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KC Carlson
A KC COLUMN by KC Carlson
Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years
I’ve been viewing this great documentary about the Beatles called eight Days a Week: The Touring Years. The film focuses on the band’s trips of America, the first of which took place in 1964. It played briefly in selected theaters a few weeks back, and I was pleased to see it then, accompanied by my cousin Margaret (and her husband). growing up, she was one of the most significant Beatles fans I ever knew, and I wanted to be sitting next to somebody who would be really thrilled about what was on screen, because I was going to be spending many of my seeing time analyzing exactly how these four young musicians from England pretty much defined pop culture for many of a decade and recognized a 50+ year legacy. Yeah, that ended up not happening, because I got swept up in the Beatle-ness of it all and just had a great time instead.
It’s a fantastic documentary, directed by Ron Howard (someone who understood the significance of pop culture as a young actor growing up on screen in both The Andy Griffith show and pleased Days — both cult classics of their own). His direction really plays up the sense of elation the entire country had for these British musicians who, in short order, redefined music for young people. eight Days a Week was recently released on home video, so I had the chance to study it at my leisure. Thankfully, the benefit features on the set did many of this for me, allowing me to just keep viewing fantastic stuff (like learning that teenage Whoopi Goldberg and Sigourney Weaver were both in attendance at Beatles concerts at this time).
Turns out the Beatles were also comic book fans (of various degrees). Eagle-eyed audiences of the Beatles film Help! have no doubt discovered that the crazy organ (which comes up out of the floor of their 4-in-1 flat/bedroom) does not come with sheet music, but instead, the rack holds about a dozen comic books (all DC Comics). (The plot, such as it is, for Help! is also very much “comic-booky” in style and structure. A hard Day’s night is the much better Beatles film, but Help! is much more fun to view repeatedly.) Years later, former-Beatle Paul McCartney wrote and produced a much-played Wings song for his Venus and Mars album called Magneto and Titanium Man, two popular marvel Comics villains.
But that’s enough about the Beatles…
LET’S TALK about ME
At the beginning of 1964, I was 8 years old. I don’t remember much about what I was doing then, but I was an only child living with my parents in loves Park, Illinois — soon to relocation to Janesville, Wisconsin. I had already discovered comic books (probably around age 4) when I apparently had the mutant ability to find the comic rack in any grocery or drug store my mother had taken me to — typically within seconds of walking through the door.
Much later, this mutated into being able to find the nearest comic book store in any city I was plopped into within 30 minutes. When people asked me how I could do that, I told them that I could smell the comics. I was a awful liar. What I was, was really good with reference material (like phone books and maps), and I had an outstanding sense of direction. The sun is our friend (but, sadly, not a friend of comic books — at least not directly).
Mom easily read four novels a week for many of her life, not to mention every newspaper and magazine she could get her hands on. I often found it amusing that my dad would stash his Playboy magazine under the mattress on his side of the bed, while mother would stash her national Enquirer and weekly world news on her side. Of course, she encouraged me to read everything I could get my hands on. and I did… including their secret stashes when they weren’t around.
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #76
It was probably around 1964 that I was making my first transition in the subject matter of my comic book reading. It was around then I discovered DC Comics, many notably their Superman “Family” of comics (Superman, action Comics, Superboy, adventure Comics, and eventually Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen; Superman’s girl Friend, Lois Lane; and World’s Finest (which co-starred Batman and (usually) Robin)). pretty soon, I lost interest in many of the Dell/Gold essential funny animal and cartoon-based comics (featuring many of the Hanna-Barbera characters, like Yogi Bear and quick draw McGraw) I had been reading. I never got away from them completely, though. because of my grandma, I had a subscription to Walt Disney’s Comics & stories for at least 20 years! (And kept up my reading of them!)
