Daniel Cox covers Showcase 57

Original cover by Joe Kubert; DC 1965. Daniel Cox's website is here.

John Bishop covers Showcase 78

Original cover by Dick Giordano; DC 1968. John Bishop's website is here.

M. Jason Robards covers Showcase 55

Original cover by Murphy Anderson; DC 1965. M. Jason Robards website is here.

Showcase #90 (On Sale: March 10, 1970) has a Jason's Quest cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

This issue begins with Jason's Quest in "The Circle of Death" written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Jack Abel. Continuing from last issue, Tuborg has put the word out on the streets of Paris to find Jason and his sister and they do. Jason has bought a new guitar and is picking up a little extra cash playing in a club in town when in walks Jason's sister. Jason is shocked that she knows his name and then finds out that she was GG, the girl from the ferry, as she looks so different without her wig and makeup on.

As Jason tries to tell her he is her brother, the guy GG came to the club with attacks Jason for making a move on his girl at about the same time that Tuborg's men move in for the kill. Jason grabs GG and they head out the back and into the streets. Eventually they meet artist Andy and with his help get away from Tuborg's men. Just as Jason is about to tell GG they ware brother and sister more of Tuborg's men show up and they head off once again, once again meeting Andy who takes them to his second studio where a group of "friends" are making signs for a big protest tomorrow.

The next morning Jason and GG join the protest and Jason decides the safest place for them to be is in jail, so he smacks a French cop with a protest sign and he and GG are arrested. But Andy and his friends hijack the police van they are being carried in and "rescue" Jason and GG. Though they get away from the police, Tuborg's men are still on their trail.

Eventually Jason and GG make it to a warehouse and a room full of mannequins. Putting GG's clothes on one of the mannequins and strapping it to the back of his bike, Jason lures Tuborg's men away from GG and tells her to meet him tomorrow at noon under the Eiffel Tower. But GG has other ideas, "If I ever see that crazy man again--I'll take off in the opposite direction as fast as I can go! What a kook! And those friends of his--they're worse than he is! goodbye -- and good riddance!"

I really liked Jason's Quest and was sorry that this was the last issue. My good friend Tony Isabella also liked the strip as there is a long letter from on on the letter page.

Next is a on-page ad from Manhunter 2070 in the next issue of Showcase and that is followed by "Incident on Krobar 3" a two-page Manhunter 2070 story by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.

Showcase #89

Showcase #89 (On Sale: January 27, 1970) has a nice Jason's Quest cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

Jason's Quest continues this issue with "The Deadly Chase" written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by, well, I'm not sure. The GCD says this is Jack Abel, but I don't really see it. Abel has a certain smoothness to his inking, particularly around the eyes, noses and hands of characters, that I just don't see in this inking. He is also credited with inking the next issue, and I sort of see some Abel-like inking in that book. If anyone can point me to particular panels that display Abel's technique I would feel much better about this attribution.

As we left Jason last issue, he had just saved his sister's life, not knowing it was her and is now ahead of her on the road to Paris thinking she must be just ahead of him. Meanwhile, Tuborg sends two more assassins after Jason and his sister. Jason on the other hand sees a blond woman on the side of the road with a flat tire and thinks it is his sister, but when he hears her deep southern accent he knows he is mistaken.

She is "Billie Jo Brock of the Lo'siana Brocks" and is immediately smitten with Jason, but her advances are interrupted by gunshots from the two assassins, who also mistake Billie Jo for Jason's sister. They blow the "petrol tank" of Billie Jo's car and she and Jason high-tail it on his bike, the killers in hot pursuit and Billie Jo firing back at them with her own gun. As they are being chased, Jason sees the car of the woman he saved last issue and seeing her without her wig realizes that she is his sister. He lures the gunmen away from her and loses them in some woods.

