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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Super Dictionary - 1978

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With a lot of kids going back to school today(those reading this who have kids may have noticed an eerie yet peaceful quiet in the house), I thought today would be the perfect day to talk about the 1978 DC Comics Super Dictionary!

This was another one of those fun items I remember as a kid and had wanted for a long time to pick up.
I figured, unlike the
DC Comics Superhero Cookbook that had virtually no Aqua-Content, the Super Dictionary had to feature Aquaman, at least a little bit. So I found a copy for a decent price and took the plunge.

Luckily, my guess was right and this book, aside from just being very fun and very cool, features Aquaman all over the place! The book is about 400 pages and features various members of the DCU illustrating the definitions of words, from A to Z, plus a wraparound cover by my old instructor, Joe Kubert!

A lot of the artwork is cribbed from exisiting DC comics, other art is all new, and some is a mix of both. This being before desktop publishing, I can only imagine the nightmarish paste-up job this book must have represented. *shudder*

Anyway, as I said, Aquaman is all over the place here, so I scanned every appearance(that was a fun afternoon) and put them together in small chunks, which will appear here on the Shrine every so often. But for now, let's start with this:
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...is it me, or is the panel featuring the entire JLA watching(presumably) Lois Lane sleep a little creepy? If I were Superman, I wouldn't let Green Arrow anywhere near Lois' bedroom.

5 comments:

Rick L. Phillips said...

That scene does look creepy. Mostly because they all seem to have a smile on their faces. Hawkman for some reason looks especially odd.

Anonymous said...

I have this book. It's fun to see how they kit-bashed artwork to fit the needs of the word entry. You'd have a Neal Adams Batman and Kurt Schaffenberger Lois Lane in the same panel!!!

It's also interesting to note that several characters were made up just for this book to make it look like DC had a more ethnically diverse cast than they really did in the 70s.

Chris

Anonymous said...

Well, if we go by the latest flick, Supes sure DOES know what's going on in Lois' private life, as he stalks her regularly!

-Craig W.

Eric said...

Like Ted and Terri Trapper! Conjura! El Dragon! Grant Morrison should get ahold of the Super Dictionary....

This is one of my favorite comic products ever. I read through it a bunch of times when I was a kid and wondered who the hell Air Wave was.

Diabolu Frank said...

Nah see-- that's Jean Loring. This is the retroactive mind wipe that will eventually turn her homicidal.

Hawkman smiling is wrong in ways Batman cannot fathom.