"To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing, in the world of forms, truth, love, purity and beauty — this is the sole game which has intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents and attainments in themselves can have no lasting importance."—Avatar Meher Baba
Happy bday to him 🥳
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
DeleteFor how long have the what if issues that are coming out in 2026 been planned ?
DeleteI don't know how long editorial has been planning it (probably for quite a while). I found out about it last month.
DeleteNice 👍
ReplyDeleteAny chance you’ll be coming to the Houston, TX area soon?
ReplyDeleteNo plans for Houston. A number of other cons on the agenda this year, but not Texas. Maybe next year!
Deletecheck out this website of Meher Baba photos: https://mnpublications.zenfolio.com
ReplyDeleteWonderful! Thanks!
DeleteYou don't gotta answer if you dont wanna, dont mean to bother you sir but Im currently gonna have someone make a video on something and one of this characters achievements is a comic written by you, so I mean to ask you when a battle becomes beyond physical do the characters themselves still stay in their physical form?
ReplyDeleteGuess it depends on the character! When Doc Strange is in his astral form, he's not conscious of his body. But that could be different for other characters. Some, I'm sure, have the ability to be conscious of both the physical and non-physical forms.
DeleteThanks very much, that helped a lot. I've been wondering about it for a while thats why I asked so thanks for the reply, But one last question sir before I stop, since I dont want to bother you at all, and I hope even now im not, but even when in a dream like state or form, does it still act and function like a physical body, and still the same power level?
DeleteYou have to keep in mind that these are just stories...we make this stuff up, there's no rule book...and the answers change depending on the needs of the story. So there's no definitive answer to your question. One writer sees it one way, another sees it differently. And the same writer may totally contradict themself because it's the best thing for the story.
DeleteAh that is true, I know that, all authors have different ideas and I know its made up, but i think you already know us fans still eat it up, Basically I guess you could say there is truly no definitive answer since its not like Manga where there is a new writer for a certain story, this is comics so I understand your perspective, I was asking in your own writing since the story I was hinting about was written by you, but overall I guess you sentence of the writers contradicting themselves does mean sometimes you could change up just to fit a story, i won't ask anymore questions since i guess I got the answer the i asked for, I wont ask more unless I go to a convention you are at cuz i don't wanna kinda overdo these questions 😅 so it'll be like a good while or smth if I do ask a question like this again.
DeleteHowever have a good day sir 👍❤️
And you have a good day, too!
DeleteAlso thank you for making my childhood! I remember reading one of your comics in 2011 when I was a kid, Thanking you for the good memories
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome!
DeleteWhat conventions will you be at this year?
ReplyDeleteI'll be doing a con-related post soon, with my schedule for the year.
DeleteI think you misunderstand. I am saying that the evolution of America;s action heroes is directly tied to its urbanization, and that the Brits writing of them is miscategorized as "more realistic" when it is actually more drawing from a different interpretation of what urbanization meant.
ReplyDeleteFor instance Zorro is often misatributed as the forebearer of masked adventurer archetype. It was actually the Scarlet Pimpernel, created by a literal baroness, and it is kind of upper-crust propaganda. This makes Superman being considered the granddaddy of superheroes an interesting twist, given his Golden Age stories.
It was a showing that the uppercrust fops are not always what they appear, and the people rising up were the villains. I don't necessarily think it was intended to be more than an adventure story, but like I said she was a European barrenness at a time when Europe was was really starting to question that form of government. Not necessarily consciously, that was assuredly playing in her mind. You still se it now when rich people claim to be the true oppressed minority.
THEN, about a decade later comes Zorro, which is sort of an American Scarlet Pimpernel, right down to being historical fiction set in a different government, in this case Spanish controlled California. However, it included some Americanizing, with the villains now being an oppressive colonizing government.
Of course the creator of Zorro was not from a city, he lived in a few small towns in western Illinois. Oh, right. You are from New York, I will have to explain this, Illinois is a state between New Jersey and California. Its major population center is a city called 'Chicago.' While the third largest city in the country, the majority of land mass is NOT the greater metropolitan are, okay we can now move forward.
Urbanization in America was still in its early stage at this point, and right on the cusp of becoming the dominant form of living. Cities were being thought of as the future, and this kind of thing has to happen sometime before our modern sensibilities. But that past "civilizing of the west" isn't that long ago. Remember the Indian Wars did not technically end until 1922... the year my father's father(and Stan Lee) was born, five years after my mother's mother (and JFk) was born. Both, oddly enough, in Illinois.
