Funnybooks I’ve Recently Read

So, I figured that I’d share with all’y’all my thoughts on a bunch of funybooks I’ve recently read. (Just so everyone understands, I’ve been reading comics since around ’61 or so, with much of my early reading done while sitting on the newsstand of my uncle’s grocery store. It was him that called them “Funnybooks” and that name stuck with me so much that when I launched my comicbook imprint, I called it Funnybook City.) But I digress.

To return to the topic at hand, the comics I picked up most recently. First up, issues 1–5 of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (which tie into the eponymous Disney+ series—I’ll review the Disney+ series in a different post). While the comic and the animated series each follow a slightly different path, they both focus in on a somewhat divergent path. Each of them telling the tale of our favorite wallcrawler (According to Google, the series (for both the comic and the TV show, independent of each other) is set in an alternate MCU timeline, specifically one that closely mirrors the main MCU but with key differences, making it a “What If?” scenario. It’s not considered part of the main 616 universe but is still part of the larger Marvel multiverse. The show is designed to explore a Spider-Man story within an MCU-like setting without directly impacting the main continuity. 

To be sure, the core of both the comic and the streaming series are that Peter is in high school, gets bitten by an irradiated spider, and gains the proportionate strength of a spider, then sets out to do good. The comic is written by Christos Gage and illustrated by Eric Gapstur, and it retells the origin of Spider-Man, but in a simpler style targeted towards a younger audience (ironically enough, presumably targeted to an audience the same age I was when I first began reading comics in 1962.)

The origin is mostly the same (young Peter, an irradiated spider) with the addition of some new twists and friends; Nico Minoru, her foster mom, Susan O’Hara, a (much) younger Aunt May, as well as existing in a modern timeframe. Some old characters are also reintroduced, but in updated versions (Silvermane, Man Mountain Marko, The Enforcers). Also, Peter’s first Spider-Costume is very retro different (a tank on his back with web fluid and long tubes conveying the fluid to his wrist-shooters).

The overall story itself revolves around Silvermane wanting to buy the land on which Midtown High sits and the kids (and Spider-Man) not wanting that to happen (all while attending another high school that is specifically for especially talented kids. The story is entertaining, and we certainly hope that Marvel reaches its target audience with this title, and more kids come to have the same appreciation for both Spider-Man, and comics that my association with them resulted from sitting on Uncle Franks’s newsstand when I was that age.

Having recently watched (and reviewed) Thunderbolts*  I picked up the first two issues of the newest comicbook incarnation of their comicbook. It wasn’t until I got them home that I realized that the comic actually came out in 2024. Still, upon reading it I discovered that (while I had read various runs of the previous incarnations of this title, I was still a bit surprised by the nature of this version of the team. Just in case you have only seen the film, let me do a quick recap of the comic here.

A little bit of comicbook history

The first appearance of the original incarnation of the comicbook team, Thunderbolts, (created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley) was in The Incredible Hulk #449 (January 1997). The team itself showed up after the presumed deaths of Avengers and Fantastic Four and consisted of Citizen V, Atlas, Mach-1, Meteorite, Songbird, and Techno. One month later, in February, Thunderbolts #1 hit stands. However, it was later revealed that they were, in fact, the Masters of Evil, led by none other than long-time Avenger villain, Baron Zemo, who was aiming to gain public trust for his nefarious purposes. While this was their beginning, over the years, the team has evolved into an actual superhero team giving us quite a few iterations of the Thunderbolts, each exploring themes of redemption and second chances.

In this ’24 version of the team (by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly as writers, and Geraldo Borges as artist) we are presented with a roster that was quite similar to the cinematic version of the team. Here, the team consists of Bucky (as team leader), a Life Model Decoy of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Sharon Carter as the Destroyer, and Red Guardian, with Black Widow (in a new spidery costume) joining them in issue #2. The White Widow, Chang-Chi, and The Captain (John Walker) also join the team during the series four-issue run.

In the first issue, the team went up against the latest incarnation of The Red Skull, killing him and torching his South American HQ. In the second issue the team goes up against the (then) current incarnation of the Hellfire Club which is being led by Kingpin (who was no longer the mayor of NYC as this was taking place during the Gang War storyline in the Spider-titles with Luke Cage as Mayor). Eventually going up against Doctor Doom himself!

