Philip José Farmer once wrote, “It’s lonely to be a superman; it’s far more lonely to be a superboy.”
He was speaking of Clark “Doc” Savage, Junior, but that sentiment would have also applied to another Clark---Clark Kent.
Superman, of course, had t
Read more…Three . . . two . . . one . . . time's up!
Every time I put one of these quizzes together, I try to determine which question will cause you guys the most trouble. Believe it or not, most of the time, I'm wrong. The one I think will be the stumper y
Read more…By the green beam of my ring . . . I see that you are honest! And the battery has already selected you as one born without fear!
Those would be decent qualities for anyone, but then Hal Jordan started out as a pretty remarkable guy, even before he p
Read more…If you lived in the DC universe in the 1950’s and were a greedy relative or unscrupulous lawyer trying to swindle someone out of his fortune by posing as a ghost or a space alien or a time-traveller, you didn’t stand a chance. Not with all the DC sl
Even now, Maria would be considered a firebrand.
She was born in Massachusetts, to a sickly and emotionally distant mother and a stern, religiously devout father named Francis. Mr. Francis was a successful baker, so she grew up in a solidly middle
Read more…Previously, in "The New Superman":
After a deadly green comet robs Superman of his powers, his hand-picked successor, Ar-Val of Kandor, takes over as the New Superman. When Lex Luthor and Brainiac team up to enact a scheme of villainy, Ar-Val refuse
Read more…...Has anyone here seen comic books, standard-sized, on sale at ANY non-comics shop in 2020. The last 6 month's obviously everything has been upturned, but in the first 3 months of 2020 and since them, has ANYONE, other than Walmart and whatever othe
Read more…In our nearly three decades together, one area in which the Good Mrs. Benson and I still disagree is the subject of music. I sensibly maintain that little good music has come out since, oh, 1965, and the further one gets from that year, the occurren
I expected a Legion quiz to get a robust response, and you fellows didn't disappoint. Lots of lively speculation on the possible right answers and, in at least two cases, answers other than the ones I intended, but had to rule them correct. We'll g
The first time we heard the story, it was put straightforward enough.
"Years ago, in my college days, there was a student named Victor von Doom, who was fascinated by sorcery and black magic. He was a brilliant science student, but he was only inter
Read more…The Silver-Age Alfred was a real Renaissance man: butler, chef, actor, medic . . . and author!
Actually, he was more of a frustrated writer---because his work could never be published, nor even read. Except by two other people.
I'm talking, of cour
Read more…At the conclusion of last year's Silver-Age challenge, I told you guys that I already had the questions for this year's quiz prepared. Well, I did, as in past tense. Last week, when I gave them a final scrubbing, I discovered that I had forgotten t
If you knew nothing about the Silver Age of Comics except for what you read in my Deck Log, you'd still be aware of the big change in Batman that Julius Schwartz wrought when he became editor of the Bat-titles in 1964. I've talked about it often eno
Many Silver-Age DC titles instituted their own continuing features. A series within a series, so to speak. Green Lantern ran annual tales involving Hal Jordan's two brothers and his sister-in-law's mistaken belief that youngest brother Jim was the
Holidays are marked by traditions, and any given tradition has many fathers. Nearly all of the time, it's impossible to trace a tradition's beginning to one specific instance. Still, if you happen to be in Cleveland, Ohio, drop by the corner of Lak
Pretty much the whole year, but especially as the summer winds down, I keep my eyes peeled for a good Thanksgiving tidbit to share with you in my annual turkey day entry. Some of them---such as Sarah Hale, authoress of the poem "Mary's Lamb" (Mary h
You are looking at the meeting room of a unique and exclusive club, the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City, experts at the business of solving bizarre mysteries . . .
Thus began one of the more fondly remembered features of Julius Schwartz's "New Look"
Read more…So, how did you do?
Actually, by my tally, you all---the four of you who participated: Philip Portelli, Jeff of Earth-J, Fraser Sherman, and my old pal, Eric Sofer, the Silver-Age Fogey---did very well, which hasn’t surprised me for a long time. Yo
Read more…Naturally, you might be asking: “Why Justice League of America # 27?” After all, there were more significant JLA stories published during its Silver-Age existence. Indeed, there were, and they are all stand-out adventures. But also hardly the typ
Over at Marvel, editor Stan Lee was, apparently, able to resist the temptation to use time-travel plots for stories. At least, on a regular basis.
Nearly all of DC’s title heroes had a regular method for travelling through time, as did many of its s
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