Naughty Zoot! Bad Zoot! She has set alight the beacon, which I just remembered, is Captain Comics shaped!
With apologies to Monty Python, I am in fact asking for help from the Legionnaires. I'm thinking of a "comics and journalism" topic for my master's thesis. My professor says I can go broad or deep; the former covering just about every conceivable connection between journalism and comics, or the latter focusing on one character.
On the latter, I could do Spider-Man, since I own 99.9% of his appearances in print. But I think it would be easier to go broad, and that's what I'll explore first. So I'm asking you, the Legionnaires, to help me with a list of journalists as major characters in comics -- strips and books, superhero and not.
For example, here's where I'm starting:
Superman: Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Daily Planet.
Captain Marvel: Billy Batson, Herman Morris, station WHIZ.
Spider-Man: Peter Parker, J. Jonah Jameson, Ben Urich, Sally Floyd, Daily Bugle, Front Line.
Batman: Vicky Vale, Gotham Gazette.
The Flash: Iris West, Central City Picture News.
In the case of Superman and Spider-Man, not only are they journalists in their secret identities, but the newspapers they work for have become major players worth discussing, and in the case of Spider-Man, even competing newspapers (Front Line) have become players. I don't think Barney Bushkin and the Daily Globe appeared much or have been much more than a foil for Jameson, but they, too, are worth a mention. And was the Bugle a legitimate newspaper or a tabloid? It appeared to be both at different times.
But I'm well aware there are plenty more. Alan "Green Lantern" Scott somehow transformed from a train engineer to a radio engineer (anybody know where and when?) and retired as owner of Gotham Broadcasting Co. Johnny Quick was a newsreel reporter. Vic "The Question" Sage was a TV commentator (although whether he was a "journalist" or not I'd be hard pressed to say off the top of my head). Wasn't Liberty Belle a reporter? Or am I thinking of Miss America?
Anyway, any character anyone can remember who was a journalist of any kind is welcome.
Also, there's no reason to restrict myself to comics books. As I recall, Pat Ryan of Terry and the Pirates was a "two-fisted journalist." And wasn't Steve Roper a journalist before he was an insurance adjuster?
As you can see, this is huge, sprawling subject. So any help from the Legionnaires to put meat on this skeleton is welcome!
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Wendy Wichel bedeviled Dick Tracy during Max Allen Collins' tenure on the strip.
Also, Alan Scott wasn't a train engineer so much as a railroad engineer, but it's been repeated so often over the years (by Maggie Thompson, mainly) that it bears correction. He was on that train in All-American Comics #16 on an inspection tour. The very first caption reads, "Out in the Great West, a train makes a test crossing over a newly constructed trestle bridge... In the cab ia Alan Scott, young engineer in charge of construction" (emphasis mine).
Over on the old board, Commander Benson once pointed out that TV host Dan Dunn from Avengers #73-74 was modeled after conservative radio- and talk-show host Joe Pyne.
Also for Spider-Man, Betty Brant eventually became a reporter for the Daily Bugle, and there was Dexter Bennett buying the Bugle and renaming it the DB.
The original Crimson Avenger was a newspaper publisher, as was the Green Hornet.
I didn't know about Wendy Wichel, so is there a collection I could obtain? She's significant because her name is obviously derived from Walter Winchell, who is noteworthy in journalism history (although not always in a positive way). I'd like to make the comparison. Thanks, Jeff!
And I'd forgotten about Jack Ryder, mainly because I always confuse him with Vic Sage. Both created by Ditko, both black-haired broadcasters, etc. But he's a great counterbalance to the heroic journalists in comics. Thanks, Doc!
Thanks, Travis, for mentioning Betty. I intend to cover her in the Bugle section, along with other reporters I didn't mention, like Ned Leeds. Also, there was a girl reporter who was murdered by the Green Goblin, another example of heroic journalism in comics. I can't remember exactly where she was killed though ... was it the successor series to Alias? I'm wanting to say that was called The Pulse. (She's got a counterbalance in current Amazing Spider-Man, in the girl (whose name I forget) who was bullied by Osborn into dropping her investigation of him recently. Although I'll lay money that will bear fruit during or after Siege.) There was also a series by Bill Rosemann called, I think, Deadline, which featured a Bugle reporter.
And now that I think of it, I should jot down The Phantom Reporter (who I think is being revived in The Twelve) and Headline Hunter from early Timely comics. There was also a modern series about a reporter who could turn invisible, by newspaper reporter Mike Sangiacomo, but I'm forgetting the name, which was probably "Invisible Reporter."
I'm not at home so I can't give you exact names but I can point you towards a few more connections, both from Kurt Busiek's Astro City.
