Superman's Pal, JFK

One of the Legendary Comic Books of the Silver Age featured a cameo by President John F. Kennedy.  Part of its legend comes from the fact that it hit the newsstands just a week after JFK was assassinated. 

ACTION COMICS #309  was already at the printers when the assassination occurred and it was too late for the company to cancel the issue.  They were afraid the public would consider the comic to be in bad taste under the circumstances.  I don't know if the public did, but in retrospect, the issue is a quirky piece of comics history, as well as a sad commentary on how times have changed.

It starts off as a typical Silver Age Superman story.  Superman is expected to attend a public ceremony in his honor.  All in the line of duty for a hero as beloved as Superman.  The problem is that Clark Kent has been selected as one of the people to share the stage with him.

Now normally this would be no biggie; Superman would just use one of his robot duplicates to impersonate him or maybe ask his buddy Bruce Wayne to pose as Clark Kent.  Except that Batman is also supposed to be at the event honoring him; and Lois Lane has set up metal detectors at all the entrances to the hall as one of her wacky schemes to prove that Clark is really Superman.  Dang that woman!

So what's a Man of Steel to do?

The story leaves the reader in suspense until the very last page.  Superman appears at the event, and shakes the hands of both Batman and Clark Kent.  Lois fails to detect any robot impostors.  How did Superman pull it off?

At the very end we see Superman going to thank his secret accomplice who helped by posing as Clark:  John F. Kennedy.

(Part of me has to wonder if that would really work, if Kennedy really could convincingly impersonate a 6-foot plus Midwestern farm-boy.  I have this mental image of Lois saying, “You can cut the phoney ‘Bahston accent’ any time now, Clark; no one is laughing!”)

In the last panel, Superman tells his super-confidant:  "I knew I wasn't risking my secret identity with you !  After all, if I can't trust the President of the United States, who can I trust?"

Comics guru Tony Isabella has cited this issue as his standard for a good president.  A good president, he says, is one to whom Superman can confidently divulge his Secret Identity.  Sadly, we have had very few in my lifetime whom I think Superman could trust.

But for the heck of it, let’s play that game.  Granted, this is going to be highly subjective and open to argument, but what the hey:  Which presidents could Superman trust.?

We’ll leave off Kennedy; I was barely a toddler when he died; besides, we’ve already established that Superman trusted him.  Next.

I don’t think he’d trust Johnson.  Although I think that Superman would approve of many of LBJ’s social programs, Johnson was also a shrewd horse-dealer.  Any president in whom Supes confided would face the temptation to take advantage of that confidence and use Superman to his own ends.  And I could see Johnson doing that.

I don’t see Supes trusting Tricky Dick at all.  Apart from Nixon’s antipathy towards reporters, trust is a two-way street and I don’t see Nixon bringing himself to trust Superman.  He’d be more likely to have the FBI investigate him to discover his Secret Identity.  Heck, Nixon might even put Lex Luthor on his payroll, and keep in mind that this was the era where Luthor was an Evil Scientist and not a Respected Zillionaire Industrialist.

I can’t really say about Ford.  He seemed to me like a decent enough guy, but he really wasn’t president long enough to give a good sense of what kind of person he was  He’s doomed to be a footnote of history, I’m afraid.

Jimmy Carter is one I think Superman could trust.  Carter always struck me as a man with a great deal of moral integrity, both as president and his career afterwards.  You can argue about how good a president he was, but I think he was and is a good man.

Reagan… not so much.  Don’t get me wrong; I liked Reagan.  I drew political cartoons for my college newspaper during his administration and he was fun to draw.  But whenever he talked about Values and Morality, I always had a sense that he was playing to the audience, giving them what they wanted to hear.  There’s an old saying in the Theater that the most important part of acting is Sincerity… and if you can fake that you’ve got it made.  Ronald Reagan was a very good actor.  I like to think that he did have a strong sense of decency, but I think he more often used it to justify his ideology rather than to inform it.

Unlike some of the previous presidents, Reagan appeared numerous times in the comic books himself.  (Even not counting REAGAN’S RAIDERS, an earnest fan comic of the ‘80s in which Ronald and his closest advisers gain super-powers and punch out the Foes of America).  I can think of two instances in which he is shown directly interacting with Superman.

In Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, Superman is portrayed as the President’s lap dog, running errands for him and clandestinely fighting America’s enemies.  In Miller’s dystopian future, all super-heroes have been forced into retirement or hiding.  Superman’s arrangement with the President allows him to continue doing some good in the world, but he clearly resents it..

Another take on the idea was given in a FIRESTORM storyline by John Ostrander during the ‘80s in which Firestorm decides to use his powers to disarm both the US and the USSR.  There is a scene in one issue where President Reagan summons Superman to the Oval Office in order to ask him to take Firestorm down.  Superman respectfully declines, saying that he’s not entirely sure the boy is wrong, and that it’s an idea he’s though about himself; (a cute allusion to the well-intentioned but badly-executed SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE).

I do think, however, that Superman could trust George Bush père.  The elder Bush was a former director of the CIA, not to mention a Skull-and-Bonesman back in his Yale days.  I think he understands the importance of keeping a secret and would respect Superman’s.  Although I didn’t vote for him, I always felt Bush Sr. was a man of integrity.

Bill Clinton, less so.  It’s been said that Clinton regarded JFK as a role model; if so, he imitated Kennedy’s less admirable qualities.  I think he did all right as president… but not nearly as good as he might have had he not let his id get the better of him.  I don’t think he’s quite dependable enough for Superman to trust with his Secret Identity.  (Although in a curious coincidence, it has long been established – long before Bill Clinton was elected -- that Clark Kent’s home address in Metropolis is an apartment on Clinton Avenue).

I don’t think Bush fils is terribly reliable either.  Like Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush likes to speak of his religious faith, but unlike Carter, I’ve never felt the sense that this faith translated either into his policies, or (which is more relevant to this little game) his personal life.

Which brings us down to Barack Obama.  I suppose here my own political biases, as if they weren’t already obvious, are evident.  I like Obama, and I think he’s a decent man.  But even more than that, he is himself a comic book fan.  He is our first Presidential Geek-In-Chief.  Whether you like or hate his policies, you have to give him that.  Some of our previous presidents have seemed like comic book characters, but none of them have been fans.  Obama is.

