Archives - Top Hat Comics

Five Superhero Teams That Almost Could: Part IV

Posted on July 19, 2020 by The Brothers KuhnJuly 25, 2020

EXHIBIT IV: Force Works (Marvel Comics Vol.1, 1994-1996): Formed from the deadwood of the West Coast Avengers, written by Dan Abnet and Andy Lanning; and uniquely illustrated by Tom Tenney and Ray Garcia, Force Works (FW) promulgated the interesting premise … Continue reading →

Five Superhero Teams That Almost Could: Part III

Posted on January 26, 2020 by The Brothers KuhnJanuary 26, 2020

EXHIBIT III: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (Tower Comics: 1965-1969): In our ongoing series of superhero teams that almost made it, we will now turn our attention from DC and Marvel to a competitor, Tower Comics, and their T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, or ”The Higher … Continue reading →

Five Superhero Teams That Almost Could: Part II

Posted on January 1, 2020 by The Brothers KuhnJanuary 1, 2020

EXHIBIT II: The Champions (Marvel Comics: October 1975): This week, in our continuing examination of comic book super-hero teams that didn’t quite make it, we’ll turn from DC to arch-competitor Marvel, and the The Champions (October, 1975). Despite Gil Kane’s … Continue reading →

Five Superhero Teams That Almost Could: Part I

Posted on December 15, 2019 by The Brothers KuhnDecember 15, 2019

EXHIBIT I: The Outsiders (DC Comics: 1st Issue Special, No. 10, January 1976): Over the last fifty years, heroes have come and gone in lock-step with the times. Even more transitory are the ad hoc teams that were thrown pell-mell … Continue reading →

The Haunting World of Dr. Seuss: Part II

Posted on September 4, 2019 by The Brothers KuhnSeptember 15, 2019

TOP HAT Continues its Examination of The Often Creepy, Nightmare World Of Dr. Seuss: Last week, we began our exploration of the haunting, strange world of Dr. Seuss, where we examined such subjects as The Grinch, Clark, the sea monster, … Continue reading →

The Haunting World of Dr. Seuss: Part I

Posted on August 29, 2019 by The Brothers KuhnJanuary 1, 2020

TOP HAT Takes A Look At The Often Creepy, Nightmare World Of Dr. Seuss (IF WE DARE!): A few months ago, we came up for air from our backwoods, swamp abode to take a look back on the darker side … Continue reading →

Five Paradigm-Shifting, Must-Read Sci-Fi Books

Posted on May 5, 2019 by The Brothers KuhnMay 6, 2019

Every once in a while, a certain book will come along that has the shuddering effect of an atomic bomb at ground zero: the genre is altered and a paradigm shift occurs. From that point onward, the exemplar spawns analogs … Continue reading →

Seven Creepy Sesame Street Segments That Should Have Never Aired

Posted on February 14, 2019 by The Brothers KuhnFebruary 22, 2019

It’s a magic carpet ride Every door will open wide To happy people like you! ~Sesame Street Theme Song; When Sesame Street first aired, its effect on society was fundamentally changing. Never before had there been a TV show explicitly … Continue reading →

Five Future Comic Classics: Part V

Posted on January 27, 2019 by The Brothers KuhnJanuary 28, 2019

EXHIBIT V: Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (1986); Pantheon Books: Great literature not only says something about the human condition, it may also speak to the conditions of the day, thus also serving as a valuable historical text. Such examples include … Continue reading →

Five Future Comic Classics: Part IV

Posted on December 21, 2018 by The Brothers KuhnDecember 21, 2018

Exhibit IV: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986); DC Comics, Inc.: “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will … Continue reading →

A Top Hat Tribute to The Man

Posted on November 18, 2018 by The Brothers KuhnNovember 23, 2018

TOP HAT COMICS REMEMBERS STAN LEE: As recently as our blog of Oct 8, we celebrated The Man’s influence on us through his and The King’s masterpiece, Fantastic Four #51. Little did we suspect at the time that a … Continue reading →

Five Future Comic Classics: Part III

Posted on October 8, 2018 by The Brothers KuhnOctober 8, 2018

Exhibit III: Fantastic Four #51 (Jun. 1966); Marvel Comics Group: In our ongoing search for pieces of comic book literature that will still be considered worth reading—that is, “classic”—centuries from now, one might ask oneself where would Comicdom’s premier … Continue reading →

Five Future Comic Classics: Part II

Posted on September 23, 2018 by The Brothers KuhnSeptember 26, 2018

Exhibit II: “Daddy and the Pie”/“The Pie and I”, Erie #64 (Mar. 1975), Erie #72 (Feb. 1976); Warren Publishing Group: If—as a civilization—we haven’t yet destroyed ourselves four hundred years from now, will any of the media of today … Continue reading →

Five Future Comic Classics: Part I

Posted on September 9, 2018 by The Brothers KuhnSeptember 9, 2018

EXHIBIT 1: The Tomb of Dracula; Marvel Comics (Apr. 1972-Aug. 1979): According to Editor Eric, Shakespeare’s “works were indeed created for the popular entertainment of his day with little thought to their immortality. Shakespeare did not take any steps to … Continue reading →

Enter: The Dragon Craze!

Posted on July 15, 2018 by The Brothers KuhnAugust 10, 2018

A RETRO-LOOK AT THE MARTIAL ARTS CRAZE THAT PERVADED WESTERN CULTURE IN THE EARLY AND MID-1970S: “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting Those kids were fast as lightning In fact, it was a little bit frightening But … Continue reading →

Return of the Monsters!

Posted on June 30, 2018 by The Brothers KuhnJanuary 15, 2019

AN EXAMINATION OF THE RETURN TO POPULARITY OF MONSTERS DURING THE BRONZE AGE OF COMICS (1970-1976): The tumultuous decade of the 1960s began with the Peace Corps, the World Wildlife Fund, and Leave it to Beaver. It ended in assassination, … Continue reading →

Revisiting The Planet of the Apes 50 Years Later

Posted on January 10, 2018 by The Brothers KuhnJanuary 10, 2018

A Case Study Of How The Movie Version Improved The Original Story With the success of Matt Reeves’ reboot of the Planet of the Apes series (most recently, War for Planet of the Apes this past summer), it’s worth remembering … Continue reading →

Book 1: “Law of the Outlaws!” Page 35

Posted on October 16, 2020 by The Brothers KuhnOctober 16, 2020