I was A Middle-Aged Superhero

This is an article I wrote that was originally penned in the mid-‘80s (when I was in my 30s) and was published by the Comics Buyer’s Guide. I’m republishing it here, with a special addendum/update to further help put the conclusions I drew then into perspective.

*****

Do you remember Saturday morning cartoons, Wonderama (with Sonny Fox — sorry, a local NY TV program from the late ‘60s), and the wide-eyed innocence of youth? Do you remember tying a beach towel around your neck and transforming yourself into the Man of Steel? Do you remember when you really believe that a man could fly?

I do.

So — given this — you can perhaps better understand what I did a couple of Halloweens ago. Brace yourself — I became (drum roll, please), the Amazing Spider-Man. No, I am not an overgrown fanboy (although I do admit to being a card-carrying Marvel Zombie), since I had been invited to a Halloween party, I decided that I would attend, and — for the first time in several years — go in costume.

Thus, I went down to a local comic shop and bought the last Spider-Man, long-sleeved T-shirt they had in stock. You know it, the black one with the white spider symbol silk-screened on it. Yes, yes, I knew that Spidey had long since abandoned this costume (and it was adopted by the villainous Venom), but who in the outside (dare I call it “real”) world, knew this. If the truth were to be told, most people never knew that the costume changed to black in the first place. I supplemented the shirt with a black turtleneck, black sweatpants, a black, full-faced ski mask, black knit gloves, and heavy black socks. I inserted a pair of thick insoles into a pair of black socks (making them akin to a pair of slippers), sewed the mouth of the face mask shut and (using white medical tape), edged the mask’s eyes and placed a patch of white on the backs of the gloves.

Donning the makeshift costume (along with a pair of curved, mirrored sunglasses worn under the mask), I transformed myself into my childhood hero: the Amazing Spider-Man. To all who could see, I was covered from head to toe in black; with the ominous-looking spider on the front and back of my shirt, as well as the spectral-like white-rimmed, mirrored-eyes, I was no longer the mild-mannered writer, Bob Sodaro, I was Spider-Man, a bona fide Superhero. All I needed to do now was to make my grand entrance.

I determined that this costume was too good to “waste” on just the party, so I decided to make the rounds, and show it off. My first stop was my uncle’s deli. Clad in my new costume, I flung the door open and leaped to the countertop next to the cash register (promptly sliding on its slick surface and falling on my rump). The gal at the register, who I’ve known for years, looked at me and said, “Hello Robert.” Oh well, I said, she knows I collect comics and that Spidey is my hero; so, it was a lucky guess on her part.

My next stop was to a local restaurant I frequented and knew most of the help. I calmly strolled in during a mid-afternoon lull to a chorus of “Hey there, Bob.” “Great costume, Bob.” Bummer, two strikes against me, I thought. After I was there for a while, the owner showed up, I quickly pulled my mask back on and jumped up on the banister behind a booth in my best Spider-like pose. He calmly walked in, glanced passingly at me and said, “Nice costume, Bob.” Grrr, this is getting ridiculous.

Me (as Spidey) & Pop

From there I went across town to another establishment I frequented and knew the help. I walked in and jumped up onto the back of a videogame in the lobby (which was being played by one of the workers), “Ooh, Spider-Man,” the gal playing the game cooed. “Is that Bob?” A co-worker asked. “Yep,” the first gal responded. Ah well.

The last stop of my tour was (naturally), the comic shop I frequented (not the shop where I bought the shirt in the first place). I burst in the door of the shop, shouting “Beware evildoers! Spider-Man is here!” One patron looked passively at me and said, “You clown, Sodaro.” While others laughed and called out my name.

Needless to say, no matter where I went that day, no matter who I saw, either knew right away who I was, or strongly suspected that it was me. Granted, I do have a reputation for being a tad flaky, and pulling some silly stunt or other, but what depressed me was that literally everyone knew it was me! leading me to ask, just how does this work in comics.

You know what I mean, how do guys like Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Robin, and other, who only sport those dinky little masks (and, by the way, how do they stay on?), get away with not being outed? I have no trouble recognizing people when they put on a pair of sunglasses. Further, how does Oliver Queen get away with having such a stylish beard and mustache without people questioning that Green Arrow does as well? And don’t even talk to me about how Clark Kent gets away with just his eyeglasses as a disguise. I wear glasses, and everyone recognizes me with or without them (or when I change the style of them, as I do every couple of years or so.

