A Tribute to the of
“Alfredo Giovanni Plastino.” That’s how my friend, Al
Plastino, used to tell me he liked to sign his name on his fine
art work. He was fiercely proud of his Italian heritage, and it was
the pure version of his given name, Alfred John Plastino.
My dear friend Al left this world on November 25th, just a few
weeks shy of his 92nd birthday. I’m not ashamed to say I loved him.
I’m not ashamed to say I shed some tears when I learned of his passing
the next morning. The interview he granted me [Sage #183 & #184] several years back was
one of my favorites and to my delight and gratitude we became friends
pretty much from the start. He always had time for my calls and would
call me from time to time, too. I never got over the thrill of
hearing from him either by telephone or through the mail.
Despite that, he often acted as if I was doing him a favor. I
can’t think of a conversation we had that didn’t end with his saying,
“Okay, buddy. Thanks for calling. Give my regards to your
family.”
I think it’s only fitting that I dedicate this edition of the
Silver Age Sage to him.
Any one of my regular readers already know the important work Al did
on the Superman title and that he was the co-creator of Supergirl and
the Legion of Super-Heroes. His list of credits for DC comics is
voluminous, and I had a tough time settling on a story to attach to
this tribute, but I thought perhaps “The Curse of Kryptonite!”
from Superman #130, published in July of 1959 would be a good
example of Al’s work. As was nearly always the case, he penciled and
inked the story, written by Otto Binder and edited by Mort Weisinger.
The tale begins as Superman is doing a good turn by laying a vital
oil pipeline in the wasteland of Death Valley. As he’s using his
amazing abilities to dig a trench, though, he unearths a massive
kryptonite meteor, his greatest weakness. The irradiated chunk of his
home world of Krypton promptly begins to weaken our hero and despite
his efforts to melt it with heat vision, which eliminates about a
third of its mass and to use his super breath to blow it away, he soon
finds himself beginning to succumb to its awful rays.
Lying there, Superman begins to think back to his origin, as the
rocket created by his father, Jor-El sent him away from his doomed
world to Earth, where the yellow sun gave him his super powers. He
recalls how as Superboy he used the plexiglass shield from the rocket
to make the lenses in his glasses, which made them impervious to his
X-ray vision and how he had used massive tongs in the past to dispose
of other chunks of kryptonite. It also seems that due to its
properties, kryptonite doesn’t burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Man of Steel’s next attempt to rid himself of the glowing green
mineral is to try to create a fissure with a super blow, but he’s been
weakened too far to make enough of a crack. He knows that if he
cannot escape he’ll soon fall victim to blood poisoning that will
change his red corpuscles green. He’s once suffered with the
affliction, but was able to recover. Later he experimented in the
Fortress of Solitude in an attempt to find an antidote, but
experienced only failure.
He also recalls that as Superboy he learned that the properties of
Lead could shield him from kryptonite radiation and he tried keeping
lead tape with him as a possible shield, but soon discovered his super
speed caused friction that melted the fragile metal.
He still thought Lead could be his salvation, however, and as
Superman designed a lead suit with a television camera, antenna and
screen, allowing him to fly into space and try to collect all the
kryptonite he could and dispose of the threat, but there was simply
too much.
Superman is growing more desperate in Death Valley and tries to use
his super voice to call Linda Lee at Midvale Orphanage, but he’s
unable to hail her due to his weakened state. Linda, of course, is
Superman’s cousin, aka Supergirl.
The Man of Tomorrow is now beginning to glow green and he is
feeling all is lost when suddenly a miraculous occurrence when a
strong burst of air comes through the pipe and blows the meteor a safe
distance away. Using his telescopic vision, Superman soon sees the
answer: Krypto the Superdog is at the other end of the pipe, blowing
through it and rescuing his master.
A joyous reunion takes place when a grateful Superman thanks Krypto
for saving him. The final panel has our hero musing that it was a
close call, but he wonders if Red Kryptonite is an even bigger threat.
The final caption tells the readers that an untold tale of the red
variety of kryptonite will be coming up in a future issue.
There you have it, readers. A great little story in 7 pages flat
that included glimpses of Superman’s past as Superboy, some of his
prior encounters with kryptonite and his temporary solutions and even
appearances by Supergirl and Krypto, all wonderfully illustrated by
the great Al Plastino. I’ll give this classic story a 9 on the
10-point rating scale for sheer Silver Age goodness, neatly wrapped up
with a flourish.
I only got to know Al for a handful of years, but what a blessing
it was. He was incredibly generous to me, often sending copies of
recent commissions and examples of his water colors. We were talking
about fly fishing one day and he mailed me a box of his flies!
I confess to getting a little choked up as I was unpacking during
my recent move and found that box along with the original Ferd’nand
strip he sent to me that I had framed. He also gifted me with an
original Abbie and Slats strip that he ghosted on and once asked me
what my daughter’s favorite characters were. I asked her and she said
Supergirl and Green Lantern and within a few days a package arrived
for her with those two characters in pencil, personalized for her.
In fact, my daughter went in cahoots with Al for Christmas year
before last when she got me the most wonderful commission. She’d sent
him a photo and he provided a beautiful pencil rendering of three
figures in the Bat cave: Superman, Batman and yours truly. The World’s
Greatest Detective has his arm around me while Superman is reaching
for my hand and saying, “Hi, Bryan. Any friend of Al
Plastino is a friend of mine.” He refused payment for it. When
I called to thank him up and down he said simply, “You’re welcome.
I just wanted you to have a little something to remember me by.”
His work on the DC titles alone assures that Al will never be
forgotten. His efforts on Ferd’nand and Nancy add to his legacy,
along with his run on the Batman daily strip and I’m only scratching
the surface of everything he’d done over a long and fruitful career.
The last few years Al became active in the convention circuit,
traveling to the New York Con and the Dallas show and recently the
Florida Super Con. If you’re on Facebook, look up the Florida Super
Con and you’ll see some wonderful photos of the man along with fellow
Golden Age artists Allen Bellman and Nick Cardy. Be
sure to check out the snapshots of him dancing the Lindy Hop with a
young lady on the stage.
Al was so full of life, so sharp and so active that it’s hard to
believe I can’t pick up the phone again to talk and laugh with him.
One of my last conversations ended with his saying, as usual, thanks
for the call, but he added, “You make me feel young.”
Al, my friend, it was my privilege to get to know you. I was
definitely the beneficiary of all those conversations. Godspeed to
one of the good guys.
Thanks for reading and be on the lookout next year for my article
in Back Issue #73, which includes some material Al sent me about his
work on Man-Bat in the daily Batman strip. Generous to the last. As
always, write to me at: professor_the@hotmail.com.
Long live the Silver Age! This feature was created on 05/01/00 and is maintained by B.D.S.
© 2000-2013 by B.D.S.
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