2023 Trek to America – The Comics

For the last couple of months my family and I have been on holidays (that is, “on vacation” for the Americans amongst us) in the United States. The USA is the in which I was born and bred, but for about half of my life now I’ve been living in Australia. Normally we get back her for a visit about ever two years, but owing to various policies in both the USA and especially Australia related to recent global events, this is my first time back with my whole family for nearly five years.

My time in the US has been filled with many blessings and many things to be grateful for. One of them is the chance to get some comics for less than they would cost in Australia. This is not the major blessing, or the most important one, but it’s something I enjoy about my visits to the States nonetheless.

Comics from My Childhood – Superman Family #177

A while ago, I wrote about how I first became a fan of comic books.  This led me to remember several issues from DC Comics that came out in the 1970’s, that were formative parts of my exposure to this whole medium.

So then I decided to track down some of those comics and buy them, and journal the experience. I got three of them, with the earliest cover date being July 1976: Superman Family #177.

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen

When I first heard that Jack Kirby had done a stint on Jimmy Olsen, my reaction was akin to what it would be if I’d discovered that Alan Moore had done a run on Jughead in the early 90’s.  Basically, something like, “What the–?!?!?!”  Or in other words, “That’s crazy!”  Well, it turns out that I’m right.  Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen is absolutely out-of-this-world insane.  Now, of course, we’re talking about Jimmy Olsen here, whose title was always insane, it seems like.  So maybe Kirby was just doing what he needed to to keep up.

Superman: New Krypton vol. 1

A while ago, I decided to give the Superman mega-story, New Krypton, a real go.  And then more recently, 15 trade paperbacks later (plus 2 prologues), I have finally completed it.  So it’s been quite an investment.  Worth it?  Eh…it’s hard to say.  It’s not terrible by any means, though I can see it might have been a bit much to read it as it came out – and maybe it tries to deal with a few too many threads to really hold together as a solid story, but it’s interesting to see DC undertake such an ambitious arc.  So now I’m going to give it a quick re-read, starting with New Krypton vol. 1.

Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume 3 • Part 2

Volume 3 of the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives continues with some significant but not really impressive stories, including the first appearance of the Time Trapper!

Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume 3 • Part 1

Volume 3 of the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives contains in its first couple of stories both one of the best and one of the worst stories of this era!

Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume 2 • Part 2

Continuing on with Volume 2 of the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives, this next section features one of the most famous stories from this era.