Once I had a gal come up to me in a dimly lit, smoky bar and ask if I was Bob Sodaro (which I then was, and still am). I responded that I, in fact, was, and she told me that we were in second grade together, and not only had she recognized me, but she stated that I hadn’t changed at all since then (this, in spite of the intervening 30 years, and that I was probably twice as tall as I had been the last time she saw me, plus I was now over a hundred pounds heavier, moustached, bearded, wore glasses, and my hairline was in a full retreat up my forehead. I — of course — had not a clue as to who this gal was; when prompted, I eventually did recognize her name, if not her.

In spite of this incident (that I was recognized in full costume), I still believe that a man can fly. Nevertheless I do not fully understand how people never quite figure out who these superheroes are. (Personally, since this incident, I’m more inclined to believe John Byrne’s line of thought as expounded in Marvel Comics’ comic The Star Brand. That is to say, that superheroes’ secret identities aren’t discovered more often within their respective storylines is because it would not only ruin a nifty story, but that the writer simply doesn’t want it to happen.

However, while this doesn’t really inhibit my enjoyment of superhero comics, I am a touch more critical of plot holes that simply ignore things that are (or would be in real life), glaringly obvious. If only other writers would consider how certain events would look if the story was told outside comics, perhaps they would improve their storytelling.

As for me, I believe that this year I’ll stay home for Halloween.

Addendum

It is now 30 years hence from when I originally penned that article, and I’m in my 60s. This article is even more relevant today than when I originally wrote it, as we have recently came through a two-year pandemic/lock-down where whenever I was out in public, I was fully masked, and yes, people I knew still recognized me, so, clearly, nothing has actually changed, and while I still believe in heroes (especially the colorful, mask-wearing ones) I’m still not completely convinced that the entire masked-wearing gerne actually works; especially when being fully-masked (as many of us were during the pandemic) were still recognizable to those who knew us. Still, it is fun to pretend.

 

Trolling the Convention Trail

Last weekend (Sunday, November 19, 2006) I went into NYC to attend Big Apple’s humongous comicbook and Sci-Fi show (The National). As usual, I was there representing both Guild Works Productions, and the Comic Artists Guild. I am, you see, the Communications Director for GWP (that’s our comic over there on the right, click the link and go buy a copy). It was a very entertaining show that I attended. Interestingly enough, walking around a convention with a name badge on garners some interesting attention. You see, folks would read my name, recognize it, and then asked me how they know me.

My response is usually the same, “Well I’ve been writing in the fields for quite some time with credits going back to Amazing Heroes, The Comics Journal, Wizard, CBG and elsewhere.” This usually gets a response that they remember my name. Well one of the fellows that I ran into over the weekend (Dan Fogel) was the publisher of an underground price guide, when he realized that I was an editor for an overground price guide (Comics Values Annual) he invited me to join him on the dais for his panel.

Unable to turn down an invitation to pontificate about comics, I accepted. Granted his panel was the last of the day, and there were only something like 15 or 20 folks who attended, it was still both an honor and fun. While at the show, I was (along with GWP Creative Director Mark Mazz and CAG Art Director James Rodriguez, and Rammer Martinez) interviewed by The Horror Channel (hey, I didn’t even know that there was a Horror Channel!) I can’t tell you how cool this was. So, you just know that I’m going to register for and go to the NY Comicbook Con in Feb.

Also While I was at this convention, I ran into my old Marvel Age editor, Jim Salicrup (back when it was an internal Marvel promo mag) — who very generously gifted me with the con sketch that you see here (Jim also works with the Museum of Comic and cartoon art in NYC) — as well as Danny Fingeroth (author of Superman on the Couch — a very fine discussion of superheroes). Of Course my favorite cover artist Melvin Ylagan was also there, as were other CAGers and folks I know. So yeah, I’m really enjoying going to conventions these days.

This past Thursday was Turkey Day, and I spent it at my Brother-In-Law’s place, and he told me that the Spider-Man reprints that are currently running in the NY Post are also appearing in the Danbury News-Times, and that he has been saving them for me. He forgot to actually give me the copies that he has collected, but not that I know he has been collecting them and will continue to do so it quite cool.

