Champion Sports #1 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

One of the forgotten anthologies of DC Comics. Debuting in 1973, this series, devoted to the athletic feats of youngsters and young adults, lasted a whopping 3 issues. Joe Simon was the editor and head writer for Champion Sports. Each issue contained 3 stories each. That means there was a grand total of 9 stories in the short lived series. Jerry Grandenetti penciled every story with inks provided by Creig Flessel.

Issue #1 presents readers with a baseball story, a soapbox derby race and a battle between rival track stars.

'The Kid Who Beat The Oakland A's' is the story of David Wexler. He's not really that good of an athlete. But as an aspiring writer who wants to document the experience, he's got to make the team. David is about to be cut when he injures his shoulder which miraculously turns him into an ace pitcher. A couple of years later, Wexler joins an expansion team straight out of high school where his career puts him against the defending national champs, the Oakland A's!

Story #2 is called 'The Little Racer'. It's an unlikely story about a lad who dreams of winning his town's soapbox derby. From a poor family, the boy can't afford those fancy kits of aluminum and fiberglass bodies like the other kids can. Fatefully, while testing out his latest design, his cart is destroyed by a biker gang who feels sorry for their actions and winds up stealing parts for a replacement racer! 

The final story titled 'The First Hurdle', could be considered what Brian's Song would have been if Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo allowed racial strife to come between the two of them. A young Irish track star is excited to meet his new roomie and teammate; one with the last name of Kelly. However the white student-athlete is incensed that Kelly is black! Thus begins a story about race and how bigotry can prevent a pair of supposed compatriots from gelling as a cohesive unit.

I feel like I've experienced the opening story of this issue before. Having a kid become a major league fastball throwing pitcher thanks to an arm injury is the exact plot of 1993's Rookie of the Year. I wonder if screenwriter Sam Harper used this obscure comic as inspiration!

The soapbox derby car tale would have been funny if it was written to be a farce. Instead, Simon has the story play out as a drama with a predictable ending. Though would early 1970s race officials really postpone a heat to let one of the drivers run home to change clothes? 

'The First Hurdle' was another story full of missed opportunities. It ends with Kelly having to fill in for his racist teammate in the climatic relay event, after an injury. Later Kelly confronts his fellow athlete but the ending is left kinda bitter and tragic, without any hopes of change or reconciliation. Considering how optimistic the first two sports stories end, the realistic yet depressing end of the final account, leaves the reader unfulfilled.

Champion Sports #1 ends with a lengthy one-page article on the early development of baseball. Written by Allan Asherman, it's a pretty informative piece that actually questions the validity of the myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball! Quite a bit of the piece includes baseball's popularity that occurred during the Civil War, making this issue a must for Civil War buffs who also collect comic books!

Cover art for this issue by Grandenetti and Flessel.

Completing this review completes Task #37 (A Sports Story) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

DC 1st Issue Special #1 (2022 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Challenge)

Thanks to a rumored paper shortage thanks to Marvel Comics, Carmine Infantino released a number of new series. The thought was if DC boasted a large enough order, they wouldn't miss out on the limited amount of newsprint held by their distributors. Out of this game plan, DC released an anthology series similar to Showcase Presents titles titled 1st Issue Special. 

The debut issue feature Jack Kirby's premiere of the mythologcial character Atlas. Kirby had previously tooled with the character to little avail. Issue #2 featured Kirby's former creative partner Joe Simon. Along with artist Jerry Grandenetti, Simon created a kid-centric title called The Green Team. 

The Green Team was comprised of 3 child millionaires. There's the Commodore, a shipping magnate with a toy boat that really pops! JP Huston is an oil tycoon who is more interested in adventure than digging oil wells. Cecil Sunbeam is a director who never uses a script but manages to produce amazing blockbusters. 

As the Green Team, these boy millionaires meeting regularly to agree on funding projects for the price of a cool million bucks. Through the crack pots and the occasional greedy Gus, the Green Team wade through the proposals to find the diamond in the roughs in hopes of making more money of their investments.

The only rule to join the Green Team is that the members must have at least $1 million dollars in their bank accounts. Thanks to a computer error that pays off in the stock market, the Green Team has welcomed it's newest member- Abdul Smith, a black shoeshine boy who longs to be a part of an elite club. 

In the Green Team's first adventure, they fund a project that promises to replace print, music, TV and movies with the ultimate pleasure experience. All done by computers. A shyster leads a protest of actors and performers who claim the Green Team's latest venture will put them out of a job. But deep down, the protest leader is just hoping for a shakedown. And he'll get his just desserts when he barricades himself into the pleasure-dome as the human mind just can't handle that much entertainment!

