Comic Book Bears 2.0

Sorry that I've been neglecting this community page lo these past few months. But there is big news on the Comic Book Bears front.

I'm passing on the word that there is now a Comic Book Bears Podcast! I am co-hosting it with my friend Justin Allen and you can listen in or download our premiere episode from the links below to hear us growl about some of our four-color favorites. Check it out if you like them funnybooks!

http://comicbookbears.libsyn.com



http://www.facebook.com/ComicBookBearsPodcast

I will be posting all future episodes on this page as well!

It's All About the Look, or Is It?

Courtesy of Mark/kybearfuzz

One of the previous posts to Comic Book Bears on LiveJournal became a discussion of costuming in one of the threads. It got me to thinking about costumes that superheroes wear.

Some of the costumes seem to be designed with the times in mind. Every decade from the 1950's to present has some influence by the current fashion, which makes sense. Comic book heroes, however, tend to magnify the trend at times to the ridiculous. Lots of heroes were wearing shoulder-pads in the 1980's. Boomer (above) certainly took it to an extreme.

Sometimes fashion has little to do with the design. Sexual appeal to the audience takes precedence. In the real world, I doubt Wonder Woman would fight in a bustier and underwear, I don't care how armored it is. The White Queen wears outfits that are suspended on her breasts by either magic or tons of double-stick tape.

At times, the creativity of the artist jumps to an extreme. Mike Grell is rather infamous for his costumes of Legion of Super-Heroes members from the 1970's. Cosmic Boy ran about in a male bustier of his own. Saturn Girl fought crime in a pink bikini. Night Girl was practically naked. The first Ms. Marvel costume has been called by some as being one of the worst designed, despite her exposed mid-rift, which apparently was ahead of its time.

When I create super-heroes, I admit I make some outfits a bit revealing to show the fur, so I'm guilty of wanting the design to appeal to the reader (the bear audience at least). So, I can't throw stones at Grell loving to have girls fight crime in skimpy stuff. As for Cosmic Boy, I don't think he's ever explained that one.

What costumes do you think were unrealistic? Which comes to mind as being poorly designed and/or just plain ugly? Best uniform?

Dick Giordano 1932 – 2010

Rest in peace, good sir.

The first comic book to blow my mind

It was the fall of 1973 and I hope I can help you appreciate the atmosphere for those of you who weren’t around yet. The first line of eight Mego World’s Greatest Super-Heroes action figures had just started to be widely distributed in retail stores and Super Friends had premiered on ABC in September. The backlash following the end of the Batman TV series in the 60’s had been severe and it was the first time in a few years, outside of chance syndication offerings, that there was any arena to be introduced to super-heroes outside of the comic book medium. It was through these back doors that I came into super-hero comics at age six and early on there was one particular issue more than any other that helped to insure that I stayed around. That book was Justice League of America #109.



Now, JLA #109 was not my first comic book. I do remember having a number of Archie comics before this and the oldest “surviving” comic from my childhood still in my possession is a Gold Key Walt Disney Christmas digest from the ’72 holiday season. Nor was it even my first super-hero comic – Action Comics #420 has that distinction. (How I can recollect such facts amazes me; I can remember these events from my past vividly but these days I can’t remember half the time why I just walked into the kitchen.)

Looking at the dates reveals that JLA #109 was the first issue of the series to hit the stands after Super Friends had premiered. In fact, the very next issue would see a “Here Come TV’s Super Friends” banner above the book’s logo that would remain in place for a year. This connection plus a fairly striking Nick Cardy cover led me to pony up the 20 cents.

This issue came at around the mid-point of Len Wein’s excellent run on the book; what stands for me as one of the two most important and vital writing stints that this book enjoyed. (The other being Steve Engelhart’s superb stretch on the title later on in the decade.) Right out of the gate, there is a major development on page 1 that even this first time reader knew had some considerable gravity to it – Hawkman’s resignation from the team.



What followed was a vibrant and fun adventure featuring the entire membership of the League at the time pitted against Eclipso in his first appearance since the end of his House of Secrets feature. Were it today, this would have been formatted as a five or six issue arc at the least. The story followed the classic split-into-smaller teams format (though I could not have known that at the time.)