The two issues we read were so good that we were honestly disappointed to learn that the series was over and we were unable to find the other two issues or the trade paperback edition either. Still, it was a really cool spy/assassin and anti-hero team, and we really did enjoy the two issues we read (we may try to fine the other two issues moving forward).

Next on our list is Vatican City #1 (from Dark Horse by Mark Millar & Peter Berg). This is a interesting horror story were a horde of vampires take over the world, save for mankind’s last holdout, which is Vatican City. As we only have one issue, what we have to go on is that one evening, in a coordinated attack (at night around the globe) the vampires come out of hiding and methodically descend on the human population until all that is left is the Holy City of the Vatican. The issue concludes with the vampires breaching the catacombs in an attempt to free their queen.

Perhaps our favorite comic is Metamorpho The Element Man #1. We have fond memories of reading this book when it first appeared (between 1965 and 1968). The character was created by Bob Haney, and initially illustrated by  Ramona Fradon. We recall it being fun, hip, and quite cool at the time. We are happy to report that this first issue is every bit as fun, hip, and cool as we remember, with all of the original elements of what made it so much fun still intact. We can only assume that Rex Mason’s re-appearance in comics is wholly due to his showing up in the new Superman flick. To which we say, Huzzah!

The last book on our list today is Marvel’s Rivals which we are sorry to announce is a dismal disappointment. Truthfully, we really did want to enjoy this comic but couldn’t get past the first few pages as there was way too much dialogue and not nearly enough art to enjoy. The story so obviously takes place in a non 616 timeline (as evidence of a female Galactus) who spent so much time yammering about who could tell what, that it quite frankly simply turned us off to even completing the book.

That will teach me to spend just a little more time pursuing the book before actually buying it. Sigh.

 

 

 

 

Everybody hates Spider-Man (or so it seems)

I know what you’re asking yourselves right about now. Who could hate Spidey? Isn’t he the lovable Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man? Even J.J.J. likes Spidey these days. OK, yeah, Spidey still does have a rogue’s gallery of villains who, in all probability, still aren’t so fond of him, but among the general populace, who could hate our wall-crawling hero?

Well, just the other day I came home from the comic shop, and I brought with me, a handful, a handful-and-a-half of short-run Spider-Man titles, including Spider-Man & Wolverine #1, Predator Versus Spider-Man #1 & 2, and Godzilla vs Spider-Man #1, in this batch I also brought home Captain America # 14 & 15,and I must say, that these books paint a very interesting picture of who the House of Ideas believe my old pal Spidey to be.

So, let’s just sort this out, shall we? While teaming Spidey and Wolverine has become a pretty standard pairing by now, getting teamed up with a guy with adamantium claws and a penchant for high-octane fights could be considered dangerous, even for someone with a early-warning danger sense. And then, as if that pairing wasn’t off-putting enough, Spidey then has to face off against both a Predator—an interstellar neigh unstoppable killing machine, and Godzilla—the monstrous, radioactive, fire-breathing, king of the Kajus.

Now while I’m totally “Team Spidey” I’m not entirely sure that these parings are exactly within his weight class, if you know what I mean.

And then, as if this wasn’t enough Spidey is then teamed up with Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Thor to learn what happened to the city of Broxton, Ohio, after the appearance of Asgard landed on Earth and the city disappeared (courtesy of the god of hammers no less)

Now, while all of this seems to be way over the top of team-ups for the Web-Head, let us look at the individual stories.

First up, Logan is contacted by an old SHIELD agent about a missing directory a master database of all the world’s double agents and recruited him to recover it. So, he then conscripts Peter Parker to help him locate it, resulting in them running afoul of Omega Red and Kraven the Hunter who also want the directory. During the fight they discover that Mysterio is involved and somehow seem to wind up in some sort of mind swap twist of their past that somehow seems to involve Peter’s former spy parents.

In the Predator issues, it is a wicked hot several day in in NYC where An ancient Predator who has been stalking the planet for some 100 years but only of supremely hot days becomes active once again and is now trolling through the subways of the Big Apple during a city-wide blackout that has Mary Jane trapped underground in the subway system being chased by the Predator while Spider-Man is racing to catch up and rescue her.

Next we have Spidey facing off against Godzilla in a throwback, continuity retcon implant occurring just after Spidey returns from the (first) Secret Wars and wearing the black Symbiote Spidey suit. We do have to say that we really did enjoy this story most of all, due mostly to the off-handed flippant way writer Joe Kelly penned the story, full of throwback anarchism and references to random Spidey events that took place during that time frame. Nice going, Joe!

