#1st Issue Special

[evilhorse]

Burn it down!

(1st Issue Special #2)

[chernobog13]

The Mark Shaw-version of Manhunter, created by Jack Kirby for DC Comics' 1st Issue Special (vol. 1) #5 (August, 1975).

[cantsayidont]

For a long time, the main impetus for DC reprinting any of its voluminous back catalog was some promotional or licensing tie-in: a movie, a TV show, some merchandise they were trying to push, or just a popular ongoing book. Given how prominently Dr. Fate was featured in the recent BLACK ADAM movie, therefore, it's surprising and somewhat disheartening that DC didn't take the opportunity to do some kind of greatest hits compilation for the character, who was certainly the best thing about that mostly terrible film.

This is especially unfortunate because you could fit quite a bit of Dr. Fate's Silver Age and Bronze Age non-JSA appearances in a single volume, starting with the two 1965 SHOWCASE team-ups with Hourman shown above, by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson. There are also a number of later team-ups with Superman and Batman:

Fate then got a couple of solo features in the '70s:

Kubert cover notwithstanding, the 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL story, which is written by Marty Pasko, has some really outstanding early Walt Simonson art, while the SECRET ORIGINS OF SUPER-HEROES story has an eight-page retelling of Fate's origin, narrated by Kent Nelson's wife Inza, by the ALL-STAR COMICS team of Paul Levitz and Joe Staton.

In 1982, Doctor Fate got his own eight-page backup feature in, weirdly enough, THE FLASH #306–313. Despite what a couple of the covers imply, there wasn't a team-up between the Flash and Fate (who in those days still existed on separate parallel Earths); the Fate strip was just an unrelated second feature.

This strip, written by Marty Pasko and Steve Gerber with spectacular art by Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt, presents an array of interesting ideas (some of which obviously paved the way for Giffen's 1987 revamp). Pasko had already established (in the 1975 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL story) that Doctor Fate wasn't exactly Kent Nelson: He was really the ancient Lord of Order Nabu, the entity who trained Nelson in the magical arts, who possessed Nelson's body whenever he put on the Helm of Fate. In other words, the Dr. Fate of these stories isn't so much a man wearing a magical helmet as a magical helmet wearing a man. Nabu has made both Kent and Inza ageless — they both appear about 25, but by this time, they're really in their 60s — but allows them little real control of their lives. Kent has more or less resigned himself to it, but Inza is feeling the strain of being trapped in a magical menage à trois with her husband and an inhuman entity that has little regard for Kent's welfare and even less for hers. Nabu, for his part, seems to exist in a state of constant mystical urgency in which human frailties are an unaffordable distraction.

This could have been really compelling, and it's both graphically interesting and quite strange, but all that is a lot to squeeze into eight-page installments, and having them crammed in the back of one of DC's most conventional superhero books was obviously not optimal. It was also having to compete for Giffen and Mahlstedt's attention with LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, which I assume was why the Fate strip was dropped after only eight installments.

To everyone's surprise, there was even a Doctor Fate action figure in 1984 as part of the Kenner Super Powers line. This came with a little minicomic, which to my knowledge has never been reprinted:

All of this stuff would add up to something in the realm of 230 pages, which would easily fit into a single trade paperback collection with a digestible price point. Maddeningly, DC has already done the color remastering for roughly three-fifths of this material, so even that probably wouldn't be a huge chore (although the Giffen/Mahlstedt stuff, which has a lot of color holds and graphic effects, really calls for more care in remastering than DC has tended to give its older material of late.)

[browsethestacks]

Comic - Danger Street #012 Cover (2023)

Art by Bruno Redondo

[ratatoskm15]

The covers of 1st Issue Special which I finally read in full recently inspired by Tom King reusing the characters in these 13 issues for Danger Street

[tomoleary]

Dick Giordano - 1st Issue Special #13 Return of the New Gods Cover Original Art (DC, 1976) Source

Orion, Lightray, Mister Miracle, Big Barda, and Metron

[craigfernandez]

[machetelanding]

[ultrameganicolaokay]

1st Issue Special #9 ‘The Mummy That Time Forgot’ (1975) by Martin Pasko and Walt Simonson. Edited by Gerry Conway. Cover by Joe Kubert and Tatjana Wood.

[smbhax]

How to tell you've become a total Kirby mark ^ _^

[sulsulzukohere]

I love my elves 💖

[evilhorse]

The merely marvelous element man will return again…if you want me to!

(1st Issue Special #3)

[chernobog13]

Jack Kirby's pitch for Atlas, which ultimately was seen in 1st Issue Special #1 (April, 1975).

I really love this concept and wish someone would revive it. I am not a fan, to put it mildly, of what has been done with the character after Kirby's one-shot origin story.

[koushirouizumi]

(Because I'm still really happy about this discussion and I need to rewatch Fiddler on the Roof while cross-checking the full Yiddish script---)

For reference, there's Yiddish version of "Do You Love Me?" at that link (if slightly off sync), the English version of same song is here, and the full Yiddish script can be found here! (If the links die down the road, please check the script!)

The fundamental difference between Fiddler on the Roof and Fidler Afn Dakh:

English Tevye: Tradition!

Yiddish Tevye: Got iz a foter un heylik iz zayn toyre!

[browsethestacks]

Creeper: Brave And The Bold / 1st Issue Special (1968/1975)

Art by Neal Adams And Dick Giordano / Carmine Infantino And Joe Orlando

[inphierno]

Finished s1 of the sopranos and basically tony is going thru my twenties it’s like my life is flashing before my eyes minus the mafia shit