Every now and then, you'll find a random DC book from the Silver Age that has a nice little surprise between the covers. This issue of the short-lived Spectre series features a fairly entertaining Gardner Fox story with art by the always under appreciated Jerry Grandenetti, who really shines when inked by Murphy Anderson (who doesn't?). The real treat here, however, is the solo Hourman story. Even with all of the Earth-Two mania that swept through DC in the 60s (ok, that may be overstating things a bit), you don't find many solo stories featuring JSAers. This is a fine little story, also by Fox with artwork by the talented, and apparently workaholic, Dick Dillin with nice Sid Greene inks. This is the kind of book you can pick up for next to nothing in low to mid-grade condition, and it's always a treat to discover these added bonuses.Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Hidden Gems: Spectre #7
Every now and then, you'll find a random DC book from the Silver Age that has a nice little surprise between the covers. This issue of the short-lived Spectre series features a fairly entertaining Gardner Fox story with art by the always under appreciated Jerry Grandenetti, who really shines when inked by Murphy Anderson (who doesn't?). The real treat here, however, is the solo Hourman story. Even with all of the Earth-Two mania that swept through DC in the 60s (ok, that may be overstating things a bit), you don't find many solo stories featuring JSAers. This is a fine little story, also by Fox with artwork by the talented, and apparently workaholic, Dick Dillin with nice Sid Greene inks. This is the kind of book you can pick up for next to nothing in low to mid-grade condition, and it's always a treat to discover these added bonuses.
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3 comments:
Beautiful little Hour-Man story, indeed. I regret having to part with the page of art I had from it.
Given the sales struggle Spectre was having, I wonder if Schwartz was trying out the remaining JSAers (Wildcat also had what amounts to a solo story in the series, too) in hopes of giving the mag over to one of them? Ah, probably not, DC didn't play that game so much, did they? Where you'd follow Spectre #9 with Wildcat #10? Still, I kinda wish the JSA experiments had continued a little longer, so we could have seen a Silver Age Dr. Mid-Nite or Black Canary or Dr. Fate solo.
I picked up a well-worn copy of Spectre #6 at a used book store because it was inexpensive and had a terrific lurid cover with a neat secondary color scheme and crazy ghost pilgrims. The inside was even better - I'd never seen Grandenetti's work before, but I was quite impressed with his innovative and trippy panel layouts. The coloring was nice, too, even though the book is fairly old and faded. Fun find! I'll be on the lookout for more Spectre books to complete the tiny run.
It was a great experiment, with trying out deserving heroes!
J.A.P.
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