The issue was drawn by regular artist Dick Dillin whose work from a modern perspective is often dismissed as flat or workmanlike. Whether it is warranted or not, Dillin was my JLA artist – clean, completely devoid of glitz but straightforward. The best example to illustrate my point from this issue; Aquaman’s entrance into the story: heroic and distinctive but in no way disruptive to the story’s pace:



I feel in a way that a character did not become a part of the DC Universe at the time until he was drawn by Dillin. JLA was the most continuity-centric title during this time period and as new characters came into the DCU through the remainder of the 70’s I feel it wasn’t until they appeared in JLA and were rendered by Dillin – The Marvel Family, Firestorm, Black Lightning, Power Girl the Mark-Shaw Manhunter, Huntress, even the Fourth World characters in Dillin’s last story before his passing – that their status was somehow codified. I wonder if anyone else who was a reader at this time has a similar perspective on this.

The ultra-liberal Green Arrow vs. ultra-conservative Hawkman dynamic had been playing out in JLA for the past few years. The epilogue to this story offered its dénouement.



Now, it may not seem that sophisticated in 2010 but for 1973, this shit was like Tolstoy for comic books.

At six years old I doubt I had the facilities to accurately express it but even then I knew – this is so much cooler than Super Friends.

So, that was the first book to blow my mind. Do you have a book (or maybe story arc or creator or character) that had a similar effect on you?

Hercules - a true comic book bear?

Rich Johnston's Bleeding Cool article spells it all out.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/03/18/did-hercules-celebrate-the-art-of-greek-love/

Woof and Welcome!

The name of this blog I hope is pretty direct and to the point: this is intended for gay bear-identified men (and their admirers and allies) who are into comic books and comics culture and will compliment the Comic Book Bears groups that can be found on Facebook and LiveJournal.

First, a little background on myself and why I am putting this together. My name is Bill - Billy to many. I am a lawyer by profession and live in New Jersey with my partner Robert. I also have been a comic book reader and collector since the fall of - gulp - 1973. Despite some periods of inactivity, I have always loved the art form. But there was rarely a social edge to this interest for me in the past. I never really had that Wednesday-in-the-comic-store discussion group thing and knew very few people who shared this same interest, for whatever reason, until recently. I didn't even go to a con until 2008. Over the past year and a half though, I have met some other bear-identified guys online and in person who do share this interest.

Now as for the bear thing – let’s face it – you go to a con, and half the guys you see, queer or straight, look like us. I looked for and had not seen a social or discussion group quite like this so I guess it made sense to help put it together myself. I have never been the Grand Pooba (or Poobear, I guess) of anything close to this; this is very new terrain for me so any suggestions you can offer about making a network like this work, please don’t hesitate to give me your ideas.

I’d love for there to be a discussion element to this page and the group. Initial ideas that come to mind for discussion on a consistent basis include asking the group members what are some books on their pull lists for the week, or if they had a favorite book – perhaps their “woof of the week” – to write about it and share it with us. For those of you who are artists, I’d love for the group to become a vehicle to spotlight your work. And as to the outside social element of this thing, I’d love to have meet-ups during cons in some formalized context, informal or sponsored brunches or bar nights during the conventions where we can all meet up. Also I think it would be great to eventually have some presence at bear runs and contests.

As mentioned above, this group will not be limited as an online function to this blog. I have registered www.comicbookbears.com (don’t bother typing that into your browser, there is nothing there yet) and the Facebook group and LiveJournal community both went live within the last week.

The Facebook group can be accessed it via the top link and if you want to friend me on FB - if you haven't already - you can hit me at the link below the one for the group.

Comic Book Bears on Facebook

Bill Zanowitz on Facebook

The Comic Book Bears community on LiveJournal link follows, as does a link to my personal LiveJournal where I post as Boomerz1.

Comic Book Bears on LiveJournal

Boomerz1 on LiveJournal

(My apologies if you are reading this and it seems very familiar. I recycled portions of this post from prior e-mail invites and postings – as soon as the growing pains end, so will the repetition.)

Now for a pitch - I have recently become a huge fan of some of the roundtable comic discussion podcasts out there such as 11 O’Clock Comics and the about-to-conclude Around Comics podcast. If you would like to become part of a Comic Book Bears podcast, please reach out to me on that end. I am determined to start one up before the end of the year. I live in the Tri-State NYC area but in these days of Skype and other systems, it really doesn’t matter where you are – it can be virtual roundtable and I know it would be a hell of a lot of fun.

I’d also like to have this group open not just to people who fit the bear mold but also to our allies and admirers, so please don't hesistate to become part of this if you fall into the latter definitions.

Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friend David Stevens for putting together the fantastic Comic Book Bears logo that you see.

Thank you for taking a look and I certainly hope you decide to revisit soon and maybe fill someone else in who might enjoy.

Hugs,
Billy

comicbookbears@gmail.com

Comic Book Bears
P.O. Box 644
Plainsboro, NJ 08536