1st Issue Special #6 (September, 1975)
"Dingbats of Danger Street"
The Works - Jack Kirby
The Inks - Mike Royer
Cover Price: $0.25
Finally... their story can be told! Ladies and Gentlemen, today we're going to meet the Dingbats of Danger Street. Hey, that rhymed!
This has been a post over two years in the making, about an issue that has been one of my "white whales" for even longer than that!
You all know me, if you've visited this blog a time or two... you know one of my obsessions is 1st Issue Special. And finally... finally... with today's post, we've covered all of 'em!
This is an event so tremendous, I even engaged in some MS Paint-level image manipulation to "create" and add a new side-banner to the humble site.
Consider it a placeholder... until I, uh, ya know... become talented at manipulating images. Either way, if ya click the pic... you'll be whisked away to our dedicated 1st Chrissue Special page!
Anyhoo... we're finishing some long-undone business today, so let's get right to it!
--
We open by meeting our titular stars, the Dingbats! If there was any doubt these were Kirby Kharacters, wait'll you get a load of their names. First, we've got Good Looks... which is debatable, then Non-Fat... with a great big hot dog in his mitt, Krunch... the big guy, and finally the insane-looking, Bananas. A Kirbier bunch'a guys I've never seen. Anyhoo, their introductions are cut short when Jumping Jack bursts through the scene, followed by a member of the "Fuzz".
Jumping Jack gets all caught up in Krunch's "exerciser"... which is basically a gigundous rubber band. This snaps the baddie back, and the officer is able to apprehend the red-clad geek. Turns out though, he's hidden some key evidence.
All of the excitement caused poor Non-Fat to choke on his hot dog. Krunch decides to employ the Danger Street Heimlich, which is just slamming the poor geek across the alley with a karate chop to the back.
Turns out, Non-Fat wasn't choking on frankfurter... but a small cylinder with a film-strip inside. Looks like that was Jumping Jack's "evidence". The Dingbats try and figure out what's so important about a strip of film... it's not like it's big enough to fit a whole movie on it, so what's the point? Non-Fat rushes up to Krunch and kicks him in the backside... which hurts his own foot. This looks like it's going to be his gimmick.
Just then, the Dingbats are held up at gunpoint by the real baddie of the issue... The Gasser, who really wants that film strip!
The kids don't waste a beat handing over the evidence. They ain't gonna get shot over a strip of film that probably doesn't even have a full movie on it. Oh, and Non-Fat runs up and kicks the Gasser in the butt... which is no more effective than last time.
It does, however, provide enough of a distraction for Krunch to lunge forward with sock to the mush. The Gasser responds by... gassing the gang.
After a melee during which The Gasser loses both the film strip and his pistol (criminal mastermind here, folks!)... he rushes over to his nearby creep-van and takes off. He's unaware to the fact that Dingbat Non-Fat stowed away on the roof...
... well, until Non-Fat makes his presence known, anyway.
We shift scenes over to the Danger Street P.D. where Jumping Jack is being interrogated. He's bein' tight-lipped, as you might imagine. He ain't talkin' bout no evidence. Just then... the Dingbats burst in... with that very evidence. They're willing to hand it over, so long as the Fuzz gives them a hand rescuing their buddy.
Jumping Jack uses this momentary distraction to... break out! Let's hear it for not restraining the friendly neighborhood super villain! He dives out a window to freedom.
The Dingbats presume that wherever Jumping Jack is headed, it's probably where their buddy Non-Fat is. They insist on accompanying the police in their pursuit... and, get this, the Lieutenant thinks it's a fabbo idea! Law Enforcement is pretty loosey-goosey on Danger Street.
The Fuzz and the Dingbats are able to track Jumping Jack all the way back to The Gasser's van... which is conveniently parked in a dead-ended alley butted up against the pier. The police snipers swarm to the nearby rooftops and our buddy the Lieutenant tries to, uh, reason with the baddies.
The Gasser's not havin' none of this, and lets fly with a brand-new gas... one that ignites when it hits the air. Seems like a trigger I'd never wanna pull... but, then again, I'm not the Gasser. He does manage to singe the Lieutenant's arm, so it wasn't a total waste.
