Who’s Earthworm?

Doing my own research, I found that the Grand Comic Database was NOT responsible for Shag’s misattribution of Bill Wray as artist on those early stories (Rob mocked him because Wray would have been a child at the time). In reality, Don Caballero’s strips were drawn by Gil Kane and that’s what the GCD says.

What I think happened is that Shag’s eyes flitted to the wrong part of the screen where FRED Wray was credited for drawing the Tomahawk script in All-Star Western’s (and Caballero’s) first issue.

Za. If Nu DC was set on raiding Marvel’s pre-Quesada editorial pool, why wouldn’t they bring in Carl Potts? The guy basically discovered and developed all of the better Image-style artists (Art Adams, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Larry Stroman, Scott Williams) and maintained the high quality of Epic Comics about as well as anyone could have after Archie Goodwin returned to DC. Decent artist, too, but it amuses me that the dated Enchantress got updated into the equally dated Olivia Newton-Johntress. I guess he thought we might like it?

Zb. Vastly prefer the Enemy Ace profile to the Easy one. Super cool character passionately rendered. Who’s Who was pretty good to DC’s war characters, especially when you consider how uncommon recurring characters are in that genre.

Zc. Enforcer’s costume doesn’t really adapt well to breasts, but Gary Martin really got that Layton sheen on her armor.

Zd. Post-Crisis Eradicator FTL, because he never Michael Ironsided dudes heads like this random latter-day Flash creation, and he in no way resembled a Wally Wood creation (which Who’s Who sorely lacked, because he’d Eradicatored himself by then.) Dennis Jensen is another lush inker that never got his due.

Ze. Evil Star is a great villain hampered solely by the stupid starfish mask, which would work fine if it was just skintight rather than flapping around. Rob should have some *orm* sympathy.

Zf. If Rob was a Legion guy, he might have known about Dave Cockrum’s mutually beneficial association with the team. Most of his All-New All-Different X-Men designs were originally going to be Legionnaires before he jumped ship to Marvel, and he was the guy who made the Legion sexy after all those years under the staid Curt Swan model. Cockrum was also part of a critically acclaimed Blackhawk revival not long before this. Anyway, Fadeaway Man was in one of the earliest comics I read, yet I have no nostalgic feeling for him whatsoever. I guess he’s one of Hawkman’s less awful Silver Age foes.

Zg. Screw the Zoo Crew as well. Way too many omissions for me to support individual listings for such a niche and relatively short-lived characters.

…and now… Listener Feedback Feedback (Feedback)

*I hurled invective over “Adventures of Superman” as a joke about the overzealous fan rage that was discussed in the podcast, because I was listening while you guys were just talking.

*To address Orin’s dad at the other blog, I think I summarized my thoughts on this episode in four separate comment posts spanning a week, so there’s that.

*It’s been so long since I heard the Galactic Guardians Darkseid voice that I never realized that no other voice acting attempt has ever measured up for me. Shag did a great impersonation!

*You can’t read ’70s Legion stories and not realize puberty had struck like a tsunami. No Shrinking Violet love, BTW? Oh, and no weird subtext that the queer male Legionnaires would run off to work at a prison together? Da fug?

*For the record, “Who’s Who” is also my favorite podcast, but the only other one I listen to is “Fire & Water,” so you guys are only ever beating yourself to me.

W. Too true. For LGBT content, the Legion remains an important book, since its current incarnation includes Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet as a couple, and recently featured a gay male couple in Legion Academy (though they chose to go work on Takron-Galtos rather than keep applying to the Legion).

P. Where is our New 52 Earthworm? How has this guy not seen a grim n’ gritty revival?

Q. I’ve read Sgt. Rock stories, but never Easy Company ones. I was introduced to them in DC Sampler, and thought they were massively cornball cannon fodder for trumped up “poignancy” that I hated on sight. I can’t name any of the “Heartbreakers,” and these guys make the Howling Commandos look like KISS (and I don’t even like KISS, but I still know Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, and that there were a bunch of other guys in distinctive kabuki make-up at various points.) Even the spread seems to be a well rendered Rock color hold hovering over doodles of ridiculous soldiers that would have been better served by Robert Altman than David Lean. Cue Snoopy “blech.”

R. Been an Eclipso fan since “The Darkness Within,” and I “proudly” possess a complete set of his (occasionally inspired but mostly the artistic nadir of ’90s DC) solo series. The Silver Age Eclipso was much more of a Jekyll & Hyde/Hulk riff where handsome scientist Dr. Bruce Gordon turns into the villainous Eclipso during curiously monthly solar eclipses, and each persona tries to sabotage/check the other. The “eclipsing” didn’t start until the event mini-series thirty years after Eclipso’s creation. For the record, like House of Mystery, the sci-fi/spooky anthology House of Secrets was converted into an offbeat bifurcated super-hero series similar to Marvel Comics’ early efforts (when they were forced to publish all their concepts in only eight or so periodicals by distributor Independent News.) When Eclipso and Prince Ra-Man failed at least as thoroughly as Martian Manhunter and Robby Reed, both books became quasi-EC revivals under Joe Orlando. I love the action figures, though I wish a Bart Sears elven barbarian version would get produced. Eclipso was brutal, especially in stories drawn by Alex Toth.

S. Sooo bogus that Jimmy Olsen got an entry as Elastic Lad. I want to like Jimmy because of his historical significance, but in practice he’s always sucked.

T. I firmly disliked Elasti-Girl for decades as a quaint icon of heroine victimization/refrigeration, but really warmed to her as the troubled but determined heart at the angry core of the Giffen/Clark Doom Patrol.

U. If it did nothing else, the New Universe introduced this young reader to the delight of Gray Morrow (via Marc Hazzard: Merc.) I’m still waiting for a version of El Diablo that I can get behind, though.

V. Dave Ross as overwhelmed by Kevin Nowlan’s inks started me on the path to Punisher fandom in 1988, so it’s kind of appropriate Klaus Janson also owns him here on a Punisher knock-off villain. In a more just world, Ross wouldn’t be such an enigma. Check out his gloriously rendered Elseworlds mini-series JLA: Act of God.

W. Legion was the first hardcore fan entitlement property, in the sense that it was a minor premise that became something greater because of the tireless devotion and input of readers. This participatory aspect lent the property an aura of inclusiveness that welcomed LGBT involvement, hence Element Lad’s ambiguous sexuality. The Legion might have retained this cultural currency if it had better extended its community to non-whites, as opposed to unleashing Tyroc and fixating on wastes of space like Dawnstar. The X-Men, mostly thanks to Dave Cockrum’s input, usurped the Legion’s progressive relevancy.

X. I dig this Elongated Man costume, but Infantino needed a flashier inker than Giordano to properly showcase it. Excellent work on Rob’s part in getting that quote.

Y. Frank Giacoia unfortunately overwhelmed Mark Texeira, who I came to know and love (*theme*) through the New Universe series Psi-Force.

There should be an extended version of the podcast where each entry gets an hour and a half to itself.

Each one would come with one of Frank’s diatribes, of course, which is how we like our podcasts. Or at least, our comments sections.

I am a big fan of comicbookdb.com, but it is a bit like Wikipedia. Anyone can update it. Trusting it as a source of information is a bit of a crap shoot.

Once again, excellent installment. I’m not just blowing smoke up your butt when I say it is my favorite podcast.