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Marvel Comics
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Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwides parent company, Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvels modern incarnation dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. Most of Marvels fictional characters operate in a reality known as the Marvel Universe. Martin Goodman founded the later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Martin Goodman, a magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. The issue was a success, with it and a second printing the following month selling, combined. While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc, Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. It, too, proved a hit, with sales of one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941, Goodman hired his wifes cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles, Goodmans business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55. As well, some covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12, were labeled A Marvel Magazine many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion and this globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas also published a plethora of childrens and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlos Homer the Happy Ghost, Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Atlas did not achieve any hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply. During this time, the Comic Code Authority made its debut in September 1954, Wertham published the book Seduction of the Innocent in order to force people to see that comics were impacting American youth. He believed violent comics were causing children to be reckless and were turning them into delinquents, in September 1954, comic book publishers got together to set up their own self-censorship organization—the Comics Magazine Association of America—in order to appease audiences
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Fantastic Four (comic book)
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The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1, which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium. As the first superhero team title produced by Marvel Comics, it formed a cornerstone of the companys 1960s rise from a division of a publishing company to a pop culture conglomerate. Since their original 1961 introduction, the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a dysfunctional, yet loving. Breaking convention with other comic book archetypes of the time, they would squabble, the Fantastic Four have been adapted into other media, including four animated series and four live-action films. According to Lee, writing in 1974, Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes, if the Justice League is selling, spoke he, why dont we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes. Determined to carve a career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books, Lee concluded that, For just this once. Lee said he created a synopsis for the first Fantastic Four story that he gave to penciller Jack Kirby, Kirby turned in his penciled art pages to Lee, who added dialogue and captions. Kirby claims he came up with the idea for the Fantastic Four in Marvels offices, Kirby also sought to establish, more credibly and on numerous occasions, that the visual elements of the strip were his conceptions. He regularly pointed to a team he had created for rival publisher DC Comics in the 1950s, F you notice the uniforms, theyre the same. I always give them a skintight uniform with a belt, the Challengers and the FF have a minimum of decoration. And of course, the Things skin is a kind of decoration, the chest insignia of a 4 within a circle, however, was designed by Lee. The characters wear no uniforms in the first two issues, given the conflicting statements, outside commentators have found it hard to identify with precise detail who created the Fantastic Four. Comics historian R. C. Harvey believes that the Fantastic Four was a furtherance of the work Kirby had been doing previously, but Harvey notes that the Marvel Method of collaboration allowed each man to claim credit, and that Lees dialogue added to the direction the team took. Wells argues that it was Lees contributions which set the framework within which Kirby worked, and this made Lee more responsible. Comics historian Mark Evanier, an assistant to Jack Kirby in the 1970s, says that the considered opinion of Lee and Kirbys contemporaries was that Fantastic Four was created by Stan. No further division of credit seemed appropriate, the release of The Fantastic Four #1 was an unexpected success
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Stan Lee
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Stan Lee is an American comic-book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor, and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. In addition, he challenged the comics industrys censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation. He was inducted into the book industrys Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994. Lee received a National Medal of Arts in 2008 and his father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression, and the family moved further uptown to Fort Washington Avenue, in Washington Heights, Manhattan. When Lee was nearly 9, his sibling, brother Larry Lieber, was born. He said in 2006 that as a child he was influenced by books and movies, by the time Lee was in his teens, the family was living in a one-bedroom apartment at 1720 University Avenue in The Bronx. Lee has described it as an apartment facing out back, with he and his brother sharing a bedroom. Lee attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, in his youth, Lee enjoyed writing, and entertained dreams of one day writing the Great American Novel. He graduated from school early, aged 16½ in 1939. With the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon, Lee became an assistant in 1939 at the new Timely Comics division of pulp magazine, Timely, by the 1960s, would evolve into Marvel Comics. Lee, whose cousin Jean was Goodmans wife, was hired by Timely editor Joe Simon. His duties were prosaic at first, in those days dipped the pen in ink, I had to make sure the inkwells were filled, Lee recalled in 2009. I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, Lee later explained in his autobiography and numerous other sources that he had intended to save his given name for more literary work. This initial story also introduced Captain Americas trademark ricocheting shield-toss, which became one of the characters signatures. He graduated from writing filler to actual comics with a feature, Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent. Lees first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in Mystic Comics #6, other characters he created during this period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comics include Jack Frost, debuting in USA Comics #1, and Father Time, debuting in Captain America Comics #6. When Simon and his creative partner Jack Kirby left late in 1941, following a dispute with Goodman, Lee entered the United States Army in early 1942 and served in the US in the Signal Corps, repairing telegraph poles and other communications equipment. He was later transferred to the Training Film Division, where he worked writing manuals, training films, and slogans and his military classification, he says, was playwright, he adds that only nine men in the US Army were given that title
