Meet the Ant-Man! Not him. No, not the other one. DC’s Ant-Man!

On By Mark PerigardIn Comics4 Comments
The Ant-Man strikes
What lies beneath the mask of the pint-sized peril?

He’s the mighty mite, a six-inch dynamo with the weight and density of a full-grown man, the small scourge of crime everywhere.

He’s …. the Ant-Man!

You’re probably thinking of Marvel Comics’ Hank Pym right about now.

No, it’s not him.

Or maybe you’re guessing it must be his successor, Scott Lang, who recently received the big-screen treatment and was hilarious.

Sorry. This is DC’s Ant-Man – a character who made but one appearance in “Batman” No. 156, cover date June 1963.

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‘Recalled to Life’: A Case for Re-reading the Classics

On By Mark PerigardIn Books2 Comments

taleoftwoMost people are exposed to the classics at the worst time of their lives.

When they are teenagers.

Young people typically have no patience or interest in the best works in literature and regard them, alas, as a slog to get through to graduation.

Part of the blame has to fall on school systems, which present these works about as appealing as the municipal tax code.

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DC/IDW’s ‘Love is Love’ Honors Pulse Victims

On By Mark PerigardIn Comics2 Comments
DC/IDW's benefit book 'Love is Love'
DC/IDW’s benefit book ‘Love is Love’

DC and IDW Publishing’s “Love is Love” welcomes the best and brightest comics creators today to honor the victims of the Pulse shooting in Orlando in June.

Marc Andreyko (“Batwoman”) has gathered such talents as Paul Dini, Gail Simone, Phil Jimenez and Brian Michael Bendis as well as a few folks you don’t typically associate with comics: Patton Oswalt, Taran Killam, Morgan Spurlock and Matt Bomer.

Most of the stories in this 144-page trade paperback run just one page.

One page?

What kind of impact can one page deliver?

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When Magazines Struggle

On By Mark PerigardIn Books2 Comments
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

The news came via a handful of flimsy postcards.

Four beloved fiction magazines were altering their formats to print only “double issues.”

The catch?

They were dropping down to bimonthly releases.

The quality quartet – “Analog Science Fiction and Fact,” “Asimov’s Science Fiction,” “Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine” and “Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine” – have all been monthly publications, more or less.

For the last several years, they’ve been published 10 times a year – in eight regular-sized issues plus two double-sized issues.

But now current owner Dell Magazines, a subsidiary of Penny Publications, best known for its monthly flood of crossword and puzzle magazines, decided to switch them to bimonthly status and so notified its subscribers in postcards.

Is the change because of declining sales?

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When Batman Faced his Greatest Fear

On By Mark PerigardIn Comics8 Comments
"Robin Dies at Dawn" - and the unforgettable cover to "Batman" No. 156.
“Robin Dies at Dawn” – and the unforgettable cover to “Batman” No. 156.

My favorite era in “Batman” comics – actually all of DC – is the late ’50s and early ’60s.

Oh, these weren’t the comics I grew up with.

By the time I came along, Batman was already years into his “New Look” – the artistic reboot that pushed for realism, jettisoned most of the Bat-Family and made for a dull crime-fighter.

Over the years, I have gone back and tried to collect as much as I can – not much, all things considered – of “Batman,” “Detective Comics” and “World’s Finest” during this era.

The stories are just so much fun.

Many comics fans – and certainly DC itself – disagree.

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