Or was it? Bein' burned only enrages the Fuzz... and he rushes in to deliver one hell of a dropkick on the Gas-man. Before the bad guys know it... they're staring down the barrels of a whole lotta guns.
As the dust settles, the Dingbats break into the Gasser's van where they find... Non-Fat, and he's as stiff as a board. He's not dead, mind you, he's just been zapped with some "freeze gas". Also in the back of the van, an Executive... who I suppose was the point of this entire issue. Alrighty then.
We wrap up with the Lieutenant finally getting a name (Terry Mullins). He offers the Dingbats his aid any time they need it. For his kindness, Non-Fat rushes up and kicks him... and hurts his own foot. The Dingbats slink away, leaving ol' Terry with the idea that... these kids have probably had some bad experiences with adults. He's going to have a tough row to hoe if he ever wants them to see eye-to-eye. Of course, this is an issue 1st Issue Special not starring the Warlord, so this is all pretty moot.
--
Well, this was just goofy as hell... wasn't it?
Let's start with our "heroes"... they're some of the "purest" Kirby kids I've seen in a long while. Everything from their names, to their positively charming "raw" dialogue... I gotta wonder what his future plans were for this gang... or if he had any at all!
When I first started doing my research on 1st Issue Special, back in the long ago... this was the one I had to do a double-take on. I mean, sure... Lady Cop is wonderfully weird, but she's been something of a punchline for... ever. Nobody really talks about the Dingbats... and when I saw this cover, I was immediately captivated. It's something I couldn't even believe existed. Hell, I'm holding it, and just read it... and I'm still having a difficult time!
Something I find myself doing anytime I read some 1970's DC Kirby... I wonder if the characters he'd introduced were ever earmarked to appear in Marvel Comics. Thinking about the New Gods, and Mister Miracle by extension... Manhunter... Darkseid... and now, the Dingbats! Like, were these guys maybe supposed to be the (ever faceless) Yancy Street Gang? It's fun to consider.
Something I think about when reading 1st Issue Special is... why did they choose this story for their "pitch"? So many of these FIS installments have had the weirdest stories... that kinda defy the "pitch premise". I mean, look at this one... did anything happen here that would make you get out a piece of paper, write a letter, buy a stamp, lick and affix that stamp, and trudge your way up to a mailbox? I'm not so sure.
I mean, I dug it... found it amazingly charming... but, I'm kind of okay with it being a one-and-done.
Overall... as a novelty, I'd say this is a must own. You know how we roll here at the Infinite Earths... if you come across an issue of 1st Issue Special in the wild... you grab it!
And with that, we finally put 1st Issue Special to bed. Remember, we've now got a dedicated page for all-things 1st Issue. Check it out for a trip down weird street!
--
Interesting Ads:
935
1st Issue Special #4 (July, 1975)
"Poisoned Love!"
Writer - Robert Kanigher
Penciller - John Rosenberger
Inker - Vince Colletta
Cover Price: $0.25
Well, here we are... it took EIGHT HUNDRED (consecutive) Days to do it, but today we're finally covering... Lady Cop. Welcome to it!
Kind of a low-key "milestone" piece, sure... but one that just felt right. When we first started this silly journey two years back, I was hoping to share some of my favorites... not so favorites... and just plain oddities from the DC Comics library. Even from the first few days blogging, Lady Cop was one I was dying to share.
The crazy thing is that it's (in theory) not a terribly difficult book to find... at least online. The book regularly appears at various online retailers... and only goes for a couple bucks. Even though it was at the tippity-top of my wish list... I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger.
I'm very much about "the hunt". I've never ordered a back issue from my "wish list" off the internet... there's just something about flipping through a bin... and getting the goosebumps when I'd start to notice issues of 1st Issue Special... knowing that one of these days, Lady Cop would be among them.
It was my "white whale" and gave me a reason to be excited to dig through the bins. As insanely frustrating as it is, it's also kinda nice to have one of those books that just escapes your grasp. It keeps things interesting.
Right now I sit, with the book about six inches to my left... feeling sorta like Kraven at the end of his "Last Hunt". I've bagged the biggest "game", and I feel like there's not much left for me to do. Well... I guess we still gotta track down the Dingbats of Danger Street.
