The ACTION HEROES CAPTAIN ATOM ARCHIVES Volume 1 (11/27/04) Wednesday, August 25, 2004 saw the release of what will hopefully be the beginning of a "Ditko Reprint Revolution" between the Big Two companies; D.C. and Marvel Comics. D.C. Comics has begun the Ditko Ball rolling. Back on December 8th, 2003, Dale Crain (Senior Editor - Collected Editions for D.C. Comics) contacted me about becoming involved in a Captain Atom / Action Heroes Archives Edition (in the vein of their Golden Age and Silver Age hardcover reprint volumes of the past ten years). My "involvement" actually dated back to that summer's San Diego Comic Con, when I approached Bob Wayne, VP of Sales & Marketing, with B&W proofs of the earliest Ditko Captain Atom stories. Bob assured me that a volume was already in the works, but that further contact could be warranted. Order both Action Heroes Archives from Amazon.com for up to 37% off! (if only Amazon could show the real covers!) By January of this year, the role of "Consulting Editor" (which, disappointingly, did not make it to the Contents page of the volume) was bestowed upon myself. The search for the best possible images from which to reproduce began. Captain Atom originally appeared in the 1960 title, Space Adventures, and was reborn in his own title in 1966. The volume reprints the Captain Atom stories SPACE ADVENTURES #33-42 (Mar '60-Oct '61) and CAPTAIN ATOM #78-82 (Dec '65-Sep '66). Happily, D.C. Comics had a great deal of film from the Charlton archives (although, as with all things Charlton, that was no guarantee of optimum quality) minus the covers. With help from Nick Caputo and Michael Ambrose, we cobbled together the best possible sources of material for use (a difficult task given that very little original art exists from that era). Concurrently, I also won the right to author the volume's introduction and had delivered same by mid-March. I thank Dale greatly for the opportunity to be considered for this role. To summarize Ditko's role in Captain Atom, to capture what Ditko brought to the work was a difficult task in 1500 words. Having my name and words prefacing stories and an artist so close to my vision of excellence in graphic storytelling is a distinct pleasure. Getting these stories reprinted is the battle; reproducing them with crisp, clean linework is the war. Where does this Archives version stand? There have been complaints in the past about the D.C. Archives volumes; that the linework suffers due to the method chosen for reproduction (scanning in old comics, leaving the critical black and white line art looking pixilated) and that the colour choices are too garish and overwhelming. Two distinct "Ditko eras" appear in this volume. The earliest Captain Atom stories from Space Adventures are from 1960; a year denoted by some of Ditko's finest rendering of his career in the pre-superhero Marvel short stories with Stan Lee. By Captain Atom's second run in 1966, Ditko's work had not only dramatically changed in 6 years (cleaner, less detailed, a homogenization of faces and figures), but Ditko did not ink his own pencils on this second run. Comparing the original comics to the book is an onerous task. What is reproduced below are images scanned in that I have tried to manipulate equally to bring the two images as close to each other as possible (ie. sharpening, size, saturation, etc.). Difficult to compare because of the difference in paper quality (the Archives volume in slick, bright white paper - the original comic from the '60s in typically crude, cheap Charlton newsprint). Below is a panel from Space Adventures #37, Page 3 (Dec '60). On your left is the Archives version; your right, the original comic...

It's difficult - even if working from inferior film - not to top the printed version of a Charlton comic, especially from the 1960s. The colouring (which often bled over the linework) would appear rather faded, the blacks rarely sold, and the linework would often reproduce very poorly, fading out in many places. The good news is that, other than a love for all things newsprint, I doubt many people will be dissatisfied with the Archives' reproduction at all. Below is an example (from Captain Atom #82, Sep '66, inked by Rocke Mastroserio) of how poorly the printed comic can end up (and how close to the line the Archives version can come in making its colours garish)...

When looking at the volume as a whole, yes, the saturation of the colours is a bit harsh. That could have been muted a tad. A welcome change in certain instances - which leaves one holding out hope for some re-colouring of Marvel pre-superhero tales by Ditko - D.C. Comics was able to correct some face colouring. From the same SPACE ADVENTURES issue as above, the bottom panel on page 2 of "A Victory For Venus" shows Gunner and the Captain with dire red skin, but the Archives version has recoloured to flesh tone. The same can be observed in the middle 3-panel strip on page 15 of CAPTAIN ATOM #79. The hand's skin colour is as red as the atomic fireball, but the Archives edition changes the hand to a normal flesh tone. The contrast is emphasized, allowing the image to really stand out. Comics from that era often just slapped a really dark colour on a close-up of a face to separate it from the background. Even with D.C.'s corrections in this Archives, nothing tops looking at these SPACE ADVENTURES stories in B&W. It's understandable that D.C. couldn't completely make alternative colour choices throughout the volume, but it also highlights how dubious the choices for colouring were in the 1950s and 60s and the impact on the linework. Tragic, really, when dealing with an artist like Ditko who really gave a damn in an industry at the time when a lot of artists were hacking it out until something better - like illustration or syndicated work - came along. Other observances: 1) certain covers in the edition highlight the difference between having quality source material and not. The CAPTAIN ATOM title covers vary in quality. The linework of the two figures on the cover of Issue #79 is noticeably "muddier" than the printed comic. #80's linework appears to be a bit faded - noticeable on Captain Atom's face - whereas the cover to #81 is an improvement. 2) 20 years later, I still haven't warmed to the inking of Rocke Mastroserio. Having Ditko-inked stories back-to-back with those inked by others highlights how little detail Ditko put into his pencils; preferring to add that in during the inking stage. Rocke's inking is too thick, too choppy. Frank McLaughlin took over inking with #88 and is an improvement. 3) Charlton's printing is like mud. Working from film, the Archives edition cleans a lot of this up, making the linework even more distinct. This has to be considered a triumph for this edition and a pox on Charlton's original printed material. FUTURE VOLUMES? Fans of Ditko can only hope that this edition will sell well enough to warrant future volumes, such as a second volume featuring Captain Atom #83-89 and the B&W #90, only-published in Charlton Bullseye in 1975 inked by John Byrne from Ditko's pencils of eight years earlier. One would hope this volume that would include the QUESTION back-ups from BLUE BEETLE and the full-length THE QUESTION tale from MYSTERIOUS SUSPENSE. That could leave a BLUE BEETLE volume featuring 28 pages of the back-ups from Captain Atom, the almost 100 pages from the BLUE BEETLE title and issue #6, only published years later in CHARTLON PORTFOLIO from 1974. The only concern from the above is that the BLUE BEETLE volume would be only 170 pages or so. Splitting up THE QUESTION / MYSTERIOUS SUSPENSE stories over the two volume would be unfortunate, but may be the only way to equalize the page count. Either way, Ditko fans are in control of Ditko's reprint destiny. Sales on this volume, and the MARVEL VISIONARIES volume, will decide if, and how quickly, we see more of Ditko's history legitimized in new, high-quality reprints. - Blake Bell