Well, that’s about it for this week., got to get back to the grind (hey I’ve gotten two or three new scripts written that are targeted for the upcoming CAG/GWP comics. and now I have to type them up). Ciao.

Rising to the Challenge?

Well, it’s all over the Net now, Erik Larson’s tirade against mediocrity — at least I think that’s what Erik was mewling over this time — I’m honestly not entirely certain what set him off this time (remember boys and girls, The esteemed Mr. Larson was the author of the infamous CBG letter “Name Withheld” many years ago), and I’ve also read Peter David’s knee-jerk reaction to Erik’s rambling, venomous, and scatological rant.

Now as loath as I am to put myself in the middle of these two industry giants (and no, I’m neither being snide nor glib — I have an immense amount or respect for both men, I know Peter (or, more to the point, Peter knows who I am, and we’ve chatted on a number of occasions over the years), and (while he probably doesn’t recall) I did meet Erik once (back in ’97 or so when I was at San Diego Con). Though, as I’ve never had any formal contact with Erik (outside that brief meeting on the floor of the Con), it is entirely possible that he knows me by reputation (I used to write extensively for various publications in the fan press, as well for several publishers, most notably (in this case, at lease) for Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios (back Rob was still at Image), which is why I was at San Diego that year (Rob flew me out at his expense, and then assigned me several articles to write for him while I was there).

I say all this up front not only to establish my bona fides, but also to make it clear that I harbor no ill will towards either Erik or Peter. Nor is it lost on me that there is no small amount of animosity between these two blokes, for reasons that are both inexplicable as well as pass all understanding. Thus, for me to enter the fray at this point is sort of akin to me saying, “Do I want to be mauled by the tiger, or do I want to be mauled by the other tiger?” Still, I (foolishly?) move forward in my quest for understanding.

Having said all of that, I now blithely throw myself into the pit.

In his Thursday, September 29 column for Comic Book Resources, Erik threw down the gauntlet to comicbook creators everywhere (especially those who work on company-owned characters) by calling them (us) both pathetic and pussies. By way of comparison, he holds up Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko — later on in the piece he also cites Mike Mignola, Todd McFarlane, and Frank Miller (and of course, by subtle references, to himself). That’s when he calls us pathetic and pussies, and compares us to some nameless chump who works at McDonald’s (we don’t own the franchise, we can’t even eat the food without permission, all we do is wear hair nets and pass out company-owned product — OK, that last part was mine, but I’m fairly certain that’s what he meant), with nothing at all to contribute to the world of comics.

Perhaps he’s right, but I’ll get back to Mr. Larsen in a moment. First I want to examine Mr. David’s response.

I mostly agree with Peter. As always, Peter makes well-reasoned, well-thought out comments that very clearly make his point (he cites a couple of possible reasons for Erik’s column including but not limited to a) To challenge the community of creators to submit something of interest to Image, b) Jealousy towards Peter and other creators, for their better-selling work, c) Larsen’s inability to sell a Hulk concept to Marvel. There are others, but these will do for now. I’m going to guess that Peter might be right on some level, but I simply don’t know, and refuse to personally speculate. Peter goes on to point out that Stan Jack Steve and all the rest of the Silver Age Marvel staff actually did work on company-owned products, (and did so without publicly griping about it I might add). However Peter’s main point seems to be that if someone is happy working on someone else’s concept, they should do that, but if people want to create something out of whole cloth, they should go and do that instead.

I agree. Not everyone is adept enough to create new, exciting material (I’ll even go so far as to point out that when Stan, Jack, and Steve were working together, what they did was magic. However (and I know that I’m going to get slammed for positing this), in later years (with the possible exceptions of Kirby’s Fourth World, Ditko’s Creeper, and all of the Silver Age Marvel material the Stan co-created with other Marvel artists) when these three worked apart from each other their material was simply not as popular, ground-breaking, or even memorable as their Silver Age Marvel Collaborations. (Erik cited Kirby’s Devil Dinosaur, but can anyone honestly tell me (with a straight face) that Devil Dinosaur was as compelling as the FF, Galactus, the Silver Surfer? Ditko gave us The Question and Mr. A (whom I personally love), but neither rose to the levels of his work on Spidey or Dr. Strange. And Stan? Now I’m a huge fan of Stan, but even I’m willing to admit that since Stan stopped writing Spidey and the FF, nothing he’s done has risen to those levels. With all due respect, I’ll cite the revisionist history he did on the origins of a number of DC heroes a few years back. I personally found them mostly unreadable.)