If Superman ever met the President in person, as he occasionally has in the comics, he would doubtless say, “It is an honor to meet you, sir.”  That is because Ma and Pa Kent raised him right, and taught him to show respect.  Superman would show respect to the office regardless of his opinion of the office-holder and regardless of who Clark Kent voted for.  I think Obama alone, of the presidents I’ve listed, would reply, “No, Superman, the honor is all mine.”  He would certainly keep Superman’s secret, and would take pleasure in that responsibility.

The Many Covers of Alan Dean Foster Works

ICERIGGER was my first dose of Alan Dean Foster excellence.  I immediately bought and collected all of his books, except the Star Trek Logs, which had only the slightest bit of interest from me.  The trilogy of Icerigger has humans stranded for a time on a frozen planet, that is globally warming.  It is a first contact experience as well as a warning that even things long frozen in space can melt when heated.

FIND IT ON AMAZON

ALAN DEAN FOSTER'S WEBSITE

MIDWORLD

In the rainforest there are many layers of life, and levels of existence.  The top of world is called the canopy, and it is visible from the air.  You cannot see the floor from there.  Birds and bats and other avian creatures live there.  And from there down to the floor of the green rich forest there are levels of existence.  Each level is dominated by various life forms adapted to their environment.

The amount of life is immense because nature allows for changes and specializations of species in such a rich environment.  The humans who live in such a place are specialized too, using ancient methods of hunting and survival that have kept their existence small, but sustainable for millennia. 

This planet earth has seen arguments over the destruction of rainforests, over the reduction of areas that used to be wild.  We have untold dangers of losing wild habitats that will deeply affect the future of our planet's health.  Untold DNA and plantlife that has been undiscovered might be lost with the death of such areas, along with the enormous amount of clean oxygen the trees and regions produce.

Alan Dean Foster's mind created a planet where the planet itself and life forms are all literally connected.

"Born was a child of the rain forest that covered Midworld, part of the primitive society that the peaceful jungle planet had sustained for hundreds of years. He was wise in the ways of his world, and he knew well the precarious natural balance that governed all things.

Then one day the aliens came. Giants.  They knew nothing of the Upper or Lower Hell -- and they cared less. Born had risked his life to save them, to guide them through the myriad tangled boughs, past unseen, unsuspected dangers lurking in the underbrush. But worse than their ignorance of how to survive, the aliens had plans for Midworld, plans that could utterly destroy the globe-spanning forest that his people called home.

As the days passed, Born realized his mistake. And as he had once hunted only to live, he knew now that he would be forced to live only to kill..."

Here are the various covers across the years of the book Midworld that is creation of Alan Dean Foster, and by a number of great cover artists.  The German translation is literally "The Thinking Trees".

CACHALOT

The book Cachalot by Alan Dean Foster is one of my favorites.  Mostly because it begins with a world where whales have been given a planet of their own, to live upon and control, as a means to apologize by humans for the destruction we've caused.   I love whales, maritime mammals emotionally move me, and the plight of the whale and the story of conservation is very moving to me.  At one time I thought I'd become a person who would fight for the ocean mammals through art, but I am not that talented.  Mr. Foster is though.  And I loved the book.

These are all pics from public domain, particularly a US government website. I was going to use them as facebook cover pics, and then thought, why not use them along with the covers of CACHALOT found below to show the awesome.

I've been a fan and reader of Alan Dean Foster since I began reading science fiction or fantasy.  So it is not a surprise for me that he has books in my all time favorite list.  His work belongs there.

Superman's Underpants

Several years ago, Nicholas Cage was signed to star in a Superman movie.  The movie never came through, (which is probably for the best, all things considered), but during the brief period when it looked possible, I saw Cage on a talk show discussing the project.  He said that he had initially been leery about wearing the traditional Superman costume, because he thought that red briefs over the blue tights looked, well, embarrassing.  The designers for the project made up some sketches of alternative Superman costumes, and he took the sketches home to show his son.  Cage’s son was unimpressed by them, and persuaded his father to stick with the traditional look, because the sleeker, trendier designs didn’t Look Like Superman.

Since then, the Superman movies which have come out, and the New 52’s Superman from the comic books, have chosen to disregard the wisdom of the young Mr. Cage.  Whether this is a good or a bad thing is a matter of taste; but it does bring up one of the enduring mysteries of comics:

Why DOES Superman wear his underwear on the outside?

Superman, of course, was the first.  The super-heroes who followed him also followed his precedent of briefs over tights, simply because Superman had set the model for what a super-hero ought to look like.  But even then, the convention received its share of good-natured ribbing.

Sheldon Meyer was arguably Superman’s very first fan.  According to his own story, when he was a young man working as editor for comics publishing pioneer M.C. Gaines, he persuaded his boss that Siegel and Schuster’s outlandish hero, who had been rejected by every newspaper syndicate in the country, could be a success.  But even he recognized the silliness of superhero costumes.  He created a super-hero parody of his own, The RED TORNADO, who wore a tablecloth cape and a helmet fashioned out of an old spaghetti pot along with – and this is the most important part -- red woolen long johns with a pair of boxer shorts over them.  Because that’s what those funnybook heroes wore.

The meta reason is that when Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster created the character, they wanted to evoke the look of circus strongmen and aerialists, and so based his costume design on the tights worn by circus performers.  Another reason which occurs to me might have been that curved edge of the “briefs” show the contour of the figure’s torso and legs, giving it a sense of form and making it look less flat.

But those reasons don’t really serve as “in-world” explanations for why Clark Kent, upon embarking as a career as a costumed hero, would dress that way.

For much of Superman’s history, his writers have just ignored the subject.  Superman looks the way he looks because that’s the way he looks.  Some of the earlier comics depicting Krypton suggest that the briefs look was a Kryptonian fashion, but I don’t think it was intended that way.  I know of one fan who insists that the costume is peer-pressure; that the briefs are a 30th Century style that Superman picked up during his youthful adventures with the Legion of Super-Heroes.   More recently, it’s been established that Ma Kent made his costume, so perhaps Clark just never wanted to tell his mom that he thought it looked doofy.

