It’s the spring of 1954, and comic books are king.  Four-colored panels tell tales of masked crusaders, gun-blazing mobsters, hatchet-swinging madmen, and barely dressed damsels in distress, sold for a dime at the corner drugstore to kids of all ages.  One of the leading publishers of these not-so-funny funnybooks is Starr Syndication, run by Maggie and Jack Starr a step-mother and son duo with street smarts and style to spare.
But their cartoon empire is threatened when Dr. Werner Frederick, a noted psychologist, releases his controversial new book, Ravage the Lambs.  Lambs accuses comics of being the instigator of youth crimes, that those spandex-clad heroes are homosexual influences, and that they might be making our kids dumber to boot.  His words stir up the pot, and Congress calls for public hearings, threatening to do something about this “ten-cent plague” in our midst.

When Dr. Frederick winds up dead thanks to a scheme ripped directly from the pages of a best-selling comic book, there are too many suspects to count.  Hoping to protect his industry and his cronies, Jack Starr takes on the investigation and follows a path that leads him to the seediest parts of the four-color publishing racket.
Read More

On the last episode of Tank Girl…Rob didn’t especially like the titular, heavily-armed, cigarette-smoking female’s graphic novel, Carioca.  The story was a little light on everything: violence, character, and story.  It was an unusual, not entirely unwelcome sidestep from co-creator Alan C. Martin’s usual run with the character, but something was missing.

I’m happy to report that the Tank Girl of old is back in this latest outing from Titan Books, Everybody Loves Tank Girl.  Written by Martin with artwork by Jim Mahfood (Clerks, Grrl Scouts), ELTG is a return to the chaotic, cursing, non sequitur style of yore…kind of.
Read More

The cult TV show Dark Shadows ran from 1966 until 1971.  I wasn’t even born when the odd, supernatural soap opera went off the air, so it wasn’t something I was familiar with until a few years ago when Tim Burton talked about doing a movie based on the show.  Frankly, the movie never really interested me since I had no connection whatsoever to the property, until I saw the first trailer.  It would have been easy for Burton to set the movie in the modern age, but, no, he had to go retro with a 1970s period piece.  And that alone interested me.  Not enough to see it in the theatre, mind you, but enough to spend $1 at one of the 3,000 Redbox machines within two blocks of my house.

Going into the movie blind, with only the vaguest notion of what the central premise was, I can’t say that my “intrigued” attitude grew to become affection.  I didn’t care about any of the characters, the comedy mostly fell flat for me, and the plot was less than inspiring.  Yet I felt compelled to finish the movie, just because it was such a bold experiment in movie-making, mostly due to the set and costume design.
Read More

I first met Spider-Man in the cheesy live-action segments of The Electric Company.  My first run-in with Superman was during his time as a member of the Super Friends, along with his super friends Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman (I think we can all agree that the less said about Aquaman, the better).  I yelled, “Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!” thanks to the Lone Ranger and Zorro serials that were broadcast on PBS after the Saturday morning cartoons were over.  I can remember where I met all of these superheros, but I have no clue where or when I was first introduced to Tarzan.

I have a feeling there are a lot of us who just seem to instinctively know who Tarzan is.  Since Edgar Rice Burroughs’ story of the ape man was first published 100 years ago, the character has become something of a ubiquitous icon, akin to someone like Uncle Sam.  We may not know how or when we were formally introduced to Tarzan, but we know that anyone in a leopard skin cloth swinging from a vine could only be one person.
Read More