There his bike runs out of gas and he and Billie Jo take off on foot finding a large empty house in the woods in which to hide. Later the gunmen find the house as well and while Billie Jo passes the time away in a lip-lock with Jason, he feels a gun against the back of his head. But it is not the gunmen, but rather the owner of the house, who had shut it down but remembered something she left and found the broken window where Jason and Billie Jo had entered and now found them. But it seems she is a widow, from Lo'siana as well and actually loosely related to Billie Jo. She provides them some gas for the bike and some cover fire from the assassins while they make their escape.

They gas up Jason's bike and Billie Jo shoots the tires on the assassin's car. They figure out what the four shots must mean and steal a car from the woman's garage and the chase continues. Jason loses them under a bridge and later in a bike race. Later Jason and Billie Jo barely escape from going off the end of an unfinished bridge, but the assassins are not so lucky. They crash off the bridge and die in a horrible explosion. Jason and Billie Jo make it to Paris where Jason tells Billie Jo the entirety of his story and says he must find his sister before Tuborg's men do. Billie Jo says she understands, "Find her, quick-- then come back 'cause Billie Jo has chosen you for herself!'

We then have one of those great Sekowshy full-page previes of the next issue inked by Dick Giordano.

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.

Showcase #88

Showcase #88 (On Sale: December 11, 1969) has a Jason's Quest cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

We begin with "The Beginning" of Jason's Quest, written and drawn by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Frank Giacoia. Every resource I can find says this story was inked by Dick Giordano, but I am looking at the pages and it just ain't so, no way, no how.

Before we get to the recap of this book, I must say a few words about Mike Sekowsky at this point in his career. Mike had been in comics since 1941 when he started at Timely and had drawn just about every genre there was: super-hero, western, war, funny animal, romance, TV , jungle action and science-fiction, and though he was known as a super-hero artist, he obviously was more attracted to action stories with more humanistic characters.

While everyone else at DC was chasing Marvel super-heroes or attempting to relive their time at EC, Mike Sekowsky was following a different path. He made the Metal Men look human and turned them into thriller characters on the run. He participated big-time in the biggest deflowering of super-powers in comic history by separating Wonder Woman from her powers and costume. He took chances on new types of books and I for one appreciated the effort. I may be the only one, but I particularly appreciated Jason's Quest.

We begin at "The Beginning" as Jason Davis' father has been mortally wounded in a shooting. Summoned by the doctors to his deathbed, the blonde young man listens to a stunning series of revelations. His real name is Jason Grant, Jr. and when he was just a child his real father had been murdered by a mobster named Tuborg, who sought the elder Grant's latest invention. As Tuborg's killers combed the house for witnesses, Grant's servant, Davis, rushed to the nursery, commanding the nanny to take Jason's twin sister, someone Jason never knew existed, into hiding while he did the same with young Jason. The nanny headed for London while Davis brought Jason to America. Over the next nineteen years, Davis moved himself and Jason constantly, always trying to stay one step ahead of Tuborg's searching thugs.

In preparation for the day Jason would take over the fight, Davis drilled commando training into the boy's head. With his final breath, he gasped, "Your sister ... somehow your father secreted on her person evidence that will end Tuborg and his evil empire. In the fireplace at home ... the box your father gave me -- it has your papers ... money ... and -- and ... I'm ... I'm ... sor --"

In five and a half short pages, including one splash, Sekowsky has neatly set up the entire series and there is not a spandex outfit or alien super-power in sight.

Unknown to Jason, Tuborg had planted a bug in the hospital room and heard every word. Finding Jason's sister was now their number one priority. Jason flies to London, buys a motorcycle and begins his search for his sister. From an ex-neighbor he gets a picture of her and a direction; she is heading for the continent.

Tuborg's men ambush Jason on the road and though they don't get the picture, they get enough clues to track her to a ferry soon to go across the channel. On the ferry Jason saves a woman named Gee Gee from two thugs. Gee Gee asks if Jason would like to travel with her, but he declines, wanting instead to head out looking for his sister. As he drives away Gee Gee removes her black wig and is revealed as Jason's sister.

The three-page back-up "Ghost Rider" is written and drawn by Mike Sekowsky and really is inked by Dick Giordano. It is the tale of teenagers, bikers and ghostly riders.

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.