A friend of mine who with his wife make costumes as a hobby gave me another perspective on this matter.  He was telling me about a really bad costume he once saw at a comic book convention.  It was of Cloak, from the Marvel comic book CLOAK & DAGGER, and it was essentially a dark hooded cape worn over a black body stocking.  Cloak did not wear Superman-style briefs, as the character was created in the ‘80s after super-hero fashions had shifted a bit.  Neither was the guy in the costume wearing a jock.  “You could tell,” my friend intoned somberly.  “Spandex is unforgiving.  It shows EVERYTHING.”

That seems like a practical explanation right there.  Superman has to wear something in addition to his tights for the sake of modesty; and he wears them on the outside, because if he wore them underneath, people could see his panty-lines which would look silly too.  At least on the outside, the briefs become a design element in the look of the costume.

But something else occurred to me too.  And here I’m afraid I’m going to have to allude to Unpleasant Bodily Functions.  I recently read a satirical piece pondering those questions which the movies never answer, such as: how do movie super-heroes go to the bathroom?  Their costumes certainly don’t appear to be designed for that contingency; which is even stranger when you consider that unlike the costumes worn by comic book characters, these have to be worn by actual flesh-and-blood humans.

I can only think of a couple instances I’ve seen where this issue has come up in the comics.  One of them was a bit from Alan Moore’s WATCHMEN in which Nite-Owl recalls a case where he had to heed a Call of Nature while out on a stakeout.  By the time he was able to get back, the criminal he wanted to tail had already left.  After that, he says, he re-designed his costume so he wouldn’t have that problem again.  Silk Spectre does not seem particularly anxious for him to elaborate; and frankly, neither does the reader.

But while musing on this, it all came together:  Super-Hero Bodily Functions, The Man of Steel’s Underpants, the Unforgiving Nature of Spandex; even Red Tornado’s Union Suit.  It was all connected.

The traditional red woolen long johns, such as those worn by Ma Hunkel in RED TORNADO and immortalized in the classic novelty song “Walking In My Winter Underwear” sported a flap in the back, secured by buttons, which could be unfastened to provide convenient access when the wearer had to Do His Business.  By necessity, Superman’s tights would need something similar.  Ma Kent is a practical woman; she would have thought of these things when she made the suit.

And when the woolen long johns were depicted in low-brow cartoons, the flap inevitably came undone, offering a glimpse of the wearer’s hinterlands.  I’m pretty sure that Supes would want to keep his privates… er, private; so in order to do that and still keep convenient access for moments of necessity, the obvious solution would be to cover up with something that can be easily removed.  Like his super-panties.

That is my theory, anyway.  If an explanation is really needed.  Perhaps it’s just better, though, to simply say that Superman dresses the way he does because he’s Superman and that’s what Superman looks like.

It works for me.

Fake Importance, Real Importance

Should the light sabers of Star Wars have hilts?

Should Superman still have red trunks outside his blue suit?

Should women heroes wear tiny costumes to expose their bodies, especially compared to their well covered male counterparts? 

When will George R.R. Martin finish writing those damn books in Game of Thrones?

Shouldn't an actress who is Asian be playing the lead character in Ghost in the Shell instead of Scarlett Johansson?

Should Disney abandon the continuity created by George Lucas when it resumes the Star Wars films?

Just how large is Kim Kardashian's ass, anyway?

Is Kanye West's selfish focus upon himself so large that it would create an orbital pull and create its own gravity?

Popular culture seems destined to flood our senses with information, images, spectacle, and lurid event.  It asks questions that we have no answers for, and in the end, our attention is diverted from real news.  Whether we need to escape, or whether we choose escapism to avoid reality because it is easier to escape, many people in Western civilization and capitalist society choose to ignore the events outside of their reach, so much that they are ignorant to the world around them.

Many have not heard of, and if they've heard of, they do not care about:

ISIS 
 
The Syrian Civil War

The Ukraine conflict

Ebola

There are a number of issues that aren't agreed upon by people enough to act upon them*, but in the cases listed above, people are dying, and there are clear cut aggressors or enemies.  The people involved know the issues are important, but those who focus entirely upon pop culture often have no idea what is going on.

*Some of the issues where there is debate...

Are humans causing the current phase of Global Warming?

Is the Death Penalty cruel and unusual punishment?

Should Immigration standards allow people to come into the United States or the countries of the European Union from considerably less wealthy countries seeking financial benefit?

There are many more issues without cohesive answers, but many feel the need to solve the problems in pop culture before we assess and solve the hard issues in reality.  Why do we elect people and pay taxes, after all, if not to take care of these issues?  Our lives are hard enough, without such worries.

I am being facetious of course, but the truth is, I worry over the future, when people are more sad that an author or actor or character in a movie dies, than 213 people in a battle for a town in Syria.  But it does happen.  Every single day.

Power Couples

A couple years ago, a lot of DC fans were outraged when J.H. Williams and W. Haden Blackman, the creative team behind the popular BATWOMAN comic, were leaving the book because of editorial differences.  BATWOMAN was notable for having an openly gay heroine and her relationship with police officer Maggie Sawyer, formerly a supporting character from SUPERMAN, was a big part of the series.  Williams and Blackman had planned to have Batwoman and Maggie get married, but at the last minute, the editors at DC decided they would not permit it.

DC insisted that they have nothing against gays or gay characters, Co-publisher Dan Dido explained it this way:

Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, and Kathy Kane — it’s wonderful that they try to establish personal lives, but it’s also just as important that they put it aside as they know what they are accomplishing as the hero takes precedence over everything else. That is our mandate, that is our edict, that is our stand with our characters."

In other words, it isn’t that DC has a problem with Gay Marriage, but that DC has a problem with Marriage, Period.  Superman is allowed to date Wonder Woman in the New 52; and Batman can do the nasty on a rooftop with Catwoman; and Starfire, hoo-boy, Starfire; who can keep track? – but being a super-hero means that the job comes first and no other commitments are allowed.

