Ladies Man Lex!

I love how even on a date, Lex never loses the purple and green motif.

It seems to be working for him, however, so who am I to poke fun.

Script by Cary Bates
 Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
 Inks by Kurt Schaffenberger

The Superman Family #172
The Cheat The Whole World Cheered
August/September 1975
 Copyright (c) DC Comics

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #9

TITLE: Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #9

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

COVER DATE: May 1959

COVER PRICE: $0.10

26 pages

WHAT I REMEMBER...

So I wasn't around in 1959, much less reading Superman comic books, so there is nothing to remember from when I first read this. In fact, the first time I did read this issue was immediately after the Randomizer picked it for a random review. This particular issue is a relatively new addition to my collection, and up to this point it's gotten the cursory thumb through and then cataloged and filed away.

You see, one of the things I've been up to while my two blogs lay fallow has been auction hunting. My LCS started getting into the auction business about two years ago, and lucky for me, he's had a nice and steady supply of Superman Silver Age books on the block. It came at the perfect time, as my collection of Superman books was starting to get into the expensive Silver Age era, now that I had finished up the Bronze Age.

Maybe one of these days I'll put a post up going through my auction finds for fun, but for right now, we're here to talk about Lois Lane! This book actually has three separate stories, but we're going to focus on the last one featuring America's Favorite Crooner, Pat Boone!

Superman's Mystery Song!

• Penciller: Dick Sprang
• Inker: John Forte
• Editor: Mort Weisinger

THE ELEVATOR PITCH

Lois Lane and Pat Boone team up for a duet honoring Superman!  But if it's honoring his exploits and quest for justice, why must Superman make sure no one can ever hear it?

THE RECAP

While picking Lois up at her apartment, Clark discovers what a huge fan she is of Pat Boone!  Coincidentally enough (as is so often the case in the Silver Age), Pat Boone is due to be interviewed by The Daily Planet.  After the interview, Pat sits in on the rehearsals for the annual Daily Planet office party/talent show.  It's there that he overhears Lois singing, and is impressed enough to offer her a spot doing a specialty number on his latest show.

It's decided that Clark will write the lyrics to a special song that Pat and Lois will duet together on.  Clark racks his brain for lyrics, but has writer's block and goes to bed.  Lucky for him, that a burst of inspiration hits him during a dream, and he wakes up and writes the lyrics for his song.

Superman only then realizes that as they start singing his song on live t.v., that he must stop them!  Why?  Stay tuned...

Meanwhile, Superman manages to disrupt two more live concerts where Lois and Pat plan on singing their new song honoring Superman.  Eventually, Superman let's Pat Boone know that he was the one sabotaging his live performances, as the lyrics that Clark wrote contained a clue to Superman's secret identity.  Superman has prepared new lyrics, but when he goes to retrieve them from a pocket inside his cape, they're gone!

Utilizing the powers of his fan club, Pat Boone puts the word out about a missing envelope.  It's eventually found and returned to Pat.  In gratitude, Superman uses his microscopic vision and photographic memory to restore a broken master disc for one of Pat's latest recordings, while also producing a million copies for distribution at super speed!

Later on that night on live television, the country is finally able to hear the revised version of the duet by Lois Lane and Pat Boone, and we're finally clued in as to why Superman didn't want the original song sung in the first place.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

You can take Lois out of her teens, but you can't take the teenager out of Lois!

Ahhh...1950's, when a "talent" like blowing smoke rings at the office was admired.

Says the man smoking three cigars!

You gotta love a girl who "groans on pitch!"

Even Pat Boone, in his prime, couldn't get the special effects to work for his version of "Rock 'n Roll Creation".

Social media, circa 1959.

...and finally, the real reason Superman couldn't let that song be heard!

And that brings a close to our inaugural random reading.  I hope you all enjoyed this look back into the mad-cap world of pop-stardom in the good old days.

The Randomizer finds a new home!

Longtime readers are probably aware that my first attempt at comic book blogging was over at The Random Longbox.

It was a site where I would let a highly customized computer randomly pick out a comic book from my vast collection that I would then have to read and talk about. It was a fun way to go through my collection and re-read alot of stuff that I wouldn't normally gravitate to right away.

That site eventually got mothballed and fell into dis-use as my real-life schedule got too complex for regular blogging. Still, I always enjoyed the randomness of it all, so I'm taking the Randomizer out of storage and hooking it back up here at Superman 101. This time, however, I've reprogrammed it to only select from the Superman family of books.

This blog has always been relatively random as it was, so look forward to things being "very" random in the future...I guess?  At the very least, we'll take a little more in depth look into the books chosen by the Randomizer and attempt to do some longer posts.

Now, it's time for the inaugural pull of the randomizer lever to see what book falls into our crosshairs for this week.

And the first one out of the gate is Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #9 from May 1959!

We are in for a treat, as the one-and-only Pat Boone shows up to serenade his biggest fan, Lois Lane!  But how does this turn of events threaten to expose Superman's secret identity?  You'll just have to come back next week and find out.

The New Superman!

What was true 41 years ago, is true again today.

