Thank you, again, for answering my question. To clarify, the deck stacking was because I was more interested in the logistics of killing off a major character rather than the thought process of whether they SHOULD be killed. Please don't think I'd ever want Alicia dead (especially after this week's excellent issue)
To continue with this topic, I'm curious if there are characters you can kill without higher sign-off? Characters introduced in the same run as they're killed off, I would assume?
Also, can you make major character seem dead for an issue, to be reveal alive later, or would there be concern that people would think them genuinely dead?
Tom, great newsletter as always! I also loved NIGHT FEVER and I have the Dave Stevens doc on my to-do list.
My big question, though. as a Very Busy Person myself is, how do you do it? How do you do balance what I know is a very intense, taxing job with everything else - this newsletter, family/personal, and side projects like your consistently-updated website and this (new-to-me) Superman project? I get this question a lot, too, more when I had a regular day job - and my response was along the lines of "I don't have any hobbies." With the understanding being that I turned my hobbies - writing, comics, reading, consuming art - into aspects of my "job." Is it the same for you?
Thank you for another fun newsletter! So, if your first comic was generally unremarkable, what's the first remarkable comic you remember reading? Was there any particular issue or title that marked a shift toward comics becoming a lifelong passion rather than just a passing childhood hobby?
Props on last week’s FF. Just delightful. I like what seems to be North’s vibe on his run so far: the sensibility of the first year or so of the book, the monsters of the time included, and making the book just a little bit less a superhero book if you know what I mean.
Speaking of Indiana Jones - do you think a comic would work? Marvel (and others) produce some amazing licence books (the recent Predator series is a lot of fun) - I find it odd that we have not seen a long running Indy book ever since the 80s version from Marvel.
A fun pulpy serial style adventure by a cool creative team would be great (or is it my nostalgia talking?)
Personally, I enjoyed Trouble...for what it was. I was the biggest Spider-Man fan I've ever known & I never had a problem with the story at all; it never really presented itself as canon, just a tale that could or could not be true. Plus, I always loved some Terry Dodson art.
The covers were, honestly, only problematic years later to me. I really didn't a strong reaction to them, positively or negatively, when they were being released.
Congratulations on your 50th anniversary Tom! I could cheat and claim that I'm almost at 45 years (Adventure Comics #461 - October 10, 1978), but in all honesty, while I did buy that issue, I didn't actually become a regular comic buyer and reader for more than a decade after that.
Thank you RE: Indiana Jones. Completely respect people who seem to adore it, but didn't quite click for me. One thing that bugged me is there's a plot point where Indy is wanted for murder but not only is he able to book a plane ticket it's completely forgotten by the end.
I am about a year younger than you, but my 50th anniversary was a couple of years ago — the first comic I can recall seeing on a newsstand and picking out to buy was <a href = "https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/World%27s_Finest_Vol_1_199">World's Finest #199</a>, the second half of the second Superman-Flash race. The Neal Adams cover shows the two heroes zooming towards the finish line, with a separate box below with kids cheering, "My hero won!" or mourning, "I can't believe my hero lost!" This of course had exactly the intended effect on kid me, of wanting to know which was which.
(The actual story kind of cops out on giving the race a winner: the "ending" is both of them stripped of their powers and even unable to walk, simply crawling towards a switch that when pulled will deactivate the villain's plans. Flash reaches it first and says, "I won" but it's not exactly a test of their respective super-speeds.)
The issue is cover-dated December 1970. My recollection is that I bought it in an airport newsstand when we were on the way to visit my grandparents: I think most likely it had been just sitting around on the newsstand past the cover date, and that I picked it out in early April of 1971, when I would have been just shy of three years old.
Personally, I feel Last Crusade is the best of the Indy movies. But I can accept that may be because I saw it first and most often, growing up. Consequentially, to me, Raiders always felt like a test run that movie, lol.
