#Neal Anderson

[cantsayidont]

There are some things in DC's voluminous back catalog that they ought to properly reprint because they're good — gems of past eras. However, there are also some things they ought to properly reprint because they're delightfully stupid, like the Superman/Batman team-ups from WORLD'S FINEST COMICS. DC has actually reprinted all the stories from the '50s, through about 1961, but a lot of the '60s material has only been reprinted in the B&W SHOWCASE PRESENTS books, which is a shame.

The WORLD'S FINEST team-ups went through several distinct phases. Superman, Batman, and Robin had shared the covers of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS since 1941, but it wasn't until 1954 that shrinking page counts obliged them to actually share the lead feature. The '50s stories are pretty good of their time, with some lovely Dick Sprang art, and the presence of Superman meant the drift into science fiction was less jarring than in the contemporary Batman books. In 1964, editorial control of WORLD'S FINEST passed to Mort Weisinger and it became a Weisinger-era Superman book that happened to have Batman and Robin in it. Starting in 1967, though, things started to get stranger and stranger as Weisinger's stable of sci-fi veterans like Edmond Hamilton and Otto Binder gave way to Bob Kanigher, Cary Bates, and Bob Haney, who turned out some exceedingly weird material. Stories like the two-parter about Superman having died and willed his super-organs to various people (#189–190) aren't quite as ghoulish as the covers suggest, but their inexplicable weirdness is emblematic of the period.

For a little while in the early '70s, DC evicted Batman from the series, making WORLD'S FINEST a general-issue Superman team-up book. (DC reprinted those issues in trade paperback in 2020.) This apparently wasn't a big commercial success, but rather than immediately returning to the expected Superman/Batman format, WORLD'S FINEST began to feature the Super-Sons, the teenage sons of Superman and Batman in a hazily defined parallel reality — written by Bob Haney, whose stories consistently evoke the sensation of mild concussion. The "real" Superman and Batman also returned, although they had to alternate with their hypothetical future sons, appearing roughly every other issue through 1976. From 1976 to 1982, WORLD'S FINEST once again became an oversize anthology book, with a Superman/Batman main feature backed by a variety of other characters like Green Arrow and Hawkman. The stories in that period are not quite as ludicrous as the late '60s (although if you see Bob Haney's name in the credits, you know you're in for a wild ride), but even the soberer installments are consistently very silly, full of nonsense like Kryptonian lycanthropy and the return of some especially ridiculous older villains like the Gorilla Boss of Gotham City and Doctor Double-X.

It wasn't until issue #285 that Superman and Batman again had the book all to themselves. The late period dials back the zaniness and has mostly uninspired plots, but writers Doug Moench and David Anthony Kraft compensate with some eyebrow-raising and apparently deliberate "Superbat" ship-bait; my personal favorite is Kraft's "No Rest for Heroes!" (a short story in the back of WORLD'S FINEST #302), where Superman and Batman go to a dive bar in the middle of nowhere to talk about their relationship and Batman ends up throwing a knife at someone.

Very little of this stuff is actually good by any normal standard — although the 1964–1967 period is no more or less weird than any other Weisinger Silver Age Superman stories — and the artwork is only occasionally better than passable. However, it's so stupid and so ridiculous that it's consistently fun, in a way DC doesn't really do anymore, at least not on purpose. Assembling all the Superman/Batman stories (leaving the Super-Sons to their own TPB), omitting the various backup strips, and giving it decent color reproduction would make for a nice package, and the presence of Superman and Batman would make it more commercially viable than some of DC's more artistically worthy back catalog material. Low-hanging fruit, if you ask me.

[sunwarmed-ash]

Tuesday Wrap Up

Hey! Huge thanks to @sweeteatercat, @themoonandtheprincess, and @tentoriumcerebelli for playing the number game with me today!

If you missed it you can find the Wip blurbs here! 😍

1. Edward/Bella/Jacob-Twilight Saga

2. Hankconvin-Detroit Become Human

4. RoyJamie-Ted Lasso

8. Chameron-House M.D.

9. Harringrove-Stranger Things

19. JudeMax-Across The Universe

23. Neal/Peter- White Collar

Schedule for the next two Sinful Sundays below!

7/14: The first chapter of The Eden Club sequel Brothers!! 😲😲😲

7/21: Jamie/Roy- Locker room stress relief (#4 😈)

[p-c-ba-dcforever]

August brings us 60 years of DC's Mistress Of Magic, Zatanna! (side note: Is Ms. Zatara DC legend Murphy Anderson's biggest contribution to the DCU? )

[kasperikapanenisbetterthanyou]

hockey team thickness - Winnipeg Jets 2024 VERSION (roster as of 25.07.2024)

[mimi123meg]

I'm obsessed with the Matt bomer extended universe and honestly you should be too this is peak

[browsethestacks]

Original Art - Strange Tales (1971)

Art by Murphy Anderson / Neal Adams

[siryl]

Chozo biological entity and ruined statue by Neal D. Anderson.

