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 by Scott Tipton  by Chris Ryall  by Scott Bowden  by Joshua Jabcuga  by Jud Meyers    |  Ron Twoeagle |
Mailbag
Comics 101 Is in Session
Shawn B. writes: Dude. DUDE. You see some pretty weird shit in comics, especially the old ones. But an Aqualad goat milk face wash is pretty high up on the list. It also makes me think of that movie Kingpin:
"Hi, I hope you don't mind. I got up a little early so I took the liberty of milking your cow for you. Took a little while to get her warmed up. She sure is a stubborn one!"
"We don't have a cow. We have a bull."
"I'll go brush my teeth."
I'll never see Aquaman the same way again. I can't wait for your next installment when we see him take Aqualad to an opium den. Good times.
You rule, as always.
Tipton: I was so happy when I found that image.
Tony S. writes: so what did you think of the finale to Thy Kingdom Come ?
I totally enjoyed the ending,very nice touch,especially with Alex Ross doing the interiors and finding out that Supes is eternal,
and are you reading Batman ? I'm certainly enthralled by what will be happening next,I under no circumstances think that Bruce is gone forever,in FC #6 Darkseid mentions the Omega sanction,and Grant says Bruce isn't out of the picture completely,so there you go,
what are your thoughts on that,
so awaiting Comic Books 101, Stan Lee involved,how can you not like that ?
and will be reading your Astro Boy series, is that the prequel or adaptation ?
Tipton: Loved the JSA finale, definitely.
And I'm doing both the adaptation and the prequel. Pretty sweet.
Terry L. writes: Seeing as you're currently writing about the history of Aquaman, I wondered if you've seen his characterization on the new "Brave and the Bold" cartoon?
I have never really seen the appeal of the character in comics, but the larger-than-life character in the cartoon regularly makes me laugh out loud. While his character doesn't necessarily match with the comics, he has a fun "Thor-like" quality of being royalty, slumming amongst the commoners in search of a good adventure.
I find the series to be fun fluff, but I'll watch anything with Batman in it.
PS - As always, keep up the great columns. One of the highlights of my Wednesdays!
Tipton: It's funny, reading all the early-60s Aquamans in the SHOWCASE editions, it was surprisingly similar to the B&B Aquaman.
Really digging that show.
Frank E. writes: - Am enjoying the Aquaman piece. Really think the character's color scheme - orange and green with blonde hair - helped him land that Filmation cartoon in the late 60s, which brought him to the attention of Hanna-Barbera, who then put him in Super Friends, and the rest is history. They needed a male hero with different colored hair and without blue in his costume.
As near as I can tell, Brave & Bold #28 (Feb. 1960) was the first time Aquaman appeared on the cover of a DC comic. And Showcase #30 (Jan. 1961) marked the first time he was cover-featured. He was mentioned by name on a couple of Golden Age covers, but didn't appear in form. Took him almost 20 years. It's a wonder he survived.
By comparison, there were a few months there in the Golden Age when Green Arrow was on two covers at the same time! This happened when he was headlining More Fun and appearing with the Seven Soldiers in Leading Comics. This first happened in April 1942, when GA was on the cover of More Fun #78 and Leading #2.
Green Arrow's Golden Age peak came in July 1943 when he appeared on 3 DC covers - More Fun #92, Leading #7 and World's Finest #10, a one-time issue where DC let Green Arrow, Speedy, Star-Spangled Kid, Stripesy and the Boy Commandos share the cover with Superman and Batman. Never happened again.
(I love those moments in DC history where they try something new for a month or two and then go right back to what they were already doing, or move on to something new that lasts for 5 or 10 years. How in the world could they have known the in-between idea wasn't going to work?)
So why wasn't Green Arrow elevated to the mainstream pantheon? The mask? The hat? Was the concept of shooting arrows too violent?
And didn't Aquaman owe a lot of his longevity to editor Mort Weisinger taking his characters with him when he moved from More Fun to Adventure in 1946? He essentially canned Sandman and Starman and installed Superboy, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Shining Knight.
(One of the best-ever web resources is Mike Voiles' dcindexes.com web site. For a DC junkie who's fascinated by what the company put on the covers of its comics, it's like a drug.)
Tipton: Still, Green Arrow survived when no one else did, even if he didn't make it to the big 5.
Greg S. writes: What's your thoughts about the the current Green Lantern run? I am loving it, it almost seems like such a great plot idea you wonder why nobody thought of multiple colored/emotion corps sooner. Though the payoff seems obvious to me now, but I think I had which character would be the hero wrong. In Blackest Night you are going to have the 7 colors, and black corps fighting it out, so who can save the day, obviously White Lantern. And it seemed like a no brainer that one of the main GLs would be recruited for the blue lanterns. I had expect Kyle to be the white lantern, mainly because Hal is the classic Green Lantern, and DC would want to keep him as that afterwards, but obviously now Hal is going to get one of each of the rings to help resolve the conflict, he has experience with green, red, and yellow rings, and was supposed to be the leader of the blue corps. By the way, the rumored back from the dead Black Lanterns pose some great opportunities. The only thing I am waiting for is Lex Luthor to be the leader of the orange corps, I mean, if you are talking greed, he seems like a perfect fit.
Tipton: Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. Although there's a little more vomiting than I really need in my comics...
Picture of the Week
Comics 101: Where you can see tomorrow's comic-book artists today!
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