Co-founder and Creative director of Bleeding Cool parent company Avatar Press. Bleeding Cool Managing Editor, tech and data wrangler. Machine Learning hobbyist. Vintage paper addict.
Buck Rogers has been one of the most enduring science fiction classics in American history since its debut in Amazing Stories volume 3 number 5 in 1928. From those pulp origins, it spread to become a popular favorite across media including comic strips, film, television, and much more. Legendary artist Frank Frazetta created eight Buck […]
Issue for issue, Fox Features Syndicate's 1947-1949 run of the title Phantom Lady is one of the most sought after titles in American vintage comics history. It's 12 issues of gorgeously delineated covers and art from Matt Baker, Jack Kamen, and others. Countless articles have been written about Baker and his talents — his sure-handed […]
The Flash #110 from DC Comics is best known for its debut of Wally West and Kid Flash. But this issue, which has an on-sale date of October 20, 1959 appears to be a stand-out example of something I love seeking out in comics of any era: it is a direct reflection of its moment […]
If you've browsed auctions from major comics, original artwork, card, game, and collectibles auction house ComicConnect recently, you may have noticed something new in the comment text provided on the auction lots for three sessions from upcoming auctions. The Denny O'Neil Estate Collection session of the March Mega Monthly Auction and the incredible Kentucky Collection […]
Superhero origins are not born. They evolve into what they are over years and sometimes decades. For example, Batman's Joe Chill, and Superman's coming of age with the death of Pa Kent were both added and/or elaborated upon a decade or more after the first-told origins of those characters. There are many other examples of […]
Showcase #79, the try-out debut of Dolphin cover-dated December 1968 from DC Comics has the kind of very specific, detailed set-up that often points to some real-world inspirations. A girl with gills is found in the wreckage of a sunken warship by US Navy divers on an important mission. But the Dolphin is in the […]
One of the things I love about comics history is that no matter how much you research and read, the next surprise is waiting for you right around the corner. Talented artist Frank Thorne is best known for his formative work on Marvel's Red Sonja. His career has run the gamut from newspaper strips and […]
Fandoms like to connect dots. Wanting to make sense of the fictional worlds that our favorite characters inhabit is often one of the things that helps to define a particular fandom. Vintage comic book fans — Silver Age Marvel fans in particular — have developed a notion which has come to be called character "prototypes". […]
In 1977, comic book dealer Chuck Rozanski unearthed the most important comic book collection that the world will ever know. 18,000 comics from the late 1930s to the early 1950s — the earliest days of American comic books — in unimaginably high-grade condition. The collection is so important that researchers have spent considerable effort in […]
Arguably the most iconic sword and sorcery character in American comic books, Red Sonja has been an enduring fan favorite since her debut in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian #23 (cover-dated February 1973). Created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith based on material by Conan creator and pulp writer Robert E. Howard, the character's early formative […]
There's been quite a lot written about the rise to prominence of DC Comics character and Batman villain Black Mask in recent years — and for good reason. The character's rise from relative obscurity in 1980s DC Comics to major fixture of the DCEU across comics, games, TV, and film is impressive indeed. Created by […]
Creator Drew Hayes reportedly once described his signature creation Poison Elves as "Elfquest meets Terminator", but another way to look at this seminal product of the early 1990s is as the legacy of not only Elfquest, but also indie touchstones like Dave Sim's Cerebus and even Kevin Eastman's and Peter Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. […]
The science fiction pulps of the 1920s and 1930s constitute one of the defining moments of the genre. The artists who illustrated those pulps influenced how we think of science fiction and even science itself to the present day. Even the best-known names who worked in that era — artists like Frank R. Paul and […]
The sole highest-graded Batman #1 CGC 9.4 White Pages copy has just closed at Heritage Auction's 2021 January 14 – 17 Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction for $2,220,000.00. The sale is a record price for a copy of Batman #1, and is the second highest price ever paid for a comic book in a […]
There are very few comic books in American history that have the historical importance of Captain America Comics #1. This late-1940 Marvel Comics release is of course the first appearance of Captain America, a character who has become the cornerstone of one of the world's most successful media franchises. It's also the first appearance of […]
Recently, Bleeding Cool told you about the noteworthy rise of the first appearance of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) in Detective Comics #359 in the current Heritage Signature Series Auction. But key comic book appearances of many of the women of DC's Bat-franchise are gaining attention in the current market, and chief among those is Batwoman (Kathy […]
The auction market for vintage comics has been incredibly strong over the past few months, but even in that context, this is an extremely impressive showing — and it's not over. Detective Comics #359 is the first appearance of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon). The cover story, "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!" was written by Garnder […]
DC Comics character The Mighty Atom is a rare combination of overlooked and enduring. Simply a physically well-trained man of short stature in the Golden Age, the character received a post-atomic-age reboot for the Silver Age and beyond. It's fairly well known that the Silver Age version of the character was in part inspired by […]
Longtime readers of the Vintage Section of Bleeding Cool will know that figuring out the real-world inspirations for characters, stories, and plot elements is one of my favorite things about vintage comic books. It's the old cliche made real: I've learned an astonishing amount of history from unraveling the inspirations behind the comics. The reasons […]
Throughout all of Batman's history since the character's debut in Detective Comics #27 in 1939, the era of the late 1950s is unique. Batman and Robin had gone from fighting criminal gangs and supervillains to finding aliens and UFOs in the environs of Gotham. There are some very interesting reasons behind this bizarre shift, and […]
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