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Whatever Happened To…? DC Comics Presents #25 & 26

Firestorm and Aquaman: The Fire and Water Podcast

The 96th episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is now available for your listening pleasure! THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is the official podcast of FIRESTORM FAN and THE AQUAMAN SHRINE.

This episode Rob and Shag present the first of many, “Whatever Happened To…?” specials! These beloved back-up strips from DC Comics Presents have been mentioned on our show numerous times over the past few years. We’re so excited to finally cover them! This installment includes adventures from DCCP #25 & 26, featuring Rex “Tick Tock” Tyler (a.k.a. Hourman) and Sargon the Sorcerer! Both stories were written by Bob “The Answer Man” Rozakis, and we’ve got some answers ourselves directly from Bob!

You can find the 96th episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST on iTunes. While you’re there, please drop us a review on the iTunes page. Every comment helps! Alternatively, you may download the podcast by right-clicking here, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (36 MB).

As always, thanks to my co-host Rob Kelly, Sea King of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE, for doing all the post-production on these episodes! Opening theme, “That Time is Now,” by Michael Kohler. Special thanks to Daniel Adams and Ashton Burge with their band The Bad Mamma Jammas for our fantastic original closing theme! This episode brought to you in part by InStockTrades.com!

Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content?

Below you’ll find the splash page to each story. Click to enlarge!

DC Comics Presents #25 Whatever Happened to Hourman

DC Comics Presents #26 Whatever Happened to Sargon

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10 Comments

  1. Tim Wallace says:

    This was a lot of fun! I love those “What ever happened to…” stories!

    Fun fact…Charles Nicholas was actually several different people! Through my online searches as well as Christopher Irving’s “Blue Beetle Companion”, at least 3 (if not more) artists worked under the name for Fox Features Syndicate…Charles Wotjkowski, Chuck Cuidera, and for a brief time Jack Kirby! Wotjkowski later had his named legally changed to Nicholas, and Al Carreno claimed to have worked for Fox under the name too.

    Adding to the confusion, when I checked comicbookdb.com it credits this “Whatever Happened to…” story to “Charles Nicholas” working with Vince Alascia

  2. Tim Wallace says:

    This was a lot of fun! I love those “What ever happened to…” stories!

    Fun fact…Charles Nicholas was actually several different people! Through my online searches as well as Christopher Irving’s “Blue Beetle Companion”, at least 3 (if not more) artists worked under the name for Fox Features Syndicate…Charles Wotjkowski, Chuck Cuidera, and for a brief time Jack Kirby! Wotjkowski later had his named legally changed to Nicholas, and Al Carreno claimed to have worked for Fox under the name too.

    Adding to the confusion, when I checked comicbookdb.com it credits this “Whatever Happened to…” story to “Charles Nicholas” working with Vince Alascia…like Freddy would say on Scooby Doo, “Looks like we have a mystery on our hands gang!”

  3. I got in on the ground floor with DCCP #25 and that Hourman story. I always liked his costume…even if his cape looks like a bath towel. Rex’s costume vault comes from the 2-issue Showcase series in the 60s that featured the odd team of Hourman and Dr. Fate!

    I missed out on DCCP #26 sadly, moreso for the Titans than Sargon. I first met him in the infamous Black Canary origin story in JSA that Rob mentioned. I then got a Flash back issue where he was a bad guy and was very confused.

    DC should do a TPB of these, but I doubt it fits into their current publishing platform. Looking forward to more discussion on this series, because I know there are some gems in there. The Crimson Avenger story is a Cal-ASSIC!

    Chris

  4. Oh, and nice “In Search of…” sting at the end. We watched that show when I was a wee lad. Scared the beejeezus out of me from time to time. When I first started watching Star Trek after years of my dad goading me to do so, I said to myself “Hey, it’s the In Search of guy!”

    Chris

  5. Joe X says:

    Nice episode, guys. I’m so used to the marathon Who’s Who ones that this startled me by ending so fast.

    What killed the series was Roy Thomas taking over as “Earth-2″ editor, and he didn’t want to get trapped into stories from other writers.

    That chemical should also not be confused with THX-1138.

    And the splash DOES look like a Who’s Who page

    Wasn’t part of Sargon’s power that he had to touch things to control them? That would explain his touching the TV.

    Matter Master was a Silver Age Hawkman villain.

  6. Siskoid says:

    Another fan of Whatever Happened here, so you have my blessing for more.

    Frank’s podcast? I really like it. Good stuff. Recommended.

