Zine the fourth has arrived! The 'Reboot' issue!

2 years later, and we've finally released our fourth zine -- but it was worth the wait:

A front cover by Jeff Lemire! A back cover by Michel Fiffe! An interview with Jeff Lemire! An interview with DC editor Mike Gold! We pestered writers Tony Isabella and Dan Mishkin for information! Articles about the Hawkman/Hawkworld reboot, the Aquaman reboot, Wild Dog and The Question! Our favorite Secret Origins issues! The winning entry from our '8k Twitter followers' contest! Pin-ups by Christian St. Pierre and Raymond Lowell!

We're calling it 'the Reboot issue' even though Mike Gold hates that word. ;)

If you're an American resident, for $5 USD (shipping is extra), we will send you a 24-page black and white 'zine.

If you're a Canadian resident, for [whatever the current currency exchange rate for USD to CAD is] (shipping is extra), we will send you a 24-page black and white 'zine.

If you're an International resident, e-mail us directly and we'll figure something out.

To order, send us an e-mail at dcinthe80s@gmail.com.

Yes, this is our FOURTH 'zine. You can scope out our first, second and third zines by clicking on the links. We may have a few left in stock...

Dan Mishkin talks DC's supernatural anthology titles and "I...Vampire"

This is an excerpt from a series of interviews we conducted with writer Dan Mishkin from 2018. Rather than post one really long interview, we decided to break it up into parts. In celebration of Halloween, we decided to post Mishkin's memories on his first work for DC.

For those of you who may not know, Dan Mishkin is the co-creator of Amethyst and Blue Devil (two of DC's stand-out characters from the 1980s). The other half of that creative team is Gary Cohn -- a childhood friend of Mishkin's who also aspired to be a writer and joined forces with Mishkin to create some memorable stories for DC. A lot of Mishkin's early work for DC was written in collaboration with Cohn (both being credited as the writers), and they would continue to collaborate until the mid-80s when career paths would lead them down different roads. They are still good pals as of this day.

Justin: You started working for DC by contributing stories to sci-fi and supernatural anthology titles (Warp, Mystery In Space, Weird War Tales, House of Mystery, Secrets of Haunted House, Unexpected, Ghosts). How did you get these gigs? What was it like "breaking into DC"?

Dan: Getting back to our very earliest work, here’s the huge lesson I learned from our first sale: Sometimes what editors want is not what they say they want, or not always so. Jack [C. Harris]’s rubric for what a Time Warp story was to be (no issues had been published when we sold ours) basically asked for twist endings that involved horrible things happening to the protagonists in outer space or some other sci-fi setting. We totally violated that with a story about an astronaut who crash lands on a barren, wintry planetoid and is taken in by an old coot neither he nor the reader has reason to trust…but who turns out to be Santa Claus, and who takes the astronaut back to Earth on his sleigh. That was one of about a dozen springboards we pitched to Jack, and it’s the only one he bought.

page from Time Warp #3 (1980)

And what seemed to happen after Jack took a small chance on us — small because a three-page story in an anthology title can turn out crappy without bringing down the book’s batting average too much —is that other editors then considered us to be worth their time, their doors opening in ways they hadn’t before. I also made a point of traveling to New York about every six weeks — I grew up there and could stay with my parents, and the overnight train was cheap — so I could be more than a voice on the phone to editors, and I think that made a difference when it came to picking up more assignments in the anthology books.

Justin: By my count, you and Cohn (as a writing duo) had roughly 40 stories published in the anthology titles (this includes your "I...Vampire" material). I seem to recall once reading (or being told by someone) that the creation of Amethyst and Blue Devil were a direct result of you guys working on said anthology titles?

Mishkin: As for Amethyst and Blue Devil, neither one of those existed even as a vague notion until we were writing professionally and were asked to come up with new series. Each of those grew out an invitation to invent a lead feature for one of DC’s "mystery" titles, as "I…Vampire" was for House of Mystery. But for whatever reason, they caught the attention of higher-ups who wanted to original series in brand-new titles. We were lucky to be around during one of those unusual times when the company was looking to broaden its offerings. Though I have to say that I’m still amazed they published Amethyst, even as a limited series. Nothing in what they knew about their audience said that it had any chance of catching fire. Then again, they really didn’t know much about their audience anyway. And Jenette Kahn’s feminism may have played a role.

The Amethyst series was originally solicited by Dave Manak, who was editing some of the anthology titles and whom Gary [Cohn] and I had done work for. As I alluded to earlier, the thought was that it could be the lead feature in one of those titles, as “I…Vampire” was for House of Mystery, and the same was true with Dave’s request for a feature that eventually became Blue Devil. It was only after DC decided in both cases that the characters could support their own brand-new books that Karen came aboard for Amethyst and Alan Gold (with Len Wein being involved intermediately) for Blue Devil.

[Interviewer's note: "I... Vampire" was a series that ran in House of Mystery from 1981 to 1983. It told the story of Andrew Bennett -- a Lord in Queen Elizabeth's court (circa 16th century) who gets bitten by a vampire and in turn becomes a vampire himself -- who hunts down and kills vampires that are members of the Cult of the Blood Red Moon. While Marvel actively used Dracula as a character in their stories, DC didn't have a vampire character -- so Andrew Bennett was it.]

Justin: Speaking of  which, you guys took over the recurring "I...Vampire" saga that ran in House of Mystery. Introduced in House of Mystery #290 (by J.M. DeMatteis), the ongoing story of Andrew Bennett quickly became a fan-favorite. "I... Vampire" was written by DeMatteis until he left, in which Bruce Jones took over. You guys took it over from Jones starting with issue #310. I know that you and Cohn had both become semi-regular contributors to House of Mystery by the time you took over for Jones on "I...Vampire". How did that come about? Did Bruce Jones hand the reigns over to you guys? Or was it an 'editorial' decision?

