Peerless Power of Comics!

Big Little Books were first published in 1932, with prose on the left side and a single illustration on the right. The books starred many popular characters from comic strips, cartoons, movies and television, including Popeye, Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Tarzan, Donald Duck, Lassie, Flipper, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Man from Uncle, Bugs Bunny and Yogi Bear. You can read more about the history of Big Little Books here: http://www.biglittlebooks.com/learning.html William Johnston is credited with writing the 1968 Big Little Book featuring the Fantastic Four, which was published by Whitman. Curious about William Johnston's background, I searched online and discovered his fascinating history:     http://iamtw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/news-1-10.pdf The first four pages provides you with Johnston's bibliography. He was a prolific writer whose books included many television tie-ins. His most successful run was on Get Smart, but he was versatile. and other books inc...

Werner Roth began working for Martin Goodman's line in 1950. A versatile artist, Roth produced quality work in many genres, including crime, war, western, romance and adventure. Some of the characters and features he was associated with include Apache Kid , Matt Slade, Venus,  "Jet Dixon" and Lorna, Jungle Girl . When work dried up at Atlas in 1957 Roth (along with Gene Colan and John Romita) migrated to DC, where he drew romance stories in titles such as Secret Hearts, Young Love, Falling in Love and Young Romance . Roth was skilled at drawing attractive women, which served him well for many years. In 1965 he sought to rejoin a growing Marvel and was rehired by Stan Lee, where he worked over Jack Kirby's layouts on X-Men before taking over full pencils. Roth continued on the strip for two years, working for other companies from time to time, including Gold Key and King comics. In-between his X-Men gig, he was also assigned work on a few Sub-Mariner stories in Tales t...

Comic books often looked to movies for ideas, stories and current trends. Westerns, crime, romance, monsters and science fiction all filtered into comics. Simon and Kirby's Newsboy Legion were inspired by the Dead End Kids; Lee and Kirby's Hulk was a mixture of the Wolfman, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Frankenstein Monster; a horde of giant insect and bug movies were echoed in Marvel and DC's late 1950's-early 1960's output. Many artists were also moviegoers; they absorbed the storytelling, cinematography and intensity of their experiences and translated them to a different medium, where - in olden days (yes, kids, there was a time computerized special effects didn't exist), their pencils journeyed beyond anything movies could conceive. Character actors represented a diverse offering of personalities of all types: they often brought a distinct flavor to the movies. Artists took notice, and many a comic book were scattered with these familiar faces.       And,...

Comic Book Artist: With the Code changes, you could use the word "Weird," and boy, you used it everywhere! Joe: I started using the word and Carmine decided that "Weird" sold anything. Weird War, Weird Western, Weird Worlds, Weird Mystery. We were pals and would share ideas.  Joe Orlando interview with Jon Cooke, Comic Book Artist # 1 Since Weird War Tales was the first "Weird" title, edited by Joe Kubert, Orlando may have incorrectly stated that he used the word first. It may have originated with Joe Kubert, original editor of Weird War, or publisher Carmine Infantino. However it began, "Weird" had an effect on sales, and DC followed up with Weird Western Tales . All Star Western was an ongoing title that tried out a variety of new characters in an attempt to find one that connected with an audience. Early issues cover featured   Outlaw and Billy the Kid , with an occasional appearance by El Diablo . Reprints included Pow-Wow Smith, Buffal...

In the early 1970's someone at DC noticed that a certain word caught the attention of the buying public. This word was attached to a number of genres, including war, western, adventure and humor. This started with  Weird War Tales  # 1, Oct 1971, followed nine months later by Weird Western Tales  (# 12, July 1972); Weird Mystery Tales  # 1 (August 1972) and Weird Worlds # 1 (September 1972), which focused on material by Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter, Pellucidar). "Weird" was also added to the long running Adventure Comics (although the indicia remained unchanged) for five issues: it was appropriate for the Spectre stories produced by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo (#'s 433-437).  Even the humor comic Plop! was sub-titled "The Magazine of Weird Humor". The only genre missing was Weird Romance, although that title might have raised the ire of the Comics Code (it would have made for some interesting stories, though!).   Weird War Tales was the first D...