creator Profile

Let us know what you thought of this issue in the comments section down below.

- Jim

Golden Age Gold: Captain America, Nedor and Earth 2

I have three topics I want to cover today, and as it so happens, they sort of cover recent news events pertaining to superheroes originally created during the Golden Age.

Cap vs Bats?

Reporter Mark Hughes on Forbes has an interesting article about the financial success of Captain America:2 and how that will impact the upcoming (2016) movie showdown between Captain America 3 and Superman vs Batman when both movies are scheduled to release on the same day. The author makes the case that invariably that one of the studios will end up moving their movie to a different day.

I've heard several fans say that a same day showing would not be a big deal and both films would do equally well because people would just go see both (a proposition I would say is logistically problematic for most people as there are only so many days in a weekend. The very reason we have the term "Movie Night" is because people usually reserve one night out of the weekend to go see movies.

While it is possible some people might go see two movies in a weekend, I think it's a stretch to think everyone will. Also, there are only a set number of RPX/IMAX movie theaters. Those screens will have to make a choice between one of the films. With CA:2 doing so well financially and CA: 3 rolling off of Avengers 2, I suspect Captain America 3 will be the more appealing choice (especially if CA 3 includes other heroes in it as Winter Soldier did.)

Nadir or Nedor?

I saw that Warren Ellis is going to be writing a series revamping the Super Powers Project line of comics for Dynamite Entertainment.

For those of you not familiar with the Super Powers Project, it's a series by Dynamite where they've taken many of the more popular Nedor/Standard Public Domain Superheroes and brought them into the modern age. The series has its fans, though I know from previous posts on the comics, that there are quite a number of Golden Age fans who dislike the more modern take on the characters.

I suspect Ellis' revamp will not be to their tastes either. I say that because a lot of Public Domain fans see the characters as "theirs" and no matter what another writer does with the Golden Age Daredevil or The Black Terror, it's not how THEY would do it.

As for me, I'll be interested to see what he does. About half the time I really like Ellis work. This might be a case where I like it. Then again, we might see a more phoned in junk like his Avengers: Endless War.

For those of you new to this blog who are interested in some of the original golden age comics featuring these characters, here's two samples of America's Best Comics to download in rar and zip format. (If you need a reader for this format, click here.)

America's Best Comics1.rar


America's Best Comics 2.zip

A Weekly Earth 2 Comic

This Summer promises to be a big one for DC with 3 Weekly comics running at the same time. The first one has already started (Batman: Eternal) with Future's End coming out next. The latest one announced appears to be one featuring the new Earth 2 characters.
I haven't been a fan of the Earth 2 series even though I had high hopes for it when it started (as it was originally helmed by James Robinson, whose work I usually like.) Still, the weekly format is one that really appeals to me as the stories can avoid the usual month long refridgerator moment that plagues a lot of monthly super hero comics.

I sort of wish that instead of this sort of bunch of off brand DC superheroes that comprises the current Earth 2, that we were instead getting a genuine weekly featuring the original All Star Society in a real period piece by someone like Darwyn Cooke.

...but that's probably me just dreaming. I don't know that current comic fandom would embrace such a series.

- Jim

Download Maskarado Adventures for Free

Today we have a new Free Comic ready for download courtesy of longtime friend of the FBU Jan "Reno" Maniquis. Some of you may be familiar with Reno's work from seeing it here on our Lost 100 Pagers series, but you may not be aware that besides being a fan of classic comics, Reno is also an established comic professional with an impressive list of industry work. Today's comic is an original creation written and drawn by Reno featuring a character called Maskarado.


[ Download Maskarado Here ]

Here's Reno's overview of the character:

Maskarado's powers were bequeathed to him by a benevolent alien (kind of like Green Lantern), which comes from the mask he wears. He can fly, has super strength (around Spider-Man level) and is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant.

The current Maskarado is actually the second one, selected after the first one retired to raise a family. The first Maskarado's adventures (he was a cop) were published in 1992 in comic strip form for a local daily newspaper, Tempo. It ran for 170 issues. I resurrected it as an independent comic around 2000 or thereabouts, passing on the mask and the torch to a much younger guy named Raymond Pacheco (a creative director in an advertising agency). He's been Maskarado ever since.

The ad at the end of the book is for the collected edition (in English!) of the first four issues of the independent comic, which can be purchased at flipreads.com, a Filipino digital book distributor, although anyone around the world can purchase books there. It retails at their site for around $4 (give or take) so it's not a bad deal. :)

I agree. 4 issues for $4 is not a bad deal at all!

