Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Larry Niven's MAN OF STEEL! WOMAN OF KLEENEX!

What if a science-literate writer decided to tackle an extremely-sensitive subject, namely super-sex in comics?

(As if you never wondered about this particular matter!)
This particular version of the article appeared in Penthouse Comix #5 (1995), hence the "naughty" nudity!
Ironically, when it first appeared in the "mens' magazine" Knight (like Playboy or Penthouse) in 1969, the art was rather...sedate!
In the actual DC comics, Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane married numerous times...

...in "imaginary stories" where they had kids...but never explained how!
(Read this story HERE!
It's a hoot!)
The couple eventually married...twice!
The first time was in 1978...

...in DC's Action Comics #484 (1978) where it was revealed the original, Golden Age, 1940s Superman married Lois in the 1950s on Earth-Two aka Earth-2, where the Golden Age versions of the DC characters lived! (A loooong story we're not going to get into here.)
You can read that tale HERE, HERE, and HERE!
For the record, they didn't have any children.
Also for the record, both that story and this article were illustrated by long-time Superman artist Curt Swan!
The "present-day" Superman and Lois married in DC's Superman: the Wedding Album (1996).
The couple consummated their marriage after the wedding in an apartment loaned to them by Bruce (Batman) Wayne.
There was no physical problem, since Clark/Superman had temporarily lost his powers due to recent events of "The Final Night".
He regained them a year later, after going through a couple of transformations.
Since then, the couple has used a red sun device or got a room in Kandor when they got frisky, resulting in children who appear in the current comics.

Friday, August 2, 2024

Space Hero Meets Space Force SMASH GORDON "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Mongo!"

1940s Space Opera Meets 1960s Space Opera...

...and may the better version win in this spoof strip by noted comic artist Frank Brunner!
It's saying something when you're too much of an unrestrained "space cowboy" for even James T Kirk, eh?
Originally-presented in #1A (1972) of a prozine (a magazine featuring work by both rookie and veteran creatives) called Heritage whose two-issue run was dedicated to Flash Gordon.
This strip written and illustrated by Frank Brunner (who was already working for Marvel as an inker and colorist) is an affectionate tribute to both Flash Gordon and Star Trek, as well as indicating Brunner would've done a dynamite job on either series!
As to why it's here, there's nudity (barely) on pages 2, 3 and 4, and Google has been cracking down on it on any pages with nudity and without a warning label.

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Saturday, February 10, 2024

Wardrobe Malfunction at Super Bowl XXXVIII...20 Years Ago!

The halftime show at the 2004 Super Bowl went from this...
...and this...
...to this...
...and then this!!!
Was it planned?
Was it accidental?
Theories vary, ranging from THIS "...True Story" to THIS "Everything to Know...".
The questions I would ask...
...are...
"Why did she have a nipple ring on under the red bra?"
"If it wasn't meant to be exposed, why was it there?"
and
"Was there a matching one on the other breast (which would indicate the one on the right wasn't meant to be exposed)?"
Anybody have a link to the answers???

Monday, November 6, 2023

The Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl and the Mammy

In the 1930s, with Betty Boop's popularity soaring, a comic strip based on the actress/singer the animated character was based upon (got that?) was launched...
You can read the almost-complete run of the strip HERE.
However, in presenting the long-lost series, we discovered one of the strips had a racial stereotype we couldn't show today without a warning, so it's shown here...
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Sunday, October 15, 2023

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS "Jimmy Jupiter and His Halloween Adventure..."

If it wasn't for the unfortunate racial stereotypes common to the era on the first two pages...
...we could run this never-reprinted tale from Timely's Marvel Mystery Comics #37 (1947) in almost any of our other RetroBlogs!
(Well, maybe not Heroines!...)

Illustrated (and possibly written) by Eddie Robbins, this is actually a rather clever tale which won't be reprinted any time soon.
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Sunday, January 29, 2023

BIG APPLE COMIX "Over and Under"

Here's a fascinating side-by-side comparison...
...of life at the opposite ends of the social and financial spectrums in 1970s NYC!
The left side of the pages is illustrated by Neal Adams, the right side was penciled by Larry Hama and inked by Ralph Reese, both of whom had apprenticed under Wally Wood!
As for who wrote it, well, that's not entirely clear!
It could be the three artists co-wrote the tale (they all have solo writing credits), or any two of the three, or even any one of them..or someone else entirely, like Archie Goodwin, who also contributed to the 1975 one-shot Big Apple Comix!
I'm afraid we'll never know...
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Saturday, July 2, 2022

TARGET COMICS "SpaceHawk and the Concealed Bomber"

In the previous issue of Target Comics, SpaceHawk had been assigned by Uncle Sam himself to...
...but this danger wasn't extraterrestrial, though it looked like it was!
Note: this was published in 1941...before Pearl Harbor...so we weren't at war...yet!
Though their nationality is never specified, these characters are caricatures of Asians...obviously the Japanese, who were invading and occupying neighboring countries in the Pacific!





Written and illustrated by series creator Basil Wolverton, this tale from Novelty Publications's Target Comics V2N2 [#14] (1941) followed a change in concept for the book as all the various series' characters, no matter where or when they took place, became protectors of America from threats from other countries...which were thinly-disguised versions of Germany, Japan, and Italy!

Friday, September 10, 2021

9/11 Comic Stories THE BIG LIE

I admire and respect Rick Veitch as a creative talent...

...but I believe he's way off on what he presents in this one-shot about the fall of the Twin Towers!

The time traveller heads for her husband's office, where he disbelieves she is, in fact, his wife, because she looks older than the woman he left to go to the office this morning...


The tale then devolves to the time traveller detailing how the planes about to crash into the Twin Towers aren't the real reason they collapsed, that explosives were deliberately-planted throughout the buildings!
Ironically, her explanation causes her hubby to disbelieve her...
Published on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, Image's The Big Lie #1 (2011), generated controversy from the start.
USAToday did an interview with Rick that caused a chain-reaction!
HERE's another interview with Veitch right after the book was released in 2011!
Read a couple of reviews and comment threads on them HERE and HERE to see that, even a decade ago, before Don da Con messed the country up, there were still on-line loonies a-plenty!
You Can Order The Big Lie...
...from Amazon by clicking
HERE!