For those of you have actually read the majority if these entries up until now, I think you’ve bore witness to the range of stuff I put out there as the days go by. If you’re searching for consistency, there is only one thing that’s consistent, that’s me talkin’ out my head. Future entries will include:
Past situations where I faced death — whether it’s my fault or no.
Occasionally delving into my head to see why I am like I am. Yes it will get personal.
Various diatribes about Doctor Who, with the good, the bad and the ugly.
Observations in general about things I have an interest in– tv, movies, baseball, etc.
Staying away from social media red zones like politics. No point. Too many dicks.
Flights of fancy and absurd notions manifesting in very short story form.
Diving into the world of comic books, quite often having to do with the Fantastic Four.
Random notes on absurd scenarios, which others probably never think about.
A serious attempt at the written word, here and there.
Evidently, some ranting…..
Sometimes, maybe just stream of consciousness.
Sometimes, giving myself a plug for one of the books I’ve put out there.
Sometimes, I’ll even put out an entry which is nothing more than a stall. A stop gap, putting something, anything up there, even if it’s only a list if the kinds if things I’ll be talking about, even in the coming year. Even if I actually have about 20 other entries ready, waiting and already queued up!
June, 1971. In Fantastic Four #111, the team was dealing with an out of control Ben Grimm. Reed’s latest serum to cure Ben of being the Thing tried a new tack. It allowed Ben to transform back and forth between himself and the Thing at will. The best of both worlds. And it worked! Unfortunately, the side effect was that it made Ben mean. Violent. Trouble. So on the very last page, within four or five panels, 1) Reed decided they’d better call in Bruce Banner for help. 2) Johnny did a quick, giant skywriting letter calling out Dr. Banner 3) Bruce, who happened to be in a cab close by, was telling the cabbie that he’s in a hurry but mustn’t get upset – fat chance 4) He smashes out of the cab as the Hulk, sees the Thing on a rampage and decides he must smash him and 5) a face off shot of them staring each other down, hyping next month’s “Battle of the Behemoths!”
There was a lot of that type of last second wrap up in the old books, as the artists sometimes didn’t quite pace things out right for the 20 pages. Kirby sometimes fell prey to it, so did big John Buscema. This was the most shambolic, hurried set up ever for a next issue. But thank god they did it. Because it resulted in the greatest all time battle issue ever beheld in this or any other universe, FF #112. ‘Course, it was years later that I finally saw #111 and the lead up. This was 1971 and I’m not sure if I ever actually picked up a comic before this magical day. *This* was the day I was in a grocery store and saw some comics and picked up a couple for the first time. I’m sure my grandparents bought them for me. So no, I had no set up. One of these comics hit me like an orange and green brick.
The cover was simple, powerful, to the point. “Hulk vs Thing”. It had been about 90 issues since the last time Ben and ol’ green jeans had an epic battle in the FF. Mind you, they really did have an epic battle in FF 25 & 26, too. This was the actual first time Ben realized he was no longer the world’s strongest human and it was humbling. But even though he fully realized the Hulk was bigger, stronger, and seemingly never got tired, Ben never gave up. He kept fighting until the end. On that day, millions of new Thing fans were born. You just had to admire the hell out of Ben Grimm. Eventually, the rest of the FF and the Avengers all got into the mix too, so Ben only carried the fight for most of part one, great as it was.
In #112, this battle was –start to finish, a high octane, visceral, slugfest that had the entire city either running for cover, or training hi tech weapons on the two monsters. Usually, at least Ben would be concerned about civilian casualties, trying to get the fight to a remote area. Not so here, thanks to Ben’s current mental outlook. As furious and uncaring as the Hulk was about who else might get hurt, Ben was just as unconcerned. The Hulk wanted nothing more than to smash the Thing. Ben saw the Hulk as the perfect guy to take a beating and he was in the perfect mood to take the job.
These two used anything they could get their hands on. Statues, monuments, trees, merry go rounds, you name it. The cops put up barricades and prayed the fight didn’t come their way as they knew their weapons would be useless. Back at the Baxter building, Reed was frantically building and charging a weapon to blast Ben back into normalcy and at least cure him of his hatred and rage. Then they could at least reason with him.