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Jack Kirby
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Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer, and editor, widely regarded as one of the mediums major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. Kirby grew up in New York City, and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and he entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, before ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, during the 1940s, Kirby, generally teamed with Simon, created numerous characters for that company and for National Comics Publications, later to become DC Comics. After serving in World War II, Kirby produced work for a number of publishers, including DC, Harvey Comics, at Crestwood Publications he and Simon created the genre of romance comics and later founded their own short-lived comic company, Mainline Publications. Ultimately, Kirby found himself at Timelys 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, there, in the 1960s, Kirby and writer-editor Stan Lee co-created many of the companys major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk. The Lee-Kirby titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim, but in 1970, feeling he had been treated unfairly, at DC, Kirby created his Fourth World saga, which spanned several comics titles. While these series proved unsuccessful and were canceled, the Fourth Worlds New Gods have continued as a significant part of the DC Universe. Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured into television animation, Kirby was married to Rosalind Roz Goldstein in 1942. They had four children, and remained married until his death from heart failure in 1994, the Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor. Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28,1917, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City and his parents, Rose and Benjamin Kurtzberg, were Austrian Jewish immigrants, and his father earned a living as a garment factory worker. In his youth, Kirby desired to escape his neighborhood and he liked to draw, and sought out places he could learn more about art. He was rejected by the Educational Alliance because he drew too fast with charcoal and he later found an outlet for his skills by drawing cartoons for the newspaper of the Boys Brotherhood Republic, a miniature city on East 3rd Street where street kids ran their own government. At age 14, Kirby enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, I wasnt the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They wanted people who would work on something forever, I didnt want to work on any project forever. I intended to get things done, Kirby joined the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate in 1936, working there on newspaper comic strips and on single-panel advice cartoons such as Your Health Comes First. He remained until late 1939, when he began working for the animation company Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener on Popeye cartoons. I went from Lincoln to Fleischer, he recalled, from Fleischer I had to get out in a hurry because I couldnt take that kind of thing, describing it as a factory in a sense, like my fathers factory. Around that time, the American comic book industry was booming, Kirby began writing and drawing for the comic-book packager Eisner & Iger, one of a handful of firms creating comics on demand for publishers
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World egg
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The world egg, cosmic egg or mundane egg is a mythological motif found in the creation myths of many cultures and civilizations. Typically, the egg is a beginning of some sort. One of the earliest ideas of egg-shaped cosmos comes from some of the Sanskrit scriptures, the Sanskrit term for it is Brahmanda which is derived from two words- Brahm means cosmos or expanding and anda means egg. Certain Puranas such as the Brahmanda Purana speak of this in detail, the Rig Veda uses a similar name for the source of the universe, Hiranyagarbha which literally means golden fetus or golden womb. The Upanishads elaborate that the Hiranyagarbha floated around in emptiness for a while, the Rig Veda has a similar coded description of the division of the universe in its early stages. The Orphic Egg in the Ancient Greek Orphic tradition is the egg from which hatched the primordial hermaphroditic deity Phanes/Protogonus who in turn created the other gods. The egg is depicted with a serpent wound around it. Many threads of earlier myths are apparent in the new tradition, Phanes was believed to have been hatched from the World-Egg of Chronos and Ananke. His older wife Nyx called him Protogenus, as she created nighttime, he created daytime. He also created the method of creation by mingling and he was made the ruler of the deities and passed the sceptre to Nyx. This new Orphic tradition states that Nyx later gave the sceptre to her son Uranos before it passed to Cronus and then to Zeus, in the original myth concerning the Ogdoad, the world arose from the waters as a mound of dirt. Ra was contained within an egg laid upon this mound by a celestial bird, in the earliest version of this myth, the bird is a goose it could also be an ibis. However, after the rise of the cult of Thoth, the egg was said to have been a gift from Thoth and laid by an ibis, from this was produced Môt which seems to be the Phoenician/Geez/Hebrew/Arabic/Ancient Egyptian word for Death but which the account says may mean mud. In a mixed confusion, the germs of life appear, and intelligent animals called Zophasemin formed together as an egg, then Môt burst forth into light and the heavens were created and the various elements found their stations. She was also considered the wife of Thoth, in the myth of Pangu, developed by Taoist monks hundreds of years after Lao Zi, the universe began as an egg. A god named Pangu, born inside the egg, broke it into two halves, the upper half became the sky, while the lower half became the earth, as the god grew taller, the sky and the earth grew thicker and were separated further. Finally Pangu died and his body parts became different parts of the earth, in many original folk poems, the duck - or sometimes an eagle - laids its eggs on the knee of Väinämöinen. In Cook Islands mythology, deep within Avaiki, a described as resembling a vast hollow coconut shell, there dwelt in the deepest depths
6.
