Hey kids, comics.

§ December 1st, 2025 § Filed under question time § 3 Comments

So Smichal smasks

“How do kids factor in as a demographic at your shop? Is it bigger/smaller than in the past? What are they buying? Do they stay invested in the medium, or is it a passing interest?
For argument’s sake, lets define kids as 16 and under for this question.”

Well, sure, I actually get lots of kids coming through the store, largely due to my location. My store is located in a strip of stores that includes a couple of restaurants, a popular pizza place, a music store/school/venue, and one tiny storefront at the end that seems to be used as a storage area for some other business, but that’s perhaps a tale for another day.

Anyway, with all these schools and restaurants and pizzas, I get a lot of walk-in traffic, particularly from families with children. And thus, I have sort of a captive audience here, with parents unwittingly passing by on their way to eat, when their children spot my store and start shouting “LOOK, COMICS!” and the like.

In that way, I’m very fortunate. I know at the previous place of employment, we were down the road from a high school, and we’d get a lot of foot traffic when classes were out and kids were heading home. However, we weren’t surrounded by other locations that regularly brought in families with children — we had a dry cleaners, an optometrist, a tattoo parlor, a place that sold prosthetic limbs. I mean, yeah, sure, any of those places might cater to young folks (I mean, Junior’s gotta get himself inked sometime), but by and large it was the comics/games shop that was the sole attractor for families.

Now, back to my shop, what are those kids after at my store, anyway? I mean, yes, it’s a pretty good mix of just about everything. People have their ideas about what kids actually want from comic book stores, but I tell them “I had a little girl ask for and buy several Hulk comics” and those preconceived notions can just go right out the window.

But yes, some of it is What You Expect. My Little Pony, manga (especially One Piece right now), Dog Man (slowed down a bit since the movie), the Raina Telgemeier books, that sort of thing. And when it comes to the traditional comic book-type stuff, kids usually ask for Spider-Man or Batman. I get some very light interest from young folks in the Thundercats revival books, but just about every other ’60s-’80s cartoon-based comic book is For Grown-Ups Only. Simpsons comics would do incredibly well based on the demand I have for them from kids, but darned if Disney/Marvel/Whoever is leaving money on the table by not getting another comic for them out on the stands.

Along with comics, kids are also buying lots of the Little Golden Books, the thin illustrated storybook hardcovers for which I have a giant spinner rack by the door. That and the slowly dwindling supply of Funko Pops are what grabs children’s eyes and pulls them into the shop.

As for whether it’s more or less than in the past, all I can really say is that the percentage of kid clientele at my store is steadily increasing. How many are sticking with the hobby as they age…that’s hard to say. I know a handful of kids who have been coming into my shop since they were barely able to walk on their own, so at least some have maintained their interest.

The state of the weblog.

§ November 28th, 2025 § Filed under low content mode § 7 Comments

Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere, but things were a bit sparse this week, mostly due to holiday/other stuff. And next week I finally have my much-delayed eye surgery on Wednesday, so likely there won’t be a post then, either.

Next Monday, I’ll have a post. Next Friday, I’ll have a certain post up that, if you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, won’t come as any surprise. I have in fact been working on that post well in advance, which has taken up the little blogging time I did have, so it’s a tricky balancing act to be sure.

But, pals, just hang in there. Things should be back to normal in a few days after I get through and recover from surgery. I’ve said plenty of times before that I’m never going to be that blog that says “sorry for the lack of posts, be back soon!” and then is never active ever again. If the time comes to shutter the site, I’ll tell you, but that time isn’t now, or in the near future. You can’t get rid of me that easily.

Besides, I still have to finish the Final ’90s Countdown and the most recent Question Time posts. And it’s probably time for another entry about the Death of Superman.

Still waiting for that Usagi Yojimbo/Groo the Wanderer crossover.

§ November 24th, 2025 § Filed under question time § 5 Comments

David wants to know

“I’m really interested and intrigued by Usagi Yojimbo, but I’m overwhelmed by the number and variety of books that collect these stories. Given that money is not an issue, where should I start?”


Well, what you do is you find yourself a copy of Usagi’s first appearance from 1983, in Albedo Anthropomorphics #2 (pictured above), and just work forward from there.

