Great Moments In Comics #37

Oct 12, 2009

So in 1978, DC Comics included a Reader Survey in some of its books. (It was clearly a regional thing; I’d never seen one until BOOM! publisher Ross Richie stumbled across one in an old FIRESTORM at the Long Beach Comicon last weekend.)

 

 

The questions were the usual sort of demographic-gathering thing for the time–how much money do you spend on DC comics each week, what are your other interests, what’s your age range, etc. But here’s the one that lept out at me. Prepare, depending on whether you were alive in 1978, to feel either totally mystified or REALLY OLD. 

 

 

I’m gonna go lie down. 
  • Jan 18, 2010
  • Jan 11, 2010
     
  • Jan 04, 2010
        I don’t…   …I… …they seem to be making this out to be a more difficult decision than it really ought to be. Maybe I’m just puzzled that they seem determined that they absolutely must shoot SOMETHING. Is it just me?
  • Dec 28, 2009
  • Dec 22, 2009
  • Dec 21, 2009
     
  • Dec 14, 2009
           In one image, the entire history of my relationship with women.
  • Dec 07, 2009
           “Or lynching.” (Speaking of “hands are tied” and all….)
  • Nov 30, 2009
       He has a cigarette machine built into his arm. That’s kind of the total opposite of crimefighting, in a way.
  • Nov 23, 2009
       I don’t wanna know.
  • Nov 09, 2009
    Previously in “Great Moments In Comics”: Jimmy Olsen blew up an entire mountain. And himself with it. I can’t get away from this story. It’s just too rich not to milk. So, more. It’s all from SUPERMAN’S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #93, the first issue published after the Adam West BATMAN show proved to be a... more
  • Nov 02, 2009
    The only thing that keeps this from being the greatest Jimmy Olsen story ever is that it doesn’t end here. Let’s just pretend that it does. 
  • Oct 12, 2009
    So in 1978, DC Comics included a Reader Survey in some of its books. (It was clearly a regional thing; I’d never seen one until BOOM! publisher Ross Richie stumbled across one in an old FIRESTORM at the Long Beach Comicon last weekend.)     The questions were the usual sort of demographic-gathering... more
  • Oct 05, 2009
        Don’t worry.  He survives.    By circling Saturn and coming back home. True.
  • Sep 28, 2009
    This week, I’m being sincere: this is my favorite page of comic art I’ve seen all year. From last week’s POWER GIRL #5, art by Amanda Connor:
  • Sep 21, 2009
    I don’t even know where to start.
  • Sep 14, 2009
    Subcategory: When artists, writers, AND colorists are all working at cross-purposes:   Hint: the key words are “gloved hands.”
  • Sep 07, 2009
    “Mass hysteria!” — Peter Venkman, 1984.
  • Aug 31, 2009
    Batman’s broken heart: Wait. It gets better.
  • Aug 23, 2009
    I don’t consider myself to be unusually squeamish… …but if I had seen this when I was five, I would have wept the bitter, stinging tears of a vaporized childhood.
  • Aug 17, 2009
    Romance comics. So wholesome. So innocent.
  • Aug 10, 2009
    Bucky and a friend try to disguise themselves as the Red Skull:     Unsurprisingly, it does not go well.    This is from 1941’s YOUNG ALLIES #1.  I could sustain an entire blog on this one comic book.
  • Aug 03, 2009
    The panel that launched a thousand Grant Morrison scripts:
  • Jul 27, 2009
    Can’t decide whether you’d rather read a story about bears or a story about ghosts? I HAVE GOOD NEWS.  
  • Jul 20, 2009
  • Jul 19, 2009
    Thrilling, I tell you. Thrilling.
  • Jul 12, 2009
    Y Kant Superman Read?  
  • Jul 05, 2009
    Tell me you don’t want to read this story RIGHT NOW.  Go ahead.  Tell me.     You are a LIAR.
  • Jun 29, 2009
  • Jun 22, 2009
    Subcategory–Favorite Things Green Arrow Just Happens To Carry Around In His Quiver:
  • Jun 15, 2009
    Greatest Title for a Hulk story EVER:     To be fair, it is only a Hostess ad.  And Twinkies save the day.  But the title makes me laugh out loud every time. “This Monster–THIS DECISION!” 
  • Jun 14, 2009
    Earth-2 discovered by Flash. Don’t look at me like that, I don’t make this stuff up.
  • Jun 08, 2009
    Subcategory: Perfectly innocent ads.  From the Charlton comics of summer 1985:
  • May 25, 2009
          I would bet you everything I own that the sound effect was added by the editor, not the writer. I loved Julius Schwartz like a grandfather, but he was not a fan of the more subtle moments.  
  • May 18, 2009
        Dream on, pal.
  • May 18, 2009
    Hitting newsstands exactly 70 years ago today, May 18, 1939:
  • May 11, 2009
            Danger: Criminal masterminds at work.
  • May 04, 2009
          I’m pretty sure this is not how to act on a date.
  • Apr 26, 2009
    Favorite Legion of Substitute Heroes member? Easy. Fire Lad. Why? Because he was the one who was already wearing his costume even before he unexpectedly got super-powers.
  • Apr 20, 2009
     Slowest.  News day.  Imaginable.
  • Apr 13, 2009
     Man, what rotten luck.
  • Apr 10, 2009
    Drawn & Quarterly announced this morning that October marks the release of a collection of one of my favorite, least-remembered comics series: Thirteen Going On Eighteen by John Stanley. One of the more successful Dell Comics runs of the 1960s, Thirteen is (a) an absolute riot of (b) brilliant... more
  • Apr 06, 2009
        Waid:  “Someday, I want to get around to doing a compilation of all the times Luthor pretended to go straight.” Peyer: “There isn’t a book big enough to hold it.”
  • Mar 31, 2009
    Tonight is the night of March 31st. Be careful out there tomorrow. Anything could happen.
  • Mar 30, 2009
    Note the eyepatch.
  • Mar 23, 2009
        All aboard.
  • Mar 16, 2009
    Special Exhibition Tonight at the Metropolis Museum of Art: FAMOUS FARM ANIMALS OF HISTORY. Name TWO. 
  • Mar 09, 2009
    Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the least fearsome criminals in all of Gotham City: the Yellow Sweater Gang.
  • Mar 02, 2009
    September 9, 1994. No, I didn’t remove any balloons. I didn’t touch this, my hand to God. I don’t think I ever read another newspaper comic strip after this.
  • Feb 23, 2009
      It’s the “Featuring” blurb that just kills me.  Next issue: “I Make The Handcuffs!” WHO WAS BUYING THESE COMICS? Edited to add: What hell time is it?  One-thirty-o’clock?
  • Feb 16, 2009
      I don’t even think this one needs a caption.
  • Feb 09, 2009
      “Cuff him, boys!”
  • Feb 02, 2009
    The dream: to be able to write comics in 1957, when people were SO MUCH MORE EASILY ENTERTAINED.
  • Jan 27, 2009
      This is actually the OPPOSITE of suspense.