Thursday, February 7, 2008

The Musical or the Planet?

You know, you'd think I would get my fill of DC gorillas. Surely it was an overused story element in its day.

But it always makes me giggle like a maniac. I can just picture Julie Schwartz pounding the table during a story conference, yelling, "Dammit, you know what this story needs? GORILLAS!!" And he would usually be right.

So imagine my glee when I stumble across something like this:

Flying monkeys from Wizard of Oz grow up and go bad!Well, it was a little late in DC's gorilla boom (1976, to be exact). And it was edited by Gerry Conway, not Schwartz. But damn if that isn't Hawkman turned into a gorilla!! And for once, a DC cover of that era doesn't lie to us!!

And the uniform still fits...I won't go into detail on this story...it's a silly exercise in which Grodd (surprise!!) uses his uncanny mental abilities to possess Hawkman, turn him into a gorilla, break Grodd out of jail, and use Thanagarian technology aboard Hawkman's ship to kill all humans on earth and blah, blah, blah.

But there are a couple of points of interest. The chapter titles are the most god awful puns ever:

Actually, that's actually better than waking up next to me

No, that's German for 'The Flash The'Ouch, babe. Those are banned as war crimes on some planets...

And the Flash is a real prick in this story...

J'onn J'onzz weeps because Barry doesn't think he's prettyOh, Barry...you're better than that...

That's all...no real point today. Just indulging in some mid-70's schlock courtesy of Super-Team Family #3, 1976. Gorillas!!

3 comments:

  1. Without a doubt, the greatest talking,fighting,sentient gorilla ever. Flying monkey from Thanagar! AAHHH!!

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  2. Wally Wood is clearly the inker on this, but who did the pencils?

    Man, I need to get my hands on that comic.

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  3. Good eye, Dr. K. The art is credited to "Ric Estrada and Wally Wood (Artists)."

    And to whet your appetite more, the back third of the mag is a feature langth tale featuring Superman and Batman, "co-starring" Supergirl, Batgirl, Robin, and Jimmy Olsen. By Cary Bates and Neal Adams...

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