Comic Collector Says BATMAN TV Show Has Had “Terrible Effect”

Editor Hated Superman

In the 1970s, longtime Superman editor Mort Weisinger took a cue from rival Stan Lee's playbook and began to tour the college circuit himself, lecturing on the Man of Steel and screening episodes of the 1950s television program THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN. In this, he wasn't as successful as Lee, even with visual aids. But … Continue reading Editor Hated Superman →

What Parents Don’t Know About Comic Books

By 1953, the furor about the content of comic books was reaching an absolute peak. For a decade, pretty well ever since the medium had displayed mass appeal, there had been articles expressing concern for the books' assumed young audience. And as time had gone on and the content of most comics had become more … Continue reading What Parents Don’t Know About Comic Books →

CREEM v4 #11: And Now, Spider-Man and The Marvel Comics Group

Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Marvel Comics carried with it a certain amount of counter-culture cache. This was due in part to the new faces coming into the business sharing some of those sensibilities naturally, as they were then the same relative age as most members of that youth group. But also, in … Continue reading CREEM v4 #11: And Now, Spider-Man and The Marvel Comics Group →

OUI v6 #3: Conversation with Stan Lee

Throughout the 1970s, as he removed himself more and more from the specifics of writing and putting together comics, Stan Lee, now Marvel's Publisher (and briefly its President) spent a lot of his time doing publicity for the firm--and for himself as its charismatic and creative wellspring. These pieces certainly tended to over-inflate Stan's creative … Continue reading OUI v6 #3: Conversation with Stan Lee →

CHANGES, April 15, 1970: Stan Lee Interview

All throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Marvel Comics and Stan Lee in particular had made a deliberate effort to grow a college-age audience for his comic book output. In this effort, he was largely successful, and by the 1970s Marvel was recognized among the counter-culture as possessing at least a little bit of hipness. Not … Continue reading CHANGES, April 15, 1970: Stan Lee Interview →

Vanishing Art Form…

Here's another vintage newspaper article about comic books from the dawn of the Silver Age. This is the earliest such piece that we've run, and it's interesting to see the writer's attitude towards comic books--both the titles that he clearly remembers from his own youth and their scarcity in the present moment--that moment being August … Continue reading Vanishing Art Form… →

TV Guide: How They Make Superman Fly

it cannot be overstated how much of an impact the 1950s ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN had in keeping both the character and the entire comic book business alive and vibrant throughout that decade and the next. While the Man of Steel was a red-hot fad at the start of the 1940s when he first burst onto … Continue reading TV Guide: How They Make Superman Fly →

ESQUIRE Magazine, September 1st, 1966

As Marvel began to become more of a force within the industry at the height of the super hero fad of the 1960s, the firm began to get some formidable press. This well-remembered article ran in Esquire Magazine in the issue dated September 1st, 1966. It included original artwork created for this purpose by Jack … Continue reading ESQUIRE Magazine, September 1st, 1966 →

How The Comics Are Made

One of the casualties of the haphazard manner in which I've grabbed and kept things over the years is that on a more-than-occasional basis, I'm not sure precisely where I culled it from originally. That's the case with this cool four-page 1940s vintage behind-the-scenes article on the making of Captain Marvel comics during the Golden … Continue reading How The Comics Are Made →