Monday, February 08, 2010

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is the Latest Great Batman Cartoon

Watching Batman: The Brave and the Bold has become a weekly ritual for my son and I, and every episode, I'm surprised and thrilled by the appearance of some obscure old villain or a nod to some weird old Batman story. Ostensibly a team-up show, the writers manage to shoehorn in all kinds of fun elements into the most colorful, poppiest Batman show since that Adam West deal back in the '60's.

This is just the latest in a long string of excellent DC animated projects from Warner Bros. Animation, starting with Batman: The Animated Series and including Justice League Unlimited. What I've enjoyed about these projects, and especially about Brave and the Bold, is the way each show is allowed its own tone, design, and identity. The world of  Brave and the Bold is based on the Batman comics of the 1950's, specifically those drawn by artist Dick Sprang, and it serves as a great gateway into the overall DC universe as well.

As a leading advocate of lame-ass supervillains, I love that the show is packed with cameos by guys like Zebra Man, the Eraser, Killer Moth, Polka-Dot-Man, Planet Master, and a couple of guys even I don't recognize, like the camera guy and the propeller-head guy. But oh, I want to know them now.


Also included: Bat Mite! One especially great episode featured Batman trying to rid himself of the interdimensional pest as he was whisked through a surreal gallery of Sprang-styled villains and monsters:

 
  
But is all of this too silly, too demeaning to the image of Batman? As Bat-Mite himself said in "Legends of the Dark Mite!":
"Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots than the tortured avenger crying out for mommy and daddy."
Hey, if it's good enough for Bat-Mite, it's  good enough for me.


 

There's been a great array of guest stars too, with a focus on the obscure corners of the DCU, and so far, most of the characters are ones who haven't appeared in previous animated shows, like Plastic Man, both Blue Beetles, Guy Gardner, Firestorm, and many others.




The show also gives us plenty of something we don't see enough of in modern Batman comics: Bizarre transformations! Batman has been transformed into triplets, a gorilla, a plastic Batman, a Future Batman, a Green Lantern, a ghost, and the Justice Society of America even showed up in a recent episode, where age-altering antics gave us a geriatric Batman!




Upcoming episodes promise the Doom Patrol, the Rainbow Batman, and an all-Bob Khaniger episode, featuring the Creature Commandos and G.I. Robot. Coming next week we'll see an animated Batman of Zur En Arrh in, the "THE SUPER-BATMAN OF PLANET X!"

If you're not watching Batman:Brave and the Bold because it looks too kid-centric, don't be fooled. It is 100% kid-friendly, but there's a lot for fans, too. The Black Casebook has been opened...and it's animated!

Thursday, February 04, 2010

The Secret Origin of (the Name of) This Blog!


Back when I started Again With the Comics, I knew what I wanted to do, but it took awhile to come up with a good name for the blog. I kicked around a few ideas, but nothing felt right until I remembered a long-ago comic strip I had seen in a fanzine or small-press comic wherein the cartoonist bemoaned his obsession with comics, titled "Again With the Comics", which summed my whole deal up perfectly. I couldn't remember where I'd seen the strip, or who had done it, but the title was perfect, so I nicked it. (Once I did an internet search on the name and found no claim laid to it, of course.)

Well, recently  I was going through my magazines, and fished out a copy of Destroy All Comics #1, a fanzine put out by Jeff LeVine back in 1994. LeVine was responsible for an alternative comic called No Hope which I enjoyed back in the day, and I must have been following him pretty closely, because I also picked up Destroy All Comics at some point. Flipping through it, I was surprised to find the long-lost "Again With the Comics" comic strip. Let me tell you, I still feel his pain. Help! Will somebody out there please shoot me?

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Future Superman is Futuristic!


Introducing the Future Superman of 2965! You won't believe your eyes! He's SO DIFFERENT from the original Superman from Krypton!!
For one thing, no spit-curl! And...and there's other different stuff too! FUTURE!

Here we see the tenth generation Superman, identical to the previous nine save for a slightly different hairstyle, being sworn in by the Federation of planets:



The good news is, Future Superman is no longer vulnerable to Kryptonite, having gained an immunity after generations of exposure. The bad news: He's now paralyzed by common seawater, which, y'know, only covers 80% of the Earth's surface. Kind of like being told the doctor fixed your bunions but accidently gave you cancer in the process:



Superman 2965 keeps a secret identity also, but not as a primitive newspaper reporter. In the far-flung world of tomorrow, Superman poses as Klar Ken T5477, INTERPLANETARY news reporter for the Daily Interplanetary Ultra News! Futuristic, eh? Still...if the future Superman is so different, why is he wearing the same crusty old "draws" as the last nine Supermen?