…

…

…

…

…Well, okay, maybe that’s not quite workable. Albedo is notoriously small press, even by small press standards, and this comic being in low supply and enormous demand…well, you did say “money is not an issue.” Currently a copy can be found on eBay for $6,400, or another in one of those “professionally graded” plastic boxes for $46,000 — good news, shipping is free in both cases.

But presumably you don’t want to be messing around with single issues. That said, as someone who personally hasn’t read every Usagi Yojimbo comic that’s ever been published, it’s been my experience that these comics are highly accessible to new readers. Yes, characters have a history and there’s a measure of continuity to the proceedings, but anyone just coming aboard is given all the info they need to follow along, if necessary. So, basically, you can just jump on with the next Usagi mini-series that comes out.

Again, though, if you don’t feel like doing the single issue thing, there are no shortage of reprint collections to get you started. And because of the very nature of Usagi stories, you can probably start pretty much anywhere and you’ll be fine. I realize there are a lot of books, and that not all of them are in print at all times. There are 41 of the smaller trade paperbacks, 33 of which are collected into the Omnibus Editions from Dark Horse, and there are several other books aside from that run. This section of the Wikipedia entry details what’s in each book, if that helps.

The honest answer would be “just pick up the collections as you find them.” The phrase “boy, this issue of Usagi Yojimbo sucked” has never been uttered by a human being, and therefore you’re good wherever you start.

The only advice I’d give is maybe read the classic feudal Japan era of Usagi, before diving into spin-offs like Space Usagi, or maybe even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossovers. But then again, tons of kids were introduced to Usagi Yojimbo via the TMNT cartoon in the ’80s and that worked out okay, so what do I know.

So anyway, David, that’s a lot of reading, so you better get crackin’. There’s gonna be a quiz next week.

Just pooling it all together.

§ November 19th, 2025 § Filed under this week's comics § 21 Comments

[SPOILERS ahead, I’m totally not kidding]

So at the conclusion of their run of Animal Man in 1990 – a comic that deal with, among other things, the nature of the various layers to reality — Grant Morrison their own self appeared in the book to speak directly to the title character:


It was certainly a surprise, if not entirely unprecedented, for a fictional character to suddenly find out that he’s a fictional character in a narrative controlled by another, particularly in a serious narrative. Just in comics we saw it in Silverwolf’s Fat Ninja from the mid-1980s…okay, maybe not a 100% serious comic but I still think it counts.

And then later on we’d see it in Cerebus and his interactions with “Dave” (AKA Dave Sim, his creator), and we’d get the Fantastic Four meeting God, or Someone in a similar position, who looks an awful lot like Jack Kirby.

You know, that’s just comics. Don’t get me started on Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Anyhoo, about a year later, in Suicide Squad #58, writers John Ostrander and Kim Yale, along with artists Geoff Isherwood and Robert Campanella, introduced The Writer:


…basically taking Morrison’s self-insert character and giving them the power to affect reality with what they write in the script on their computer. It was an amusing one-shot reuse of Morrison’s storytelling device, who ends up dying on the battlefield because they couldn’t type fast enough to fix things to their benefit, as I recall.

One thing I’ve kinda wondered about all these years was whether or not Morrison was aware that this particular bit of storytelling he used in Animal Man was appropriated for this Suicide Squad tale. I mean, beyond the general awareness that anything you create under a work-for-hire contract for a publisher like DC Comics is going to be owned by DC Comics, and can be freely reused by anyone, editorial permitting. But I’m going to guess Grant Morrison had no expectation of comics’ sensational character find of 1990, Grant Morrison, was ever going to have any kind of life outside of its initial purpose.

But here we are, a mere 35 years later:


…as Morrison brings together various bits and pieces of Marvel and DC lore that they created or (in the case of the Writer’s appearance in Suicide Squad) inspired by them. It’s a wild traipsing through a surreal landscape, and Morrisoin acquits themselves well in applying the Deadpool-style humor necessary to truly make this a fourth-wall breaking, self-referential Deadpool story. It’s that Animal Man twist of discovering he’s a comic book character, but played for laughs and not expense of the story. Obviously, if anyone knows how to do this sort of thing, it’s Morrison.

Can’t really fall into the trap of “is this better or worse than Marvel’s Deadpool/Batman crossover from a few months ago,” as these are two very different approaches. Marvel’s is more straightforward adventure, this one from DC is more…about itself, the layers of reality at play, both succeeding at what they were attempting.