--
We open with a young lady hiding under a bed while a man in Jolly Roger cowboy boots... murders her roommates. Before making his exit, he leaves an Ace of Spades playing card behind. The police arrive on the scene and our survivor, Liza Warner gives them the low-down on what just went down. She tells them about what she was able to see, including the Jolly Roger boots... which leads another officer to inform her that she has the "camera eye of a born police officer".
... and so, she enrolls in the Police Academy!
She appears to be a natural... not only for her "camera eye", but she's also a crack-shot and has a heckuva judo throw. Time passes, and we rejoin Liza at commencement. Before she and the rest of the cadets can be properly graduated, a classmate who flunked out crashes the party... with a live grenade! Our lady is able to intercept the explosive... and tosses it into a nearby garbage can before it can go boom. Not sure how much protection a garbage can might give when we're talking about a grenade... but we'll allow it.
With our backstory behind us, we can now move into the "present". Lady Cop is on the roof of an inner-city building trying to get a creeper to back off from a young lady he's been hassling. She manages to get him to desist by informing him that "that girl's underage". So... I guess roughing up a "legal" woman is a-okay. Or maybe just "not as bad". Anyhoo, the young lady leaves... just as another hoodlum arrives. They figure, if they can't have the underage girl... Lady Cop'll have to do.
She beats them both up pretty quickly... and without even messing up her hair all that much. She arrests them... and leads them into a nearby police cruiser. The entire time they're threatening to come back and even the score, which tells me that they were never read their Miranda Rights... I figure those are some of those things that "could be used against" them in a Court of Law.
With a job well done, Lady Cop continues along her beat. She comes to an ice cream vendor... and sees that one of the neighborhood kids cannot afford even a single scoop. She goes ahead and buys the tot an ice cream "with all the trimmings". When I hear that, I picture relish and onions... let's hope that's not the case.
With that injustice righted, Lady Cop once more continues on her beat. She is warned by a neighborhood woman that the men she just had put away are quite dangerous. Speaking of dangerous, Lady Cop is being watched by a chain wielding buffoon hanging out on another roof. Lotta people hanging out on roofs in this 'hood. She continues, and comes across that underage girl from before, who is using a pay phone. She overhears that the girl just found out that her boyfriend... has V.D. Huh... gotta say, I wasn't expecting that. Upon seeing Lady Cop, Underage Whatsherface rushes off.
Before Lady Cop can give chase, she witnesses a bodega getting robbed by a knife-wielding loon. The robber attempts to flee, and even stabs the grocer in order to break his grip. Liza manages to deflect a stab attempt and throws the nogoodnik into a lamppost... kayoing him.
Turning her attention to the grocer, she deduces that he's stopped breathing... and so, we get some mouth-to-mouth action. Gotta say, they're checking off a whole lotta boxes here, aren't they?
She manages to save his life, and he's hauled off into an ambulance for observation. She finishes out her day, with visions of V.D. Girl dancing in her head. After her shift, we meet Liza's boyfriend Hal. According to her fellow officers, this is "Where the Cop becomes a Lady".
He takes her to the beach... all the while complaining that she's a police officer. He even goes so far as to refer to her as "a working man". What an a-hole. Thing is, she might just leave the force... if only she could track down ol' Jolly Roger Boots and avenge her roommates.
Three days later, we're back on the beat... and Lady Cop has finally tracked down V.D. Girl, who is standing at the docks all melancholy like. We get the "After School Special" take on venereal disease... and Lady Cop really presses the girl to go get checked out. The gal is too scared, and doesn't want her father to find out.
Lady Cop insists they tell her father... who, it just so happens works on those very same docks. Now, here's where it gets weird... er. Nina (V.D. Girl) tells her pop what went down... and he's rather ticked off. He reels back... then punches... Lady Cop?! Who, in the very next panel looks no worse for wear... I mean, not even a hair out of place... when the wallop nearly knocked her hat off. I'm not sure what's going on here. Dude also doesn't get arrested for, ya know, assaulting an officer... He says "Mea Culpa" a bunch of times, which I suppose is "Latin enough".
As Nina and her Pops walk off, Lady Cop is taken unawares by that chain-wielding dope from before. He somehow wraps her wrist with the chain (without breaking it... the wrist, that is)... and they both wind up in the drink.
Now... if you're ever going to accost a police officer down by the docks, you might want to make sure you know how to swim, right? Well, Chainy never got that memo... and so, Lady Cop is tasked with saving his worthless life.
