Time for a change of pace this week, as I take a few moments to expand at length to a question from reader Jeff Flannigain. Jeff, you have the floor: As always, I look forward to your columns every week. Nice to know there are other geeks out there like me despite what my wife […]
Like the rest of Marvel and DC’s stables of characters, Spider-Man was used by Hostess to sell various dessert snacks in the 1970s. But even as a kid, I always found this particular Twinkies ad…disturbing. That shot of Madam Web supplicating herself before Spider-Man, just for some golden sponge cake. It just doesn’t seem right.
No. No, it’s not. However, in its defense, by 1982 standards the Atari 2600 game was good enough to dominate a surprising amount of my time as a kid. So much so that to this day, I still know the game’s opening music by heart: And not to beat a dead horse, but once again, […]
This short-lived musical stage show at Universal Studios Hollywood ran for two years, from 2002 to 2004, following the success of the Sam Raimi feature film, although the theme park only held rights to the comic-book version and couldn’t model itself after the feature film too closely. Which resulted, as it happened, in a much […]
During my freshman year of college, I met Ray Bradbury at Earthling Bookstore in Santa Barbara, California. Mr. Bradbury was there signing copies of his newest book, Zen and the Art of Writing, a collection of essays on writing and the creative process. The line was lengthy, and the wait was considerable, as Mr. Bradbury […]
One of the best Rogues’ Galleries in all of comics, and CBS went with “Mr. White”? Nothing’s more intimidating than a bubble bath…
The new, rebooted SPIDER-MAN movie is only a few short weeks away, and with it will come a classic Spidey villain making his silver-screen appearance for the first time: The Lizard. (Although your heart has to go out to actor Dylan Baker, who portrayed the Lizard’s alter ego Dr. Curt Connors in all three of […]
Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee discusses one of the most famous Spidey sequences, as illustrated by his co-creator Steve Ditko.
Forty years later, and this damned song is still catchy.
Think back for a minute to say, high school or college. A pretty sizable chunk of your life, right? Now imagine spending four times that long writing a single group of characters. Sixteen years. That’s how long Chris Claremont was the writer on Marvel’s UNCANNY X-MEN, the series he revitalized, which in turn revitalized the […]
Rumors are flying about the talk that DC will re-introduce one of its “iconic” characters as a gay man, a fact pretty much confirmed by DC higher-ups at a recent convention. Exactly what character has yet to be confirmed, but a certain rumor site is claiming “on good authority” that the newly gay DC super-hero […]
Here’s a scary statistic for you. This week’s column marks the 400th column to be posted here at Comics 101.com. Four hundred. That’s a lot of columns. I’m hoping to get back to the longer history columns soon, as I’m just now coming out of a very deadline-crazy period, and expect to have a little […]
In 1974, a suggestion was made by then-Marvel President Al Landau to introduce an international team of super-heroes that could then be sold in various countries. Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief at the time, Roy Thomas, felt this request could serve as an excellent means of reviving the X-Men, and assigned writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum […]