Finally, we are treated to Peter wanting to call up Steve Rogers just to chat, and Steve having a heart-to-heart with a woman who is a neighbor about how tough it is for a superhero like him to have “just friends” with others due to the uniqueness of their situation. (Is the other person a normal, or also a hero, and if a hero does that other person know that Steve is a hero.) Then having Steve call Pete, only to be be himself to be called upon by Thor and to ask if Pete wants to join in as Spider-Man. Which Pete totally does, resulting in a couple of very cute moments between Spidey and Cap.

All-in-all we really did enjoy all of the books (mostly because they involved Spidey, and partially because each was well-written and thus, we are interested in seeing how each turn out. (Here it should be noted that the Godzilla storyline appears to be written across several titles as the giant Kaju is appearing in several other Marvel titles which we believe are all somehow tied together forming a much larger story.

We understand that adding Spider-Man (Wolverine, Predator, or Gojira (ゴジラ) to a storyline can add readers(cash) to a title, so yeah, while these types of stories can often simply pretzel-logic the storylines or characterizations of various the various characters involved, but we can (and often have) simply dismiss all of our objections because the story is so good. Your milage may differ.

One Hulk, Two Hulk, Green Hulk, Red Hulk Or Wait, Why is the Hulk Red?

With the release of Captain America: New World Order, We — as a comicbook aficionado, historian, journalist, and creator for over 60 years — have been repeatedly asked by several of our non-comics friends and family this very same question, “Wait, why is the Hulk red? (and when did he become red?)” Well funny story about all that, this didn’t just happen with this film, but the seeds of which were planted way back before the creation of the Marvel Universe. Back then, Marvel was still mostly Westerns and Monster comics. Before the introduction of the character we now know as the Hulk, there was another “Hulk”, In Journey Into Mystery #62 (1960) the psychic predator, Xemnu, created by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, and was referred to as "the Hulk" before Bruce Banner's version even existed. Then, later in ’62 When Banner came on the scene, he transformed into a gray Hulk, but we’ll get to that in a minute, first, we want to talk about Chris Giarrusso and a strip he created called Bullpen Bits (which later evolved into Mini Marvels) that ran on the Bullpen Bulletin Pages in Marvel comics beginning in 1999. (Oh, if you want to know what I think of the actual Captain America film check out my review, over here).

We mention Chris because it was in his strip with little cartoon characters of the various Marvel characters (Giarrusso described it as Marvel done “Peanuts style” doing silly things. According to Chris it was in 2008 that Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness created the Red Hulk in the regular Marvel Universe. later Paul Tobin, Sean McKeever, and Marc Sumerak, each contributed to the Mini Marvels run of stories. Later on, Jeph’s daughter, Audrey, while in high school, got the gig writing the Mini Hulks strip soon after with art by me. It was a Mini Marvel adaptation of an already existing character. Neither Chris or Audrey had any hand in the creation of Red Hulk. but it was Audrey's idea to include a Blue Hulk, which was unique to the strip. The Mini Marvels strip eventually graduating into a series of full-sized one-shot comics and trade paperbacks.

In addition to the regular Marvel characters that were being spoofed in that strip, Audrey, Chris Giarrusso and later Paul Tobin, Sean McKeever, and Marc Sumerak, all contributed to the Mini Marvels run of stories. Needless to say, the very concept of different colored Hulks apparently garnered enough traction amongst the Marvel staff that they made their way into the mainstream Marvel books. Still, it is important to understand that when Hulk first appeared in Incredible Hulk #1 (1962) co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby he was in fact gray. According to Marvel Lore, when that book appeared in print the actual coloring process of comics wasn’t sophisticated enough to maintain the same gray hue throughout (causing the Hulk to range in color from light to dark gray, to purple to blue to green, so the decision was made to color him green going forward).

Thus, it wasn’t until the second issue that the Hulk appeared as “normal” green self (Incredible Hulk #2, May 1962). Therefore, it was a green Hulk that existed in comics (with him later appearing from 1977–1982 on our TV screens in the form of Lou Ferrigno (with Bill Bixby portraying his alter ego of David Bruce Banner. Then, back in the comicbooks, in February of 1980, Bruce Banner’s Cousin, Jennifer Walters, was involved in a near fatal accident and received a transfusion of Bruce’s irradiated blood which transformed her into the Savage She-Hulk. (In 2022 She Hulk also got her own TV series on Disney+ with Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer and Malia Arrayah She-Hulk.