But at every turn, Johnny was flying off the handle, threatening to go help Ben against the Hulk, but Reed needed his help. Their landlord, Collins, even shut down their power at the worst possible time, trying to get rid of his most infamous tenants. As if things couldn’t get any worse, in addition to the armed forces gathering to go after the two combatants, J. Jonah Jameson was going on TV live, demanding that all so called heroes be crushed, smashed, destroyed!
Meanwhile, the main event battered on. Traveling up, down and tearing across the city, the battle was starting to take it’s toll on Ben. As usual, the Hulk never tired but more and more, Ben had to stall and distract until he got his second wind. Buscema is truly at his best here, choreographing the beats of this non stop destructive match. And we’ve got the dependable inks of Joe Sinnott bringing it all home. Ben maneuvers the Hulk into falling off a building, while Ben drags down the side of it, hoping that the fall will at least slow ol’ jade jaws down. But no luck. He gets Ben in a vice grip of a choke hold and it takes everything Ben’s got to break the hold, all the while, the comic fan is on the edge of their seat. See, this isn’t some universal mega battle for existence. This isn’t for the sake of the planet. There’s no greater truth or enlightenment here. This is two men fighting each other, presumably to the death. The fact that they’re two of the strongest guys on the planet is beside the fact. It’s a personal fight to the finish and that’s why it’s so interesting. It’s huge but it’s small at the same time. It can come down to a choke hold or a devastating punch to the jaw.
We check in on Alicia Masters, Ben’s blind girlfriend. She hears about the battle on the radio and begins to make her way toward the devastation, as crowds run the opposite way. Reed, finally done with his device, races across town with Johnny to join the fray. Alicia nears the battle and starts calling out to Ben, eventually, Ben hears her and turns his head at the wrong moment.
Reed and Johnny arrive, too late. All is silent. Ben lies still and doesn’t appear to be breathing. The immediate battle and threat over, the Hulk quickly shrinks back to Banner, who skulks away. The silent crowd looks on. Johnny blames Reed for waiting too long and now it’s too late. Ben is dead.
Seeing how this was the summer of ’71 and there weren’t any regular comic stores around, it was a crap shoot that I was going to find the next issue at the grocery store. But that was okay, because I had this issue. It had everything I needed from a comic. Life and death stakes, melodrama, almost more action than I could imagine and best of all, truly magnificent artwork! Plus, it reintroduced me to the Fantastic Four, who, up until that point, I’d only seen on tv in the Hanna Barbara cartoon a few years earlier. The cartoon was good but this, the comics, the drawing.
From 2000, to 2004, I published a few of my own comics and had them distributed worldwide through Diamond, as did most comics back then. DC, Marvel, the mid level publishers like Image and Dark horse and the independents like me. This was also before the floodgates opened and everyone and and their mothers were printing comics, as it got more affordable. Also before web comics really took off.
I did humor, drama, sci-fi, the bizarre, a few years later, I’d touched upon horror, romance, adult, you name it.
But the one I was recently thinking about was “I Was a Superhero Survivor!” It was the very first humor comic built around the concept of a tv reality show. I had a transport plane circling thousands of feet above New York packed with contestants, who were to jump out of the plane –without parachutes– but in doing so, each would pass through a machine that would give each of them a superpower. It was a rather Jack Kirby looking device (look him up, kids), complete with “Kirby Krackle” (again) and was even called the “Kirby E.S.Q.”. As they emerged, falling from the plane, they’d have to use their powers to save themselves.
What the host and producers didn’t know was that a super villain called the Eel (Lee spelled backwards—“No one creates superheroes without my input!” — a loving jab at Stan.) was on board too, and had tampered with the machine to give the vast majority of the contestants really useless powers while they fell to their death. Very unhelpful abilities like “can turn into glass”, “gains nerves of a chicken” or “can sleep through anything”.
Suffice to say only five made it through alive so the show went on, as the Eel kept trying to sabotage it.
There were challenges and competitions, such as “Saving your girlfriend from a fall off a bridge and NOT snapping her neck.” But as the game went on and we lost more competitors to ineptitude, we ended up having the last man standing face off against a dozen super villains. This was really the height of the production for me because I got to create 12 rather funny but useless villains, whose names told of their abilities and I got to design them, etc. Plus, the hero of the piece (Squid-Lord) got to take them apart. Amongst this instant rogues gallery (unimaginable fun creating these guys) was Lava-Thumb, Fat Fold, The Atomic Crumb, The Furry Quadriplegic, the Janitor, Floating Death, The Adhesive Wallflower, the Copterteer, The Last River-dancer, the Immortal Mime, Drill Instructor—but my favorite was The Sentient Nut.