Thank you for the free preview issue Reno!

- Jim

My Top Ten Favorite Public Domain Comics

Recently, while poking around Digital Comics Museum, I discovered their list of Top Rated comics. Checking out the list, I realized, the ratings were based on mostly scan quality and not comic content (story and art.)

This got me to thinking - what do I consider to be my Ten Favorite Public Domain comics? While I can answer without hesitation on my all time favorite (Marvel Family 10) I had a harder time coming up with a full list of ten. So, I changed the parameters of my mental search a bit and here are the ten I picked.

If you missed these issues when I first posted them, each title is a link to the original Free Comic Mondays posts where you can download them.

10 - Daredevil 18

Highlights include:

• The Origin of Daredevil in a great double length story
• Pirate Prince
• The Ghost meets The Claw's Uncle
• Dickie Dean, boy inventor
• The Sniffer
• Scoop Scuttle

9. Gorgo 01


This Steve Ditko drawn issue is based off the King Brothers movie by the same name and as such, the pacing and plot are top notch. Later issues would be of lesser quality.

8. Kid Eternity 06


That there has never been a Kid Eternity television pilot created boggles my mind. It seems like such a perfect tv ready high concept idea with the Kid calling upon different historical figures every week to help solve some adventure. A bit like later seasons of Bewitched in some ways.

This issue stands out to me because Kid Eternity usually faced gangsters but here he faces off against historical serial killer Giles De Rais who is clad in a bulletproof suit of armor.

7. Clue Comics 04


This well rendered introduction to the Boy King and his Giant features a Nazi Tyrannosaur Rex (complete with swastika armband.)

6. Charlie Chan 08


While I've never been a fan of most detective comics ( Ellery Queen or Sherlock Holmes, ect...) Charlie Chan is the exception. This one has a fun romp in Mexico wherein Chan discovers an ancient civilization.

5. Wild Wild West 01


There are only a handful of these issues out on the internet but for an old Wild Wild West fan like myself, they are most welcomed. This issue gets a nod over the others because like the Gorgo issue, I feel the first one was the best effort by everyone involved (though issue 3 was also good, but my scan of that ends abruptly.)

4. Plastic Man 24


Plastic Man creator Jack Cole is regarded as one of the grand masters of the golden age and this tale of Shireena and her Black Box of Terror shows why.

3. Planet of the Vampires


While not technically in Public Domain (I call things like this Limbo Domain) I'll include this on the list until I get a cease and desist. The brief publishing history of Atlas is a fascinating story in itself. The company produced quite a number of interesting titles but the one that I think best delivered on the potential of the new company was Planet of the Vampires. With a great intro story by Larry Hama and Pat Broderick, this series would have been a major hit I believe if it had been published by either Marvel of DC. As it was, the collapse of Atlas led to its untimely demise.

2. No One Escapes The Fury


This is a new entry to the legally downloadable comics world in that it seems that Steve Bissette, the creator, has decided to let people just download it for free because of some issue over the rights of the comic. The 1963 banner was a 6 issue limited series written by Alan Moore with art by a number of great collaborators. The series is an homage to the great Silver Age comics from Marvel, with this issue in particular nailing the early Ditko Spider-man vibe perfectly.

As I've never offered this one before, you can download The Fury 1 here.

1. Marvel Family 10


Like I said earlier, this is my favorite. Partly because of the nostalgia I have for the fantastic Harmony Shazam from the 40s to the 70s hardcover I had as a kid in which this story was featured. Also, because I love time travel stories with a connected theme.

Billed as a Five Part comic novel, this story a bit of a harbinger of the current comic world we live in now with its Toyetic heroes and villains and longer serial storyline.

So there you go, my ten favorites. If you think I missed a few, feel free to nominate some entries in the comments section. I would love to know what your favorite Public Domain Comics are!

- Jim

How Santa Got His Red Suit

Today I'm presenting an early Holiday gift as I won't be posting next week. A festive public domain comic illustrated by the wonderful Walt Kelly (of Pogo fame)

[ How Santa Got His Red Suit ]



Have a Happy Holidays!

- Jim

Unseen Flashback Universe Art

Recently, I was contacted by a company that wanted to use some of the art from the Flashback Universe as material for a pitch meeting for a television series. After signing the appropriate contracts, I then reviewed loads of artwork Pierre has sent me over the years and sent the company what I thought was some very nice images to use for their pitch. While doing this, I found several pages of art that readers of this blog may have never seen before, so I'm going to post them today for you all to enjoy.

