RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Who here's read the old 1975 Joker series?

I've been wanting to read it for a really long time, but I haven't found it anywhere. If anyone here read it: What was it like/was it good?

Well, I only have # 1 and 2, it's quite a nice read, slightly better than SSoSV IMO.

I had the first 6 issues that I bought back in '75. Nothing to write home about. Guess if someone's a Joker collector, they want to have these issues, but there's nothing special about them, except that Joker was the protagonist. The one with Willy The Weeper is kinda funny.

There's an issue of that series in the Best Joker Stories Ever Told book. It's a team up with The Creeper. Kinda lame, but fun. I wouldn't pay much for it though. The art reminded me of Dan Jurgens' style.

I'm thinking Irv Novick and Tex Blaisdell did the art for at least the first 6 issues (did it run much past that?)

JJ

I read them, although it's been many years.

I think Dennis O'Neil wrote most if not all the issues.

Irv Novick pencilled most of the issues(1, 2, 5, 6, 7 and 9).
Ernie Chua (a.k.a. Ernie Chan) did the art on issue three, which as said above, is the issue that teamed the Joker with the Creeper, which I think is the best issue of the series. I didn't think it was lame.
Issue 1 was also a fun story.

Issue 4 co-starred Green Arrow and Black Canary.

Issue 5 featured The Royal Flush Gang, another issue that I really enjoyed.



Dennis O'Neil has long been my favorite writer on BATMAN and DETECTIVE.

I like THE JOKER because it's an extension of O'Neil's writing on the Batman books.
O'Neil wrote BATMAN 224-266, with a few fill-in issues by other writers.

The Joker appeared in BATMAN 251 (O'Neil/Adams, as good as it gets !), and BATMAN 260 (O'Neil/Novick/Giordano, also a good story, although it's difficult to compete with Neal Adams' story before it).

I recently looked through my DETECTIVE issues, and O'Neil wrote issues 395, 397, 399, 404-406, 410, 411, 414, 418(a good issue with the Creeper), 419, 422, 425 (nice Wrightson cover!), 431 (nice Kaluta cover!), 451, 457(a classic story with Dick Giordano), and 481(a great story with Marshall Rogers). Most of the stories by O'Neil here that were not illustrated by Neal Adams were done by Irv Novick, just as the JOKER series was.

O'Neil also did several good stories with Michael Golden/Craig Russell art in BATMAN FAMILY 18-20, and BATMAN SPECTACULAR (DC SPECIAL SERIES 15), the last one reprinted in the R'AS AL GHUL SAGA trade.

And I actually like the BATMAN and DETECTIVE stories in between those O'Neil did, written by Frank Robbins and a few other writers, just as much as the stories by O'Neil. The Batman books were very consistent throughout this era (1970-1975).

And the JOKER series was a nice extension of that.

The last two or three JOKER issues were less interesting for me. I recall the creative team changed, and I didn't like the art or stories as much.






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"This Man, This Wonder Boy..."

I read them all. It was an amusing read but never ever tried to live up to it's true potential. Accent was on funny and making sure the Joker was back in jail by the end of the issue. (ho-hum.)

Sounds like a Hostess Fruit Pie ad.

I never thought of it before, but thinking back to those books, yeah, they were like Hostess ads.

IMHO, the best issue was the one with Green Arrow and Black Canary. Essentially, the Joker blew into Star City and ran into BC in her secret ID. He immediately became smitten with her and kidnapped her, forcing GA to come to her rescue (as I recall, BC was drugged and unconcious for most of the story, but did get some licks in at the end). Unlike most of the issues it wasn't really played for laughs and ended with the classic "Joker falls from a high place into the river and we can't find his body" scenario.

Other than than that issue, and the Creeper story, the run was pretty lame.

THE JOKER was one of a number of titles that DC cranked out to compete with a similar rapid expansion over at Marvel. The idea wasn't so much to produce the best work, but just to take up retail shelf space that would have gone to Marvel, if DC didn't make an effort to compete.

Carmine Infantine describes this expansion in his recent book THE AMAZING WORLD OF CARMINE INFANTINO ( available from www.twomorrows.com )

Some of the other titles DC put out at that time:

ALL STAR COMICS
BATMAN FAMILY
BEOWULF
BLITZKRIEG
CLAW
FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL
GHOST CASTLE
HERCULES UNBOUND
JUSTICE INC.
KOBRA
KONG
MANBAT
O.M.A.C.
RICHARD DRAGON KUNG FU FIGHTER
RIMA
SANDMAN
STALKER
SUPER-TEAM FAMILY
TOR
THE WARLORD

Plus a few others I might have missed.

Some good art, a few interesting series, but mostly nothing that got off the ground. But again, it was only supposed to be DC shelf-filler anyway, to take retail space away from Marvel.

The one great series that I was really into was Mike Grell's WARLORD. The only one of the bunch to survive and have a long run.

Here's a pretty big collecion of them...

http://www.seanbaby.com/hostess.htm