When it comes to Silver Age comics, most comics historians tend to peg the beginning of the period known as the Silver Age to a very specific point in time: the introduction of Barry Allen, DC Comics’ second Flash. As DC editor Julius Schwartz searched for a new feature for his new anthology series SHOWCASE, […]
Last time, on COMICS 101: We’ve been discussing Marvel’s flame-headed biker hero Ghost Rider in recent weeks, with the previous installment looking at Johnny Blaze’s brief tenure with the Champions, a short-lived West Coast Marvel super-hero team. But what was the Ghost Rider up to in between Champions missions, you ask? Well, for one thing, […]
Comic-book writer and editor Roy Thomas is always fond of saying “The Golden Age of comics is eight,” meaning that was the age at which he (and many others) discovered and fell in love with the funnybooks. In essence, the Golden and Silver Ages are somewhat arbitrary divisions in the history of mainstream American comic-book […]
Previously, in COMICS 101: We’ve been talking about Marvel’s flame-headed biker hero Ghost Rider inrecent weeks, and last week ended with the observation that what was originally a very supernatural series was slowly shifting its focus to being more of a traditional superhero title. And how better to demonstrate that than by joining a super-team? In […]
Legendary comic-book artist Wallace Wood’s life came to a tragic end with his suicide in 1981, putting a .44 magnum to his temple in a shabby Van Nuys, California, apartment at the age of 54. Wood, who made a name for himself in the 1950s with an astounding body of work for EC Comics on […]
For Those Who Came In Late: Last week, we looked at the beginnings of Marvel’s Ghost Rider character, and his extremely and surprisingly Satan-heavy origin story. Now let’s get back to it, shall we? Considering that Ghost Rider’s origin featured Satan himself in a starring role, it should come as no surprise that Johnny Blaze’s […]
Author David Hajdu is interviewed about his book The Ten Cent Scare: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America:
After the debacle of the Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency and the EC comic-book witch-hunt, Bill Gaines had to drastically revise his publishing line, since the newly instituted Comics Code forbade practically all of the titles he had previously been offering, with words like “horror,” “crime,” and “shock” now strictly forbidden. Gaines’ more adult-oriented “New […]
A passage from Ron Mann’s excellent documentary COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL, covering the rise and fall of EC Comics:
Here’s a character that’s been in the public consciousness lately for two reasons, one kinda cool, and one far more upsetting. I’m talking, of course, about Marvel’s Ghost Rider, which is about to hit theatres again this Friday with the sequel to the Nicolas Cage-starring comic-book adaptation, SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE. Unfortunately, this premiere was marred […]
Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions While other publishers provided testimony during the Senate hearings, the two central figures in the debate were Wertham and Gaines. Wertham, a respected psychiatrist, had impressive credentials, and he was seen as an expert in the field of comics and juvenile delinquency. Gaines, by contrast, was the most outspoken of […]
The Internet just about broke in half last week with the announcement that DC Comics would be publishing a series of prequel comics based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic, groundbreaking graphic novel WATCHMEN, and without the involvement or approval of Moore, the writer of the series. Long rumored to be in the works, […]
Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know Toward the end of M.C. Gaines’ time at EC Comics, he had rebranded the humor comics with an “Entertaining Comics” logo. When Bill Gaines took over the company upon his father’s demise, he continued to advertise “Educational Comics” in the back of his publications, but publishing “Entertaining Comics” […]
