BAS: A Bronze Age Alphabet (Part 1)

Inspired by Kenneth Hite's trio of articles in the late, lamented Suppressed Transmission ("A Conspiratorial Alphabet","A Secret-Historical Alphabet", and "An Alternate-Historical Alphabet"), I decided to explore the tropes, elements, themes, cliches, and minor obsessions of the Bronze Age in a manner alphabetical. I was assisted in brainstorming this esoteric undertaking by a man who's been around the alphabet--Flashbacker-in-Chief, Jim Shelley.

So here you go, the first fun-sized installment of a Bronze Age A to Z:

A is for Apocalypse and its Aftermath
Like 70s cinema, Bronze Age comics loved the end of the world, and had an "irradiated-sky's the limit" approach to what came after. Killraven swashbuckled with Bruno-esque fashion sense through a world where Wells' War of the Worlds had really happened. The astronauts of Atlas/Seaboard's Planet of Vampires returned to a devastated, vampire-ruled earth that played like a mashup of Planet of the Apes and Omega Man. Kirby outdid Planet of the Apes in Kamandi by evolving the whole zoo above humankind after the mysterious Great Disaster. Hercules Unbound eventually was revealed to share the same post-apocalypse with Kamandi, and with the giant dalmatian riding Atomic Knights from the 60s. Cranking the apocalypse dial to "eleven," Starlin destroyed the entire Milky Way galaxy in Metamorphosis Odyssey. Compared to these outre visions, the standard nuclear holocausts of Doomsday+1, and Mighty Samson seem positively tame.
B is for Black
And probably blaxploitation. Say it loud, African American characters burst onto the scene in the 70s, and were so proud almost every one of them used "black" in their name. Sweet Christmas! Luke Cage became the first black superhero with his own title in 1972, and it was followed by the short-lived Black Goliath. DC's first African American superhero, Mal Duncan, appear in Teen Titans in 1970. In 1971, he was followed by John Stewart, who would one day be the titular Green Lantern of a series. DC didn't wind-up giving a black character a book of their own until Black Lightning (1977), but would've published the first title starring a black super-heroine with Vixen, had not the Implosion nixed it.

C is for corporate evil
Over-the-top corporate malevolence may be part of "the world that's coming" in Kirby's OMAC, but it also reared its Serpent Crown wearing head in the present day in the form of sinister Big Oil company, Roxxon, and anti-environment Man-Thing nemesis, F.A. Schist. The military industrial complex baddies responsible for the creation of Deathlok are no less evil for being in an alternate future. Better not to even get into the banal, faceless corporations that were dummies for perennial world conquers like HYDRA or AIM.

D is for Devil
The Bronze Age comeback of the Prince of Lies has been chronicle in the BAS before. In addition to the satanic choir of brimstone-smelling baddies, we got the titular Demon, Etrigan, who proved that hellspawn could be heroes, too. Shuma-Gorath and his tentacled ilk brought a touch of Lovecraftian horror to the superhero proceedings, and I think we're all better for it.


E is for Extradimensional
In the Silver Age, most "out there" characters came from another world, but in the Bronze Age more and more characters were popping in from other universes entirely. Howard the Duck and Korrek the Barbarian, were among those that dropped into Man-Thing through a heavy-traffic, Nexus of Realities in the Everglades. Shade the Changing Man came to earth from his home dimension of Meta. The Infinity Man chillaxed in an other-dimensional eden until summoned by the Forever People. The Micronauts proved there were no small heroes, only small universes.

F is for feminism
It's "Ms." Marvel, thank you. Not only did Carol Danvers choose a hip pro-women's lib codename in her 1977 superhero debut, but she also was the editor of Woman magazine--which one assumes was not full of housecleaning tips. Avengers #80 (1970) featured the first all-female superhero team, the Lady Liberators (though they were being duped by the Enchantress), and the 70s saw an explosion in female lead titles from Red Sonja to Supergirl. Of course, angst about gender roles was far from resolved--Thundra and her Femizons from an alternate future, were like Rush Limbaugh's worst nightmare of feminism, and the less said about the villianous militant feminist, Man-Killer, the better (really).
G is for Giant-Sized
In the Bronze Age, size did matter. Marvel released a number of hefty, 80-page comics under this banner in the Bronze Age including the historic Giant-Sized X-Men, and the suggestive Giant-Sized Man-Thing. DC called their equivalent Dollar Comics (a reference to the price, naturally), but they were just as giant. Characters also got super-sized in the Bronze Age. Merely being a Giant Man wasn't enough anymore--what with Devil Dinosaur and Godzilla, stomping around, and the Shogun Warriors invading from space.

iPod Comic Questions

Last week I mentioned was was spending time re-engineering our League of Monsters comic to work better on the iPod. I never mentioned the publisher, as I have been waiting for them to go live with the application, but I can now. It's ComiXology who I interviewed a while back. They went live Friday at Comic Con and their iPod Comics application/comics store is available for download from iTunes now.