No mere human Editor can keep up with Interplanetary Ultra News, so the staff answer to PW-5598, the toughest, slave-driving-est computer editor in the business. Created by Per Wye T7357 and dedicated to his ancestor, Perry White (and decorated with a laurel-framed picture of him!), it takes no guff from impetuous space-cub reporters! Don't call it Chief!



Then there's Lyra 3916, or should I say Lyra 36-24-36? Damn, girl, you be makin' Lois Lane look like a bag of puke!



Better yet, Lyra "goes for' Klar, but thinks Superman is an egotist (or "piffle-diffle" as they say in 2965). Given that, the general Utopian feel of 2965, and the seawater situation, I'm not sure why Klar should bother with being Superman at all. Maybe he's just a squabble-wobble*.



Not to say that it's all seawater and hotties for future Superman. He has a few enemies, but they manage to be even even lamer than regular Superman's notoriously lame rogue's gallery. His main and pretty much only enemy was the Nixon-esque mutant MUTO:


Who enlisted a handful of space goons to help him:


But that's pretty light work for a Man of Steel. Oh yeah, unless they fight on the beach, I guess.

There was also a Batman of 2965, but that post will have to wait until...THE FUTURE!







*Future slang for "moron" -Ed

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Asgardian Dynamite





Part of what I love about the Golden Age is how very low the bar was set for being a superhero. Take for example, "DYNAMITE" THOR (Weird Comics #7, 1940), whose claim to fame was wearing a belt of  dynamite into battle:





"Dynamite" Thor has a motto: "When in doubt, throw dynamite at it."  Peter Thor former Mine Owner and bomb-nut-about-town has devoted his life to throwing dynamite at spies, criminals, and America's enemies.






And of course, the story gives him a secret identity, but since the series only lasted two issues, I like to think he eventually dropped the act and flipped out on a full time basis. He'd be a wacky,outrageous character, overreacting to everyday, minor inconveniences in his own inimitable fashion! Well, that or a terrorist.




Lest we forget, "Dynamite" did have one minor superpower, not insignificant in an era when a guy got into the JSA for being a shorter costumed strongman than the other seven costumed strongmen on the team. "Dynamite" Thor had the power of being "immune to the effect of explosives", very lucky for him given his chosen mode of transport:



Yes, no Dyna-Car for this guy, who prefers to blast around town in the most maniacal way imaginable, via a series of barely-controlled concussive blasts!! I'll bet his neighbors just love this guy. No explanation is given for his "immunity" to explosives, save that he was an "explosives expert". I'm gonna take that to mean that he's blown himself up often enough that he is either A) One big callus, B) sporting an armored,  prosthetic pelvis/colostomy column beneath that colrful tunic, C) Very, very well insulated, and mind-rippingly drunk or D) Most of the above.




Whatever the case, it allows "Dynamite" Thor to look like he's merrily prancing along on a wave of cartoon fart clouds, rather than like a rapidly approaching storm cloud of hamburger and bone shards, the more likely result of lighting a freaking belt of dynamite you've strapped around your waist.

Finally, "Dynamite" shared the same weakness that afflicted a great many costumed heroes. He was not immune to a deftly-applied pie wrench upside the he head:





Well, I suppose I should take it easy on poor old "Dynamite" Thor. It's not like he's that bad, and...

Say,what's that hissing noise? Honey, are you boiling some wat









Monday, January 25, 2010

Hm...Something Went Wrong!






















Meet my new favorite Golden age character: Dr. Mortal, wizened amoral science lunatic.



Dr. mortal excerpt from Weird Comics #7, scan found at Golden Age Comics.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wolverine Admits to Steroid Use

SAN FRANCISCO- In a press conference today, famed mutant superhero Wolverine admitted to steroid use during most of the 1990’s, but he also said he didn't need performance-enhancing drugs to retain his position as the X-Men’s most popular and ubiquitous member.