God Squad (comics)
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God Squad is a fictional team of gods appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. God Squad is the name that the character Amadeus Cho gave to a team of gods brought together to face the oncoming Secret Invasion, the team was brought together in Incredible Hercules #117 by writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, and artist Rafa Sandoval. They get to the Skrulls in a made from the Rainbow Serpents skin after stealing a chart from Nightmare using Mikaboshis deception. However a Skrull agent disguised as Chos coyote pup Kirby destroys it and this happens around the time of Reed Richards escape at Secret Invasion #5. Mikaboshi stays behind after killing Slgurt and takes over the Skrull Pantheon, Hercules senses Mikaboshis coming, and to counter him and his hordes, assembles a new version of the God Squad to help fight him in the devastating Chaos War. Hercules Amadeus Cho Snowbird Ajak Amatsu-Mikaboshi Demogorge Hercules Amadeus Cho Thor Galactus Silver Surfer Venus Sersi Daimon Hellstrom Panther God Sources
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Ultimates (2015 team)
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The Ultimates are a group of fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team borrows its name from the unrelated team Ultimates, which was the Ultimate Marvel version of the Avengers, in February 2015, Marvel announced that it would be fusing its mainstream universe and Ultimate universe into one following its crossover event, Secret Wars. Its post-Secret Wars branding would be dubbed All-New, All-Different Marvel, in late June 2015, a catalogue of 45 of these titles was shipped out to retailers, which quickly were posted online. The team borrows its name from the original Ultimates, who were the Avengers of the Ultimate universe, on utilizing the name, Ewing told Comics Alliance. they’re the ultimate super team, solving the ultimate problems. And The Ultimates is a name for a book — it says it all. I don’t see a need to retire it just because the universe it came from is no longer with us, the team also features an uncommon practice in modern media of having no Caucasian men, the team being diverse in both race and sexuality. On the teams diversity, Ewing said, I think it’s important in the way that a roof is important, if you’re moving into a building and the landlord says oh, and we have — get this — a roof. We’re not just a hole dug in the street. You don’t start giving out medals for that, that’s just a basic thing that ought to be standard. It’s just fiction reflecting reality — there are all kinds of people in the world, to be honest, I think there’s a long way to go in a lot of ways, both on the page and off. The team consists of Black Panther, Blue Marvel, Spectrum, Ms. America, in Marvel NOW. the Ultimates broke up but are later reunite and were asked to become the heralds of Galactus, who is now the Lifebringer of Worlds. Black Panther, Blue Marvel, Spectrum, Ms. America, and Captain Marvel come together to deal with threats to Earth. The Ultimates begin their mission by dealing with Galactus and they retrieve Galactus incubator and force him into it. This time, Galactus emerges from it as a lifebringer instead of a Devourer of Worlds and his first act is to restore Archeopia, the first victim of his hunger. While the Ultimates were in Exo-Space upon arriving there in their ship the Abeona, although Blue Marvel wanted to kill Anti-Man, having deemed him too dangerous, he ended up sparing him upon being convinced by his son Kevin who was also in Exo-Space. Instead, Blue Marvel brought him back to the Abeona so that he, when the day in question happened, Blue Marvel and the Ultimates used the Pym Particle accelerator to anchor Infinaut and shrink him down to human size. When he finally spoke to Blue Marvel and the Ultimates, Infinaut was pleased to meet them
8.
American comic book
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An American comic book is a thin periodical, typically 32-pages, containing primarily comics content. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics and this was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the book industry rapidly expanded, and genres such as horror, crime. The 1950s saw a decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television. The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a revival. Since the later 20th century, comic books have gained note as collectable items, Comic shops cater to fans, and particularly valuable issues have fetched in excess of a million dollars. Systems of grading comic books have emerged with plastic sleeves and cardboard backing available to maintain the condition of comic books, standard comics are 6.625 inches ×10.25 inches and about 32 pages long. While comics can be the work of a creator, the labour of making them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be a writer and artist, or there may be separate artists for the characters. The process begins with the coming up with an idea or concept, then working it into a plot and story. After the art production, letters are placed on the page, the creative team, the writers and artists, may work with a comic book publisher for help with marketing, advertising, and other logistics. A distributor like Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest in the U. S. helps to distribute the product to retailers. Another part of the involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator. Fan art and letters to the editor were printed in the back of the book until the early 21st century. Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independently-produced comics, the development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the U. S, the Yellow Kid in McFaddens Flats, in 1897. The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes text by E. W. Townsend, measured 5×7 inches. The neologism comic book appears on the back cover, despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Companys Comic Monthly, did not appear until 1922
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Mark Gruenwald