My post about working on the comic prompted several questions from Sphinx Magoo (as well as a few from people who contacted me directly.) I'm going to do my best to answer all of them today...

Q. Would it be possible to have the text balloons animate in some way so that they expand to a larger size when touched?

A. Yes and no. Currently, all of the iPod comic applications I've seen use static images without any type of true animation effects. A few (like genusApps Kamikaze iPod comic application ) have the type of fly out/expanding balloons you are talking about but I think they are just using two sets of images. One with the panel as is, and then one with the balloons isolated and enlarged.



They way the Kamikaze app works is pretty nifty actually, so if you have an iPod, download one of their comics and check it out.

Q. What sizes do you have to convert each of the images to be converted to iPod-legible format?

The iPod screen is 320 x 480 and some iPod comic vendors want all of your images to be that exact size. The beauty of the ComiXology process is that you can use various sizes and aspect ratios, so you aren't as tied down. My general advice is to keep the 2:3 aspect ratio in your head when dividing up your comic so all of your panels will look as uniform as possible.

Q. How do you go from a series of images to something which can be read on an iPod and Is there a way to test your comic on a computer before bringing it onto your iPod? I'd imagine that'd be a bit of a time-saver for making quick edits and such.

I think the question here, is how would your average comics creator put his comic on an iPhone, and the answer to this is not simple.

It's not like the web where after signing up with some web host, you simply tinker with html and post a bunch of jpgs to a web site. No, unfortunately, creating content for the iPhone OS involves Apple's Objective C language and you MUST have an Apple computer to test your application as there isn't a Windows emulator (that I know of) that would allow you to develop iPod applications on a pc.

So, unless you are prepared to learn Objective C AND buy an Apple computer to develop on, this leaves you with two options.

1. You can partner up with a iPod comic vendor to put your comic on the iPod.

2. Or you can subcontract a freelance Apple developer to help you with the process.

I chose option 1, as I felt the advantage of working with a vendor is you can benefit from their marketing support.

Q. So who is the best iPod comic vendor to work with?

Well, I think that's a matter of personal preference. I chose ComiXology because I like the very slick system they have developed which uses Photoshop to help you prepare your files and doesn't necessarily restrict you to the 320x480 screen proportions. However, there are many other companies making iPod comics ( iVerse, Robot Comics, Kamikazee, Clickwheel, etc...) and they all take submissions, so you have lots options.

So, if you are a comics creator who wants to put your comic on the iPhone/iPod I would suggest the first step is to buy an iPod Touch (they are the cheapest of the two devices) and spend some time reading some of the comics available from the iTunes store. That will help you understand the limitations of the format as well as get you familiar with all the various iPod Comic vendors.

Have a great day!

- Jim

Free Comics Monday: Power Nelson

When I think of 1982, I think of many things:

Screaming for Vengeance
Tron
Remington Steele

but what I almost always forget is how civilization was conquered by Mongol Hordes.



Thank God we had Power Nelson to save us!

Power Nelson is another character from the Crestwood/Prize/Feature publications house who appeared in an anthology comic Prize Comics. Other regulars in this series included The Black Owl, The Green Lama and Frankenstein.



[ Prize Comics 03 ]

Power Nelson has recently been featured in the second Project Superpowers series from Dynamite Entertainment where he has been elected President of the United States. Normally I would think people would be relunctant to vote for a man who wears spikes on his clothes, but he most likely won simply on the strength of his reputation for punching robots so hard their guts exploded.



[ Prize Comics 04 ]

Enjoy!

The OTHER Digital Comics

Today I'd like to shine the light on another form of DIGITAL COMIC BOOKS: Podcasts! As a comic book fan, you may or may not be a fan of podcasts, but I'm sure you are a fan of well told tales of comic book drama and adventure. You'll find all that in more as you read on...