Wolverine, pictured in pre-steroid days



Wolverine, also sometimes known as Logan, Weapon X, Howlett, Patch, and "the ‘ol Canucklehead” is either one of America’s most beloved heroes or one of its greatest threats, depending on who you ask, but few would deny that the scrappy Canadian changed the American superhero paradigm for good when he burst on the scene years ago with a savage and uncompromising attitude toward crime-fighting. He quickly became a fan-favorite, and before long, was rewarded with his own mini-series, then his own monthly book.

"I was given a gift to scrag bad guys, bub" he once told Rick Jones on the Hero One Network. "I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do ain’t very pretty.”

But with the fame and exposure came an increased pressure to perform. Wolverine recalls that his mutant healing factor was a key element in his ability to do so much, but even so, he could only heal so fast.

"During the early '90s, I was shot, stabbed, burned, thrown into a volcano, and fired from a cannon in one month," Wolverine said. "I experienced a lot of injuries, including a bruised ribcage, an amputated arm, multiple contusions, and that one time Sabertooth disemboweled me. It was a miserable couple'a hours healin', and I figured steroids could help me recover faster."




The steroids amplified his healing factor to an almost ludicrous degree. Wolverine went from being an unusually fast healer to being nigh immortal.

“After I stared juicing up, there wasn’t anything that could kill me. In one adventure, I was disintegrated in a nuclear explosion, reduced to a charred skeleton. Well, in the time it takes to microwave a burrito, I knit myself back together well enough to fight off ONE HUNDRED NINJAS. Try doing that with a standard-issue mutant healing factor, bub.”




Another contributing factor was Wolverine’s height, which was always a source of chagrin for the proud mutant fighter.

“Squirt. Short-stuff. Runt. Midget. And that was from my teammates! Mean words hurt, people. I thought that maybe steroids could help me put on some height, too. And they did...sometimes.”




Yes, the steroids worked, but at a price. Wolverine’s appearance varied wildly during this period, and indeed, has ever since. Many wonder if the X-Man/Avenger/X-force member has indeed truly given up on performance enhancing drugs, given that he is now more in demand than ever. He replied t these accusations at he press event:

“Listen, Bub, I gave that junk up years ago. The 'ol Canucklehead don't need nothin' but his claws 'an his instincts! I’m coming clean now because I realize what a mistake I made, and ‘cause I need to face up to my responsibilities since I've become an Avenger. As of this morning, I'm apparently the new leader of Power Pack, too, so I can’t be no bad influence on little kids."




Wolverine insists that the steroid abuse left no permanent effects on his mind or body, though fans and colleagues question the veracity of such statements, given his ever-changing appearance and continued reference to himself as an "ol Canucklehead". As the superhero community struggles to come to grips with these new revelations, Wolverine remains as popular as ever. He will no doubt continue to do that which he does best, and continue to do it in about twenty comics a month.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Spider-Man Movie Casting Suggestion

Mostly, I don't care. But there is one absolute MUST when casting the next Spider-Man movie:




For the love of God, KEEP J.K. SIMMONS as J. JONAH JAMESON!

Simmons absolutely became the curmudgeonly newspaper publisher in the first three Spider-Man movies, and I don't wanna see anyone else ranting about "That Wall-Crawling Menace!" in future outings. Jonah isn't that major of a player in the story anyway, so why try to shoehorn in a new actor? I liked  all three of the Spider-Man movies, though all three were flawed in different ways. Tobey Maguire made a decent Spider-Man, but I never really was sold on his Peter Parker, and Kirsten Dunst really got on my nerves by the third movie, so her MJ won't be missed. I've heard about the sparkly vampire kid being bandied about for Spidey, as well as that Arrested Development young'un, but I'm guessing they'll go with even newer young up-and-comers that I've never heard of to fill those roles in the new film. Whatever they do, let me be perfectly clear:

Future Spider-Man movie director, KEEP J.K. SIMMONS as J. JONAH JAMESON!



Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Full-of-Snakes-Man

Here, my friends, is a muchly strange comic for you to be reading on the computer internets!



Indian superhero NAGRAJ (translates to “Snake King”) has enjoyed immense popularity in his relatively short existence.  And why not? Get this – he is full of tiny snakes. Microscopic snakes in his bloodstream allow him the full panoply of superhero powers, and he can create any number of handy tools and weapons from snakes, such as snake ladders, snake lassoes, and general all-purpose snake hurling. A full rundown on Nagraj can be found here.




