From 1962, DOCTOR SOLAR #1, another of my favorite Silver Age comics.
The writing is smart, and the artwork by Bob ("Fuje") Fujitani is sophisticated. Later on Solar took on a costume and I thought the comic lost something, but I always had the first issues to look at. Another big plus for me at the time was the cover by Richard Powers, one of the top paperback cover artists of the day. I collected his work then as now.
Copyright 1962 K.K. Publications, Inc.
Love it! Thanks for posting this one.
ReplyDeleteA good read, used my magnifier hee, hee. There was a day when I seriously thought about being an illustrator, but my Mom didn't think there was a future in it. MOM'S what ya gonna do!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, I would occasionally get an issue of Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom, but I wasn't quite sure what to make of them. Partly that was because I didn't get to read an origin story; and, anyway, his special abilities were rather a hodge-podge. Partly that was because the interior art was rather more like that of '60s magazine illustration or soap-opera comic strips than that in DC or Marvel comics; and the covers looked like those of the science-fiction paperbacks from that era. And partly it was because Solar was published by Gold Key, which only published two or three superhero-type comics books, and otherwise did television spin-offs Disney characters, &c.
ReplyDeleteI liked the pre-costumed DOCTOR SOLAR; later when he got his superhero long johns I wasn't as impressed, because the artwork didn't match the dynamism of Marvel Comics. I give Gold Key credit for trying a superhero without a costume but the times then (as now) demanded it.
ReplyDeleteThere's a business reason for that, too. The publisher couldn't copyright an image of a superhero in a white lab coat like it could a unique costume.