Category comics

League of Extraordinary Oddballs: KANGAROO MAN

Continuing our review of unusual comic book adventurers, the spotlight now falls on Kangaroo Man, not that he deserves it since he’s not the real star of the strip that bears his name.  Just as the Red Bee played second…

RIP George Perez

Well, this is a bummer, posting two obituaries in a row. Last week we lost comics artist George Perez, and while I can’t claim he had the same earth-shaking impact on my young life that Neal Adams did, he was…

RIP Neal Adams

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be a comic book artist. I suppose that wasn’t so unusual an aspiration for a youngster, but I was pretty specific: I wanted to be Neal Adams. Come to…

League of Extraordinary Oddballs: SPITFIRE

Our continuing review of peculiar superhero-types now takes us back several centuries to the era of tall ships and piracy on the high seas.  Daring buccaneer “Black Douglas” is an expert swordsman, sailor and devoted Englishman pensively perambulating his poop…

The League of Extraordinary Oddballs: DR HORMONE

In an unusual introduction to what will prove to be a very unusual “superhero,” we first meet the celebrated Dr Hormone in Dell’s Popular Comics #54 as an old man at death’s door. It’s unclear whether “Hormone” is a family…

League of Extraordinary Oddballs: HIP KNOX

Returning to our retrospective on the kookiest superheroes of all time, I give you the short but spectacular career of Hip Knox, raised from birth to be a master of the art of hypnotism.  Obviously he wasn’t raised to be…

League of Extraordinary Oddballs: THE RED BEE

When it comes to vigilante justice, why should millionaire playboys, off-duty cops and crackpot scientists have all the fun?  In HIT Comics #1, beekeeper Richard Raleigh gets into the act with an M.O. that combines his skills as a brawler…