Happy 60th Birthday Michael Golden

born on Oct 1st 1955, has been one of the most influential comic artists of the last 40 years.

Here we see Michael Golden with a Marvel house add that he drew in the early 80's. 

Happy 31st birthday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a phenomenon that happens very rarely. It's the story of a pair of amateur comic fans making good on their dreams to get rich and famous through making comics. It's also the story of the independent comics movement in the 80's and 90's.

Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman stand with some of the merchandise of their phenomenally popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

Happy 55th Birthday Chester Brown!

Happy 55th Birthday 

Chester Brown 

born on May 16th, 1960

Chester Brown was one of the 80's greatest Alternative Comics creators.

Happy 57th birthday Bill Sienkiewicz!

Bill Sienkiewicz 

(pronounced sin-KEV-itch)

born May 3, 1958

Bill with some of his work.

The Well by Bruce Jones and John Bolton

Once seen, the haunting, photo-realistic work of 

John Bolton 

is not soon forgotten. 

Twisted Tales #4, Aug 1983

Crisis on Infinite Earths 30th anniversary!

The Quintessential Copper Age book!

Alex Ross painted this incredible picture based on Perez pencils for a new edition of Crisis on Infinite Earths. 

There may be better 80's comics than Crisis on Infinite Earths but if you had to choose one comic that summed up the whole of the 80's comics, you couldn't do better than this. Crisis on Infinite Earths is the quintessential 80's book with it's exhaustive and comprehensive depiction of the whole of the DC Universe.

Happy 67th Birthday Art Spiegelman!

In the early 80's Art Spiegelman and his wife Francoise Mouly decided to put out a very new and experimental magazine that would contain all of the awesome new comics that they were discovering over seas in Mouly's homeland of France as well as all the great new comic artists Spiegelman was meeting while teaching at New York's School of Visual Arts. They would call this new magazine RAW Magazine and among the new and experimental works that they would publish in it was Art's own story of his dad and his struggles surviving German concentration camps of WWII, a work that he would call Maus. 

 Happy Birthday 

Art Spiegelman!

(born February 15, 1948)

Happy 58th Birthday Frank Miller!

If there had to be one face to represent the Copper Age of comics (the 80's) I'd pick Frank Miller to be it. When he came on the comics scene in the late 70's he brought something that was genuinely unique, and the work he did over that decade were some of the greatest moments in comics history.

Frank Miller, who was born on January 27, 1957 and will be 58 this year, is surrounded by some of his greatest works of the 80's; Elektra  and Daredevil, Batman and Robin (Carrie Kelley) from the Dark Knight Returns, and Ronin.

Doctor Strange #55 a classic by Roger Stern and Michael Golden

When Steve Ditko and Stan Lee created Doctor Strange they knocked it out of the park, so much so that it was really hard for future creators to come close to the awesomeness of it. Then Roger Stern and Michael Golden came along and brought it up a notch. Doctor Strange #55, Oct 1982, is not only one of the best Doctor Strange stories I've ever read, it's one of the best comics I've ever read.



Doctor Strange #55, Oct 1982, by Roger Stern and Michael Golden

Gary Panter's Jimbo

What do you get when you combine Jack Kirby, with Pablo Picasso?  You get Gary Panter's Jimbo. It’s one part Kamandi and one part Guernica. Jimbo is a fun adventure story as well as a statement on art and esthetics of our time.

Jimbo is from RAW Magazine #8: "The Graphic Aspirin for War Fever"  (September 1986)

Jimbo is a young punk who finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world of rotting ghost horses running down the street of demolished cities. In an odd way his work reflects our own world and media with it’s grotesque news stories of war and oil spills and man-made disasters. Gary Panter’s work reflects this in a fascinating, grotesquely beautiful way. It's abrasive, shocking, senseless and yet totally compelling.

