Archive | Guest Columns

Thor & Hulk

That Time the Hulk Was in the Circus

When I started reading the Avengers I didn’t mean to constantly compare them to the Justice League, but I couldn’t help myself. It was another team of superheroes banding together fighting off villains, and it was only natural for me to mentally set them against each other. I’m not weighing super powers either; it doesn’t […]

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shazam-1-p16

My Favorite Nicknames of the Silver Age

I can’t lie. One of the aspects of Silver Age DC books that makes me the happiest is the nicknames given to the heroes and villains. Though the writers didn’t mind repetition in the storytelling, it was apparently boring to just say the superhero or villain’s name over and over. Thusly, inventive (ish) nicknames were […]

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Power Ring

Just how many Earths do you need

Before I dived into stories about the Justice League I had heard briefly of multiple Earths, infinite Earths, whatever Earths. I’m far from a lazy reader, but it all sounded too convoluted to be true. Not that I doubted the person who told me about them, but it bordered on ridiculous. Once I read more […]

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PIcture 19

Life Looks Better From Inside a Giant Clam

Ahhh….the Silver Age. Whenever I hear those two words alongside one other, I start to giggle. Not a small giggle as one would emit watching a kitten ride a tortoise on YouTube, but an uncontrollable giggle that leads to an uproar of laughter. The Golden Age was the birth of our heroes. The writing may […]

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Flash_Scarlet Speedster

The Scarlet Speedster

Only in the Silver Age does this panel make total sense: A Super Gorilla with deadly thought waves. Yep. Almost as good is the pirate torpedo. I’m not kidding. And that one was a cover (oh man, I wonder if that issue can be found for a reasonable price. I might need it). Flash is cheeky from the […]

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Green Lantern Yellow 5

Why Does It Have To Be Yellow?!

We’ve established that I like silliness and to just have fun reading comics, right? However. Silver Age Green Lantern takes the word goofy to a whole other level. I can get behind ridiculous villains, and I have no problem with a power ring that can do anything the user wills it to do. Well, almost. […]

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Superman #97

Superheroic Fun in the Fifties

My week has been vastly improved by reading Superman In The Fifties and Batman In the Fifties for the first time. Though I haven’t read much Superman before (just some of the new 52 Action Comics), my past experience with Batman is that it’s not always a happy ride. Okay, that it’s rarely a happy […]

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The Neat Job

The Glamorous and The Grisly

EC Comics were released in a different era. You can flip the page and go from slinky dresses to swank mansions and fancy décor to splattered blood and diced body parts. My stack of comics today is sadly lacking in this area. Few characters dress with such Madmen-esque style in the modern day of jeans […]

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Give Everyone EC Comics

We all know people who haven’t read any comics. For some it’s a willful, snobby refusal to read books full of pictures. If you have the will to try to get those people to see the light, you’re a better (and more patient) person than me. A lot of people just don’t know where to […]

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The worst kind of muckraking masquerading as science, Wertham's book saw perversion lurking in every panel.

EC Comics and the Comics Code Authority: Reduction of the Innocent, Part II

  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” […]

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Crypt of Terror #19 - Al Feldstein - If it looks like a ghost ship and appears out of nowhere, consider not boarding.

Horror Comes With a Lot of Exclamation Points

Confession: I’m a wimp. I avoid most horror movies and slashers and Stephen King books like the plague. For whatever reason, I scare easily. I carry whatever I’ve seen or read with me, and next thing you know, I’m insisting more lights be left on at night. I don’t enjoy the sensation of being frightened. […]

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Daredevil #26 - Stan Lee and Gene Colan

Daredevil’s Enemies

Like any superhero, Daredevil has faced down a number of foes. In his beginning days, he often fought a different villain in every issue. He borrowed more than a few from Spider-Man; Doc Ock, Electro, and Mysterio all make appearances. And let’s be honest, some of his enemies have been a little laughable (well, at […]

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Welcoming the Future, Treasuring the Past.