My main issue with these new crosovers is that the lead stories seem a little short, making room as they do for multiple back-ups with other team-ups. In general, I think the additional stories in the Marvel release were maybe a little stronger, but the DC issue has a John Constantine/Dr. Strange back-up (with a Swamp Thing cameo!) that was fun. Again, I’d have liked a longer story to take more advantage of the opportunity, but I’m guessing a 48-page Constantine/Strange comic would have a little more trouble getting greenlit. The other shorts in this issue are fine…the Laura Kinney Wolverine/Nightwing team-up has a surprisingly emotional core to it.

This first batch (if two can be “a batch”) of DC/Marvel crossovers have been successful creatively and financially (at least so far…as I write this the Batman/Deadpool one-shot hasn’t been released to the public yet). I’m hoping the promised Spider-Man/Superman crossovers planned for next year will give us longer lead stories and fewer, if any, back-ups.

But what if I were stuck on an Alex Désert island?

§ November 17th, 2025 § Filed under question time § 10 Comments

So Bob dares to asks

“What are your Top 5 ‘desert island’ books/storylines? (or alternatively ‘dessert island’)”

Well, that’s certainly a doozy, especially since my opinions can change from moment to moment. And I’ll leave out the obvious ones…you know, your Dark Knight Returns, or your Watchmens, or your All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonders, and try to stick to more unusual, personal ones. And I’ll try to stick to particular storylines or very specific “eras” of books, instead of just saying, like, “every issue of Firestorm the Nuclear Man.” Which I totally could say.

Okay, first up, to the surprise of no one:

…the “American Gothic” Swamp Thing storyline that began in the 1980s and ran through issue #50. Written by Alan Moore, art by Steve Bissette, John Totleben, and several others, Swamp Thing traveled from location to location being pushed along by John Constantine to confront various pockets of supernatural horror, all to count the machinations of a secret society trying to bring about the End of the World, as they do.

It’s a great series of issues, and a nice reprise of what Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson were doing in the original Swamp Thing series, by having our mossy gentleman encountering traditional horror archetypes and giving them unusual twists. This storyline contains a lot of what I love about Swamp Thing, and thus must join me in my solitude on this theoretic deserted island.

Next up:

…the black and white era of Zot! by Scott McCloud, published in the 1980s. I was going to say just the “Earth Stories” (the storyline where Zot is trapped on his friend Jenny’s “normal” Earth and unable to return to his “futuristic” Earth), but so much of the b&w era contains the same emotional depth. Having the adventures in Zot’s world contrast with his life in Jenny’s world help inform Zot’s behavior in the latter circumstance. Plus, all the black and white work is beautiful.

Number three:

…yes, the Omega Men. Specifically, the wild shit after Todd Klein and Shawn McManus took over in #26 (1985) and continued to the end of the series in #38. Honestly, for what was DC’s then-newest attempt at Superheroes in Space, just absolute piles of imagination was shoveled into this comic, which is probably the least appealing way I could have put that. Odd aliens, strange mysteries, even stranger revelations…it was a real roller coaster of a ride and too beautiful for this world, cancelled so early as it was.

Number four:

…I’ve talked a lot about where things kinda ended up with this series and its creator, and I realize this may be hard to believe for some of you out there…but the “High Society storyline in Cerebus is Peak Comics. It is absolutely a masterclass in How to Tell Your Story in a Comic Book, and it’s a flabbergasting achievement. It’s a story about Cerebus becoming Prime Minister of the city of Iest, and if you know anything about Cerebus the character, you realize that can’t possibly go well. It’s both dramatic and hilarious and a fascinating read.

And for number five:


…the first twelve issues of American Flagg! by Howard Chaykin. Dense, experimental storytelling that remains rewarding with each reread, something that I’d imagine would be quite valuable being stuck on a deserted island as I am in this scenario. In a recent discussion about this comic on the Blueskies, I referred to these first dozen issues as being “as good as it ever got,” and in retrospect that sounds a little diminishing, but these are actually excellent comics.

• • •

Now that’s just off the top of my head right now. I realize I didn’t include any Love and Rockets because by golly how do I narrow that down to just a single storyline? (Or two storylines, one for each brother?) Or Groo the Wanderer, where I’d just as soon take every copy with me. Anyway, I’ll save further answers along those lines for the “which comic book series would you take in their entirety to a deserted island?” question.

