It's
rather difficult for me to write this review. On the one hand, I
really liked this book and definitely want to see more stories set in
what Deischer calls “The Auric Universe.” On the other hand,
were I not predisposed to like the idea of telling stories of a
“Golden Age” universe of comic book super-heroes in the form of a
neopulp prose novel, I would have to dwell on some significant
problems of style, editing, and packaging that detract from the
overall product. Ultimately, however, he does tell a lively story
that leaves me wanting more –and leaves me with a new
interest in yet another hitherto largely unknown, to me at least, stable of amazing characters who sprang up literally by the hundreds in the wake of the
sensation caused by the unexpected success of Superman
in 1938. (A nice touch is that it's a Superman comic book that inspires Deischer's first super-powered hero to take a costumed identity.) It's back off to the Digital Comic Museum's vast storehouse of Golden Age scans for me, and
another spate of downloads! So I'm generally going to focus on the
positives.
“Auric”
is Deischer's name for his World War II-era world of super-heroes and
-villains which caroms somewhat obliquely off of the characters
originally published during that Golden Age of comics by what he
generally refers to as “SBN,” a publisher that went through a
succession of imprints and names. At times, they were “Standard”
comics; at others, they were “Better.” Ultimately, late in the
game, they went by the surname of the publisher, Ned Pines, as
“Pines.” His wife's name was Dora, and for a long time comics
were published under an imprint combining their names as “Nedor.”
Add to that the pulp magazine imprint “Thrilling,” and the fact
that some characters and titles bounced from one imprint to another
and even were published in both genres, sometimes under the same name, sometimes not, and you've got one big
confusing mess. The convoluted history is, I think, one reason that
these characters have mostly passed into obscurity, with even their
legal status somewhat mysterious. It is commonly accepted that they
are now in the public domain, and as is sometimes pointed out (such
as on certain character pages on the Public Domain Super Heroes wiki),
even if someone today actually holds a firm copyright on one or the
other, it doubtless does not include all, and the status is so murky
that it's very unlikely that anyone will press their ownership.
Frankly, most of these characters are so obscure that the effort
would not be seen as being worth it.
