The lead feature in Fox Feature Syndicate’s Weird Comics #5 (Aug. 1940) takes us back to the days of ancient Rome, when men and swords were made of sterner stuff. Here we meet one Caius Martius, the “terror of Roman…
Crime-fighting attire is all about style. You wouldn’t dress in your finest raiments for Derby Day or the Easter parade without including awesome headgear, so neither should you don a brightly-colored spandex super-suit while neglecting a senses-shattering chapeau. The only…
Jasper Rasper is a mean man! So begins Action Comics #105 (Feb. 1947), and rather accurately, too, since we first glimpse the wealthy sourpuss in the act of firing his long-term, loyal employee “Cartwright” despite the man’s advanced years and…
This week I learned of the passing of Mike Voiles, creator and caretaker of “Mike’s Amazing World of Comics,” an accurately named online resource that catalogs the output of the major American comic book publishers from 1933(!) to today. Along…
In Man of War Comics #2, Cal Dalton finds himself in a tough spot. He has a burning desire to bring criminals to justice, but he’s stuck in a boring, dead-end government job as…umm…the Police Commissioner. Obviously that’s not going…
Last week I made my annual payment to my web host, which prompted a wild notion: “Hey, why not actually post some content to that site you’re paying for?” So here I am after two months of blog-neglect to bring…
Sure, Superman and Captain Marvel can perform some awesome feats, but let’s face it, it’s sweaty work lifting cars over your head, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, etc. Wouldn’t it be better if you could achieve the same…
July took us on a lengthy road trip to Minnesota and back in our first visit to Laura’s home state in several years. That’s a lot of miles in a van crammed with five adult-sized occupants (and tons of gear),…
Besides marking James Bond’s 70th birthday as a literary character, 2023 also brings us two anniversaries of 007’s adventures on the big screen, each debuting in June albeit a decade apart. On June 27, 1973, Live and Let Die was…
Within months of Superman’s debut, it was already getting hard to come up with cool names for his many imitators. A common solution was to turn to the animal kingdom for inspiration; after all, the wilderness is full of fearsome…
