Thursday, May 12, 2011

Hidden Gems: DC Special #23

I love the Three Musketeers - who doesn't? Between the Richard Lester films and the candy bar, the Musketeers were experiencing quite the renaissance during the 70s. DC decided to jump on the bandwagon with this issue of DC Special. It is the 2nd of three books under the Three Musketeers/Robin Hood banner. This issue took me by surprise as I thought it would be 100% reprints. There is actually a rather fun 17-page story written by Bob Haney. I know that Lee Elias is not a huge selling point for many readers (I happen to love him), but this is some his cleanest, most accessible work of the decade. Speaking of reprints, there are some terrific ones here. The first of two Robin Hood story from 1957 features gorgeous artwork by Russ Heath. Check out his duds and tell me that it didn't impact Neal Adams' redesign of Green Arrow. The second tale is not quite as spectacular, but it is still enjoyable with solid art by the Andru/Esposito team. Overall, it's a great book and a very nice change of pace for 1976.

2 comments:

JohnJ said...

Do you think DC has abandoned any plans of doing Showcase volumes of these older books? I hope sales of Our Army at War #1-20 were sufficient for them to continue but the 70s All-Star Squadron was the only one in this month's offers.
I did buy the Viking Prince hc so maybe they can find something else from the fifties for that format.

Scott M said...

I can see no rhyme or reason behind DC's publishing plans. I haven't bought a Showcase book in quite some time - so I'm a bit out of the loop in terms of what is out there.