I recall being highly satisfied with all three stories in Strange Adventures 137 (Feb. 1962), but…
Column
JUST IMAGINE! May 1963: The Old Guy in the Sky
I’d argue that the Vulture was the first true comic-book supervillain faced and defeated by Spider-Man. Oh…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1951: Who That Masked Man Really Was
When I think of my late father, I often imagine him huddled with some of his…
INDY SPOTLIGHT: Zombie Ranch #15 preview
Zombie Ranch #15 The Z Ranch is seemingly surrounded by the crazed outlaw gang known as…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1966: TV Tiptoes into Capes and Masks
The 1960s Batman TV show was the first true attempt to do really full-blown, colorful comic…
Twisted News: “Original Cyn” Cynthia Vespia
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Twisted News. In this issue, we are going to…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1967: Posing the Question
Given his emphatic philosophical views, I’m a little surprised Steve Ditko didn’t call his new superhero…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1962: The Menace in the Metal Mask
Three members of the Fantastic Four were writhing and gasping for air in a gray dungeon,…
JUST IMAGINE! November 1962: The Sadness of Super-Girl
With her red hair and green-and-orange costume, Supergirl had arrived! But not really. Not so fast.…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1963: The Turtle of Tomorrow
The redoubtable and risible Reptile of Steel appeared in filler cartoons across a half dozen DC…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1967: Time Traveling for Treasure
I’ve always been fascinated by the one-hit wonders of the superhero world, and in Charlton Premiere 1 (Sept.…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1968: The Shadow of the Clown
A classic villain, like a classic hero, casts many a shadow. So it is with Batman’s…
INDY SPOTLIGHT: The River People #1-2
The River People #1-2 Story 1: The River People. As a child, Kim’s aunt told her…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1963: The Skrull in the Mirror
The Fantastic Four frequently fought examples of a time-tested theme in superhero comics — the mirror-image…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1964: Supermen in Space and at Sea
With his interest in the superhuman theme, science fiction author A.E. van Vogt anticipated and/or inspired…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1983: A New Dimension in Comics
If there’s anything I like better than an obscure superhero, it’s an obscure superhero who’s a…
JUST IMAGINE: June 1952: The Dynamic Duo Catches Fireflies
I had a delight in store for me in the summer of 1962, when I turned…
JUST IMAGINE: August 1964: Behold a Pale Shadow
The first time I saw the Shadow was in 1964, when I was 10 and the…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1963: Spider-Man Faces Doom
As superhero comic book readers in the 1960s, we did a lot of conscious and unconscious…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1953: The Father of Grodd
DC Comics’ Strange Adventures might be called the predawn of the Silver Age. For example, in…
JUST IMAGINE: MAR 3 1870: What They Learned from Verne
Nineteenth-century French writer Jules Verne could see over the widening technological horizon of the industrial age…
INDY SPOTLIGHT: Pineapple Man #10
PINEAPPLE MAN #10 Things don’t always go according to plan, as Isamu and Miyo are about…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1964: I Spy, You Spy, We All Spy
DC Comics found itself ahead of the superspy bandwagon without ever quite managing to hitch a…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1961: Beware His Power
The theme of Green Lantern 7 (July-Aug. 1961) can be traced back about 2,400 years, to…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1949: The Gidget with the Gadgets
You gotta get a gimmick, as Stephen Sondheim observed, and Merry Creamer-Pemberton had a plethora of…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1962: Another Face-Off with the Faceless
They were two of the most underplayed “superheroes” of the Silver Age. Two South Dakota Highway…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1959: Titano, Son of Kong
Several super-simians have complicated Clark Kent’s life over the years. He tangled with the massive escaped…
JUST IMAGINE! November 1956: Tanks for the Memories
A good part of Blackhawk’s unique appeal had to do with the fanciful, heavy-duty military hardware…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1962: The Flame Rekindled
As an 8-year-old, I wasn’t aware that the Human Torch had a famous prior history when…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1961: Super Pets Peeved
Loving both cats (although I was allergic to them) and the color orange, I naturally appreciated…
JUST IMAGING! May 1978: The Bionic Woman Meets The Prisoner
Martin Caidin’s 1972 novel Cyborg inspired the 1973-78 TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, which…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1960: The Invader from 4,500 Years Ago
The 66-foot-tall, 240-foot-long Great Sphinx of Giza has always loomed large in young imaginations, and comic…
January 1963: Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Alien Invasion…
I have long considered the cover of Strange Adventures 148 (Jan. 1963), to exemplify the title’s…