Showcase #87

Showcase #87 (On Sale: October 28, 1969) has a Firehair cover by Joe Kubert.

"The Shaman" by Joe Kubert is the last of the three Firehair issues of Showcase. It is also the weakest of the three as you will see, yet it still has the wonderful art of Joe Kubert at his peak.

In his travels, Firehair comes to the edge of the Grand Canyon, where he is attacked by a mountain lion. The lion's sharp claws cut deeply into Firehair, but he uncoils his rope and wraps it around the lion's neck. However, before it can do much good the lion's aggressive action throws them both over the edge. Firehair manages to grasp onto a scrub plant as he falls and climbs back onto a ledge where he quickly passes out. When he awakens it is night and he sees the fire of a tribe on the canyon floor. He somehow makes it down the canyon wall and into the camp, where the tribe's shaman says they have been expecting "Firehair."

The shaman calls Firehair "the evil one" and dunks a totem of Firehair into a pot of water, causing Firehair's lungs to fill with water. The shaman removes the doll and Firehair is placed on a mound surrounded by a pit of rattle snakes, where he falls fast asleep. When he awakens he is taken into a cavern to the edge of a bottomless pit when a spirit of the nether-world is called to pass judgment on Firehair. The giant man with the head of a coyote says Firehair must face the judgment at the black pool of "he that holds the world."

Firehair is taken deeper into the cavern to a black pool where he is tied up and left to face "he that holds the world," a giant mutated turtle. Somehow Firehair escapes his ropes as the cave begins to crumble. Firehair must dodge large pillars of rock. Suddenly his world goes black and when vision returns he is in a Navajo camp, where they have tended to him as he has lain delirious from the poison of the lion's claws. Quite a let down from the two previous stories, almost a filler issue and not what you would expect only three issues into the series.

Also in this issue is a one-page Warrior piece on Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians of Idaho drawn by Ken Barr.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Kerry Callen covers Showcase 61

Original cover by Murphy Anderson; DC 1966. Kerry Callen's website is here.

Showcase #86

Showcase #86 (On Sale: September 11, 1969) has a Firehair cover by Joe Kubert.

Firehair in "River of Gold" is written and drawn by Joe Kubert. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying rereading these stories. In Firehair Kubert created the perfect tool for telling his tales of morality, human nature and the turbulent times on the late 1960s. An old prospector searching for gold stumbles into the land of the Crow and finds himself surrounded by warriors thirsty for revenge against the white men. Firehair comes across the confrontation and calls out the Crow for even contemplating "murdering defenseless of people."

Black Eagle, the son of the Crow Chief's issues a personal challenge to Firehair for interfering in their business. Years of having to fight for a place in his own tribe gives Firehair the advantage and he soon forces Black Eagle to concede. Firehair demands to be taken to Black Eagle's father, who as a great chief must be a just man.

The chief chastises his son for attempting to use his protection to right his loss in single combat to Firehair, but he also worries that the old prospector may not deserve the gift of life that Firehair has given him. He worries that the old man seeks the "yellow stones! The soft, worthless pebbles they value more than life or land" and that should he find any that their land would be "over-run by his kind!" Firehair explains to the old man that at tomorrow's sun dance ceremony he must fight Black Eagle again and that if he wins again that they will both be set free, but that the old man must not search for gold and must leave the land of the Crow.

The old man says he understands. but that night he attempts to sneak out of camp. However, he sees that he is being watched and returns to camp but not before spotting a trove of gold nuggets in the stream running through the village.

The next morning Firehair and Black Eagle once again square off in single combat and once again Firehair is victorious. The chief declares that they "will be as one -- in honor and trust!" and Black eagle and Firehair become blood brothers. The old man notes to himself that "they sure know how to settle their arguments!' but while the sun dance ceremony begins he sneaks off with his mule and a few sacks of gold from the stream.

Later when they discover he has gone, it is Firehair who must search for him as it is Firehair who has accepted responsibility for the old man. Firehair tracks him down and finds him just as a grizzly has also found him. Firehair intercedes and kills the bear. The old man however, pulls his gun on Firehair and says he will kill him rather than let Firehair take him back to the Crow.

