You've Got to Start Somewhere - Batman and Zoë editions

I'm reading Batman, vol. 1, which contains the first ever Batman comic - Detective Comics #27, from 1939.

Fun facts:

1. Our hero's name is, at this stage of his career, not just hyphenated but permanently encased in scare-quotes.He is the 'Bat-Man'.

2. All panels contain a verbal description of the action the panel depicts, presumably so that blind people - who can't see the pictures - can read them.

3. The first really serious scrape of Batman's career turns out to be with Jennings, who performs chemical experiments on enormous batches of dead guinea pigs. Well, I don't know how else to interpret the situation. (His enormous bell-jar for gerbil-gassing is about 6 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter. That's a lot of small mammal.)

You see what I mean about the captions?

In other juvenelia news, Zoë is working very hard on her first comic. I'll show you some early sketches. Superzoë and her sidekick Super MeiMei are members of the Justice League. (They used to be in something called the Supersky Heroes, which I preferred. It had Thunderboom and Summergirl and also Cushion Boy and Rainy. Alas, Zoë appears to have lost interest in that cast she invented.) Their arch-enemy is Mean Girl, who has a pet named Mean Squirrel (who is really nice), and a little sister named either Avalliboovvuvvwd, or Dwvvuvvoobilllava. We're calling her 'Lava Bill' for short. I assume 'Bill' is short for 'Wilhelmina'. In the Commissioner Gordon supporting role is Sgt. O'Flannahan, who is called in at the end to throw a defeated Mean Girl into her nice, warm cell.

That's Superzoë on the right, Mean Girl on the left, and whatever-her-name-is in the middle. Zoë has designed a very colorful costume for herself.

The scene opens with Superzoë and Super MeiMei (in civvies) attending the County Fair. (That is indeed Mean Girl up there in the second car from the right on the ferris wheel. And that's Rapunzel on the far right, who looks about to barf.)
Jolly Coppers on parade, indeed!

Like any good supervillain, Mean Girl has goons. And the goons have a dragon.

When a young girl's thoughts turn to ferris wheels, things can get a bit out of hand. That thing on the right is apparently housing for orphans (no kidding). I thought it was going to turn out to be Nick Fury's new heliferris. Carrier. Or something.

Interestingly, this is a picture of Mean Girl rocking her little sister - what's-her-name  - to sleep in her rather ornate bed. (Zoë's own bed has some rather scrollly ironwork on it, and is no doubt the inspiration for this image.)

My favorite. The plot revolves around Mean Girl's attempts to build a 'Paser' - that is, a pastry-powered laser with which she will hold the city hostage. I think Zoë's squat yet solid cannon design is nothing short of awesome. And that's the little sister there. Mean Girl has given her a toy paser to play with, to teach her how to be mean.

I think Sgt. O'Flannahan can expect to see this one warming a cot in one of his jail cells ... again and again and again in the years to come.

Also, we haven't gotten around to drawing the Justice League yet. I'm especially looking forward to the scene in which Superzoë, Wonderwoman and Hawk Girl are all playing a modified version of 'Go Fish'. As the author says, 'it's a lot simpler'. You have to say 'bellywhistle' ten times. Otherwise, 'go fish'. Them's the rules.

Via the ISB, I see that there is some competition in this rather rarified field, but I'm confident that our girl can catch up.

Comments

[Russell Arben Fox]

Thunderboom and Summergirl!? With wacky/dorky/boy-next-door sidekick Cushion Boy and the moody (possibly alien?) Rainy along for the adventure!? That is absolutely the best. If I knew more about who the hip kid actors are today, I'd start dream casting "Thunderboom and Summergirl" (to be directed by Richard Rodriguez for a May 2008 release) right now. My congrats to Zoë.

[Daev]

I think the pastry-powered laser is a stroke of genius. Perhaps Mean Girl can have a secret chain of bakeries as part of her world domination plans.

Did you notice that "mean" is represented by angling eyebrows into a V shape? I remember that I made the same drawing discovery as a kid; to indicate someone is evil, point the eyebrows. That combines with the mouth shape (smiling or frowning) to tell you whether they're fiendish (evil smiling) or monstrous (evil frowning = angry). The grammar of stick figure cartooning!

[Matt]

I'll say this: Mean Girl sure does look mean.

[Jacob T. Levy]

In the Commissioner Gordon supporting role is Sgt. O'Flannahan

Too funny. How on earth did Zoe, in Singapore no less, discover that cops are supposed to be Irish?

[jholbo]

I think I am probably guilty of perpetrating ethnic stereotypes. Zoë asked me what a good name for a police officer would be, and I came out with Sgt. O'Flannahan - a part I am now required to play to the Lucky Charms hilt, as it were. But she came up with the rest. Example: it turns out that Mean Girl's mom is Speed Lightning Million Thousand Fast Girl. (I'll post a picture later.)

And, confirming Daev's comment, when she drew a picture of the mom, and I pointed out that she was smiling and didn't look mean, Zoë thought about it for a second, then put in the requisite V-brow. Problem solved.

Russell, yeah, I've got to get Thunderboom and Summer Girl back in the picture, but we seem doomed to a version of the story in which Superman and Wonderwoman and the rest get dragged through half the pastry shops in Citytown.

[Hogan]

Don't blame yourself. Irish cops are a watchacallit, archetype of the collective unconscious. I think you can see drawings of them in the Lascaux caves.

Mean Girl and Mean Squirrel? I am in awe.

[Timothy Burke]

Hah! I ordered that book from the ISB the *second* that I saw it.

[Jim Henley]

This is GREAT stuff on Zoe's part. I love it. And I do regret the orphaning of the Supersky Heroes.

As to the early Batmans, I blogged a bunch of those maybe two years ago. The utmost is the first issue of the two-part vampire story, which begins - I am not shitting you - with a splash panel captioned

"THE BATMAN, HAVING LOST HIS WAY ON A LONELY BY-ROAD, STOPS BEFORE A LONE HOUSE TO ASK DIRECTIONS."

I am vengeance! I am the night! I am - uh, WHERE are we, then?

[Gary Farber]

I read that issue when it was reprinted in the little compilation booklet of comics that came with the DVD of Batman Begins, and my reaction was the same as the one I've had to a lot of early Forties comics, frankly: wow, this is really crude and bad!

Not to say that one can't see the potential in the new form, but it's kinda a good thing that it evolved and developed, methinks. (Heh-heh!)

Great stuff from Zoe, of course.