Seal it With a Comics Character, Thanks to the US Postal Service
The recently announced stamp honoring humanitarian Mother Teresa will have some interesting company when it is released later this year in August. The United States Postal Service listed Mother Teresa’s commemoration along with another interesting group, those based on the Sunday funnies of the newspaper. Debuting in July 2010, the stamps would honor such comic strip and comic book legends as Beetle Bailey, Calvin and Hobbs, Dennis the Menace, Garfield and Archie, Riverdale’s most well-known teen! Read more
Merry Morlocks! Memorable Comic Book Christmases on TV!
Just like various “very special episodes”, can’t miss events and other TV specials, a Christmas episode of beloved television shows was, for a long time, a staple of the fall TV schedule, and the episode was sometimes repeated year after year during the show’s run. Comic book related shows, of the animated and live action sort, are certainly not exempt from this, and over the years there have been a mix of the funny, effective, strange and touching episodes related to the holiday season. Listed below are a few of the more memorable, for naughty and nice reasons. Read more
IDW Announces More Comic Strip Anthologies!
Following recent news that IDW Publishing, home to titles such as Dr. Who and several Transformers books, would publish collections of the satirical comic strip Bloom County comes an announcement that another comic strip is on the way to a collected volume near you! Classic comic strip Bringing Up Father will make its way into stores in November with From Sea to Shining Sea, the title for this collection of the comic strip from 1939-1940. Read more
Battle for the Console: Some Good (and not so Good) Batman Video Games
Zipping into stores near you on August 25th is the buzzworthy video game Batman: Arkham Asylum. Playable on the Playstation 3, XBox 360 and Microsoft Windows, the game has received some good early reviews, even though not that many are published yet, and many are praising the new features of the game, such as Batman being able to operate in “predatory” mode, the open exploration available to the player as they roam all over Arkham and the inclusion of villains such as Mr. Zsasz and heroes like Oracle.
While this is certainly not the first, and probably not the last, Batman video game to hit our screens, it’s measuring up to be one of the best. With that, it’s time to look back at some other Batman games from over the years, measuring their playability, fun level and overall “battiness” from one to four batarangs! Read more
My Marvel Memories: A Personal Reflection on Marvel’s 70th Birthday
One of the things my late grandfather was always lamenting to me was his treatment of comic books when he was a youngster in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. I started collecting comic books when I was in high school, the mid-1990’s, and my grandfather was always quick to tell me about how they used to be a dime, how he couldn’t believe he got rid of them, and of how they burned so many of them for warmth or used them for various bodily functions and household cleaning.
I know for a fact, based on his observations, that several of those long-lost comics came from Marvel, then known as Timely Comics. The comic book collector/reader/writer I am today cringes when I think of all those lost gems and characters and my grandfather’s memories of them, but I know, on this 70th birthday of Marvel’s, that I will have plenty of my own memories for years to come. Read more
Spider-Man Animated Series Swings Online!
Marvel continues to roll out the nostalgia of television! Following the posting of the original 1960’s era animated Spider-Man, the comic book giant has begun posting episodes of the highly successful 1990’s follow-up Spider-Man on Marvel.com. Each Wednesday a new episode of the series, which ran for over four years on Fox, will be posted for viewers to see and experience all over again or for the first time! Read more
Green Lantern: First Flight Mostly Finds its Path
It’s good vs. evil, teacher vs. student, yellow vs. green and nothing short of the fate of the universe is at stake when all these forces collide in the latest entry from Warner Bros. and DC Comics in their animated features, Green Lantern: First Flight. Christopher Meloni, of Oz and Law and Order fame, stars as the voice of cocky pilot Hal Jordan, who is about to have his world turned upside down by an encounter with dying alien, and Green Lantern himself, Abin Sur. How does Hal Jordan fare in his first solo flight onscreen? After a somewhat bumpy takeoff, the feature finally hits a smooth stride. Read more
Jonah Hex to get Animated in new Feature!
While DC Comics characters have been spotlighted in animated features, shorts and series over the years, most of the focus has been on high profile characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. News has come that their universe and spotlight are going to be expanding with a new line of Warner Home Video animated projects coming up, and a certain cowboy will be joining their ranks: Jonah Hex! Read more
The Charles Atlas Hall of Fame: 10 Memorable Comic Book Ads
Comic book ads have taken a dramatic shift over the past several years. Gone are the days of ads for TV star posters, bubble gum and various and sundry gimmick products. Most ads in comic books today are for video games, cartoons, other comic book titles or film adaptations of comics. If you find yourself pining for the days of offers promising an exciting product in exchange for a couple of dollars or products that were advertised in comics that would cause alarm today, take a stroll with us down memory lane and examine these ten classic products from comic books of the past, in no particular order.
Comic-Con 2009 Will be Site of Marvel Anime Series’ Debuts!
While Comic-Con 2009, kicking off in mere days in San Diego, California, will certainly have many reveals, exclusives and major announcements, Marvel has already promised the unveiling of a major project with Japanese anime studio, Madhouse. Teaming up with the Japanimation giant, Marvel will have four new versions of some of their original and most well-known heroes. Read more