Dan: Our taking over “I…Vampire” is entirely the result of having a good working relationship with Karen Berger, along with the aforementioned dependability that made us likely candidates to reach out to. We didn’t seek the assignment but were very happy to accept it when Karen made the offer.

Justin: By the way, DeMatteis introduced a supporting character named 'Mishkin' to Andrew Bennett very early in the series. Was that a coincidence... or something more?

Panels from House of Mystery #290 illustrated by Tom Sutton

Dan: As far as I know, it was just a coincidence. Mark [aka: J.M. DeMatteis] and I didn’t know each other, and I can only assume that he’d read Dostoevsky and that when he needed a Russian name, it was either Karamazov, Raskolnikov or Mishkin, and that the last was easiest to type.

And then, of course, Gary and I decided to kill off Dmitri Mishkin — for good story reasons but also, a bit, out of the perverse pleasure of killing a character with my name. In fact, I asked Karen Berger if she could have Mike Kaluta put a tombstone on the cover of that issue, with words along the lines of “D. MISHKIN R.I.P” — which I’m sure Mike would have done gorgeously—but she felt uneasy. Just superstitious enough that she’d rather not tempt the Angel of Death to turn my way.

Justin: Mike Kaluta did some some gorgeous covers for this series, but that one cover of Andrew Bennett crying tears of blood haunted me intensely as a kid. It creeped me out to no end. I had to keep that comic flipped over face-down in my collection. I was a squeamish kid.

cover of House of Mystery #310 (1982) illustrated by Mike Kaluta 

Justin: By issue #310, House of Mystery was one of the last hold-outs of the anthology format (i.e., House of Secrets, Unexpected, and Weird Wars had all been cancelled by now.) "I...Vampire" was easily the strongest feature in that title (it became a monthly feature after issue #301), with fans often writing in for an ongoing "I...Vampire" series. Surely you and Cohn would've been the natural choices to turn this into an ongoing. I'm sure this is more of a question for DC editorial, but why did an ongoing "I...Vampire" series never materialize?

Dan: You’re right that the people who made editorial and business decisions would be better placed to answer this question, but given the fact that House of Mystery was canceled a couple of issues after “I…Vampire” ended, I think it’s safe to say that actual sales did not reflect the intense devotion of letter-writing fans (as much as we appreciated that!). I can’t imagine that the folks at DC were prepared to say, “Hey, the book is failing with this feature on the cover of every issue, but maybe it will sell if we start with #1 and remove the small House of Mystery logo.”

Justin: The last chapter in issue #319 concluded with Andrew Bennett dying. Was it your (you and Cohn's) decisions to kill off Andrew Bennett?

Dan: That was Gary and my decision. We knew that the series and the book were both ending and we wanted to have the series conclude with real finality. So we gave Bennett his dramatic swan song and a death that we did our damnedest to insure could not be reversed. Though someone later found a way to do just that.

cover of House of Mystery #319 (1983) -- the last "I... Vampire" issue -- illustrated by Mike Kaluta

Dan Mishkin is one of my favorite writers -- not just because he's game to answer all of my precarious questions about DC comics from the 80s or because he has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything that was going on back then (at this rate, I will probably end up inadvertently ghostwriting his biography) -- but because he's worked on almost all of my favorite DC titles throughout the 80s. Look for more Dan Mishkin interviews in upcoming articles (and in our next zine).

-Justin

When the TSR imprint had it's own line of comics at DC

Super-Blog Team-Up explores franchises with rich histories and fascinating expanded universes in various media from movies, to toys, television, novels, animation, and of course comic books just to name a few. These universes further a character, storyline, or a whole universe adding texture and new history to a property unleashing worlds of new ideas a concept’s. With some properties these universes advance the franchise forward giving their legions of fans fun new concepts to digest while others sink once bright ideas to mere corporate shells of themselves. Super-Blog Team Up is BACK to explore some uncharted territory as we open up the Universal gateway to expansion. God save us all...

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If you were purchasing comics in the late 80s/early 90s, you may remember these titles gracing the shelves at your local comic book shop:

If you were a teenager or college student in the eighties, then you'd probably immediately recognize the TSR logo under the DC bullet at the top-left corner of the cover. If nothing else, you at least recognize 'Dungeons & Dragons'... I mean, it's pretty much universally acclaimed as THE fantasy tabletop role-playing game system. You tell people you're meeting some friends to play "Pathfinder", and they'll give you a puzzled look. You tell them you're playing "Dungeons & Dragons" and they'll know EXACTLY what you mean.

So what is this? Well, in short, this was TSR's attempt at cashing in on the comic book market with their own imprint of comics. As per TSR logic: If you played Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games, then you probably read comics, right? So why not reach out to the comic-reading crowd and interest them in our role-playing games? It was a really smart attempt at marketing to your target customer base, while picking up a little money on the side by licensing your properties.

TSR (short for "Tactical Studies Rules") had already cornered the tabletop gaming market since the mid-seventies and were looking to expand. They had managed to successfully license out the Dungeons & Dragons to Marvel Productions to create an animated series that ran as a Saturday morning cartoon on CBS from 1983 to 1985:

Coincidentally, Mark Evanier, Paul Dini and Steve Gerber wrote a few episodes for this animated series. 

Not only were 27 episodes produced, but Dungeons & Dragons also had it's own action figure toyline (which was produced by LJN one year before the cartoon aired) and you can take a look at the toy collection here.

However, you can forget all of that before you read these comics, since DC's TSR imprint had nothing to do with the cartoon.

DRAGONLANCE SAGA (1987 - 1991)

The Dragonlance Saga was the first TSR property to get the 'comic book adaptation' treatment in 1987. It was a graphic novel adaptation of the first volume of the Dragonlance Chronicles: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight. At 81 pages, this was no mere comic book and steered towards being a graphic novel.

