Until I started doing research on the Golden Age Blue Beetle, I did NOT know he had a sidekick! This is the first appearance of Sparky, on both this page and the issue's cover. HOWEVER, he was not allowed to join Blue Beetle Dan Garret until the NEXT issue, which is a pretty ridiculous scheduling snafu!
The original Blue Beetle was a relatively big deal in the 40s, spawning comic strips and a radio serial, but he fell on hard luck when his original publisher, Fox, collapsed and sold him off to Charlton. Charlton couldn't keep him in print either, and created a new version instead, which was in turn picked up by DC some time later. Though I'd seen the original Blue Beetle in Rovin's Encyclopedia of Superheroes, I never saw him in a story before he showed up in a couple of issues of DC's Blue Beetle. It was pretty exciting.
After Hourman, my weird fixation with Dan Garrett. I bought BB#6 as a reading copy back in the 80s for $5.00. After Charlton started putting out their version, I happened to be in Larry's (the first independent comic shop in the US, incidentally, opened in 1973), and BB#24 was mixed in with the 60s versions for two freaking bucks! Thankfully, it wasn't Larry who was working that day.
ReplyDeleteThere was a comic in the 90s, LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE. The first three issues had Superman off doing something, and to my surprise he had left Metropolis in the good hands of Dan Garrett, GA costume and all.
I own about 15 GA BBs. In one issue, he went to Saturn. No reason, he just went there.
Sparky? Really? Not Larva Boy or something?
ReplyDeleteWeird, right? What's the connection?
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