Author Archive

They say that everything becomes respectable, given enough time. The lowly comic book, once the scourge of polite society and pea-brained Red-baiting demagogues, is currently enjoying a stint in the catbird seat. The “graphic novel” got the ball rolling. First appearing in the 1980s, these long-form comics lent the medium a patina of literary seriousness, and things have never been quite the same. Paradoxically, sales of comic books have gone into the crapper, as 12 year-old boys decamped for the virtual pleasures of the Web, reality TV, and assorted other time-fillers. It’s clear that the primary audience for comics now – especially superhero titles – is composed of adult males, some old enough to ground those tweeners, when necessary.

No surprise, then, that among the most popular traveling exhibitions is ZAP! POW! BAM! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1938-1950, and its companion piece, Lights, Camera, Action: Comic Book Heroes of Film and Television, both of which I recently took in at L.A.’s tony Skirball Cultural Center, in the verdant hills of Brentwood, a stone’s throw from the already-fabled Getty.

The White Tiger almost kicked Spider-Man’s ass. In issues # 9-10 of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man – shit, was that actually 30+ years ago! – Webhead almost had a can of whupass opened on him by an enigmatic, white-clad kung-fu specialistfew people knew much about. The Tiger and the Wall-Crawler got into a tete-a-tete based on a misunderstanding – in those days, Marvel Comics manufactured any misunderstanding that would get two heroes going for each other’s throat – but the Tiger held his own against his more powerful opponent, keeping Spidey off balance with an awesome array of kicks, leaps, and devastating chops, their knock-down brawl raging from the leafy campus of fictional Empire State University to the graffiti-stained tenements of the Bronx.

My naïve, anachronistic, Gen X lineup for the forthcoming Avengers film

In late 1976, my dreamy, scrawny nine year-old self had zero interest in comic books. This wasn’t evidence of a general lack of enthusiasm for superheroes, as I did watch Hanna-Barbera’s corny “Superfriends” each Saturday morning, as well as “Wonder Woman” during prime-time, and reruns of the old “Superman” series whenever I stumbled across an episode. Let’s face it, what were Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers but superheroes in civvies, and I watched their respective shows with relish. But I barely knew what a comic book was.