Subsequent issues (aka: Books Two to Five) finished adapting the rest of the volumes in the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy and were released on an annual basis, with the last book being published in 1991. Thomas Yeates (Warlord, Saga of the Swamp Thing) illustrated the first two books, Tony DeZuniga (Jonah Hex, Arak) illustrated the second two books, and Ron Randall (Warlord, Arak) illustrated the last one. They were all written by Roy Thomas. To be honest, these should be considered in a league of their own -- they look like they should've been included in the DC Graphic Novel collection.

DRAGONLANCE ongoing series (1988 - 1991)

Released in late 1988, Dragonlance was the first ongoing series from the TSR imprint to hit shelves.

Written by Dan Mishkin (Blue Devil, Amethyst, Wonder Woman) and illustrated by Ron Randall, the Dragonlance ongoing series starts with Sturm Brightblade (who appears in Dragonlance Chronicles) helping out a young woman fight off some hobgoblins and then wandering off into the sunset. The story continues with the young woman (Riva Silvercrown) and her further adventures in Krynn. Every few issues the focus would shift to a different set of characters, but Riva always seems to come back into the story -- especially since she appeared to be specifically designed for this ongoing series. The series continues on for another thirty-three issues in a very Lord of the Rings-esque adventure.

A typical issue summary reads something like "Trapped in the city of Istar, Tanis and Horak need to use their wits to defeat Maquesta and Koraf in the Arena of Blood. Meanwhile, Loralon and a sea-elf manage to use the power of the Starstones to crack the dome as Ohrgil and the Highlord watch".

Dan Mishkin co-created and co-wrote Amethyst (which also ran on a fantasy/fictional world of it's own), so this series was in good hands as far as storytelling for that genre was concerned. He wrote most of the first twenty-eight issues, and then several different writers (including Paul Kupperberg) wrote the final issues.

Mike Kaluta contributed some very nice covers towards the end of the run.

Three months after Dragonlance #1, two more titles were released: Gammarauders and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

GAMMARAUDERS ongoing series (1989 - 1989)

Gammarauders, written by Peter Gillis (Marvel's Strikeforce: Morituri, DC's Tailgunner Jo), was an ongoing series based on TSR's post-apocalyptic role playing game of the same name -- it was cancelled after 10 issues due to poor sales. I once briefly chatted with Mr. Gillis online and he told me that "Gammarauders was both a lot of fun and my last comics work for twenty years".

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ongoing series (1988 - 1991)

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons outlasted 'em all and ran for thirty-six issues and an annual. Written by Michael Fleisher (Warlord, numerous Conan titles for Marvel) this title probably had the greatest 'star appeal' since readers buying this comic knew exactly what to expect with a series called 'Dungeons & Dragons': several characters of varied backgrounds and skill-sets getting together to go on an adventure -- and that's exactly what the reader got.

Fleisher left the book after the fourth issue, Dan Mishkin took over writing duties the following issue and would write most of the remaining issues until the series ended at issue thirty-six (Jeff Grubb wrote four fill-in issues).

Something notable about the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons comics -- every few issues contained stats (and a history) so you can add the characters you read about to your own D&D campaigns. Readers loved these and often submitted stat requests for specific one-off characters found in the stories:

From Advanced Dungeons & Dragons #11

In the second issue of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, TSR game designer and author Jim Ward wrote the obligatory 'welcome to the TSR worlds imprint, hope you enjoy these comics' letter column as well as a quick overview of TSR and it's humble beginnings. As Ward describes future plans for TSR's new products for 1989 and 1990, he curiously mentions a new Buck Rogers comic book collaboration between TSR and DC in the works (meant to coincide with TSR's new Buck Rogers adventure board game being launched) -- slated to be published May 1989. This comic series never happened. The Buck Rogers TSR game, released in 1988, received a lackluster response -- which most likely influenced the cancellation of this comic book series.

comic book ad for TSR Buck Rogers Boardgame. Circa 1989.

Writer Dan Mishkin gave us a few quick anecdotes about his time working on the Dragonlance and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books. We kicked off the interview by asking if he had played D&D prior to taking that writing assignment:

"I CAN say that I was aware of D&D but had never played, and I had not read the DragonLance novels...but when I did I was impressed. One of the impressive things was that the story brought together a disparate group of people and made the fate of that world depend on them in a more organic and believable way than, in my opinion, Star Wars did. "

"Also — frustrating at the time, amusing now — I don’t think most of the people I had to check in with at TSR understood that I was writing a comic book and not running a D&D campaign in my basement (Jeff Grubb being a very big exception)."

"Ron Randall called me one time to basically tell me my script wasn’t working in one spot and did it in the sweetest possible way, saying something like, 'I spend more time with each of these pages than you do, Dan, so I’m more likely to see problems that you might miss.' I loved working with Ron on DragonLance and with Jan Duursema on AD&D (and with Jan’s husband, Tom Mandrake on a couple of fill-ins; the first story Tom and I every worked on together was one that I still love, a funny tale of what happens when the Lords of Waterdeep inadvisably sign a contract with the Lawyer’s Guild to let them start practicing in the city). [The lawyers story was in AD&D #23, I think.]"

FORGOTTEN REALMS ongoing series (1989 - 1991)

About a year after Dragonlance ongoing series launched, the Forgotten Realms (1989) ongoing series joined the imprint.

Forgotten Realms (not to be confused with DC's Lords of the Ultra-Realm published in 1986) was based on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting that turned into a life of it's own and spun-off into various novels and video games. If Pool of Radiance or Baldur's Gate mean anything to you -- they were set in the Forgotten Realms fantasy world setting. Unlike Dragonlance, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms books shared a few characters -- most notably Priam Agrivar, a paladin who first appeared in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons #1 (1988).

