Strange Sports Stories #3 (of 3)

Issue #3 with another pair of
collectible trading cards.

In this final issue of Adventure Comics' version of Strange Sports Stories, the ageless Hall O. Fame spins a yarn about a washed up wrestler who is summoned by a mysterious being to participate in the ultimate battle royale. Thor, Zeus, and John Henry is amongst the participants seeking to become the King of the Ring. Then in the final epic, an armchair quarterback gets to make the play of his life all from the comfort of his home.

   Issue three was a good read. But honestly, this is the most forgettable issue of the bunch. One reason is that the stunning cover depicting a battle of the sexes doesn't even appear in this issue. Another reason is I guess with this being the last issue, the level of care just isn't there. It's like cooking without love. The food might be edible but it's just not as tasty as it could be.

   Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Strange Sports Stories #2 (of 3)

Welcome back to the Museum of Sports History, Trivia, and Oddity with your host Hall O.Fame! First, thrill to the most bizarre team to ever take to the court as a high school basketball prodigy must win the most important win of his life when he is paired with the likes of Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr, and John Wayne, and Honest Abe against the galaxy's best!

 Then a young man with Olympic aspirations becomes the greatest athlete ever when he finds a magic medal. Lastly, with two outs and the championship on the line, a fledgling baseball team resorts to slapstick as their last hope for victory!     

The second of three issues of Adventure Comics' Strange Sports Stories was, well, strange. The opening story seemed to me like something I had read before in the pages of the Tick. In the first couple of issues of The Tick: Karma Tornado, the Tick has been whisked away to an intergalactic Goodwill Games in which he is the captain of a team of athletes comprised of Cleopatra, Booker T. Washington, and a T-Rex! That Karma Tornado story was published almost a year after this issue and I would hate for that awesome tale to have been a rip-off of the Strange Sports Stories opener here...
   

 The other two adventures in this comic were okay. They weren't quite as good as the opening yarn, nor were they of the caliber of the stories that comprised issue #1. But I still enjoyed reading them!

   Along with a couple of pages filled with strange but true stories from the wide world of earth sports, I enjoyed this book, though maybe not as much as the previous issue.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Strange Sports Stories #1 (of 3)

Issue #1 with the trading cards attached.

   Welcome to the Strange Sports Hall of Fame. Based out of Canton, Ohio it's run by the aged Hall O. Fame. Fame has the personal claim to having been involved with every American sport invented in the past 200 years! In his museum are exhibits to not only every sport imaginable but some that are out of this world and everywhere in between.

   Hall O. Fame, along with his robot hostess Miss Sullivan and resident alien sports expert, Bob the Blob, takes his guests on a whirlwind tour of several adventures including a story about a high school running back that happens to be a werewolf, a brave young man with leukemia's dream of being a radical skateboarder, and some strange but true stories of happenings in the world of baseball and boxing.

   I enjoyed this book, thought the art was a little rough. But I happily remember the original Strange Sports Stories that DC put out in the 70s and how fun they were. That's what I expected with this book and that's what I got. But I'm wondering how Adventure Comics, which in no way is affiliated with DC, was able to name this comic STRANGE SPORTS STORIES.

   I would've thought there would be some sort of copyright against that. Maybe that's why this series was limited to only 3 issues. I'm guessing Adventure Comics couldn't pass on the title and so they figured that they bolt and run before DC found out...

   I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I just can't find anything about this series online other than some listings of back issues for sale. If anyone has any further info on this, please drop me a line. I'm very interested in learning more about this little-known series.

   BTW- if you are interested in collecting this book, complete issues come with a pair of really cool trading cards based on characters from this series.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.