  7. Kyle Benning says:

    Man I haven’t read these stories in ages, I really need to dust these off and give them a reread. I forgot how great these were.

    I love Rex’s reason for hanging up his tights. You can’t help but see this statement make him seem very “Duke-like” (we here in Iowa all love Iowa-native John Wayne, and frankly all Americans should) so it’s great for Rex to have this parallel with the perennial no-nonse, black & white honorable hero that John Wayne always played. His refusal to strike a dame further builds on this.

    I agree, Hourman had been around recently, but didn’t he re-retire during the revived All-Star run? Didn’t he get tired of all of the squabbling, “gray” situations, and getting stuck on guard duty, so he retired? Or am I remembering that wrong? I want to say he left the team around the same time that Green Lantern did (Alan Scott had to deal with his bankrupt broadcasting company)? Maybe right after they fought Vulcan? Or am I remembering that wrong? So even though he had been a part of the JSA in its recent revival, he wasn’t with the team for the entire run of the series, or its conclusion in the pages of the Adventure Comics Dollar Comics issues, so this little 8 pager showed what had happened to him since he left the team before that series had wrapped up. But maybe I’m misremembering those events?

    Sargon the Sorceror, what a great and very underused character? You’d think he’d be a perfect fit for the New 52 Universe. The New 52 series that have really worked for me have been the more Vertigo-esque and magic steeped characters (Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Resurrection Man, I Vampire, etc.) You’d think he’d be a perfect fit to get a character overhaul. Maybe he has been brought in already and I just missed it?

    This was a fun and fantastic episode! I hope you guys do more of these! I really, really, really, really, really hope you guys do more episodes covering these features!

    Fan the Flame and Ride the Wave!

  8. Frank says:

    1) I’ve tossed through but never owned Michael Fleisher’s Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: Wonder Woman, probably the only instance of a three volume set centered on the DC Trinity coming out where the Amazing Amazon was second out of the gate instead of third. It was re-released the same year I finally quit buying the monthly comic at the end of the Allan Heinberg run, and I think I was effecting a general boycott of her to help stay off the book. I have occasional pangs of regret, but the information is woefully out of date, and the incredible 2010 Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia by Phil Jimenez & John Wells has proven quite comprehensive. Plus, I got it in hardcover, and anytime I can do that with a comic book reference volume, I’m pleased.

    2) I read JSA for its first year or so, and bought it sporadically thereafter, but there was too much of a disparity between what I wanted it to be and what it was. What I wanted was for James Robinson to basically combine the best elements of the Justice Society and Infinity Incorporated to produce a legacy book with the sophistication of The Golden Age. What I got was David Goyer and Geoff Johns doing something equivalent to a secondary Claremont X-Men book featuring mostly the dregs of DC Golden Age trademark bearers.

    3) I’ve got that DC Comics Presents podcast on my mental to-listen list, but I’m two weeks late getting to you guys, so what chance has it got right now? Truth to tell, I’m far more interested in “Whatever Happened To…?” than hearing about Superman team-ups, anyway. This is the most appeal new addition to Fire and Water in quite some time, and I look forward to more!

    4) I like the idea of Hourman no longer subscribing to the sort of simplistic view of the world required for costumed vigilantes to work. While the moral relativism of modern comics can be off-putting, endorsing “righteous” fascism in four colors is no more appealing to anyone with perspective. If this story had found me sooner, I think Hourman would have made a stronger impression on me.

    5) When I read Spawn, I was surprised by how quickly he was burning through his meter of power in the early issues. It indicated Al Simmons would have a short, eventful run, and then Todd McFarlane would have to do something new. 185 issues later, Al seemed to finally die and be replaced, except that wasn’t really so. Also, the Spawnometer hasn’t been seen in ages, and to the regret of anyone with any taste, Todd McFarlane is still writing that travesty of a book.

    Point being, a definitive, finite measure of a protagonist’s abilities creates tension and anticipation, while throwing that out created a shambling wreck of a vestigial series.

    6) I own a copy of DCCP #26, and of the three stories, the Sargon was certainly the least. Never could muster any enthusiasm for the character, and I’m glad Alan Moore killed him off.

    7) I like Jose Delbo, one of Wonder Woman’s main artists of the ’70s.

    8) Shag mentioned that I have a podcast. No name, no address, no link, and he doesn’t even suggest the subject matter. Well thank you, pal. The day I get outta prison, my own brother picks me up in a police car!

  9. Sean Koury says:

    Ok, this episode was seriously fun. I really hope I have more of these to look forward to as I catch up on my F&W podcast (yes, I’ve fallen behind on it again. I suck).

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