TSR author/game-designer Jeff Grub wrote all twenty-five issues of the Forgotten Realms ongoing series. It's worth noting that Forgotten Realms #1 (1989) was Rags Morales' first work for DC comics. Rags would provide the art for the twenty-four of the twenty-five issue series.


TSR WORLDS annual (1990)

In 1990, a TSR Worlds Annual brought the three remaining TSR titles together and introduced a new fourth series: Spelljammer.

SPELLJAMMER ongoing series (1990 - 1991)

Spelljammer would be TSR's last ongoing comic book series. Spelljammer was a new D&D expansion TSR had introduced in 1989, and this ongoing series was one of the tie-in products introduced. In contrast to Dragonlance, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer had a more 'sci-fi feel' to it and allowed magic and spells in an outer space environment.

This first eight issues of this series were written by Barbara Kessel (who was the editor for the TSR title in 1989), and the last seven issues rotated between Don Karr, Adam Blaustein, Jeff Grubb and Barabara Kessel. This series also had a rotating assortment of artists: Michael T. Collins, Chris Wozniak, Don Heck, Kevin J West and Joe Quesada. Spelljammer #8 would be Quesada's FIRST work for DC comics. (Quesada would go on to become editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in 2000.)

House ad for TSR Spelljammer and Dragonlance novels:

AVATAR limited series (1991)

1991's Avatar was a three-issue limited series adaptation of the Avatar Trilogy that was originally published in 1989 by TSR as novels. This series was also written by Barbara Kesel, but illustrated by Dameon Willich.

So...what happened?

According to the Comichron, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Dragonlance were both within the top 100 books pre-ordered by North American comic book shops in June 1989 for both Diamond and Capital City comic distributors -- they hovered around the mid-bottom-half of the top hundred. Gammarauders did not make the top 100.

By October 1989, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance were near the very bottom of the top 100 books pre-ordered by North American comic book shops (as per Diamond Comic Distributors).

By August 1991, no TSR titles had made it into the list of top 100 books pre-ordered by North American comic book shops. What changed?

The early nineties are best known for the glut of new comic book publishers that saturated the market. A quick snapshot of a January 1990 shelf at a comic book shop shows me nearly 170 comics to choose from. It's quite possible that the TSR titles got lost in the sea of titles.

Another, equally plausible, theory is that the sword & sorcery genre had become passé by the early 90s (which would explain why the Spelljammer ongoing series was a sci-fi concept more so than a traditional 'lost world' type of setting).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons series editor Kim Yale offered this explanation to readers on why the series was being cancelled: "Licensed properties sooner or later come to an end, which is the case here (as with all the TSR titles)."

The Forgotten Realms ongoing series was cancelled prematurely, and two dangling storylines were completed in Wizards of the Coasts' Dragon #247 (1998) and Dragon #260 (1999):

Interestingly enough, the Dragonlance comics are still considered cannon, so there's a demand among Dragonlance fans to read them. IDW collected the first eight issues of the Dragonlance ongoing series and reprinted them in a Dragonlance Classics TPB. IDW has also collected all of the Forgotten Realms and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons comics and reprinted them is a series of TPBs named Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms Classics and Dungeons & Dragons Classics (respectively). Nothing about a collected Spelljammer TPB, however.

Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms are still going strong -- Devil's Due and (most recently) IDW are still cranking out new issues -- so there's obviously still a fanbase here.

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I vaguely remember seeing these at my local comic book shop, but I would've glazed over them while searching for the latest issue of Spider-Man and Justice League. I was a very narrow-minded kid; at that particular moment in my life I was mainly into superheroes and maybe Robocop and G.I. Joe comics. I wasn't into 'fantasy' comics at the time, and if the mood every struck me, I had tons of Warlord and Conan comics sitting around at home anyways. The fact that the TSR imprint was a universe of it's own -- separate from the DCU -- made me less inclined to 'jump in'. At least with Warlord, Skartaris was sometimes given a nod by the other DCU titles (Travis Morgan even met with the New Gods at some point).

The main issue, however, was that I didn't grow up playing Dungeons & Dragons or reading the Dragonlance novels, so the lore meant nothing to me... and I didn't have the inclination to invest all sorts of time learning about the new characters and worlds and etc.

This, of course, is my opinion and opinions are subjective. I'd like to hear from anyone out there who IS a fan of the Dragonlance/Advanced Dungeons & Dragons/Forgotten Realms/Spelljammer novels. How did these hold up? Solid writing? Entertaining characters? Did you actually use these characters in your campaigns? Leave a comment if you feel like sharing some memories.


-Justin

More SBTU fun!

Super-Hero Satellite: M.A.S.K
Between The Pages Blog: Fantastic Forgotten Star Wars Characters
Comics Comics Comics: The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones
Comic Reviews By Walt: SBTU - Expanded Universe: Aliens and Predator
Dave’s Comic Heroes Blog: Logan’s Run Marvel Movie Adaptation
The Telltale Mind: Archie Andrews - Superstar
Radulich In Broadcasting: Flash Gordon Universe
The Source Material Comics Podcast: TMNT/Ghostbusters
Unspoken Issues: Mad-Dog (Marvel Comics, 1992)
Bronze Age Babies: Seven Decades of Apes-mania, and We’re Afflicted!
Echoes from the Satellite - Tales from the Forbidden Zone - The Pacing Place
Black & White and Bronze Comics - Beast on the Planet of the Apes Review

Reviewing Blue Devil v1 (1984 - 1986)

In celebration of Halloween 2019, we've decided to review a comic book series about a guy who becomes a superhero because he got stuck in his costume. Since you've surely read the header of this review (which was most likely the reason you clicked on the link that brought you here), welcome to our look back at Blue Devil v1:

True History of the Blue Devil

Created by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn and Paris Cullins, the idea of Blue Devil was first conceived by Mishkin and Cohn when they were contributing stories for the DC horror/mystery/fantasy anthology titles in the early eighties. The comic buying landscape had changed; readers weren't so interested in anthology titles anymore and sales on these books were dwindling. It quickly became apparent that the anthology titles with the highest readership were the ones with recurring characters that kept readers coming back every month (ex: Andrew Bennet in House of Mystery, G.I. Robot and Creature Commandoes in Weird War Tales). Dave Manak (editor of Ghosts, Unexpected and Secrets of Haunted House) asked Mishkin and Cohn to come up with a supernatural story with "lots of room for heroics and broad action, as well".  

