Category comics

“Batman” at 60

Holy Geritol, can it really be 60 years since “Batman” premiered on television? Yes, it’s shocking but true. Not that I was paying much attention back on January 12, 1966, being all of 9 months old, but I’d care soon…

1976: Clark Kent, Get Out of My Life

It’s a lovely day in Metropolis as Clark Kent and Lois Lane enjoy a relaxing stroll, marred only slightly when a fellow pedestrian is fatally struck by a car mere feet away from them.  Lois wonders if the unfortunate fellow…

1975: Clark Kent Forever, Superman Never

Despite appearing on newsstands in December of 1975, Superman #297 did not feature a holiday-themed story, but it still added up to a Christmas of sorts for Clark Kent.  Emerging at last from the long shadow of his Superman alter…

1975: “Who Took The Super Out of Superman”?

Fifty years ago today, a measly quarter bought me a comic book that kicked off my one my all-time favorite Superman stories. Starting with Superman #296, the writing team of Cary Bates and Elliott S! Maggin posed our hero with…

League of Extraordinary Oddballs: FANTOMAH

Jungle Comics, as the name implies, was generally devoted to a collection of Tarzan imitators, but one strip stood out: Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle.  Arriving before Wonder Woman, she may be the comics’ first female superhero. Never given…

Christmas With The Superheroes

Fifty years ago this month, I was reading a tabloid-sized comic collection called “Christmas With the Super-Heroes” (aka Limited Collector’s Edition C-34) and in the years since I’ve trotted it out almost as often as I’ve watched Rudolph The Red-Nosed…

Retro-Review: The Secret Guardian of Smallville

Fifty years ago this month, Superman #284 appeared on newsstands, and young me was happy to get it. In something of a homecoming for the Man of Steel, the story sees Clark Kent reuniting with two cherished childhood friends to…

Reasonable Facsimiles

Ten years ago I did a series of posts here looking back at the year 1974, and now that that year is officially a half century in the past, I find myself thinking about it again. In particular, I was…

League of Extraordinary Oddballs: THE DART

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…