Wollongong Comic Convention

                             May 2022

     The comic book convention held at Wollongong in May was a great success. There were plenty of stalls selling comic books at cheap, affordable prices. 

  

 There were quite  few people in fancy costumes in the mall and the public library, 

 

There were people in fancy costume easily recognized as the characters they were portraying. Above we have The Batman.

Look closely and you will see Spiderman with Doctor Strange.

Here we have Spiderman with a birdman.

Here we have an angel. It was a sunny day. No rain which has become a rarity this year on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Bridge at Towradgi Creek

 Joe Simon and Jack Kirby of the 

 Golden Age in American Art 

     The Superhero is about as American as you can get. No other country, including Australia and the UK, have ever been as successful with them. Gaudy costumes and plenty of biff was how it all started. One of the reasons why the 1930s and 1940s was called the Golden Age was because there was little in the way of censorship. Anything went that might get sales. 

      In 1930s USA, jobs for artists were hard to come by up until Superman and then Batman hit the newsstands in the latter half of this decade, opening up new, exciting possibilities. Not every costumed character was set to last long and neither was every publisher in the field who thought comic books were the way to make money. Pulp magazines were still flourishing but they were a hit and miss gambit. Most people in the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand had radios. There was music and comedy. Also adventure stories containing mystery men such as The Shadow.

     Joe Simon and Jack Kirby teamed up, grabbing whatever work in the relatively new field of comic books that was going. They had a rugged style in which there was plenty of action, moving what were then simple plots along.

      Not every costumed character created by Simon and Kirby would be gold just as not every publisher they came to work for stayed in the game long enough to be a success. Characters such as The Black Owl, Stuntman and The Vagabond Prince are best remembered by collectors and comic book historians.  

   

     One thing they are best remembered for is the creation of Captain America for Timely which eventually became Marvel. There were other patriotic heroes but this particular one has outlasted many of his contemporaries.

     Even before the USA came into the 2nd World War, comic book artists, writers and editors had plenty to say about what was happening and had been going on in Europe. Many of them were the sons and daughters of migrants and still had relatives living in countries being taken over. Also, many of them were Jewish and were well aware of the NAZI dislike for Jews.

     The artists and writers of the 1930s and 1940s were mostly young men. When they reached the right age they enlisted in the military. Gene Colan, who became popular from his work in the 1970s Tomb of Dracula series for Marvel, was an MP stationed in Hawaii during the war. 

     Stan Lee's contribution to comic book patriotism, during the war, was a costumed spy called The Destroyer who worked with the German underground and other underground agencies to bring an end to the Nazi reign of terror.

      It can be noted that not all Germans were considered by the artists and writers to be bad but that was not true, as far as I am aware, when it came to the Japanese. They were depicted as yellow and evil. Back before the war, the Chinese, in some comic book and pulp magazines, were depicted this way but, since the Chinese were allies during the war, that changed. 

 

     After the war, the interest in costumed characters faded. In search of the next big thing, Simon and Kirby invented the Romance comic book which, for a while, was popular. In the 1950s there was a short lived revival of the superhero since someone, like Simon and Kirby's Fighting American, had to take on the Reds. Sales, however, were not good. Then there was self imposed censorship. Simon got out and went into advertising. Kirby teamed up with Stan Lee, launching the Marvel superheroes of the 1960s in the Silver Age of comics. Simon worked briefly with Kirby on The Fly for Archie comics but that, as far as I know, was their last team up in the comic book field. They remained friends even though they did go their separate ways. 

  

               AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND 

     Last February's trip to New Zealand made for a great holiday. It was the first time I had been out of Australia in decades. The people there were friendly and I was hoping to go back  in 2022 but, unfortunately, there is this pandemic in the way of doing so. New Zealanders haven't been as badly hit by as Australians and I don't blame them at all for keeping it that way. Meanwhile I have my memories of that time away and also a fistful of pics you might enjoy. I know there will come a time when we will again be able to venture overseas. 

     Like Sydney, the city of Auckland is a mixture of old and new. This needle is a place of gambling and also fine dining. Personally, I don't care for games of chance.

     In Auckland there are signs that New Zealand, like Australia, is connected to the greater British Empire.

     There are such lion's heads in Sydney. This one was found in Auckland.

     The water in Auckland's harbour is surprisingly green. From this harbour it is possible to take day trips to nearby islands.

There are terns on some of the outlying islands.

There is also art to be found on some of the outlying islands.

     Like Sydney, the city of Auckland has birdlife that originally came from elsewhere such as this blackbird.

     The museum at Auckland has many treasures of the past and touches upon the history of New Zealand in a profound way. 

      It should be noted that if you really want to have a good time in Auckland and you are over fifty then don't stay at a backpacker's hotel. 

                  The Power House Characters 

                         of the 20th Century

     In 1912 Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs was first published. This would lead to many a sequel, comic books, a movie serial, lots of motion pictures and an adhesive named Tarzan's Grip after the main character. How many of us, however, have read Tarzan of the Apes to find out what it was like, to be spirited back to 1912, and be  one of those readers who picked up the book for the first time? The thing is we cannot get completely into that mindset, we cannot be exactly like one of the first lot of readers to pick up the book because so much time has passed but we can do our best. Good writing allows us some leverage.