The magic beings of a faraway planet have no regard for such pitiful Earth concepts as “copyright”, so when Victar Shakoorah is booted from the Magicians planet, he is encased in a diamond and sent to Earth, to be plopped down within about 20 feet of Bootleg Indian Superman, who is in the process of murdering "Missleman":




Friendly, murderous Superman frees Shakoora and explains: ”…Earth is like this, and I protect its people from the anti-social elements!”  Shakoora flies with Superman, briefly, before attacking and trapping him:






UFF! Then Superman tells the evil dwarf that there are other protectors of the Earth: Batman, Spiderman, and Nagraj, so Shakoora sets off to capture them as well. He makes short work of a less-than-imposing Bootleg Batman. I don't know how often this sort of thing happened, but I have to admit, I really like the idea of Nagraj randomly teaming up with, say, the Hulk, Abraham Lincoln, and/or Santa Claus at any given time.




Finally, Shakoora heads to Paris, where Bootleg Spiderman (sic) is disarming a bomb strapped to the Eiffel Tower:




Then he whisks the captured trio of superheroes off to the Gemini circus in India, where Nagraj is in attendance, apparently forcing his girlfriend to wear a dress, keeping her in her place:




Damn, he's all like: "Shut up and watch the circus, beeyotch!" Of course, any comic book reader knows that THE CIRCUS=TROUBLE, and this one is no exception. Shakoora crashes the party, riding Toofan a known rogue elephant! Nagraj immediately suits up for snake-powered action, but too late to stop an ELEPHANT RAMPAGE:




Apparently, ripping off American Superheroes isn’t enough, since wrestling legend Lou Albano (May he Rest in Peace) shows up in an inexplicable cameo as the circus ringmaster, for no apparent reason. Albano and Nagraj manage to subdue Toofan, but then the treacherous Shakoora strikes:




Nagraj destroys the rolling cage, which disgorges the unconscious Superman, Batman, and Spiderman:




Surely now the heroes will spring into action and kick magic dwarf ass, right? Not quite, as Shakoora continues to taunt Nagraj, then burns his girlfriend’s feet, then sets the circus tent on fire! Nagraj does the only logical thing, and commandeers a small choo-choo train to gather up Visarpi and the still-bound heroes and… ride around in circles, I guess?


"Dear?"




The choo choo is blocked, and all seems lost until Nagraj starts to prayin', and ...some guy...shows up and magically saves everyone! Three cheers for Deus Ex Machina Man! Er, Imean, Guruji  Gorakhnath!!











Actually, this is maybe supposed to be be beloved Hindu Yogi Guru Gorakshanath, but frankly, I don't see the resemblance:




And so, the benevolent Guruji flew off with Shakoora, and all was well…BUT WAIT! There are still pages to fill, so as a “parting shot", Shakoora blasts Lou Albano with a spell that changes him into a raging giant! The heroes alltry to stop him, but it all comes down to Nagraj and SNAKE POWER:




Finally, he sends some snakes inside the giant to bite him internally, and defeats the giant BY KILLING HIM WITH SNAKES:




Then they all have a jolly laugh over dinner! Surely that wasn’t supposed to be the Lou Albano? Maybe that’s a common name in India?!? You can find this entire nutty story online right here, and enjoy the bootleg madness for yourself.

Good Bye friends, see you again in some delightful moments!



Thursday, January 07, 2010

Negative Thinking



Doom Patrol #6 was released this week, casting a spotlight on Negative Man, and I found it to be the most intriguing issue to date. Negative Man itself is our narrator, and through the energy being’s rambling interior monologue, we get a look at how Larry Trainor came to be inhabited by a radioactive entity, how he died, and how that entity moved on to a succession of other hosts, while sincerely trying to convince itself and others that it is still Larry Trainor.






Writer Keith Giffen uses the “unreliable narrator” trick to explore a not-quite-accurate Doom Patrol timeline as seen by a being that has known his/its share of trauma and change.  After the Doom Patrol’s “death“ in Doom Patrol #121 (1968), the negative energy being went on to inhabit Valentina Vostok. Larry re-emerged in the next DP series in 1987, found mysteriously alive and well in an enemy’s clutches. This story elaborates on that point, explaining that the Larry they found was another man’s body that was genetically altered by the Chief with Trainor DNA to resemble Larry’s just enough to attract the negative being. This was supposed to have happened again, sometime after Rebis’ death at the end of Grant Morrison’s run, meaning Larry Trainor is now on his second borrowed body.