From Dan Mishkin: "As for Amethyst and Blue Devil, neither one of those existed even as a vague notion until we were writing professionally and were asked to come up with new series. Each of those grew out an invitation to invent a lead feature for one of DC’s "mystery" titles, as "I…Vampire" was for House of Mystery. But for whatever reason, they caught the attention of higher-ups who wanted to original series in brand-new titles. We were lucky to be around during one of those unusual times when the company was looking to broaden its offerings."

Paris Cullins' version of how he came on board for Blue Devil: "I was doing House of Mystery and I had just joined the DC comics intern program for artists. I just finished a werewolf story with Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin, and they asked me if I wanted another one. And I said 'of course', and they said 'well, I think we've got this one free, but I think we're giving it to Steve Ditko'. Steve Ditko called me up and said 'I don't want to do it', And they handed it to me - and it was the Blue Devil. I did it and I worked it, they liked it so much and it went from a tiny story and they said 'make it bigger', so I made it bigger. So they asked again, and it took up the whole book. and they looked at it again and said 'this should be a comic book!'. And then from there, we got what we got." 

16-page Preview Story

special Blue Devil insert from Firestorm v2 #24 (1984)

About a month before the first issue of Blue Devil hit the stands, a 16-page Blue Devil sneak peek appeared in The Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Man #24 (1984). In this preview, Blue Devil battles the Trickster (one of the Flash's rogues). As far as previews go, this one reads very nicely: we're introduced to film stuntman Dan Cassidy, the 'super-stunt suit' he's designed, his 'sidekick' (Gopher), his boss (Marla), his love interest (Sharon), his frenemy (Wayne) and we get to see Blue Devil in action as he battles an established super-villain for 4 pages.

To the reader who knew nothing about the Blue Devil going into this preview, it appears to be a 'regular joe wears an enhanced cybernetic suit to fight crime'-type of story. Mishkin and Cohn would save the 'hook' (aka: what makes the Blue Devil unique among other heroes) for the first issue.

Comic readers who also read Amazing Heroes would've first heard of Blue Devil in Amazing Heroes #39 -- the "1984 Preview Issue". It was published and distributed roughly 3 months before Blue Devil's debut in Firestorm #24.

"We've made comics FUN again"

During the same month Blue Devil #1 was being published, the following house ad was appearing in various DC comics titles:

"We've made comics fun again!"... ? That's a pretty bold statement. Aren't comics supposed to be fun? Apparently, in 1984, they weren't. Around this era, the best-selling titles were Tales of the Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes, Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, Alpha Flight and other team books that played up the interpersonal drama between cast members. Since best-selling comics always inspire other comics to follow suit, there were a whole lot of comics out there trying to emulate that angle -- hence a trend in serious/drama-filled books.

Mishkin explained in Amazing Heroes #39: "We're poking fun at the conventions of being a superhero. Blue Devil is a little like how someone in the real world might react to becoming a superhero, since he finds himself pushed into the situation of having to be a superhero... other people have talked about the idea of doing a reluctant superhero before, but this is a real reluctant hero." Cohn also added: "Blue Devil was created from the feeling that the essence of the superhero book has been lost. Superhero books today are very serious and grim, pretending that everything is real, which is nonsense. Every time you have a character jumping about in his underwear, it is obviously fantasy... we want to have a fun fantasy, a sense of rollicking adventure." An anecdote from editor Alan Gold in Blue Devil issue #2 revealed that Len Wein (editor of New Teen Titans, Fury of Firestorm, Saga of the Swamp Thing, Camelot 3000, Batman and the Outsiders, etc...) suggested to Mishkin and Cohn that Blue Devil be "a fun character -- a long-leaping, optimistic, high IQ slugger who clambered each issue out of the wreckage of heavily armored bad guys he'd taken out of commission."  To this effect, Alan Gold also professed that Blue Devil would be "sunnier and more exuberant than many, and it will be 100 percent non-preachy, non-artsy-shmartsy, and never self-important."

Blue Devil ongoing series

When the first issue of Blue Devil v1 was released, Mishkin was still about half-a-year away from finishing his run on Wonder Woman and Cohn was writing the Barren Earth back-up stories in The Warlord. Both writers had just finished up the Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld v1 maxi-series.

Like every good comic series should, Blue Devil kicks off with the all-important origin issue: while on a film shoot, stuntman Dan Cassidy saves his film crew from a demon (thanks to his Blue Devil stunt costume). Throughout the course of the battle, he gets blasted by the demon's energies and Dan somehow becomes permanently bonded to his costume. The good news: his costume grants him augmented endurance, strength, speed, hearing, vision and the ability to breathe underwater (and a few other things I'm forgetting). The bad news: he's trapped in the body of a 7" tall blue-skinned devil. This is pretty much everything you need to know in order to enjoy future issues of Blue Devil v1.

The 'man trapped in a monster's body' isn't exactly a new concept (Marvel's Ben Grimm/The Thing of the Fantastic Four immediately comes to mind), and I can see the temptation of wanting to dwell on that idea of being trapped in a monstrous body that isn't your own (the story pretty much writes itself) -- nevertheless, Mishkin and Cohn keep a relatively upbeat and action-packed story rolling and Blue Devil never really finds himself feeling sorry for himself.