     Certain prejudices have arisen against this book over the years. Are, for example, black Africans discriminated against? I would say no because, for every less than perfect black man you have in this book, you have an equally unimpressive white man. 

     The big difference between the natives and the European types is advanced technology. Burroughs does not approve of European colonization of Africa but understands that it will go on because of advanced technology.

       Tarzan, as improbable as he is, can be seen as the great survivor. Did he do so because of his regal family background? Good blood will tell and all that?  Burroughs throws this in as part of the answer to Tarzan coming to, not only live, but also rule over the apes, but only as part of the answer. The love for an ape mother for a child, even a human one, also comes into play.

     To the manor born being of some importance is not a view we would take today but, back in 1912, there were still fond memories of Queen Victoria, who passed away in 1901, and the hope that her children would do well for both Britain and the rest of the world. Even in the USA there was that feeling nobility meant something. In 1914 the  death of a minor royal figure and his wife would bring on the First World War. 

     The book is not perfect. As a teenager Tarzan suffers from wounds anyone would die from without at least receiving some medical aid. Later on a facial scar becomes nothing much because Jane Porter needs to see Tarzan as handsome. Also the ending may not appeal to most readers but you do have to get through the book to arrive there. 

     How Tarzan learns to read and write does make more sense than the way the creature in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein discovered how to read. Tarzan had pictures to go by and simple, straightforward text meant for someone young and just starting out as a reader. It is understandable that Tarzan cannot immediately relate text, bugs on a page, with speech.

     Jane Porter, Tarzan's love interest, might irk some modern readers because she is more representational of the young American woman of the 19th rather than the 20th Century. Also she represents a class of American womanhood that, as far as I know, no longer exists. She has courage but her understanding of life, and also what Burroughs understands, does come from an earlier time in our collective history. 

     There have been numerous characters created by others, over the years, that owe at least a part of their existence to Tarzan's creation. They include The Phantom. There is also Marvel's Ka-Zar with his sabre-toothed tiger companion and Sheena the She-Devil.  

     Tarzan of the Apes is short and well paced. It is fit for any library and is part of the history of pulp fiction. Highly recommended.  

     Before the coming of Superman there were numerous costumed heroes with their various skill sets. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (1905), through guile, rescued aristocrats from the guillotine during the bloody years after the French Revolution. He was the master of disguise and, built into some of his costumes, were tools and weapons that could be used when he got into a tight spot. 

     The Phantom (1936), the ghost who walks, the man who cannot die wore a distinctive outfit meant to frighten pirates and other evil doers. The Phantom, created by Lee Falk, remains the only costumed character I know of that is generational. In other words, the role is passed on from father to son. In this way only he cannot die, so long as the line of succession remains unbroken. 

     Superman stands above the rest as being the first of these costumed heroes with power above that of ordinary men. The others could and were strong in their own ways but not above human. Originally Superman couldn't fly. He merely leapt great distances. He was strong but not invulnerable. His ability to fly and also be invulnerable would come later. The cape and the S were always there but, in the early days, in crude form. 

     Lois Lane was keen to get out of writing the newspaper pages meant for women and do real reporting. She always had gumption and needed the occasional saving by Superman. Her rivalry as a reporter with Clark Kent (Superman's alter ego) was there from the start. She was always after the big story and this meant big trouble.

     Superman, like the Phantom, could be rough on criminals in the first issues of Action Comics and then his own title. His campaign against slums was to tear them down and thus force the city to put up decent housing for all citizens. Would this work in real life? I doubt it but the story did highlight the need for better housing that was a real problem in 1930s and 1940s America.

     As war loomed, patriotic American heroes with superpowers, such as the Shield and Captain America, emerged to fight the good fight. As enemies, the Germans were treated slightly better in the comics than the Japanese. 

     First finding a home for Superman, by creators Siegel and Shuster, was not easy. It was to be an action newspaper comic strip but the newspapers didn't want it. What was then DC took their chances with Superman in the very first issue of Action Comics (1938) and also invested in Siegel and Shuster's detective, Slam Bradley. Both were successful but it was Superman that went on to spawn a couple of movie serials, a radio program, movies, a number of television shows and gave rise to the superhero phenomenon. 

     Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, when they created the Hulk (man into monster) for Marvel in the 1960s, decided to make him able to leap great distances due to the strength in his legs,  but not be able to fly. Perhaps this was their salute to Seigel and Shuster. 

      In May, 1939 Bob Kane's The Batman was introduced to the world in Detective Comics 27. The art was crude by anyone's standards but The Batman took off. The character has remained consistently popular with the public ever since and there have been movie serials, movies and television shows. Batman's sidekick, Robin the boy wonder, was introduced in Detective Comics number 38 of 1940. On the cover of this issue there is a tiny DC publications insignia. 

     The art was improving and so were the stories. Back then the bat-plane could have a machinegun attachment and there were few qualms about villains being killed off. The Batman had gadgets from the start but no superpowers. Characters such as Cat-woman and the Joker slowly came to the fore. Back then it took a while for comic book producers to realize that a colourful bad guy could boost sales.

     Marvel's Moon Knight (1975) is somewhat reminiscent of this early Batman.