The Nut was just that, the kind of nut that you would fit with a bolt and a washer, with that interior tread, etc, only it stood up on its edge, was six feet tall, had a black eye at the top, communicated telepathically and could also control minds. I just love this guy. One day, I will have to do something with this. Having him orchestrating events at insane levels. Or even very small victories like revenge on the UPS guy. Something! He’s just too hilariously bizarre NOT to. Oh, sure, you think it’s funny Rick, but will anyone else?
Oh, I have no idea. Probably not but I’m used to it.
I love a good superhero origin story. The best of them are poignant, powerful and meaningful, imbuing the protagonist with the proper incentive to do the right thing and help people. Sometimes the circumstances are optimistically nudged in a certain direction. Take Superman for an example.
His parents place his infant self on an interstellar escape vehicle that leaves orbit moments before his home planet is destroyed forever. The ship crashes on planet earth in Kansas and is found by a kind couple who raise him and love him as their own. Through them, he only knows love, respect and understanding. When his powers start to manifest themselves during puberty and the suns’ rays effectively turn him into the most powerful man on the planet (a god), his upbringing helps him stay humble, level headed and become an inspiration to all and the greatest hero ever.
Boy, THAT could have gone sideways in a *hundred* ways. And many of those have been detailed in comics, tv and movies featuring an alternate reality where things go very different and Supes or a similar character is usually a blood soaked psychotic.
One advantage Superman also had was that even though an extraterrestrial, he not only looks human but is just OTT handsome. Lucky for everyone. If he looked like the Moleman, humanity would have stuck its collective foot in its collective mouth real quick and there’d be a very irritable Superman with a very large chip on his shoulder flying over humanity’s head.
One is reminded of the Martian Manhunter, last survivor of Mars. Back in the 1950’s, a scientist sent a signal directed towards Mars in search of intelligent life. The signal did indeed reach Mars but the being on the receiving end was somehow unwillingly transported along the signal *back* to earth, where upon seeing the green, gnarled limbs, pointed skull and glowing red eyes, the scientist had a massive heart attack and died of fright. ‘Jonn ‘Jonz, was now trapped there with no way home. Luckily for him, as a Martian, he was also a shape changer, so he could assume any form. He could also fly, turn immaterial, read minds, and was super strong. Thankfully he was a nice guy who could also turn handsome to appease humanity.
Odds are, if the infant Superman had looked like a Martian, it would have been destroyed as a monster almost assuredly and dissected. I guess my point here is that both these two heroes had a lot of benefits on their side and the creators erred on the side of great great optimism every time.
When Bill Finger and to a far lesser extent, Bob Kane, created Batman, it was a simple revenge fantasy. Young child watches his parents get murdered in an alley. The shooter takes off and the boy goes numb. He later makes a vow to wage war on all evil doers. He becomes obsessed. He trains. He brings himself to peak human physical condition. He learns. He absorbs everything he possibly can about criminology. Forensics. Deduction. Psychology. Observation. Etc. Then he uses his resources to travel the world for years, learning more and more from experts around the world, adding practical knowledge and real world experience to what he’s learned in books. He learns every fighting style possible.
On the optimistic, helpful side, he’s also genetically blessed to be good looking, with a tall, strapping, healthy body, more James Bond than Woody Allen, oh, and he’s a billionaire. That helps a great deal with resources. A great deal.
As a result of how his parents died, he hates guns. Doesn’t kill. Never kills. This is perhaps an optimistic take on an obsession such as this. Frank Castle, the Punisher, was a war vet who’d returned home only to have his wife and children killed in front of him as collateral damage in the crossfire of a mob retaliation hit. Castle almost died too but survived. Ever since, he hunts and kills criminals. Period. This of course puts Frank at odds with other superheroes who have problems with killing. Frank understands but doesn’t care.
Then you get the epic origin story of the silver age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. One day, a fearless test pilot practices in a simulator. Suddenly, the whole thing is grabbed by green energy, dragged who knows how many miles before landing in the desert by a dying alien, who gives Hal a ring. It’s a power ring from the intergalactic Green Lantern corps and is one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, and is driven by the wearer’s strength of will. Hal Jordan was chosen as worthy of wielding the ring. He becomes the Green Lantern.