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Mark E. Gruenwald was an American comic book writer, editor, and occasional penciler known for his long association with Marvel Comics. Gruenwald got his start in comics fandom, publishing his own fanzine, Omniverse, before being hired by Marvel, he wrote text articles for DC Comics official fanzine, Amazing World of DC Comics. Articles by Gruenwald include The Martian Chronicles in issue #13 and several articles on the history of the Justice League in issue #14, in 1978 he was hired by Marvel Comics, where he remained for the rest of his career. During this period, he shared an office with writer/editor Denny ONeil, during the years 1982–1984, Gruenwald did fill-in pencil work for a handful of Marvel comics, most notably the 1983 Hawkeye limited series, but also issues of What If. Marvel Team-Up Annual, The Incredible Hulk, and Questprobe, the artwork of Merlyn the Archer in Whos Who, the Definitive Directory of the DC Universe Volume XV is the only artwork by Gruenwald for a comics company besides Marvel. In 1982, Gruenwald, Steven Grant, and Bill Mantlo co-wrote Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions and he made a deliberate effort to create villains who would be specific to Captain America, as opposed to generic foes who could as easily have been introduced in another comic. At one point Gruenwald owned a replica of Captain Americas shield – the same shield now owned by Stephen Colbert and his 60-issue run on Quasar realized Gruenwalds ambition to write his own kind of superhero. Gruenwald was highly loyal to each series he wrote, on September 1,1987, Gruenwald became Marvels executive editor, with a particular remit as the keeper of continuity. Gruenwald was famous for a perfect recollection of even the most trivial details, in the pages of Thor, writer Walt Simonson created the Time Variance Authority, a cosmic bureaucracy that regulates the Marvel Multiverse. Simonson paid homage to Gruenwald by having the TVAs staff all be clones of Gruenwald, no one could keep track of everything but him. Gruenwald was a character with Tom DeFalco in the single-panel comic The Bulls Eye that ran in Marvel comics in the late 1980s–early 1990s, created by Rick Parker. These strips, which ran on the Bullpen Bulletins page during the majority of DeFalcos run as editor-in-chief, featured Gruenwald depicted as a caricature, in 1996, Gruenwald succumbed to a heart attack, the result of an unsuspected congenital heart defect. Gruenwald was a practical joker, and due to his young age, many of his friends. Just days prior, he had one of his trademark cartwheels down the halls of the Bullpen. A longtime lover of comics, Gruenwald made it known amongst his friends, in accordance with his request, he was cremated, and his ashes were mixed with the ink used to print the first printing of the trade paperback compilation of Squadron Supreme. Gruenwald married singer Belinda Glass in May 1981 and they later divorced, and he married Catherine Schuller on October 12,1992 in New York after a years courtship. Catherine was the executrix of the famous will that indicated he wanted his cremains to be put into a book upon his death. The Amalgam Comics book The Exciting X-Patrol #1 is dedicated to Gruenwalds memory, the lawyer acts heroically throughout the story
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Big Bang
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The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the universe from the earliest known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution. If the known laws of physics are extrapolated to the highest density regime, detailed measurements of the expansion rate of the universe place this moment at approximately 13.8 billion years ago, which is thus considered the age of the universe. After the initial expansion, the universe cooled sufficiently to allow the formation of subatomic particles, giant clouds of these primordial elements later coalesced through gravity in halos of dark matter, eventually forming the stars and galaxies visible today. Since Georges Lemaître first noted in 1927 that a universe could be traced back in time to an originating single point. More recently, measurements of the redshifts of supernovae indicate that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, the known physical laws of nature can be used to calculate the characteristics of the universe in detail back in time to an initial state of extreme density and temperature. American astronomer Edwin Hubble observed that the distances to faraway galaxies were strongly correlated with their redshifts, assuming the Copernican principle, the only remaining interpretation is that all observable regions of the universe are receding from all others. Since we know that the distance between galaxies increases today, it must mean that in the past galaxies were closer together, the continuous expansion of the universe implies that the universe was denser and hotter in the past. Large particle accelerators can replicate the conditions that prevailed after the early moments of the universe, resulting in confirmation, however, these accelerators can only probe so far into high energy regimes. Consequently, the state of the universe in the earliest instants of the Big Bang expansion is still poorly understood, the first subatomic particles to be formed included protons, neutrons, and electrons. Though simple atomic nuclei formed within the first three minutes after the Big Bang, thousands of years passed before the first electrically neutral atoms formed, the majority of atoms produced by the Big Bang were hydrogen, along with helium and traces of lithium. Giant clouds of primordial elements later coalesced through gravity to form stars and galaxies. The framework for the Big Bang model relies on Albert Einsteins theory of relativity and on simplifying assumptions such as homogeneity. The governing equations were formulated by Alexander Friedmann, and similar solutions were worked on by Willem de Sitter, extrapolation of the expansion of the universe backwards in time using general relativity yields an infinite density and temperature at a finite time in the past. This singularity indicates that general relativity is not a description of the laws of physics in this regime. How closely models based on general relativity alone can be used to extrapolate toward the singularity is debated—certainly no closer than the end of the Planck epoch. This primordial singularity is itself called the Big Bang, but the term can also refer to a more generic early hot. The agreement of independent measurements of this age supports the model that describes in detail the characteristics of the universe. The earliest phases of the Big Bang are subject to much speculation, in the most common models the universe was filled homogeneously and isotropically with a very high energy density and huge temperatures and pressures and was very rapidly expanding and cooling
11.