I think this transfers to other early action heroes as well like Conan the Barbarian and the Lone Ranger. Robert E, Howard was born in 1906, in a pretty small town in Texas. There were still echoes of the old west, he assuredly knew people who lived through it. And in the face of a rapidly urbanizing America, with immigrants and farm boys moving to the cities doing more to civilize the country than those old west folk did by killing Native people... yes... makes that history seem kind of barbarous.
AS far as the Lone Ranger, similar to Zorro. A guy in 1883, in Norwalk, OH which at the time had only about 7,000 people, and then became a lawyer in a rapidly urbanizing tech hub, that was a world he could remember, but it could not happen today. A tune that took a better part of a decade to change, but I get ahead of myself.
but, superhero stories take place in the present. and cities are teh future, why are we talking about the past, well, for that we will have to be continued....
(Jack)
This feels like chapter one in an interesting book.
DeleteNow we look to the TRULY modern heroes, that's right... Buck Rogers.
DeleteBuck Rogers premiered in 1929. The height of the 1920s as we think f them. A wealthy America with fancy gadgets, believing the future was theirs. And he was created by a college professor from Philadelphia. This was a guy witnessing a changing world.
Then of course there was Flash Gordon. Who traveled to Mongo. And yes, let;s get the big issue out of the way... Ming is basically Fu Manchu, and while not human carries many of the same unfortunate stereotypes. However, what is worth noting is that Ming's people are not fond of him, even early on. While this does not make borrowing these negative Asian stereotypes okay, does reject the idea of "racial evil." They are victims of a a member of their people who happens to be evil. In fact, Mongo is full of people of different species coming together with Flash to fight off tyranny. Even the first Flash Gordon strip, while unfortunately leaning into unflattering stereotypes, show people form across the globe at risk of Mogo's impact, not just white Americans.
It is worth noting that Alex Raymond grew up in New Rochelle, at time of massive growth, and along with that growth came immigration. Most places growing in America were experiencing these increases in foreign born citizens.
The stories of Buck and Flash, coming out mostly during the Great Depression helped maintain that optimism that cities represented in America, whether it was the technological or cohesive social vision they represented as the world faced Depression and then war. This was the same idealism people associated moving to cities with, moving to America... that we associate with Superman.
But you are probably thinking, "but do we really view action heroes with optimism? I mean the 1930s were known for crime and despair, what of that? How could secret identities fit in, that is a hallmark of superheroes.
Well Dematteis, to be continued...
(Jack)
Well Dematteis,when last we met to discuss urbanization and the evolution of American action heroes you brought up that the modern version tends to take place in the modern era, and we have mostly been talking about period pieces. Well, here we go.
DeleteWhile everyone we mentioned so far should be mentioned in the same breaths of the superhero, or at least their evolution, but are not. However there are some who are mentioned as the forebearers, who do resemble many of the modern ones, and took place in the then modern age, and one still in the modern age.
I speak of course of the Shadow, The Green Hornet, the Phantom, and Doc Savage. ONe of these is not like the other, but we will get to why that is.
Contrary to what you are probably thinking the mot similar are The Shadow and the Phantom. I can already hear you angrily pointing out that the Phantom lives in a cave in the jungle (a cave, I wonder where pointy-ears at DC got the idea), that i9s as far from an urban area ad possible. Especially when compared the the SHadow's New York City.
You may think I am going to make some point about urban jungles, the common term used for rough city streets. I am not. I am going to talk about secret identities. These two have the most insane depths to their secret identities.
Let's start with this... who is the Shadow? You are a big old-time radio fan. You are probably thinking "Lamont Cranston...duh." First I would say, you are not a teenage girl the the 90s, you should not be saying 'duh.' However, that is also a wrong answer. The answer is of course, "Kent Allard." In the pulps, Lamont Cranston was just a rich guy who the Shadow took over to better suit his goals. This secret is kept from his allies and the reader for several years... because Max Gibson probably had not thought of it yet. There are even a few hint THAT might have been an alias, but he was reveal to be both a pilot and a spy during WWI, so already swapping identities.
The phantom is a little different. We all know who he is, Kit Walker. However, in universe he is trying to convince the world that he is a literal ghost.
He is also so deep in the secret identity, only his wife is allowed to see his face once he becomes the Phantom, and when he gallivants around as Kit Walker. he wears a pair of sun glasses, a trench coat, and a hat. Seems familiar.
These two are taking the secret identity thing to a level that would make Moon Knight blush. And there is something about their creators worth noticing.... well two.