The narration is unreliable, however, in that Negative Man can’t quite acknowledge his time as Rebis. He/it seems to mix and confuse the Paul Kupperberg and Grant Morrison versions of the team, and remembers a version of the Morrison DP with Negative Man, not Rebis in the roster. Elanor Poole, the woman Larry and the negative being merged with to form Rebis is not mentioned. Some team history is lost, some altered, and some blended, and at no point are we sure if this is the “real” story. The theory that Niles Caulder has been procuring comatose, brain-dead “Not-Larries” for the entity to inhabit is certainly creepy enough to be credible, and explains how Larry survived the first “death” of the Doom Patrol, at least better than “He survived somehow.” Note that this was supposed to have occurred during the time Rebis was around, so we are led to wonder if this clone/DNA business "really happened" or if Negative Man is working from distorted memories, providing his own "retcon" for a truth he cannot face.

In other words, is a retcon couched in a false memory really a retcon, or advanced denial?




The end result appears to be a very confused, depressed, self-loathing energy being living in its fourth or fifth human shell, with a need to identify itself as the (long dead) human it first bonded with. The being feels affection for the DP, and for Rita in particular, and is doing its level best to be Larry Trainor, but it is like a copy of a copy of a copy, explaining “Larry’s” odd behavior of late. Weird stuff, and well suited to the weirdness of the Doom Patrol.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Funeral For A Stilt-Man




All of this recent Punisher talk reminded me of the time he killed the Stilt-Man, which I covered in detail way back in 2006. His death resulted in a scene pretty much exactly as depicted above in a later issue where Frank poisoned all the villains attending Stilt-Man's viewing at the Bar With No Name, and then blew up the bar and the few villains that didn't stagger away. I then remembered this hilarious, insanely detailed Ryan Dunleavy (of Action Philosophers, Comic Book Comics, and wacky MODOK comics fame) picture that I nabbed awhile back, and decided to share, on account of I am generous. 









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Monday, January 04, 2010

In Which the Punisher Flattens Wolverine With a Steam Roller



Speaking of the Punisher, and my general lack of interest for the character, I'm even less a fan of the over-exposed, over-rated Wolverine. As I've mentioned, I did enjoy Garth Ennis' run on the Punisher, and issues 16 and 17 may have been the pinnacle, featutring a blackly hilarious team up with the "ol Canucklehead" as only Ennis could write it. Ennis clearly "gets" Wolverine in a way few other writers do, imbuing him with the gravitas and importance he has earned as Marvels #1 cash cow:






Heh heh. Wotta maroon.
In the story, Punisher and Wolverine are both on the trail of mob goombahs who are mysteriously disappearing, leaving only their discarded, cut off lower legs behind. Each hero suspects the other of being the culprit, and they have a classic Mighty Marvel Misunderstanding and fight, before they team up. Of course, the Punisher doesn't play well with others, so he spends the rest of the story fighting an army of revenge-crazed criminal midgets alongside Wolverine, while also trying to incapacitate Wolverine to get him out of the way. Frank first blasts Wolvie's face off with a shotgun, shoots him in the doo-dads, and nearly sets him on fire, but the rodent's healing factor allows him to shrug all that off and keep the "team-up" going. By the time the two have slaughtered all of the little would-be crimelords, Frank realizes he needs to get the nigh-indesructible runt off his back for the long term, when he spies a handy road roller:













That may be the single greatest thing Marvel printed in the last decade. Then he goes into the next room and murders a room full of amputees. That wacky Punisher!



Pages from Punisher ( 2001 series ) #17 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robetson

Friday, January 01, 2010

Bitching 'Bout Bagging, Boarding and Boxing Books



I'm about to tell you something that may shock and horrify you. I do a piss poor job of keeping up with my comic book collection. I don't bag and board my comics. I don't grade them. I haven't owned a price guide in years, and I barely manage to keep them sorted and filed alphabetically. The whole "CGC" thing completely baffles me, as I'd rather spend the money needed to "slab" one comic on, well, more comics, frankly. At any given time, I have 3 longboxes worth of books to be filed, and smaller stacks of comics throughout the house, much to my wife's delight.

