And it burns, burns, burns
Showing posts with label superhero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label superhero. Show all posts
Gif Animations: The Return of Captain Invincible
Gif animation made by myself from The Return of Captain Invincible (1983)
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my other gif animations
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Christmas Comics: Wonder Woman Steals From Children!
Who ever thought that Wonder Woman and the Justice League (geeky correction: "Society", see comments...) would steal Christmas presents from a sleeping child on Christmas Eve?! Well, here's the proof:
From Random Acts of Geekery
Vintage Comics: In Search of Atom-mannen
I wrote to Hyperdave at Datajunkie.
"I need help identifying a superhero. I recently found out that there was a comic fan and amateur (in every sense) sculptor here in Sweden who has, during the last 50 years, created a sculpture park with all types of comic characters. I've only seen a couple of photos from there and one of those shows a sculpture of a superhero character that I've never seen before. On the base of the sculpture reads "Atom-mannen" which would - in English - be "The Atom Man". However he doesn't look anything like any of the atom men I've seen. Of course sometimes names aren't translated directly so he might be called something completely different. Now, it must be said that it's not certain he is American, perhaps he's even Swedish but it's not likely. I would appreciate if you'd have quick a look 'cause if someone would know it would be you. Cheers!"
website for the sculpture park - Seriegården (Comics Farm)
I had spent several hours searching for the right Atom Man. Here are some of the results that came up searching for comics/atom/superhero/atom man/atomic/atoman etc:
OK, back to my letter to Hyperdave. To my surprise he had no clue what superhero this could be!! But another one
of his readers did. Lamont kindly informed that "He's Sparkman, from United Features Sparkler Comics". Wow, finally a breakthrough! He supplied us with an image of an issue of Sparkler Comics too, featuring "The Spark Man". I thought with a correct name there should be no problem finding a number of images on the Internet but ...no, not much at all. Four Sparkler covers and another one with a tiny image. That's it.
I guess The Spark Man wasn't very popular or at least he isn't now. Just one poor superhero among superheros. Probably short-lived. One would think though that there'd be - if hardly any images - some information available but the result is even worse. "King of Manhattan: Sparkle Comics. This madman who lived in the sewers with access to dutch settler's gold was in the habit of kidnapping and torturing beautiful women. Was opposed by the Spark Man." That sounds pretty interesting but that's about the only mention of The Spark Man that I could find. Well, if there is anyone out there with more you are welcome to share. That concludes my little story of my accidental and slightly obsessed search for Atom-mannen AKA The Spark Man.
...or so I thought...
Just about to publish this post I came to think of dear ol' Lex10 of the GlyphJockey blog who I know has a certain liking for the Nancy comic. As you may have noticed on the covers above Nancy was one of the featured comics in Sparkler Comics. So I took a look in GlyphJockey and what did I find if not an episode of The Spark Man!!! The costume and the colours are a bit different but it is The Spark Man. The comic seems really bad but... who cares!
Sparkler Comics #41 1945.
PS. The creators were Fred Methot and Paul Berdanier who also made the unforgettable Triple Terror comics. Remember? ;)
PPS. I found some additional information and more covers at atomicavenue.com: "Sparkler Comics (2nd Series)- Two issues of Sparkler Comics (1st series) were published by United Features Syndicate in 1940, but this second series ran from 1941 until 1955. As one might expect, the stars of this long-running series were primarily United Features comic strip characters: Tarzan (by the legendary Burne Hogarth); Nancy (by Ernie Bushmiller); The Captain and the Kids; Li’l Abner; and Abbie & Slats. The title also introduced the super-hero Spark Man who went through two or three costume changes over the course of the series, but was only cover-featured eleven times."
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Golden Age of Comic Books
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Vintage comics: You want I should bop you with this here lollipop?
"Herbie Popnecker, a parody of a superhero, first appeared in Forbidden Worlds #73 in December 1958, published by ACG, American Comics Group. It was the introduction of the antithesis of a hero -- short, fat, young -- but this unlikely hero was one of the most powerful and best known beings in history.
Deriving some of his powers from genetics and some from magical lollipops from the Unknown, Herbie could talk to animals (who knew him by name), fly (by walking on air), become invisible, and when he got his own comic, travel through time." (continue reading the Wikipedia article)
Herbie Popnecker: Examples of Recurring Themes
I didn't know of Herbie Popnecker until today when I read this post at I'm Learning To Share. Thanks, the in crowd!
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Vintage Comics: That's the Spirit - Part1
Who is The Spirit?
By the way, there's gonna be a lot of hoopla about The Spirit later this year on the count of the Frank Miller movie version hitting the theaters in December. (Trailer). I'm rather skeptical... OK, no more free advertisement from me about that, but maybe I'll post a few more The Spirit cover pages. The creator Will Eisner's designs of these are probably what I love most about the comic.
Visit Will Eisner.com.
One other thing. Movies has been based on comic book characters for a long long time and you've probably noticed that they produce more of those movies now than ever before. It is probably due to the movie industry's lack of "own" ideas and the fact that there is hardly no technical limitations left to what you can visualize on screen. And just think about all the merchandise you can sell if you make a hit. That's got to a be tempting prospect. Anyway here are a few interesting and related Wikipedia links:
-List of films based on English-language comics
-List of comics based on films
-Superhero film
-List of films based on DC Comics
-List of films based on Marvel Comics
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