While I'm not going to go in depth on what a podcast is (there's wikipedia for that) I will say that a podcast is usually an audio or video file that can be experienced with a portable device such as an iPod, as a hosted file built into a player on a web site, or downloaded and played on your computer.

There are podcasts about nearly everything including comic books: the industry, reviews, and best of all graphic verbal story telling...

BATMAN: The Ace of Detectives

"Batman: The Ace of Detectives" is an ongoing monthly serial adventure based on the modern incarnation of the character in DC Comics.

Here's the thing...Jeffrey has been asking me for going on two years now to write a new intro for this page. Sertan,the gentleman who wrote and directed the show previously, passed those duties on to me a while ago. But every time I sit down to write something, I run into a brick wall. I mean, what do you say?

He's Batman. The Caped Crusader. A guy who saw his folks gunned down right before his eyes. A guy who can't stand the thought of it happening to anybody else. One of the richest men on Earth, who has sacrificed his happiness to a city. A man almost no one really understands.

When we first meet him in this series, he's damaged goods. A particularly nasty villain has put him through threw the ringer and he's forgotten how to trust. He's cut off from everyone except his surrogate father and his adopted son. Even the woman he loves is on the outside, looking in. He loses so much. And it just gets worse, to the point that he breaks. And then...

Pete Milan

Writer & Director, "Batman: The Ace of Detectives"

What about it makes it "Comic Book" like?

Pendant Productions never lets their "licensed" podcasts (they have original stuff too) stray too far from an actual comic book. Each has its own page where listeners can download wallpapers, cover art, and more for each.

Did I mention that beyond Batman Pendant also produces a Superman, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Supergirl, StarWars, and Indiana Jones podcasts?

BONUS:

In the Pendant productions Batman Universe Bruce Wayne is still Batman and Dick Grayson is Nightwing...

Axiom-Man

One night Gabriel Garrison was visited by a nameless messenger who bestowed upon him great power, a power intended for good. Once discovering what this power was and what it enabled him to do, Gabriel became Axiom-man, a symbol of hope in a city that had none.

Driven by the desire to prove himself someone of worth, Gabriel donned the cape and tights after seeing an article in the Winnipeg Free Press about a little girl who was killed while gang members raided her father's house, looking for drugs. Having always struggled with self-esteem, Gabriel figured that, by being Axiom-man, he might be able to reclaim some of the self-worth that had been lost through twenty-four years of being looked down upon by society, friends and even family. He understood that little girl, understood what it was like to not be heard, to not have the chance to speak up for herself. Perhaps as Axiom-man he'd be able to speak up for those who couldn't, able to take a stand for those overrun by the injustices of society.

What about it makes it "Comic Book" like?

A P Fuchs, the author and creator of Axiom-Man, is a dyed in the wool comic book creator at heart. Axiom-Man started as a print novel, which was podcast, along came two sequels which have now led to actual webcomics that are updated weekly at places such as WOWIO and others.

Decoder Ring Theatre's: The Red Panda Adventures

Keeping 1930s Toronto safe from gangsters, racketeers and power-mad supervillains - Thrill once again to the tales of that Masked Man of Mystery; The Red Panda! All-new tales of two-fisted pulp justice!

For years now, a shadowy organization has targeted the city and its citizens. Time after time the Terrific Twosome has defeated their most diabolical efforts and time after time the Syndicate has risen from the ashes, changed its stripes and begun it's campaign of terror anew. Who would have thought that the worst thing they could possibly do was give up? Will anything be left standing after we enter....

What about it makes it "Comic Book" like?

Greg Taylor and the gang over at Decoder Ring Theatre have created a character made of the very same grit and pulp as the characters who inspired (and sometimes star in) our comic book superheroes of today such as: The Green Hornet, and The Shadow.

BONUS:

There is a Red Panda print novel that you can purchase off his web site and amazon right now...

Speaking of the shadow...

Steve Saylor's: The Black Shadow

In a world where evil walks the earth, where super villains are taken over by demonic beings. They all want one thing, and one thing only. To take over the world. There is only one man who can stop them. One man with the powers and abilities to kick some serious demon ass. In a race against time to stop a portal that opens to Hell itself. One man, one hero, one sonofabitch you don’t want to mess with. He is faceless, he is fearless, he is Black Shadow. From the mind of debut podiobook author Steve Saylor comes a story where the super powers meets the Supernatural.