Eternity (comics)
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Eternity is a fictional cosmic entity appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the de facto leader of the abstract entities known as the Cosmic Powers of the Marvel Universe. Created by scripter-editor Stan Lee and artist-plotter Steve Ditko, the character is first mentioned in Strange Tales #134, Eternity debuted in an epic 17-issue storyline in the ongoing feature Doctor Strange in Strange Tales #130–146. The character was first mentioned in the 10-page story Earth Be My Battleground in Strange Tales #134,2, #10–13, Defenders #92, and a story by writer-artist John Byrne in Fantastic Four #262 that attracted controversy. At the conclusion of that story, Eternity validated the existence of another cosmic character, howard University Professor of Literature Marc Singer stated Byrne used the character Eternity as a means to justify planetary-scale genocide. Eternity guest starred in Secret Wars II #6–7, Silver Surfer vol,3, #6 &10 and with Marvels cosmic hierarchy in the limited series Infinity Gauntlet #1–6, and in its sequel, Infinity War #1–6. The character played a role in limited series Avengers Infinity #1–4. Major revelations about the character appeared in a storyline in Quasar #19–25, other appearances, again in storylines that featured a cosmic theme, included Infinity Abyss #1–6, and Defenders vol. Eternity has also appeared in the alternate universe titles What If, #32, Marvel, The End #1–6, and JLA/Avengers #1–4. Eternity is first encountered by Doctor Strange, who seeks the entity out when his master the Ancient One is attacked by former pupil Baron Mordo. After a series of battles with Mordo and his minions, and discovering that arch-foe Dormammu is secretly backing Mordo, Strange finds and speaks with Eternity. The entity advises Strange that he is capable of defeating his foes without aid, Nightmare challenges the mystic to attempt to rescue Eternity, and after accepting, Strange enters Nightmares Dream World. The entity then banishes Nightmare while Doctor Strange and the Juggernaut restore reality, the entity is aided by superhero team the Defenders, who locate three missing fragments of its being and convincing them to rejoin with Eternity. Eternity is also summoned to the trial of Fantastic Four member Mister Fantastic, abraxas was imprisoned inside Eternity and was released when Galactus died. Together with the cosmic hierarchy Eternity opposes the Eternal Thanos when the villain wields the Infinity Gauntlet, once Thanos is eventually dispatched, Eternity unsuccessfully advises fellow cosmic entity the Living Tribunal against allowing the Infinity Gems to be used in conjunction. Eternity develops animosity towards the artificial being Adam Warlock, whom the entity encounters on several occasions, Eternity also spawned several children, or concepts that became separate, independent entities, Empathy, Eulogy, Expediency, Entropy, Epiphany, Enmity and Eon. Eternity is imprisoned by the Magus who attempts to reunite the Infinity Gems for his own use, the villain is eventually defeated when Eternity merges with Infinity and together they strip the Magus of his newfound power. Eternity is one of the last beings to be overcome by Thanos when he uses the artifact the Heart of the Universe to undo the universe, during JLA/Avengers he met Kismet and the two fell in love
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John Byrne (comics)
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John Lindley Byrne is an American comic-book writer and artist. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on many major superheroes, Byrnes better-known work has been on Marvel Comics’ X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise, the first issue of which featured comics first variant cover. During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and he scripted the first issues of Mike Mignolas Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing. In 2015, Byrne and his X-Men collaborator Chris Claremont were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, Byrne was born in Walsall, West Midlands, and raised in West Bromwich, England, where he lived with his parents and his maternal grandmother. The Batman story hooked me for life, a couple of years later my family emigrated to Canada and I discovered the vast array of American comics available at the time. His first encounter with Marvel Comics was in 1962 with Stan Lee and he later commented that the book had an edge like nothing DC was putting out at the time. Jack Kirby’s work in particular had a influence on Byrne. Besides Kirby, Byrne was influenced by the style of Neal Adams. In 1970, Byrne enrolled at the Alberta College of Art and he created the superhero parody Gay Guy for the college newspaper, which poked fun at the campus stereotype of homosexuality among art students. Gay Guy is notable for featuring a prototype of the Alpha Flight character Snowbird, while there, he published his first comic book, ACA Comix #1, featuring The Death’s Head Knight. Byrne left the college in 1973 without graduating, a Rog-2000 story written by Stern, with art by Byrne and Layton, had gotten the attention of Charlton Comics editor Nicola Cuti, who extended Byrne an invitation. Written by Cuti, Rog-2000 became one of several alternating backup features in the Charlton Comics superhero series E-Man, while that was Byrnes first published color-comics work, My first professional comic book sale was to Marvel, a short story called Dark Asylum. Which languished in a file somewhere until it was used as filler in Giant-Size Dracula #5. The story was plotted by Tony Isabella and written by David Anthony Kraft, after the Rog-2000 story, Byrne went on to work on the Charlton books Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, Space,1999, and Emergency. And co-created with writer Joe Gill the post-apocalyptic science-fiction series Doomsday +1, Byrne additionally drew a cover for the supernatural anthology The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #54. Byrne said he broke into Marvel comics after writer Chris Claremont. saw my work, when Pat Broderick missed a deadline on the Iron Fist series in Marvel Premiere, John Verpoorten fired him and offered the book to me. I turned around the first script in time to meet the deadline, Byrne soon went on to draw series including The Champions and Marvel Team-Up. Byrne first drew the X-Men in Marvel Team-Up #53, for many issues, he was paired with Claremont, with whom he teamed for some issues of the black-and-white Marvel magazine Marvel Preview featuring Star-Lord
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Jim Starlin
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James P. Jim Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. In the 1960s, Jim Starlin served as a photographer in the US Navy in Vietnam. During his off duty time, he drew and submitted various comics, after leaving the Navy, he sold two stories to DC Comics. After writing and drawing stories for a number of fan publications, Jim Starlin entered the industry in 1972, working for Roy Thomas. Brought in by fellow artist Rich Buckler, Starlin was part of the generation of artists, at a Steve Ditko-focused panel at the 2008 Comic-Con International, Starlin said, Everything I learned about storytelling was him or Kirby. Starlins first job for Marvel was as a finisher on pages of The Amazing Spider-Man and he then drew three issues of Iron Man, that introduced the characters Thanos and Drax the Destroyer. He was then given the chance to draw an issue of the cosmic title Captain Marvel, Starlin took over as plotter the following issue, and began developing an elaborate story arc centered on the villainous Thanos, and spread across a number of Marvel titles. Starlin left Captain Marvel one issue after concluding his Thanos saga, concurrently in the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers self-censorship arm, Starlin also drew The Secret of Skull River, inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5. After working on Captain Marvel, Starlin and writer Steve Englehart co-created the character Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, envisioning the character as philosophical and existentially tortured, Starlin wrote and drew a complex space opera with theological and psychological themes. Warlock confronted the militaristic Universal Church of Truth, eventually revealed to be created and led by an evolution of his future–past self. Starlin ultimately incorporated Thanos into this story, in Fall 1978, Starlin, Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, and Val Mayerik formed Upstart Associates, a shared studio space on West 29th Street in New York City. The membership of the studio changed over time, Starlin occasionally worked for Marvels chief competitor DC Comics and drew stories for Legion of Super-Heroes and the Batman feature in Detective Comics in the late 1970s. Starlin co-created the supervillain Mongul with writer Len Wein in DC Comics Presents #27, the new decade found Starlin creating an expansive story titled the Metamorphosis Odyssey, which introduced the character of Vanth Dreadstar in Epic Illustrated #3. From its beginning in Epic Illustrated, the story was painted in monochromatic grays, eventually added to with other tones. The storyline was developed in The Price and Marvel Graphic Novel #3 and eventually the long-running Dreadstar comic book, published first by Epic Comics. Starlin was given the opportunity to produce a story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by Marvel itself, Starlin and Bernie Wrightson produced Heroes for Hope, a 1985 one-shot designed to raise money for African famine relief and recovery
14.
