The Comics Rack

The DC Archives Series

by Tom Mason

    The DC Archives hardbound books had their inception in 1989, and now, in this new millennium they are still going strong with over 44 volumes already published with no signs of stopping yet.
    What are the DC Archives? They are a series of first rate hardbound books reprinting the most famous material from DC’s Golden and Silver Age titles. They generally run over 200 pages and offer up material that we would have to take out a bank loan to purchase in their original form, and that is only if we could find them. The books are in full, vivid color and usually are re-colored to restore them to their original brilliance, no faded yellow pages here.
    Within their covers are contained the original adventures of such heroes as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Justice Society of America, The Flash, Green Lantern, World’s Finest Comics, The Justice League of America, The Legion of Super-heroes, The Teen Titans and even the original Captain Marvel and Plastic Man. More volumes are scheduled with the Golden Age Starman and Will Eisner’s complete run of the Spirit. The Archives series will continue the reprinting of the classic heroes. Superman, as an example, has five separate volumes and the Legion of Super-heroes has nine.
    Just why has this series flourished while the rival Marvel Comics Masterworks series has floundered and quietly faded? In my opinion, it is because that DC has tapped their roots and rich history of their characters.
    Marvel chose to publish their material that had dominated the sixties, all good material, but it had been reprinted over and over in comics and most collectors had the material. Then they let the volumes go out of print. All the DC Archives remain in print and are available from many outlets such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Marvel did publish some of their Golden Age Timely material, but they had no focus. Marvel experienced printing difficulties in their Masterworks Volumes, often times leaving out pages. A couple volumes reprinting the first ten issues of the classic Simon-Kirby Captain America were released. Somehow an embarrassing picture of Bucky in these special Captain America editions made it to the printers. They obviously had been shot off old comics. In one of the issues someone had modified a panel by crudely drawing in an appendage to Bucky's crotch. The mistake was not caught and it was published. Marvel tried a couple trade paperbacks of Golden Age material, but none of these efforts were organized.
    DC, on the other hand has continually published volumes in a single, uniform format. They are easy to catalog and look great on a bookshelf. If Marvel had put more thought into how they were going to release material, they would have a formidable line-up of titles from the Golden Age through the Silver Age. How great it would have been to have hardbound volumes of the original Human Torch, Submariner, All Winners, The Young Allies, and all the early secondary heroes in their line. DC has published their Golden and Silver Age material in volumes that follow a logical progression. As an example, in the five volumes of Superman, they have taken us from issue number one to issue twenty. So it is with the other DC heroes. We see them at their birth and their gradual development into the characters they ultimately became. How many of us recall that Batman carried a gun in early issues and had a machine gun mounted on his Bat-Plane? He had no reluctance in dispatching a bad guy into the hereafter and even shot a vampire dead in his coffin. This is a far cry from the Batman of today that we have become accustomed to, but there it is in the archive editions.
    DC has so many famous characters in their files, just waiting to be reawakened in an archive edition of their own. How many of us Would like to see the classic exploits of all the DC stable of heroes? There are the various incarnations of The Sandman from the earliest version to the sleek Simon and Kirby Sandman and Sandy. The original Green Lantern was Alan Scott, who received his powers by charging his emblematic ring from a mysterious, magical, green lantern. His one weakness was that he could be hurt by ordinary wood. Dr. Fate was a magician/archeologist who swooped from his ominous, doorless and windowless brick tower in Salem to fight the powers of darkness. The original Starman, looking curiously like Superman (he was drawn by one of the Superman artists), flew with his powerful magnetic star wand that mysteriously harnessed the power of the stars. The Spectre, an almost God-like character who occupied the body of a dead detective, Jim Corrigan, was capable of the most outlandish behavior to punish the guilty. The Spectre could even talk directly to God. The original Flash wore a Greek Mercury-like helmet and was endowed with unbeatable speed. He fought crime at high speeds and could catch a bullet in his hand. He had gained super speed by a freak accident in which he inhaled the fumes of “heavy water”. The original Hawkman was the reincarnation of an Egyptian Prince Khufu, and used all the weapons of the past to rout evildoers. He was thrilling with his feathery wings and anti-gravity belt powered by “ninth metal” flying across the night sky with his companion Hawkgirl. Dr. Midnite, was a blind surgeon by day, but at night he would don his costume and special infrared glasses that would permit him to see in the dark and fight crime. Johnny Thunder, was a good natured regular guy who would shout an ancient incantation cei-u (pronounced “say-you”) that would summon his own private Thunderbolt genie to get him out of hot water at the last moment and save the day. Hourman was a chemist who discovered a chemical compound he named Miraclo which when ingested gave him super powers for sixty minutes. Around his neck he wore a hourglass that measured the shifting sands of his strength: hence his name Hourman. AirWave, wearing his radio aerial helmet, had the ability to literally skate along the high-tension lines atop their poles to reach the scene of a crime. Johnny Quick discovered a mathematical formula, 3X2(9YZ)4A, that when recited gave him super speed. Mr.Terrific became a crime fighter out of boredom with life and gained excitement and purpose by donning a costume sporting the unusual emblem on his chest “FAIR PLAY”. The list is endless; many names wait to be reawakened: Manhunter, Zatara, Wildcat, The Crimson Avenger, The Atom, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Speedy, Liberty Belle, The Black Canary, The Vigilante, Congo Bill, The Star Spangled Kid and Stripsey, The Shining Knight, Robot-Man...all these heroes wait between the dusty pages of DC's Golden Age of comics.
  DC also owns the rights to many of the Quality and Fawcett heroes. Already we have seen both Captain Marvel and Plastic Man star in their own archive volumes. How about some volumes of Blackhawk, Dollman, Uncle Sam, Captain Midnight, The Marvel Family, Spy Smasher, Nyoka, Lance O'Casey, Ibis the Invincible, and so many more? We can only wait and see.
    Write DC and show your support for this kind of material. It is important to support these volumes as they are well worth the price when you consider the wealth of material contained in them and the legacy they represent.
© 2000 by Tom Mason