Re-thinking the Copper Age of comics

Growing up reading comics in the 80’s, I have a very well rounded point of view of the comics of that time, so when I heard that people wanted to group early 70’s comics with comics from the early to mid 80’s in what would be called 'the Bronze Age of comics', something rang very false to me. It made me stop and consider the whole ‘Bronze Age of comics’ because to me 80's comics were a very different animal to comics of the 70's.

Copper Age of Comics

1978 to 1988

Some significant comics from the 80's from upper left to bottom right - Daredevil #181, Apr 82, Watchmen #1, Sep 86, American Flagg #1, Oct 83, Tales of the Teen Titans annual #3, July 84, Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, May 84, Amazing Spider-Man #250, Mar 84, Batman; the Dark Knight Returns #1, Feb 86, the Mighty Thor #237, Nov 83, Swamp Thing #34, Mar 85

Reid Fleming, the Worlds Toughest Milkman by David Boswell

Reid Fleming came out of nowhere. In the 1986 world of comics this work had no piers and no other work to compare it too. It sure as heck didn't fit in with the superhero dominated market, and didn't resemble anything from the irreverent 1960's underground comics either. I remember seeing the add and thinking, "How much fun could a Milkman be?" Boy was I surprised at what I found.

 

Warlock from New Mutants #21 by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz

Continuing with our robot theme I'd like to explore Warlock from Marvel Comics' New Mutants created by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz.

When Bill Sienkiewicz jumped onto the New Mutants with issue 18, it was a huge shock for New Mutant fans. As the advertisement said, "They aren't X babies any more." Of the New Mutants, Warlock was the one character that Bill most made his own, and every comic artists since has struggled to depict him.

Dekko! from Scott McCloud's Zot!

Before Scott McCloud became the comics guru with his classic Understanding Comics, a study of the medium of sequential art, he worked on a comic called Zot! It was a take off of the super hero genre though with a flavor only Scott McCloud could give it.

To continue with our robot theme I'm sharing an excerpt from Zot! #3 and #4 about a colorful cyborg called Dekko.

Brainiac vs. Superman by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane

In an attempt to make superman relevant to the early 80's comic reader, Marv Wolfman redesigned Brainiac to look like a robotic skeleton with a robotic ship of living metal. The great Gil Kane was brought on to help with sales. Marvel may have been more popular at the time but you have to give it to DC for doing their best to make great books.

Gil Kane is shown here in all of his glory. Just check out this stunning cover that he created. though his work is not the most highly detailed or flashy work, he is one of the best designers out there.

Avengers #289, "Heavy Metal Horde!"

To continue with the Great Comic book Heroes theme of robots I thought Avengers #289 would be a great issue to feature. In it they feature many of the greatest robotic villains to plague the Marvel Universe.

Jack Kirby's Machine Man!

Jack Kirby's mind was too fertile to suppress. He was always throwing big ideas into everything he did. In 1978's Machine Man he struggled with the idea of artificial Intelligence. Is an artificial mind as good as a mans? Is artificial life real life? What does it mean to be a man?

The surrealistic world of the Flaming Carrot by Bob Burden

Flaming Carrot Comics is a phenomena that sprung from the independent comics explosion of the early 80's. It's irreverent, crude, and incomprehensible at times but a it's pure exuberant joy!

The Flaming Carrot lovingly satirized the superhero comics genre that we all knew and loved. It was like a Golden Age superhero comic on acid.

100th blog post anniversary!

This is a big post for me because not only is this my 100th post of The Great Comic Book Heroes but it also falls exactly on my birthday! So I would like to take this time to reflect on this blog, how it's been, where it's been and where it's going?

 100th post anniversary!

Alex Toth's Black Fox

The Black Fox is back!
And by Alex Toth, comic artist extraordinaire!

Alex Toth has been around almost since the beginning of comics. He started out drawing things like Green Lantern in the 40's, though he didn't acquire his distinctive and highly praised style until the 50's when he had to leave DC Comics and draw romance and horror comics.