You might argue that comics are chiefly written for an adolescent male audience which isn’t really interested in Domestic Bliss.  A big part of Superman’s original premise was the fantasy of “If only that girl I like knew that under my mild-mannered exterior I’m special”. In order to keep that character dynamic, Lois Lane has to remain clueless, and Clark Kent has to remain single.  Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Queseda felt that the core of SPIDER-MAN was the hard-luck hero who could never catch a break and that readers couldn’t identify with Peter Parker as such when Peter happened to be married to a super-model.  He wanted to break up Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage in the worst way; and that was exactly how he did it.

In this school of thought, particularly among comic book editors, that Super-Heroes and Marriage don’t go together;  that fighting crime is a single person’s game; that married people are boring.

But there have been super-heroes who have gotten married and made their marriages work.  Let’s take a look at a few.

One of the first, if not the first, married couples in the annals of comic book super-heroes was Hawkman and Hawkgirl.  The original Hawkman was Carter Hall, an archaeologist who learned that he was the reincarnation of an Egyptian prince named Khufu.  Carter discovered a material he called “Ninth Metal”, (later re-named “Nth Metal, because it sounded more scientific) with anti-gravity properties which he used to create a pair of wings with which he could fly.  Although most super-heroes followed the precedent set by Supernam of keeping the Secret Identity hidden from the Love Interest, Carter let his girlfriend, Shiera, in on the secret and made a pair of wings for her too so that she could fight crime with him as Hawkgirl.  After all, Shiera was the reincarnation of Khufu’s ancient lover; theirs was a love which had lasted millennia.. And Carter and Shiera also worked together at the museum, so it was only natural that they would fight crime together too.  They married, and became one of the more enduring super-couples of the Golden Age.

At the start of the Silver Age, when editor Julius Schwartz recast and updated several of the old Golden Age heroes, he had writer Gardner Fox, who had created the original Hawkman, to give the character a more science fiction spin.  In the revamp, Hawkgirl wasn’t just Hawkman’s girlfriend, Katar and Shayera Hol were a husband-and-wife team of police officers from the planet Thannagar, who come to Earth in pursuit of a criminal and decide to stick around.

After the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, (or Hawkwoman, as she called herself in later decades),  suffered waves of retcons as DC’s editors and writers tried to fix the inconsistencies created by each preceding fix.  As a result, by the ‘90s they found it easier to just separate the two characters rather than deal with them as a team.

BULLETMAN, published by Fawcett Comics, also featured a husband and wife team of crime-fighters.  Police ballistics expert Jim Barr invented a serum giving him enhanced strength and intelligence, and a bullet-shaped helmet which gave him control over gravity enabling him to deflect bullets and fly.  Like Carter Hall, he shared his discovery with his girlfriend, Susan Kent, so that they could fight crime together as Bulletman and Bulletgirl; and like the Hawks, the two eventually married.  Although fairly obscure today, Bulletman was for a time Fawcett’s second most popular character, next to Captain Marvel.

Another Golden Age character, even more obscure but worth mentioning, was Quality Comics’ DOLL MAN, a guy who could shrink down to six inches in height.  Like many other characters published by Quality during the Golden Age, Doll Man was acquired by DC Comics in the ‘70s and put in a group called the Freedom Fighters; but has been little used.  Still, he also is significant in that he went against the unwritten rule that Super-Heroes mustn’t let their loved ones know what they do in their off-hours.  Darrel Dane began his career by using his shrinking formula to save his girlfriend, Martha Roberts from kidnappers.  Martha makes his costume for him, and eventually gains shrinking powers herself so that she can join him as Doll Girl.

Early on in the FANTASTIC FOUR’s run, Reed Richard and Sue Storm tied the knot in a ceremony attended by many of the big names in Marvel Comics; (although not Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; as an in-joke they were shown being thrown out of the building as gate-crashers).  For the most part, their marriage has been a solid and stable one, and they are raising two fantastic children.

Other heroes of the Marvel Universe have gotten married as well.  Hank “Ant-Man” Pym and Janet “Wasp” Van Dyne have had a rocky relationship, buffeted chiefly by Hank’s emotional problems.  For a while, Scarlet Witch was married to her fellow Avenger, the Vision, and had to face a lot of prejudice, not, for a change, because Wanda is a mutant, but because the Vision is an android.  And then they had kids.  Um… how did that work?  John Byrne later explained it by saying that their twins were figments of Wanda’s imagination given physical substance by her powers… somehow.  Which makes sense, I guess.

I think the happiest marriage in all of comics, though would be that of Ralph and Sue Dibney.  Ralph, “The Elongated Man”, was a stretchable sleuth with a “nose for mystery”, who would travel around the world with his wealthy wife, solving baffling cases in eight pages or less as a back-up feature in THE FLASH.  Their relationship was modeled after Nick and Nora Charles from “The Thin Man” movies, (minus the copious amounts of alcohol William Powell and Myrna Loy seemed to drink in the films); united in a love for solving puzzles and for each other.  Every year, Sue would create a special mystery as a birthday present for her husband to solve.  For a while, Ralph was a member of the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA by himself, but when he rejoined the team in JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, he brought Sue with him and she became a valuable supporting character.  And dang it, they were so cute together.  Sadly, Sue was killed off in the IDENTITY CRISIS miniseries in order to provide the heroes with a nice tragic beginning..  Because nothing happy can last, I guess.

In “Anna Karenina”, Leo Tolstoy said that “Happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Perhaps this is why comic writers are uncomfortable writing stable relationships and would rather give their heroes messy love-lives.  Which is a shame, because I don’t think it has to be that way. 

The Smile of the Bat

Strangely enough, I didn’t read many comic books as a kid, with the exception of my Dad’s collection of POGO books in our basement and the comics pages of the Sunday newspaper.  I’m afraid I had a kind of snobbish attitude towards them; I read real books, like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.  But on one occasion, my parents bought my brother and I each a comic book and those books, although I can’t say exactly changed my life, stayed with me in my imaginations and my memory.

One was an issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD featuring a team-up between Batman and the Atom in which Batman winds up in a coma and the Atom helps him solve his own murder by shrinking down to microscopic size and running around on the surface of Batman’s brain to stimulate it into moving his body.  The other was a DETECTIVE COMICS which featured the epic conclusion of Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson’s Manhunter series.  The Manhunter/Batman story in particular impressed me with Simonson’s stunning artwork and I tried lifting some of his visual techniques in some of my own cartoons.

