My air conditioner has died, and the house is hot. It could be worse, I suppose. It could be August.

Of course, if I was Superman, this wouldn't be a problem. For one thing, I'd be invulnerable to heat, but I'd also have Super-Breath, which I could use to cool the house.

You may recall that Superman used his freeze breath to turn a lake to ice so that he could put out a fire at a chemical plant in Superman III. He first used that power decades earlier in Superman #129, May 1959:

You'll note that Superman debuts this power twenty years into his career only because his own previous Space Souvenirs are threatened. What, Jimmy Olsen never deserved a popsicle?

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: comic books superman walter

Welcome to June, the 17th annual Wriphe.com Superman Month, this year with 300% more Superman!

You may remember that this time last year, Superman was "dead" (again). As often happens in comic books, he got better. And in recent issues of Action Comics, he's been hanging out in Metropolis with three other characters who also call themselves Superman: his son, Jon; his clone, Connor; and the "New" Super-Man of China, Kong Kenan. It's Superman meets The Real World (where no one is an asshole to their gay roommate).

At this rate, 2023 might be the year we finally get an answer to the age-old question "Can you ever have too much Superman?"

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: comic books superman

As previously mentioned, I recently had to replace my telephone. A new device calls for new backgrounds, and these are what I am using for my locked/unlocked screens respectively:

For the record, Batman & Robin are by José Luis García-López, and Superman is by Evan "Doc" Shaner. Together, they make the World's Finest pair of Pixel 7 phone backgrounds!

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: batman comic books superman telephone

From the Child Welfare Department:

Eighty-two years after his first appearance, the Red Bee is finally getting his own sidekick! (Michael the Trained Bee doesn't count because he's actually the Red Bee's super power.)

Technically, Ladybug hasn't actually appeared in a comic yet (other than this bio from the backmatter of The New Golden Age #1, 2022), but it's implied we will be meeting her in soon-to-come issues of the appropriately-named Stargirl: The Lost Children.

I feel like they are making this comic specifically for me.

Take all my money, DC!

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: comic books red bee

I posted this panel from of Mary Marvel and Hoppy from New Champions of Shazam #2 (a delightful comic) on Twitter yesterday, and it has far, far more retweets than anything I've ever posted in the 11 years I've been on that site.

words by Josie Campbell + art by Doc Shaner = 100% Marvelous

Granted, most of the things I post on Twitter are related to an entirely different and much less well-known comic book character (no, not Batman but Booster Gold), but whatever. If it influences more people to read the comics I like (which in turn encourages DC to make more of the comics I like), I'll call it a win.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: boosterrific captain marvel comic books twitter.com walter

The world will always need a Superman.

Superman #7, 1941

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: comic books superman trumps america

I like to think I know a lot about comics, and this sure seems like something I should have been aware of before now.

"Superman Jr." (drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and inked by Dick Giordano) is from the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide, where it is accompanied by the following description:

SUPER JRS. give licencees the opportunity to use pint-sized versions of DC's most popular heroes, including Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, and Flash! All have been transformed into the most loveable and huggable mini-heroes you've ever seen!

I mean, yeah, like everyone else, I knew there were Lil' (Justice) Leaguers who have occupied their own corner of the DC Multiverse — Earth-42, 'natch — since 2008. For some reason I assumed that the Lil' Leaguers had been inspired mainly by the popularity of the late-1980s X-Babies comics, an adorably alternate-reality version of the best-selling X-Men from DC's chief competition, Marvel Comics. As it turns out, those 2008 characters were more likely descended from the only Super Jrs. comic appearance: The Best of DC Special #58 digest-sized comic in December 1984.

The really weird part is that 1984 story had actually been created seven years earlier for a format nearly twice the size! According to October 2014 issue of Back Issue magazine — which also includes a list of all known Super Jrs. licensed products — the Super Jrs. were originally developed (by Tom DeFalco, Vince Squeglia, and Kerry Grandenetti) to be used in a DC treasury-sized comic book in 1977 as the first in a whole series of Super Jrs. comics. But the treasury edition line was canceled, and DC instead decided to shop the Super Jrs. characters around for a cartoon series that never materialized, finally printing the comic in '84 to give the digest series a "new" Christmas story.

(I find the Super Jrs. an interesting contrast to DC's Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew, also a kid-friendly take on DC's Justice League of America characters — the Zoo Crew began as "Just'a Lotta Animals" — created in the early 1980s as a cartoon pitch only to become a comic series in 1982 yet doesn't appear in that Style Guide. Did the Zoo Crew perhaps have a different licensing agreement?)

Anyway, that 1982 Style Guide entry up there is for a character created in 1977, licensable for a television cartoon that never happened, and who wouldn't see print until 1984. In hindsight, I've certainly seen the cover of that Style Guide before, and I must have confused the Super Jrs. with the likes of Superbaby (first appearing in 1948) or any of the many Superboys or even the several Sons of Superman (some more imaginary than others). But no, it turns out Super Jrs. are their own thing.

Aren't comic books great?

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: captain carrot comic books superboy superman

Welcome to June, the 16th annual Wriphe.com Superman Month, this year with 100% less Superman!

As it happens, DC Comics killed off Superman (again!) in last month's Justice League #75. It's an especially bad bit of timing; most days it feels like 2022 has just been one disaster after another.

Wonder Twins #12 (2020)

Maybe not, but a little x-ray vision would go a long way.

I figure things will have to be better by this time next year. That's about how long anyone stays dead in comic books, and the world sure could use a Superman.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: comic books superman

I have a new painting by my mailbox for Saint Patrick's Day:

I'd been wanting to incorporate light into one of these for a while, and Green Lantern made the perfect test case.

It's not entirely clear in the image above, but the green glow comes from a string of green Christmas lights attached to the frame. It took four tries to get the ring working just the way I liked it. The successful version you see here was carved from the end of a 2x4. So I'm a sculptor now!

I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Tags: art comic books diy green lantern yard signs

Think your headlines are bad? At least you don't live in Gotham City.

Batman #120, December 1958

They saved the elephant, but Batman had to be put down.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: batman comic books news