Five Superhero Teams That Almost Could: Part III
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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!
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!
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
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 →