That said, you mentioned sticking with the old Republic serials. Any recommendations? I’ve seen the original Superman and Captain Marvel ones, but are there any other, maybe more specifically Raiders-esque ones you can point out?
SUPERMAN #268 wasn't my first comic, but it was certainly an early one. And it remains a great favorite of mine, if only for the absolutely delightful concept of Batman trying to get his friends Clark and Barbara to hook up. A classic.
Tom! I stumbled upon your newsletter a few months ago when it was recommended by another creator on their newsletter. I wish i could remember who so i could thank them. Reading these newsletters over coffee and listening to records on a Sunday morning has become a great joy to me!
I got out of comics for many years, with the exception of Indie Comix & autobio stuff (Noah Van Sciver is a favorite of mine).
Since joining your newsletter, I'm abusing my local library and checking out tons of the great (and not so great) books mentioned here. My little town of Napa just got a great new comic shop and thanks to this newsletter I'm in there buying floppies again!
Thanks for making this labor of love. I work in concert production and your behind the scenes stories, while about comics, teaches so many great lessons about creativity that I'm using in my own day to day job as well.
Thanks for all your hard work, and to echo what's asked above.... "How the hell do you find the time for all this?!"
I fondly remember being in a comic shop in Spring 1993: some guy said he was friends with someone at Marvel, and in a few months a story would come out when Magento ripped the metal from Wolverine’s skeleton. That happened right on schedule (in the Fatal Attractions crossover), and I heard about it first.
It’s exponentially easier to spread rumors around now, since everyone has a digital megaphone. Without naming names, has anyone in comics purposefully been told incorrect information, so that if/when they spread it around it wouldn’t actually spoil the storyline? (This is what they did to David “Darth Vader” Prowse, a nice man but incapable of keeping Star Wars plot points secret.)
Thank you, again, for answering my question. To clarify, the deck stacking was because I was more interested in the logistics of killing off a major character rather than the thought process of whether they SHOULD be killed. Please don't think I'd ever want Alicia dead (especially after this week's excellent issue)
To continue with this topic, I'm curious if there are characters you can kill without higher sign-off? Characters introduced in the same run as they're killed off, I would assume?
Also, can you make major character seem dead for an issue, to be reveal alive later, or would there be concern that people would think them genuinely dead?
Tom, great newsletter as always! I also loved NIGHT FEVER and I have the Dave Stevens doc on my to-do list.
My big question, though. as a Very Busy Person myself is, how do you do it? How do you do balance what I know is a very intense, taxing job with everything else - this newsletter, family/personal, and side projects like your consistently-updated website and this (new-to-me) Superman project? I get this question a lot, too, more when I had a regular day job - and my response was along the lines of "I don't have any hobbies." With the understanding being that I turned my hobbies - writing, comics, reading, consuming art - into aspects of my "job." Is it the same for you?
Thank you for another fun newsletter! So, if your first comic was generally unremarkable, what's the first remarkable comic you remember reading? Was there any particular issue or title that marked a shift toward comics becoming a lifelong passion rather than just a passing childhood hobby?
Props on last week’s FF. Just delightful. I like what seems to be North’s vibe on his run so far: the sensibility of the first year or so of the book, the monsters of the time included, and making the book just a little bit less a superhero book if you know what I mean.
And where did McNiven return from?
Weirdly, my first comic was the second meeting of Superman & Batgirl in Superman #279.
Tom, this newsletter is a blast, I really enjoy it. Thanks for all the time and care you put into it on a consistent basis.
Speaking of Indiana Jones - do you think a comic would work? Marvel (and others) produce some amazing licence books (the recent Predator series is a lot of fun) - I find it odd that we have not seen a long running Indy book ever since the 80s version from Marvel.
A fun pulpy serial style adventure by a cool creative team would be great (or is it my nostalgia talking?)
Personally, I enjoyed Trouble...for what it was. I was the biggest Spider-Man fan I've ever known & I never had a problem with the story at all; it never really presented itself as canon, just a tale that could or could not be true. Plus, I always loved some Terry Dodson art.