Oh, and if I were to go to a dessert island, I would have fudge cake topped with chocolate syrup, served with rocky road ice cream. That would wreak havoc with my blood sugar levels, absolutely, but what a way to go!

Yes, there are plenty of feet, Mr. Tarantino.

§ November 12th, 2025 § Filed under this week's comics § 17 Comments

Okay, before I get into today’s entry, I want to point back to Monday’s post about the Donald Duck comic from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Because I am an unworldly American who also has eyes that occasionally betray him, I referred to the museum by a different name. I’ve corrected the post (but left my dumb mistake there and crossed out). Thanks to Walter for pointing this out to me.

Now, onto to hopefully less error-ridden looks at some of this week’s comics! SPOILERS AHEAD!


Now, this graphic novel I haven’t had a chance to read page one yet, but it’s Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead and master cartoonist, presenting another of his epic-length biographies, like those of Schlitzie, the famous real life “pinhead” of the 20th century, and Ernie Bushmiller, creator of Nancy.

Griffith is going back to his own family as a subject, having previous written about his mother in 2015’s Invisible Ink. This time he’s examining the life of his great-grandfather William Henry Jackson, the famous photographer. My brief glance through the book reveals another lavishly illustrated, densely-told narrative that promises to be as rewarding as any of Griffith’s works. I can’t wait to dive in.

• • •


Sophie Campbell returns to full art chores for this Thanksgiving tale, as Supergirl is delayed for dinner by finding herself attempting to help a previous adversary. …Well, okay, no need to be coy, it’s Princess Shark, she’s right on the cover. It’s a fun read, and it doesn’t shy away from the dichotomy of the holiday being a time for family gatherings and maybe not having the most savory of origins. Supergirl is a solid book built around relationships and learning to understand each other, definitely one of the most worthwhile books on the stands.

• • •


Well, bless him for trying.

• • •


It’s a little strange that two different American companies are publishing their own Uncle Scrooge McDuck series simultaneously. Both are fine, but this one, the Fantagraphics series, is picking up the “legacy” numbering (the pictured issue is #462).

And this series also feels more like an authentic Disney Uncle Scrooge comic, reprinting as it does from Italian publications, one of the primary sources for modern Duck comics. The Marvel produced Scrooge comics feel more like “what if Scrooge was a Marvel character?” (and I don’t mean Marvel’s series of Disney-themed What If comics.) It’s a perfectly acceptable take, but it’s just off-model enough to be distracting.

The Fantagraphics series is enjoyable, though, and surprised me in #461 with a bit of serious emotional depth in the middle of all the wild goings-on. Old enemy Flintheart Glomgold has reformed (or…did he?) and as he’s about to take the nephews out to his place, Donald has this to say:


That’s not goofball, slapstick Donald being put upon by Scrooge or Gladstone, or furious Donald squawking incoherently…that’s “don’t piss me off, I mean business” Donald, who poses an actual threat to anyone who would harm his family. Good to know some of that steel in Scrooge made it to his nephew.

• • •

Oh, okay, fine, I’ll say a little more about Youngblood.

Look, I’m not a big ol’ Liefeld hater or anything. I appreciate that he has fans and that he can still sell books. Waaay back in 2009, I even put out the question “hey, I know I sold a lot of Youngblood when it first came out, did any of you guys buy it?” and at first I got some responses from folks who were all “yeah, I got caught up in the hype” or “I was totally into Rob then” and that sort of thing.

And then the Rob himself noticed, and linked to me on his message board, and behold, Every Youngblood Fan in America was suddenly in my comments, defending Rob and his comics and occasionally getting mad at me for some reason. You can read the three parts here (1 2 3) but be aware there is some linkrot, including links to the original comments, alas. But I quote enough of them to give you an idea.

And I discussed the comments and responded to them, even the ones that called me a jerk, and I tried to be open-minded about it all. The overall impression I received was that Rob’s fans, at least these responders, were hyperdefensive, and I quickly add, not that I can blame them. Especially at the time, when his work seemed to get pulled out and kicked around a bit, particularly in the comicsweblogosphere.

The ultimate conclusion was that 1) Rob’s work is Not for Me, and 2) More power to his fans for liking his stuff. I mean, that’s all.

