Author: Blaise Tassone
If you own a large number of Silver Age comics, you probably have one or more with a Gorilla cover. Yes, this was a thing. Starting in the mid-fifties, marketing research showed that comic books with Gorillas on the cover outsold those without. So what’s a...
A common strategy with comics in the superhero genre is to rebrand and reuse older heroes transforming their powers and identities so they appeal to later generations of readers. A perfect example of this is the saga of the Blue Beetle. There are many Blue...
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been without the Fantastic Four for over two years now. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Fantastic Four are to Marvel what Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman combined are to DC. In short: it is literally impossible to...
Not to be confused with Kathy Kane, the original Batwoman (who first appeared in Detective Comics #233 in 1956), in this entry I’m looking at the modern Batwoman. The appeal of this character is fairly easy to understand. Batwoman is an extension of the...
For a long time Image Comics was the new kid on the block. Formed by disenchanted Marvel artists who wanted more control over their content and careers, Image was launched in 1992 and had immediate success by releasing a series of popular new titles. These included:...
If you regularly hunt down high grade Golden Age comics you might have encountered the designation ‘File Copy’ on Ebay or some other internet auction sites. A “File Copy” is not an alternate cover or some rare printing of a specific comic, but instead a designation...
The Batman wedding fiasco left a bad taste in people’s mouths, but the letdown resulting from the nuptials story arc of Bats and Catwoman seems to have done little to derail interest in the Gotham City adventures of Catwoman and her girlfriends. Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy,...
Comics are great at dealing with mythological themes and employing archetypes within the stories they tell. In this sense, as Grant Morrison has claimed, comic books can be viewed as myths for our time. Sometimes comics employ archetypal themes only indirectly. How many comic stories feature...
About seven weeks ago (on June 6th to be precise), I took a look at the rise of some of the Aquaman key comics in anticipation of the upcoming film. At that time, I recommended Adventure Comics #260 and Aquaman issues #29 (first...
The Shazam film might be a game changer for the DC Universe. The trailer, released a few weeks back at this year’s Comic-Con, was received with almost universal approval. Most of the fans who saw it were in agreement that the sheer goofiness and fun conveyed...