Interestingly enough, when the series was announced there were some conservative newsreaders who bemoaned the “Woke agenda” of a female hulk, without realizing that the character had been created some 40 years earlier, and not so much as an attempt to create a progressive character, but as a way for Marvel to protect their copyright on the name “Hulk” as a superhero.) In fact, during the run of The Incredible Hulk TV series, in a recorded interview, a journalist even asked Bill Bixby if there had been any talk of a female Hulk showing up, which Bixby thought was a good idea, but never actually occurred in the show.

Back in the Marvel comics, in 2015 the character, Amadeus Cho, also became a green Hulk, (The Totally Awesome Hulk #1), after being exposed to a concentrated dose of gamma radiation while attempting to save his friends from a villainous attack, essentially mirroring the origin story of Bruce Banner, this radiation triggered a similar transformation within Cho’s body, allowing him to turn into a powerful, green Hulk-like form. Two other gamma-irradiated characters (villains, actually) in the Hulk mythos are the Abomination (Emil Blonsky (1967), played by Tim Roth in The Incredible Hulk, 2008 and She-Hulk ‘22) and The Leader (Samuel Sterns, 1967) played by Tim Blake Nelson in both The Incredible Hulk (2008), and Captain America Brave New World (2025)

The Gray Hulk eventually reappeared in Incredible Hulk #324 (July 1986) while Peter David was writing the series. In this incarnation, Gray Hulk wasn’t so much of raging monster, as he was a Vegas crime boss named “Mr. Joe Fixit”. It wasn’t until the mid-to-late 2000s that Hulks began to take on more of a variety of rainbow hues. As noted, before, this began in a humorous strip entitled Bullpen Bits that appeared in various Marvel comics on the Bullpen Bulletins Page, written by Audrey Loeb, Chris Giarrusso, Marc Sumerak, Sean McKeever, and Paul Tobin (and which Giarrusso drew) it was in that strip that tiny red and blue Hulks were introduced.

In January of 2008 Jeph Loeb (Audrey’s father) and Ed McGuinness introduced Red Hulk in a new volume of Hulk comic. At first the actual identity of Red Hulk was unknown, but two years after his introduction, he was revealed to be General Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross. (This came as something of a surprise to everyone, as the character of Thunderbolt Ross had been killed some 20 years earlier. No explanation was given for this resurrection. This was, of course, followed in 2009 by the appearance of Red She-Hulk in Hulk (Vol. 2 #15) who turned out to be General Ross’ daughter, Betty, who ultimately morphed into Red Harpy (2019 in Immortal Hulk #16). Betty had been previously transformed into a Green Harpy way back in Incredible Hulk #168 (July 1973).

Other Hulks have included a Purple Hulk who first appeared in Avengers #24 (March 2012) created by Brian Michael Bendis and Daniel Acuna, who turned out to be Norman Osborn (formerly The Green Goblin, one of Spider-Man’s most notorious foes). Norman was given Super Adaptoid technology which he used to absorb all the powers of the Avengers at once, Hulk included… and nearly killing himself in the process. Outside of the comics, Happy Hogan became a purple Hulk during the events of the What If…? animated series.

While an Orange Hulk originally appeared as a playable character in the videogame Marvel vs. Capcom, this Hulk was not given any significance storyline but played slightly different from the standard Hulk later an Orange Hulk was introduced to the comics by Rick Remender and Mark Brooks Uncanny X-Force #12 (July 2011). This “Solar Hulk” was from Earth-295 (the Main Marvel Earth is 616). Orange Hulk seems to have gained his powers from solar radiation in the same way that Bruce Banner traditionally gained his through gamma radiation. It is also implied that he is stronger during daylight hours.

Blue Hulk who became Captain Universe in Incredible Hulk #1 (November 2005) was created by Jay Faerber and Carlos Magno. However, someone else who could well deserve the title of the Blue Hulk is Rick Jones. When Rick was exposed to gamma radiation by the Intelligencia in Hulk (Vol. 2) #2, he became a new type of Abomination, christening himself the ‘A-Bomb’ Hulk. As to why he became blue instead of green, it was assumed that since the Gamma radiation had been combined with other forms of radiation, it altered his skin tone to blue rather than green. He was later cured of the radiation and returned to his human form.