First, both worked in show biz, Walter Gibson was a magician, and Lee Falk's "real job" was was managing theaters as well as producing and directing plays. There is probably some form of theatricality lent from those professions to their characters. However, there is something else about them.
They both moved from New York to other other cities, Philadelphia and St. Louis respectively.
Part of the heart of this theory is that the idea of the secret identity is directly connected to the more anonymous life in the city compared to the country, allowing for a type of freedom.
continued...
Doc Savage acts as the perfect control for this. He was big and powerful, and traveled the world, offering all the promise of science. Kind of like how people who had not lived in or near cities at the time viewed them. For god sake, he worked out of the Empire State Building, the modern marvel of its age.
DeleteDoc Savage also had no secret identity, he was just Dr. Clark Savage.
Well, Doc Savage's creator grew up in rural Missouri. He lived in Wyoming for a while. he then lived in small towns in Missouri again.
It is why it is written like an outsider to the city, and more importantly, no secret identity. Who thinks up the idea of a secret identity when everyone knows you by your first name?
Right smack dab in the middle is the Green Hornet. A secret identity, but nowhere near as hardcore as The Shadow and Phantom. The two creators were from Buffalo, NY, but had also lived in Cleveland and New York, and he other from Norwalk, OH... so a little bit of both. also, about 20 years difference between the men. However, both were now living in the city.
These guys also created the Lone Ranger a few years prior, now remember how I said things would change for them?
Here is the thing, did you ever wonder why the Green Hornet posed as a villain. Sure it is a cute gimmick, but wouldn't going to the police be more practical. and why all the social crusading in the newspaper?
Well, that is actually probably tied to the labor movement.
You see, the Green Hornet was created in Detroit, which had incredibly corrupt police, who would continue for another 65-70 years. Police gangs terrorizing people, shake-downs, moonlighting as members of Henry Ford's secret police force, strike breaking. So, the police were not exactly a beloved institution.
Conversely, the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News both actively shined a light on the abuses of both the police AND the auto industry. Most notably, the Battle of the Overpass, when the Henry' Ford's psychopathic goon Harry Bennett beat up organizers (including the man who later thought up the Peace Corps AND talked JFK into signing the Civil Rights amendment) happened to be there... and really, it was just circumstance... and exposed it by hiding film canisters when Bennett shook them down.
Also it is worth noting, that manufacturing an item people no longer were able to buy in large numbers put a lot of people out of work, highlighting the connections between crime and poverty
But of course this is all primordial. what of the superhero as we think of it. stay tuned Dematteis...
(Jack)
I will indeed stay tuned.
DeleteAn interlude...
DeleteThe very day I wrote my last post, your "cosmic poetry ot the universe-ternal" came a calling, and I recieved a book I part participated in a kickstarter for several months ago. That book? Green Hornet and Kato: Detroit Noir City. byt Moonstone publishing. I also had to go over to my parents' place and help them move things around in their garage, because they were getting a new door. Don't worry, therse are connected.
I actually had time to read the first story "Long Hot Summer,: which as you might expect takes place during the 1967 riot, and happened the week my father turned 19.
Do you remeber how I told you that the Green Hornet was likely a maifestation of teh lack of trust people had it eh police, and how papers in teh city helped give voice to that mistrust?
After the 1967 riot, the majority of WHITE Detroiters blamed the police at least in part for the riots. This was in part because of the exposes by the Detroit Free Press exposing their corruptson... especially towards the Black community... which in turn had citizens, Mayor Cavanaugh (who ran partially on police reform), and Govenor Romney all calling out the police.
It is also why after the police instigated the riot... which they did... they went on strike, not doing anything, and then spent the next several decades only showing up when they wanted and becoming the most powerful gang in the city.
I say this because, the story was well-written, especially when one remebers it is a celebration of pulpy writing. However, when you have the publisher of the most repuitabe newspaper in the city and is supposed to have his oulse on everything, asking a Black man why he does not go to the police is a little distracting if not.
And when I told that to my father, he kind of laughed at the mere idea of anyone being misguided enough to suggest that, and not realize how insulting it would be. .
continued...
I point this out not to criticize the writer, I certainly could make just as much of a mistake if I were to write similar story or just tlk about an event in Seattle or Denver or New Orleans, or any number of places.
DeleteIt is more about how Americans as a whole, including outside the creative fields, need to put a little more effort into learning about places they are not from before they talk about them, myself very much included. Howmeny times have you flinched in annoyance hearig someone from Texas who has never been to New York making assumptions, or repeating things they saw in movies, as a way to disparage the city? Now or back in the pre-gentrification days?