First  up, this amazing battle scene with the Golden Age Flashback Universe characters (who I often refer to as the Wayback Universe) versus the U-Bolts. This image actually appeared in our zuda pitch in a smaller version, but it's easier to see the neat details Pierre put in with this version.

Next up, here is a cover of a Flashback Super Villain Two In One based on an idea from Jason Wright.

At one time Pierre and I talked about doing a Flashback Backstory for the Artifact. Here's a page Pierre created for that story.

While not a Flashback Universe creation, Mister Crimson is definitely one that I wished I had created which is why I was glad to host the web comic here. Seth Sherword and Diego Tripodi really put a lot of nice work into that web comic, and did a outstanding job hitting their weekly deadlines. However, on the occasion that they might be running a bit late, I would get other creators to step in with a piece of art. Here is one Pierre did which is a homage to the classic Dr. Fate/Hourman Showcase story.

Finally, here are two pages from our first Zuda project Kharon, Scourge of Atlantis. Looking through the file folder, I was surprised at how far we got with this project before circumstances caused forced us to stop. I could see picking this project back up again in the future.

I have quite a bit more, but I'll save it for another post someday.

Bonus: In honor of Memorial Day (which we will be observing tomorrow in the USA), enjoy this older Free Comics Monday post dedicated to the spirit of the holiday.

- Jim

The Dubious Return of The Twelve

So, last week it was announced that Marvel were planning to finish The Twelve the J. Michael Straczynski grim and gritty Golden Age revival book which he abandoned in mid story so that he could go to DC and revitalize Superman and Wonder Woman (which he also abandoned.)



For those of you new to this blog, I have a love/hate relationship with Straczynski's writing. He seems determined to match every good idea he has with a worn out *shocking* idea from the 80's. If you have ever seen the final episode of M.A.S.H., that's pretty much how every JMS comic runs - hoary TV tropes served up with a dash of 60's pop psychology, but without the charm or humor of M.A.S.H.

A friend gave me the first Twelve graphic novel, which again, had some good ideas about it, but the scene with Rockman was one of those camel/straw moments, so I won't be picking up the new issues.



And thinking about it, I wonder about the wisdom of continuing this series anyway. Check out these numbers on from when the series was coming out regularly and JMS still had the glow of Spider-man and Thor about him...

92. TWELVE
12/07  Twelve #0 of 12 - 20,218
01/08  Twelve #1 of 12 - 40,199  (+98.8%)
02/08  Twelve #2 of 12 - 32,403  (-19.4%)
03/08  Twelve #3 of 12 - 32,729  ( +1.0%)
04/08  Twelve #4 of 12 - 29,729  ( -9.2%)
05/08  Twelve #5 of 12 - 29,876  ( +0.5%)
06/08  Twelve #6 of 12 - 29,303  ( -1.9%)
07/08  ---
08/08  Twelve #7 of 12 - 27,585  ( -5.9%)


Here is the sales numbers on The Twelve Spearhead

12 Spearhead 13540



Spearhead was a single issue spin off that came out May 2010. It was written by Twelve artist Chris Weston, whose artwork on the series has been great the entire time and proved to be an excellent writer on this one shot.

If you average out the last issue of The Twelve and Spearhead, you get 20K - which some people are calling Marvel's new cancellation point. Are retailers going to do that math? Or will they go check back on their old orders of the series to see how many they sold 4 years ago? Probably not. It's just a very different marketplace now. Today, The Twelve has to deal with readers that are a little bit disenchanted with JMS and a lotta bit more interested in the DC 52. Still, for some reason, Marvel felt like revisiting the Twelve was a better bet than continuing Alpha Flight. Go figure.

Anway, with all that said, today I'm revisiting another team up tale from the Golden Age: Prize Comics 24 which features the Prize heroes (Yank and Doodle, Green Lama, Doctor Frost and the Black Owl) vs Frankenstein.

[ Prize Comics 24 ]



- Enjoy!

Paper Comics Walking DeadWatch

This weekend I was shocked as my Sister-in-law, who has not set foot in a comics shop in over 25 years, explained to me how the Comixology website works! Here's what the deal was:

She's been watching Walking Dead on TV
Gina (my wife) loaned her the first Walking Dead Graphic novel.
A friend on facebook (someone from her high school days who still reads comics) told her how to get more issues on Comixology




Since then she's bought over 80 issues of the series from the website and is currently caught up on the entire run.

AND because she was buying her comics from the site, she found out about the DC Relaunch and is now buying Aquaman, Justice League, Animal Man, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.
She asked me to recommend some other titles, so I suggested Y, The Last Man and the new Wonder Woman.