And then... we end with Lady Cop asking herself if she'll ever find "The Killer in Boots". Spoiler Alert... no.
--
Well, I gotta say... that wasn't what I expected!
All I knew about this going in was that Liza's roommates were murdered... so I just assumed this was going to be twenty-odd pages of revenge-fueled melodrama. I was also expecting to be greatly disappointed by that fact.
Thankfully that wasn't the case at all! The "Killer in Boots" was just the motivational measure for Liza joining the force... and was clearly being used for a long-term payoff... if only "Lady Cop" ever became an ongoing series. Weird thing about this issue, usually when we discuss a 1st Issue Special, there's a text page inside giving the "story behind the story" in lieu of a letters page or some such... we don't get that here. Also... I was expecting a little note saying "If you want more Lady Cop, please write to such and such address"... but, we get none'a that either! Wonder if they didn't have high hopes for Lady Cop... or maybe they just assumed people would be writing in by the thousands, and figured they didn't need to promote? Yeah, I'm sure that's probably it.
What I really wasn't expecting was the... relevancy? Is that the word we're looking for? I mean, when I'm looking at a comic from the 1970's, venereal disease really isn't a topic I expect to read about. I guess when you put out a book with "Lady Cop" on the cover you don't really expect kids to be all that jazzed about picking it up... right?
We should also talk about Liza's beat a little bit. She had to have been assigned the most dangerous block on the planet, right? I mean, forget cops... this neighborhood needs its own sector designation and own devoted troop of Green Lanterns! You can't walk five feet without somebody swinging a weapon in your direction! I mean, Liza doesn't even look distressed by any of this... which tells me, she's dodging chains, knives, and would be-rapists on a daily basis.
The art here, I thought was really good. Not terribly familiar with Rosenberger/Diehl... but know that he came from romance comics. That's probably what made him a good fit for a "street level" book like this. My only quibble is that weird page where Papa V.D. punches Lady Cop in the face... that was some weird flow!
I'm really rather surprised that Lady Cop hasn't made any sort of resurgence in comics... especially in the times we're currently living in. Seems like a natural fit... I'll bet she probably could've had a good 4-6 issues (before being cancelled) during the DCYOU days!
Overall... for novelty's sake, and to follow one of the very few demandments of this humble blog, I'd definitely tell ya to grab this if you come across it in the wild. Hell, add it to an online order if you've already got an order in the works... won't set you back much.
Was it worth the wait? Ya know... it's not often I feel this way, but I think it was. The story isn't going to rock any socks or blow any minds... but it has just the right amount of weirdness to it, that I can't not love it.
With all that said... we've come to the part of our milestone celebration where I become a sappy mess. Eight Hundred days is a very long time... besides my wife, I think this blog is the longest steady "relationship" I've had in quite a long time... and to think, when I started it, I thought it would be "really cool" (and almost an impossibility) to blog daily for an entire... week.
In our time together, we've celebrated holidays... birthdays... graduations... anniversaries... all sorts of things. We've covered some old favorites... discovered some new favorites... taken part in blog-hops and team-ups... and we've also discussed both Millennium and Superman: Grounded.
I've also been afforded the opportunity to meet and share with some really great people... like my Pod-ner, Reggie... the Weird Science Get Fresh Crew, the mighty Super-Blog Team-Up, the ParliPodders, DC in the 80's, the #BestEventEver gang, the Top-Secret Podcast Partners... and anybody and everybody who has reached out! And yeah, I realize how silly it is to write an Oscar speech for a blog post that (at best) a couple of hundred people might see... but, that train has already left the station. I'm normally a (shocker) pretty introverted dude... so, opportunities to meet and befriend folks (especially online) is (or was) a pretty rare thing for me.
I'm happy that I've stuck with this as long as I have. As with every milestone we hit, I begin questioning just how much longer we're going to keep at this. I always see a "hundredth" post as a good way to make an escape...
... but, we've still gotta wrap up that #Action100 thing, don't we? Guess we're not about to shutter the windows and dim the lights just yet.
By this point... I'm babbling. If you've made it this far, THANK YOU. If you're a regular reader... THANK YOU. If you've somehow stumbled across this post, and read it through... THANK YOU. I guess what I'm trying to say is... ya know, Thanks.