Let’s take a look at who was publishing comic books in 1964, the beginning of a major transition over the next decade for the comics industry:
DC COMICS
DC was the powerhouse publisher in this era. There were better (and greater) comics publishers in the past (most notably Fawcett (who published the Captain marvel line) and E.C. Comics (some of the greatest genre comics ever published)), but DC had outlasted all of them. DC was the top of the line, despite publishing some really boring and really juvenile comics. It’s been said (and not as a compliment) that DC’s comics of this era were “produced by men in coats and ties”. DC was also one of the most significant supporters of the Comics Code Authority. They were one of the survivors (along with Archie Comics) to stay with the Code to the bitter end. (I know. I was there and got in trouble with them once while working at DC.)
Here’s what they had on sale in January and February of 1964. I had to choose two months together because so numerous of their titles were published either bi-monthly or eight times a year. (People forget that DC actually didn’t start publishing numerous monthly comics titles until the 1970s. I’m guessing they were desperately trying to catch up to the marvel juggernaut of the late sixties, once marvel was finally out of an incredibly restrictive distribution situation (which was discreetly controlled by DC).) Here’s how DC’s line-up of titles broke out back then:
Superman-Related Titles: action Comics; adventure Comics; Superboy; Superman; Superman’s girl Friend, Lois Lane; Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen; World’s Finest
JLA-Related Superheroes: Aquaman, The Atom, Batman, Detective Comics, The Flash, green Lantern, Hawkman, Justice league of America, wonder Woman
Challengers of the unknown #40
Odd very (or not) Team/Adventure titles: Blackhawk, The brave and the Bold, Challengers of the Unknown, Doom Patrol, metal Men, Rip hunter Time Master, Sea Devils
War Titles (“The big Five!”): All-American men of War, G.I. Combat, Our army at War, Our combating Forces, star Spangled war Stories
Humor: The Adventures of Bob Hope, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, The Adventures of Dobie Gillis, The Fox and the Crow, Sugar and Spike
Romance: falling in Love, Girl’s Love, Girl’s Romances, Heart Throbs, secret Hearts, young Love, young Romance
Mystery (substituting for “Horror”) Comics: house of Mystery, house of Secrets, Tales of the Unexpected
Sci-Fi: mystery in Space, unusual Adventures
Miscellaneous: 80-Page Giant, Showcase, Tomahawk (the lone remaining “Western” title)
Batman #167. Can you spot the KC connection on this cover?
I had my favorites, mostly from the Julie Schwartz stable (focusing on superheroes and science fiction). one of the best things he did in this era was revitalize Batman — a noteworthy fix that lasted (with upgrade tweaks) for close to 30 years. I loved the Superman books as a kid, but as I grew older, I grew out of all of them. (The noteworthy exception was the legion of Super-Heroes series, which actually went AWOL for large chunks of time starting in the late ‘60s. It’s also currently absent, but I hear rumors of a revival soon-to-come.) The quality of the titles from this DC era was really dependent upon the editors (and the talent they hired). This is especially obvious in the odd very (or not) Team/Adventure titles category, where I was fascinated by some (Doom Patrol, metal Men, Challengers) and bored by others (Rip Hunter, Blackhawk).
Only some 30 years later, I got interested in the DC romance line — long after it had all been cancelled. truth to tell, I was mostly interested in the artists and covers, but I was amazingly amazed at the long-term storytelling of numerous of their serialized storylines, some of them sustaining for years.
MARVEL COMICS
Meanwhile, marvel was still under strict restrictions on their distribution, which couldn’t exceed 12 comic books a month. They got around that by not publishing everything monthly.
Strange Tales #121
In early 1964, six of their comics were published every month: fantastic Spider-Man, fantastic Four, journey into mystery (starring Thor), unusual Tales (at the time, a split-book with the Human Torch/the thing and doctor Strange), Tales of Suspense (Iron Man, but Captain America would begin in #59 – with a tease in #58), and Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man/Giant-Man and the Wasp, but by the end of the year they would be replaced by the Hulk and Sub-Mariner).
Sgt. Fury #8
Bimonthly books included the recently introduced Avengers, X-Men, and Daredevil (but it wouldn’t be long before all three went monthly), plus westerns kid Colt Outlaw, Rawhide Kid, and Two-Gun Kid; girl comics Millie the Model, Modeling With Millie, Patsy Walker, and Patsy and Hedy; and the popular Sgt. Fury and His howling Commandos, also soon to go monthly… but then later, still monthly, but only every other issue was new… so a half-reprint series.