The truth is, back in the 80s, Roy Thomas made the inverted mistake. He created Amazing-Man, who was retroactively DC's first Black superhero, and revealed he was from Pleasant Valley, also known as Black Bottom. This was a real majority Black neighborhood in Detroit, and one of the most prosperous majority Black neighborhoods in the country...until Cobo did what mayors from New York to L.A. did i, an dput a Free way through it in the 50s. However, this did not stop it being depicted as a slum, and a bad one at that. I don't think this was an intentional, I think they were trying to write about the very real mistreatment of Black Americans across the country, during the Great Depression specifically, and made a very unfortunate assumption when they heard about a majority Black neighborhood.
The point is more, as we discuss how urbanization of American cormed our action heroes, and how different forms forged differnet heroes, there is a reality to this.
FOrget the creation of heroes, if you just talk to someone about a place, or group, or culture you have not encountered your self and have not done reserch into, you can spread harmful falcaies without realizing. That can have real world effects.
If we are going to play pretend and go into the world of fantasy, it could even have ageneration who feels they ae collectively being blamed for the actions of a few powerful people in their age range and rural Americans constantly feeling their concerns are overlooked and they are the butt of the joke, to form a politcal coalition. That coalition could start practicing the same elements and falsely demonizing cities with large minority populations and immigrant groups as a whole. MAybe even picking Chicago, and blaming everythgn EXCEPT the very real and documented treatment of several South Side neighborhoods and self-segregation of neightborhoods for problems therem, and instead just an ethereal concept. And some might FALSELY claim it is because of an ethnic trait they share making this happen.
I know, ridiculous to think about int he 21st century, but that is the fun of fantasy and Sci-fi is. You take an issue and take it to an extrmee that no sane society would.
Jack
next up, we return to our urbanization and teh rise of teh American adventure here as SUPERMAN COMETH!...
Important Post Script...
DeleteThat "self segregation" in talking about Chicago is in refrence to there not being specific laws, and more in the vein of red-lining, and white people often self-segretating in the city. it was NOT supposed to be an implications that everything just wound up that way.
My Grandmother, who was born in Chicago in 1917, tlake dwith comrpemt for this system to me when I was a child in the 90s, and my sister-in-law who has livied in teh city of Chicago proper from the mid-70s to the mid-2010s has also lamented this reality in teh city che otherwise loves.
This was also not supposed to be implying Chicago was unique in this problem, all cities iun America had this problem for longer than we are all comfirtable admitting.
I just think that in this fictious world I created Chicago is who they would speciically target Chicago. MAybe egged on by some crazy person in governemtn. mAybe one form New York for some reason.
I know, ludicrous to think that would happen but that is how I see this impossible world shaking out.
Jack
Wait. What happened to "Superman Cometh"?
DeleteSuperman is often referred to as the first superhero. Is that fair? Complicated. I can;t help but wonder how much of that is simoly because of the medium he was created in and for, and that it is the only mediu exclusively tied to superheroes.
Deletecontinued...
Never the less, he was a game changer. and Again, America's urbanization played a role.
The 1920s are often cited as the first "modern decade." Partially because of the mass urbanization, but also because of the rise of mass media. This included radio, movies and a series of pulp and genre magazines, all of which washed over American cities. This continued, even intensified into the 1930s as people craved a cheap escape from their new bitter reality. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster wer the pefect age to absorb all of this.
Superman is a hodge podge of other ideas, some of which we talked about. Siegel had said Doc Savage was an inspiration, for instance. And once you know that you can see it, but they are still pretty different. However, that is half of where Superman's real name comes from, Doc CLARK Savage along with KENT "The Shadow" Allard. The latter of which only would be known by a geek reading the pulps instead of just listening to the radio show.
His origin is often cited as beig an immigrant tale, and that is true. It was also true two years earlier when the Phantom had a similar story of a child losing his fatehr and winding up in a far off land, where he is raised by these people, and acts as their protector (for generations). It is also an anti-colonization story.
It is worth noting, Sueprman was not originally aupposed to be a man from space, he was supposed to be a man from the future, the space thing was part of many rewrites. So, did the Phantom influence him? Maybe, but it is still a pretty different spin.
It is also worth noting Jerry Siegel was not only the son of immigrants (as was Shuster of course), but lived in a mostly Jewish neighborhood, filled with immigrants. This was a time when American cities were being awashed in immigrants coming to America. Movies and radio shows often included immigrants. Why would this idea of a hero setting up shop in a new world not appeal to him? even if he did not get why.