1st Issue Special marked the only official full comics appearance of the Green Team. The response to the comic was enough to green light a regular series. Two issues were plotted out and illustrated. Unfortunately, the DC impulsion resulted in the series being scrapped. Only those lucky enough to get their hands on the fabled 2-volume Cancelled Comics Cavalcade got to read those tales. 

Other than the occasional cameo, the Green Team operated in the shadows of the DC Universe. Then in 2013, with the New 52, the Green Team finally returned to print. Thanks to inflation, members had to be trillionaires to join the club. Cecil was gender-swapped into Cecilia. Adbul was replaced as the young Arab prince, Mohammed Qahtanni. Instead of longing to fund exciting projects, this Green Team sought to become superheroes who used money to save the day. The series lasted 8 issues. 

As for the issue itself, this is an odd duck. The artwork is great. But it's also a product of the times. With Simon and Grandenetti being in the later stages of middle age, their attempts at teen lingo was about a decade out of date. The addition of the colored Abdul was revolutionary for it's time, marking him as one of the first black characters in comics that wasn't portrayed as a stereotype or sidekick.

Honestly, I was surprised to learn that the Green Team was popular enough to merit a potential series. But it really doesn't surprise me that it got the ax considering how unlike DC this title was. The Green Team reads more like a satire of America's growing millionaire culture. With the boys admitting that their theme park was a failure so they'll have some fun blowing the structure to bits, this issue was more like something you'd expect to find in the pages of Mad Magazine. Not as a DC Comic. Experimental or otherwise.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #24 (With A Green Cover) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Fighting American: The Ties That Bind #1

Imagine if Captain America and Speedy were in reality Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson from Batman '66. Instead of operating in their time period of the nifty 1950s, the duo are transported to the present day. Here in the present, they find that the inventions of their most insane foe has fallen into the hands of sophisticated modern day criminals. 

That's the new take on the Fighting American and his youthful sidekick Speedboy by Titan Comics in a very large nutshell. 

The Fighting American was the creation of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. It was created as a follow-up to Captain America after their tenure at Timely, then Atlas Comics, came to a terse end. The publisher had decided to bring back Captain America in the 1950s against the wishes of Kirby and Simon. In response a Fighting American was born.

By the second issue, Fighting American had become a satire of patriotic comics. That tongue-in-cheek approach is kicked into high gear in this latest series from Gordon Rennie (Dredd Vs Death.) 

I highly enjoyed the first half of this book. Fighting American and Speedboy are aided through a zombie attack by their FBI liaison Agent Rutherford. Fighting American is so firmly rooted in his time period of 1954 and is very troubled by the bad influence today's TV is having on his sidekick.

The art by Andie Tong was really cool. It had a Mike and Laura Allred quality to it. The amazing inks and colors (by Tracy Bailey) are definitely inspired by the House of Allred.

But around the halfway point this story goes from fun parody of old school crime fighters to full scale assault on Trump supporters, Republicans and Southerners. And does every comic book published in 2018 have to assume anyone from the South is an inbred idiot? Not everyone of us residents of the South owns a hat with the letters MAGA on it or pronounces education as 'ed-u-mah-cation.'

I was born and raised in the South and I have two degrees and zero guns. My walls are not wall papered with stained American flags. My home doesn't have more wheels than the cars parked in my driveway. Yet this is what writer Gordon Rennie will have you believe is typical of us Southern yokels.

Gordon Rennie is Scottish. Writers are supposed to research their material. Based on the second half of this issue, I think all Gordon Rennie did was study reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard and Hee-Haw. 

Regardless, this brand of stereotyping (and ignorance) really ticks me off! I see this cliche way too often in comics and graphic novels- especially British publications. Coincidently, Titan is based in the UK, thus tihs Fighting American series is British. It also makes me not want to pursue the adventures of the Fighting American further, no matter how much I enjoyed the first half.

Titan Comics- you had such promise with this title. But you threw it right in the toilet when you decided to allow the creative team behind this to assume anyone born in the American South is as ignorant as the characters you bias in this first issue. I challenge your writing team to visit me in Durham, NC and I will show you have wrong you are. Yes, some of us 'hillbillies' are as prejudice as can be. But I can show you how wrong your first assumptions are and that the South is way more progressive than you think!

There is satire and then there is stereotype. Sadly Titan, your new title gets the two confused at the risk of alienating readers such as me.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.

Fighting American: The Ties That Bind #1 debuted in stores on March 7, 2018.

Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir

   If I am wrong about this, forgive me- For the first time ever, Stan Lee recounts his 70+ years in the comics industry in graphic novel form. 
  
