Forum 2.0

Deck Log Entry # 260 Merry Christmas 2025!

My favourite quotation by William Shakespeare comes from his play Twelfth Night:

 

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

 

It goes to the idea that most of us never know what mark we will make on the wor

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 259 Happy Thanksgiving 2025!

Those of you with truly elephantic memories will recall my first Thanksgiving Day column, back in 2007, discussed how Sarah Josepha Hale, authoress and the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, then the largest selling publication in America, petitioned Pre

Read more…

From the Archives: Deck Log Entry # 148 Superman's Pal, President Kennedy

22 November 1963, if you are old enough to remember it, was a day that shook you down to your very core.  It didn't matter if you were young or old, a Democrat or a Republican.  The idea that the President of the United States could be gunned down in

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 258 The Silver-Age Challenge---DC Edition V . . . Answers!

That was fast!

 

Philip Portelli pretty much ran the category before I could sit down to dinner.  He even provided two acceptable answers to one of the questions.  I did say “pretty much”, though.  There were two questions that he didn’t take a shot at

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 257 The Silver-Age Challenge---DC Edition V

Ah, the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.  Those days of soda and pretzels and beer . . . and my annual Silver-Age trivia challenge!

 

Even when my contributions to my Deck Log were restricted by work, I still managed to produce a trivia quiz every sum

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 256 Reed and Susan, Sittin' in a Tree . . .

In response to my last Deck Log Entry, on the tortuous romance of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl, my pal, the Silver-Age Fogey, raised the question, “How old WERE Reed and Sue?”  This invited a bit of discussion among the other respondents. 

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 255 The Romance of Susan Storm

Or . . . Can a Small-town Girl Find Happiness with a Brilliant Research Scientist in the Cosmopolitan City of New York?

Ain’t love grand?  It gets you high; it gets you low.  But once you get that glow . . .

Love was no stranger to comic books.  Starti

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 254 Merry Christmas 2024!

Every year around this time, a discussion usually arises as to what makes a film a Christmas movie.  Folks have varying criteria for qualification on this point, and contention usually erupts.  I’m not about to open that can of worms.  I am, however,

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 253 Happy Thanksgiving 2024!

The path to that first Thanksgiving held in the New England territory of what would someday be the United States of America had been fraught with hardships.

 

The two-month voyage on Mayflower, bringing the Pilgrims to the New World, had been miserable

Read more…

From the Archives: Deck Log Entry # 119 From a Fiery Horse to a Rolling Arsenal

With my pal, Jeff of Earth-J, currently posting about his viewing of the Lone Ranger television series and feature films, I thought it might be a good time to rerun one of my favourite Deck Log entries . . .

 

The most iconic figure of America’s Old We

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 252 Supplemental: Marvel TV Reference Key

In my entry last month, I posted a line-up for a night of prime-time television in the Silver-Age Marvel universe.  I had fun with it, as I managed to include multiple references to actual elements, people and things, which appeared in Marvel comics

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 252 What's on TV in the Marvel Universe?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many Marvel Comics references can you find in the line-up?

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 251 The Silver Age Challenge---Marvel Edition IIII . . . Answers

Wow, you guys answered fast!

 

Now, some of you might be wondering why I waited another twenty-nine days to post my Answers column.  After all, I’m not on a regimented schedule here at Commander Benson’s Deck Log.  I can post four entries in one month,

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 250 The Silver-Age Challenge---Marvel Edition IIII

 

 

I’m just a summertime guy.

 

Well, no, I’m not really.  I hate the heat.  I much prefer the crisp temperatures of the autumn.  But I am a summertime guy when it comes to my annual Silver-Age challenge.  I also started with that line because I was goi

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 249 The Many Loves of Leonard Snart

Captain Cold wasn’t the first name villain to confront the Flash---that was the Turtle Man, from Showcase # 4 (Sep.-Oct., 1956)---but he was the first Flash-foe to have legs.  It took fifteen years for the Turtle Man to stick his head out of his shel

Read more…

From the Archives: Deck Log Entry # 48 "Semi-Imaginary" Stories (Part 3)

As the Silver Age moved into the early 1960’s, Mort Weisinger’s concept of Imaginary Stories became established.  Fans grasped and accepted the idea of a Superman tale that was completely out of continuity.  All that was necessary was to put a blurb

Read more…

From the Archives: Deck Log Entry # 47 "Semi-Imaginary" Stories (Part 2)

As I mentioned last time out, the unbroken popularity of DC’s “Big Three”---Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman---had put the company solidly at the top of the comics-publishing industry.  Not wanting to tamper with success, the powers that be insiste

Read more…

From the Archives: Deck Log Entry # 46 "Semi-Imaginary" Stories (Part 1)

Question:  when is an Imaginary Story not an Imaginary Story?

 

While you think on that for a moment, I’ll set the Wayback Machine for a little trip.  The time:  1959.  The place:  the National Periodical Publications building at 2^d and Dickey Streets,

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 248 Overture

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve resumed making entries in my Deck Log column and are wondering what that speaks to developments in my personal life.  As you’ll recall, I’d suspended my regular Deck Log entries (other than my annual Silver-Age

Read more…

Deck Log Entry # 247 Marvel's First Silver-Age Super-Hero

The Golden Age of Comics ended around 1950 or so.  If somebody wants to nitpick, he’d say it should be called the Golden Age of Super-Heroes.  That’s because it was the creation of Superman, followed by hundreds more of his ilk, that caused a boom in

Read more…