(there was some internet nonsense, so lets hope this all got saved properly)
DeleteOne of the most unique things about Superman was that he had a job Not a rich man's job, but a job you have to go to every day or get fired. and what was that job... reporter.
Early Superman comics borrowd the structure of Green Hornet stories. FIghting crime as the superhero and then using the power of the press to tackle the social ill that caused it.
Again, like Detroit, Cleveland was an industrial city that saw a massive economic hit as the Depression caused people to buy less. Crime went up. Crime went up so bad that they called in Elliot Ness to fix it.
ANd Ness was nowhere near as successful as he was in Chicago. Yes, he DID lower crime, but he also face the Troso killer, and never caught him. ANd in his failed attempt to catch them came up with ways to violat teh fourth amendment. He burned hoeless ecampemants. These were front page stories that torpedoed his goals of being mayor.
THis probably mixed with a "the cops are not garaunteed to help, an they will not see the deeper problem." Even outside the Torso murders, organized went down, but crimes of deperation because of the Depression continued. The desperation of of economic problem would have been think in the air of an industrial city.
Cleveland even had a riot against the cops trying to evict large numbers of people. Of course addressing these problems would matter to him.
However, th main character is not a publisher like Britt Reid, he is a reporter. A guy with a job. He can get fired from. Because Cleveland was not a city Siegel moved to find his fortune. It was where he was from seeing it from the ground up, and when the Depression he was not already in a cushy job or viewing a glorified New York manufactured by Hollywood, he was experiencig it for his city, thinking I thoguht that we mattered."
This whole hodge-podgification of pop culture, and adding it to personal details, has only become more common. ANd it was not possible without urbanization.
To be contiued...
Jack
Clark Kent and the role of urbanization in adventure heroes actually needs a bit more of a look. There aew two important element that lead into the rest, and eveolves from the previous.
DeleteFIrst, his relationship with Lois Lane. While she was likely only created to give Clark a love interest, but she is not just a damsel in distress. She is a compitent reporter, who often gets into trouble by being tough and doing her jbb, and not because it "should be a man's job," but because it is an evil person.
This again shows up beforehand, Green Hornet and SHadow both had female assistants. Though teh Hornet's was not throwing herself in trouble as much and Margo Lane was far more subservient to the Shadow, with romantic interest solely implied.
The Phantom had Diana Plamer, who was and is tough, and accomplished as she currenty works for the U.N.. Still... they met as kids. so there is still not quite the Phantom being drawn to her as an equal, even if n many ways she was.
Clark Kent met Lois at work. On some level, they were equals, he even wants to prove himself to her as Clark instead of just using SUperman to cash in.
The truth is, rural America was actually a head of urban America in terms of genxeer equality for a while. There were communities led by women, women shared in the load in many businesses, women even had the right to vote in many mostly rural states decades before the U.S. as a whole. It was really just a reality of the conditions, you can't play gender politics when you are miles from anything and your life and livelihood are thratene all the time by circumstance and harsh conditions.
BUt by the 1920s, women were starting to have a sort of proto-liberation movement, and by the 30s things had fallen apart women were finding themselves in more jobs. Women were having to help support fmailies so thy could get by. In teh early 1940s, teh United Auto Workers even successfully negotiated equal pay for women in the auto industry.
Even if not consious, this certinaly would have shaped Siegels views on things. Just like growing up in a post-1960s and 70s feminist movement shapped the minds of Millennial men, who don't have AS MANY hang ups about gender roles in the work place as others. evolution.
continued....
(Jack)
The other part of Clark Kent that matters is the part that influenced everythng.
DeleteWe talked before about how secret identities began to reflect the power on anonymity in the city. But those were creatd by people who moved ot new cities seeking their fortunes. Siegel was in the city he was raised in. He was not connected to some radio station, he was in his family home.
Here the secret identity is what this anonymity can doon the other extreme. Push the more vibrant parts of you into things that define you into sorter bursts, after all even if one believes everyhuman is is a precious jewel, they all look like a pile until you take it out and examine it.
Come one Dematteis, you are a NEw Yorker, you know what I mean..."we'll get to know how great you are... after we get to know you for a while."
this was clearly a popular idea, because it was copied over and over an in the Golden Age. They guy who is kind of nerdy or clumsy, but is secretly a hero.
It might be eashy to hand waive this away. Suerman was popular, this was a business, copy what is popular. And for a lot, that is probably fair. BUt, I don;t think anyone would call Jack Kirby an uninspired hack following trends.
