Meanwhile... GUEST DC Column with Johann Balasuriya I have read a bunch of comics featuring the Martian Manhunter and I have also read a bunch of his solo comic book's. But I was never impressed by him as a character or as a hero. I often wondered why the trinity (Supe's, Bat's and Wondy) always treated him with great respect. Yes he had an amazing array of abilities. But in my opinion Hes was just a green superman with an ability to shape change and a weakness to fire. I always assumed that the most work he ever did was either escorting G'nort and Killowog around town or track down Blue beetle and Booster gold to give them a talking to. I did not think that his ability to be able to mentally connect all the members of whatever team he was in was that much of a big deal. Until ........ the white Martian story line. That moment where he looks up and says they are white martians and crashes through a bunch of buildings and takes on a few of the whites is amazing. That mom...

Sponsored by Integr8d Soul Productions, featuring DNA: The Mountain, drawn with crisp, clear story telling by Lue Lyron and the Marc Kane, with scenes and ideas you won't find anywhere else in entertainment!! The comic for those who don't read comics! Black and White, $3 plus shipping each. Available from C Lue Disharoon 542 6th Ave. San Diego, CA 92101

Sponsored by Integr8d Soul Productions, featuring DNA: The Mountain, drawn with crisp, clear story telling by Lue Lyron and the Marc Kane, with scenes and ideas you won't find anywhere else in entertainment!! The comic for those who don't read comics! Black and White, $3 plus shipping each. Available from C Lue Disharoon 542 6th Ave. San Diego, CA 92101 The Vision takes apart the master plan while held at laser point by a suspicious Doctor Doom, in AVENGERS #156, cover date February, 1977 (probably appearing on spin racks by Thanksgiving, 1976; cover dates were usually thought of as "pull dates" for taking unsold magazines off the stands). Excellent Avengers tattoos taken on a busy curbside of Harbor Drive during Comic Con, featuring Ant-Man, the android Jocasta, and the scarlet-visaged Vision on the back leg. When Hollywood's introduced the Avengers to the world at large that hasn't met them yet, you can only hope they'll come up with something hal...

Sponsored by Integr8d Soul Productions, featuring DNA: The Mountain, drawn with crisp, clear story telling by Lue Lyron and the Marc Kane, with scenes and ideas you won't find anywhere else in entertainment!! The comic for those who don't read comics! Black and White, $3 plus shipping each. Available from C Lue Disharoon 542 6th Ave. San Diego, CA 92101 It’s about time to try writing about a series of FF stories that was everything 70’s Marvel, positive and negative. It’s an example of how to write an action-packed epic guaranteed to confuse much of your readership, and it has several things happening that would not make it a viable movie script, but several things that would appeal to a youthful imagination. C'mon! It's got dinosaurs, blue people, invasions from other dimensions, invasions OF other dimensions, and strange doubles living different lives, centered by the Fantastic Four--- complete with a giant teleporting dog. There are two negative 1970's t...

His life as Marc Spector, mercenary veteran of multiple engagements in Africa and Central America, changes when he watches their leader, Bushman, bite the throat of an archeologist they wish to rob. Already put off by Bushman’s extreme cruelty, he nonetheless tips his boss off to Dr. Arlaune’s pre-emptive assassination attempt, only to watch brutal murder. The dagger in Arlaune’s hand suggests the nearby dig has the kind of gold Bushman needs to run a small country; his thanks to Spector is to beat him and leave him crawling the desert to die. But he doesn’t; he finds himself at the feet of Arlaune’s daughter Marlene, the person Spector had warned to run, incurring Bushman’s wrath. In the shadow of the statue of Khonshu, Egyptian deity and Taker of Vengeance, Spector’s revitalized. The cloak of Khonshu becomes his...as does revenge against Bushman. With his partner, the pilot Frenchie, and Marlene Arlaune, Spector establishes a new life in America, parlaying his copper mine findi...

I'm kinda glad it's all over. Next year I will be inside with a table or, more likely, attending the events and seeing through connections and showing companies what we do.

Sponsored by Integr8d Soul Productions, featuring DNA: The Mountain, drawn with crisp, clear story telling by Lue Lyron and the Marc Kane, with scenes and ideas you won't find anywhere else in entertainment!! The comic for those who don't read comics! Black and White, $3 plus shipping each. Available from C Lue Disharoon 542 6th Ave. San Diego, CA 92101 I think I planned to include some of Cap's history here, but tell ya what: go see Captain America: the First Avenger as soon as possible, and that's as good a version of all you really need to know about the hero as I can imagine! There's an unambiguous morality present in the story that some might find convenient, some may find fresh, and without a doubt, it sets the stage with the real character, a Steve Rogers I recognize, drawn to do the least selfish thing and the bravest thing and most compassionate thing with every action. I have seen super heroes sexed up with intimations of hot and heavy relationships i...