Louise Simonson
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Louise Simonson is an American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on book titles such as Power Pack, X-Factor, New Mutants, Superman, The Man of Steel. She is often referred to by the nickname Weezie, in recognition of her contributions to comics, Comics Alliance listed Simonson as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition. In 1964 while attending Georgia State College, Louise met fellow student Jeff Jones, the two began dating and were married in 1966. Their daughter Julianna was born the following year, after graduation, the couple moved to New York City. She and Jeff Jones split up during this time but she continued to use the name Louise Jones for several years afterward, Louise met the comic book writer and artist Walt Simonson in 1973, began dating in August 1974, and married in 1980. They collaborated on X-Factor from 1988 to 1989, and made a appearance in the 2011 Thor feature film together. In 1974, Jones started her comic book career at Warren Publishing. She went from assistant to editor of the comics line before leaving the company at the end of 1979. In January 1980, she joined Marvel Comics, where she worked again as an editor, most notably on Uncanny X-Men. Simonson edited another X-Men spin-off, The New Mutants, at its debut in 1983, after leaving the series, she would have a cameo in New Mutants #21, drawn in as a slumber party guest by artist Bill Sienkiewicz. During this period, she also edited Marvels Star Wars and Indiana Jones comics, at the end of 1983, she quit her editing job at Marvel to try her hand at full-time writing as Louise Simonson. She created the Eagle Award-winning Power Pack, the title, which debuted in August 1984, featured the adventures of four pre-teen superheroes. Simonson would write the majority of the titles first forty issues and her other Marvel writing work included Starriors, Marvel Team-Up, Web of Spider-Man, and Red Sonja. Louise helped her husband Walt Simonson color his Star Slammers story in Marvel Graphic Novel #6, in 1986 Bob Layton, writer of the X-Men spin-off X-Factor, was running late on a deadline, and Simonson was called in to write a fill-in issue of X-Factor. Instead, Layton ended up dropping X-Factor shortly after, and at Chris Claremont and Ann Nocentis suggestion, in #6, her first issue, she and artist Jackson Guice introduced Apocalypse, a character who would go on to make repeated appearances in the X-Men franchise. From #10 of the title, she was joined by her husband, in #25, the creators gave the character, Angel, blue skin and metal wings in a process which would lead to his being renamed as Archangel. It was at Simonsons suggestion that X-Men writer Chris Claremonts Mutant Massacre story idea was turned into a crossover through all the X-books and her run on X-Factor included the relevant installments of Mutant Massacre, and the subsequent crossovers Fall of the Mutants, Inferno, and X-Tinction Agenda
15.
Silver Surfer
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The Silver Surfer is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character also appears in a number of movies, television, the character was created by Jack Kirby, and first appeared in the comic book Fantastic Four #48, published in 1966. The Silver Surfer is a humanoid with metallic skin who can travel space with the aid of his surfboard-like craft, originally a young astronomer named Norrin Radd on the planet Zenn-La, he saved his homeworld from the planet devourer, Galactus, by serving as his herald. Imbued in return with a portion of Galactuss Power Cosmic, Radd acquired vast power, a new body. Now known as the Silver Surfer, Radd roamed the cosmos searching for planets for Galactus to consume, when his travels took him to Earth, he met the Fantastic Four, a team of powerful superheroes who helped him rediscover his humanity and nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was exiled there as punishment, in 2011, IGN ranked Silver Surfer 41st in its Top 100 Comic Heroes list. He was portrayed by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne in the 2007 film Fantastic Four, created by artist Jack Kirby, the character first appears in The Fantastic Four #48, the first of a three-issue arc that fans call The Galactus Trilogy. The Silver Surfer debuted as an addition to the superhero-team comic Fantastic Four #48. When Kirby turned in his art for the story, he included a new character he. As Lee recalled in 1995, There, in the middle of the story we had so carefully worked out, was a nut on some sort of flying surfboard and he later expanded on this, recalling, I thought, Jack, this time youve gone too far. Taken by the features of the new character, who turned on his master to help defend Earth, Lee overcame his initial skepticism. The Silver Surfer soon became a key part of the unfolding story, following the Surfers debut, Lee and Kirby brought him back as a recurring guest in Fantastic Four #55–61,72, and 74–77. The character made his debut in the backup story of Fantastic Four Annual #5. The following year, Lee launched the solo title The Silver Surfer, John Buscema was penciller for the first 17 issues of the series, with Kirby returning for the 18th and final issue. The first seven issues, which included anthological Tales of the Watcher backup stories, were 72-page, 25-cent giants, as opposed to the typical 36-page, 12-cent comics of the time. Thematically, the stories dealt with the Surfers exile on Earth, though short-lived, the series became known as one of Lees most thoughtful and introspective works. Following his series cancellation, the Surfer made sporadic appearances as a guest star or antagonist in such books as Thor, The Defenders. Lee remained partial to the Surfer, and with Kirby collaborated on a seminal 1978 graphic novel starring the character, after a 1982 one-shot by writer-artist John Byrne, the Surfer appeared in his second solo, ongoing title in 1987
16.