Back at the village Black eagle wonders if Firehair will return when a moment later he and the old man are seen coming back. The old man turns over his gold saying that "I couldn't shoot someone who'd saved my life...twice! I guess...there's some things even more valuable than an whole river of gold!" The chief gives the old man his freedom and Firehair moves on in his search for a place he can belong.

"Saturday -- 1787" is written and drawn by Ric Estrada is a great little slice of frontier life and hardships of the early settlers. It does a terrific job of showing the hard choices the early settlers sometimes faced. A little gem from the late Ric Estrada.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Showcase #85

Showcase #85 (On Sale: July 24, 1969) has a very nice Firehair cover by Joe Kubert.

We have a feature-length Firehair origin story, "I Don't Belong Here -- I Don't Belong There" which is obviously a labor of love for writer/artist/editor Joe Kubert. the story opens sometime in the early 1800's with our hero riding bareback across the desert being chased by a gaggle of towns-people shooting in his direction. Firehair is a teen-aged boy in Native American garb, with white skin and glowing red hair in two long tails trailing down his back. he has been shot but continues to ride.

When he reaches a rock face he leaps for it and begins to climb its face. The towns-folk dismount and take aim just as a hand reaches out of a cave in the rock and pulls Firehair to relative safety. The enraged towns-people fire off so many shots that they cause a landslide which covers the mouth of the cave, trapping Firehair and his unknown benefactor. Inside we find a Shaman and Evening Star, a young woman of the Blackfoot nation.

Firehair has been shot multiple times and they cannot move him from the cave, As the Shaman dresses his wounds, Firehair is enveloped by delirious dreams of his past. He sees a tribal fire he never witnessed where the Shaman tells the tribal elders of the terrible destruction of the Blackfoot and their brother nations at the hand of the paleface that he has foreseen. He also speaks of a great warrior who will arise, who will not look like any warrior in the Indian Nations, who will be despised by his own people and those he will seek to help. A great warrior who is the Blackfoot's only hope for salvation.

As Firehair's vision continues he sees the same tribe gathered on a mesa and attacking the wagon train below. Attacking relentlessly until all the pale ones are dead, all save one child with flaming red hair, whom Chief Grey Cloud takes to raise as his own. The resentment and hostility towards the white child runs deep in the village, but to some extent hidden. As young Firehair grows he learns that in order to survive and to prove himself worthy of being the Chief's son, he must be better than all the other children in the village, and so he is. But he is also alone and friendless. The years pass and Firehair reaches the age of manhood and goes off on a vision quest; the only one in the village offering him good luck is Evening Star. He fasts for five days seeing visions of his past, present and future and arises a man.

Back at his village he tells his father he dreamed of others with skin like his and wants to find them, to see if he belongs in their world. And so, Firehair heads off for the town, where he is attacked by a bully in the general store and when he fights back the whole town wants his hide. The town Sheriff steps in to break things up, but Firehair has had enough and breaks away, riding out of town, the towns-people shooting at his back.

His feverish vision ends and he finds himself in the cave with Evening Star, who says that now that he is better they can return home. But Firehair says he does not have a home, not with the Blackfoot and not with the palefaces. And so he sets off to travel the Earth looking for a place where he can belong.

I can not say enough about Joe Kubert's artwork on this book. He obviously spent a lot of time doing research on the Blackfoot nation and culture and you see it in every panel. He littered the book with wonderful detail and employed a grease pencil on every page, some times just a little, some times a lot, to give the pages a look different from any of the other books being published at that time.

Firehair would appear in two more issues of Showcase before finding a spot as a back-up strip in Tomahawk for another three issues. He didn't show up again till the character-packed Showcase #100 and then again in Crisis on Infinite Earths. In 1989 he was in one issue of Swamp Thing and then completely forgotten until the publication of War That Time Forgot in 2008 and where he can still be seen today.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Showcase #84

Showcase #84 (On Sale: June 12, 1969) has a Nightmaster cover by Joe Kubert.