Fun fact: Many readers commented that Paris Cullins' art had improved between the 16-page preview and the first issue. This was, in fact, because the preview pages had been illustrated by Paris one year prior to issue #1 being released.

Paris Cullins pencils and Gary Martin inks -- Blue Devil v1 #3

This series is enjoyable to look at. Paris' art is clean, there's lots of action in his stories and his characters are expressive. After the first four issues, it's pretty much confirmed that he and inker Gary Martin are THE Blue Devil penciller/inker team. Unfortunately, due to unknown reasons, Paris had to suddenly leave the title after issue #6. (Paris would continue illustrating the covers for this series.) This lead to a scramble to find a regular penciller/inker team for Blue Devil v1 -- what we got in the interim were a few issues pencilled by an assortment of big name talent: Gil Kane, Keith Giffen, Ernie Colon, Mike Chen and Tod Smith. It was finally settled that Alan Kupperberg (brother of writer Paul Kupperberg) would become the regular penciller starting with issue #12. Despite Alan's great pencilling work, Blue Devil fans never forgot Paris' work and would keep requesting Paris' return to the title until the very last issue of the series.

Alan Kupperberg pencils and Bill Collins inks - from Blue Devil v1 #24

Fun Fact: Mike Chen was slated to be the regular penciller on Blue Devil v1 after Paris Cullins left, but things fell through and Chen was assigned elsewhere.

Fun Fact: Readers noticed that some of the covers didn't match the story inside -- the first five issues of Blue Devil v1 were illustrated by Paris before the issue was written (they had the general plot/concept down, so Paris knew which characters would be appearing). Some fans picked up on the appearance of Blue Devil's trident on the covers of issues 2 and 3.

Together, Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn wrote twenty-eight issues of this thirty-two issue series (I'm including DC Comics Presents #96 in here). One fill-in issue was written by Todd Klein, another issue was written by editor Alan Gold (with Mishkin as story editor), and a few issues were written by Mishkin on his own.

As someone who sat down and read Blue Devil v1 from the preview issue all the way to issue #31, I can attest that Mishkin and Cohn (and editor Alan Gold) held true to their word -- this was a fun, entertaining series that didn't take itself seriously. Nobody dies, and there's no tense subplots of unrequited love or stories examining both sides of the social issue du jour. (Late in the series I thought a story was going to delve into the intricacies of the Northern Irish Conflict -- but no, it was just a set up for a FLF [Faerie Liberation Front] gag). Lots of visual gags give the observant reader something to enjoy, and most stories don't last for more than one issue.

Sometimes you've just got to stop in where everybody know your name...

From Blue Devil v1 #2. Pencils by Paris Cullins, inks by Gary Martin.

An astute reader will notice a change in direction from the first six issues of the series onwards. The issues illustrated by Paris had way more action/fight scenes and more of Blue Devil trying to figure this new situation out, whereas everything following issue #5 starts to turn into one big wacky adventure. Readers picked up on this and called editor Alan Gold out on it. Gold's reply?"Few artists can make basically mindless fighting a pleasure to look out month after month. Even if Paris had stayed on the job, I think BLUE DEVIL as the fight-of-the-month would have become a predictable bore by the end of the first year. BLUE DEVIL is hardly a cerebral experience first and foremost, but it's more than just a free-for-all. It couldn't remain a free-for-all forever."

In another issue's letter column, series editor Alan Gold would admit that he'd been encouraging Mishkin and Cohn to reach for 'ever-absurder premises' since issue #6. This was starting to backfire as readers were starting to complain about Blue Devil's 'cornball humour' from issue #7 onwards (as opposed to the tongue-in-cheek humour found in the first six issues):

Mad scientists create a giant-sized reproduction of Trickster's shoe in Blue Devil v1 #9. 

Okay, I found this funny, but some readers got annoyed and thought this was too absurd. 

Ernie Colon pencils, Gary Martin inks.

FUN FACT: Issue #11 was a fill-in issue (written by Todd Klein) that received a bit of flak from Blue Devil readers. It was an out-of-continuity 'silly dream' issue that readers either loved or hated, and it would seem like editor Alan Gold was testing the waters on what they could get away with. What's notable here is that Todd Klein (best known for his lettering) was about to become the regular writer on The Omega Men (another book Gold was editing) for the next year. Tod Smith pencilled this issue as he was just leaving The Omega Men after an (almost) 15-issue consecutive run.

Blue Devil v1 ran during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, hence it had to be involved in some way. Blue Devil v1 #5 gave us a glimpse of Harbinger and the Monitor watching Blue Devil from a satellite, and issues #17 and #18 were the actual tie-in issues. Issue #17 ends with Blue Devil being summoned by John Stewart Green Lantern to assist with a Crisis, and the story continues in Crisis On Infinite Earths #8. Blue Devil v1 #18 is the aftermath of what transpires in Omega Men #31. From Amazing Heroes Summer 1985 Preview Special, Dan Mishkin explained that "the request that DC made of all its writers and editors concerning the Crisis on Infinite Earths was that all books across the line tie in to Crisis." Blue Devil has the distinction of being one of the few books to not have anything really change due to Crisis On Infinite Earths (aka: no deaths, no retcons, no new costumes or powers, etc...). Kudos to Mishkin and Cohn for weathering the storm (of crimson skies).

