regarding Thunder Agents and Charlton

sorry guys!

Sorry for what?

I've DLed some of the THUNDER Agents stuff-- the Wally Wood "Dynamo"s are funny and have nice art, but I can't really remember much about the other features. It's pretty nice stuff if you like '60s comics, I think.

I don't know about trades for the Charlton, but some of it was reprinted by some outfit called Modern Comics in the '70s-- I think back issues of those might be easier/cheaper to find. I've DLed a huge bunch of that stuff too, but it's been wiped by now, I think-- sorry. It's OK but mostly not great-- the Ditko work is good but not his absolute best, although the "Our Man" issue of Blue Beetle is pretty good crazy Objectivist stuff. (BTW, veronica, Watchmen is also a little more fun if you've read the Ditko "Mr. A" stories from the Witzend comics posted on the YSI thread.)

I'd like to repeat my request for a YSI if anyone has a copy of Mysterious Suspense #1. I've still never read it and it's the one Charlton thing that's supposed to be amazing Ditko. I can trade you The Hawk and the Dove #1 and #2 if I figure out how you guys do the YSI on the board...

DC's done I think three or four volumes so far of the complete T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents stuff, and recently did an "Action Heroes" Archive hardcover with the early Captain Atom stuff (a lot of which is Ditko totally phoning it in, unfortunately).

Mysterious Suspense #1 was reprinted in the late '90s as part of DC's farewell-to-our-old-printer pamphlet reissue series. It's good, not great Ditko, I think.

Mysterious Suspense is def. GRATE Ditko - perhaps the purest fusion of his superhero-action stuff and his libertarian-didactic stuff - somebody (DC I guess) shld def. reprint this and the five issues of Blue Beetle drawn just beforehand. Captain Atom predates these comics and is generally more snoozeworthy (esp. beware of the issues not inked by Ditko - ugh). If you're more into Ditko pics than scripts then I wld advise you to check out the black-white stories he did for Warren just after leaving Marvel - utterly psyched cross-hatching and linewash, poss. Ditko's best-ever drawing

I love the 'Mocker' back-up by Ditko in a cpl issue of Charlton's E-Man comic from the early 70s, btw

Thuder Agents = gorgeous art - Wally Wood+Dan Adkins, Gil Kane, Sekowsky etcd. - but non-vintage hack scripts, sadly

No shit about Mysterious Suspense... Thanks for the tip, Douglas. I'll have to go hunt that one up now!

Is any of that Ditko Warren stuff readily available, Ward? Reprints/CBR anywhere? I don't remember the Mocker even though I think I've read it, but "Killjoy" was one Ditko E-Man backup that I remember as being pretty rad-- lots of frustrated straw men weeping because of the unfairness of heroism. Re: hack scripts-- their vintageness is the thing that makes the stories still enjoyable, I think-- very '60s attitudes/approach, at least in the "Dynamo" and whatever-that-THUNDER-squad-thing-was features.

There was a special late ish of Eerie or Creepy that was all Ditko classics. Absolutely magnificent. Hang on, I'll look it out...

Eerie #135, ten stories, nearly 80 pages of Ditko. 'Collector's Edition' and 'The Fly' are among his finest art jobs. I bet it's not expensive.

Thanks, Martin! I'll have to scout around for it then while I'm looking for the Suspense reprint. So many good comics, so little time and, occasionally, cash...

Re "...I love the 'Mocker' back-up by Ditko in a cpl issue of Charlton's E-Man comic from the early 70s, btw..." above:

Ther's an entire book of Ditko's Mocker strips that Robin Snyder put out a few years back. Dunno if it's still available, but a Google search on Ditko Mocker should point you in its direction.