Today’s Bun Toon will be the result of exposure to Red Kryptonite and it should wear off in 24 hours.
Have you guys checked out the new SUPERGIRL show in CBS this fall? Too much fun. It almost makes up for Constantine being cancelled.
Still…if you’re unfamiliar with the MAID OF MIGHT, I’m here to help.
In my spare time this last month, I’ve been re-reading the Supergirl stories from the Fifties and Sixties in my collection (I have nearly all of ’em). Wow, what a bizarre ride of sexism and patriarchy it all was back then…just like the prevailing culture.
Thank Rao we’ve moved past all that.
Ty the Guy
—————————————————————————————————-
Supergirl has a doppelgänger named “Power Girl”, who is from a parallel universe where the inhabitants all have much larger boobs.
Here the two Karas argue about “who wore it sluttier?”
Strangely enough, the parallel world version of Kara is quite popular as a cosplay outfit.
Speaking of strange, the following two panels, from an issue in 1959, still sort of freaks people out…
Then there’s THIS moment.
It’s worth noting, that Supergirl is also a doppelgänger for Lois Lane, Lana Lang and a woman named Lesla-Lar from Kandor….all of whom can seamlessly disguise themselves as Kara Z0r-el without make-up or preparation.
Superman has the hots for ALL of ’em at one point or another.
Apparently women were interchangable in the Fifties.
————————————————————————————————–
For the Bun Toon from two weeks ago, ALSO about Weisinger-era Superman comics, click here.
For last week’s Halloween Bun Toon extravaganza, click here.
For the Bun Toon archive, going back years, click here.
Ty Templeton's ART LAND!! 
Alan Moore killed the dog. Just sayin’.
In an “Imaginary Tale” (but aren’t they all?).
Alan Moore killed the dog in “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow”. And when John Byrne brought Superboy and Krypto in from the Pocket Univers in Action 591, Byrne stripped Krypto of his powers with Gold kryptonite.
Just, you know, nitpicking. 🙂
The “Whatever Happened to…?” issues are “Imaginary Tales”, no different than Superman Red and Superman Blue or the Death of Luthor. (They kill Lana and Mr. Mxyzptlk in ’em too!). And stripping the dog of his powers, ain’t the same as killing him in continuity. It’s a “women in refrigerators” observation.
Damn, too late.
I really wanted TV Constantine to weave its magic, but alas it needed a more mature format than regular TV and felt gutted of its potency I thought. Maybe a Netflix series would work?
I thought Supergirl episode 1 was almost unwatchable. I will give e02 a try, but I don’t know…. It did not seem like a very positive model for young women…. I’ll give it another shot.
Oh and there’s also a really weird version of the character that was an earth born Angel that was in a critically acclaimed series by Peter David that dealt with religion, sexuality, and identity… which was canceled because Dan Didio thought a sign at Six Flags was too confusing. True story…
This was replaced by what was supposed to be a “classic” take on the character which was this overly skinny half-naked irrationally angry girl that we were supposed to like because she got in fights with other superheroes for no good reason what so ever… no I’m not bitter.
Yeah…the purple/pink jello goo version of Supergirl. In four panels, I thought it best to skip right over that element of her history. I was dealing with Kara Zor-El, not any of her Earth-9 counterparts.
One, if not two of the cancelled series you show feature artwork by Bob Oskner, one of the great underrated artists of DC and an artist who drew remarkably sexy, yet natural looking women. (Oskner even inked the ’80s series drawn by a past-his-prime Carmine Infantino). Maybe those ones were badly written; they were certainly not badly drawn!
They were also not CONSISTENTLY drawn by Oskner, which I agree, would have saved those series.
Both Supergirl series had artwork by very respected artists, that was easily on a par with the DC standard (or house style) of the period. The first had Art Saaf and Vince Colletta (with all Oksner covers); the second volume had Carmine Infantino (no less!!) pencilling, and Bob Oksner inking, with a lot of Infantino covers.
Granted, the writing is either something you enjoy or don’t. Volume 1, particularly, was clearly aimed at young girls, with romance heavy stories (hence Dorothy Woolfolk as its initiating editor, handing off to Silver Age Wonder Woman’s Bob Kanigher.) There are elements of volume two’s writing that are greatly appreciated by many commentators — but again, its subjective, and perhaps not the kind of thing the typical demographic DC readership of the 1980s wanted.
The first volume wasn’t necessarily cancelled because of poor figures, it was cancelled because of the economics of the comicbook industry at that time, and DC’s realisation that thicker books sold much better. If you check, you’ll find that DC ‘cancelled’ a huge number of its superhero titles around 1974/5. In reality they were restructuring and shifting to an anthology format: (i) the most licensable superheroes (Superman, Batman) retained their own books (Wonder Woman just survived!); (ii) the lowest sellers were cancelled outright; (iii) the titles that were performing okay, but didn’t have mechanising/licensing potential, were merged into 80 / 100 page anthology titles. Hence the mid 70s brings us “Superman Family”, “Batman Family”, “Super-Team Family”… etc.
At the time, I think Jimmy Olsen was by far the worst selling title from the Superman wing of DC. (Wonder Woman IIRC was largely saved by the prospect of a TV show.)