For Those Who Came In Late: Last week, we introduced you to Marvel Comics’ resident archer and malcontent, Hawkeye the Marksman. As we saw then, Hawkeye got his start as a misunderstood supervillain, repeatedly finding himself in conflict with Iron Man thanks to Hawkeye’s romantic fixation on the Soviet femme fatale the Black Widow. However, Hawkeye’s […]
One of my favorite things about the San Diego Comic-Con is the annual back-issue crawl that t Chris Ryall and I make on Sunday afternoon. Quickly filing through aisles and aisles of quarter and dollar longboxes, it’s the most prime example of comic-book Darwinism. Each comic-book cover has maybe a second and a half to […]
After 25 years as a Northern California fixture, the long-running convention WonderCon made its Southern California debut last weekend in Anaheim, with decidedly mixed results. One thing’s for sure: any of the long-running scuttlebutt about Anaheim being a suitable substitute venue for WonderCon can be easily dismissed at this point. Not only were hotels as […]
If it worked before, it’ll work again. That was what DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz must have been thinking in late 1959, as he prepared for the debut of the latest feature in his burgeoning line of super-hero titles. He had already revived the Flash and Green Lantern in the pages of the anthology book SHOWCASE, both of which […]
In 1959 DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz was looking to follow up the success of his Flash revival, and chose Green Lantern for his second subject. Much as he did with the Flash, Schwartz opted for a more streamlined, science-fiction approach, and placed his new assignment in the hands of writer John Broome and artist […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
