Supergirl Honda Special (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In 1983, Elizabeth Dole, wife of then Kansas senator Bob Dole was appointed as Secretary of Transportation for the Reagan administration. Dole's first initiative was for seat belt safety. At the time of her appointment, only about 20% of Americans wore seat belts when driving. Compared to a 2013 report that claimed almost 95% of Americans use them, Dole's efforts must have worked.

In 1984, the Department of Transportation commissioned DC Comics to release an educational comic book to school students. American Honda financed the book's publication which started the Maid of Might, Supergirl. Superman's cousin was at the time a wise choice. A highly anticipated live action film was in the works. It was slated to be a huge blockbuster hit. Unfortunately, it was anything but. Still, countless thousands of copies of the Supergirl Honda Special, as it's most commonly referred to, were made, given away to school children as part of the federal agency's driver safety program. 

Jump to 1986. Supergirl has been dead for a few months, thanks to the events of DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths at the hand of the Anti-Monitor. Not only dead, Supergirl was retconned out of existence as well. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation is seeing some success with its highway safety campaign. A year prior, Michigan became the first state to enact seat belt safety requirements. It's limited in scope. But it's a start. A few months later, North Carolina became the first start to make it mandatory that all car riders wear seat belts. By the end of 1985, only 5 states and the District of Columbia had passed seat belt safety laws. So Secretary Dole ups the campaign with a rather unlikely duo. But to bring these characters to the public eye will once again require the services of the Last Girl of Krypton. 

In the first Supergirl giveaway, the hero must use technology from the Fortress of Solitude to enter the mind of a young man who's in a coma as the result of a car crash where he wasn't buckled up. In this issue, Kara Danvers is driving a brother and sister pair in her forest green Honda when a mysterious force plucks the siblings out of their seat belts and into the middle of Motorville.

The city of Motorville is a place of traffic chaos. Thankfully, Supergirl arrives to save the kids from an on-coming car driven by Humpty Dumpty! As the trio try to find their way home, they encounter characters from beloved nursery rhymes, all who need lessons in seat belt safety. Through their zany encounters, Supergirl and friends are made aware of a special show that might help them find their way home.

The show is a demonstration on how seat belts save lives. The highlight of the show is a car that drives into a brick wall. While the driver is wearing his safety belt, the passenger is not. And he flies through the windshield into the barrier! But don't worry about them. For the riders are Vince and Larry: those amazing Crash Test Dummies!

The 1986 Supergirl Honda Special marks the first appearance of those road safety PSA icons in comic book form. After the book's release, Vince and Larry would star in dozens of commercials preaching the need for wearing your seat belt. In 1991, Tyco toys released a series of toys based on the duo called The Amazing Crash Test Dummies. With these figures, you could place them inside a special car and crash them through playsets while delighting as the figures flew into pieces. Then kids got to build them back together and wreck 'em once more. Until their campaign was retired in 1999, a number of other products were licensed with the likenesses of Vince and Larry. Costumes, video games, dolls, a lunch box and more were among the items telling everyone that 'you could learn a lot from a dummy.' In 1993, the dummies would return to comics with a 3-issue series by family friendly publisher Harvey. 

Supergirl and the Crash Test Dummies fates are apparently forever intertwined. As the book was Vince and Larry's debut, it marked Kara Zor-El/Linda Danvers last appearance in comics for quite some time. As the Crash Test Dummies enjoyed popularity in American pop culture, a number of usurpers to the Supergirl crown would appear in comics, including the alien shape-shifter Matrix. 1999-2003 was a dark age with no Supergirl or Dummies. Then a light shone through and the planets aligned in 2004. In that year, Fox began to air a number of animated shorts starring Vince and Larry as Hot Wheels introduced it's line of Crash Test Dummies toys simultaneously as the original Supergirl was reintroduced into the DCU in issues 8-13 of Superman/Batman.

The 1986 special was written by Andrew Helfer with additional dialogue by Barry Marx. Character art by Joe Orlando. Background art by Dave Hunt. 

Completing this review completes Task #36 (An Educational Comic) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

John Carter of Mars: Weird Worlds

When I found this book at a used book store, I was super happy. I've read several of the John Carter of Mars books written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and I was looking forward to some new adventures in comic book form. Well, I got half my wish.

This collection of John Carter stories covers the 1972-73 run in the back of issues Tarzan and Weird Worlds. Murphy Anderson, Marv Wolfman and Joe Orlando were the creative trio behind the majority of these stories. And here's where my wish was left completely fulfilled. The comics are a present faithful recount of the first two Burroughs works about Mars: A Princess of Mars and The Gods of Mars. Then books 3-5 get smushed together. 

I don't really mind rereading the adventures of John Carter and Dejah Thoris on arid Barsoom (the Martian word for Mars). It's just not what I was expecting. 

Since Tarzan, another Edgar Rice Burroughs creation, was published at the same time by DC, there's a very good chance that those stories are adaptations as well. That won't be such a problem for myself considering I've never read a Tarzan novel. But for those of you who might be Tarzan fans and you're looking for all-new Greystoke adventures from 1970s DC, you probably are in the same boat I was with John Carter of Mars: Weird Worlds.

The writing was very faithful. The art was amazing. Exquisite. About as sexy as you can get without going into the realm of Frank Frazetta. If characters wearing very little clothes is a problem for you; this is not the book for you. 

Possibly NSFW sci-fi.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Big Book of the 70s

Marie Severin, Rick Geary, Joe Orlando and dozens more fan favorite artists bring the 1970s back to life in The Big Book of the 70s.