Then you’ve got the silver age Flash. Police scientist Barry Allen gets hit by lightning while chemicals splash him. He becomes the fastest man alive. Okay. Well, it’s succinct.
Mind you, on one hand, Hal’s a fearless test pilot who was now basically an intergalactic cop, while Barry’s a cop who became a superhero. In the ’50’s, when these characters were created, there wasn’t much in the way of CSI in the police force but that’s what Barry was and now this century, his real life vocation is arguably more tangible and important crime solving than the Flash’s latest battle with Mirror Master. Meanwhile, when Hal was created, test pilots were getting a new buzz as they were slotted to be astronauts. Things have changed.
With the exception of the Punisher, was very DC focused, so next time, we’ll see how the other half at Marvel live.
Gotta get this off my chest. Yeah, I know it’s just a stupid TV show, but I admire creativity and good writing and storytelling in my favorite show. When it goes to crap, I’m chiming in there as well.
Unlike some fans of Doctor Who, I did not abandon the show when Chris Chibnall took over as showrunner and brought in Jodie Whitaker as the Doctor. I’ve sat through them all and been mostly disappointed with S11. This series (12), has shown some improvement, as whether by hook or by crook, or BBC threat, certain things did improve a bit. Is it still a show worthy of the name Doctor Who? It has its moments.
One of the biggest problems it has is the disingenuous current Doctor. The blame is shared by Whitaker and Chibnall. Chibs mostly loads her lines up with meaningless platitudes, things a wacky Doctor *should* say and do, but they usually land flat because Chibnall doesn’t seem to have the faintest idea how people actually communicate. Whitaker, for her part, seldom lends the part any gravity, mostly just breathless chirping. But Chibs inability to write well for his characters mostly impacts the Doctor’s pets. I mean, human companions, who the Doctor is *always* referring to as her FAM. DYS FAM might be more appropriate.
This incarnation of the Doctor seems aware that she usually has had companions in the past, so *she* has them. Her FAM irritates her whenever they ask questions about her personal life. They traveled with her –unquestioningly — for two years, never thinking to actually ask who she is (!). They just meekly follow her around like obedient baby ducks, while she teaches them lessons. They have proven to be highly incapable and useless in every scenario.
The relationship with these people she dubbed her FAMILY, is more akin to this: say, your son is having friends stay over night at the house. Then the next day, for whatever reason, your son goes to school, but the friends go to another school and happens to have the day off, and you’ve got to drag them around on your errands. And you barely know them. That’s the “feel” here in today’s TARDIS.
The Doctor seemingly has no need or care for these people (her FAMILY). They don’t even seem that excited by the prospect of all the myriad wonders the universe shows them. Maybe because everywhere they go, they have this disconnected schoolmarm constantly lecturing them, morning, noon and night. You really get the feeling that they are in actuality, little more than an annoyance. This is all down to how Chibnall presents them and how Whitaker reacts in these scenarios.
The worst was this past Sunday in “Can You Hear Me?”, a story that started out decently enough with an interesting set up. An immortal creature making dreams come alive and torturing people in their dreams, etc. There was a message hidden within the narrative about mental health and how it’s good to talk to people. Suffice to say it wasn’t clear what any of the perceived ailments were and what was affliction and what was actually caused by the bald guy invading their dreams.
Sadly, this inability to tell a clear story, mixed with Chib’s inability to script real exchanges between characters, especially the Doctor’s “beloved” and “important” FAMILY came to a head at the end of the ep. Graham, played by beloved actor Bradley Walsh, was actually trying to have an important heart to heart conversation with the Doctor, talking earnestly about his fears regarding the possibility of his cancer coming back. He bared his soul to her. This was a moment. Between two people who’d been traveling together for years. Faced death together. A man the Doctor consider’s family. Any sincere or heartfelt reassurance, no matter how small, would have meant a lot.
She simply stared at him, then said, “I’m socially awkward. How about I just go over here and do some things and in a few minutes, you can pretend I said something good.” She basically treated Graham like some stranger at a bus stop. Abominable.