What about it makes it "Comic Book" like?

The Black Shadow operates in a city larger than Metropolis, more crime ridden than Gotham which sits on a portal leading straight to hell, a place that the man behind the Black Shadow mask may very well have been too. This concept is tailor made for comics, and just ended up as a podcast instead.

Have a great weekend,

Caine

iPod and iPhone Concessions

To paraphase Stan Lee, With Great Opportunties comes Great Work, so for the past week, I've been reworking our League of Monsters By Butterfly Betrayed comic into a format that will be better suited for the iPod/iPhone.

It's been an eye opening experience as I've had to change many pages from the way we originally made them. For example, here is the Roll Call Page as created by Pierre:



While I love the heads for each character that flank the main panel, on the iPod, this just didn't seem to be working. So, I felt it was best to break out the text in the yellow box onto a separate page and make a new Roll Call page.



In some cases, the revisions were simply a matter of breaking out panels onto their own...like this page with 3 panels...



Which would look like this on the iPod - making the text too small to read.



Now becomes these two screens...





Sometimes it was necessary to move balloons and add some text to make a better transistion - like in this case with the Blood Vs Butterfly scene



I felt the text was too small so I reworked the page like this:





Sometimes, I just have to completely redesign a page using the existing art to make something we can use. This page with a diagonal panel layout was such a case. It *might* have worked on the iPod, but odds are the text would be hard to read.



So I broke it out like this which I think will work better on the iPod. Not a perfect revisioning, but I think it shows the story better.





So far, this has been a good deal of work, and some people might question why I'm going through all this trouble. Well, the answer is, Pierre and I have always prided ourselves for designing comics to be read in a digital format (CBR) so it would have been a hard pill to swallow to see iPod versions of our comics that were hard to read.

There are several companies making comics for the iPod now (we've been approached by nearly every single one of them) and I just wasn't happy with how those companies were handling the conversion process. Many of them don't seem to care about readability or the user experience.

It wasn't until recently that I was contacted by a company (who will remain nameless for right now) who really had an amazing system to handle the formatting process that I decided the time was right to convert one of comics into the iPod format. Like I say, it wasn't a slam dunk, as I've had to do a good deal of rework. It's been a real learning experience, but in the end I'm hoping I'll understand what you can do in this format well enough to capitalize on it when Pierre and I begin our next League of Monsters comic!

I hope this helps anyone else out there working on an iPod comic.

- Jim

More Early Mister Crimson

Continuing our look at Diego's first versions of Mister Crimson, here is sketch Diego made back in 1995 of a character called Detective Rodman, but who would one day become Mister Crimson.

Free Comics Monday: Gorgo!

Today, instead of another classic Golden Age comic, I am presenting something a little different: Gorgo, The Monster From the Sea! A giant, living dinosaur is caught off the coast of Ireland, becomes the higlight of a circus, until its mother comes out of depths to save it, terrorizing everything in her path.



[ Gorgo 01 ]



[ Gorgo 10 ]

Disclaimer: Now I am not sure these are in public domain, thinking they are more like in Who Cares? Domain due to the various copyright holders of the Gorgo copyright being scattered to the four winds. However, if you are the copyright holder of Gorgo and don't want me to help spread public awareness of this fine concept, please feel free to contact me and I'll remove these issues from my site. :)

- Jim Shelley

Is Zuda the Devil?

Over at ComicsWorthReading Johanna Draper Carlson has this to say about Zuda:

I thought I’d stop by and check out this month’s Zuda entries, which made me wonder about how similar they were all becoming. I noticed that many of them were tagged either Super-Hero, Action/Adventure, or Horror. There were smart-alec animals, girls in their underwear, bloody fights, talky conspiracies, and always, too much time spent waiting for the viewer to load. The content reminded me of what I can already get elsewhere.

Now, on the surface, this statement is perfectly fine and true, as there ARE many comics at Zuda tagged in the ways she describes. But I think she's done Zuda a disservice by implying that those are the only type of comics you will find on the site.

I actually think that on any given month, you can find a wide range of comics in the contest. And several have been picked by either the judges, or *gasp!* the viewers as winners.

And to me, this is the real problem with some of peoples disdain for the Zuda system - outside of where you stand on the whole Flash as a Web Comic Viewer issue, the second biggest issue I see people bring up about Zuda is that they hate the idea that the unwashed masses have a hand in picking the winner. That strikes me as a bit elitist.