(And give DC another 41 (or hell, even 25) years, and it'll be true again)

In house DC ad

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105
October 1970
(c) DC Comics

Who watches the superwatchman

What possible reason could there be that Superman just happens to have punch-card profiles of every eligible bachelor in Metropolis? After all, it's not like he even has any formidable female rogues, where a precaution like this would actually make sense.

Who watches the watchmen, indeed!

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by John Rosenberger
Inks by Vince Colletta

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #132
The Second Superman!
July 1973
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The >sob< Lois Lane >gasp< Emotional Trainwreck >choke< Week #5

Don't worry Lois, just drink the serum like a good girl. It's only an imaginary story, so you'll either live happily ever after with Superman...or die on the last panel in some tragic fashion.

And since it's the last day of our theme week, let's live a little and break the one panel format with Superman getting a little melo-drama of his own!

WARNING...Spoiler filled bonus panel...WARNING

Yep, she died.

Artwork by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #51
The Three Wives Of Superman! Part 1
The Terrible Secret of Mrs. Lois Superman!
August 1964
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The >sob< Lois Lane >gasp< Emotional Trainwreck >choke< Week #4

So yeah, Lois was quite the emotional roller coaster during the Silver Age, but not always.

Every once in a while you got a gem of a story like The Satanic Schemes of S.K.U.L.! that showed her using all of her investigative skills to go undercover into a satanic cult that was hell-bent on killing Superman.

Nary a >choke<, >sob<, >gulp<, or >gasp< is to be found...except for the title page.


Lois is a team player. She knew that you had to lay the melodrama on a little think every now and again to help sell the story, even if you had things well in had.

Script by Leo Dorfman
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #63
The Satanic Schemes Of S.K.U.L.!
February 1966
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The >sob< Lois Lane >gasp< Emotional Trainwreck >choke< Week #3

Don't fret too much Lois...you and Superman are fated to always end up together, no matter what editorial mandate pulls you apart every couple of decades or so.

Script by Robert Bernstein
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #19
The Day Lois Lane Forgot Superman!
August 1960
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The >sob< Lois Lane >gasp< Emotional Trainwreck >choke< Week #2

Poor Lois...so distraught is she about the machinations of that scheming female, that she's crying in her sleep and in her dreams!

Script by Jerry Siegel
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #56
Lois Lane's Super Gamble
April 1965
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The >sob< Lois Lane >gasp< Emotional Trainwreck >choke< Week #1

So I recently came into a whole stack of mid-60's Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane comic books. I've never really read much of her (or Jimmy Olsen's) solo adventures before, and this was a real eye opener working my way through them.

First, these issues gave me a new appreciation for Kurt Schaffenberger! He's got such a crisp line, and smooth style that makes the books gorgeous to look at and fun to read. I'm now even more excited to fill out the rest of the collection.

The second thing I noticed is what an emotional wreck Lois Lane is for most of these. We've been spoiled with the dogged journalist interpretation for years, but take a trip back to the sixties and it wasn't always like that. You can't let three panels go by, without here breaking down over something.

All of which leads to this month's theme week, as we take a tour through the emotional ups and downs of Lois Lane.


Poor Lois!

But as you can see, not all the ladies were basket cases, as Joan Superman takes the opportunity to realize that bald dudes are hot!

Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #46
Lois Lane's Outlaw Son!
January 1964
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Sunday versus #21

Clark Kent and Lois Lane vs. Pterodactyl

Twenty-one matches strong, and Clark makes his first appearance. He better hope that Lois plays to form and feints, or his secret identity is so exposed.

Script by Robert Bernstein
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #9
Lois Lane's Stone-Age Suitor!
May 1959
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The dangers of thumbing through a random Silver Age comic book...

...usually means that you inevitably stumble across an out of context panel that makes you scared (yet oddly titillated) to turn the page.


Yes, that's Lois standing near naked with a beard, sneaking a peek at someone else's diary.

I think it's best in this case to close the book before I find out what's really going on, as there is no way it could better than what I'm imagining.

Although who am I kidding...it's the Silver Age, of course it's better than what I could dream up.

Script by Otto Binder
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman'S Girl Friend, Lois Lane #58
Lois Lane, Spy Hunter
July 1965
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Adventures in political correctness

So I guess beauty pageants in the mid-60's were essentially the same as they are now, except the judges were a bit less politically correct.


And is that a butter face reference? In 1964? "GUHHH" indeed.

Good thing Lois is undercover as the plain jane, ready to bring this whole shady operation down!

Pencils by John Forte
Inks by George Klein

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #49
Lois Lane, Beauty Queen!
May 1964
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Sunday versus #19

Superman vs. Plesiosaur

So this is the third Plesiosaurus we've featured in the Sunday versus posts so far, and Aquaman has failed to show up in any of them.

Slacker.

Script by E. Nelson Bridwell
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #72
Lois Lane's Aquaman Tricks!
February 1967
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Loss of a good thing

And people say we're better off without word balloons in comics anymore...

Look at all of that heartfelt emotion and back-stabbing drama we're missing out on!

Script by Jerry Siegel
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #65
The Musical Murder Of Superman!
May 1966
Copyright (c) DC Comics