The covers were, honestly, only problematic years later to me. I really didn't a strong reaction to them, positively or negatively, when they were being released.
Congratulations on your 50th anniversary Tom! I could cheat and claim that I'm almost at 45 years (Adventure Comics #461 - October 10, 1978), but in all honesty, while I did buy that issue, I didn't actually become a regular comic buyer and reader for more than a decade after that.
Thank you RE: Indiana Jones. Completely respect people who seem to adore it, but didn't quite click for me. One thing that bugged me is there's a plot point where Indy is wanted for murder but not only is he able to book a plane ticket it's completely forgotten by the end.
I am about a year younger than you, but my 50th anniversary was a couple of years ago — the first comic I can recall seeing on a newsstand and picking out to buy was <a href = "https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/World%27s_Finest_Vol_1_199">World's Finest #199</a>, the second half of the second Superman-Flash race. The Neal Adams cover shows the two heroes zooming towards the finish line, with a separate box below with kids cheering, "My hero won!" or mourning, "I can't believe my hero lost!" This of course had exactly the intended effect on kid me, of wanting to know which was which.
(The actual story kind of cops out on giving the race a winner: the "ending" is both of them stripped of their powers and even unable to walk, simply crawling towards a switch that when pulled will deactivate the villain's plans. Flash reaches it first and says, "I won" but it's not exactly a test of their respective super-speeds.)
The issue is cover-dated December 1970. My recollection is that I bought it in an airport newsstand when we were on the way to visit my grandparents: I think most likely it had been just sitting around on the newsstand past the cover date, and that I picked it out in early April of 1971, when I would have been just shy of three years old.
"I also didn’t have any patience for captions, they seemed like a waste of time to me, and so I skipped them routinely."
6 year old Tom is a smart one.
Personally, I feel Last Crusade is the best of the Indy movies. But I can accept that may be because I saw it first and most often, growing up. Consequentially, to me, Raiders always felt like a test run that movie, lol.
That said, you mentioned sticking with the old Republic serials. Any recommendations? I’ve seen the original Superman and Captain Marvel ones, but are there any other, maybe more specifically Raiders-esque ones you can point out?
As always, thanks for the weekly updates!
SUPERMAN #268 wasn't my first comic, but it was certainly an early one. And it remains a great favorite of mine, if only for the absolutely delightful concept of Batman trying to get his friends Clark and Barbara to hook up. A classic.
Tom! I stumbled upon your newsletter a few months ago when it was recommended by another creator on their newsletter. I wish i could remember who so i could thank them. Reading these newsletters over coffee and listening to records on a Sunday morning has become a great joy to me!
I got out of comics for many years, with the exception of Indie Comix & autobio stuff (Noah Van Sciver is a favorite of mine).
Since joining your newsletter, I'm abusing my local library and checking out tons of the great (and not so great) books mentioned here. My little town of Napa just got a great new comic shop and thanks to this newsletter I'm in there buying floppies again!
Thanks for making this labor of love. I work in concert production and your behind the scenes stories, while about comics, teaches so many great lessons about creativity that I'm using in my own day to day job as well.
Thanks for all your hard work, and to echo what's asked above.... "How the hell do you find the time for all this?!"
I fondly remember being in a comic shop in Spring 1993: some guy said he was friends with someone at Marvel, and in a few months a story would come out when Magento ripped the metal from Wolverine’s skeleton. That happened right on schedule (in the Fatal Attractions crossover), and I heard about it first.
It’s exponentially easier to spread rumors around now, since everyone has a digital megaphone. Without naming names, has anyone in comics purposefully been told incorrect information, so that if/when they spread it around it wouldn’t actually spoil the storyline? (This is what they did to David “Darth Vader” Prowse, a nice man but incapable of keeping Star Wars plot points secret.)