1) The Samaritan, in his secret identity, works for a magazine.
2) Another Superman substitute (an alien of great powers) had a Silver Age-style relationship with a Lois Lane substitute. Now that I think of it, though, I'm not sure that they worked for a newspaper. They may have worked at City Hall.
3) There was the journalist who saw the Honor Guard fight a cult in a subway but could only report what could be proven: "Shark Found in Subway!"
If nobody else comes up with specifics before I'm home then I'll look it up myself.
Oh, and there's was Hank "Beast" McCoy's girlfriend, reporter Trish Tilby.
There's Phil Sheldon, the newspaper photographer from Marvels.
The new series Daytripper focuses on a obituary writer for a newspaper in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Also in the Flash, Linda Park was introduced as a TV journalist. Eventually she left that to go to med school.
Was April O'Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a reporter?
And remember, there's always the naked newsgirls of The Dark Knight Strikes Back... as well as the quickly ubiquitous talking-heads-in-tv-shaped-panels that Frank Miller introduced (or at least popularized) in the original Dark Knight Returns. Those panels really changed the way journalism-as-plot-exposition was handled in comics.
And I don't know if this helps, but it couldn't hurt: Dateline: Silver Age, a blog that posts pictures of comic-book headlines.
And now that I think of it, I should jot down The Phantom Reporter (who I think is being revived in The Twelve) and Headline Hunter from early Timely comics. There was also a modern series about a reporter who could turn invisible, by newspaper reporter Mike Sangiacomo, but I'm forgetting the name, which was probably "Invisible Reporter."
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Also, Alan Scott wasn't a train engineer so much as a railroad engineer, but it's been repeated so often over the years (by Maggie Thompson, mainly) that it bears correction. He was on that train in All-American Comics #16 on an inspection tour. The very first caption reads, "Out in the Great West, a train makes a test crossing over a newly constructed trestle bridge... In the cab ia Alan Scott, young engineer in charge of construction" (emphasis mine).
The original Crimson Avenger was a newspaper publisher, as was the Green Hornet.
I didn't know about Wendy Wichel, so is there a collection I could obtain? She's significant because her name is obviously derived from Walter Winchell, who is noteworthy in journalism history (although not always in a positive way). I'd like to make the comparison. Thanks, Jeff!
And I'd forgotten about Jack Ryder, mainly because I always confuse him with Vic Sage. Both created by Ditko, both black-haired broadcasters, etc. But he's a great counterbalance to the heroic journalists in comics. Thanks, Doc!
Thanks, Travis, for mentioning Betty. I intend to cover her in the Bugle section, along with other reporters I didn't mention, like Ned Leeds. Also, there was a girl reporter who was murdered by the Green Goblin, another example of heroic journalism in comics. I can't remember exactly where she was killed though ... was it the successor series to Alias? I'm wanting to say that was called The Pulse. (She's got a counterbalance in current Amazing Spider-Man, in the girl (whose name I forget) who was bullied by Osborn into dropping her investigation of him recently. Although I'll lay money that will bear fruit during or after Siege.) There was also a series by Bill Rosemann called, I think, Deadline, which featured a Bugle reporter.
And now that I think of it, I should jot down The Phantom Reporter (who I think is being revived in The Twelve) and Headline Hunter from early Timely comics. There was also a modern series about a reporter who could turn invisible, by newspaper reporter Mike Sangiacomo, but I'm forgetting the name, which was probably "Invisible Reporter."
Hey,we're on a roll! This is awesome!
1) The Samaritan, in his secret identity, works for a magazine.
2) Another Superman substitute (an alien of great powers) had a Silver Age-style relationship with a Lois Lane substitute. Now that I think of it, though, I'm not sure that they worked for a newspaper. They may have worked at City Hall.
3) There was the journalist who saw the Honor Guard fight a cult in a subway but could only report what could be proven: "Shark Found in Subway!"
If nobody else comes up with specifics before I'm home then I'll look it up myself.
Oh, and there's was Hank "Beast" McCoy's girlfriend, reporter Trish Tilby.
The new series Daytripper focuses on a obituary writer for a newspaper in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Also in the Flash, Linda Park was introduced as a TV journalist. Eventually she left that to go to med school.
Was April O'Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a reporter?
And remember, there's always the naked newsgirls of The Dark Knight Strikes Back... as well as the quickly ubiquitous talking-heads-in-tv-shaped-panels that Frank Miller introduced (or at least popularized) in the original Dark Knight Returns. Those panels really changed the way journalism-as-plot-exposition was handled in comics.
And I don't know if this helps, but it couldn't hurt: Dateline: Silver Age, a blog that posts pictures of comic-book headlines.
The series was called Phantom Jack, Cap.
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