Yes, my short review above was a cheap gag, one I got in my head and needed to release. However, like I said somewhere in those posts I linked from 2009, I would love nothing more than Liefeld committing, Erik Larsen on Savage Dragon style, doing a single issue of Youngblood every single month for the rest of his career, just to see the weird and wild places it would go to. Personally, I think that would be amazing.

This first issue I don’t find particularly amazing…lots of full-page drawings and close-ups and backgrounds that are little more than lightly textured color and the occasional shot of a boat. Everyone’s leaping around and shouting at each other and, I mean, nobody’s buying Youngblood to see a comics version of My Dinner with Andre. This is pretty much the Platonic ideal of a Youngblood comic.

I will give the comic this. The first page, acknowledging the title’s return to Image with panels in the shape of the Image logo, is clever. And the last page reveal does make me want to see what happens next, even though it’ll probably be more leaping around and shouting.

I wonder if Dutch Swamp Thing comics change Alec Holland’s last name to, like, “Wyoming” or “Sacramento” or something.

§ November 10th, 2025 § Filed under disney, pal dorian § 9 Comments

So pal Dorian recently took a trip to Holland and Germany and all sorts of fun places, and whilst there he picked up all manner of Donald Duck comics and digests, including this one that he brought back for me:


Apparently this is a Donald Duck comic available exclusively at the Rijksmuseum Ruks Museum (or Rijksmuseum, if I’m understanding my Googling properly) [EDIT: see this correction to my bad eyesight] in Amsterdam. You can get your own copy directly from the museum here, though I shudder to think of the shipping charges.

Anyway, that page provides the following description for the comic:

“Donald Duck takes readers on an adventure along the Rijksmuseum’s famous works of art. This children’s book introduces Donald to iconic Dutch masterpieces, including Rembrandt’s Night Watch. This comic not only provides entertainment for children, but is also a playful way to learn about the Rijksmuseum’s art.”

…which I presumed by paging through the publication and looking at the pictures, since the entire thing is in Dutch, a language in which I have absolutely zero proficiency. It looks fun, however, and in a region where Donald Duck comics still retain their popularity, I imagine this museum edition fits right in.

Here are a couple of interior panels from the book, like this shot of Donald with a couple of pieces of art that…I don’t know if they’re based on any specific real pieces of not…I mean, not that there’s a statue with a weird duck face, but maybe one of similar design?


Ah heck, I don’t know, maybe there are duck statues like that in the museum, I don’t know what’s goin’ on over there.

And is Mickey Mouse in this comic? Sure, Mickey is in this comic, and Goofy too!

And here’s a thing that threw me off for just a second…Daisy Duck’s nieces, April, May and June, get some wild localized names:


I imagine this’ll be explained to me in the comments, but using the Dutch names for the months as their names (“April, Mei, Juni”) might have worked okay, unless there were some real objections to using those words as specific names for people. Even duck people. I have no idea. But they all run up against Magica De Spell in their story.

Oh, and in looking this up, I found a page (in Dutch, which my browser or Google or the magical imp that lives in my monitor translated) which lists at the end the variety of names by which the three nieces are called in different countries.

So big thanks to pal Dorian for picking this up for me…I know he saw some stunning pieces of art and beautiful scenery and all that. But I still think most amazing of all was him telling me just how many different types of Donald Duck comics there were, and how widely available they are to the general public. What a different world that feels like.

[Pushes glasses up bridge of nose] “Um, actually, Tarzan can’t fly….”

§ November 7th, 2025 § Filed under pal brook, tarzan § 3 Comments

So Pal Brook came across one of these at the local swap meet, and brought it by the shop for me to take a look. This pinback button featuring Tarzan was a giveaway at the Valley Federal Savings bank, Tarzana branch, in 1982:


…which, as you can see, still retains the somewhat worse for wear explanatory letter.

Here’s a closer look at the button and its Hal Foster artwork:


Interesting that there’s no mention of the specific connnection between Tarzan and Tarzana (that the area was built upon the site of Tarzan creator Edar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzana ranch), but maybe that’s just common knowledge amongst Tarzana residents of the time. I know I wouldn’t forget that!