    It's the way Stan the Man's autobiography was meant to be presented. From his earliest days at Atlas (now Marvel) as a copyboy for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to surviving the great comics scare of the 1950s to partnering with the King to create the Marvel Universe up to his ubiquitous cameos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe- this epic work has it all.

   Some of these tales I've read before. Maybe not from Stan's mouth but I've heard many of the anecdotes before. But, to have the master's spin put on them, it's really cool. 

   However, the truth must be told, I think Lee does paint himself in a way too positive light. For example, in his numerous battles with Atlas/Marvel owner Martin Goodman, Stan is seen constantly fighting for his zany superhero ideas and bullpen of talent. But like they say 'the history books are written by the victors' and many of Lee's detractors are either no longer without or really bitter...

   Assisting Stan is the great Peter David (The Incredible Hulk) on co-writing duties with Colleen Doran (The Nightmare Factory) on art. Obviously, I can tell what Doran was responsible for but the dialogue and history of comics, I couldn't tell you where Stan Lee ends and Peter David begins. The writing talents are that seamless!
   
Amazing Fantastic Incredible is a work that I've seen many fans of comics have posted about on social media since the graphic novel hit stores in November of last year. Sadly, the reviews for this book have been mixed. Most of the complaints I've seen  have accused Lee of being a revisionist historian (remember what I said about the author and his frequent battles with his publisher earlier?) 

   But I loved this book!  The writing was unparalleled- what do you expect from the combined might of Stan Lee and Peter David?! But don't forget the art! Doran takes every page and has filled them with great easter eggs and original prints, and much more. This book is the ultimate feast for the eyes of any comics fan, be ye solely in the Marvel or DC camps!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars
  

   

Boy Commandos #2

The talent listed on the front cover is the main reason I wanted this book. Boy Commandos was a World War II war comic by legends Jack Kirby and Joe Simon- the very same duo that created my all-time favorite comic book super hero Captain America. After leaving their creation at Timely Comics, the duo went to National (DC) Comics and worked on a number of new creations. It was 1941 and the US had yet to enter WWII. Since comics about kids were a big seller and war comics were yet an even bigger sales magnet, Kirby and Simon decided to create a war comic starring a bunch of youths called The Boy Commandos.

  Now, I highly doubt that any of the Allied forces knowingly used minors to form crack special forces teams. But I understand the premise quite well. Formed of orphans from allied nations, such as America, England, France, and the Netherlands, the premise of the Boy Commandos was to inspire children to get on board the coming war efforts. Something obviously clicked as the series continued well past the end of the war and ran for about 36 issues.

This comic from 1973 was issued during Kirby’s brief return to DC after having established himself as one of the premiere forces in all of comic-dom during his tenure in the Marvel Age of Comics (1961-1969) at Marvel Comics. Feeling overshadowed by the more camera friendly, Stan Lee, Kirby went to DC hoping to make a name for just him and nobody else. DC released this comic, full of reprints from the 40s to cash in on Kirby’s time at the Distinguished Competition.

Normally, I hate it when comic publishers reprint material under the guise of being all-new. However, this book was published over 40 years ago and I highly doubt I’m ever going to get my hands on any of the original Boy Commandos comics from the 40s. There are 2 stories in this special release. The first is what the cover is based on. The boys pick up a stray and want to make him their mascot. However, military regulations prevent animals from being allowed on based. Naturally, the boys defy orders and take the raggedy kitten in secretly.

This was a story I had to break my one rules and read ahead. I have 5 cats and I cannot stand it when animals are hurt or killed, even in a comic book. So, I had to make sure this little guy survived. Not only does the kitty live, but he becomes a hero when he rats out a squadron of Nazis poised to ambush the commandos during a mission.

Story #2 involves the Boy Commandos going deep into enemy territory to support the efforts of the underground to continue to provide printed media to those people who have fallen under Nazi rule. The idea of the paper is to give hope and needed intel to resistance fighters working with the allies to overthrow Hitler. This tale is similar to the last act of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington when a bunch of kids defy a Boss Tweed like character to print the truth about Jefferson Smith. The scene where the Commandos are being driven off the road by Nazis is almost exactly like the scene in Frank Capra’s classic film. I loved it.

Sadly, Boy Commandos only lasted 2 issues in its ‘revival.’ Years later, DC did finally reprint most of the Boy Commandos stories in a premium hard bound edition but even those books price about $50 a book and are out of print. So, I have a feeling that this might be my only experience with these young soldiers.

A true diamond in the rough, I found this in a bargain box of course. I highly recommend this if you ever stumble across it. It’s worth the read no matter how implausible the premise may be.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.