While not everything that made the 70s my favorite decade is adequately covered in this book, there's a lot of biggies here. The Pet Rock. Watergate. Vietnam. Punk and Disco. This book is supposed to be about 1970-1979. Yet, a good portion of this book looks at the years that led to the Me-Decade as well as the aftermath of the decades that followed. But then again, any history book worth it's salt must focus on both the cause and effects of history!

I did learn a lot about things of the 70s that I knew very little to nothing about. Things like how the Sex Pistols got their name. Just who is Gary Gilmore? And there was tons of fun facts peppered throughout this book.

I wasn't such a big fan of the writing. The Witching's Jonathan Vankin does a good job at presenting the facts. But he puts too much of his own commentary into the book. I was quite surprised how anti-Jerry Brown the author is. Same with Jimmy Carter. But he really skewers Reagan and portrays the 80s icon as a demon. Quite unfairly, I must say...

One subject I was surprised is absent here was the rise of the gay community. Harvey Milk is completely absent from this book. There's also nothing about the Black Panthers. And this has got to be the first book I've ever read that covers the 1970s and doesn't dip it's toe into the sensationalism that is Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre! 

Maybe not the most complete look at 10 turbulent years in world history. But you learn things that have been glossed over in American history as well. I didn't know we had a meat shortage in the 70s and I am a professional chef.  But hey, we got to learn about the 1970s in graphic novel/comics form. And that's pretty groovy!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: a very fitting 7 out of 10 stars.

The Big Book of Urban Legends

 

  The escaped mental patient hiding in the backseat...
    Alligators living in the sewers of New York...
    The woman who microwaved her dog in the microwave...
   
     Urban legends. We've all heard of these stories. Whether we've told these stories around a glowing campfire or heard that these really happened (to a friend of a friend), our culture is filled with these stories. Some tales have were born from a bit of truth. Others are steeped in our fears or prejudices. But no matter where these urban legends came from, they've become a little bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.
     I found the Big Book of Urban Legends in a bargain bin in one of my favorite local comics shops. I've been a fan of the Big Book series, published by now defunct DC Comics imprint Paradox Press, for quite some time and when I can find one to complete my collection, I rarely hesitate to own one. Maybe I'm biased but this one just happened to have a little bit of a special history for me.
    The Big Book of Urban Legends was written by noted folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand. My mother, a lover of Gothic horror in her own right, just happened to own a trio of books devoted to urban legends and these books coincidentally were written by Brunvand!
     I remember one rainy weekend that I found my mom's copies and read them- no I devoured them! Some were scary. Some were weird. Some were even titillating. But above all, they were all captivating. As a result, I became a fan of urban legends and this was a fun trip down memory lane for me in a way.
    This collection features dozens of artists who tackled their favorite myths. Legends such as Joe Orlando, Dick Giordano, and Keith Griffin are just some of the talent found in this volume of over 200 different legends. Even this Madman's fan favorite Fred Hembeck illustrates a yarn about a car enthusiast and his jealous wife.  
      The Big Book of Urban Legends was a fun read. The only problem I have with it is that I didn't wait until closer to Halloween to read it and October just seems to me to be the perfect time to read urban legends and myths. But let's be honest folks, stories like the Vanishing Hitchhiker in which someone picks up a lonely girl on the side of a road only to learn she died years earlier, are NOT urban legends. Those are ghost stories and they deserved their own Big Book. But hey, it's still fun to read and maybe get a little freaked out.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
   

Silverblade #1

  Jonathan Lord had it all- good looks, a lucrative movie career, ladies, fame, and fortune. Bad decisions, vices, and age have caused Jonathan to loose just about everything except his mansion Shangri-la and a modest nest egg, thanks to his most famous role the Silver Blade, which is due to be a blockbuster at movie theatres next summer. Now, a virtual recluse, Lord stays in his private screening room, watching his younger self on screen over and over.

    Jonathan's butler Bobby Milestone, is a former child actor who starred in the Silver Blade with Jonathan. Unable to find work, Milestone ended up becoming Jonathan's butler. As a hobby, Milestone collects replicas of the Maltese Falcon which he finds at memorabilia shops around Hollywood. Looking to rob Shangri-la for a big pay day and possible snuff out Lord on the side, Milstone's collection is destroyed by a pair of thugs. 

   Yet, when one of his newest acquisitions that winds up being the actual Maltese Falcon, breaks on impact, the former movie legend is blessed with magical powers of a all-consuming flame that bathes Jonathan. Now with the ability to become any of the characters he portrayed on screen and suddenly 40 years younger, what will Jonathan Lord do with his new lease on life?

    I had seen ads for this maxi-series from 1987-88 since I started collecting comics again in 2007. But it wasn't until a year ago that I finally found several of these issues at a comic book store in Asheville. It took a few more months but I finally completed this collection and was ready to read it and then I got busy reading other stuff. That was until I came across an ad in an old issue of something from DC and it sparked my interest to give this series a go.

    The first chapter starts off slow. But I assume that will 11 more issues, the build-up in introducing the major players was sorely needed. Once the robbers attack Lord's compound, the story, written by Cary Bates (Justice League of America, Superman), really took off. Next thing I know it, the story says 'to be continued' and I've reached the back cover. 

   The art team behind this series is an all-star group of some of the best talents in DC Comics history. Gene Colan, Joe Orlando, Anthony Tollin, and Klaus Johnson are just a handful of the talented artists that worked on this series. Oh, if only this was the 90s and I could've gotten this issue signed. Man, that would've been a treasure.

   Not bad for an opening chapter. It shows promise. I just expect a lot more in issue #2.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.