But there was more to those comics than that. This was during the mid-’70s, when DC Comics was putting out 100-page issues, cram-packed with reprint goodness.  In addition to the featured story, those two comics also included, between the two of them, a surreal Golden Age Spectre story, Steve Ditko’s origin story for the Creeper, the Viking Prince, the Golden Age Green Lantern’s first battle with the Sportsmaster, and a fantastic story in which Dr. Fate and Hourman team-up to fight not just Solomon Grundy, but a zombie Green Lantern.  My brother and I must have read and re-read those two comics for months.

But in some ways the strangest story of them all was a reprint of an old Batman and Robin tale from the ‘40s.  To explain why, let me back up a bit.

The first thing that struck me when I read those comics was the ears.  DC had recently re-designed Batman’s costume giving him a cowl with eight-inch long bat-ears pointy enough to put someone’s eyes out.  The second, and more significant thing I noticed was how serious Batman was.  I was familiar with the TV Batman, of course, who would smile and shake hands with Robin before proceeding to beat the snot out of criminals in the animated opening; but in the ’70s DC went through a process of trying to de-silly the Darknight Detective..  This Batman wasn’t just serious, he was positively grim.  The way Walt Simonson drew him, Batman was frowning so hard it looked like his face was going to break.

But one of the comics, I forget which one now, also had a Golden Age Batman story in which he and Robin match wits with a couple villains I hadn’t heard of before named Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee.  This looked more like the Batman I’d been familiar with.  His ears were a reasonable length and didn’t look like they were compensating for anything.  He could joke with Robin while punching out thugs.  He actually smiled.  This was a Batman who clearly enjoyed his work.  The cognitive dissonance between the two stories was enough to give my poor 10-year-old brain whiplash.

It was many years later that I started seriously reading comic books; about the time Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS came out in fact.  If the Batman of the ‘70s was grim, Miller’s Batman was ultra-grim:  a bitter and angry, obsessive old man in a corrupt and crime-ridden city.  Miller told a powerful story and his comic was certainly ground-breaking.  DARK KNIGHT RETURNS is a good comic, but I’m not sure I’m so happy with its Batman becoming the Definitive Batman.

DARK KNIGHT RETURNS was set in a Gotham City that was dark and crime-ridden because it had deteriorated since Batman’s retirement.  Succeeding writers decided that Gotham was always a dark and corrupt city.  The DARK KNIGHT Batman was a bitter old man who’d been stewing in his obsessions for decades.  Later writers grafted this attitude onto the present-day Batman.  And then there’s the whole thing about his relationship with Superman.  There once was a time when Superman and Batman were buds, and regarded each other as peers.  DARK KNIGHT played up their differences, and it’s Bruce Wayne was contemptuous of Clark Kent. Now, granted, Miller handled this well, and gave the reader the sense that there had be a friendship between the two men at one time; and his portrayal of Superman is more sympathetic than perhaps a lot of readers have given credit.  But that hasn’t stopped other writers from seizing on this antagonism as the defining dynamic between the two characters.

Max Alan Collins, a prolific mystery author who has also written comic books, was once asked to write an introduction for the trade paperback compilation volume of DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.  The piece he wrote was rejected, and he later claimed it was because in the introduction he said that Frank Miller’s dark and psychotic Batman and the campy Adam West Batman from TV were both legitimate interpretations of the character.

A similar sentiment was expressed in an episode of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold in which the Bat-Mite directly addressed Batman‘s fans:

“Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots than the tortured avenger crying out for mommy and daddy.”

Don’t get me wrong; the Grim and Gritty Post-DARK KNIGHT/Post-WATCHMEN Era has produced some really good stories; but I can’t help but think something has been lost too, and that something is a sense of Joy.  Batman used take some pleasure in his work; He used to be able to relax.  He used to be able to smile.

There was a classic Batman story from the ‘70s in which Bruce Wayne takes some disadvantaged Gotham kids out on a camping trip, and he overhears them talking about the Batman.  Each one has a different , fanciful idea about what the Batman is really like.  Bruce changes into his costume and comes out to surprise the kids.  “Actually, Batman looks like this!” he says.  The kids laugh:  “You can’t fool us, Mister Wayne!”

It’s hard to imagine the current-day Bruce Wayne taking time off from his War on Crime to organize a camping trip or putting on his costume to give some kids a treat.  Nope, he’s too busy wallowing in angst and grim determination.

Which I wouldn’t mind if it gave us good stories and if this uber-grim attitude was confined to the Bat-Cave, but one of the downsides of the Grim ‘n’ Gritty Era is that it has given writers the sense that Gloom equals Realism and if Dark Angst works for Batman, it should work for other heroes too.  This is why the Man of Steel movie gave us a Superman dressed in a costume of reddish-grey and bluish-grey,   Back in the early ‘90s, the short-lived TV series based on THE FLASH tried to look as much as possible like Tim Burton’s Batman, set in a city of eternal night.  The newer TV series is a little wiser, allowing Barry Allen to run around in the daytime occasionally, and giving him some fun in his life as well as angst.

I suppose it’s too late now to avoid sounding like a Cranky Old Fan.  But I like my comics and my heroes to have a sense of Joy about them.  I don’t insist that they all be “Bwa-ha-ha” funny like the old JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, or that Batman fight goofy space aliens as he did in the 1950s.  But I would like some sense of fun; some sense that the heroes are allowed to enjoy themselves on occasion.

I’d like to see Batman smile a little more.

Anti Heroic

ANTI HERO

The Anti-Hero could be defined as an lead character, often as a presumptive hero, who does not possess heroic qualities.  He or she is not courageous or noble or moral, the goal for them is survival or some other selfish target.  They are possessed of ambiguous morality, often being as flawed, or frankly, evil as the antagonist they fight.  The role they play is an archetype of hero, that is turned upside down.  In some cases this is meant to be a means to expose the ultimate human foundation of any "hero" but sometimes it is just a means to tell a story.  The lack of moral tone can be attractive to some readers, who tire of the hero being ever so good.