I mention all this because whenever I post one of my sidewalk rants about how paper comics are going to practically disappear soon, my critics always like to counter by suggesting that the process will be a slow, steady decline which might take decades. What those naysayers always forget is that sometimes things happen, like a Walking Dead television show, that causes a huge tidal wave of interest in digital comics. These unexpected (by my critics at least) paradigm shifts in turn cause other jumps in the process (like DC making a Y, the Last Man movie) which perpetuates the accelerated decline.

That may seem like an awful lot to extrapolate from the random buying habits of my Sister-in-law, but as card games go, Marvel/Disney have yet to make a grand play, so let's keep watching.

With that, I present today's Halloween themed Free Comic:

Weird Terror!




- Enjoy!

Marvel - All Winners or All Losers?

So...in case you haven't been following the comics news-a-net lately, Marvel seems to be showing signs of what I like to call, Ef Upedness lately. It's that point in a company's lifespan when you start to see the writing on the wall that indicates you need to get the hell out of there because it might not be around for long.

First, they have been laying off an alarming amount of staffers even after reporting a profit for this quarter.

Second, among the layoffs were employees in the Digital division? (Yeah, that's a smart place to trim, cuz that whole digital comic thing is just a fad.)

Third, and less harrowing, but still telling, they cancelled the All-Winners Band of Brothers mini-series in mid run

Over at Blog@Newsarama.com, this commenter summed up my feelings pretty well:

Hawk_Fan Says:
October 22nd, 2011 at 10:03 am
I am annoyed by any of these titles being cancelled, but it doesn’t surprise me. The one that REALLY gets my goat though is ALL-WINNERS SQUAD: BAND OF HEROES There are 7000+ people that are reading that mini And enjoying it) with more waiting for the trade.

If Marvel cannot complete a commitment to the fans (they comitted to a mini-series, its not like anyone expected an on-going!) by producing just 8 issues then they should not be in business. I understand low sales causing an on-going (or what was thought to be up-graded to an on-going) to be cancelled but to canceo a mini-series is both lazy and un-professional.

As noted, there are 7000+ fans who want to see the story completed asnd, for a mini-series the sales figures have not been bad!

Now, I'll be honest, I wasn't buying All-Winners Squad because, well, y'know (Modern Comics Suxors) but I have to agree with Hawk_Fan. There is something particularly suspcious about Marvel pulling the rug out from under a mini-series that only had 3 more issues to go.

I've gone on record on the net several times about having my doubts with this whole Disney/Marvel thing. Disney just doesn't strike me as a company that see the value in owning a comic book company. Disney comics sell very well all across the world but even then, Disney just liscenses out the characters to other publishers. When I was a kid, I read Disney stories published in Gold Key Digests

More recently, Disney comics have been published by Gemstone and Boom! My daughter read the Fairies of Pixie Hollow published by PaperCutz

I know a creator who works on Disney comics who has told me face to face that Disney has no interest in the comic book business. And why should they? Disney makes more money off of Movies, Toys and Theme Parks than Marvel could ever imagine. A comic that sells 100K is a big deal to the comic world, but to Disney, that's not worth getting out of bed for.

So, at the end of the day, when Ike Perlmutter has to explain to his new bosses how Marvel missed their quarterly expectations, I can see how he might end the explanation with..."But we are looking for ways to trim costs..."

Perhaps I should start a Marvel Comics Deathwatch?

Anway, as far as All Winners Squad goes, none of the old Golden Age comics are in Public Domain, so for today's Free Comic, I present All Good Comics 04.

- Jim

The Curse of Shazam

It was announced this weekend at New York Comic Con that Geoff Johns will be writing a backup in the new Justice League omniously called The Curse of Shazam. which promises to reluanch the Golden Age Captain Marvel into the newly revamped DC Universe.

My initial reaction was a bit like this:



..but the more I thought about it, the more I'm convincing myself it might work.

Johns did a great job with the Billy Batson character in JSA. The scenes with Billy and Stargirl was some of the nicest teenage romance writing I've seen in DC comics in the last decade.



And while it is typical of fans of the Golden Age Captain Marvel Character to decry any take on the hero that doesn't smack of the lighthearted whimy from the bygone days (myself included) but in Alter Ego 75, noted Fawcett Historian PC Hamerlinck makes an impressive case for updating the character.