"Come Darkness, Come Death" is by Denny O'Neil and Bernie Wrightson, with an artistic assist from Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones. Nightmaster Jim Rook and his barbarian friend, Tark, and the mentally-challenged albino guide, Boz hold one-side of a chasm. The warlocks and their mystical flying ship and Nightmaster's captured fiance, Janet, are on the other. In frustration Jim picks a fight with Tark, but it is soon interrupted when smoke from the warlock's ship drifts across the chasm, materializing into ribbons of evil which then forms into two giant spiders. The magic of the spiders is no match for the magic of the Sword of Night, and Jim defeats the two spiders.

But the court wizard has other ideas and sends forth blizzard winds which carry thousands of spiders toward our heroes. Horribly outnumbered, they make there way towards a cave only to have their path cut off by the spiders. As Jim prepares for the onslaught, thousands of rays of light streak from the cave and blast the spiders, obliterating them. Tark knows that only one man could have the power to create such a spell and guesses that the cave they have found is the home of Mar-Grouch the Mystic.

They enter the cave and beseech Mar-Grouch to return Janet from the clutches of the warlocks, something he agrees to do. However, the Court Wizard has cast a spell over Janet, turning her into a servant girl named Mizzi and commanding her to kill the Nightmaster if she can. Mar-Grouch's spell returns Mizzi and Jim is incensed that Mar-Grouch got the wrong girl. Still, Mar-Grouch offers one last bit of aid to the group, some wings they can wear to cross the chasm and attack the warlocks.

The wings are powered by crystals found on the ground and they are told to gather into pouches only the green crystals to make the wings fly, but to avoid the yellow crystals which attract the Arivegs, hideous flying plants. But Mizzi fills Jim's pouch and fills it full of yellow crystals, causing the Arivegs to attack Jim. Tark takes hold of Jim as he tosses his pouch away and they continue on their way to the ship.

Once inside they confront the warlocks but are subdued by mystic gases. When Nightmaster awakens he and Tark are tied up in the hold of the ship and are soon to be tortured and killed, but the warlock, Duke Spero wants to know why Jim Rook has been fighting, why he has not returned to Earth where he belongs and Jim says it is because of his love for Janet. Somehow his speech reaches through the spell fogging Mizzi's/Janet's mind and she decides to help. While Spero is boasting, Mizzi secretly cuts Jim's ropes and moments later when Spero reveals that Mizzi is really Jan, Jim leaps into action, forcing Spero and his wizard to flee through a dimensional vortex to Earth, with Jim and Janet in hot pursuit.

Jim forces the warlocks back through the portal to Myrra. Jim and Janet stumble out into the street, where they walk together in silence for hours. As the sun is rising they speak of what a dream, a fantasy they both shared and how it could not possibly have been real. Then Jim Rook feels the cold hard steel of the Sword of Night in his hands and knows that though he is Jim Rook, he is also Nightmaster.

This is the last of the Nightmaster series. Being Bernie Wrightson's first full book, his two Nightmaster stories are pretty uneven artistically and have ample assists from friends such as Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones (such as in the half-page above, obviously penciled by Jeff Jones).

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Showcase #83

Showcase #83 (On Sale: April 24, 1969) has another wonderful Joe Kubert Nightmaster cover.

The full-length Nightmaster strip "Sing a Song of Sorcery" is by Denny O'Neil and Berni Wrightson. Lending Bernie a hand on his first full-length story is Michael Kaluta and Jeff Jones. This is the first work at DC for both Kaluta and Jones.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Showcase #82

Showcase #82 (On Sale: March 13, 1969) has a cover featuring Nightmaster by Joe Kubert. It also has added "Preview" to the appellation and a large DC logo. The irony of this is that this is one of the few three-issue tryouts that never went anywhere. And yeah, before there was a Conan comic at Marvel, DC tried sword and sorcery.

