Happy 80th birthday Billy Graham!

Billy Graham, born July 1, 1935 - died 1999, was an African-American comic-book artist best known for his work on the Marvel Comics series Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, and the Jungle Action feature, "Black Panther".

Happy 66th birthday Barry Windsor-Smith!

Barry Windsor-Smith (born Barry Smith in London, on 25 May 1949),

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You can see how much Barry Windsor Smith (depicted in a self portrait in the center) matured as an artist in these two Daredevil covers he drew 16 years apart, one done at the beginning of his career in May 1969 and the other done in his mature style in April 1985. Notice the flowing anatomy on the right and the beautiful colors vs the ridged anatomy on the left.

Barry Windsor Smith official site

Happy 109th birthday Robert E. Howard!

The Great Comic Book Heroes usually writes about comics but today we are going to celebrate the birthday of the great writer, Robert E. Howard, who is considered to be the father of Sword and Sorcery with his work on such stuff as Solomon Kane, King Kull and Conan!

Happy Birthday

Robert E. Howard!

(January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936)

Happy 76th birthday Jim Steranko!

What can one say about Jim Steranko (born on November 5, 1938) that hasn't already been said? He is one of the greatest comics creators that has ever lived.

Here Jim Steranko is in front of many of the amazing covers he did in his short career making comics.

Though he was only in the comics business for a few short years, his influence on the medium has been profound.

Sweet Christmas! The Civil Rights Movement comes to comics

Black Avengers Assemble!

Black Avengers mock cover by Jim Rugg. Colors by Thomas Morrison

In the 70's the comics, like the rest of America, began to become desegregated. but it didn't all happen at once. It took some time before blacks were integrated into the mainstream superhero books and even got books of their own.

Women's Lib comes to Marvel!

 "Come on in, the revolution is fine!"
calls out Valkyrie to her Lady Liberators.




Art by John Buscema

Marvel was very progressive when it came to race as demonstrated by Black Panther's July 1966 appearance in the Fantastic Four and Bill Foster's September 1966 appearance in the Avengers but as good as they were with blacks, they were a little slow when it came to the women's liberation movement. The first we see of it is in Avengers #83, Dec. 1970. Valkyrie was created specially for it, an empowered woman warrior out of Norris mythology.

Brynocki the little robot from Master Of Kung Fu

To continue the robot theme I've been on lately I'd be remiss to forget the charismatic little mechanical henchman from the pages of Master of Kung Fu, Brynocki, the ever changing every-man, man servant was a robot creation of Mordillo's to administer over his exotic amusement park in the 70's classic "Mordillo's Island" from Master of Kung Fu #33 - #35, by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy.

Brynocki first appeared in Master of Kung Fu #35 (Oct. 1975) by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy

Ultron's Bride! by Jim Shooter and George Perez

It seems that anyone who writes the Avengers all do their take on Ultron, one of their greatest foes, and Jim Shooter and George Perez were no exception when they created the awesome epic tale of Ultron's Bride.

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!

Master Of Kung Fu - A Bronze age classic!

I discovered Gulacy's Master of Kung Fu in the 80's but discovered Doug Moench's Master of Kung Fu in the last decade as I was trying to complete my Gulacy run. I didn't have very high expectations of the rest of the series but after reading some of the Mike Zeck issues I became intrigued and later infatuated. At a time in the industry when comics were still considered disposable culture, Moench's 100 + issue run is surprisingly high quality and was consistent the whole way through.

The Great Comic Book Heroes

This blog is about just what it says, the great comic book heroes, all of them.