Even though this button giveaway was in 1982, the buttons themselves were produced in 1975 “in a limited quantity” it says there in the letter. That has me wondering how many were made versus how many were given away at the bank and under what criteria. Did you get one for opening an account? Making a certain size deposit? Just for walking in the door (which would eat up the button supply right quick, I’d imagine).

Looking on the eBays revealed several similar Tarzan buttons from the time period, nearly all of them being offered for…optimistic pricing. One lot had the button pictured above, include with a button with art by Russ Heath. I don’t know if multiple variations were offered via this bank giveaway, which would have required different letters identifying the different artists and seems like more bother than it was worth to them.

Anyway, no idea if that bank is even still around…Google searches seem to suggest “no,” and I doubt even if it still existed, there’d probably be nobody there to call and ask “hey, can you tell me about those Tarzan buttons?

Regardless of its specific origins, it’s still a neat item that at no time did I say I was going to sneak into Brook’s house and take, you’ve got nothing on me, copper.

I wrote about as much regarding a new Crumb comic as I did about a Golden Age superhero only I like.

§ November 5th, 2025 § Filed under sterling silver comics, this week's comics § 24 Comments

[SPOILERS AHEAD]


It’s been a couple of decades since we’ve had just a plain ol’ comic book from one of the last few still-standing underground comix legends, Robert Crumb. And on a purely artistic level, I am happy to report that he hasn’t lost a step with his illustrative mastery.

The big theme for the main stories of the book is, as you may gather from the title, paranoia, particularly in relation to conspiracy theories. A large part of these stories are caricatures of Crumb himself speaking directly to the reader, outlining his beliefs and opinions on various conspiracies, particularly those around the anti-vaccination movement (with which he sympathizes). He does point out occasionally that he knows he’s ranting, and that yes, maybe he’s the crazy one, but by and large it’s clear the sympathetic point of view is the conspiracy-minded one he’s espousing.

At one point Crumb complains that someone has lumped “alien visitation” in with some other, wildly racist, conspiracy, and he wonders why the former, something he feels that people have general interest in, should be associated with something as specifically awful as the latter. Which misses the point that most populist discussion around alien visitation is essentially defined by conspiracy, and in some cases can be inherently racist itself (see any “ancient alien” type show where primitive (cough)non-white(cough) cultures’ achievements can “only” be explained by alien intervention).

It’s…a lot of text-heavy pages, and I’m not doing much more here than picking out one particular example. I realize this sounds like a chore to get through, but like Crumb’s best work, it’s a peek directly into his head and what he’s worried about and what he’s obsessing over and no one does this sort of thing quite like him. It still functions as a good demonstration of misdirected thinking, and Crumb’s a smart guy…he knows what this all sounds like, and admits as much in the comic. I do hope he’s joking about not getting the COVID shot, though.

Other stories of note is a particular experience Crumb had on LSD decades ago, the memory loss of the evening that followed, and his sometimes nightmarish quest to figure out what happened. Keeping with the secondary theme of “problems with drugs,” I suppose, but he recalls so much of the event in great detail, that when he reveals there’s a bit he can’t remember, we feel that weird loss.

And there’s the final “Dirty Laundry” story, featuring Crumb and his late cartoonist wife, Aline. It’s a tale of what appears to be too many publishers of their work going out of business…a sad sign of our times. But it’s told with humor and Crumb’s hilariously bad bedside manner (where he tells Aline she’s just driving all these companies out of business with her work). At one point Aline’s probably facetious wish for her work to be forgotten takes on an extra depressing level knowing that she’s passed on as we read this. It’s a story that’s equal parts depressing and hilarious, which is like Crumb’s sweet spot.

Other stories round out the book (several single-pagers, and the longer “Deep State Woman,” which you can tell by the title is another conspiracy-minded entry), and it’s good to know Crumb, even in his 80s, can still put out work like this. Well, yes, I know I have problems with some of this comic, but I can’t deny the technique at work here. Hopefully this isn’t his last hurrah…I’d love to see more.

• • •


I have a very minor quibble with a character detail revealed in this issue, in a series that I’ve been enjoying once the first couple of issues shook out the rough spots and it found its footing. And I liked this new issue, too, as it covers the World War II-era beginnings of the team.

But the one thing that kinda mildly sticks in my craw, and I fully understand if this is just a retcon and I’ve got to learn to deal with it, and it involves Johnny Thunder. Yes, it’s me, the Johnny Thunder purist, the last Johnny Thunder fan standing in this brave new post-Crisis/post-Zero Hour/post-New 52/post-Rebirth/post-whatever else world.

