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Saturday, August 08, 2009

Limited Collectors' Edition #C41 - Dec. 1975

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Comics Weekend Time for something a little different for today's Comics Weekend installment.

As most of you know, I am an obsessive fan of over-sized, "treasury" comics. But unfortunately, as an Aquaman fan, DC's treasuries were exceedingly frustrating, because Aquaman made so few appearances in them, even via reprints, from which most of these books were put together.

But this book--Limited Collectors' Edition #C41--is a glorious exception, because not only does it feature two Justice League of America reprints, but it comes with an amazing, all-new wraparound sequence, set in the Hall of Justice and drawn by the incomparable Alex Toth!

And since this book always reminds me of the summertime (even though it was released in September), I thought now was a good time to talk about it on the Shrine. Here's the opening pages, courtesy regular Super Friends writer E.Nelson Bridwell and Toth:
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At this point, the book shifts to a reprint of "Operation: Jail the Justice League!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Sid Greene from Justice League of America #61.

This story is about all the JLAers posing as Green Arrow to help foil a plot by a group of super-villains, including a villain of Aquaman's named Cutlass Charlie, who was never seen before or heard from again:
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Cutlass Charlie quickly got out of super-villainy and got a job as a greeter at Arthur Treacher's.

Anyway, after that first story is over, we catch back up with the Super Friends as they continue their tour for Wendy and Marvin:
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Then its time for another reprint, "The Case of the Disabled Justice League!", from Justice League of America #36, by Fox, Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs.

This is a sweet story--one of my all-time favorites--where the JLA, in taking on the supervillain Brain Storm--show a group of disabled kids that being handicapped doesn't mean you can't lead a successful, fulfilling life (using examples like FDR, Helen Keller, and Beethoven).

We then get one last page of Toth's Super Friends, including a shot of...Aqua-Marvin?:
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As if all this wasn't enough, the book finishes up with a ten-page article--drawn and hand-lettered by Toth in that famous style of his--about how TV cartoons are made. For a kid reading stuff like this for the first time, its an amazing glimpse into how these shows--which seemed like magic to my five-year-old mind--were actually made.

The book's back cover is this wonderfully...well, friendly goodbye from the Super Friends:
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'Bye, Super Friends!

4 comments:

Wings1295 said...

AWESOME find, Rob! Love it. "Super Friends" was my introduction to Aquaman and to the world of comics. Great memories. :)

Plaidstallions said...

This and the JLA treasury made me a lifelong DC lover.

Diabolu Frank said...

Toth Manhunter? Nifty!

Anonymous said...

how much is this comic worth? just found a copy in the attic