Still, by comparing us to the guys who, by all accounts resurrected the industry and for all intents and purposes, saved comics from winding up on the trash heap of Pop Culture is completely unfair. Going by Erik’s own example (comparing us to Stan, Jack, and Steve), my own son who is just now learning to play guitar probably shouldn’t touch the instrument unless he can measure up to Mozart or Beethoven; my brother who learned to play guitar as a teen, should have probably shot himself in the head because he only got as far as playing at our church’s folk mass and never even got as far as playing someone else’s music in a garage band.

In my own response to Peter’s post, I said in part ”…Ultimately, it shouldn’t really matter, some guys have what it takes to create something interesting out of whole cloth, and some guys don’t. You can’t (or shouldn’t) denigrate an excellent carpenter simply because he isn’t Frank Lloyd Wright, and can’t design buildings. It simply isn’t fair.”

Especially when you consider that in an earlier post (Thursday September 15) Erik blasted all of the fanboys and wanabe creators who deluge the Image office with crap submissions. “Seriously.” He writes, “What were you thinking?” He chides at great length under-talented individuals who seem to look at their fannish work and think that it is good enough to get them published alongside Larson (and Jack, and Steve, and Mike, and Frank). “What were you thinking?” He asks. “Of course [your mom] thinks what you’re doing is terrific — she's trying to be encouraging!” He then goes on to say that most people suck, and don’t have a single original idea in their heads. I actually understand what you mean, but, by the by, nice way to talk to the people who put money in your pocket, Erik.

If one were to compare the tone of these two columns, Erik seems to be telling us that unless we are as good as the very best this field has to offer, we should stay home and continue to flip burgers like the snot-nosed punks we are, and yeah, and by the way, thanks for buying all of my way-cool shit. (You can almost see him channeling Bugs Bunny saying “What a Maroon!”) Making him come off like some popular actor who refuses to mingle with the rabble that pay their hard-earned money to go and see his films. Which creates an unfortunate image that I’m not entirely sure that Erik wants to foster amongst his fan base, or the industry, for that matter.

Still, I can’t help but to think that both men are entirely oversimplifying the creative process, and quite frankly, both of them should really know better. Here’s my point, and one they both missed. You can have the most tantalizing brilliant idea in the entire universe, but if you don’t have the means or wherewithal to get it to someone who actually cares about it, or can do something about getting it published, it is absolutely worthless. Think I’m wrong?

Consider comicstrips, there are like a handful, a handful and a half of comic strips that appear in newspapers around the country, and most of them look like all the rest. Want to know why Peanuts is still in the paper, even though its creator Charles Schultz has been dead for a couple of years and there I no one creating new strips? It’s the licensing agreement that’s keeping it there now. So even if some new, young, up and coming, dynamic artist were to have the new Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, or whathaveyou it couldn’t get into the paper because the 50-year-old strip of a dead guy is is currently occupying the Real Estate that the company that controls the strip’s image won’t gamble on the possibility that some new, wet-behind-the-ears punk can make them as much money as what they already have. Imagine for a minute that 50+ years ago the young Mr. Schultz was denied entrance to the funny page because some other strip was then occupying the spot to which he was entitled?

What do you have to say about that, Mr. Larsen? And, by the way, what do you have to say about the dozens of comicbook creators who work at Image on titles and/or characters that you created but don’t own them? Are they pathetic pussies as well?

Hey, has anyone looked at TV lately? I have, and (from a dramatic viewpoint) it is full of three kinds of shows, Cops, Lawyers, and Doctors). Need I go further? Look at the cop shows CSI and Law and Order each of which have three or four franchises, and five or 10 derivative shows (good as it may be, NCIS is just CSI gone military).

The people who make the decisions tend to buy what has already sold. Need more proof? Last season Medium proved to be a compelling show about a psychic that solves crimes by talking to dead people. This season there are one or two new dramas about people talking to the dead, as well as more than a couple of reality shows about psychic detectives, plus a movie or two on their way to the theaters.