There was also a Brown Hulk who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2 #13, February 2000). This “Devil Hulk” (which was created by Paul Jenkins and Ron Garney was actually less of a physical monster and more of an inner demon for Bruce Banner to wrestle with intellectually rather than physically.

Then there was a Black Hulk from Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #4 (November 2014) by Rick Remender and Leinil Francis Yu who was the character Kluh (this Hulk was linked to yet another incarnation of a greenish, deformed Hulk, referred to as “Guilt Hulk” who was just one of several split personalities of Banner formed by his abuse by his father Brian Banner.

Next is Yellow Hulk (this one enhanced by the villainous scientific group A.I.M.) who was introduced in Matthew K. Manning and Marcio Fiorito’s Marvel Action: Avengers #9 in 2018. The Yellow Hulk is a result of the godlike Nightmare messing with Captain America’s mind. Nightmare brought Steve Rogers’ nightmares to life, creating a pocket reality where his Avengers allies had been corrupted by the terrorist group Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) The Yellow Hulk is seemingly identical to the Savage Hulk in power and personality, but now A.I.M.’s signature shade of yellow.

Apparently, there is also another individual who is a yellow Hulk, and that is Jackson Lenard who is a character created by the gaming company Legend but eventually used in the Marvel Universe. He is a friend of Dr. Banners who was trying to find a cure for the Hulk but was turned into one himself!

Silver Hulk (otherwise known as Galactus’ Herald was designed by Ron Lim, and appeared in the one-shot comic What If...? Galactus Transformed Hulk? #1 (2025). The story sees Galactus choosing Bruce Banner as his new herald, imbuing him with the Power Cosmic.

Finally, there is actually a White Hulk (a Hulk clone) which appeared in James Kochalka’s story Hulk Squad, Smash! from Strange Tales Volume 5 #1, (September 2, 2009). The White Hulk was essentially written as a joke character in the anthology of weird and wild stories. Needless to say, given the nature of Marvel’s multiverse it means this character does officially exist in Marvel canon, and he’s described as part of a team of experimental Hulk clones created by the government.

Actually, there is “technically” one more Hulk-like character, and that is a “Skin-Tone Hulk” (Doc Samson), a psychiatrist who attempted to steal Hulk’s powers. While Samson became incredibly muscular, only his hair turned green. In the past, Bruce Banner has shown the rare ability to use his Hulk strength when still in human form (see Bruce Jones and Mike Deodato’s Jr.’s Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #50, 2003), suggesting he too qualifies for the ‘skin-tone Hulk’ title.

As a postscript to all of this, our friend, Ray Felix has independently developed a Red Hulk-type character that he wound up using in his own Bronx Heroes comic series A World Without Superheroes. That character eventually came to be known as Rampage. and went on to appear in Bronx Villains #1 from Ray’s production company Bronx Heroes.

Oh Canada!

I've long had a love of and desire to collect specialty comics. That is to say comics that either contain corporate characters selling or appearing in comics that are sponsored by other companies (not their respective publishers) or comics where the characters are pushing some sort of pro-social cause. Quite a few of these comics have been from Marvel, DC, and Archie, and I have amassed quite a few of them. 

Recently I acquired one that came out way back in 2001 for which I had long been searching. Well it arrived the other day and I've just finished reading it, and while I enjoyed it, I do have just one minor beef with it, which I plan on sharing with all'y'all now. 

As you can plainly see, the comic in question is Marvel's Wolverine Son of Canada, which was subsidized by Doritos/Lays, and was issued only in Canada. In this comic, native son Wolverine, along with Spider-Man and The Hulk get sucked through a vortex and wind up in The Great White North (where they eventually meet up with Storm, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Thing, and Thor all of whom have been captured by minions of Blastaar). 

To cut to the chase, the heroes manage to free their friends, and defeat Blastaar and his minions with relative ease (hey, it's only a 16-page comic with 2 pages of ads). My issue is this. I found a typo (printo, really as it was probably hand lettered). The error came on page two where Wolverine says "This is Vancouver, British Columbia." and Spider-Man responds, "Canada? Where in Canada? which makes no sense as Wolverine just said that they were in Vancouver, British Columbia. Causing me to think that Spidey was supposed to have said "We're in Canada? which would have made much more sense.

(I placed arrows on the art so you could better see what I was talking about above. 

Not a big deal, but, honestly, my editor-sense was buzzing.