Remmber, Captain American in the Golden age was pretty differnet from the Cap you and I love. His whole thing was that he was a state side soldier, who was depicted as being too clumsy to see front line action, to hide the fact that he was teh super soldier. SPunds a lot like clakr Kent.
What about Wonder Woman? She was specifically created to be an emblem for little girls, to empower them. And she was resigned to having a secret identity, to disquise herself. Now, there is certinly an element of gender politics, but it is really just degrees of the same thing.
Again, there is a control character. Namor. Very popular cahracter, never an attempt at a secret identity. He is royalty, form far away. A man confused and engraged by the sirfae world. Who created him again? Bill Everett/
While Everett was born in the suburbs of Boston, he grew up in the southwest, around agin cowboys. If I reme,ber correctly because of his respitory conditions. When he rturne, he droped put of school. He tried art school, and coudn't make it work.
Now, I know going in this is a complicated one. Each person is differnet, and Evererett notoriously had a drinking problem and a pretty unique personality of his own. And while he was almost certinly channeling his frustrations, but does that really have to do with his non-urban upbringing?
By teh accounts I have rea, whcih admittedly may be spotty, he was not hiding much out west... just like Namor. It wasnt until he came to teh city that he had trouble forcinghimself into the mold that society dictated.
to be continued...
thhere are three other types of superheroes that really showed up in teh golden age.
Delete1. The throw anything at the wall character. These are the ones that usually show up on lists of weirdest characters of the golden age. These are likely just deadline driven. You need to fill space, some come up with something eye catching.
2. The Flash idea. Jay Garrick method of getting powers and just going with it.
3. The bored rich playboy. This is of course inspired by BAtman/Sandman. I say both because Sandman was technically created first AND, while certinaly inspired by the Shadow was not outrught sealing form him like Batman was, most of the plots were stolen Shadow stories, including his and Joker's first appearances. And since teh Shadow was clearly driven by a mission, as Batman would be a yar or so into publication, it is clearly more than being a bored rich guy.
Characters that fit this mold like Green Lantern where they just get powers are more Green Hornet inspired, or just following a trend. They have a secret idenity because they need a secret identity..
However, I think the bored rich guy archetype is tied to urbanization. And the unique way yu can find yourself surrounded by wealth even if you are not wealthy, and certinaly hearing a lot about wealthy people. Oh a crrator grew u in a rough neighborhood in the Bronx? Well a quick subway trip downtown to go do womething and he is surrounded by wealth.
Are you son of a factory worker in chicago? Well, the radio keeps talking about all the rich people in the city and what they are doing.
That was conjuring up some "If I only had the money" fantasies a lot more than in the country. Becaus eit is not just travelling It is heling those poor neighborhoods, or even dedicating yourself to passions, like welathy Starman did when he could fund his own scientifc research.
Somet of this is of course just explaining how you get these characters doing what people want to read about, but the big question is how did we get there at all?
to be continued in "Once there was a War... and after that it all changed"....
(Jack)
Will Eisner's Spirit set the stage.
DeleteYes, yes, The Spirit started in 1940. However, when Eisner returned the strip after WWII the tone was differant, even the art was differnt... though not in the place where it really needed to be.
Anyway, it was more of a whatever adventure pops into Eisner's head. Gritty crime, horror, comey, and all stops in brtween. There are some darker stories, but the recurring villains often seem more fun than dangerous.
THis is represntatvie of America looking for its place directly after the war... because I suspect Eisner was trying to find his place afer the war. Many returning vets were, the world had changed, they had changed.
However, it was somethign else as well. It was class straddling. This is something that many people were delaing with, especially in the cities.
Cities were full of poor tenements in teh 30s, and streets full of people scraping to get by, and suddenly things were on the way up.
Sure, those tememants were not gone or empty. There were still people struggling, no two ways about it. However, it was becoming a smaller and smaller part of the story. A lot of people were doing better, having lives they never thought possible in the 30s.
But, does that really change who you are? Those scrappy Depression era kids were still inside. They just had a nice middle class vinear now.
And that is what the Spirit represented in that time. The transition of beoming what you pretended to be, because... did Denny Colt even matter anymore? He had been teh Spirit frever. He had a family, a girlfriend, father-in-law (Basically), and even a adopted son.
Eisner even once described him as the "middle class superhero," and that si there. He has an easy smile, his crime-fighting is less dirty, and yet... the man could still scrap. He travelled through the sewers, and every so often found his way into the rough parts of town, or even remebred his childhood like that.
you could say it is going form working class to middle class, iurban mindset to suburba mindset, Depression to post war boom... but it is really all the same thing. The reality was changing, and those city kids were teh once doing it.
continued....