One of the accursed judgment calls from the early planning stages of the revival was that, instead of going with their initial gut instinct to develop an updated Captain Marvel for the modern 1970s audience— one that would fit snugly next to a Curt Swan Superman (“Make Way For Captain Thunder!” in Superman #276, June ’74, reveals that such an approach would have stood a good chance of succeeding)—DC chose instead to travel down memory lane. The nostalgia crowd was going to pull this book … so they thought … and hopefully grab new readers along the way with a funny, light derivative of the Captain. (The majority of readers at that time—small children to college students—had no idea what Shazam! meant or stood for.) The decision not to mature Cap after all those lost years, but rather to keep him as a throwback from another era, waiting to be plucked out of “suspended animation,” ultimately became the foundation that cemented a curse for
future generations.

The entire article is fantastic, so feel free to wander over to the Twomorrows website to pick up a copy (either in paper or in pdf format)

So, even if the mention of Geoff Johns' name does make me think of comics with people exsploding everywhere, I'm willing to give his new take a try. Even it if can't match the magic of the original Golden Age versions, it may be enjoyable.

With that, I present today's Free Comic - Marvel Family 45!



Enjoy!

- Jim

The Return (Again) of the MLJ Heroes

Sunday at The New York Times broke the news that Archie Comics is going to return to publishing their own Superhero.

From the NY Times:

In spring, the company will bring back its line of superhero characters in a subscription model that will offer an original six-page story and access to an archive of past adventures....

...Besides the possibility of reaching an audience beyond the comic book stores, there was a second advantage to this digital model. “Financially, it makes sense,” Mr. Goldwater [the co-chief executive of Archie Comics Publications] said. “We are not going to have any print costs. To be a slave to printing prices when you’re starting a new venture is a tremendous concern.”



For those of you new to old comics, this would be the a lot of the old MLJ heroes (Black Hood, The Shield, The Hangman) as well as some of the characters introduced by MLJ in the Silver Age (The Fly, Jaguar, etc..)

While I have some fond memories of reading Jack Kirby's Fly in the old Archie Digests I used to pick up as a kid, I don't have high hopes for this forthcoming incarnation. Mostly because this group of characters has been relaunched several times recently - most notably with the !mpact line at DC in the 90's



and just a year ago at DC



I have to think the dismal sales on this last relaunch is part of the reason that Archie is going with a Digital Subscription sales strategy with this new effort. Not sure how that subscription thing will work out for them, but it does sound like it might be a cheaper way to get access to a huge library of old comics. The only caveat is comic fans tend to like to own what they read.

Archie’s latest digital initiative will be similar to Netflix, Mr. Goldwater said. “It will be a nominal monthly charge with access to new comics and thousands and thousands of pages from the archive.”

What I think is interesting is that more and more, we are reading about small publishers who are going ONLY with digital sales. (Slave Labor Graphics just made the same switch.)

Which begs the question - which of the Front of Previews crowd (Boom, Dark Horse, Dynamite, DC, IDW or Marvel) would you pick as the first to also quit with the Paper Comics?)

Anyway, since this news is a bit of a repeat, I'm going to repeat today's Free Comic with this reposting of Pep Comics 1 



Enjoy!

- Jim

A Study in Scarlet

From Bleeding Cool comes the news that Marvel is going to introduce a new Scarlet Spider character in a story that dares readers to guess his true identity!



Y'know, as much as I love me some mystery stories, sometime Flashback contributor Trey Causey and I were wondering why is it that comics seem to only tell the same type of mystery?

Who is this mystery character?
 
I can understand wrestling using that worn out plot device because there ain't a lot of time to spend on narrative in wrestling, but comics should be different, right?

Still, more and more, we are treated to a new spin of the Who is Ronin!? type of storyline. Say what you will about Identity Crisis, but at least Brad Metzer took a different tack with his mystery. (Albeit, his resolution was utterly ridiculous.)

What's sad is that the original Scarlet Spider/Ben Reily storyline had a lot of real mystery to it back in the nineties other than who the character was. (At the time, we all knew it was the clone from Spider-man 149)



The reasons the original return to the Clone Saga storyline overstayed its welcome have been WELL documented at http://lifeofreillyarchives.blogspot.com/. Still, that saga still has its fans and this return to the well may draw some of them in to see if Ben Reilly is returning to Marvel continuity. I just have to wonder if in a comic universe where there are now multiple Spider-girls, Ultimate Spider-men and Spider-women, will a Scarlet Spider story be just more noise on the wire?

I think the real mystery here is going to be what is Marvel going to do next to try and pull readers in when a mystery character in a hoodie doesn't work?

With that, enjoy today's appropriate Free Comic: Sherlock Holmes from Charlton Comics.
[ Sherlock Holmes 1 ]



Enjoy!

- Jim