Having gone through that, I just wanted to add one more image from the comic, which is a shot of Cabot Tower on Signal Hill in Newfoundland, but only because my good buddy Roger Keel lives in Newfoundland, and I thought he might be entertained by its inclusion in the comic. 

Well, that's all I have for today, now I have to get back to my real work so I can go catch the last matinee of Captain America New World Order later today. 

Tales from Section 12 & Beyond

Recently we were at a local comicbook show where we reconnected with Len Mihalovich, a comicbook writer/creator who penned several stories for various titles for Mythic Comics & Entertainment Group. These days he helms his own publishing corner of the Indieverse with Lenovations Press, and we not only caught up on old times, but we also picked up three of his comics at the show; Avenger New Blood #1, Fantastic Fan Boys Adventures #1, and Section 12 Antarctic Special #1 Search for Tomorrow with Tomorrow Girl.

Section 12 was created by Len Mihalovich in 1994 and published first by Dilemma Productions as part of an anthology and then in its own series from Mythic Comics. 

Avenger New Blood resurrects the legacy of the Golden Age (formerly Magazine Entertainment, now Public Domain) character, Avenger. In the first story of the issue, we meet wealthy scientist Roger Wright who became the superhero Avenger to retaliate against the Soviet agents who tortured and killed his brother. While the Avenger had no powers, he does have his own inventions on which to fall back, most notably his VTOL aircraft, Starjet and Dissolver pistol. The Avenger also possessed a utility belt containing items for almost any occasion. The first tale is from the past where Avenger and his (not sidekick, but personal filmographer) Martin “Booker Roberts, but we, for the purpose of this story are focused on Avengers granddaughter, Erica, who, though a criminal, is apparently being recruited to be the New Avenger, hence the “new Blood” aspect of the story..

Fantastic Fan Boys Adventures is about four young friends who join forces to fight evil with the greatest weapon of all, their imaginations and the comics they create to fight crime, and all before dinner. That’s the premise of this comic. As comic fans seem to have a knack for diving deep into the worlds they adore, dissecting characters and stories to apply real-world logic to comic-book science. These four friends not only create characters and scenarios, but then, once the talk has been played out, the other members do their best to dissect the tale as presented. In this issue, we discover the Fanboys’ origin stories, meet our newest hero, the Living Rocket, and witness the return of Track Suit Man. All told, it’s a wonderful comic full of adventures you’ll want to read.

The third book we scored from Len was Section 12 Antarctic Special which kicks off a three-issue miniseries with Antarctic Press and brings Ben Dunn’s character Tomorrow Girl into Lenovations Section 12 series of comics. According to a statement from Lenovations Press, “We are thrilled to unveil our first ever mini-series that brings together two comic book universes.” This collaboration has Tomorrow Girl — a fan-favorite character from Antarctic Press — teaming up with Lenovations’ super-team, Section 12.

Created by Ben Dunn, Tomorrow Girl first appeared in Antarctic Press’ Ninja High School V2 #1 as part of the Tomorrow Man family and the Ninja High School universe. Tomorrow Girl (Heidi) is 16 years old and attends Quagmire High School. Section 12 follows a top-secret government project employing super-powered individuals to contain scientific failures. With this three-issue crossover, Tomorrow Girl (in her own universe) goes up against a robot operated by a Professor Von Zoot, and gets tossed out of her own universe and into Section 12’s.

The fun part of this crossover is partly from the fact that in her own book, she is rendered in a very cartoony style, however, while in Section 12’s, she is depicted in a more realistic image. Unfortunately for her, once the universe shift, occurs, one of the monstrous, killer robots follows her into Section 12’s world and continues to weak havoc. Once she stops the robot, she is interviewed by a less than reputable reporter who casts Tomorrow Girl as a rogue alien who came here to attack the citizens of Earth. Fortunately, members of Section 12 see the broadcast and already know that the reporter is more interested in scandalous reporting than facts, and vow to track down Tomorrow Girl and resuscitate her heroic nature.

These books are  not only all ages, but pure fun, and (for us at the very least) harken back to an era of the entertaining comics of our youth which were there for the fun read, and not over-dubbed with any sort of agenda save that of heroes helping regular folks. 

There be Wülves out there

I’m very happy to announce that my comicbook, Wülf Girlz has been published by Dark Fire Press. This comic was some 18 years and four publishers in development. Now that it is finally in print, I’m honestly over the moon. (No pun intended.)

