The original artwork for classic stories is always of interest to me. There's a bunch of information that we can discover from it. And even apart from that, it's often fun just to see how these stories were originally drawn, without the added intermediary step of them having to be reproduced and printed in a … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The First New Captain America Story – From The Original Art
While it's perhaps lost its uniqueness a little bit given the sheer number of latter day crossovers between characters originating at different companies (and in some cases, in different forms of media) it would he difficult to understate the significance of SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. For those who were there when it came out, … Continue reading The Outline for SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
So SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME appears to be one of the most successful movies ever put to film (metaphorically, since these days teh media is largely digital.) But it wasn't all that long ago, relatively speaking, when the idea of a Spider-Man film was a long-chased dream. Because the rights had been optioned in the … Continue reading Giving Notes on the Spider-Man Movie
Here we are with the third and final segment of this behind-the-scenes instructional booklet about making comic books produced by Charlton and sold by direct mail order only (though it was also offered as a subscription premium.) These descriptions of the various types of comic book stories are a bit funny in just how far … Continue reading The Comic Book Guide For The Artist-Writer-Letterer 3
Continuing our review and presentation of the Comic Book Guide For The Artist-Writer-Letterer which was produced by Charlton in 1973 and sold by direct order only (It was also offered as a freebie if you subscribed to any Charlton titles) These days, I would advocate for no more than 25 words per balloon, rather than … Continue reading The Comic Book Guide For The Artist-Writer-Letterer 2
The 46th issue of DC's SECRET ORIGINS series was dedicated not to the origin of a particular character, but rather, in a bit of a special theme, to the beginnings of the various headquarters used by the most notable super hero teams of the time; The New Titans, the Justice League of America, and the … Continue reading SECRET ORIGINS #46 and the lost origin of the Legion of Super-Heroes clubhouse
In 1973, there was a growing segment of comic book fandom made up of people who aspired to enter the field themselves. A number had already crossed that threshold in the later 1960s, but the floodgates were thrown open wide in the early 1970s--for all that the field was in pretty bad shape and getting … Continue reading The Comic Book Guide For The Artist-Writer-Letterer
As anybody who knows me knows, my favorite Marvel comic book is FANTASTIC FOUR. It was my entranceway into the Marvel Universe in the first place, and it and its characters remained close to my heart. Once I became a full-fledged editor, I made it very clear to people that the next time there was … Continue reading Personal Best: FANTASTIC FOUR #60
This one isn't about a comic book feature that saw print but rather one that didn't--at least not in its original intended form. SHOWCASE was the round-robin series that would move from editor to editor throughout the DC stable, each of whom was expected to debut some new feature within its pages as a try-out … Continue reading SHOWCASE #50 and the Non-History of Yankee Doodle Dandy
This is a story that's been kicking around for a number of years now, and yet, despite the fact that the pencils for this job are complete, it's never been finished or published officially. It's a short 10-page Wonder Woman adventure produced in the late 1970s, and if nothing else, it gives us the rare … Continue reading Wonder Woman and the Unpublished Pencils of Curt Swan
