July 5, 2010

Get Smart #3 [1966]

This is the second of Ditko's two issues of the Dell comic book based on the TV series GET SMART.  He also did two issues of HOGAN'S HEROES at the same time, as well an issue of one of Dell's original features, NUKLA, all with Sal Trapani on the inks.

After a photo cover, the inside cover features a 1-page black and white story "The Raid", which is a nice little vignette capturing the mood of the series, with some nice humour in the artwork, and as usual the uncoloured artwork on slick paper stock used for the covers is much more pleasing to the eye than the crudely coloured interiors on newsprint.

The rest of the issue is the 31-page "The Nuclear Gumball Caper", with Agents 86 and 99 sent by the Chief to find a small nuclear device created by KAOS.  I think the story is a bit of an improvement over the previous issue, more in keeping with the flavour of the show, but the art is a bit weaker. The amount of Ditko that comes through varies pretty wildly, with very little in some of the faces, but when it comes through in the body language it's really entertaining.

Plus that Ditko bird is pretty cool.

Like the previous issue, I can't really recommend it unless you've exhausted most of the rest of the Ditko you want to read, but if you find an affordable copy it's worth a look.


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