Ever since Swamp Thing first traveled to Gotham City in 1973’s Swamp Thing issue #7, “Night of the Bat,” written by Len Wein and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, superheroes have been no stranger to the mythos of the plant elemental who once thought he was scientist Alec Holland—though the Louisiana bayou was certainly never a […]
Author Archive | Rich Handley
Wonder Twin Powers… Reactivated!
Anyone who grew up watching Saturday-morning cartoons in the 1970s and 1980s should remember well the two teen sidekicks who hung out with Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Superman, and Aquaman, helping them to thwart the Legion of Doom, the Joker, Mr. Mxyzptlk, the Penguin, and other nefarious evil-doers. They were not an overly interesting duo […]
Marvelous Treasures and Outer Space Pleasures
The 1970s and early 1980s were a golden heyday for comic book adaptations of popular films, and few could rival Marvel Comics in this regard. Marvel adapted a number of successful movies (and a few not-so-successful ones along the way), some as serialized miniseries, others as oversized comics or novel-sized digests. Several were offered up […]
Great Harvey! Revisiting Back to the Future’s Pre-IDW Comic Books
All this month, we’ll be helping Children’s Hospital Los Angeles‘ Make March Matter campaign, which aims to raise over a million dollars in March alone for CHLA through the efforts of its corporate partners, among which we are proud to be numbered. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles sees over 528,000 patient visits annually, and is the […]
Droids and Ewoks Comics… en Español!
All this month, we’ll be helping Children’s Hospital Los Angeles‘ Make March Matter campaign, which aims to raise over a million dollars in March alone for CHLA through the efforts of its corporate partners, among which we are proud to be numbered. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles sees over 528,000 patient visits annually, and is the […]
Draining the Swamp Thing – Revisiting “Chester Williams: American Cop”
DC Comics’ Elseworlds stories have typically been presented as one-shots or miniseries outside a comic book’s main continuity and issue numbering. Thanks to the Elseworlds concept, Batman fans have been treated to seeing the Dark Knight portrayed as a reverend (Batman: Holy Terror), a vampire (Batman & Dracula: Red Rain), and a rampant psychotic (Catwoman: […]
Hellblazing Under a Marquee Moon
So, you think you know all there is to know about John Constantine, eh? You’ve read every issue of Swamp Thing from Alan Moore forward, as well as each iteration of Hellblazer and Constantine, including miniseries, one-shots, and guest spots in other titles. You’ve devoured Neil Gaiman’s The Books of Magic and its several sequels, […]
Legacy of the Batman—How The Animated Series Influenced Comic Books, Films, and TV
After nearly eight decades’ worth of Dark Knight tales, Batman: The Animated Series remains one of the most-respected non-print representations of the title character to date. It may even qualify as the definitive version. If that claim leaves you skeptical, consider for a moment the previous incarnations. Lewis G. Wilson and Robert Lowrey were both […]
Droids, Zoids, and Arachnoids: Marvel UK’s Weekly Spider-Man Comics
American comic-book enthusiasts are accustomed to reading the latest installments of their favorite titles on a monthly basis. Occasionally, a comic publisher might print issues weekly or biweekly as part of a limited-duration marketing campaign, but by and large, fans must wait a month to find out what will happen next following the previous chapter’s […]
Universes Expanded: Guardians of the Galaxy Far, Far Away
When George Lucas’s first Star Wars film hit theaters in 1977, audiences were awed by its spectacle: the effects, the costumes, the music, the spaceships, the battles, all of it. As mesmerizing as it was to behold, though, the story was not exactly original. Star Wars was, essentially, The Lord of the Rings, The Hidden […]
Racking Up Larami’s Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica Comic Strips
All this month, we’ll be helping Children’s Hospital Los Angeles‘ Make March Matter campaign, which aims to raise over a million dollars in March alone for CHLA through the efforts of its corporate partners, among which we are proud to be numbered. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles sees over 528,000 patient visits annually, and is the […]