Random Awesomeness

This is what I spent most of the '70s reading, Superman, as drawn by Curt Swan, and written by the likes of Elliot S! Maggin, Cary Bates and Denny O'Neill. This book contains reprints of some of the first comics I can remember reading. As a kid I always liked Superman because he was unambiguously good and extremely tough, but he still had problems he couldn't solve by brute force.
This collection reflects the changes DC editorial made to the character and his circumstance; Clark Kent works for a tv station, not a newspaper, his antagonist at work is Steve Lombard, not Lois Lane. They manage to update Superman without killing off his supporting cast or giving him a hip, new costume. They accept Superman as being the IBM of superheroes, not adventurous or dramatic, but reliable.
One thing that strikes me about these stories is the way the writers are delicately pushing the boundaries of what you can do in a Superman comic, but they do it in the DC style, without the angst and grandiosity you would find in Marvel comics. They introduce a parallel Earth and give us a thinly-disguised (even to my 7 year old eyes) Captain Marvel knock-off, and delve into social relevance, turning Lois Lane black to go undercover. They take concepts that could be edgy or mindblowing and put them into the context of a Superman comic without making the reader feel lost.
The stories in this collection are not timeless classics, they are not that ambitious. But they are solidly entertaining, with beautiful Curt Swan art and a playful attitude that respects the reader and the character.

Comics of the 1970s

Since I've been teaching this course at Lehman on films of the 1970s, I've been thinking a lot about the american comics of the decade. while the 80s (justifiably) get the credit for revisionary works like Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, it seems to me that there was a lot of cool and weird stuff being published by Marvel and DC during the preceding decade. A brief list:

Tomb of Dracula; Omega the Unknown; Howard the Duck; Steve Englehart's Captain America run; The Defenders/Avengers war; Cary Bates and Elliot S Maggin's Superman runs; the Rhas Al Ghul Batman stories; Gwen Stacy's death; Green Lantern/Green Arrow; Chris Claremont's X-Men

Anyone want to post their favorite 70s era comics memories?

Neil Gaiman book signing in NYC

Hey guys,

On March 7th Neil Gaiman will be at Books of Wonder to sign copies of the book, _Blueberry Girl_, with the book's illustrator, Charles Vess.

The current details are here. The cool thing is that they'll let you bring an additional book to have signed!

I think this is a go, don't you? Give me a call and let's make this happen!

Meeting II

So, from what I gather next Friday 2/6 is good for everyone (?) Bring the kids and they can have a playdate. If things un long, we can order pizza.

cerebus

Just discovered this blog, that seems to be reading through all three hundred or so issues of Cerebus (which Steve suggests we read next). Here's the link:

http://cereblog.org/

Maybe we want to take a look at some old Conan comics to remember what is being parodied in the early stories.

Meeting

It has been suggested that we convene to outline our plan of graphical novelish pursuit and global domination. Friday is best for me, but Wednesday is impossible, other days I'm available after school. I'd suggest we meet at the Secret Underground Bunker, Agent Shermy knows the place. Plus, it's got space for the kids to play.