(Jack)
Of cuorse the Spirit was not long or the 50s, and in deed most superheroes were not, only three and a half remained. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Batman and teh Lone Ranger remained in the public eye. Of course, I would argue only Superman and teh Lone Ranger thrived.
DeleteSuperman was because he was maluable. He was not Batman who had a set rogues gallery, forever tied to fighting some form of crime. Even in his earliest days when he fought gangsters, he still also fought mad scientists, fourth dimensional imps, and did tasks a nd quests. He culd fit into sci-fi sotries pretty well
And that is what the 50s is known for, right sci-fi heroes and cowboys, superman and the Lone Ranger. In fact, teh Lone Ranger was probably never more popular than in teh 50s.
Remeber, when I started this, I speciically did not say superhero. It was cowboys in the old west, and space men, the futue and the past.
What was the image proposed in the 50s? Sure, it varies from person to person. ANd there were a lot of attempts to dover up th eless savory parts, but what was the percetion, the image people were trying to give off?
SUccess, peace, the American Dream with a side of ice cream.
At least the perseption was that everything was going great. There were no great issues to conquer. Crime did not disapear, but the general vibe seemed to be it was a managable amount it could get down to none eventully. And why not, Crime in the 1920s and 30s was nuts.
When you consider how much of a drop it was, eventually getting to no crime probably did seem realistic. Besides teh U.S. and its fiends just whipped Hitler Tojo, and Mussolini.
That was retty good for teh old American ego, especially when those pals they fought with were still rebuilding, or at least further from a sense of normalcy. After all, our shores were barely touched.
No, you want excitement, adventure, scrappig with teh bad guys... that was in teh past... or maybe the future Those far off world probably have some bd guys to be stopped. And maybe one will even come here.
continued...
You might be thinking, "but Superman was set in the present, not the past or future."
DeleteMaybe technically, but when you considred how much new technology they were unphased by, or that ois and Clark would go on a rocket to write bout it as if it were completely routime (first appearance of Brainiac), it might have well have taked place in the far off future, nd that is not even including when he DID go to the future.
of course superman had another calue, after all tere was one thing teh 50s would acknowledge as dangerous... Russia and tehir nuclear bombs. ANd where would they have been heading? Cities.
Superman was the great protector? Who needs to worry about a mushoom cloud on Brooklyn if Sueprman is waiving the old red, white, and blue.
but of course there was another exception... Film Noir.
The thing that is forgotten in all the talk of th eartistic merit of film noir is that it originated from...at leas tin many cases...pulps. The MAltese Falcon for instance was first publushed in th epulp magazine "Black Mask"
The whole detective genre that is so tied to film noir was spun out of pulps, and the books that were not pulps and inspired film noir were not exaclty literry classics, fun, but never offered the same evaluation of artistic prominence their their offspring were.
ANd that is the interesting thing these were adventure and action stories, escapism, but unabashely for an adult crowd.
ONe of the top sellig authors of teh decad was MIckey Spillane, being read by serious-minded adults, many who actually saw war. Interesting sidenote Spillaine's early writing included Timely Comics.
Maybe it had something to do wut The Depression forcing a gneeration to grow u too fast, or maybe it as just the new medium taking place.
However, it is telling that these stories reflected teh gritting off the beaten paths of the city, or simmering dark intensions in the friendly towns or nice neighborhoods.
Film Noir is often viewed as a sort of art therapy for AMerica and WWII, and I think that is true, but I think it reflects something else as well. I think they knew that pushing things to the side did not make them go away,and much like Eisner's spirit, oit was themm trying to reconile their more rough and tumble upbringing with the new era they fought for, but maybe did not feel entirely comfortable with, like they knew what was coming.
I think this also may be a smilar mindset to teh MArvel Revolution.
continued...
Lee and Kirby were city boys, I think they may have been living in the suburbs by the 60s (not that I know for sure, just a vague memory), but either way they were city boys.
DeleteAs you may recall, I previously tlked on this site about JFK's election, how it symbolized a handig over to th guard to the hreatst generation across the board. INcluding How storie were written.
The truth is, that whole generation was pretty gassed up to create more realistic stories.