Some apologists for the show will say she’s alien, she doesn’t know better. Or this incarnation didn’t know any better. Nonsense. There’s nothing wrong with her memory of the last 2,000 years. She had 13 previous incarnations who were all alien, some tetchy, some rude and crude. But when the chips were down and the companion was in trouble, or needed to talk, the Doctor was always there and showed he cared. Always showed compassion.
Let’s take the example of twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi. That incarnation could be very rude and blunt to strangers. He could be brusque with anyone. But when Clara needed him, he was there with compassion. Clara’s boyfriend Danny had been killed and she was in a very bad place. She knocked out the Doctor with a sleeping drug, then gathered all the TARDIS keys and went to a volcano. When the Doctor woke, Clara shakily stated her intention that she would destroy all the keys unless the Doctor agreed to take her to heaven to bring Danny back. As I say, she was in bad shape. The Doctor managed to turn the tables on her, gained control of the scenario and said he’d help her. She was aghast. “After everything I’ve done?” And the Doctor responded: “Clara, do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?” Now THAT’s a moment, that’s writing and that’s the Doctor. Been around over two thousand years and even with all the faults, the alien “otherness”, there is compassion.
Except, evidently, with the current incarnation. Ironically, she’s just a dick. A disingenuous, extraterrestrial creep who has shown she doesn’t care one whit about these lowly pets she carts around. I expect better.
I quite enjoyed the villains tonight, especially Zellin and the name checking of The Guardians, Eternals and the Celestial Toymaker. The finger thing was quite daft but hey, that might just be how these immortals roll. Once again, an interesting set up! Regarding the follow through—As we got deeper into the ep, and the Doctor and co. were locked up, I figured with half the episode left, this was going to be one epic confrontation, battle of wills, back and forth, trials and tribulations– no, she dispatches them quite quickly and remarkably easily. I won’t lie, this disappointed me but didn’t surprise me. It would have been nice to have a match up in the vein of the fourth Doctor and Sutekh but that’s a lot to ask for. Probably an unreasonable ask.
Still had plenty of ep left, so we go to—Yaz hitchhiking 3 years previous. Seems like this was an attempt to start fleshing out Yaz’s character. I guess this was really a fam episode, prepping us for their departure. Okay.
The presentation of what Graham and Ryan have waiting for them at home seems unimpressive compared to the universe, Time, space, etc. —Occasional chips and poker nights? Yaz has her family, but it seems like something’s not right there either. Some trouble with the folks? I really don’t know because I can’t understand her and her sister at all. Seems like they’d want to keep seeing the universe but then again, they never really get that excited about any of it, so I guess they’d rather go back for poker nights and chips. That’s okay too, I suppose.
Last but not least, now we have a better idea why after two years, the FAM doesn’t talk or open up to the Doctor. Graham lays bare his soul to her regarding his fear about his cancer coming back. She just stares at him like an idiot. This wasn’t Ryan asking for dating advice. Nor was this a topic that lends itself to her being her wacky, annoying self. I thought to myself, “Oh Chris, if ever there was a time for this incarnation to step up and show that these creatures are more than just wayward pets to her, to maybe, in some way, show a little bit of heart toward this person you’ve been traveling with all this time, now would be that moment.”
Nope, played for laughs.
Honestly, you know what? If that were me, I guess I *would* head back to the poker game. I currently think less of 13 than I did before.
So, which one is Graham again? The cancer one….right?
Having released all the individual stories on DVD, the BBC has started releasing entire *seasons* of classic Doctor Who on Blu-ray. In many cases, they’ve updated effects on some of the stories at the DVD level. Nice touches the original producers would have done had they the budget. Sometimes, they’ve gone to great lengths! The two best examples were Day of the Daleks and Kinda.
Day of the Daleks was the season 9 premiere featuring Jon Pertwee beginning his third year and due to the budget, the big climactic battle between UNIT and the Dalek forces featured a few soldiers, three Daleks and couple explosions. It worked but was a bit lacking due to budget. For the DVD, they hired new stuntmen for the UNIT troops, built several more Daleks and added CGI effects and shot a whole new battle!
While for Davison’s first season, Kinda was an interesting psychological terror tale on an alien planet that ended with a tribe confronting the The Mara, an evil entity that was represented in the form of a giant snake. Originally, it was a ridiculous looking paper mache creature on strings, whose only teal threat was giving out paper cuts. But on the DVD, they went in and replaced the aberration with a fully realized, brilliant looking CGI snake. It was amazing and really helped elevate the entire story, as opposed to ending on an eye rolling, head shaking, sad note.