Overall, I think Marvel’s slow growth due to their distribution limitations might have actually helped them in the long run. because they couldn’t flood the market with new characters (until decades later), that implied a less-crowded marvel universe —so that these characters got much more of a chance to shine. Didn’t work for me, though. I didn’t start reading Marvels until 1970, such was my early love for DC. The only reason that I ultimately gave them a try, was the cheap cost. By 1970, I was earning my own money and could purchase much more comics. because they still only cost 12 cents, that implied an additional 10 marvel comic books a month only cost me $1.20!!! (And this was before they were taxable, at least in Wisconsin.)
THE other GUYS
Magilla Gorilla #3
Gold essential Comics had recently spun out from Dell Comics in 1962 (taking all of the Western-owned licenses, including powerhouses Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbera, with them). In January, Gold essential published 14 comics — four Walt Disney, four Hanna-Barbera, two westerns, two jungle comics, and two comics based on TV shows you’ve never heard of now. Over the summer, they enhanced publication to much more than 20 individual comics, including personal favorites like hello There, It’s Yogi Bear; P.T. 109; Disney’s new Adventures of the Phantom Blot; Jonny Quest #1 (and only); and Magilla Gorilla Vs. Yogi Bear for President. (That last one had to have been a much better election than our many recent one. Or at least one with much more pic-a-nic baskets and bananas!)
Little Lotta in Foodland #5
Harvey Comics published only 12 comic books in January 1964 (and not a one of them starring Richie Rich). In December, they doubled that by publishing 24, only three of which were Richie Rich-related. (Compare to five sad Sack comics). One other was one of my all-time favorite comic book titles — little Lotta in Foodland. Where was Foodland, anyway? Was Condiment a suburb? Of course, there were plenty of Casper, the friendly Ghost; Wendy the good little Witch; and Spooky, the Tuff little Ghost, as well as little Dot, maybe the first comic book about being OCD over polka dots. (Trivia: Her seldom-used last name was actually Polka.)
Little dot #96. She likes Richie Rich.
Yikes! There were a whopping 24 Charlton comic books published in January 1964. They all look kinda run-of-the-mill to me — which was typically the story of Charlton except for a handful of special stuff (that mostly came much later). and Steve Ditko! Can’t forget him! I didn’t purchase a lot of Charlton books at that time, probably because they had lots of distribution problems. (I think they did their own for a while.) I got provided a large collection of Charlton comics about 15 years later, and only after I purchased them, did I discover that there was a lot of great work being done there that not numerous people were aware of… until fanzines!
Herbie #3
ACG published a handful of titles regularly in 1964, including Adventures into the Unknown, My romantic Adventures, unknown Worlds, forbidden Worlds, and Herbie (#1 in February!). ACG was another company that apparently wasn’t distributed where I was, because I don’t recall ever seeing any of their comics on the racks. If I had, I would have purchased Herbie (the Fat Fury), just because it was so unusual and awesome. and if I had been older (and had figured out what an fantastic artist Kurt Schaffenberger was), I would certainly have sought out much more of the ACG line.
Archie’s girls Betty & Veronica #100
Archie Comics published eight comics in January 1964, all of which had “Archie” in the title, except Pep and Laugh. Archie’s girls Betty & Veronica celebrated 100 issues in February in an all-Dan DeCarlo issue. By the summer, many of the core Archie characters (except Veronica… they had to save somebody, right?) had become superheroes with names like Pureheart the powerful (Archie), Captain Hero (Jughead), and Superteen (Betty). Of course, Reggie was the villainous Evilheart. This was kinda fun (but not very good) for about a year, and then they all became spies. (Archie was The man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.) Really!! I’m not making this up!
Clyde Crashcup #4
Dell Comics was still around in 1964 as a pale shadow of what it was without all the Disney and Hann