--
Interesting Ads:
800
1st Issue Special #7 (October, 1975)
"Menace of the Human Firefly!"
Writer - Michael Fleisher
Penciller - Steve Ditko
Inker - Mike Royer
Editor - Joe Orlando
Cover Price: $0.25
On this weeks Cosmic Treadmill, Reggie and I discuss Strange Tales #110 from Marvel Comics in 1963. In it, we met that Master of Black Magic... Dr. Stephen Strange, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
As you might imagine, by the time we were getting ready to wrap up we had discussed the creators so much that we'd almost forgot what book we'd even covered! If you're interested, you can check it out right here... and/or in the archives.
It left me in a Dikto-y mood, and I figured why not work some of that blog/podcast synergy (black) magic and cover a book with the man himself making the pictures happen? It's also an issue of 1st Issue Special... so, it's got that going for it too!
--
We open with Gotham City newscaster, Jack Ryder (with cameraman in tow) being given a tour of Gotham Penitentiary. We can see familiar faces like the Scarecrow and Two-Face (who had been temporarily transferred from The Arkham Asylum) along with Garfield Lynns... the Firefly! Funny that they preface Arkham with "The"... but again, this is back in the time where the Arkham brand really wasn't a thing. Anyhoo, after Ryder and company are out of sight, Lynns turns to his lighting-effects genius to finagle a laso-lighter out of some lenses he'd snagged while helping out, get this... backstage during the annual prison play! Gotta wonder what kinda show they put on in the Gotham Pen... I hope it ain't Zorro.
So Lynn's cuts his way through the cell bars and goes about making an all-around nuisance of himself. The prison alarms begin to sound, and Jack pulls away from the Warden and his cameraman so that he might transform into... The Creeper!
With a cackle, the Creeper swoops into action... well, he would'a if not for the laso-light blast he takes to the chest! Well, that's embarrassing.
Even worse, the Warden and prison guards arrive and begin to swarm... assuming that the Creeper, who... ya know, doesn't really look like a hero, has aided in Lynns's's's escape! There's a brief skirmish, which ends with the Creeper escaping... those left behind can't help but wonder if he's Hero... or Menace! Well, not really... they all pretty much think he's a menace. Jack Ryder reappears and justifies his disappearance as wanting to catch the hot scoop.
We shift to a lighthouse where Lynns is in the process of adorning himself in one of the gaudier supervillain costumes I've ever seen. I'm almost certain I've seen this shot in Wizard Magazine as "Mort of the Month"... you might recall that the Wiz-folk were always keen on their low-hanging fruit. Anyhoo, what we need to know is that his belt o' many colors actually consists of light-weapons and illusion-granting lenses and stuff.
A short time passes, and we rejoin the Firefly as he enters a smoke-filled pool hall... in full geek attire. Ditko really does a great job showing how out of place a costumed fella would appear among civilians as Firefly looks pretty ridiculous. It's not about looks though, folks... at this juncture, it's about power and ingenuity. Firefly approaches a few patrons and introduces himself as a "Master Criminal". After they stop laughing, he (temporarily) belt-beams one out of existence! At this point, the remaining geeks agree to become his "assistants"... which is more formal a title than I would have figured.
We shift to the studios of WHAM-TV Gotham, where Jack Ryder is walking and talking with J. Jonah... er, I mean Mr. Marlies. Let's not get it twisted, dude looks nothing like Jonah... but the stuff that comes out of his mouth is very JJJ. He's convinced that the Creeper is not a hero... but a menace (okay, he doesn't say menace... spoilsports), and insists Ryder present him as such during the next broadcast... and company guy that he is, Jack obliges.
Following the broadcast, Jack is alerted to a raging inferno atop the Skytop Diamond Exchange. He hustles off to cover the hot scoop. After checking in with the firefighters and camera crew, he excuses himself to... er, interview passersby. Seems legit.
And so, Jack "Creeps up", then climbs up to the top of the building where he learns there's no fire at all... just an elaborate light show borne out of a lighting and special-fx genius's twisted mind.
The Creeper pounces! Or, uh... he would've if not for the electro-lighter blast he takes to the chest. By now he should know he's not all that great at this kind of frontal assault, right?