A Blue Devil Summer Special (aka: Blue Devil Annual #1) was published around the same time as the Crisis tie-ins. What's notable about this annual is that the original Blue Devil art team (Paris Cullins on pencils and Gary Martin on inks) returned to illustrated this one. Many readers felt that Blue Devil v1 found it's stride with this annual. I tend to agree. This issue is jam-packed with mystical guest stars, featured pin-ups of the regular cast and included a board game. As an added bonus, this issue features a schematic of Blue Devil's exo-suit (before it was mystically bonded to his body):

Blue Devil's exo-suit (as seen in Blue Devil Annual v1 #1)

Despite pencilling the Blue Devil Summer Fun Special (and every cover in the series), Paris Cullins would not return as regular penciller for Blue Devil. As a matter of fact, in Blue Devil v1 #24 it was announced that Paris would be the regular penciler on Len Wein's newest project, Blue Beetle. While it was never stated why Paris left Blue Devil, we do know he was slated to work on Len Wein's newest mini-series, Zero-Man. Paris had finished pencilling the first issue before being assigned to Blue Beetle. Zero-Man never saw completion or publication.

Issue #24 had readers complaining that the series was striving too hard for 'lunacy' rather than standard comic book action. Editor Alan Gold once again agreed that they've let Blue Devil become too parodic for its own good.

While most issues read like a plot from a Saturday morning cartoon, a few stories stood out to me: Blue Devil, in typical DC comics fashion, first battles and then teams up with Firestorm to take out some of Firestorm's enemies in a 3-issue story arc that ran in Fury of Firestorm #46, Blue Devil v1 #23 and Fury of Firestorm #47. This gave us an idea of what Blue Devil v1 could've been if they'd had dialed down the silly factor a notch. The most noteworthy panels aren't even in the Blue Devil issue, but in Fury of Firestorm #46:

context: Ronnie Raymond/Firestorm punches out his dad's girlfriend so she won't see him turn into Firestorm. try getting away with that in a modern comic. pencils by Joe J Brozowski, inks by Mike Machlan

Blue Devil v1 #7, guest-pencilled by Gil Kane, brought a super-serious look to the issue (as opposed to the clean, cartoony illustrations Paris had been giving us). Many fans wrote in to complain about it, but I thought it was a pretty interesting-looking issue and would've liked to have seen more. Apparently Gil was not pleased with his final output, but submitted it regardless to meet the deadline:

Gil Kane pencils and inks from Blue Devil v1 #7

The final issue, Blue Devil v1 #31, was another issue that stood out to me. It was a nice two-part story in a giant-sized issue that made me realize how much I was going to miss this series now that it was over. The first part was written by Bob Rozakis and illustrated by Bob Orzechowski/Dave Hunt and had humorous undertones set in an everyday setting. The second part was written by Mishkin & Cohn and illustrated by Dan Jurgens/Gary Martin, was a continuation of the first story but it played up the mystical angle a bit more. This entire issue demonstrated that Blue Devil was a very versatile character who could be played effectively in all sorts of situations with the right creative team.

Mishkin and Cohn made the right call in integrating a mix of new Blue Devil characters as well as bonafide pre-established DCU characters into the series. Blue Devil v1 had guest stars galore... Superman, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Black Orchid, Creeper, John Stewart Green Lantern (to name a few). It's not only superheroes who pop up, but supervillains as well -- during the course of the series Blue Devil battles Metallo, The Trickster, The Fisherman, Toy Man, Captain Boomerang and a bunch more I don't feel like spoiling. I really enjoyed this about the series -- every new issue filled me with anticipation as I was curious to see which DCU character would be popping up next. It was also a great way to keep Blue Devil 'anchored' to the DCU, since he had his own cast of support characters who could arguably have kept him in his own private world.

Fun Fact: Etrigan the Demon made an appearance in a two-part Blue Devil v1 story that compelled a few readers to write in and complain that the creative team was undoing all the good characterization Alan Moore had done for Etrigan in Saga of the Swamp Thing #27 - #29 (published about one year prior).

Someone tell that Demon to keep his shirt on!
(a coloring error had Etrigan appear shirtless). 

From Blue Devil v1 #13. Pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Gary Martin.

Legacy

A few characters created for Blue Devil v1 did see life outside of the series. Shockwave, introduced in Blue Devil v1 #2, may not have seen much action after Blue Devil v1 ended -- but he was short-listed to become a Super Powers Collection action figure (along with Blue Devil) in Kenner's 4th wave of figures (circa 1986). Unfortunately, Kenner cancelled the toy line before this could materialize.

Blue Devil's first original super-villain: Shockwave! (from Blue Devil v1 #2)

Paris Cullins pencils and Gary Martin inks

The sixth issue of Blue Devil saw the first appearance of a super-villain I was vaguely familiar with, but never realized to be a Blue Devil villain. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing The Bolt:

The Bolt debuts in Blue Devil v1 #6

Pencils by Paris Cullins, inks by Ernie Colon

The Bolt would go on to sporadically appear as a villain for whatever title needed him (ex: Hawkman, Starman, Captain Atom, etc) and would continue to confuse Marvel readers when they kept mistaking him for Blackout (heyo!). The Bolt's big 'breakthrough moment' was when he became a member of John Ostrander/Kim Yale's Suicide Squad for three issues in the early nineties.

As previously mentioned, the Trickster guest stars quite a bit in this series, and not always as the villain. Mishkin and Cohn did a great job of bringing much-needed characterization to this Flash rogue -- as a matter of fact, Mishkin and Cohn even had a Trickster mini-series in the works, but nothing ever came of it.

Blue Devil and Trickster from Blue Devil v1 #8. Pencils by Keith Giffen, inks by Gary Martin.

  

It wouldn't be a 'fun' comic without a sidekick, so issue #14 introduced us to Kid Devil (aka: 'Gopher' in his own kid-sized Blue Devil costume). According to editor Alan Gold, fans loved the 'costumed sidekick' idea.

Introducing... Kid Devil! (cover of Blue Devil v2 #14 - illustrated by Paris Cullins)

It's a homage to the cover of Detective Comics #38. Don't believe me?... look it up.

