Direct Currents: The Elongated Man

As a child, Ralph Dibny, was fascinated with the human body's powers of flexibility and sought out the "India Rubber Men" and other contortionists that traveled in the circus sideshows. Continuing his search for an answer into adulthood, this amateur detective discovered in his travels around the world that all these acrobats had one thing in common: before a performance each "Rubber Man" consumed a drink called Gingold which contained the juice of the Yucatan gingo fruit. After much study and experimentation, Ralph Dibny managed to isolate the unknown chemical in the fruit, and now when he drinks a concentrated dose his body acquires elastic properties far beyond belief. With his new incredible powers, our hero became the super-stretchable sleuth known as the Elongated Man being able to contort to any position. Now after a few costume changes over the years, he is still solving mysteries and fighting crime with the help of his beautiful wife, Sue. The Elongated Man made his first appearance was in DC's The Flash #112 in May of 1960.

Foreign Favorites: Diabolik

In 1962, two sisters in Milan, Angel and Luciana Guissani, created the ultimate super criminal known for his violence and skills, the dreaded Diabolik! A master of disguise, this anti-hero, is as brave as he is clever, equipped with gadgets and tricks, that make Diabolik always one step ahead of enemies, whether it be the police squads or mafia hit men. A man who lives by his own rules, theft or murder are just another day at the office for this phantom criminal with the mind of a master chess player. His beloved girlfriend and assistant, Eva Kant, is the only good thing in his endless life of crime as he is relentlessly pursued by an equally skilled policeman named Ginko. Spawning a new age in dark adult themed comics in the early sixties, the feature was written and drawn by a stable of artists, still under the guiding hands of its two creators. Denounced by the Church, politicians, and Italian censors alike, this amoral anti-hero still lives on today and inspired a cult hit film of 1968, Danger:Diabolik, starring John Phillip Law in the title role.

Buried Treasure: Ozark Ike

Ray Gotto's baseball strip, Ozark Ike, was the first of its kind sports feature for King Features Syndicate which debuted in November 1945. Ike was a good old country boy and left fielder for the Bugs baseball team. Bubba Bean was his lanky pal and sidekick, who also worked for J.P. Morgan, the team's bristling "fat cat" owner. But the real draw of the feature was Ike's girlfriend Dinah, the beautiful shapely blond with a Veronica Lake hairstyle. As a sports cartoonist, Gotto had a unique drawing style, unlike his contemporaries of the time, his mannered, precise, and detailed illustrations really stood out on the Sunday pages, adding to the feature's success. Even with his stylized, sleek drawings, strong storylines, and a good dash of humor, a baseball strip can eventually run its course, and so when Ray Gotto had a disagreement with his agent, he left the feature to start another baseball yarn, Cotton Woods, and left Ike to be drawn in a competent fashion by Bill Lignante until its last run of the bases in 1959.

Make Mine Marvel: Master of Kung-Fu

I've been neglecting in my posts all the great Marvel Comics characters, so let me correct that and start out with a favorite of mine... Bruce Lee's kung-fu movies were sweeping the nation in the early seventies so the "House of Ideas" quickly jumped on the martial-arts craze in December 1973 with Marvel Special Edition #15 and the first appearance of Master of Kung Fu. Shang-Chi was the son of the evil madman Dr. Fu Manchu and trained in the martial arts since birth to be used as a weapon against his many enemies. Being sent to eliminate Sir Dennis Nayland Smith and his associate Dr. Petrie of the British Secret Service, Shang soon discovers the truth about his father and joins forces with MI-6 to help fight China's greatest archfiend. Steve Englehart's early scripts set the pace with the thrilling suspense needed for the series, while Jim Starlin provided the action-packed images in these classic spy adventures.

The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu got its own title two issues later after its try-out and spawned a black-and-white magazine, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. The title always had great artwork by creators like Jim Starlin, John Buscema, Gene Day, Mike Zeck, and others. But most fans of this series best remember it by the dynamic stories of Doug Moench and artist Paul Gulacy who super-charged the comic with colorful villains, exciting sidekicks and over the top tales with a James Bond flair. The title ran for over nine pulse-pounding years until the kung-fu fad started to wain, when martial arts kickboxing hit the scene. But Shang-Chi and the cast of Master of Kung-Fu has been revived by Marvel, who never let a good idea die, as we have seen in the various mini-series and specials produced in recent years.