Silver Age of Comic Books
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The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. The popularity and circulation of books about superheroes declined following World War II. However, controversy arose over alleged links between comic books and juvenile delinquency, focusing in particular on crime and horror titles, in 1954, publishers implemented the Comics Code Authority to regulate comic content. In the wake of changes, publishers began introducing superhero stories again. In response to demand, DC began publishing more superhero titles including Justice League of America. Silver Age comics have become collectible, with a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, Comics historian and movie producer Michael Uslan traces the origin of the Silver Age term to the letters column of Justice League of America #42, which went on sale December 9,1965. Letter-writer Scott Taylor of Westport, Connecticut wrote, If you guys keep bringing back the heroes from the Golden Age, according to Uslan, the natural hierarchy of gold-silver-bronze, as in Olympic medals, took hold. Fans immediately glommed onto this, refining it more directly into a Silver Age version of the Golden Age, very soon, it was in our vernacular, replacing such expressions as. Second Heroic Age of Comics or The Modern Age of comics and it wasnt long before dealers were. Specifying it was a Golden Age comic for sale or a Silver Age comic for sale, a number of major superheroes were created during this period, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and Captain America. In subsequent years comics were blamed for a rise in crime statistics. The result was a decline in the comics industry, to address public concerns, in 1954 the Comics Code Authority was created to regulate and curb violence in comics, marking the start of a new era. The Silver Age began with the publication of DC Comics Showcase #4, at the time, only three superheroes—Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—were still published under their own titles. According to DC comics writer Will Jacobs, Superman was available in great quantity, editor Julius Schwartz, writer Gardner Fox, and artist Carmine Infantino were some of the people behind the Flashs revitalization. Robert Kanigher wrote the first stories of the revived Flash, with the success of Showcase #4, several other 1940s superheroes were reworked during Schwartz tenure, including Green Lantern, the Atom, and Hawkman, as well as the Justice League of America. The DC artists responsible included Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane and Joe Kubert, in the mid-1960s, DC established that characters appearing in comics published prior to the Silver Age lived on a parallel Earth the company dubbed Earth-Two. Characters introduced in the Silver Age and onward lived on Earth-One and it was established that the two realities were separated by a vibrational field that could be crossed, should a storyline involve superheroes from different worlds teaming up. Unsuccessful attempts to revive the superhero archetypes popularity include Captain Comet, supermouse and Mighty Mouse were published continuously in their own titles from the end of the Golden Age through the beginning of the Silver Age
17.
Arcade game
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An arcade game or coin-op is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games. While exact dates are debated, the age of arcade video games is usually defined as a period beginning sometime in the late 1970s. The old Midways of 1920s-era amusement parks provided the inspiration and atmosphere for later arcade games, in the 1930s the first coin-operated pinball machines emerged. These early amusement machines differed from their later electronic cousins in that they were made of wood and they lacked plungers or lit-up bonus surfaces on the playing field, and used mechanical instead of electronic scoring-readouts. By around 1977 most pinball machines in production switched to using solid-state electronics both for operation and for scoring, another Sega 1969 release, Missile, a shooter and vehicle-combat simulation, featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen. In 1970 Midway released the game in North America as S. A. M. I, in the course of the 1970s, following the release of Pong in 1972, electronic video-games gradually replaced electro-mechanical arcade games. In 1972, Sega released a game called Killer Shark. In 1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman, a shooter that used full-motion video-projection from 16 mm film to display live-action cowboy opponents on the screen. The 1978 video game Space Invaders, however, dealt a yet more powerful blow to the popularity of electro-mechanical games, in 1971 students at Stanford University set up the Galaxy Game, a coin-operated version of the Spacewar video game. This ranks as the earliest known instance of a video game. Later in the year, Nolan Bushnell created the first mass-manufactured game, Computer Space. In 1972, Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, Atari essentially created the coin-operated video game industry with the game Pong, the first successful electronic ping pong video game. Pong proved to be popular, but imitators helped keep Atari from dominating the fledgling coin-operated video game market, taitos Space Invaders, in 1978, proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game. Its success marked the beginning of the age of arcade video games. Space Invaders, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Battlezone, Defender, by 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth $8 billion. By the late 1980s, the video game craze was beginning to fade due to advances in home video game console technology. By 1991, US arcade video game revenues had fallen to $2.1 billion, the pseudo-3D sprite/tile scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later texture-mapped polygonal 3D games of the 1990s
18.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
19.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
