Pure Excitement Comics is maintained by Bill Nolan.

Vol. 1 No. 41
January 2002

In This Issue:

Contents Page

Blue Bolt

Jackie Law

Mystico

Other issues!


Next Month:

The Puppeteer, Doctor Frost & The Lynx


Bill Nolan's
Other Pages:

CD-ROMs!
CD-ROMs featuring more great reprints! Buy them, please! (They're cheap!)

[Return to Main Page]


Related Links:

Golden Years
A great site also featuring great on-line Golden Age reprint magazines!

The New Golden Agers
The new Delphi Forum for discussing Pure Excitement Comics and other related topics.

Mort Meskin
An interesting site focusing on the great Golden Age artist.

goldcomics.com
A fantastic site featuring MLJ reprints.

Heroic Comics
Another great source for Golden Age reprints! Includes stories from nine of the first 12 issues of that great title.

AC Comics
Publisher of Golden Age Men of Mystery and more. Now with a great on-line store!

Golden Agers
A great affiliate Yahoo Club where Golden Age fans can get together on-line.

Big Shot
A great site focusing on that particular Golden Age title.

The Spirit
A great site dedicated to what was probably the best comic feature of the Golden Age!

Other Golden Age Reprints
James Ludwig's great Golden Age reprint site!

The Golden Age Heroes Directory
A great page developing profiles on all Golden Age heroes!

A Guide To Marvel's Golden Age Characters
A rundown of some of the great characters I cannot feature here.

The Good Guys and Gals of the Golden Age Art Gallery
A great "who's who" of Golden Age heroes.

MicroComics
Offering affordable Golden Age comics on microfiche.

Comcs on CD-ROM
Offering Golden Age covers and stories on affordable CD-ROMS. Highly recommended!

Mikel Midnight Golden Age Directory
A great on-line resource for Golden Age fans. Great links.

Captain Comics
Home of the weekly comic book columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service

Welcome to the Letters Page, everybody! Here are some letters I received during the last month:

Yet another great issue Bill! Without question Sub-Zero was the star of the show. I don't think I've ever seen someone go to such great lenghts to avoid a hit and run charge... I hope we see Sub again soon, maybe another PEC Super Special CD, or sometime after #50? You're right about Flamingo. Great art, but a fairly unmemorable story. Power Nelson was a good story, but somewhere between Sub-Zero and Flamingo. Never the less, it was good to see him in these pages! Looking forward to the next few issues and of course the big 50th!

-Steve

Steve, glad to hear you enjoyed the issue. I have at least one more Sub-Zero story in my collection. I'll see what I can do about featuring it somewhere someday...

Good issue, Bill. I especially liked the Sub-Zero story, which was a nice pace from the usual spy bashing. I like Sub-Zero because he usually wound up in a position where he really had to think in order to use his power effectively; I also think he has one of the most distinctive and best designed costumes of the golden age. I'd love to see more Sub-Zero stories, if such a thing is possible. The Flamingo story wasn't bad at all, which surprised me a bit as I can remember one text or another dismissing the Flamingo as just another aviator character; I expected several pages of aerial combat, which I'm really not that fond about, and instead got an interesting adventure taking place mostly in a very confined place (the temple). I'm glad I had the chance to read a story about this very obscure character. The Power Nelson story had a decent villain but was rather pedestrian otherwise, except for the artwork which is much better than quite a bit of Kirby imitations. Again, I would love to see another Sub-Zero story but, even if it is possible, I can live without seeing either the Flamingo or Power Nelson again.

Thanks,
Jon

Yet another request for more Sub-Zero material. I will see what I can do. Maybe I will run out of interesting "new" characters before issue 50, or maybe he will have to wait until after that milestone issue. Don't worry about the other two characters showing up again anytime soon. Those were the only stories I had available starring those heroes.

Great issue Bill.... Sub Zero was/is a favorite of mine..... I've previously had some old Contact Comics and Flamigo was a favorite of mine way back when..... good to see this story as I hadn't seen it before. I liked the different locals that Flamingo was always set in.... I just recently picked up another Contact Comics starring the Phantom Flyer (his only appearance) and we'll soon be putting him to cd... plus all the rest of the contents of CC. Power Nelson the Future Man was a great strip at times and at other times very pedestrian. I never got how he could exist in two different times, and that was never explained to my knowledge. But still it was great to see him again. Several heroes had that same problem,like the Iron Skull and Brad Spencer the Wonderman, although Brad was a bit more understanding in his "settings" even if they did shift over time.... well again,another great issue... keep 'em coming pal!

- Richard -
@ the Good Guys & Gals of the Golden Age + Greats of the Golden Age of Comics

Finally, someone who actually liked the Flamingo story! Richard, thanks for the always-informative words about the characters in the last issue. In case readers here haven't heard, Richard's web site now includes Golden Age reprints along with the fabulous profiles he and Darrin have been offering all along. Definitely worth checking out (their main link can be found in the column to the left).!

Bill: Thanks for another fun issue of PEC. Sub-Zero was real cool (no pun intended). I liked the way he looked when he turned himself into ice to protect himself from impact with the sidewalk. It's lucky Subby Z. was a comic book character, though. If a chunk of ice hitting a hard surface met the same outcome in his reality that it would in ours, his career would probably have come to a shattering conclusion on just the first page of this story.
The theme of the Sub-Zero story was interesting as well. I once read an early Superman story (circa 1939) in which Supes goes on a crusade against careless drivers after one of Clark Kent's friends is killed in a hit-and-run accident. In one scene that sticks out in my mind, a traffic cop stops a speeding motorist who offers the officer some money to forget the incident. The cop is about to take the bribe when he spots Superman watching the scene from a short distance away. The policeman immediately reads the driver the riot act and arrests him.
As for Flamingo, in my estimation he appears to be in the lead at this point for the not-so-coveted "World War II Comic Book Aviator with the Silliest Looking Airplane" award. I suspect that Flamingo's success as a dogfighter--if he indeed had such success--was due to the fact that he was able to get a bead on his foes while they were laughing themselves into a stupor over the sight of his aircraft (like in the 1966 hit song "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron"). And that color! How about this for a crossover: Flamingo and his Bird Plane and the crew of the pink submarine from "Operation Petticoat?"
Thanks also for the glimpse of "Power Nelson, Futureman." I wonder if Gene West/Power Nelson had an easier time keeping his alter ego a secret than Bob Gibson/Shock Gibson did. I'm also curious if Gene ever stumbled into any super-heroic adventures stemming from his job moonlighting as a model for Arrow shirt ads in magazines.
So many comics. So many questions. Thanks for another great issue.

Mark

Mark, thanks for another great letter! Hopefully this new issue and those in the month's to come will live up to your expectations.

Hi, Bill. Just read Issue no. 40 - another milestone. I knew about Power Nelson but had never seen one of his stories so that was great. Flamingo was new to me - was rather interesting if a little off-beat. I gather he didn't last long. Sub-Zero I was familiar with and it was nice to see him again. Keep up the great work and I'll be looking forward to the next issue - sounds like great stuff - I don't have much info on the Lynx.

Cheers, Dennis

Dennis, I hope the characters in this issue offered you something of interest. The Lynx will make his Pure Excitement debut next issue. I don't have any definite plans for the issues after that one, but I'll let everyone know as soon as I do.

That's it for the letters page this month. Be sure to check back next month for three more great reprints!

Click to subscribe to Excitement Central
and receive notification by e-mail whenever this site is updated!