Oh yeah, and while were here, let’s look at movies. Check out much of the films of the past few years and you’ll see that a significant percentage of them that are big-screen versions of old TV shows — not to mention that most of the rest of them that are film adaptations of books, comics, and stage shows. Books? More of the same Tom Clancy has become his own cottage industry and has half a dozen on-going series on the shelves (written by other authors) that are essentially mining the same vein of military action/thriller. Sci Fi books? They are mostly other authors (including the esteemed Mr. David) adding to the established universes of series adapted from film and/or TV (Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, et. al.)

The guys in power like to buy stuff that has already sold.

Want more proof? Look at the history of our own industry. The FF and Avengers were — by his own admission — Stan’s spin on comics already being published by DC. Plus, how many times has one publisher knocked off their version of a character on the other side of the aisle? You can put all the twists and turns on “new and improved” characters but aren’t they all just more of the same?

Anyone besides me remember all of the very cool universes that exploded on the scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s? Malibu, Milestone, Valiant, Image (whoops)? Look across the board, folks, and you can see iconoclastic archetype characters in every one of these companies. (Malibu’s Prime was Fawcett’s Captain Marvel, while The Night Man was Batman, and Prototype was Iron Man. Over at Milestone Static, Hardware, and Icon were that company’s (ethnic) versions of Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Superman. Even Image had its fair share of Wolverines, Hawkeye/Green Arrows, X-Men/Factor/Force, etc. ad. nausium). Not that any of the “derivative” characters were bad, many of them were actually quite good.

In fact, look at Daredevil was, when created, cast by Stan in the role of an adult Spider-Man (the wise-cracking, fearless, adventurer with a sense of duty). In the late ‘70s/early ‘80s DD was deconstructed by Frank Miller and then reformed into Miller’s personal take (Marvel style) on Batman (the dark and brooding avenger of the night — a role into which DD better fits, by the way). Static, Backlash, and The Creeper were all “inspired” by Spider-Man and I enjoyed each of those characters, because of that relationship to Spidey.

To return to the point, I personally took no umbrage to Erik’s challenge and determined to get up off my fat, aging butt and DO something I’ve been talking about for years. I fully intend to actually submit some project ideas that have been kicking around in my head for a time (I’ll report back to you later on how that goes). Personally, while I have a huge amount of respect for Peter, and love to read his writings (both column/opinion work, as well as his fiction) I truly believe that he really does have it in for those Image guys — granted it goes both ways, but I tend to see it on the same level that I tacitly observe arguments between my kids, one says one thing just to get the other’s goat, and then other responds in kind.)

You see, while I feel that Erik's rant was overly vitriolic and unnecessarily scatological in nature, I really do understand (I think) what Erik was attempting to say. I picture him sort of like that football coach who is attempting to guide his potentially talented, but underscoring team to a state championship. I read this column by Erik as akin to the half time locker-room rant by that angry coach who is majorly POed that his team is down by a touchdown and two conversions, and now they seem to have given up the ghost on ever winning. All the coach (Erik) is attempting to do is light a fire under us to get the blood rushing back into our game, so we will produce the kind of results that he knows we are capable of producing.

Now, while I don’t entirely agree with the way he chose to do it, I do believe that as much as he may or may not like or approve of them, Erik is just as tired of CSI knock offs on TV, Peanuts still appearing in newspapers after his creator is dead, and Spider-Man re-boots as are the rest of us, and he really just wants us (the next generation of creators) to succeed and produce a new pantheon of heroes for this new millennium. At least that’s the way I’m choosing to read his column. So I’m going to move forward, convinced that he wrote this particular column just for me.

I’m going to do this because, I’ve always felt that the thing that made me a writer was not so much that I had something to say, but that what I had to say was of such value that people would not only seek me out to read what I had to say, but actually offer me money for the privilege of publishing my words in order for other people to be able to read what I had to say as well.

Thus far (20+ years after my first published article, and still selling) nothing has come to my attention that has caused me to think otherwise. This, of course, makes me either an incredible egoist, or — quite frankly — right, and I still don’t have enough evidence to prove that issue one way or the other.

Having said all of that, boys and girls, it is important to remember this one thing: Nothing is Sacred