Remeber, For most of the Silver Age, MArvel heroes did not really fight criminals in the usual way, at least not often, only Spider-Man and Daredevil. And Spider-Man himself lived far away from the danger. He usually, with a few exceptsion, had to communte to fight crime until he went to college. of course it was a little more open, because as teh 60s dawned AMerica was a little more willing to be open about things, though not fully, and that very much included cities. After al, most cities were starting to have the first real talks about police coruption since th 1930s, though this time it was starting to be coupled with how impacted non-white people.
And as for teh rest, the ones who fought mystical and scientifcally gifted monarchs and space gods, or norse gods and lava men, or super spies, or Soviet spies i crazy armor, or what have you... well come on, lets be honest, this is what they would really be like. Fighting, self-doubting, arrogant at times, self-loathing at others.
Ben Grimm was just this side of a sterotype of someone form the Lower East Side in the 30s, ehich had been associated with poverty, wich inteh 50s people did not want to think about, However the Generation that came fo age in the Depression had the reigns, and they are sick of having this ignored, it is time to let it all out.
After all, the 50s DC characters were just vriations of Superman, right? Sci-Fi stories mixed with "I could stop an atomic bomb."
Escpecially becasue times were changing. And they could feel it, and the cities would be the main point, so you got to get it out now..
Next... The Bbaby Boom Bomb finally goes kapow!
(Jack)
I think we've reached the point, Jack, where these aren't comments on a blog, this is the outline for a book. And a good one, too! Go for it!
DeleteBefore we go any firther, we have to talk about the adventure hero who straddles the era... Captain Kirk.
DeleteKirk is probably the only star Trek captain who really feels like an action or adventure hero. Nexy Gen and DS9 never relly elt like they were that type of show, perhaos it has to do with time and peraps with them existing in a more settled final frontier.
Regardless, in all the things that hve been written bout Star Trek over the decades there is one truth I have never seen put into words, Star Trek is a cullmination of all teh post-war sci-fi, a final statement that wraps it all together.
Everything from Bradbury to PKD, to The Day teh Earth Stood Still, to teh Thing from Another World, to Forbidden Planet, to Twilight Zone to every crature feature and cheap paperbac or schi0fi magazine filler pours into and neds with Star Trek.
This is of course not to say that Star Trek was unoriginal, but rather it was able to more explore all these ideas at once and over a longer period of time, and those ideas were all of the consiusness of the people of the time.
How many sci-fi stories are anti-consumerist? Well Star Trek was a post-currency society... sometimes.
How many were thinly-vieled talespointing in favor of civil rights? Well... Star Trek is in society where ethnic an gender barriers were long in the past.
ANd of course the planet hopping, and strange occurences that were common in sci-fi short stories and radio programs was teh premise, alonfg with fighting monsters in suits.
And kirk was the adventurer who baved all of theis, and espoused the beliefs of an enlightened society.
Still, there was something a little dark about the hope of the series. It was less about the wonders of the future, and more of an assurance that the huamn spirit can endure and that we will get there even though the roasd will be difficult.
Which if course makes perfect sense, the show came out between 1966 and 1969. The Civil Rights Bill nad been passed, but Black AMericans werestill fighting for their full acceptance, and it was becoming clear that legislation did not enlighten men's hearts. Despite a generation being scarred by WWII, they were now now watching another was unfold,n and disproportinately claiming Working Class Americans.
And then there was this new generation. It is clear that Rodenberry was like many of his generation, aligned with much of what these kids were aspousing, but believed them naive and needing more focus. Caught in the middle of conflicting feealings. This was of course demonstrated in the episode The Way to Eden, where members of the crew seem to have an affection for the space hippies, who ultimately end up dead due to good-natured but foolish mistakes.
Kirk was the adventure hero who straddled the line, the optimistic heroes of the post-war years, incluig the human characeristics of Film Noir (though not as far) or a Lee-Kirby-Ditko-Romita era Marval comic.
To the people who lived through teh Depression, like Rodenberry, American cities were still a testiment to the American spirit and the wonders it could behold, but it was becoming clear that there was some neglect that needed to be addressed.
And Rodenberry would have seen this sooner than most. He was a Los ANgeles Police man at one point , a notoriously corrupt and racist police force ehose sins had been hidden by Dragnet.
It is not hard to believe that this inspired teh tone of Star Trek a little.
And I think silent acknoledging of problems is part of what Star Trek so popualr for so long. It was a beacon of hope, because it knew the road would o this vision would take time, and but strain on the spirit of mankind to reach it.
And make no mistake, that hope would be needed because int eh naext part, things get heavy i American cities, and its heroes get an edge.
until then, enjoy this song by an early Star Trek novelist..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8885dSdHUAw
TO be continued...
(Jack)