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Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer is a 2007 superhero film, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Fantastic Four. A sequel to the 2005 film Fantastic Four, the film is directed by Tim Story, beau Garrett appears as Frankie Raye, along with Doug Jones as the Silver Surfer, with Laurence Fishburne voicing the Surfer. The plot follows the Fantastic Four as they confront the Silver Surfer and it was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 2,2007. As Reed Richards and Sue Storm prepare for their wedding, an object enters Earths atmosphere. General Hager directs Reed to track and identify its movements, during the wedding, Reeds systems detect the phenomenon approaching New York City, which suffers a blackout from the objects electromagnetic pulses. Johnny Storm pursues the object, discovering it to be a silver humanoid on a flying surfboard, the Silver Surfer drags him into the upper atmosphere, suffocates and then drops him. Johnny barely survives, successfully flying only at the last moment, tracing the Surfers cosmic energy, Reed discovers that a series of planets the alien has visited are all destroyed. Reed and Sue contemplate abandoning their lives as superheroes in order to have a life and raise a family. With the Surfer creating craters around the globe, Reed determines that the next will appear in London. The team arrives too late to stop the crater, which drains the River Thames, meanwhile, the Surfers movements around the globe bring him past Latveria, where the cosmic energy affects their ex-friend Victor Von Doom, freeing him from two years encased in metal. A scarred Doom traces the Surfer to the Russell Glacier and offers to join forces, when the Surfer rebuffs him, Doom attacks. The Surfer retaliates, blasting Doom through the ice, but the energy of the Surfers blast heals Dooms body. Doom leverages his experience into a deal with the American military, deducing that the Surfers board is the source of his power, Reed develops a tachyon pulse generator that will separate the Surfer from it, while Doom devises a machine whose function he keeps secret. In the Black Forest, the Surfer confronts Sue and reveals he is merely a servant to the destroyer of worlds, the military opens fire on the Surfer, which distracts him and allows the Fantastic Four to fire the pulse, separating the Surfer from his board. The military imprisons the Surfer in Siberia, where they torture him for information, the Silver Surfer has to serve Galactus, who will otherwise destroy the Surfers planet. Using the device he created earlier, Doom betrays Hager and steals the board from the compound, the Fantastic Four rescue the Surfer and pursue Doom in the Fantasticar, confronting him in Shanghai. During the battle, Sue is severely wounded, with the Surfer powerless, Johnny absorbs the combined powers of the entire team in order to battle the now cosmic energy-empowered Doom. Johnny succeeds in breaking Dooms control over the Surfers board, however, Galactus arrives and Sue appears to die in Reeds arms
20.
IGN
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The website was the brainchild of media entrepreneur Chris Anderson and launched on September 29,1996. It focuses on games, films, television, comics, technology, the company is located in San Franciscos SOMA district in California, United States. Originally a network of websites, IGN is now distributed on mobile platforms, console programs on the Xbox and PlayStation, FireTV, Roku, and via YouTube, Twitch, Hulu. IGN was sold to publishing company Ziff Davis in February 2013 and now operates as a J2 Global subsidiary. com, PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation. com and Ultra Game Players Online. Imagine expanded on its owned-and-operated websites by creating a network that included a number of independent fansites such as PSX Nation. com, Sega-Saturn. com, Game Sages. In 1998, the network launched a new homepage that consolidated the individual sites as system channels under the IGN brand, the homepage exposed content from more than 30 different channels. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation, dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation was put on hold when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived Daily Radar brand. In February 1999, Imagine Media incorporated a spin-off that included IGN and its channels as Affiliation Networks. In September, the newly spun-out standalone internet media company, changed its name to Snowball. com, at the same time, small entertainment website The Den merged into IGN and added non-gaming content to the growing network. Snowball held an IPO in 2000, but shed most of its properties during the dot-com bubble. In June 2005, IGN reported having 24,000,000 unique visitors per month, with 4.8 million registered users through all departments of the site, IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa. In September 2005, IGN was acquired by Rupert Murdochs multi-media business empire, News Corporation, IGN celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 12,2008. IGN was headquartered in the Marina Point Parkway office park in Brisbane, California, on May 25,2011, IGN sold its Direct2Drive division to Gamefly for an undisclosed amount. In 2011, IGN Entertainment acquired its rival UGO Entertainment from Hearst Corporation, ultimately, News Corp. planned to spin off IGN Entertainment as a publicly traded company, continuing a string of divestitures for digital properties it had previously acquired. Financial details regarding the purchase were not revealed, prior to its acquisition by UGO, 1UP. com had previously been owned by Ziff Davis. Soon after the acquisition, IGN announced that it would be laying off staff and closing GameSpy, 1UP. com, the role-playing video game interest website Vault Network was acquired by IGN in 1999. GameStats, a review website, was founded by IGN in 2004. GameStats includes a GPM rating system incorporates an average press score and average gamer score
21.
The Galactus Trilogy
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The Galactus Trilogy is a 1966 three-issue comic book story arc that appeared in Fantastic Four #48 - #50. It was written by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby and it was published by Marvel Comics, and is notable for being the story that introduced the characters Galactus and the Silver Surfer. As Lee recalled in 1993, Galactus was simply another in a line of super-villains whom we loved creating. