Are you a comic book fan?
Just leave a comment talking about your comic book experience for your chance to win a copy of "Our Gods Wear Spandex" by Chris Knowles. I have a few copies to give away and I'm only giving them away on this blog.
I'll announce a winner on this blog and on-air...
Check out the article "Book Claims Superheroes New Gods" for why you want to win one of these books.
ABC23 Weathergirl Christina Loren poses in her best spandex!
See the full Christina Slideshow!
17 comments:
want to hear chris talk about this? listen to "our gods wear spandex" here http://www.vyzygoth.com/index.html
download mp3's of his interviews.
are these 'superhero' cartoon versions the mighty men of renown in the book of Genesis chapter 6? are these the nephilim or fallen angeles the Bible talks about? do these heros parallel the greek 'mythological' gods? i think so.
My best experiences have been at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, which by the way are stocking your book. They're the best! ever thought you doing a piece on them or a singing there?
Never to have gone to a comic convention of today, I have however devulged in the comic heros of the late 80's and early 90's. As a kid I collected and traded marvel comic cards and watched cartoons such as x-men. I never knew the true value of the cards I collected past the symbolism they represented to me. Storm was my favorite; a true, strong woman with a power to control the weather. I wanted to be just like her. I would fantisize about starting storms and creating great winds to surpass and blow away my enemies.
I can definitely find the connection between yesterday's and today's comic heros in correlation to the "gods of old" spoken of in "Our Gods Wear Spandex". Recently I have been drawn to a tv series called Dexter. The series is about a serial killer in law enforcement who kills other serial killers. "Killing is not wrong, if they deserved it." Dexter develops a hero complex in relation to the comic heros of today. He is capped The Dark Defender...a hero who kills today's villians and saves the lives of the weak. There are many allusions in this series to comic book favorites. For example, some rocks with algae on them from the bay he stores his boat in is refered as his "kryptonite", evidence that may utterly destroy him! I whole heartedly agree with the statement "the past and future are always with us....it’s funny how it all seems so similar to ancient myths while visionary creators keep comic book development fashionable".
~Lisa Small
My favorite superhero is Aquaman because he does it underwater.
comic book heroes have helped me inspire my nephews to read more. personally, i wanted to love heroes like superman or the dark knight which are my favorites... but they've found their own... spiderman or wolverine... and it doesn't matter as long as they are wanting to read. thanks to comics, reading is not considered "boring" with my kids. :)
sorry... it's early for me. lol. i meant i wanted my boys to love the superheroes i loved. instead, they've found their own favorites...spiderman or wolverine. doesn't matter, as long as they read. :)
I still have some ooold comic books that have been with my family for years. I used to go down to the barber shop in McFarland, and trade with the barber. Horror comics and
The Avengers..
Oh yeah the "What If?" series. Those used to be about odd stories, like - "What If...The She Hulk married Magneto" or something crazy like that.
I even have an ancient 'Wyatt Earp' comic I inherited from one of my dad's friends who was a veteran of Normandy.
Thanks for reminding me, I may be able to pay for my son's college education with the collector's money..
Matt M
www.bakotopia.com
Memory is a cheat. It is unreliable. And as we age, it gets *very* unreliable.
So it's no wonder that I can't recall the year I encountered my first fanzine. It was Rocket's Blast Comic Collector (known as RBCC).
I think I saw an ad for it in -- where else? -- a comic book. It cost a whopping seventy-five cents, I think. That was a lot of money for me at the time, even as a young teenager.
I received the first issue and it was a revelation to me. There were other people Out There who not only read comics, but *collected* them, wrote and *drew* them, and, even more amazing, were interested in their history and the people who were currently doing them!
That issue had a cover featuring The Green Hornet and Kato drawn by, I believe, Don Newton. Inside were not just articles and more drawings, but *ads*. People buying and selling comic books. And even more amazing: *fanzines*!
I came to learn the lingo: SASE = Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope. Mint, Near-Mint, Very Good, Good, Fine, etc. And then, conventions! I lived in New York City which was the epicenter for comic book conventions. A man (deceased too young) by the name of Phil Seuling began yearly conventions. And then he had monthly "Second Sunday" (held on each month's, hence the name) dealer's rooms.
One fanzine, RBCC, took me out of the provincial, unimaginative, drudge-filled neighborhood I was born into and lifted me high to a whole new world.
Today, kids have the Internet. Everything is a mouse-click away. The world has shrunk and access to imagination is immediate.
I wonder if it's possible for this generation to experience the same excitement I felt?
Perhaps. Through the comic books themselves...
I grew up, buying comics from both DC and Marvel. Now, I'm a published author, under two pseudonyms. When I thoughtn about it, I realized comic books have had romances for years and years So when I wrote "To Save the Day", a sweet urban fantasy 'super hero' romace short story, it was destiny. You can find it as an Amazon Short at http://www.amazon.com/To-Save-the-Day/dp/B000R7GA50/ref=sr_1_4/103-0687312-5804636?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180489026&sr=1-4 now.
And yes, super heroes of the comic books, and some movie heroes, like Star Wars characters and TV heroes like in Star trek, are the new myths and gods of modern times.
I was always a fan of the Flash, DC universe (Superman/Batman/etc). So delighted when it came to TV about 15 years ago, and crushed that it only lasted a season or so. (I think it was pre-empted by Gulf War I). Plus, it had Mark Hamill as a villain! There's a book out detailing the history of the many different versions of the Flash, the last of whom died saving the DC universe some years after I put comic books down for science-fiction.
Never read any of the Marvel universe series (Spiderman/Hulk/Fantastic Four)--I have a feeling my life would've turned out much different had I gotten hooked on that franchise instead. DC was for the goody-goody types, Marvel for the tortured souls. If only I'd known which I was at eleven...
I have issues with most superheroes.
I remember when Superman died. I was there. I watched the evening news, the handsome anchor telling every kid in Chicagoland how difficult it would be to get our hands on a copy of the Doomsday comic. Naturally, that was all hot air. I went to Walgreen’s and picked one up. I’m not even sure if it was a legit copy, or just some toss-off specially marketed for supermarket profit. I still have it. It sits in a faded plastic bag in a box in my closet.
See, I never really liked Superman. The same goes for most superheroes, in whichever universe. There came a point in my adolescence where visual splendor and cool powers weren’t enough. I needed a powerful story.
Marvel’s Daredevil was always it for me. I never fully understood why until I snagged a teaching job at a boarding school for children with complex learning disabilities.
But first, back to Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil—here was a complex dude: His father was a fading boxer, a real bruiser with a heart of gold. His mother, a nun, had abandoned them. Matt’s father tried to instill the importance of non-violence in Matt. All the while, Matt is being teased and ridiculed at school. The poor boy loses his eyesight in a freak accident and his father is murdered by neighborhood thugs. On top of all that, you have a guy who is constantly wrestling with his spirituality. No doubt about it, Matt Murdock has had it rough.
Daredevil is arguably the most popular disabled-character in the superhero universe. Hell, I say he’s the best. He stands for all that is good, but more importantly, he stands for overcoming human adversity. The students I taught at my boarding school shared much with “The Man Without Fear”. Most of them had been beat up and ridiculed for their learning disabilities, the way they looked. They had been underestimated and misunderstood, just like Matt. They came to the boarding school to overcome their social and educational issues, and taste success for the first time.
I can’t think of one character more endearing—more human—than Daredevil. Thor was a popular and powerful God, whose pride and arrogance got the best of him. Captain America? A twerp who wanted to be a cog in the bureaucratic machine. Iron Man? A rich kid-genius and inheritor of the family business. How many of us can relate to some of these guys? Sure, I’ve some sympathy for Peter Parker and maybe a little for James Howlett (although, I think Wolvie’d blow smoke in my eyes), and I won’t even get into Clark Kent—but no one even comes close to Daredevil.
These comments are killer. Lisa's Dexter talk, Matt Munoz gold mine, chingpea helping her nephews, Lauren's crazy response, Mike Cane's fanzine fanaticism, Saphhire's romance, Anon's Flash memories, and Benton's remarkable story of Daredevil. It's all awesome. Keep em comin'! - Nick, ABC23
Grew up loving Marvel Comics--X-Men and SpiderMan in particular. I've got an old Fantastic Four that would be worth a lot!--that is, if I hadn't cut out a page of it when I was eight just to order X-Ray Specs. My order returned to me three months later with "Return to Sender" stamped on it. I guess the X-Ray Specs company had gone out of business.
The Green Blazer is the comic book here of the golf world.
"The Green Blazer holds a weekly foursome
with the green lantern corps and Hal Jordan.
Got a par 5 hole in one using an old wooden four wood"
But his favorite comic book memory of all time is reading how Ozymandias single-handedly ended the cold war in The Watchmen.
In times like these, sometimes it's just easier being a comedian.
Check out The Green Blazer at www.greenblazergolf.blogspot.com
I've either owned, read, traded, lost, or just plain thrown away more comic books in my life, than most people my age (31) have had bowel movements... does that make sense?
Spider-man has always been the staple hero in my life...
For crying out loud, I have a tattoo of myself chilling with Spidey, actually tattooed on myself (hence the initial tattoo mentioning). Comics for me, are, were, whatever... the epitome of my childhood.
I could go on and on here, but in order to keep this brief...
My favorite comic book of all time (purely based on a sentimental reasoning) is the "Spider-man and Transformers" team up that took place after the "secret wars" upon which Spidey dons his newly acquired alien symbiote suit currently known as Venom. I bought this comic while living in Klamath Falls Oregon the summer of my 7th birthday thanks to the redemption value of my uncle Mitchell's pile of beer cans.
Sadly enough, I lost this great book not too long after my move back to Bakersfield. It wasn't until I told this story to my wife (girlfriend at the time) 20 some odd years later, that I remembered how pissed off I was once I noticed it had gone missing, and how important a piece of literature it was to me at the time.
So one day I come home from work and head over to the ol' underwear door (I was on my way to the shower)... and lo and behold, I pulled open the door and found a mint copy of this lost book packaged next to the chones.
I almost cried for whatever reason...
Thanks for re-creating a memory once again N.L.
Dobbler, I never thought I would shed a tear over something you wrote, but that's romance!
http://www.undergroundhacks.com/ was here, we love the pictures!
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