Well, here it is! The issue that was on the stands when I was born in January of 1959! For the longest time, this was also the oldest issue I owned! What? Oh, yeah, it IS issue # 100, isn't it? Too bad this was before the comics companies started making a big deal about such things. Nothing special to see here. Move along.
This issue's lead story has Lex Luthor re-creating Brainiac's shorn ray to shrink himself and his minions so they can take over "Krypton City" in Superman's fortress. This, of course, is odd because we all know the shrunken bottled city as Kandor.
Basically, Superman follows them and then Batman follows him and they try to stop the gang in the bottle.
There was one thing of some importance, in my opinion, this issue. That's the debut of former Harvey artist Lee Elias, a prolific comic book artist in the Milton Caniff mode, on GREEN ARROW. Elias would prove to be my favorite GA artist, actually. He would later tackle TOMMY TOMORROW, ADAM STRANGE and ULTRA, THE MULTI-ALIEN for DC. Still later, he became an early instructor for the Jor Kubert School.
That Elias art does look really nifty. I remember being first exposed to him in the mid-70's, probably on Marvel's Human Fly, and finding his work too old-fashioned looking, but with age comes a better appreciation for his composition and especially that nice linework.
ReplyDeleteWhoever scripted this, though, should probably have thought to avoid using lines like "Take a bow" in a Green Arrow story. On first read, it sounded like GA was offering the clown some additional archery equipment to go with GA's trick arrows he was holding in the last panel!