DEATH DEALER

The character was painted into existence by Frank Frazetta and was seen fighting bad guys, but, his red glowing eyes and menacing look, let you imagine, he was more pissed than being heroic. James R. Silke was one of the first to bring Death Dealer's tales to life in story.  And the stories are vivid, wildly entertaining and well written.  I would hesitate to call Death Dealer an anti hero, in that the helmet is the cause of his actions.  He is Gath of Baal, and wears a cursed helmet that makes him the bearer of the form of the God of Death.  His actions, thereby, are not his own.  We see him taking many lives, and not many good people dying by his hand.  These books were well written and I recommend them, but they are hard to find and expensive.  So happy hunting.

ELRIC

Michael Moorcock is a very bright writer who writes stories to examine the motives and weaknesses of his lead character, Elric of Melnibone.  He is an elf or elf like Emperor of an ancient people and land, and his sorcery and skill in battle are augmented by his resort to calling upon evil Gods, elementals of power, and an unique sword that drains souls.  He is described as a weak, pale albino, with deeply introspective fears and wonders.  He is selfish, and hateful.  But, he is also a creature of his time and people, so, at some points he is kind, he is capable of love, and he is also seemingly cursed.  These books have been collected in many forms, but the most lovely are those with the Michael Whelan covers. 

KANE

Karl Edward Wagner wrote numerous tales, edited some works by greats, such as Robert E. Howard, and his most acclaimed work surrounds his Anti Hero, Kane.  The attraction to the character Kane is rather the opposite of what was just said about Elric.  Kane is handsome, powerful, brilliant, and he is curious, and that makes him try to find powerful items to make him more able, in his quest to become the most powerful man upon the planet.  He doesn't suffer from weakness, he is powerful in sorcery, swordplay, and darker arts of magic.  Wagner wasn't, apparently, interested in telling the stories to follow a weak young man into a powerful older king.  He was showing the reader the mind of one who was powerful, and wanted more power.

GOR

John Norman in his real life was a professor of philosophy. He wrote the counter Earth planet Gor into life with the adventures of Earth man Tarl Cabot. Cabot was initially horrified to see humans used as slaves, and violence and ancient codes of honor ruling the planet. But eventually, after a time spent becoming Gorean, he too adopts the practices. The later books of the series become more explicit in slavery, sexual domination, and cruelty. The author has said that Gor is a place that the theories of Nietzsche and Freud are played out. The strong rule the weak, and sex becomes a highly ritualized form of exchange of power. 

SCOUT

The comic book SCOUT by Timothy Truman was the first comic book that made me cry.  Not because it was so bad.  Not because it was an emo comic meant to evoke tears or sorrow.  I'd read long running comic book series with emotional content.  I'd read very well written and well illustrated works.  Timothy Truman's Scout was a story with an ambitious back story, a mythology, action, and it was a depressing prophetic future tale.  And the most touching portion of the complicated, magnificent tale, was the main character, while powerful, bright, and heroic, he was a father of two boys, who longed to be like their father.  He was also accompanied by a totem, a spirit animal from whom he learned about an inner journey and path through their guidance.  There was a beginning, an end, and hope for a new beginning here, with a background strewn with opportunities for more stories.  I tell people to read it, but, they think comics = superheroes.  This isn't that.  This isn't an action movie either.  This is a story filled with guns, spiritual growth, alternate futures, and fantastic art, and thoughtful writing.
 There have been TPBs of the series, but only of the first two story arcs.  The first two story arcs from Eclipse, then 20 years later the same two by Dynamic Forces.  I'd like to see a collection of the first series SCOUT, then a complete collection of the second SCOUT: War Shaman.  Then, when these are complete, perhaps the stories that have been hinted at by the highly talented Truman might be birthed.
 

There were ancillary series and books to read that are not by Tim Truman, but they are still quite good, and worth researching for the value of how they add to your reading pleasure.

SCOUT OUT TIMOTHY TRUMAN at his SITE

That Time of the Year Again: The Two Christmases

It seems like the "War On Christmas" is starting earlier every year.  Kirk Cameron came out with a new movie this past month in which he tries to Rescue Christmas from them Godless Pagans.  And that means I need to trot out an essay I originally wrote several years ago for another blog of Alex's and which I like to re-post at this time of the year when our Culture Warriors begin putting the Vent in Advent.  It's all about how it's silly to wage a War On Christmas if you don't know which one you're shooting at.

* * * * *

For a while back when I lived in Darkest Iowa, I shared a duplex apartment with my wacky brother Steeve and my friend Scott. One year, Scott asked me to draw some Christmas cards for him to send to his Internet friends. This was around 1990, back in the caveman days. We didn't actually have Internet access ourselves, but Scott had borrowed a friend's university account and spent a lot of his free time on a computer bulletin board based out of the University of Iowa. For a while, both Scott and I were forum moderators at that site, (despite the fact that neither of us were students at U of I and in fact I was an alumnus of Iowa State).

I drew three different designs for him. One was a parody of Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" featuring the bulletin board's Sysop. One was a fairly bland one with a picture of a computer made out of snow. The third one bore the message "Have a Happy and Blessed Christmas Season."

"You can't say that," Scott said.

"Why not?"

"Because a lot of the people on my list are wiccans and atheists and agnostics. They'd be offended!"

Personally, I didn't see why they should. The message wasn't making any kind of religious statement; it just extended good wishes. My own attitude was, to paraphrase Bette Midler, if they can't take a blessing, screw `em. But since I was doing the cards for Scott in the first place, I acceded to his wishes and changed the message to a non-controversial "Greason's Seetings."

I think about Scott and his cards when I hear about the "War on Christmas". I suppose my experience should put me on the side of the Righteous Warriors out to protect Baby Jesus from the Evil Secularists. Somehow, though, I can't get that worked up about it. If a cashier wishes me a "Happy Holidays", she's expressing a hope that nice things happen; the same as if she had said "Merry Christmas," "Groovy Kwanzaa", "Swingin' Solstice" or "May the Great Bird of the Galaxy roost on your planet." I don't have to celebrate any of those things to recognize and appreciate nice intentions. In the same way, I don't have to consider it an affront to God if somebody says "gesundheit" when I sneeze instead of "God bless you." Take it in the spirit in which it's given.

At one time I used to get all bent out of shape about the Secularization of Christmas. I particularly detested the deification of Santa Claus. When I was in junior high and full of adolescent anger and self-righteousness, I wrote an abrasive, curmudgeonly piece on the subject which upon saner reflection I threw away. A thirteen-year-old curmudgeon is not a pretty thing. My views towards Ol' Saint Nick have mellowed since then as I have come to accept what I call The Two Christmases.

There are two holidays celebrated on December 25th. One, of course, is the Feast of the Nativity, when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Then there's the other holiday, the Feast of Jingle Bells and Jolly Fat Men in Red Suits and Reindeer with Luminous Noses. Both holidays happen to have the same name, but they're different.

I celebrate both; and I don't see why the two need to be mutually exclusive.

Where the Christmas Warriors get it wrong is where they assume that the holiday has to be either one or the other. To a certain extent, I can sympathize with their point. I worship Christ, the holiday's namesake; and it does bother me when the earthly Babel sounds of the secular festivities drown out the song which the blessed angels sing. The Puritans felt this way and so they banned Christmas all together when they ruled England under Cromwell. Which is a funny way to honor a man who loved parties and who used feasts in his parables to represent the Kingdom of Heaven.

Christmas, as it is celebrated today, has a rich and varied tradition; sacred and secular, spiritual and commercial, tacky and sublime. There's a lot of Christmas stuff that I deeply love, despite having no connection to the Nativity story and only a tenuous connection, if that, to my religious convictions: family get-togethers, the giving of gifts, Vince Guaraldi`s piano music for "A Charlie Brown Christmas", just about any adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Thurl Ravenscroft singing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch".

When I was little, our family had a devotional booklet that we used every Christmas called The Talking Christmas Tree. Instead of setting up the Christmas tree and decorating it all at once, we'd put it together bit by bit. The first night we'd just put up the tree. The second night we'd add the lights. Then little by little we'd add more to the tree and we'd have a devotion talking about how each addition could symbolize something about God.

Now I know that most of those decorations, and the tree itself, can be traced back to pagan sources, which is why the Puritans had such a problem with the holiday. But part of the joy of Christmas comes not from purging the religious holiday of all secular dross, but rather of finding things in the holiday bramble that enrich and illuminate the spiritual aspects.

(According to one story, Martin Luther put up the first Christmas tree. Walking home one winter, he was so struck by the beauty of stars shining though the evergreens that he brought a tree home and put lighted candles in its branches so his family could see. And right after that, Philip Melanchthon invented fire insurance. This story is almost certainly untrue; other scholars trace the decorating of trees back to pre-Christian times; still, it's a good story).

It works both ways. Just as Christians can enrich their celebrations with aspects of the secular holiday, so too can Christian elements filter out into to world at large. Usually these elements are diluted: sentimental crèche scenes, platitudes of "Peace on Earth", Madonna and Child postage stamps; but God's Word does not return empty; not even when it's been wrapped in tinsel.

If we limit Christmas to only Christ - which I do believe is the most important part - then we also exclude those who aren't Christian from the holiday; we become in effect dogs in the manger. If we actually wind up driving people away from that manger, then we ain't doing Baby Jesus any favors.

"Happy Holidays" is a blessing, and ultimately all blessings come from God. The proper response isn't "That's Merry Christmas, you PC secularist!" but rather "Thank you; and a Merry Christmas to you too!"

The Erik Larsen Interview

Erik Larsen has been involved in the comic book business since 1982, when he self-published his first comic, Graphic Fantasy, which contained the first incarnation of his most notable character, Savage Dragon. The character was simply called The Dragon on the cover.

He later became a paid professional when his illustration of two of his other of characters, Vanguard and Mighty Man, was published as the back cover of Megaton #2 in October 1985. A Vanguard story and cover (fighting Savage Dragon, no less) for Megaton #3 gave him the traction to make a sustained effort doing what he loved, making comic books.

After working for a couple of smaller publishers, he broke in to “The Big Two” when he was hired to draw DC’s title Doom Patrol. After building a reputation at DC, Erik was given the chance to work for Marvel comics. He then worked for both companies until he was asked to take over the Amazing Spider-Man when Todd McFarlane moved over to launch a new Spider-Man title in 1990.

In 1992, Erik was one of the founding creators who formed Image Comics seeking more control over their creative work. It was at Image that resurrected Savage Dragon, along with Vanguard and Mighty Man. Although he has worked for both Marvel and DC since the launch of Image Comics, he has continuously published Savage Dragon for over twenty years.

If you want to Google his name make sure you spell it properly, Erik Larsen, otherwise you might get a historic Disney animator (Eric Larson) or a contemporary journalist and author (Erik Larson).

Paul Ewert: As one of the founders of Image you’ve blazed your own path and as such have acted as publisher, president, chief financial officer, as well as creative talent. Your work, Savage Dragon, is approaching issue #200. Dave Sim’s Cerebus reached issue #300. Do you see yourself reaching that milestone?

© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons

Erik Larsen: I certainly hope to, yes. It’s a goal—a benchmark—and once reached I’d like to just keep on going.

PE: What does it feel like to have published two hundred issues of a book that you control creatively?  To what extent is an issue number arbitrary, could you keep going far beyond 300?  How about 400?

EL: Or beyond. It would be nice to set the kind of record that people would look at and say, “Okay…maybe I’ll try for the #2 spot.” 500 issues plus would be pretty awesome but that’s going to depend on readers hanging in there. I can’t do this without them.

PE: You helped Image attempt to bring back Supreme.  Why did you take on that title? 

EL: It seemed like a good idea at the time. I had a take on it that I thought was pretty fun and when Eric Stephenson and Rob Liefeld were talking about the books I threw out my 2¢ and said, “well, this is what I’d do…” and they both looked at each other dumfounded and proceeded to try and talk me into doing the book.

PE: What made it such an attractive project?

EL: It had possibilities and I had a story to tell. There was also an unpublished Alan Moore script and I’d never illustrated one of his stories so that was kind of an attraction.

PE: Were you surprised that no one has stepped up to take on Supreme after you left?  