To people who at odds about the nature of the contest, I would say: I understand that you are upset that your Michael Chabon wannabe friend from the coffee bar with his web comic about quirky customers got beat by a vampire comic by some guys from *horrors!* outside of Soho, but dems the breaks, you know? If your friend is really upset, he can return the $500 Zuda gave him for his entry. :D

Look around - Books, movies, TV shows, and web comics are all market driven. To say that - as one person on the comments section said - that All comic book fans are idiots, really says more about you and less about comic fans.

At the moment, Zuda is probably the most egalitarian system out there - that actually pays money. If Ms. Carlson (or other people) are upset about what comics have gotten picked, then might I suggest you find one of the entries that lost and sponsor it on your site, like I did with Mister Crimson? :)

So, to sum up:

Is Zuda the devil? No.

Does the Flash Viewer suck? That's for you to decide.

Will we be overcome by horrible web comics picked by ignorant Superhero loving groundlings? Unlikely.

I suspect Zuda will continue to surprise us each month, just has it has done so far, and I think that's cool.

Have a great weekend,

- Jim

How Do You Write? Part 2

Last week I mentioned that while Pierre is working on a new animation project, that I would be taking over the Wednesday posts for a bit. So, in true Jim Shelley form, I turned my first Wednesday post was a question to the readers of this blog about how do you write?

I got several excellent responses from Caine, Jason Wright, Kevin H and Pierre. Thank you guys for responding!

Today, I’ll give my response to the question - something I’ve been putting off for a while much to the chagrin of the people who originally asked me the question I’m sure. :\

To be honest, I find writing brutally hard. Or rather the beginning of a project.

I’m not talking about the ethereal idea stage, where you mentally bat concepts around in your head - no, that part is easy. And fun.

What I find hard is the process of putting the ideas into a concrete form on paper. For with every word, as you define your character or world, you slowly cut off all the other possibilities you may have been considering. And that’s painful.

To help with this process, I try very hard to have a vision or vibe for my story this helps me wean out ideas that don’t fit.

For instance - with Butterfly - Pierre wanted a vampire for the League of Monsters.

Now Vampire is one of my Manchurian Candidate words, in that my knee jerk reaction is to think of the endless legion of Anne Rice (in the past, and now Laurell K. Hamilton) imitators flooding the market with faux cool vampires in leather jackets and unconvincing angst. I’m sure Twilight is great, but it’s not for me.

So when Pierre asked me to come up with a Vampire character, I was truly at a loss. So what I did, was think back to the last really cool/novel Vampire I had seen in comics. And that character was the 70’s Morbius from Marvel Comics.

Now at this point, I could have just copied Morbius and been done with it, but then the character would just have been a lifeless copy. What I need to do to truly make the character my own was to distill the elements that made Morbius cool to me and combine them with what I thought might be a novel approach to the vampire concept that would fit in the Flashback Universe.

I think by and large, I was successful with this approach as Butterfly is by far my most popular character (based on downloads of her backstory and fan art I receive).

So, to sum up here, for me writing works like this:

1. Think of a tone or vibe you want your story to have.
2. Review a concept you have enjoyed in the past
3. Analyze the elements that made that concept interesting to you
4. Analyze the elements that may need updating or tweaking
5. Use the results of your analysis to guide you as you develop your new idea using the tone or vibe you established in step one.
   

Usually, once you’ve done this, sitting down to actually write is a little easier, but not always. I’ve got some tricks to help with that, which I will share in another column.

Have a great day!

- Jim


NOTE: Today's post is way late because I'm at my In-Laws house and using their internet connection is incredibly unreliable. No idea what Friday will bring.

Early Ace of Spades

As Seth and Diego put the finishing touches on the latest installment of Mister Crimson, I thought I would share some of Diego's early (highschool days!) versions of the Mister Crimson cast.

Check out this early sketch of Ace of Spades

Golden Age Firestorm?

Last January I mentioned Spark Publications' Golden Lad. Today, I present two other Spark Publication characters - including one who may have been an inspiration for DC's Firestorm.

The first is the Green Lama, who was a character who first appeared in Prize Comics over at Crestwood Publications. I presented two issues of the Prize version of the character back in February. Here is an issue of the Green Lama from Spark.




