Comments on: Plastic Man Archives

By: Paul Castiglia

Paul Castiglia — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 23:47:46 +0000

Gabriel, doing some research I came upon this description of an untitled Plastic Man story from ADVENTURE COMICS #477 (November, 1980): “In California, Plastic Man and Woozy take on the totally awesome case of a skateboarding chimp (Surefoot) kidnapped by a roller-skater (Roxanne Roller).”

Of course, the above has nothing to do with breakdancing but maybe such a scene showed up in the story since other fun physical pastimes like skateboarding and roller skating play roles in it? I have the issue somewhere in storage; if I manage to dig it up I’ll take a look and confirm whether a breakdancing scene appeared in it.

By: Gabriel Dionisio

Gabriel Dionisio — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:28:43 +0000

This is a shot in the dark but I used to read this comic when I was a kid in the 70′s right before I got into Breakdancing. if my memory serves me correctly I saw a breakdance scene in on of the plastic man volumes in the late 70′s. Would anybody know what year and volume that happens to be?

By: Plastic Man: The Complete Collection » DVDs Worth Watching

Plastic Man: The Complete Collection » DVDs Worth Watching — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:14:59 +0000

[...] adventures were chronicled by his creator, the amazing Jack Cole. Primarily a humorist, Cole’s Plastic Man adventures (beginning in the pages of Police Comics in 1941) were wildly funny and amazingly innovative, with [...]

By: The Spirit Archives 23-25 » Comics Worth Reading

The Spirit Archives 23-25 » Comics Worth Reading — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:28:45 +0000

[...] Plus, Eisner only did the first six weeks before he went into the military, after which it was taken over by Lou Fine, then Jack Cole (Plastic Man). [...]

By: The Golden Age: Can we stop with the handwringing mid-life crisis heroes, please? « What We’re Reading Now

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:15:13 +0000

[...] The biggest sign that you’ve wasted your time comes when the intellectually curious plot involving Mr. America’s subtle turn to fascism is revealed to be an actual fascistic plot by the Golden Age heroes’ greatest villain, the Ultra Humanite. He’s disguised himself as Mr. America and tricked U.S. citizens into playing into his grab at global domination. Then the heroes get together and beat him up until they win. Any meager attempt at a critique of power and responsibility and how it played into the Atomic Age was done away with in a flourish of Scooby Doo. I’m not sure what we were supposed to learn from reading this. Bad guys always lose and superheroes always win? Why didn’t I just read an actual Golden Age comic that gives me the same message but isn’t gloomy and depressing and over… [...]

By: Paul Castiglia

Paul Castiglia — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:49:55 +0000

The original tales by Jack Cole may be the most conistent set of stories ever written for a comic book character – sheer masterpieces of cinematic scope combining action, adventure, suspense, mystery, horror, romance and of course, humor… often if not always in the same story!

Will Eisner always gets all the kudos as being the most unique talent of the Golden Age, but the truth is, he shares that title with fellow writer-artist Cole.

I think part of Cole’s lesser standing compared to Eisner in some people’s eyes has to do with Cole’s “bigfoot” cartooning style. Sure, Eisner didn’t draw in a completely realistic style either, but his was a strip still grounded in reality where the conceit of Cole’s stretchable sleuth made the seemingly impossible possible. You can scour every Plastic Man panel and find perfect perspective, anatomy and composition, something that can’t be said for most of Cole’s contempories. AND on top of it all, Cole pushed the boundaries of all three disciplines, coming up with some of the most amazing (yet correctly drawn) visuals ever seen. Genius in the true definition of the word (and not used lightly)!

By: Beau Karch

Beau Karch — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:15:36 +0000

I completely agree with Johanna about Plastic Man. It’s a shame there’s not more of an interest in humor/satirical strips. I’d love to see more Scribbly and Red Tornado reprints from DC, as well as some of the great humor work of Bob Oksner, for example. Alas.

By: Tucker Stone

Tucker Stone — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:04:19 +0000

For the longest time, all i had was the first volume of the Plastic Archives–then I got the next six as a wedding present. I’m still plowing through them, but I totally agree with the sentiment that they are the best of what DC’s reprint program has produced, by a country mile.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:47:53 +0000

I’d heard that they were finishing up the Archive program, in terms of not doing more, but I didn’t think that that meant letting them go out of print.

By: David Oakes

David Oakes — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:19:36 +0000

I thought that the Archive format had been completely abandoned in favor the of the Showcase trades.

(I don’t think I ever read that anywhere, it has just sort of seeped in as “common wisdom”. I would love to be wrong, even if I only own two Archives, JSA and FLASH.)

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:59:43 +0000

That’s idiotic. I’ll have to keep an eye on DC’s reprint list now. I had no idea they’d let this go out of print!

By: Jarrett

Jarrett — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:34:42 +0000

The last time I checked Diamond a few weeks ago, the first volume was sadly out of stock. Hopefully this gets reprinted sooner than later…