As a younger collector, I fretted about the grade of my comics, and wanted to make sure they were  bagged, boarded and kept in mint condition. But I am actually rather lazy by nature, it turns out, and as my collection grew, my need to wrap each one individually waned. Now that I have a house and a kid, I don't worry too much about the condition of the comics, as the occasional accident happens, and a cover gets creased. The boy is actually quite good with books, and I want to encourage him to enjoy reading, not worry about daddy flipping out if one of his books gets mussed. Never mind that with the paper these things are printed on, they'll all outlast me by decades anyway...


Hoarding funnybooks isn't all fun and games; Once every few months comes a task that can't be avoided, a fun-filled afternoon of sorting, stacking, and backbreaking manual labor the likes of which this old cubicle jockey rarely sees anymore. First I gather the comics in one room, then I sort them in piles alphabetically. Then I sort thr "As", the Bs" and all through the alphabet. then I have to sort each individual series by title and number, a task the publishers seem to be determined to make as difficult as possible. Then the party kicks into full gear, as I pull each longbox off the shelf and strain to stuff more Goddamn comics into each one. This all happens as other things around the house are also demanding my attention, and doesn't leave me with much enthusiasm for wrapping the damn things in individual baggies.

So how common is this these hectic times? I have to assume that collection obsession goes hand-in-hand with more free time, but maybe you have five kids, two jobs and still bag your funnies. Conversely, maybe you toss 'em all under your bed when you're done and let''em grow a coat of mold. Discuss your storage methodology in the comments, pals!

Monday, December 28, 2009

Franken-Castle Lurches To Life...And Into Our Hearts




What kind of upside-down world are we living in where suddenly The Punisher has jumped to the top of my reading list? After being lopped into cutlets by Wolverine Junior and left for dead, the Punisher has been rescued by Morbius the Living Vampire and sewn back together as an honest-to-Mary Shelley Frankenstein monster!And I'm loving it.




In a classic it's-just-so-crazy-it-might-work move, Rick Remender and Tony Moore have taken Punisher down a whole new rabbit hole in the Marvel Universe, taking him to his lowest point during Dark Reign only to dismember him and dump him square in Marvel's monster underworld...AS a monster. I don't have a problem with this at all, since I've always found the standard criminal-hunting Punisher an odd fit in the fantastic world of Marvel, anyway. I have bought Punisher solo comics in the past, even collecting the title regularly if a writer I liked was working on the book. I especially enjoyed Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Punisher series, at least before it got super-serious and super-grim. In general, "straight" Punisher stories bore me.




Punisher purists may be aghast at all of this, but there is a gritty crime-drama PunisherMAX book out there, not to mention the steady flow of standard Punisher one shots and mini-series that are constantly flowing from the MAX imprint, so as far as I'm concerned, why NOT make the Marvel Universe Punisher as far-out and superheroey as possible?






The Franken-Castle arc combines two creators I like with several characters and concepts I normally don't like to create a book that has so far been a true surprise. Normally I don't even like Morbius, but cast as the mad doctor that reassembles the Punisher to lead the Legion of Monsters in battle an army of cyborg samurai led by a disembodied skull in a robot body bent on destroying all monsters... well, whats NOT to like? Go, Franken-Castle, go!

Monday, December 21, 2009

A Christmas Panic!



MAD magazine may be on the ropes today, but at one time, it was popular enough to spawn a host of imitators. In 1953, Bill Gaines decided to have EC Comics publish their own MAD knock-off, an even more risque magazine he titled PANIC. EC was already known for stirring up trouble amongst uptight 1950's America, and Panic #1 followed in that fine, nose-tweaking tradition on two fronts. The first story in the issue, a parody of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, caused a furor by revealing the tough-as-nails P.I. to be a transvestite, but the second story got the issue "banned" in Massachusetts for "desecrating Christmas". Yes, Virginia, the "War on Christmas" was being waged by pill-popping funnybook publishers as far back as 1953! Yep, this one fifty-seven year old comic book story that poops all over Clement Clark Moore's "A Christmas Carol" will no doubt ruin Christmas for you forever, so read with caution! (offer void in Massachusetts)
























"The Night Before Christmas"
Script:Albert B. Feldstein Pencils:Bill Elder
Story scanned from PANIC #1 (Reprint), Gemstone Publishing (March 1997)


Merry Christmas from Again With the Comics! Seeya next year!