Week 35: The Slow Dance

I saw this great panel by Irwin Hasen, with Bob Oksner inks, from All Star Comics #47 and for some reason reminds me of many of my trips to comic cons, I’m sure it does the same for our friend Bud. July 1949. The reason this splash resonates today is that I should be driving in to Toronto today to load in for Fan Expo, maybe next year.

This Sheldon Moldoff splash page from Batman #181 reminds me of the time when I was young and me and my pals went across to the USA to go to bars (NY had 3 AM close, Ontario had 1 AM close – I Love NY!). Anyway, we’re having a good time and one of our pals finds the rest of us and tells us he was dancing with this girl, the dance floor was packed and he tells us she was rubbing his privates while they were dancing! A little while later it was his turn to get drinks at the bar and … he couldn’t find his wallet! Batman, my friend, I’ve seen this move before, stay vigilante. From June 1966.

Gene Colan is a regular on this page, and for good reason, take a look at this splash from Captain America #136. The Bill Everett inks really add to this page. From April 1971.

I’ve always been a Frank Brunner fan, I remember emailing him maybe 15 years ago about a piece of art, I can’t remember all the details and sadly I didn’t get the art – maybe it was this page? From Doc Strange #4 from October 1974.

Guys I’m not sure because the place I got this pic from never said and I couldn’t find a confirmation but I do believe this great Neal Adams splash is from his classic Superman Vs. Mohammed Ali from 1978. So much to take in here, great work.

I probably should have stopped with the great Adams splash above but when I saw this gem of a Splash by Win Mortimer and John Romita I thought I’d try to build a joke around giving Spidey a Spoiler Alert… From Spidey Super Stories #1, October 1974.

Walter Durajlija
Walter Durajlija

Walter Durajlija is an Overstreet Advisor and Shuster Award winner. He owns Big B Comics in Hamilton Ontario.

Articles: 1822

8 Comments

  1. Yes, Walter, it does remind me of early shows. Downtown Detroit (The Triple Fan Fair), especially, Chicago, and especially Manhatten and Brooklyn. When I first met Phil Seuling in 1970, he lived on the 13th floor of an apartment building in Luna Park, virtually a block from the rides and stalls at Coney Island. We could go downstairs and be swept up in NY street scene in minutes.

    A buddy, Scott Maple, who managed two of our Comics & Comix stores, and I were walking back to a hotel after something, during Phil’s one-and-only show in Philiadelphia, around 1973 or 74, and got propositioned.

    That wasn’t so rare, but her line was…”Hey, Baby, why not?”

    Still cracks us up to this day. And, no, we did NOT partake. We were innocent lil’ Calif boys.

    As teen-agers from San Jose, in 1970 on, going to these big cities was really an eye-opening experience. We were convinced that New York city girls were WAY more mature…meaning romantic and experienced…than their counteparts where we came from!

    Love your story about the lost wallet. In New Orleans between two shows, we did the clubs one time. You could drink and go to a topless bar at only 18 years old, whereas in Calif thevlegal age was 21. A buddy went out on his own one night, inadvertently got into a gay bar, and came racing back to where we were staying (bedrolls on a floor of an unfinished apartment Dealers Roger and Jack Diamond lent us).

    He insisted he was being chased by gay guys, I always assumed it was because since he was young and decent looking and talented and funny. He ended up writing for Merv Griffin…I don’t think it was anything too nefarious…but hilarious at the time. I nearly fell in love with some cute topless table dancer, whoooee. She kept making eye contact! They had a girl on a swing who would swing out a huge front open window, on the second story, above the street below. It certainly got us in for a few drinks!

    Oh, yeah, and some fine panels here too! Brunner at his best, great Hansen, an underrated guy, sharp primetime Neal Adams, Colan. The Spidey leaves me cold, that style of Romita’s we see here seems wooden to me. And Moldoff’s Batman, nice character mix but he’s so stiff, he lost my interest after his 1940s Hawkman (mostly swioes from Raymond and Foster, but well done for swipes) and his adequate Moon Girl. His 1950’s and 60s work, i really dislike. All that Batman ghosting for Bob Kane, yuckk. Give me Infantino/Anderson new era Batman any day.

  2. Great stories Bud, I remember a girlfriend and I once went to a gay bar on Church Street in Toronto, she was living in close by Cabbage Town, we had a great time.

    Dave, Bud and I belong to the Comics Cad Authority.

  3. So what your saying is… Poison Ivy wants to get her hands on the Caped Crusaders … Bat-a-rang???

  4. So comics AND smutty stories? Anyway, Frank Brunner’s lush drawing and inks and washes (in Creepy) always awed me on anything he did, beautiful art.

  5. On the “maybe” Adams, between the two dudes legs below the hand, is that two artist initials in the sidewalk or just urban graffitti? So much detail, must’ve taken hours.

  6. The City street panel by Neal Adams is definitely from Supermam/Muhammad Ali, with backgrounds by Terry Austin.

Comments are closed.