EL: Not really, no. None of the titles performed spectacularly and a few didn’t really take off at all. Supreme really wasn’t attracting sustainable numbers.

PE: What elements of your work do you keep consistent? How as a creative talent do you make sure you do that?

EL: Certainly I make an effort to keep the characters looking relatively the same from issue to issue. There’s a certain dynamic that seems to be present. There are certain things which just seem to stick.

PE: Does that mean the “humanness” of your characters just naturally occurs when you write them? That the visual angles in panels are just unconsciously locked in to the right dramatic effect? Panels connect together properly so they set the pace of the story as you want it to flow? If so, how can I get me some of that?

EL: It’s funny but it does almost work that way. A couple of lines of dialogue in and it becomes clear what a given character would or wouldn’t do or say. They “find their voice” and anything which contradicts that just seems wrong and doesn’t ring true. With the art as well…that character wouldn’t stand like that or move like that. It would be like putting the Thing in a Spider-Man pose. It just looks weird and feels wrong.

You can observe the same thing in the real world. There are people that carry themselves as though they think they’re hot stuff and others who clearly have less confidence.

As a storyteller you develop a feel for those kinds of things and that’s a big part of why some characters feel real while others seem so shallow in another writer’s or artist’s hands. I can remember sending in notes when we were doing the Savage Dragon cartoon because so much of the dialogue was utilitarian. It got the characters from one place to another but too little of it showed personality. You didn’t learn who the characters were through their dialogue and in the real world you can’t help but learn that.

Overhear a conversation and in half a minute you’ll be making judgment calls…that guy’s a bit of an asshole. She doesn’t listen to anything he says. That kid really wants attention. That sort of thing. It all adds up. It all means something and if you’re doing your job well the reader will see the pattern and recognize the characters. “That’s just like something Kill-Cat would do” and even fill in the blanks (“I know just what he’s thinking”) based on past experience.

PE: How important are Good and Evil to the telling of your stories? It is often we hear about the root of all evil, but what is the root of all good?    How can a creative talent work to show that, or celebrate THAT?

EL: I haven’t dealt a lot with absolute evil. Largely I go with the idea that “everyone is the hero of their own story” and build off of that. The key is motivation. Why do you do what you do? What do you want from that? Fame? Glory? Love? Money? Comfort? Revenge? Satisfaction? Accolades? Sometimes it’s as simple as a lack of imagination and a need with a given character. I’m hungry now. My family is hungry now. Our rent is due now. How can I solve this problem now? And people justify their actions in any number of ways. Stories flow from that.

PE: Working in creative professions can be very difficult without emotionally supportive people around you. Have you had any family or friends whose opinions of what you do changed over your career? Was it emotionally dramatic or anti-climactic to find that out?

EL: Nothing has been all that dramatic. I was a kid that drew all of the time. I started drawing comics for my own enjoyment when I was very young. So these guys were pretty much used to the idea right out of the gate. In my immediate family we all have our own interests and this is just dad’s job. My wife and kids don’t read comics. My youngest read Scott Pilgrim and a couple other things but not a lot. He’s the most interested in it. He’ll ask what I’m doing and even offer suggestions. Plus, I have friends in and out of comics that I can bounce ideas off of. That’s pretty great.

PE: So you’ve never had an uncle who badgered your parents to get you to get “solid work” in construction or banking and then had to admit that you have done well for yourself as a “kiddie book” artist?

EL: Nope. Never. My dad refers to them as funnybooks at times but he calls them that to be a goof. It’s not said in a way to demean them. My folks were pretty supportive.

PE: Along with Jack Kirby, who are the artists who have had a strong influence on your style and work habits?

EL: There’s a lot of Walt Simonson, Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Terry Austin in the mix. Herb Trimpe was an early influence--the first guy, really. I grew up on his run on the Incredible Hulk. John Byrne came somewhat later. I channel a lot of guys picking up effects here and there. When I was on Spider-Man I was looking at Steve Ditko an awful lot. Jack Kirby is the big one.

PE: What was the most outrageous fun that you had while working on a project? Why was that?  The people you worked with, the subject matter, the publisher giving you freedom?

EL: There’s no one breakout moment that I can point to. Certainly the unlimited freedom I have now is incredibly liberating. I dipped my toe back into the Marvel/DC pool a while back and the contrast is amazing--and I was given a lot of freedom then--it’s just not the same thing.

PE: Describe the contrast you felt when you “dipped your toe back in the Marvel/DC pool?” Was there something you used to accept as “part of the job” back in the day that rubbed you the wrong way this time? Has work-for-hire changed that much or has doing creator-owned work opened your eyes wider to creative freedoms available to you?

EL: There was a plot which we had set in motion and the editor realized, somewhat late in the game, that was too similar to something which was going on in another book with the same character and we had to scramble to make changes and come up with an alternative that made some sense. I don’t think we were able to quite pull that off and the end result was kind of a nonsensical mess. I couldn’t help but think…this wouldn’t have happened in my own book. It may even just be in my own head but the sense I got seemed to be that I needed to check in regard to a lot of things.

At this point I don’t think I could go back. I’m so lost. I really lost the thread on all of these characters and don’t know where any of them stand. I’d have to just make up new stuff for the most part and if I’m doing that…what’s the point? Why bother? Why not just do it on my own in my own book where I don’t have to answer to anybody? 

PE: What change, since you started in this business, has made the biggest impact on you and your work?

EL: Computer color and the advent of the internet has made the biggest impact. The reality that I can scan in pages and email tiffs to be colored by a guy in Greece is amazing. That I can make my own corrections in a computer program on my own computer in my home is fantastic.

PE: As a successful artist you work in an industry that chews up and spits out creative talents.   The failed attempts at careers far outnumber the success stories.  What is the best advice for beginning artists?

EL: Be humble. Be helpful. Make your deadlines. Learn your craft. The guys who vanish do so for a reason. Either they’re not very good or not very dependable or not easy to work with. It’s really hard to break into comics--it’s incredibly easy to break out. Each job you do is the job application to get your next job. If you do bad work or blow a deadline or start being a headache--it’s very easy to walk away from you. You are easily replaced.