Dark Corners and Little Windows
Captain Action was frankly, the world’s coolest action figure of the ‘60s, even with all the competition. He was a comics lover dream who could change into Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger (and Tonto, but you need two Caps to have the set!), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt Fury, Steve Canyon and the Green Hornet (whew!).
Read MoreThe Joker’s ‘team-up’ with Batman (Brave and the Bold #111, Feb-March 1974) was one of the best-selling issues the title had up ‘til then. Psycho killer be damned! Here was a character just crying out for his own title, and Infantino, Julie Schwartz and Denny O’Neil would give it to him!
Read MoreHe was a working actor, maybe not working enough. He had several guest roles in series, even a supporting role in a series, and supporting roles in movies but nothing that broke him out of the herd of other handsome actors in his age range... until Batman. He was a smart and talented actor with the sense of humor and innate ability to 'get' what William Dozier and Lorenzo Semple Jr. were after in the pilot script. He nailed it. See the screen tests done by Adam and his competition for the role Lyle Waggoner. Lyle plays a man who believes what he is saying, Adam plays one who believes, but is in on the joke. It's a fine line and not easy to play, but one that is bright as day when you see. Adam got the part.
And therein lies the tale doesn't it?
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First of all, a confession. As a kid, (a very young, very ill-informed kid) I didn't care much for Mike Sekowsky's artwork. There, it's said, so let it be writ against me in the Book of Life. It seemed clunky, blocky, and just, well, strange. (I thought the same thing about Kirby...
Read MoreNow my friends, gathered here today under the auspices of the mighty web, let me tell the sad tale of Carmine Infantino and one of his biggest fans, Thomas P. Stewart, and, in the course of the story, how I got the name, “The Comics Savant”.
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