"Some Forbidden Fate" is by Denny O'Neil, Jerry Grandenetti and Dick Giordano. Thousands of years ago, the mighty warrior Nacht was driven from his other-dimensional world of Myrra by his rival Brom and the evil magician Farben. While Nacht's magic Nightsword inserted itself into a stone pillar, Nacht himself ended up on Earth where he settled down under his family name of Roke.

In 1969, Jim Rook, lead singer of the rock band called the Electrics, entered an abandoned store on Manhattan named Oblivion, Inc. and is magically transported to Myrra. One of Nacht's descendants, Rook reluctantly claimed his ancestor's Sword and became the new protector of Myrra – the Nightmaster. Although Rook really wantd to return to Earth, he finds himself in the midst on the conflict between Myrra's King Zolto and the evil Warlocks, when the Warlocks captures Rook's girlfriend, Janet Jones.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Showcase #81

Showcase #81 (On Sale: January 23, 1969) has a Windy and Willy cover by Bob Oksner and Tex Blaisdell.

"The Haunted Hippie" is by Arnold Drake and Bob Oksner. This story is a partially redrawn Dobie Gillis story reprinted from Many Loves of Dobie Gillis #26. Someone had to think this was a good idea.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Showcase #80

Showcase #80 (On Sale: December 12, 1968) has a Phantom Stranger cover by Neal Adams.

We begin with the Phantom Stranger in "Men Call Me the Phantom Stranger" by Mike Friedrich, Jerry Grandenetti and Bill Draut. This was the first new Phantom Stranger story since The Phantom Stranger #6 in 1953. DC was looking for more mystery comics and found a winner in this long-forgotten character, revamped for the 1960s. This story was a framing sequence around the rest of the book which was reprints and was itself reprinted in Showcase Presents Phantom Stranger Vol. 1 TPB.

Next we have "The Three Signs of Evil" by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella and reprinted from Phantom Stranger #2. Artist Mark Davis strolls through Columbus Circle and happens upon a gathering. As he watches, he begins sketching a picture of some symbols the people are using. When the group notices him, they demand that he turn over the sketches. Davis refuses and leaves the scene.

The cult members follow Davis and attack him near Times Square. Mark is rescued by the Phantom Stranger who examines Mark's sketch. The Stranger deduces where the cult will be from the sketch. Mark offers his assistance in stopping the cult.

Following the third sign in his sketch, Mark is captured by the Moon Cult. They intend to sacrifice him to gain mystical power. The Phantom Stranger comes to the rescue again and knocks out the cult. Mark summons the police, while the Stranger disappears.

Lastly we have a reprint of the first Doctor 13 story, "I Talked with the Dead" from Star Spangled Comics #122 and drawn by the great Leonard Starr. DC took the mystical Stranger and added the supernatural hoax-breaker Terrance Thirteen as a foil for the Stranger's mystic adventures.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Showcase #79

Showcase #79 (On Sale: October 22, 1968) introduces us to Dolphin in a cover by romance artist Jay Scott Pike.

"The Fantasy at 14 Fathoms" is written and drawn by Jay Scott Pike. Not only is this Pike's only non-romance artwork for DC, this is his only writing. In this, the origin of Dolphin, Chief Petty Officer Chris Landau and his partner Ben Harkey are assigned the task of recovering documents from a sunken U.S. Navy ship that has been underwater twenty three years. During their search of the ship, they discover a girl who can breathe underwater. They bring her back to their ship and name her Dolphin. She has gills that allow her to breathe water, but her lungs cannot sustain her in air for long, so she returns to the water.

While Landau and his team work to open the safe containing the documents, a typhoon approaches. The seamen convince Dolphin to help them get the documents out of the sunken ship's safe. The typhoon strikes before she can finish the job and the wreck is pushed into a deep chasm. Landau returns to his ship believing Dolphin and the documents lost forever. He is surprised when the girl surfaces with the papers in hand.

