Even Loneliness Is Better Than The Cruelty Of Men: 31 Days Of Atlas #26

continued, and concluded, from here: Perhaps the most radical aspect of 1961’s Fantastic Four #1 was the way in which the comic’s super-villain was framed as even more of a victim than a menace. Rejected and mocked by American society for his looks, the Mole Man’s assaults upon the USA carry with them the air […]

Owning The Woe: 31 Days Of Atlas #24

In which the blogger attempts to define the appeal of the earliest Marvel Comics, so as to nail down why Atlas’ attempts to clone that method were so unsuccessful, continued from here: It wasn’t that the Marvel Comics of the key period 1961-8 were consciously designed to identify the universe as meaningless and human beings, […]

Jack Kirby’s Comicbooks On The Newsstands In The Summer Of 1958 (1.)

In which the blogger, intending to write a little about Jack Kirby’s 1958-1970 career at Marvel Comics, attempts to gain a little perspective on the storyteller’s work immediately before his return to what he’d help transform into ‘The House Of Ideas’. To go by the titles published in the mid-summer of 1958, Jack Kirby would […]

Spider-Man Before Spider-Man Was Born – On Comics-Related Carelessness In Steven Tyler’s “Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?”

1. Writing in Rolling Stone about Steven Tyler’s 2012 autobiography Does The Noise In My Head Bother You, Rob Sheffield suggested that ‘If you can find a single coherent sentence in this book, write and tell the publisher, so they can correct this error in future editions’. It’s in no way a snarkish comment. Tyler, after […]

The Vikings Are Coming!: A Modest Gallery Of Comicbook Reimaginings Of Viking Age Culture.

Every week’s comics reading seems to bring its own unexpected theme. Recently, I’ve been repeatedly bumping into takes on Vikings in the stories I’ve been reading. None of them have lacked charm … 1. from 2012’s The Judas Coin by Walter Simonson with Lovern Kindzierski and John Workman. 2. from 1949’s Radio Fun Annual, creator/s […]

Oh Mr Nixon! A Modest Gallery of Comicbook Pages Featuring The Likeness Of America’s 37th President.

Whatever I’m reading recently, I seem to be stumbling over the presence of Richard Milhous Nixon. So for the last of this week’s galleries, I’ve posted just a few of the many comicbook representations of one of America’s most – shall we say? – fascinating Presidents. 1. from 1987’s Watchmen #10, by Alan Moore, Dave […]

From Spider-Man to Charley’s War to The Creeper: One Last Batch Of 15 Fine Rain-Splattered Pages. (Part 3 of 3)

So, one last gallery of beguiling pages drenched with rain. You can, if such would be your taste, find the first selection of 15 here and the second here. from 2014’s Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #1, by Al Ewing, Rob Williams,Simon Fraser, Gary Caldwell, Richard Starkings, Comicraft & Jimmy Betancourt. 2. from 2008’s Family […]

From Hawkeye to Watchmen, Asterix to Annie: Great Rain-Splattered Comics Pages (Part 1 of 3)

The last piece I posted here concerned the way in which the storytelling in Saga, Unfollow and God Country put the weather to use. Or, as the case may be, didn’t. (Should you be of a mind, that blog can be found here.) Which got me thinking about the ways in which other comics have […]