A second blast... and monologue which mentions "collecting light-duty" sends the Creeper off the side of the skyscraper... and he plummets to the ground below and hits with a gut-wrenching THUD. Somehow... he's still alive (and as we're about to find out no worse for wear). He wakes up in the Detention Ward of the General Hospital where he finds himself shackled to his bed.
When he's left alone he goes about freeing himself from the cuffs... and busting the bars off the window. He's got a pretty good idea where Firefly and his geeks are holed up.
Remember Firefly mentioned "light-duty" earlier? The Creeper does! It doesn't mean he's suffered an on-the-job injury and is stuck jockeying a desk... it's a reference to fees paid by ships to lighthouses... sooooo, stands to reason Firefly's shacked up at the lighthouse, don't it? The Creeper (uh-oh) leaps into battle... and for the first time this issue, is successful!
He busts up Firefly's nerdy belt... and the fight is taken outside. Firefly attempts one last blast... which Creeper reflects back at him with a shard of broken glass. This knocks Firefly off the lighthouse... sending him into the angry (and craggy) seas below... and, if I were a betting man... to his death. Thankfully I'm not a betting man, because I'm fairly certain this isn't the last we've seen of him. We close out with the Creeper celebrating his hard-fought victory by cackling in the moonlight.
--
Now I ought to preface by saying I don't know a whole lot about the Creeper. I can't rightly say I've ever read a solo adventure of his before. I mean, I might have... but couldn't reference it off the top of my head. That said, I had a good time with this one. It did feel like a very quick read though.
It's so strange how Marvel-like this issue felt to me... and not just because of the Ditko art. The Creeper feels a lot like a Marvel character. There's the whole "hero or menace" vibe... he's not perfect... he didn't check for a body after Firefly fell... just a few things that don't scream "DC hero" to me.
Let's parse that a bit. Thinking the Creeper is a villain works better for me than folks in Marvel New York thinking Spider-Man is a villain. I mean, Spidey's costume... while it hides his face, isn't outright scary. Yeah, it's not like Captain America's or anything... but I'd imagine it's something folks would see as "cool" before "scary". The Creeper, on the other hand... looks like a creepy (pun!) goblin or something. The fact that he cackles all the time only adds to the, er... creepiness of it all. Plus, this is the DC Universe, and costumed folks who laugh and cackle sort of have a precedent. The evening news fomenting fear (or bewaring) of the Creeper is just the cherry on the sundae.
The Creeper makes mistakes... I mean, if he were a ball player, his batting average would be a 0.3 for this adventure. Two out of three times, he got his butt handed to him... and that's no indictment on how awesome Firefly is... it's simply the Creeper's own impetuosity. "Look Before you Leap!" needs to be stitched on a sampler at the Ryder home. I liked this though... it made it feel like the Creeper doesn't quite have the experience or finesse of some/most of the other DC heroes.
I thought it was interesting that Firefly was just allowed to fall to the "angry sea" below the lighthouse... and the Creeper's reaction was a "long, chill, mocking laugh" rather than a rescue attempt followed by turning over to the police. Hell, not even the narrative captions mention Firefly's fate... you'd usually expect a "the police scoured the seas for hours before finding a frantic Firefly" or something. But, nope... nada. Like I said above, I'd assume he was dead... if this wasn't a comic book.
The art here is from Ditko... and it's his haunting and sorta uncomfortable style that we all love. The characters aren't especially handsome, nor do I believe are meant to be. That was the thing with Ditko... take a look at old Amazing Spider-Man comics... Peter Parker wasn't a terribly good looking kid. That wouldn't come until John Romita arrived and gave Pete his "lunchbox look". It's weird, the Creeper is actually more visually appealing to me than Jack Ryder. Ryder looks kinda like Lupin III here, only with a narrower face.
Overall, had a lot of fun with this one. This has been collected in The Creeper by Steve Ditko collection released by DC in 2010... and, I believe was set to be in a SHOWCASE Presents volume... which either fell through, or was just a rumor. Can't find a whole lot of agreement online about that. There is an Amazon link to a(n unavailable) book bearing the name... and classic SHOWCASE Presents cover though. Either way, this issue shouldn't be terribly difficult to procure. I'd say it's well worth a read.
--
(Not the) Letters Page:
--
Interesting Ads:
526
