this is from February of '74, and that is sort of when I remember buying my first copy. it was in a 7-11 and we had been skiing that day, until a snowstorm hit and we had to hike part of the way down the mountain. I believe we got a ride at some point and were dropped off at said convenience store.
it was well worth the fifty cents I spent!
magic had a strange history with Superman. in those early years, there "was no such thing as magic" ruled a lot of DC comics, despite there being a ton of it in evidence to the contrary. even Batman said that a lot, despite having met Dr. Fate.
anyway, there are 6 stories here, five of them being Superman and one Green Lantern story with Zatanna. the first one features Mr. Mxyztplk (yes, I checked the spelling) which might be his second appearance. there's no date on it, but I'd say it's a late 40s story.
the second is a Jimmy Olsen epic, in which he frees the demons from Pandora's box and ends up doing all sorts of harm. except it was all a drug induced nightmare.
next up "Superman and Hocus Pocus at the Magicians' Convention" which is silly and forgettable.
Green Lantern teams with Zatanna to help her find her father, part of an excellent ongoing storyline. the art is by Gil Kane, of course. only problem is... Zatara was introduced in that first Action comics, so he SHOULD be an Earth 2 hero. was this ever explained?
Superman visits "The Enchanted Mountain" where magic is da bunk. go figure. this is in the town of Morabia.
finally, Superman takes on Circe in "Beauty and the Super Beast". but this is mostly a trick. did you know a Man of Steel has two poles that are subject to the same laws as a magnet? me either.
there's a letters page but nothing tops the two pages of "play the graffiti game with Superman" in which various DC artists drew a lot of hair- among other things- on Superman's head. these include Swan, Orlando, Cockrum, Kubert (Joe, that is), Kaluta, Howard Victor Chaykin, Frank Robbins, Dillon, Aragones, Adams, Wrightson and a few names I couldn't make out. pretty humorous. they even left two heads blank for the readers to draw on, thus ruining the collectability of the comic!
I think the explanation, re: Zatara, is that no one was worried about it! Ditto for Sargon the Sorcerer and the Guardian.
ReplyDelete(Well, OK, JLA #220 had Sargon make reference to his switching earths, and the implication was that there were others. However, no story was ever written, and it eventually became moot.)
it's moot like Zatara is now. still, it could have been a fun story back then.
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