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[MarkWarner]

Last week's trip to the UK and Atlantis with Swift Morgan was certainly interesting. For the next read we are back in the US with and in the company of a superhero called "Strong Man" or is it all one word "Strongman"?

The book can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22992. The story we are concentrating on is the first one "The Flying Circus"

[narfstar]

This was one of my earliest GA comics. That cover turned me into a Bob Powell fan. The first story gives us an origin of Strongman. Not any real explaination of how Herk and the General got a better recovery than the docs could have but who cares. Garish superheroes were winding down so we get a more plausable human hero. Not a bad start to his career and some great scenes by Powell.

[SuperScrounge]

The Flying Circus - "He doesn't have muscles of steel - there is no such thing" Gee, think they were taking a pot shot at somebody?  Inspector Grimm? Now there's a name for a comic book star, and his assistant is named Bullit, man... Anyone else getting a Jerry Seigel vibe from the writing? Nice story.

Strongman's Muscle Building Tips - Okay.

Strongman To The Rescue - "The girl struggled for awhile, then gave in to Strongman's mighty muscles." Boom chika wow wow!  The story feels rushed especially towards the end.

Strongmen Of History - Okay.

The Red Hand Of Moscow - Since when has the brain been a muscle? Not quite as good as the other stories.

I could be wrong, but there just seemed to be enough Seigelesque moments for me to think he may have written the stories. I think the only thing missing was a wink at the audience.

[narfstar]

Whose who does not have Siegel ever at FH

[bowers]

Interesting character- pretty good back-story. I rather like the do-it-yourself heroes who create their own powers and abilities as opposed to the chemical accident, struck by lightning, radiation, etc. guys.
Powell art was great- one of my favorite GA artists, and also interesting  fillers.
The intro story was my favorite but the other two weren't bad at all. The usual GA stuff.
Wonder how many kids sent for the "Geigerscope" hoping to find uranium in "your backyard, in your neighboring woods, anywhere"? And how many zoos, even in the 50's, would have allowed two kids to walk around with a rifle and a bow and arrow? I suppose one never could tell when a gorilla might escape and they did earn them by hawking that miracle cure, White Cloverine Salve.
Doesn't appear that Strogman lasted too long, but still a good effort. Cheers, Bowers

[MarkWarner]

Well I really tried to like this, but Strongman bored me.

The cover meant I started off with high expectations of reading about a slightly obscure superhero. But Strong man is a super body builder. Every other word was about physical development and the other words were just fillers. It is aimed squarely at the bodybuilding market. I did finish the book, but I almost gave up three times. 

The best bit in the book is the full page advertisement on our page 34 for Uranium finding equipment.

Verdict: I am afraid, a definite fail.

[crashryan]

I'm a week behind but i wanted to deposit my two cents' worth concerning Strongman #1.

Much of this comic, beginning with the character concept, seems to be written so as not to offend the new Comics Code. That said, I was surprised to see people getting shot to death on-camera. Go figure.

The character is so-so. He starts out as a super-strong ordinary guy, but belies that when he starts tossing forklifts around. But this is comic books, so...

The story that astonishes me is "Strong Man to the Rescue." I can't believe that the story stops halfway through the climax and becomes a flashback narration by The General! I mean, Strong Man is saving a girl from a burning building AND a crazed ape and they turn it into a flashback!!?? In fact we have no idea the ape is even involved until the last couple of panels. To add injury to insult the bit with the bad guy's hearing aid comes completely out of left field. It was never foreshadowed. Heck, it wasn't even drawn. What a mess!

"The Red Hand of Moscow" is a typical Cold War story. Some nice Powell art in this one, but in a couple of places (e.g. Page 28 Panel 4) his staging makes it hard to see what's going on. I'd say he was copping out to avoid drawing, but he goes all out on the backgrounds. Or maybe Powell did cop out but his assistant drew the nifty BG's.

The muscle-building fillers  tried my patience and I gave up on them.

Final estimate: meh. I'm surprised the comic lasted four issues, unless that was the guaranteed minimum run. The GCBD credits Gardner Fox with later issues. I hope he didn't write any of these. By the way, what's with the magic arts and the lariat twirling?

[Morgus]

Sorry for being late...got hung up last week...but I actually dug Bob Powell's art...I didn't associate a name to the fine art until SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT series from Eclipse that ran a nice bio on him..what?..30 years ago now??. But STRONGMAN has a special place in my heart...it was one of the first 'old time' comics I got to see when I was a little shaver...and I really dug it then...( my cousin John's copy didn't have a cover and when I finally saw the real cover, I confess it was a bit of a let down...) ANYHOW...one of the grown ups was over and talking about this really great great man named L RON HUBBARD who had all these GREAT TEACHERS as a kid who made him into the THE MOST AMAZING MAN OF THE AGE...sounded familiar so I dug out STRONGMAN and showed it to them. Well, their face just FELL and they had this SCOWL on their face after they read that first page...Uncle Len later gave me a nice chunk of change for doing that. Said the person stopped taking Scientology seriously when it sounded so close to 'that crappy comic book'. But, hey, the math is just about RIGHT...I mean, you have this comic book coming just about time between DiANETICS and SCIENTOLOGY  did with that way cool origins story...sometimes, I wonder to myself if he didn't base the whole she bang, or at least part that part of it, on STRONGMAN...BUT hey, still love the Bob Powell art...