Book covers can be more than just images
Something I don’t see much any more on book covers is written copy. If there is any, it’s usually a blurb — “If you like Harry Dresden and Anita Blake, …
Author: frasersherman
It’s a crazy thought, but maybe some super-villains deserve oblivion
A couple of months ago, I cited Flash #209 and Batman #234 as the beginning of what would become a Bronze Age trend — writers using supervillains again rather than “realistic” or …
Steve Ditko’s final concept for Marvel: an armored objectivist hero called Iron Rand!
Okay, I made that up. But I’m sure anyone nerdy enough to hang out here at Atomic Junk Shop knows Steve Ditko was a devout admirer of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist …
The most shocking cover of 1971?
Perhaps not, but Flash #210’s Murphy Anderson cover did raise a few eyebrows. I mean, WTF, Flash-creators — we’re in 2971, John Wilkes Booth just shot Abraham Lincoln and Adam …
Stranger in the mirror: the “definitive” Phantom Stranger arrives
I put quotes around “derivative” in the title because as I’ve written about before, definitive is a subjective term. Someone like me who grew up with Silver Age Mort Weisinger …
A blast from the past
Once again, an ad from yesterday — late 1971 in this case — caught my eye during my ongoing Silver/Bronze Age reread. Iron-on patches had become popular in the 1960s …
THAT’S what that song meant?
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine who’s involved with a woman in an open marriage. He said that when he and she got back together after several …