You're not wrong, Will: Summer's lease has indeed all too short a date. The new school term begins tomorrow for me and with it, a third year in my school up here in Moray.
The highlight of this summer was, without question, my excursion to Portobello Bay in the Rhins of Galloway. (I hope to be able to review the 1977 Conan Treasury Edition I associate with my first visit there before the winter.) I also enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises, Amazing Spider-Man and my visit to the Netherlands Circus.
With the sad loss of Joe Kubert last weekend, I wanted to look today at the only other artist to be honoured with a solo issue of DC Special: Carmine Infantino, premiere artist of the Silver Age.
As head honcho at DC in the very early Seventies, Infantino lured Jack Kirby from Marvel to launch his Fourth World tetralogy; Infantino introduced the tabloid format (or Treasury, as Marvel called it); he launched DC's first Shazam series, reviving Captain Marvel; and he responded to Marvel's wave of product with reprint books for the Doom Patrol, the Legion, the Challs and the Metal Men.
All this was still to come in 1968, when DC Special made its début as a themed quarterly collection of reprints. At this time, Carmine was cover art director for DC. He'd dispensed with the "go-go" checks and his vision was astonishing- never mind Neal Adams' Strange Adventures, check out the covers of forgotten titles like Tomahawk in the autumn of '68.
Across the street, as it were, Marvel had launched Stan's magnum opus, the Silver Surfer and its first foray into b/w magazines, Spectacular Spider-Man. DC retaliated, promoting their award-winning artist with this collection.
The Mystery of the Menacing Mask: this story introduced the " New Look" Batman. It's set in Greenwi-sorry, Gotham Village, scene of a underground "railroad" for fugitive crooks. It's a Camelot-era Batman story that signals the end of Batwoman , Bat-Mite, Bat-Hound and the Alien Boss of Gotham City. (I wish he'd been in DKR!) A visual milestone as significant as Adams or Marshall Rogers.
The Doorway Into the Unknown: An Alley Award-Winning story, in which an embezzler makes a confesson from beyond the grave. I don't think it's any more profound than many ghost stories in DC's mystery titles. It's the juxtaposition of the unexplained with the playful, gimmicky sci-fi world of Barry Allen that makes it memorable. The success of the Flash really kick-started the Silver Age for DC. Without him, there would be no Hal Jordan, Ray Palmer, no Thanagar and no JLA.
The Scientific Crook-Catcher: Detective Chimp pursues a crook,disguising himself with stilts and a fake beard. Goofy and charming. As we've seen on the 'Optikon, Beppo the Super-Monkey has a stunted vocabulary compared to Bobo the chimp.
Mystery of the Giant Footsteps: an Adam Strange short in which asthmatic giants search Rann for the Atlantean metal orichalcum. This could easily have been a Hawkman story.
Challenge of the Headless Baseball Team: A Gardener Fox story in which the New York Jets play a baseball game with the Krann, who invaded the 4th-dimensional world of Ilaran. Not being a baseball fan, how much more I might have enjoyed this story if it had starred the JLA. The use of silhouettes in every panel is innovative but extremely distracting.
In fact, I'd vote to replace this tale with one featuring two more characters associated with Infantino: 1962's "Kid Flash meets the Elongated Man". Unfortunately, it was too soon to reprint the origins of Deadman and Batgirl.
Overall sales were not great during Carmine's tenure and he was replaced by Jenette Kahn, heralding an era in which DC and Marvel Comics became indistinguishable from each other. Infantino went on to pencil Spider-Woman, Nova, Star-Lord and Star Wars for Marvel. He then returned to DC in the early 80s and worked on Dial H for Hero, the Daring New Adventures of Supergirl- at first, one of my favourite iterations of the character- and finally returned to the Flash for over one hundred and fifty issues.
An interesting question is "What If....Carmine had successfully hired Roy Thomas to oversee Superman in the mid-70s?" Conan ending with Barry Smith's departure or carrying on with...who? Gil Kane and Gerry Conway? No Invaders, no Savage Sword of Conan, no Red Sonja series...no What If!
I can't see Thomas sticking for long with Superman- he just doesn't seem to idolise the character like Marv Wolfman, for instance. A JSA revival would be highly likely, possibly set in the Forties. A new Hawkman book, given Thomas' fondness for the character. Wresting control of the Shazam Family ...Would he have written Star Wars for DC instead of Marvel? Shooter believed that comic saved the House of Ideas from going out of business.
I've written previously about my belief that the last thing DC needed in the 70s was a nostalgia trip but in a world where it has a Star Wars title, I could envisage a revival of several sci-fi properties in 1977-78: Manhunter 2070, Space Ranger, Star Hawkins ( a tv series tie-in starring burly Gil Gerard...)
Well, that's all speculation. Twomorrows published a great book on Carmine in 2010, which I thoroughly recommend. Coming soon: more Super DC Giants.
All images presumed copyright of their respective owners
I wish I had that DC Infantino special. The picture at the top of your post is a stunner - always liked it. The illustration by Infantino used on the Aurora model box of Batman is also a belter. However, surprisingly, Infantino's style deteriorated in the '80s, '90s, etc. His art on the Playing Mantis boxes for the re-released Captain Action (originally by Ideal) were far from his usual standard, and his Batman story for one of the Julie Schwartz issues a few years back was pretty poor. However, in his heyday, he was one of the best.
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