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“Do I have to go to Church…can’t I stay house as well as checked out funny books?”Mom as well as her “little angels”. 1962. delegated right-Mom, Gig, Mitch as well as Beau.
by beloved Smith
Comic books in the 1960s were not only my comic book foundation, however they were the influence for my composing career. As you routine visitors know, as a kid, I gotten as well as checked out a lot of any type of comic book that I might discover at the medication store, supermarket, newsstand, or traded with my friends. one of my goals, even at that young age, was to seek out those harder to discover comic books, particularly superhero comics. The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents from Tower Comics were the holy grail of my searches.
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents art by Wally Wood
Back in the 60s, the T.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were written as well as drawn by a few of the very best creators that had been doing marvel as well as DC Comics. These were no mediocre journeymen, Tower Comics had the crème of the crop; Wally Wood, Gil Kane ,George Tuska, Dan Adkins as well as Mike Sekowsky just to name a few. The stories were rock solid as well as had a great cross of the day’s superhero as well as great spy themes that were ultra prominent at that time. one more thing that made the Tower Comics special was hat they were “Annual” size as well as expense 25 cents rather than marvel as well as DC’s common 12 cent single problem format. This made every Tower Comic that you gotten seem like an event.
Tower’s Undersea agent #4. Art by Gil Kane
As I pointed out before, Tower Comics were not all that simple to find. The distribution system then was chaotic to state the least as well as there were no direct market retail stores or the internet. I will have to state this, it made me value not only comics, however harder to discover comics even more. To this day, those books still hold a bit a lot more clout in my personal collection than the common marvel or DC superhero books.
Tower’s Dynamo #3. Art by Wally Wood
The output of Tower Comics was quick as well as furious, however short lived. As a kid, I was extremely dissatisfied by the short run of Tower Comics. without any comic book news sites, you didn’t understand that they had stopped publishing; you just slowly realized that they weren’t showing up at the grocery store anymore. I didn’t discover out the whole story up until later as an adult when fandom got a bit bigger as well as the word got out why Tower wasn’t mighty sufficient to got head to head with marvel as well as DC. It did provide me the chance to gather all the Tower Comics as well as spend years studying them as well as their characters. Without conceit, I can state that I am genuinely as well as professional on the Tower Comics characters as well as the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents. I did the exact same a few years later in the 70s with the Atlas/Seaboard comics as well as characters. I still have my packed notebooks with all my storyline as well as plots for the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents as well as the Tower Comics characters. (Same with the Atlas/Seaboard characters. In fact, at Eclipse Comics, I did an ashcan comic with the Atlas characters that Eclipse Comics published. one more story, one more column.)
After the demise of Tower Comics, a few different little as well as big publishers tried their hands at bringing back the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a few of the art was great, however when it pertained to the stories as well as characters, they lost what truly drove those characters as well as the books swiftly died on the vine. Others tried to “modernize” the characters as well as that only sped up the disinterest in the characters to both the old as well as new readers. There was a reason why the original characters were good. This isn’t an old comic book worshiper talking, this is a writer of 27 years speaking the facts.
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1. Cover by Jerry Ordway
I do have some great news. This August 2013, IDW Publishing, one of the very best publishers to reintroduce properties, will be releasing a new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic book written by Phil Hester as well as pulled in true to custom style by Andrea Di Vito. From what I have gathered so far, they won’t be messing with the original concepts as well as foundations for the characters as well as will be providing old as well as new visitors interesting new stories, based in the custom of the original stories; the very best of both worlds. IDW publishing will likewise be releasing as well as collecting the original T.H.U.N.D.E.R. agent stories in a trade paperback format. IDW is noted for their incredibly high quality format, so you understand this book will not only checked out good, however it will likewise honor the excellent art in its presentation. I’ve only checked out short summaries of the story as well as seen little doses of the art, however what I’ve checked out as well as seen looks great. I believe that finally, everybody is going to be able to indication back up with the T.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.
I extremely suggest that all of you that take pleasure in superhero comics provide this a try as well as indication up for the problem coming out this August. This might be the begin of one more publisher providing marvel as well as DC Comics a run for their superhero money. You might be on the ground floor of this as well as be a foundation block for the superhero comic book future. I’d like to believe that somewhere out there, there is a 10 year old youngster that finds these comics for the very first time as well as is influenced to ended up being a writer or an artist…or perhaps a lifetime comic book reader.
Like me.
Your amigo,
Beau Smith
The flying Fist Ranch
www.flyingfistranch.com