Anyway, he tries to introduce himself to Jay Garrick, explaining that he has a magic Thunderbolt he can summon, that’s currently in the form of a pink pen.

…Which is a thing I don’t remember from his early stories, or his Silver Age appearances (though I could have missed something, admittedly). Johnny would say his magic word, “cei-u” (often in some variation of “say, you” in dialogue) and the Thunderbolt would show up and do his bidding.

In the very late years of Johnny’s existence, as an old man suffering from dementia, the Thunderbolt had been disguised as that pink pen, before being passed along to his successor, Jakeem Thunder. So Johnny does appear to have created the “Thunder-pen” concept, though not revealed until…a couple or three decades ago? Something like that.

So what’s going on in this new JSA is the establishment that Johnny didn’t just start doing that under the influence of dementia, but something he’s been doing all along. We just never saw it on panel ’til the end.

I guess in talking it out like this I’ve unstuck my craw and am better with it. It was just a surprise to see this particular character quirk that I more closely associate with another era, and not part of the Golden Age. But I guess it’s fine.

• • •

Also, today is the 11th anniversary of the opening of my store, Sterling Silver Comics.

Or ideally, he’d do a series involving every character that appeared in the original Showcase.

§ November 3rd, 2025 § Filed under question time § 15 Comments

Back to more of your questions, and here’s Wayne with

“If Element Woman and Ultra the Multi-Alien had a child, well, what’s it going to look like, past an electric leg. That was a silly question, I know.”

Okay, here we have the Element Girl, or Woman, on this classic 1960s cover:


And here we have that poor bastard, Ultra, the Multi-Alien, his body sectioned off into four alien body types after being zapped by ray guns held by those four particular races…am I remembering that right?

Anyway, presuming Ultra can still father kids with his Four Corners Monument private area, I’m going to presume any resultant children are going to look like the Autons from Doctor Who:

And wait? What’s this? A second question? Here in the streets of Gotham?

Well, okay, I’ll let it slide this time.

“I’ve really enjoyed many of the Black Label books by Tom King. I doubt we’ll see Ultra….”

I can see some kind of body horror thing coming out of the Ultra concept, each segment of Ultra’s body fighting for control against the original human mind to whom this body belonged. (Or perhaps Ultra can come across other aliens from these species, one of which has a regular human leg on his electric body, etc. — even though I think a version of this was done in the old “Claw the Unconquered” back-ups from Warlord). I don’t know if this kind of story is in Tom King’s wheelhouse, particularly, but I can see something like this happening.

“As long as it isn’t the main heroes, this could be for anyone. some WildStorm books like The Authority or Gen13.Dial H, Heroes in Love? Better or worse, King can do something with obscurity, for anyone who liked Danger Street. And one of my favorite books ever is THE HUMAN TARGET?”

Of those examples, it feels like Gen 13 may be the most likely prospect for a Tom Kingenning. Authority I feel like is hovering around a full relaunch sometime soon, depending on whether or not it makes it into the DCU Gunniverse (current “not” at the moment, I believe). Dial H was already the subject of a recent-ish and well-regarded relaunch, even if it’s kind of forgotten now, and a Young Heroes in Love that isn’t by the original creators would face some resistance.

Gen 13 is one of those titles that went through a few hands post its creators’ involvement, and has been kind of a defunct property for a while now, though individual characters have popped up here and there. Again, this depends on DC’s intentions with the property…if they think they can still relaunch Gen 13 as a viable ongoing, that’s one thing. If they think it’s a moribund property and they might as well hand it to Tom King to do his thing to it, then there we go. I feel like DC may feel like there’s life in this old property yet, so they’d probably hold off sending it into the woodchipper, as it were.

DC itself has no shortage of abandoned or forgotten properties that might get a wild new reworking from King…I mean, I just mentioned Claw the Unconquered. Or The Wanderers, or even like Young All-Stars, which would probably give Roy Thomas conniptions admittedly.

Granted, King did do Mister Miracle, which didn’t destroy Scott Free for all time, and…well, I think the jury’s still out on Adam Strange. But if you want something like Danger Street, then there’s enough in DC library to keep this sort of thing going, assuming King wants to do that.

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