Back in 2006 I was invited to contribute a short horror story to a brand-new comicbook anthology. The writing prompt was to pen a 21^st century horror story that frightened me. The story I chose to write involved child abduction and abuse. This was because, at the time, my children were young, and I had experienced an incident some years earlier where my then three-year-old daughter wandered off in a crowded mall following her mother to the bathroom (without her mother or I knowing it).

This incident was literally the scariest five minutes of my life. All I could think at the moment was that I was going to have to explain to my mother how I lost her granddaughter. I was saved that moment, as my daughter had managed to successfully make her way across the crowded food court and connect with her mother. Because this was at a time before we had cellphones, there was no way her mother could notify me she was safe.

Needless to say, that incident was a large part of the inspiration for the creation of the characters who would come to be called the Wülf Girlz. My first publisher ran the first two installments of the origin tale (in B&W) with most-excellent art by Matt C. Ryan. While I was waiting for my publisher to release the third chapter, I was invited, in 2016, to bring the Girlz and contribute to a prose anthology, teaming them up with another writer’s character.

The concept of the anthology, MetaHumans vs The UltimateEvil, (Lion’s Share Press) was that several writers would team their characters up with Sean N. Koury’s character, The Bounty Hunter, and then each team would face off against some sort of evil entity. Happy to see the Girlz in print again, I agreed and had The Girlz meet up with Bounty Hunter in a short story entitled Northern Lite.

I eventually wound up splitting with my first publisher in 2019 and hooking up with InDELLible Comics. In 2020 The third chapter of their origin story appeared, this time in color with amazing art by Rick Lundeen in InDELLible’s House in Spades #1. The girlz also briefly appeared in 2021 in Popular Comics #5 in a story I wrote entitled Save the Children, which featured the Golden Age Owl Girl in the lead.

It was shortly after that that I negotiated a publishing deal with J.M. DeSantis to bring The Wülf Girlz to J.M.’s company Dark Fire Press. Unfortunately, after all the arrangements were made, COVID hit, and everything wound up on the back burner as we were all tossed into lockdown (and then recovery). Well, fortunately, as it turns out, you simply can’t keep a good comicbook concept down, and in July ’24, we finally achieved print copies of Wülf Girlz #1, with all three chapters now in color, as well as two short pieces — also by Rick — all collected in the issue. The first show I brought them to was the July CollectiCon in Montville, CT, which is where I sold my first copies.

Well, in addition to having my comic being listed on Dark Fire’s web page, and announced in Dark Fire ads, the comic is now available at both GlobalComix and IndyPlanet as both digital and Print on Demand (PoD) versions. Naturally enough, you can also purchase copies direct from me whenever I appear at comic and book shows.

So, what’s next you ask? Well, there is a novella of mine featuring the Girlz which is slated to come out in the early part of 2025. The novella carries an introduction by a well-known horror writer and illustrator (I’ll tell you more about him at a later date — I’ve got to save something for a surprise).  Meanwhile I’m currently working on other projects, including bringing another one of my intellectual properties back into print (yes, also with Dark Fire — when you find a good publisher, you stick with them!)

That’s all for now, kids, as I pen this we have just passed Christmas, and am right in the heart of Chanukah and Kwanzaa, and heading for my daughter’s birthday, and New Year’s Eve. So stay safe, enjoy yourselves, and we’ll see all’y’all next year!

Write what you know: Joe Martino’s The Mighty Titan

Here is yet another older article of mine that appeared some years back on another web page with which I am no longer associated. It has been my intention to bring that older work here, and with this article I have now brought over all the articles from that other site.

As writers, we are told to “write what you know.” Which is a pretty nifty trick when you consider that we — as funnybook writers — write about green-hued monsters, men from other planets who can fly, billionaires wrapped in Iron, ageless mutants with razor-sharp claws, brilliant scientists with the proportionate strength of an arachnid, and yes, even pre-teen girls who morph into killer werewülves. Yeah, like we know a whole bunch about all that, eh? Well, the sad truth is that while we don’t really know so much (or as much as we would like) about having powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, we do each know quite a bit about the everyday ordinariness of our own lives.

Well, taking this lesson to heart, writer, artist, and publisher Joe Martino determined to write about the one thing he perhaps (and unfortunately) knew best. Joe, as it turns out, he had cancer — twice. That’s the bad news; the good news is that he beat it both times it showed up in his body, but at a very terrible cost. Cancer, you see, not only cost Martino his peace of mind as well as a couple of sections of his kidney, but his first marriage as well. Needless to say, there were quite a few very dark days for Martino during that terrible time. Still — to corrupt a cliché — the thing that did not kill him actually helped make him a much stronger writer.