[moondove330]

recently i read the Kryptonite Nevermore collection, where Superman loses his weakness to kryptonite. here’s my favorite things in it.

clark is now a tv reporter because he gets a new boss. darkseid is manipulating this boss BUT that little fact is only mentioned in one panel and means nothing if you don't know who darkseid is. look at him go!!!

so clark can eat kryptonite now BUT as a result of the process that led to that. there's a superman made outta sand that follows him around and can drain him of his powers. ...yes.

listen it's fine, BECAUSE, because of that, we get THIS:

*salute* GOD BLESS YOU NEAL ADAMS (cover artist)

and Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson (panels) i would love to know which came first. either the cover was first and they just had to recap with that specifically ORR the panel was first but they were like. this one. this one for the cover. Absolutely fantastic

that pink thing around his neck is a microphone so he can still speak as clark on air. they...they do nothing funny or weird with that, aside from him running around a bit. there’s like fifty sitcom jokes right there hellooooo. he digs through the earth at one point and there’s no cut back to the tv like WHAT the hell is that sound??? IDK anyways

here's the worst suit i've seen clark wear so far burgundy with yellow stripes and a polka dot tie??? SIR???? HE WEARS THIS ON TELEVISION

lmao for his sake i hope it was broadcast in black and white

that guy only stole a purse. already funny but then the next panel is

this fucking dork i swear to god

again. they didn’t have to do it like this. but they did and god bless them for it

and finally, wonder woman's here!! unfortunately this is also the era when she stops using her powers and does kung fu instead in a white jumpsuit and has a stereotypical magical asian mentor for some reason. and in this comic...her mentor helps supes get his powers back but she Does Nothing. she is just...the girl. IDK maybe they got a little tired of drawing the big blue buff goofy man

I caaaaaaaaaant look at this this shit kills me

there's more. there's so much more this stuff is BONKERS but i think this posts too long already. but here. have the entire batman cameo

don't worry clark you'll get him next week

[nealadams]

[deafblindshorty]

So, I started rewatching both Glee and White Collar

I remember there was an influx of fanfictions and Tumblr posts of White Collar/Glee crossovers where Cooper Anderson (Blaine's brother) is Neal Caffrey.

I figured out how this could work.

So, Neal's parents got divorced when Neal was 3 years old and they went into WitSec. Later, Neal's mother Pam Caffrey-Bennet remarried a man whose last name is Anderson in Ohio. They had a son together, Blaine. Funny story, Blaine's mom seems like an unattentive alcoholic which is also how NEAL'S mom seems from what we know of her! That's why there's an age difference between the Anderbros.

Now, I know Gina Gershon is only 15 years older than Matt Bomer, and James was a cop, so he was no older than 25 when he was arrested, so he was around 22 when he had Neal with Pam who was 19 at the youngest (when she had Neal).

Neal was born in 1977, Blaine in 1995 (that is an 18-year age difference between the two!

....Actually, maybe that wouldn't work, after all. Another problem is the flashbacks when Blaine and Cooper were younger. Cooper was 14 and Blaine was 4. But then again, Blaine can be a bit of an unreliable narrator sometimes. Neal was 22, already living in New York, and working for Adler by then. Maybe it was Blaine's cousin who really is 10 years older than him and he's misremembering (which is why Cooper doesn't remember).

So, Neal worked with the FBI for 3 years (per season 6). So, if he started working there in 2009, he faked his death in 2012, which tracks with "Big Brother" in Glee season 3! Instead of going straight to Paris, Neal went to Ohio to check up on his brother before leaving for good. Okay, so Neal could still be hypercritical and unsupportive to Blaine, but he only acts that way so Blaine won't become too attached to him to keep him safe from his enemies. Kind of like a "break his heart to save him"/"cruel to be kind" thing. He did a few commercials that were filmed in New York City (He would tell Peter it's a way for him to make some cash) and pretended to have an acting career to keep up appearances.

After leaving Lima, Neal pretended to have been rejected and suffered a breakdown from too many rejections and quit his career and left for Europe to find himself. He still kept in touch with Blaine, though, but all the while, keeping his distance.

Also, a little side note, they should have cast Oscar Isaac as Cooper. He looks more similar to Blaine than Bomer does (Plus, he's not a bad singer)! Bomer was probably cast because A) He's gay and B) Because of White Collar, but still!