Now, all these effects will be grandfathered in to the Blu-ray editions, along with whatever cutting edge remastering can be done at this level– keeping in mind that there’s only so far they can take these original visuals, even at a BR stage. Still, there are some effects that must be addressed with this new opportunity.
There are a few classic era stories that desperately need some of this digital salvation. None more so than the second story of Jon Pertwee’s final season, “Invasion of the Dinosaurs”.
Dear BBC, PLEASE FIX THE F*****G DINO PUPPETS!
See, IOTD was a wonderfully written, directed and performed story about a group of scientists who were hatching a plot to bring about a new golden age, which was in actuality very sinister and involved some time travel shenanigans. To discourage an investigation by the Doctor and UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), from breaking up the party, the bad guys would scoop dinosaurs out from the past and bring them to present day to threaten our heroes. There in lay the problem.
The company the studio hired to do the dinosaur model work assured them they’d be getting quality stuff and I guess they had good references. But when the production team got the footage back at the eleventh hour, they were devastated at how phenomenally horrible and laughable the dinos were. Even for 1973, these were the bottom of the barrel. The “rampaging” T-Rex could actually be the worst realized prop in the entirety of the 26 years of classic Doctor Who. To say Barry Letts (then producer) and Terrance Dicks (script writer) were embarrassed beyond words was an understatement but there was nothing to be done.
10 years later, it was probably released on VHS. Another 15 or 20 some odd years later, the story was released on DVD. That was probably their first opportunity to fix the problem. Nope. In some cases, they even re-released special editions of the DVD’s with the updated effects I mentioned earlier. Even the bloody snake in Kinda. But they never touched those dinos! Seriously?!? We’ve now been stuck with these things messing up a perfectly good story for almost 50 years.
But now… you’d think they’d HAVE to rework those feeble puppets for the new format……….right? There’s no way on God’s green earth they can expect people to RE-buy a further remastered story on Blu-ray without fixing the damn puppets……right?
After all, at this point, they’re going to the trouble and expense of animating ALL the missing 1960’s bxw episodes, one story at a time. They have time and they should have money for this story’s needs. Invasion of the Dinosaurs is easily one of the very best of the entire Pertwee era. Probably the best story of season 11, but it’s never talked about too highly because the puppets hurt the story. They’re everywhere and they’re crap.
So far, of the Pertwee era, only his fourth season (10), has been announced and released. If season 11 is announced as coming next year or if it’s the last one they ever release, I don’t care.
These days, anyone cracking open a new issue of a Batman comic will see the phrase “Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger”. That’s a fairly recent development, no doubt allowed by DC comics at the beseeching of friends, fans and family of the late Mr. Finger, but 80 years overdue. For decades, starting in 1939, every comic that had Batman in it read “Batman created by Bob Kane”. So of course everyone thought it was all Bob. In the ’40’s and ’50’s no credits were listed for the artist of the book, as Bob Kane ran a studio and thought it better if the world believed it was all him. In truth, he hadn’t done much but the business end of things for years and years. He wasn’t a very good illustrator either, that’s why he quickly farmed out art duties to guys like Sheldon Moldoff and Dick Sprang. They didn’t get credit in the books though. But for the longest time, Kane was able to maintain the illusion, that it was all him. At least until the ’60’s, when the comic world was changing. Over at Marvel, Stan Lee was putting up big credit boxes in each issue giving credit to the writer, penciler, inker, and letterer.
Bill Finger, a talented writer, creator of Batman, ended up dying penniless.
Bob Kane knew how to dress up and act like a smooth character, had a relative who was a lawyer and set up a smart business plan calling himself the creator of Batman. He was worth multimillions, basically for coming up with the name “Batman”.
Vin Sullivan gave a detailed interview a number of years ago about who actually created what with the character– he was the editor back then and still alive 20 years ago to share the actual details.
When drawing up the character, what Bob Kane created looked nothing like the character we know. His version was a guy in red long johns, a small black domino mask and actual batwings sticking out his back. He did provide the name Batman though.
Bill Finger came up with everything else. The blue and gray color scheme, the pointed ears, the scalloped cape, the utility belt. He came up with Bruce Wayne’s entire backstory. And Bruce Wayne. But he worked for Kane.
