A baffling email popped up in my inbox.
The subject line read: “Buyer Refund – Case Resolution – Response Required.”
The message landed as a priority alert, with an angry red exclamation point.
The return address was “service@paypal.com” – at least, that’s how it appeared in my inbox.
But there was something strange about this.
My local comics shop is a rarity in the Boston area.
It has massive tables loaded with dollar boxes, ones that are replenished regularly.
I’ve been spending a lot of time there, much more than at the new arrival shelves.
I’ve recently come across great runs of such titles as “The Warlord,” “Night Force,” “The Outsiders” and “West Coast Avengers.”
Most of the comics are from the ’80s and ’90s, but I often find books going as far back as the ’60s, such as a “Sub-Mariner” or a Gold Key “Zorro.”
And then there was the latest gem I came across:
Like many fabulous things, the Doom Patrol was born out of desperation.
It was late 1962, and DC’s “My Greatest Adventure” faced cancellation.
Started in 1955, “My Greatest Adventure” was one of DC’s many anthology books that ran amok with weird sci-fi tales, such as “I Was the Hunted Man-Bird of Mystery Mesa!” (in issue No. 75) and “Cure Our Robot Ruler – or Die” (in issue No. 77).
Gee, you’d think with stories like that, the comics would be flying off the shelves.
Continue reading “DC Gets its Freak on with the Doom Patrol”
“Previews” is the monthly catalog for comic book stores and their fan-boy and fan-girl customers to peruse upcoming merchandise. The thing runs over 600 pages a month, and is a look into what’s going to be hot (or not) in comics and related merchandise.
In the latest issue, amid the ads for new comics, graphic novels, trading cards and Funko figures, there appeared the most curious solicitation:
Continue reading “Did Warner Bros. License a Wonder Woman Sex Doll?”
Marvel Comics writer Mark Gruenwald loved Captain America.
And he proved it in countless stories of the Star-Spangled Avenger during the ’80s and ’90s. His Cap was the strong, unwavering hero that serves as the template today for the big-budget blockbusters starring Chris Evans.
But not every story can be a masterpiece. Sometimes the pressure of the monthly deadline – or here, the biweekly deadline – can prove to be too much for even the most able of scripters.
Take, for example, “The Superia Stratagem,” a six-part saga running bi-weekly during the summer of 1991 in which Cap goes up against a secret society of female super-villains.
Continue reading “That Time Captain America Almost Became Caitlyn America”
Mark Perigard 