Happy 152nd birthday R. F. Outcault!

Happy Birthday

Richard Felton Outcault

born January 14, 1863, died September 25, 1928,

the father of the American comic strip.

Here Outcault is next to his most famous creations of the Yellow Kid, Buster Brown and Tige.

Men in Tights - a history

When Superman first hit the scene with his blue and red tights it created a shockwave around the country that it hit off the whole superhero craze that is going on stronger than ever today with blockbuster movies like Batman and the Avengers. Before that no one had ever seen a hero in tights and cape. Where did they get the idea from?

Siegel and Shuster created a character called Superman in 1933 though it bore very little resemblance to the Superman we know. He had mental powers but had normal strength. A year later they would re-envision him into a super crime fighter.
 

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

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.

Jack Kirby's Red Skull - a history

In 1941, when Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were young, enthusiastic comic creators they came up with Captain America and of all the colorful villains they pit him against, the Red Skull was the most enduring.


'An Ear for Music' from Captain America #7, Oct. 1941

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.

Joe Pi from Top Ten by Alan Moore and Gene Ha

Top Ten is a world where after WWII the Americans put all of their super powered beings into one city, Neopolis. In this city everyone has a super powers or is special in some way. And like all cities, it also has it's mistreated minorities. In Neopolis it's "clickers" or robots or artificial intelligence.
Joe Pi is the new cop on the beat, a token minority, and worse, he's taking the place of an officer that died in the line of duty. And her partner is none too happy about it.