As the ship leaves the area to avoid the harsh weather, Landau invites Dolphin to return to home with him. However, the girl indicates that she belongs at sea and dives back into the water. It would be ten years before Dolphin would appear again and then only in the character-packed pages of Showcase #100. Then in 1984 Dolphin would reappear as one of the Forgotten Heroes in the pages of Action Comics #552 and #553. Dolphin would nexct appear in Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-1986. Dolphin was later "adopted" by Peter David and showed up in Justice League Task Force #7-8 as well as becoming a part of Aquaman's supporting cast druing David's run. In 2002-2003 she was a supporting character in the Aquaman series and gave birth to Aqualad's child.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

Showcase #78

Showcase #78 (On Sale: September 12, 1968) has very nice Johnny Double cover by Dick Giordano.

"Meet Jonny Double..." is plotted by Marv Wolfman, scripted by Joe Gill and drawn by Jack Sparling. Down-on-his-luck private investigator Jonny Double gets a case to help Wilson Twain, a financier who has received death threats from the synicate. Jonny begins questioning underworld informants and draws the attention of the criminals. After taking a beating, Jonny traces the crooks to businessmen Piker and Glass. He is spotted snooping in their office, and the crooks try to kill him. Jonny stays alive and defeats the crooks, leaving them for Lt. Branigan his former boss on the police force.

The last five single issue debuts in Showcase resulted in five six-issue series, but Johnny Double would not be so lucky. The story I have read, and I don't remember where, is that Johnny Double was supposed to be a "Disguise Expert/Bodyguard," who would through the use of disguise become the body double of someone targeted for murder. For some reason the "Double" name was kept, but the concept was jettisoned. Four years later Len Wein would revisit that concept in The Human Target in the pages of Action Comics.

As for Johnny Double, he was a character that, for a time, would not die. He was revived in 1970 in Challengers of the Unknown #79 (an issue also featuring Deadman and a few pages drawn by Neal Adams) and then more famously went on for a stint in Wonder Woman beginning in 1972.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

Showcase #77

Showcase #77 (On Sale: July 25, 1968) has a wonderful Angel and the Ape cover by Bob Oksner and Tex Blaisdell.

"Angel and the Ape" is by John Albano, Bob Oksner and Tex Blaisdell and this is John Albano's first writing for DC. Albano would go on to creat one of the biggest western hits DC ever had in Jonah Hex. Mr. Trumbell hires Angel O'Day, a private investigator, to protect him from men trying to kill him. Angel and her partner Sam Simeon, an intelligent gorilla help fight off several attackers, then Sam leaves to deliver a comic strip to Stan Bragg, editor of Brainpix Comics.

After dropping off the artwork, Sam returns home where he receives a call for help from Angel. She has been kidnapped along with Trumbell. Sam traces them to the local zoo and rescues Angel. Together they locate Trumbell and his captor, the zookeeper. Angel exposes the zookeeper as a spy who was trying to retrieve secret plans hidden inside a cast on Trumbell's foot. While the plans seems to be for a new rocket, they are actually plans for a new ride at Disneyland.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Showcase #76

Showcase #76 (On Sale: June 13, 1968) is a classic issue featuring the debut of DC's most conflicted western hero, Bat Lash. It sports a nice cover by Nick Cardy and puts forth the question asked in dozens of DC house ads (see below) in the previous months: "Will he Save the West -- or Ruin it?"

As Sergio Aragones told Mark Evanier at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con:

I was, by that time, living in New York and I was called by Joe Orlando and Carmine Infantino. We went to a restaurant next to DC Comics and they talked about new projects and stuff. They said they wanted to create a different western and they had the name, "Bat Lash." I said, "Don't say anymore. I'll bring you something."

So I went home and thought of a more European western. In those times, all the westerns were very, very aggressive with the cliché of the American Cowboy with very beautiful clothes and able to shoot guns out of other people's hands.

I have adored the western I brought in ideas and sketches and they liked what I did. They took it to Nick and said, "Go ahead!" It's very hard because I write the way I talk...pretty bad. [laughter] People don't understand so what I do to save time (and it's much easier for me because I'm more visual) I draw my scripts and put in very basic dialogue. I would put in notes to the artist saying, "Please don't use this as reference!" [laughter]

Instead of writing about a saucer, for instance, it was just as easy for me to draw a saucer. So I would do the scripts on 8-1/2" x 11" paper, divided into panels, and I would draw the story very crudely, but with no intention for the artist to follow the drawings. When I saw the first work that Nick did, I was so emotional.

