Doctor Solar Archives vol 3

The "Gold Key Three" from publications outside of the Valiant universe.

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Ryan
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Doctor Solar Archives vol 3

Post by Ryan »

I was happy to stumble across this on the half-price shelf at a comic shop. This is the second printing softcovers with the matte paper. The first printings were hardcovers with glossy paper, I think the matte paper looks much better and really suits the material.

Are the stories corny? Sure. But you have to put them in their proper context to read them. They were made for children in the 60's, not long after the Wertham testimony and the beginning of the comics code. It's not fair to expect them to hold up as adult entertainment in 2024.

A more fair comparison would be to put them in the same context as children's tv cartoons from the 60's-80's. All of them were designed to be short distraction entertainment for kids age 8-12. They weren't made to hold up to adult scrutiny.

Read in that context, they compare quite well. The craftmanship is also top notch. Visually they resemble pre-Unity Valiant much more than any post-Chaos Effect Valiant comics do.
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Ryan
Clinkin' bottles with Aram
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Re: Doctor Solar Archives vol 3

Post by Ryan »

It's also clear Shooter did a thorough and careful reading of Solar, Magnus and perhaps other GK comics like Brain Boy while he was developing the early Valiant comics.

Solar in his Jeep in Dr. Solar # 15
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Iconic shot from Solar MOTA #1
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