Stupendous 70s SPIDER-MAN Sunday Strip! "The Hunch and the Horror!" Marvel Comics!

Last time, we looked on in utter horror, as Spider-Man was blackmailed into performing his second indecent deed, all at the behest of a female foe who knows his secret identity, and is willing to reveal it to the world if the Wall-Walker doesn't snap to her every whim! Now, the action heightens as Spidey is forced to make each task more personal, and more dangerous, than the last! How far will the superhero go to protect his well-guarded secret? Will he tumble to his faceless foe's identity and location before he has to go too far? More 1978 Sunday color Spidey strips, from writer Stan Lee and artist John Romita, Sr.! Click below to enlarge, web-heads!

Note how artist Romita sets up each scene, careful to give a real sense of
location. A retreating Spider-Man's distance from the target's home is established
in panel five, the nearness of the railroad station is seen in panel six, leading us
to the station (and Peter's way back to NYC) in the final panel! This also gives
readers a sense of pacing, and the passage of time.

Claw Long and Prosper--Part Two! STAR TREK! Khan! Spock!

It's been many long years since I first spotted that odd knock-off "Mr. Spock" cloth figure in one of those ubiquitous claw machines you see outside of department stores, but take a look at his newly arrived company inside those plexiglass prisons! Due to the newest STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS flick, it looks as if Spock has been joined by Khan, Kirk, Scotty, Uhura (I think), and other tiny-tot TREK toy characters! Is this a dastardly plot by some evil space rapscallion? Click below to enlarge and engage!

Besides the ever-intrepid TREK crew, this machine also inexplicably featured odd knock-off
figures of Domo and a multi-colored "Patrick Star" from SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!

WONDER WOMAN vs the Nazis! 1975 Albert Bigley Original Art! DC Comics?!

Another bombastic blast from the past! Dig this 1975 Wonder Woman pencil drawing by me, age 10, from 1975! Obviously inspired by the then-new ABC-TV movie, THE NEW ORIGINAL WONDER WOMAN, here is the Amazing (and quite mannish) Amazon fighting high-flying Nazi felons (using her famed "Bullets and Bracelets" gimmick) in a World War Two setting! Click to enlarge!

Note the personalization in the upper left corner! Looks like I meant to give
this to my next-door neighbor of the time! But, since I still have it, that means
she somehow never took ownership of this dynamic drawing! Why she didn't
accept this fabulous masterpiece of modern art remains a mystery!


BONUS! Below is the custom logo used for the long-running ABC/CBS WONDER WOMAN TV series! You can tell it was what I had in mind (going only by memory in those pre-VCR or DVR days) when placing my own hand-drawn logo into the drawing above!

Play the Silver Age CAPTAIN AMERICA Game! 1966 Marvelmania! Avengers!

Dig this rare ad, gleaned from a 1966 AVENGERS comic! It's a pulsatin' plug for the then-new CAPTAIN AMERICA board game from madcap Milton Bradley!  The entire Marvel Superheroes line was reaching the apex of its sizzling 60s popularity, due to Marvel's new and uninhibited approach to creating comics (and the attention the BATMAN '66 TV show was bringing to all things superhero), and Cap, Spidey, and the gang were all being slapped onto posters, t-shirts, costumes, figures, and any nutty item you could shake a drawing of Irving Forbush at! Cap had a little extra juice, tho, since he was a pre-existing character who harkened back to the 40s, so this ad may have caught more eyes than expected! Click below to enlarge!

Let's hope the art seen above (on the cards and game board) is only
quick "spec art" for the ad, and not used in the actual product! Sheesh!

BONUS! Click below to enlarge these images of the actual CAP game!

BONUS BONUS! What "free comic book" came packaged with this gorgeous game, as per that boisterous box blurb? Most fans recall getting a minty-fresh issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE #81 (see below)! Some collectors report getting no free comics, since the game was not sold shrink-wrapped in those days, and greedy Marvel malefactors could easily help themselves to the contents of this panic-producing product!

BATMAN FOREVER! The Movie You Never Saw! Robin Williams? Billy Baldwin?! 1995 DC Comics Speculation!