(Pheasant in Aspic) is written by Sergio Aragones and drawn by Nick Cardy. Bat Lash is forced to leave town when the boyfriend of a woman that he has been romancing tries to kill him. On his trip to the next town of Welcome, Bat Lash catches a pheasant which he intends to have for dinner. When he reaches Welcome, he notices that most of the honest people are leaving town. Criminals have taken over the town making it unsafe for good people.

Bat Lash brings his pheasant to the local restaurant to have it cooked. Diane, the woman running the place, wants to leave town, but Bat Lash refuses to let her leave until he has dinner. He then goes to the general store to buy additional ingredients.

Bat is confronted by crooks who try to force him out of town. The cowboy proves stubborn and hard to kill. Despite several attacks and trouble from the locals, Bat Lash finally gets Diane to finish cooking his dinner. When he offers her the first bite, she refuses to eat since it has been poisoned. Diane admits that she is the head of the criminal gang, so Bat Lash escorts her to the nearest jail before leaving town. Shamefully never reprinted.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Showcase #75

Showcase #75 (On Sale: April 23, 1968) has a cover by Steve Ditko, who, like lightning, strikes again with The Hawk and the Dove.

"In the Beginning..." is scripted by Steve Skeates (in his first work for DC) and plotted and drawn by Steve Ditko. Even though Ditko would bail on this strip quickly, I loved the concept and in the turbulent radical 60s, the Hawk and the Dove was about as relevant as you could get. Of course Ditko only really cared about the Hawk and this strip was supposed to be a political statement by Ditko, one DC never really let reach where Steve wanted it to go.

Hank and Don Hall are brothers and high school students with radically different views of the world. Hank is aggressive and believes in using force to back up his beliefs. Don is passive and seeks negotiation and compromise over violence. The boys' father Irwin Hall is a judge at the Elmond County Courthouse. He tries to encourage the boys to use logic to form their beliefs.

When Irwin Hall sentences racket boss Dargo to prison, the mob strikes back with an attempt to kill the judge. They only succeed in injuring him, while Hank briefly glimpses the bomber. When Hanks sees the mobster later, he and Don follow the crook back to his hideout. They overhear the crooks plotting another assassination attempt on the judge, but are powerless to do anything.

When Don wishes for power to save their father, a disembodied voice grants them power to stop injustice. It transforms them into the costumed super-heroes Hawk and Dove. The boys then race to the hospital to save their dad from the killers. After the fight, they learn that Judge Hall considers them vigilantes and lawbreakers, so they don't reveal their true identities to him. Hard to believe that this strip has never been reprinted as it is classic Ditko.

Now, not everyone was happy with how this book turned out, Steve Skeates being the major dissenter. In Comic Book Artist #5 Skeates said:

There were all sorts of problems with the Showcase issue. Although a lot of people have said that they really like that issue I think a major problem with it was that Dick was trying to please the Comics Code.

One of the rules was that you couldn't question authority so every time I had the Dove say something against the U.S. government, Dick would change that to some sort of nebulous "they." To me it comes off as terribly written with a lot of pronouns without any nouns that they are referring back to.

On his contribution to the creation of the strip Skeates said:

It was developed by committee. There was Dick [Giordano], Carmine [Infantino], [Steve] Ditko and me. Carmine came up with the title and he attended all the meetings. Part of the concept was to directly appeal to, I don't know, the counter-culture. My main contribution was that they had to say their names to change into the characters.

They were trying to come up with a "Shazam," a magic word and I said, Why don't we have them just say their character names?" They went along with that. I also created the community in which they lived, the college town. Steve Ditko came up with the major concepts, the costumes, the powers, the characters - just about everything. The judge was definitely his idea.

Edited by Carmine Infantino in the indica but actually edited by Dick Giordano.