Jack Kirby affected the medium of comics in many ways: he invented and reinvented visual vocabularies, he expanded the scope and scale of the superhero genre beyond simple notions of good and evil, he imagined infinite infinities filled with spotted…
Tag: Comics History
Compare/Contrast: Stan Lee Interviewed In Oui And Playboy, 1977 & 2014
For the last few weeks, the world of comics has been buzzing about Playboy’s new interview with Stan Lee. It’s not that seeing Stan Lee’s name in the news is an earth-shattering event (barely a week goes by when he’s…
From The Archives: Rolling Stone UK on Marvel Comics, 1969.
Rolling Stone’s 1971 cover story on Marvel Comics (discussed here) is one of the best-known and most-referenced documents of the comic book industry in that era. It’s a glimpse inside Marvel at a seminal moment, from an era when comics…
Hip-Hop Comics: Eric Orr’s Rappin’ Max Robot
The story of Hip-Hop and Comics is long and convoluted. Hip-Hop began as a communal expression, a bunch of kids in the South Bronx looking for a way to have a good time and move away from the world of…
Hip-Hop Comics: An Introduction. Eighties Exploitation- Vibe, Wolfpack.
Hip-Hop comics are difficult to define, much as Hip-Hop itself is. They’re an entirely different thing than Pop Music Comics, and they deserve their own forum for discussion. This is an important distinction to make, because Hip-Hop is more than…
Joe Simon: My Life In Comics (Titan Books, 2011)
Joe Simon is a legend in the world of comic books. He co-created Captain America (and many other memorable characters), worked with many of the field’s most important names, and stands as one of the first artists to recognize the…
Pop Music Comics: Marvel Super Special (KISS, The Beatles, Rock And Rule)
In 1977, Marvel Comics launched a new publication: a full-color magazine-format title entitled Marvel Super Special. This title was intended to showcase stand-alone stories that were too long to fit in a normal 32 page comic, and to provide Marvel…
Gene Colan, 1926-2011
Gene Colan passed away a few days ago. I can’t possibly do justice to this man’s life and career in the space of a few lines of type. He was one of the finest artists ever to grace comic books. …
MoCCA Festival 2011
Springtime in NYC brings the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art festival: a two-day showcase for all the comic book medium has to offer, with a particular focus on independent publishers and creators. The 2011 fest took place on April…
Comics Through The Years: Angel And The Ape
In the late 50s, DC Comics editors Irwin Donenfeld and Julius Schwartz noted that sales went up every time an one of their comics featured an ape on the cover. Predictably, what followed was a flood of simian-centric issues. By…