Martino found a way to turn his personal journey through the Hell of cancer into his teen-aged passion for comicbook superheroes. As a teen he discovered the joy of comics and as an adult he turned that escapist entertainment into a way to work his way through his own pain. His first couple of forays into comics took the forms of a hero that tread the ground between this world and the next (Ripperman), and a traditional superhero replete with powers from an alien race (Shadowflame), both of which were published by Arcana. From there, Martino determined that he wanted to continue producing comics, but decided that he wanted to publish them himself and created JGM Comics, which became the home of his latest creation, The Mighty Titan.

Starting in April 2013 Martino formed a publishing partnership with publisher, Dave Ryan and brought his creations to Red Anvil Comics.

The Mighty Titan is a typical superhero cut from the same cloth as are the best of costumed heroes. He is the pinnacle of the pantheon of those heroes, like Philip Wylie’s Gladiator, or Henry W. Ralston and John L. Nanovic’s Doc Savage. Titan though, is replete with powers and abilities akin to those of Superman, the regal presence of Thor, along with the magic of Captain Marvel. Then, so as not to overuse the Metro New York locale, Martino determined to cast his hero in a different zip code, and he had his hero call Chi-Town his home. That’s right, even though Martino is a New Jersey native he felt that Manhattan had enough heroes protecting it, so, Chicago became Titan’s kind of town. Just as every good hero needs his own major nemesis, Titan finds himself clashing over and over again with Trenchmouth, an evil ex-Nazi scientist. During one particular battle, however, Titan realizes he doesn’t quite feel like himself, which is where our story begins.

Still, while all of the previous paragraph sounds pretty much like every other hero you’ve ever seen, Martino’s story veers off from the beaten path of “traditional” superheroes (or “Superiors” as Martino has come to call the enhanced heroes in his universe of characters). According to Martino, his newest creation is a superhero concept with a unique twist that brings his own story into focus — Titan, you see, also has cancer. “The story essentially takes the experience I personally went through with cancer and wraps them up in a superhero shell,” Martino tells us. This then becomes the “write what you know” part of Martino’s work; given that Martino himself has survived cancer (again, not once, but twice — causing some of his friends to think of him as some sort of mutant himself) he felt it important to write that into the story, in order to “survive” it again. “This isn’t autobiographical,” Martino stated. “I have researched and talked to other cancer survivors to try and get the feeling of what other people have experienced.”

Martino initially developed the idea for the series in 2004 when he was struggling through his first bout with kidney cancer. “It was a very difficult decision to take some of my personal experiences and put them down on paper in order to entertain people and possibly allow them to have a glimpse into what some of us go through while battling this potentially deadly disease,” Martino explained. Needless to say while Titan’s story most assuredly does have some very serious aspects to it, it is still a very cool — and yes, even fun — superhero comicbook that is full of dire villains, giant mechas, as well as some truly great mythological creatures.

What Titan experiences is in Martino’s words, “What it feels like to be invulnerable, and then, suddenly never being able to feel that way again.” The Mighty Titan is suddenly tasked with not only having to be able to save the world; but needing to be able to save himself as well. According to Martino, the book explores themes of fear, loss, pain, and ultimately the perseverance of the hero himself due to courage and determination. Titan is a hero of great power and strength, but he is also cast as someone who reminds us that we all have great weaknesses, and that we all can be destroyed. Still Titan (and by extension, Martino) also provides us all with great hope. For it is when we feel at our weakest, when we’re not sure whether or not we can make it through our darkest hours, it is uplifting superhero tales like this one that remind us that we can be saved, and that hope is not lost.

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Characters, Story and Content of The Mighty Titan, Ripperman and Shadowflame are Trademark ™ & Copyright © 2014 & 2024 Joe Martino. The text to Funnybook City is Copyright © 2014 & 2024 Robert J. Sodaro, D.B.A. Freelance Ink. All rights reserved by their respective owners.

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Robert J. Sodaro is a noted comicbook historian and journalist who began reading comics during the early ‘60s while sitting on the newsstand in his Uncle’s Mom & Pop grocery store. He began writing about comics in the early ‘80s and wrote for virtually every print comicbook publication published during the ‘80s & ‘90s.