A board friend (who was not bored at the time) suggested the Big Time story arc to me when I asked: "is it a good time to read AMAZING SPIDER-MAN again?" I'd only bought a handful of issues in the past...decade? Yah. Hey, I'd already spent an embarrassing amount (if only I knew shame!) on comics in my lifetime, times were tight and other things called. But I still loved a good comic book classic if I could get a decent deal on it; I'm not a torrent kid, after all. They have a way of suspending over-thought and self-absorption of a sort, these clever mixtures of art and words as story. My Big Time gambit led me to snag #'s 647 thru 649, and while it was a very different Spider-Man world, I'd missed the familiar faces like (now Mayor!) J. Jonah Jameson, Harry Osborn, Flash, the Black Cat. I was intrigued by Aunt May's marriage to Jonah's father, though it's chiefly taken her safely to the sidelines. Jonah as mayor was a great idea! It s...

Ooops, haven't re-read this one yet! But I do remember the story. Wait, I'm getting it mixed up. This is the one where Reed decides to make a stand for Sue's love, but the story ends with him in personal turmoil. When all's said and done, when the FF have stormed Atlantis to rescue Sue, she chooses to leave with Reed---but he worries about her ulterior motive to simply end the violence. What I almost started telling about was Submariner's movie studio, but that's an earlier adventure! Of course, his film roles double as traps for the male members of the Fantastic Four, while he woos Sue. I would tie it in happily with the Hollywood push at Comic Con. Prince Namor, the Submariner, and Reed and Sue were Marvel's best love triangle in the Silver Age. The super-strong Lord of Atlantis and the smartest man in the world had some great fights (doesn't it sound ridiculous for the smartest man in the world to fight anyone? But hey, who said you couldn...

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/07/comic_con_2011.html Comic Con's the big news in San Diego downtown. But at the core of all its Hollywood spectacle and major product release frenzy, amidst the swirling robes of wizards and the sound of clanking Storm Troopers, San Diego International Comic Con was a celebration of fans of comic books, and easily, one of the most iconic, the most representative, of all super hero comics, it's Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's two issue battle featuring the Hulk and the Thing, as presented in early 1964! Yep, before the Beatles were even off the plane, Marvel's greatest monster men were smacking each other through a hapless New York City! After a decidedly offbeat issue before (following a classic struggle with Doctor Doom), now we get to the place where the modern world of super hero comics evolves. Not only does the Hulk react in anger to a newspaper announcing Captain America joining the Avengers, but in the brutal revenge sch...

Sponsored by Integr8d Soul Productions, featuring DNA: The Mountain, drawn with crisp, clear story telling by Lue Lyron and the Marc Kane, with scenes and ideas you won't find anywhere else in entertainment!! The comic for those who don't read comics! Black and White, $3 plus shipping each. Available from C Lue Disharoon 542 6th Ave. San Diego, CA 92101 The menace is funny, but played very straight: the alien who's landed in Times Square creates random mischief, but Reed Richards begins to fear the awesome extent of what the being can do. He deduces from its behavior that it's simply a child---but one he expects will treat the corner stones of our natural survival like toys. What happens when the creature decides...to play with the sun? The criminals that attempt to influence the child are thwarted by his lack of understanding, as well as the timely intervention of the Thing, Torch, and Invisible Girl. Reed gambles his time and concentration : what else do you do...

There's always a sub-plot cooking in these classic Fantastic Four stories made by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In #23, from cover date Feb., 1964, opens with a squabble evoked by a five foot tall reptile bopping in from prehistoric times, courtesy of the time machine they've confiscated from Dr. Doom. The argument surrounding the runaway dinosaur (who's quickly dispatched again to his time) brings up the question of why it is that Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, is the leader of the team and not The Thing (Ben Grimm), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) or the Invisible Girl (Sue Storm). Well, in a group where one member's code name contains the honorific "Mister" (he's really a Ph.D , you know, if Dr. Fantastic isn't too egomaniacal for you!) and the lady in question goes by "Girl", it's probably not going to be equality of the sexes---that's things fifty years ago for ya! "The Thing" doesn't sound like your likely group leade...

Serendipity's wonderful. With my shirts and comics (DNA #1)ready to show to fans at the San Diego Comic Con, I thought I'd rest while possibly poking at some preview pages. I'm already busy with the Marc Kane on rehearsing songs of our own for the Stage It.com shows scheduled. I want to convince myself there's no pressure and just find myself creating it! I've decided what, but not all of exactly what, my goal for those pages is. Now: what's a way to relax, heading into the big week, something creatively stimulating? At last, I pulled out my gift disk filled with archived Fantastic Four and Avengers comics. While I'm not presently working on super hero comics--- Snow Leopard's a little close---it's hard to find a more universally-beloved example of the genre than the book that, together with Spider-Man by Steve Ditko, established the shape of commercial comic books for the next five decades. I just knew I wanted some Jack Kirby art to read, ...