Silver Age Sci-Fi Companion

by Mike W. Barr, Gil Kane (Artist), Murphy Anderson (Artist)

In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic DC Comics science-fiction series edited by Julius Schwartz and written by Gardner Fox and John Broome! The pages of DC's science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, Strange Adventures and Mystery In Space, are opened for you, including story-by-story reviews of complete series! Writer/editor Mike W. Barr tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane, Sid Greene, Mike Sekowsky, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by Alan Davis and Paul Neary!

Genres: Comics, Science Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 2007

About the author

Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, and mystery, and science fiction novels. Barr's debut as a comics professional came in DC Comics' Detective Comics #444 (Dec. 1974-Jan. 1975), for which he wrote an 8-page back-up mystery feature starring the Elongated Man. Another Elongated Man story followed in Detective Comics #453 (November 1975). He wrote text articles and editorial replies in letter columns for the next few years. By mid-1980 he was writing regularly for both DC and Marvel, including stories for Marvel Team-Up, Mystery in Space, Green Lantern, and various Batman titles.

Legion of Super-Heroes #277 (July 1981) saw him take on editorial duties at DC, while writing issues of DC's Star Trek comic, for whom he created the native American character Ensign Bearclaw and a pacifist Klingon named Konom. In December 1982, he and artist Brian Bolland began Camelot 3000, a 12 issue limited series that was one of DC Comics' first direct market projects. In August 1983, Barr created what may well be his most enduring work, the monthly title Batman and the Outsiders with art by Jim Aparo. Barr wrote every issue of the original series, and its Baxter paper spinoff, The Outsiders.

His other comics work includes Mantra and Maze Agency as well as the 1987 OGN hardcover book Batman: Son of the Demon (with art by Jerry Bingham), proceeds from which reputedly "restored DC Comics to first place in sales after fifteen years." This title, and Barr's work on Batman with artist Alan Davis have been cited by Grant Morrison as key inspirations for his recent (2006) run on the Batman title.

In 2007, he wrote a two-part story for the pages of DC's JLA: Classified (#47-48, Jan-Feb 2008), returned to the Outsiders with Outsiders: Five of a Kind—Katana/Shazam #1 (Oct 2007), contributed to Tokyopop's Star Trek: The Manga, and relaunched Maze Agency at IDW Publishing. He has also scripted many of Bongo Comics' Simpsons titles, including a Christmas story for 2010.

In May 2010, the Invisible College Press published Barr's science fiction/fantasy novel, Majician/51, about the discoveries of a scientist working at Area 51.

Reviews

[Tim Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably the weakest book by Twomorrows that I've read yet. Part of it is probably on me. But part is just intrinsic to the nature of the book. This is nominally a look at the Julius Schwartz edited DC sci-fi comics, Mystery In Space and Strange Adventures. And the part of not being thrilled by the book that falls on me is that the subject matter just isn't really in my bailiwick. The books pre-dated my comic reading and the features were never ones I particularly cared about going back and seeking out. But it's not all on me. Because better books and features by Twomorrows, either in books or in their magazines have had me enthralled in comics minutiae that I had previously had zero interest in.

Another part of the problem is that large swathes of the book are not terribly relevant in the internet-age. While most of Twomorrows' books consist largely of interviews with creators there is only one shortish interview with Murphy Anderson in this one. There are large sections devoted to creator credits and short synopses of stories and the type of stuff that you used to need a book for but is ubiquitous on a dozen websites like The GCD and Mike's Amazing DC and the like. Think back to the days when you'd see books of discographies published...and how really irrelevant they are in light of sites like Allmusic.

I'm not by any means saying the book isn't worthwhile. Simply that it wasn't for me and its format really probably isn't terribly relevant any more. If you can find it cheap and the subject matter interests you, by all means pick it up.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mit großem Fleiß und viel Liebe zu den SF-Comics des Silver Age hat Mike Barr, der vor allem für DC Skripte schreibt, ein Kompendium vorgelegt, das sich im Wesentlichen mit zwei DC-Heftreihen befasst: „Strange Adventures“ (SA) und „Mystery in Space“ (MiS). Eingegrenzt wurden die Reihen zeitlich durch die selbst auferlegte Beschränkung auf Julius Schwartz als Editor, so dass die Dokumentation in den Jahren 1958 (MiS) bzw. 1959 (SA) beginnt.
Auf 140 Seiten hat Mike Barr alle Cover/Titelseiten der dargestellten Reihen gesammelt und diese mit reichlich Informationen ergänzt (Erscheinungsdatum, Synopsis, handelnde Personen, Cross Over und interessante Anmerkungen).
Hauptheld ist unbestritten Adam Strange, der seit 1958 seinen Auftritt in der Showcase-Reihe und ab 1959 dann in MiS hatte. Aber auch zahlreiche sympathische kleinere, heute zu Unrecht weitestgehend vergessene Serien, werden vorgestellt, z.B. The Atomic Knights, Space Museum und Star Hawkins.
Die Artwork ist durchgängig in b/w wiedergegeben und aufgrund der großen Vielzahl der Cover mussten diese größtenteils recht kleinformatig gedruckt werden. Aufgelockert wird diese Cover-Galerie immer wieder durch eingeschobene größerformatige Abbildungen und Info-Seiten.

Als ich das Buch auspackte, war ich aufgrund einer falschen Erwartungshaltung zunächst etwas enttäuscht. Ich hatte nicht realisiert, dass sich der Band ausschließlich auf DC-Reihen beschränkt und ein wenig wie ein Nachlagewerk daher kommt. Sobald ich mich aber mit den Abbildungen und Synopsen zu beschäftigen angefangen hatte, wurde ich ganz in den Bann von MiS und SA gezogen. Vor allem aber die zusammengetragenen Informationen, die auch vor abseitigem Wissen nicht zurückschrecken, überzeugen sehr schnell, dass dieses Buch ein Kind der Liebe ist.

Ob der Band für Leser geeignet ist, die erstmals in den 80er Jahren oder später mit SF-Comics in Berührung kamen, kann ich nicht beurteilen. Für alle die aber, die ihre Kindheit in den 60er und frühen 70er Jahren tagträumend über den Heftchen verbracht haben, dürfte der Silver Age Sci-Fi Companion eine wahre Freude sein, die mich zumindest in nostalgischen Erinnerungen schwelgen lässt. Allerdings muss auch auf eine Gefahr hingewiesen werden: Sofern man die alten Hefte nicht (mehr) hat, wird der Wunsch geweckt, sich diese zu beschaffen, um die Stories selbst zu lesen und zu genießen; und das wird nicht ganz billig, da selbst einzelne Hefte zu Sammlerpreisen gehandelt werden und die DC-Archive-Edition von Adam Strange auch nicht ganz billig ist.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah the Silver Age. A time when DC adopted the philosophy of "Throw it against the wall and see if it sticks!" The funny thing is, while a number of them didn't catch on at the time, a lot of those concepts are still around.

Our humble editor, Mike W. Barr, is a serious fan of all this, and it shows with every page. We also get tributes to Adam Strange (a favorite of mine), Captain Comet, the Atomic Knights, Star Hawkins, Space Cabbie and so many more. Barr goes into as much detail as he can about each concept with quotes and sketches from the sources. It is a treasure trove of information about these characters.

A solid research book and highly recommended for lovers of the Silver Age.

Find it. Buy it. Read it!

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read and good overview of DC's sci-fi comics of the 1960's, although without as much depth or insight on the creators as expected.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad overview of certain Silver age SiFi comics. My only complaint is that it concentrates only on 2 DC titles from that era. I was hoping for a more broad overview. Recommended.