Kid Devil would stick around and assist Blue Devil in battling series antagonist Jock Verner and his Vanquisher for the next two issues. After the Crisis on Infinite Earth tie-in issues, Kid Devil got an entire issue to himself with Blue Devil on the sidelines. Coincidentally, Kid Devil gets 'retired from the spotlight' from Blue Devil v1 after this, for about "a year's worth of stories". Kid Devil, later renamed to 'Red Devil', would later join the Teen Titans sometime in 2007.

Fun Fact: Any OMAC fans out there? The Verner family and the Vanquisher first appeared in Mishkin and Cohn's OMAC back-up feature from 1981's The Warlord #42 - #43. Hey, DC continuity hounds: OMAC is set in the far, far future -- so this is an Easter egg of sorts.

Fan Reaction

Blue Devil v1 was infamous for having such an immensely dedicated fan base; the first several issues of Blue Devil received piles and piles of letters praising the series. "T.M. Maple" and Beau Smith (he named Blue Devil 'the best new comic of the first quarter of 1984' via Comicast-FM) wrote in frequently.

Most popular reader requests:
-Will there be a comic book adaptation of the (fictional) Blue Devil movie?
-How about a Blue Devil graphic novel? How about a Blue Devil poster?
-How about a team-up with Blue Devil and Ambush Bug?
-When is Paris Cullins coming back to draw the series?

Editor Alan Gold kept a pretty lively letter column, and even launched a contest in issue #20: "Why I Ought to Appear in Blue Devil". Readers were asked to submit short essays and photos of themselves explaining why they should be in a Blue Devil v1 story. The winner appeared in a story for Blue Devil v1 #28.

Amazing Heroes #63 saw comics reviewer R.A. Jones rank Blue Devil as one of the 10 Best books of 1984. Also in the Top 10? Power Pack, Atari Force and Jon Sable, Freelance.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Often Go Awry

Alan Gold's last issue as editor was Blue Devil v1 #28. Actually, Gold completely left the comic book industry to go work for the Cambridge Book Co. after this issue. A fill-in issue written by Gold (and edited by Dan Mishkin) would appear in issue #29.

Barbara Randall took over as editor starting with issue Blue Devil v1 #29. Barbara would announce that Blue Devil v1 would be facing cancellation one issue later. "The cancellation came mostly from poor sales, and having to weed some books out of the schedule to make way for new ones (like the QUESTION, CAPTAIN ATOM, THE NEW FLASH...). I'm sorry this book was one of the casualties, and maybe we'll be able to bring BD back for a Special or two, but for now, his story is drawing to a close."

The Summer of 1986 Amazing Heroes Preview Special (which I'm presuming saw publication sometime April or May 1986) had already announced that Blue Devil would be cancelled as of issue #31. As a matter of fact, due to the announced cancellation, plans for a second Blue Devil Summer Special/Annual #2 were dropped and the contents were instead printed in the double-sized Blue Devil v1 #30 (which I'm glad they did -- it was one of my favorite issues that I forgot to mention).

In the final issue's letter column, Barbara Randall would mention that plans had been drafted to take a more 'serious look' at Blue Devil/Dan Cassidy, but that they unfortunately started this planning just a little too late (aka: too late to save the book from cancellation). Denys Cowan is name-dropped as the new Blue Devil penciller had the series continued. Shucks. The Summer of 1986 Amazing Heroes Preview Special pretty much confirms it: "Starting with issue #31, Blue Devil would have been, as Dan Mishkin described it, going through a Big Revival." It's teased (in the same article) that Blue Devil would appear in a future Booster Gold issue -- which he does, in Booster Gold #10 -- but he does not turn into a recurring guest star on the title.

No Blue Devil specials or one-shots ever saw publication after this, however, Blue Devil DID make appearances in all of the major DCU events (ex: Invasion!, Armageddon 2001, War of the Gods, Eclipso: The Darkness Within).

It wouldn't be until 1993 before Mishkin and Cohn would get another crack at making Blue Devil a household name. The duo wrote a Blue Devil feature that ran in Showcase '93 for six issues. In truth, I never got around to reading this series, so I couldn't tell you anything about it. Maybe this series will end up being a future review.

cover of Showcase '93 #5 -- Jose Luis Garcia Lopez cover art

The fate of Blue Devil, from co-creator Gary Cohn:

"The book was cancelled for what was then considered low sales when it dropped below 40,000. Consider how successful a book with almost 40,000 monthly sales would be considered now."

"Dan [Mishkin] was doing other work. MY star was descending. I'm not sure, over 30 years later, of the exact machinations...but he was getting ready to move on and I was going to take it on again. Editor Alan Gold asked if I could take it in a less jokey direction. I said sure, if I had an artist who could do exciting action... and we asked Dennis [Cowan]. I was very happy about that. Dennis and I went to lunch one afternoon, brainstormed a whole bunch of great stuff, none of which I remember...and then the book was cancelled."

"BD came back in Showcase because Neal Posner was a wonderful person and editor, liked us and our work, and wanted to give BD another shot. That didn't spark any fires, and that was the end of my/our chances with him. Since then... lots of people have done lots of crazy things with the character, none of which I'd have done."

---

And there you have it -- the most thorough review of Blue Devil v1 that you're probably going to read all day today. Final verdict: do I recommend it? If you like your comic books a little wacky with lots of action and lots of guest stars, then yeah, you will probably enjoy this one. It's an escapist series that often feels like it was meant to be a Saturday morning cartoon. If you're someone who requires heavy thought-provoking material with suspense and continuity and heavy drama -- well, I'd probably skip this series. Happy Halloween.

-Justin

-I want to thank Gary Cohn for the last-minute assist in providing a quote for this article.
-I want to thank Dan Mishkin for answering that extensive list of questions I sent him almost a year ago.
-I want to direct you to Once Upon a Geek's exclusive interview with Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn (in podcast form) if you want to hear more about Blue Devil. Great work Shaggy and Ravenface!