[ Green Lama 5 ]

The other Spark hero for today was created by Golden Age Legend Jerry Robinson - the atomic powered Atoman. Notice the similarities to Atoman's costume and DC's Firestorm. (Another atomic powered hero) - Coincidence? I think not! :)





[ Atoman 01 ]

Digital Comics Netbook/Crunchpad Ready Now

Two weeks ago we posted about new developments in hardware, such as a netbook and crunchpad, and web based delivery systems that were all ready set and ready to bring digital comics to such devices. This week we'll expand on that theme with "hosted" digital comics, up on the web right now, that will be extremely easy to navigate to with your new netbook or crunchpad.

You won't need software (mac and Linux users rejoice), or anything other than a browser to read them and best of all, with a small, light weight portable device they can now be read anywhere there is an Internet connection (like the john).

I want to point out that there is no order here, they are all great sites with great content listed in the order I found/ or remembered them.

I would also point out, I'm resisting the urge to "review" these books as I've read all of them and find them very well put together comics that I'd purchase at a comic shop if given the chance but I'll leave you to discover them on your own...

THE AMALGAMATED ARTISTS



The Amalgamated Artists is a very clean and easy to use flash based digital comic book displayer/ reader set up by a group of talented comic creators. While the "About Us" page has little in the way of info on the group them selves, there are detailed sections on each creator.

One of their comics...
YULETIDE



UNTRUE TALES

To tell the truth I had never heard of UNTRUE TALES before setting up this blog post. I asked for suggestions in my twitter stream and this came up. It seems well put together and well respected. The site is easy to navigate and fast to load.
One of their comics...

The Trouble With Uzis



THE RETRIEVER



The Retriever introduces a new genre of comic books. It may sound cheesy, but Noir-Fu is the best name I could think of for it. Inspired slightly by the lengend of the Monkey's Paw and my desire to explore irony and the unexpected, The Retriever blends crime noir and the kung-fu genre to explore these themes in a new light.
- Daniel Fu, Creator
CRANKY OCTOPUS

The three creators who make up CRANKY OCTOPUS are die hard comic book lovers. CRANKY OCTOPUS started, if I'm not mistaken, from a very well put together X-Men fan fiction web site with hundreds of readers /contributers each month...

One of their comics..
ROCKET & BOUNCE



The sibling super heroes' first mission as a crime fighting duo: foil a gang of bank robbers. Sounds easy enough, right? Right? Hmmm...
- Cranky Octopus

SUPER SEED




In a world where super powered beings are a feared, yet revered minority, International Andrology & Cryobank CEO Dr. Michael Billings plans to profit by selling the promise of extraordinary gifted children through his Super Seed Program.
- Tyler James, Creator

Each of these are Web Device ready right now. There is more out there as well, many more...

Have a great weekend!

~Caine

How Do You Write?

If you've come here today for another one of Pierre's awesome articles on animation, then you may be in for an unpleasant surprise, as this post is from me (Jim) not Pierre.

Where is Pierre? Well, he's on a Top Secret animation gig in Canada. I say Top Secret, because I can't remember if he told me what the assignment was or not. I'm hoping he's keeping a detailed journal about his experience so he can tell us all about it in future blog posts.

The animation gig has a rigorous deadline and he's been really busy, so, I've decided to give him a bit of a break on his Wednesday posts today.

Which brings me to the title of today's posts. Twice in the last two weeks, I have been asked How Do You Write?

At first I was going to just throw together a post on the subject, but both people who sent me the question included their regimen for writing which I found very interesting and helpful.

So it occurred to me that perhaps the better thing to do would be to ask everyone who reads this blog, how do you write/create? What is your process?

If you aren't a creator, I'd like to hear what you look for in writing. After all, what your audience wants in a story is just as important, if not moreso, as what the writer wants in a story. :)

Answers to the question can be as long or short as you wish. I'll post any answers I receive either via email or blog posts here on my blog next Wednesday.

Golden Age Spider Man?

So while reading the adventures of Captain Marvel, Golden Arrow and Ibis yesterday in an issue of Whiz Comics, I came across a story with a character with a rather familiar name...



Now while I don't necessarily think Marvel has anything to worry about, it might explain why Spider-man has a hyphen in his name when so many other superheroes don't.

Anyway, here is the comic where this Spider Man character appears...



[ Whiz Comics 89 ]

And another one from the Fawcett library of comics:



[ Whiz Comics 87 ]

Both comics contain stories with Captain Marvel, Golden Arrow and Ibis, so download and enjoy!

- Jim