[cantsayidont]

For a long time, the main impetus for DC reprinting any of its voluminous back catalog was some promotional or licensing tie-in: a movie, a TV show, some merchandise they were trying to push, or just a popular ongoing book. Given how prominently Dr. Fate was featured in the recent BLACK ADAM movie, therefore, it's surprising and somewhat disheartening that DC didn't take the opportunity to do some kind of greatest hits compilation for the character, who was certainly the best thing about that mostly terrible film.

This is especially unfortunate because you could fit quite a bit of Dr. Fate's Silver Age and Bronze Age non-JSA appearances in a single volume, starting with the two 1965 SHOWCASE team-ups with Hourman shown above, by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson. There are also a number of later team-ups with Superman and Batman:

Fate then got a couple of solo features in the '70s:

Kubert cover notwithstanding, the 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL story, which is written by Marty Pasko, has some really outstanding early Walt Simonson art, while the SECRET ORIGINS OF SUPER-HEROES story has an eight-page retelling of Fate's origin, narrated by Kent Nelson's wife Inza, by the ALL-STAR COMICS team of Paul Levitz and Joe Staton.

In 1982, Doctor Fate got his own eight-page backup feature in, weirdly enough, THE FLASH #306–313. Despite what a couple of the covers imply, there wasn't a team-up between the Flash and Fate (who in those days still existed on separate parallel Earths); the Fate strip was just an unrelated second feature.

This strip, written by Marty Pasko and Steve Gerber with spectacular art by Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt, presents an array of interesting ideas (some of which obviously paved the way for Giffen's 1987 revamp). Pasko had already established (in the 1975 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL story) that Doctor Fate wasn't exactly Kent Nelson: He was really the ancient Lord of Order Nabu, the entity who trained Nelson in the magical arts, who possessed Nelson's body whenever he put on the Helm of Fate. In other words, the Dr. Fate of these stories isn't so much a man wearing a magical helmet as a magical helmet wearing a man. Nabu has made both Kent and Inza ageless — they both appear about 25, but by this time, they're really in their 60s — but allows them little real control of their lives. Kent has more or less resigned himself to it, but Inza is feeling the strain of being trapped in a magical menage à trois with her husband and an inhuman entity that has little regard for Kent's welfare and even less for hers. Nabu, for his part, seems to exist in a state of constant mystical urgency in which human frailties are an unaffordable distraction.

This could have been really compelling, and it's both graphically interesting and quite strange, but all that is a lot to squeeze into eight-page installments, and having them crammed in the back of one of DC's most conventional superhero books was obviously not optimal. It was also having to compete for Giffen and Mahlstedt's attention with LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, which I assume was why the Fate strip was dropped after only eight installments.

To everyone's surprise, there was even a Doctor Fate action figure in 1984 as part of the Kenner Super Powers line. This came with a little minicomic, which to my knowledge has never been reprinted:

All of this stuff would add up to something in the realm of 230 pages, which would easily fit into a single trade paperback collection with a digestible price point. Maddeningly, DC has already done the color remastering for roughly three-fifths of this material, so even that probably wouldn't be a huge chore (although the Giffen/Mahlstedt stuff, which has a lot of color holds and graphic effects, really calls for more care in remastering than DC has tended to give its older material of late.)

[caseynovakslut]

[sunwarmed-ash]

help me write more wips 💙

[fizzy-watches-and-listens]

i have said it again and i will say it before

todd would eat up lael neale’s music, he just would. i dont make the rules, i just tell you all them. anytime neil would get home he would hear the speakers blasting ‘acquainted with night’ and ‘in verona’ through the walls of the house. neil would at first not be the biggest fan of her music but over time todd would break him down and have him boogying away to ‘i am the river’ in no time (this is neils favourite song, todds is ‘faster than the medicine’ and they always listen to ‘hotline’ while lying on the setee and staring into each others eyes. AND todd would literally get on his knees and beg neil to come to her concerts with him (he has been to every single one)

was inspired by making a sad playlist and saw an anderperry post by @bproccoli

[ginge1962]

JLA No.97 - Mar 1972, cover by Neal Adams & Murphy Anderson.

[rosie-b]

that's so cool that you've been to a panel by E. Lockhart!! I'd be interested of the writing advice she gave if you remember it

Yeah, the YSU English festivals had a lot of awesome authors come to them! It was always a good experience.

From E. Lockhart, the most influential thing I remember from her was advice to always carry something to write with. Take inspiration from real life, real people, real conversations, and real experiences. Most importantly, write your ideas as soon as you get them!

She also was the first professional author who I heard talk about doing research for your work. To create the world of the wealthy characters in We Were Liars, she interacted with and researched real wealthy people, and that helped her build the believability of the world she created for the book. She was pragmatic but also believed we could all be writers in some way, which was inspiring to hear.

I’m sure you already knew most or all of that, since you’re already a good writer, but especially because I was still young and didn’t think writing was a real option for me, her speech was really influential!