Kane, through the decades enjoyed the notoriety, fame, parties and of course the money. He basically lived the carefree life the fictitious millionaire Bruce Wayne pretended to live, using it as a disguise for his true persona, The Batman.
It’s said that years after Finger died in poverty, that then and only then, did Kane reportedly say that maybe he should have given Bill Finger some credit for creating Batman. But that it was too late now.
It’s long been known that my two favorite comic books are Batman and the Fantastic Four. The first thing I ever drew was Batman, and I’ve got a 150 piece Thing collection of toys and art. I’m going to say a big part of it was those being the first comics I ever picked up, circa 1971. FF #112 (Stan Lee/John Buscema) and a Batman treasury edition which reprinted his first encounter with Ras Al Ghul. (Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams). As life changing and earth shattering as those comics were in my life, I’d seen both on tv years earlier. I was a big fan of the live action Batman tv series, but he also had a cartoon, as did the FF. Actually, there were a number of superheroes that had cartoons on in the ’60’s. Cap, Iron man, Hulk, Thor, Sub mariner and especially Spidey, that of the excellent theme song. There were probably various Superman, Aquaman and other DC characters I remember as well, and I eventually visited all these characters again later in comic form. But Batman and the FF always stood head and shoulders above the rest. Somehow, in those very early days, I “imprinted” on those two franchises, if you will.
I’m now going to put on my psychologist hat. Keep in mind that I’m not only NOT a psychologist, I don’t even play one on TV. But I *do* find it interesting to root around in my brain and try and figure things out. But it’s weird in my brain. Best to wear shoes.
Delving down into the psychology of it, maybe it’s a family thing. folks split up when I was two. Mom and I lived with my grandparents and then my grandparents moved away. I’m starting to think I should’ve taken this personally — because of course it’s all about me. So, folks and family? Abandonment? Yeah, I know, >wah wah wah<. No, I’m not whining, I’m investigating. To do that, I have to ask questions and evidently, I simply don’t have that type of inner monologue.
*Important note—this solitary year of blogging is all about self discovery. You can watch through the window or not. But by the end of this year, you’ll have a more frightening understanding of me.
Anyway, young Bruce Wayne lost his parents to crime, but Bruce trained himself to be ultimately prepared, always efficient, as near perfect in mind and body as possible and the world’s greatest detective. I can’t see too much connection there as I have neither the money, physique or the training. But efficiency….. if anything, there’s the efficiency and preparedness. That does seem to ring true. I do admire efficiency.
Meanwhile, the FF were a built in family, as well as superheroes, which seemed nice.
I’m sure I’m not the only kid who sought escape in these stories. I guess I sought family, too.
People compliment me on my vocabulary. That’s got a lot to do with Reed Richards. I deflect and complain with humor. — Ben. Probably my all time low with the FF back then was when Reed and Sue got divorced, leaving Franklin, their son, with a broken home. Oooof, this did not sit well with 11 year old me. How was that “escaping” for me? Thankfully, Reed and Sue eventually got back together again.
Or maybe it’s just that the FF has a very unique team dynamic, or that the personalities injected into them by Stan resonated. *Maybe* Ben reminded me of my grandfather, who i was very close to. They had similar personalities and my grandfather was pretty strong. Back in the old old days, he used to be able to bend iron bars (!). Also, the way Jack Kirby drew the Thing, there was a certain sadness in his eyes, a certain look. Yeah, there was a couple things that reminded me of my grandpa or “Gapa” as I used to call him. That might be one of the reasons I was so taken by the FF and the Thing in general.
I don’t know. It would take a far greater psychological degree than my non existent one to suss out all the mental ins and outs of why I’m in so deep on those characters. Will I revisit this? Probably…
I usually like to stay on top of the snowfall. Get out there early, put a dent in it. but then you get a day like today, when there’s a couple inches on the ground, another inch comin’ and I’m still Peggy Phlegmy and I just can’t be bothered to slog out there and possibly make it worse.
I’ve never been that guy who just shrugs it off and says “ah, it’ll melt eventually (in 5 weeks if you’re lucky)” but I’m just real tired of being sick. REAL tired.
So time to check on how Matthew’s feelin’…..he’d have to do ours and the neighbors—but he gets paid for that. He knows the risks…..
thingis.home.blog 