Before the recent (and deadly dull) Chris Nolan BATMAN films, there were the Tim Burton BATMAN movies. Starting in 1989, with a morose Michael Keaton as the Dark Detective, this franchise soon become so overwhelmingly popular, that the creators found themselves pulled in every direction, suddenly being held to the wishes of merchandisers, licensees, and studio chiefs. Such wretched wrangling caused director Burton, and star Keaton, to soon bow out of the increasingly over-bloated series, leaving fans to speculate over who would  be involved in the coming Bat-flicks! Below are some 1994 musings (from ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and COMIC BUYER'S GUIDE), forecasting such never-to-be doings such as Robin Williams cast as the Riddler, William Baldwin as Batman, and more! Click below to enlarge and remember, Bat-fans!

Odd to think that it took the more recent Nolan BATMAN films to finally center
on the Batman character himself, as per Keaton's 1994 wishes above! The CBG
article also nails the fact that future Bat-films did go into a more "family-friendly"
tone, due to the demands of merchandisers wishing to appeal to kids 
and their toy-buying parents, after the dark and disturbing BATMAN 
RETURNS caused a stir with the public!

Shattering Sunday SPIDER-MAN 70s Strips! "A Party for Petey?!" 1978 Marvel Comics Mania!

Last time, we watched in a dumbfounded state, as Spidey was blackmailed into performing dirty deeds under threat of his secret identity being exposed to the panting public! Now, he executes his second sinister assignment: terrorizing his puppet master's former boss, for reasons still unknown! How long will Spidey have to use his powers to do the bidding of this female felon? Will he prove jeering J. Jonah Jameson (long-time naysayer who believes Spidey to be a grand-standing bad guy) correct? More Bronze Age mile-high madness from Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr.! Click below to enlarge!

Why doesn't Spidey perform his mandated tasks in yet another identity,
so, if caught in the abominable act, nobody associates 
such dirty deeds with Spider-Man or Peter Parker? 

Superman Finally Marries LOIS LANE! Or Does He? 1972 DC Comics Madness!

It's very seldom that I post an entire comic book story on this blog, usually opting to display only the most interesting or oddest portions of past comic tales. However, I just had to show off the enitre lead story from this 1972 issue of LOIS LANE #128! It's the kind of story that only DC Comics of the period could produce, even as competitor Marvel Comics continued their domination in the field! Marvel was winning the "comic wars," due to their more plausible and "realistic" stories that never quite reached the levels of absurdity that DC was capable of! Don't believe me? Just click below to enlarge each page, and start believing!

Things start off with a bang with this terrific cover by Bob Oksner! 

Yep, that must be it! Poor Superman has finally relented to Lois Lane's endless
 marriage-minded advances! Why else would a man consent to (ugh) marriage?!
Interior art by John Rosenberger and Vince Colletta.

So, Batman lends his old buddy (who can fly, by the way), his Batmobile?! Must not be
any current crime waves that need his attention...And, what newly-minted honeymooners
rush right to a strenuous stint of  "musical  chairs" on their wedding night?!

So, it's now time for more dancing, and the inviting of all their pals (including Superman's
crime-busting friends) to the event? Don't they want any "alone time?!"

"When are we going to eat?" That's spoken by the book's token "fat friend" who was recently
added to the story lines. Oh, the pre-politically correct 70s! Such sensitivity throughout!

You knew the wedding had to be a trick, didn't you? What about the trauma 
caused to Lois' co-workers and family? Are they in on the scheme, too?!

Don't the members of the Justice League have better things to do than watch a bogus
ceremony? And, Lois admonishes her long-time love that she wishes for a wedding, and
Supe's answer? "Cool off-you'll feel better!" Then, he further baits her with a spiffy
new ring! What a catch!

What a great guy Supes is, to put ever-loyal Lois thru such a horrifying
ordeal! Of course, it's to prove a very visual point to that wacky, silly, heart-sick
female! It's for her own good, right? 

That ring serves as a visual metaphor for Lois giving up her marriage plans...
Tons of 9-year old male readers let out a collective sigh of relief...

All this tom-foolery just to prove a point? And, what if Lois got somehow stuck
in that other dimension? Can't Lois marry Supes and only exist in the dimension
where only the Man of Steel can have access to her, thus ensuring her safety from 
criminals? And, is it too creepy that Superman is also spending more spare time 
(aren't people starving somewhere in the world?) creating life-like (presumably
anatomically correct) robots of Lois?