It's not where I first noticed it, but going back across Stern's run, this is the first place you see it, when the Black Cat targets purveyors of black market high art. ASM # 232 Mister Hyde stalks the Cobra Then you have Tarantula picking up where Cobra left off. Cobra chasing down Nose Norton was yet another instance: ASM #231. Ned Leeds and Marla Madison are caught in the middle of this one! Then, Ben Urich's caught up when Tarantula picks up the trail. So Norton is sort of the second hunted villain in a story line, in that someone besides the cops or Spidey is tracking a character who we'd agree is not deliberately on the side of angels. But the next storyline has even more villains chasing each other. Will O' the Wisp returns for revenge against Brand and ends up fighting their latest, fatal experiment. Tarantula's transformation scared the heck out of me! I just got to peep a few pages while I waited on Mom at the grocery store. I didn...

Join in the summer fun! Before we go check out the movie, here's a number from Stray Kids, including skits with the stars of Deadpool/Wolverine!

I think this may be, by some slim margin, the best cover of Amazing Spider-Man, the Marvel title that began publication in 1963. I'm going to include cover credits, where I know them. This one's by John Romita, Jr. I hope this brings back so many memories, or is at least very fun for fans of Spidey and comics in general! ASM #226 This has got to be one of Marvel's best covers of the decade! From 'Daydreams'- isn't this hilarious? Jonah in a track suit AND smoking a cigar. It's John Romita, Jr. again. You just can't leave out this dramatic second part of the most famous single Spider-Man storyline of the 80s, Kraven's Last Hunt. The mini-series was drawn by Mike Zeck and, I believe, inked by Bob Wiacek. It ran across all three Spider-Man titles, each week! Early Frank Miller cover href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ADdv9Nhod6AHxpJSSWIHvCuVfdO_McIK0qJQ2DFHZ_hoz2tQXnjIpplC_3Rvfi1mXo3BD...

Well, never forget you can fall in love with your future, and that future only exists where you can reach it, Now. So think of how you feel, prioritize your belief in feeling good. You always have Jesus and the Holy Ghost and all sorts of benevolent possibilities for company. Think of yourself as creating your own reality, and suddenly, the happiness you feel really sticks out as central. It's a relief to try to breathe out, let go of the contents of your ind. Let peace and tranquility reveal themselves as quantities and qualities already present in your life. We only need touch'em. Just give yourself a break as a creature. Turn off the fight or flight. Reward yourself with the bliss found in inner quiet. IF it feels like post-partum or something, any reason is OK to seek out therapy. But everything you'll use to feel like the comfortable, whole version of Yourself is right there, inside. And she'll inspire others to find theirs. If we can do more than co...

Overnight, I was thinking: Instead of video games, I like to unwind with books. But if I really want to let go, it's comic books- preferably from the 20th century. I won't go into 'why,' besides it's a cheap bit of time traveling plus escapism. I like to see the weigh stations of the times, the way comics integrate influences from years before I was born with voices of their times, which are now before many of YOU were born. I love the way art and text together tickle my brain, ping-ponging between right and left hemispheres in a way Grant Morrison described so beautifully in the non-fictional SuperGods . There's a delight in execution, certainly a hint of nostalgia to stir a lifetime of remembrances, a love for this four-color trash made by an industry that always expected its demise the next year, making pamphlets that might survive to a yard sale for a quarter or so each, if not just tossed before the silverfish struck. I've met, interviewed (es...

I was just getting around to Being at the time, but looking back at the early and mid-70s, I have a question that applies to movies, books- even my starting point, comic books, which took on a moody, melancholy aspect, particularly with Marvel Comics, which had just begun its publishing period of the roster of characters that we see in abundance across media and toys, today. What are the causes of the increase in violence and death and overall downbeat tone that defines 1970s storytelling? Do you think the new permissiveness post-60s was at the root of the violence and death portrayed? My first thought was, word was getting back about Viet Nam, and young people were disillusioned with institutions they'd been inculcated culturally to trust. I often think the idealism emerging within the counter-culture was just not manifesting quickly enough, for the impatience of the youth. I'm clear, too, that the rise of counter-culturalism 1) certainly does not match the rural values...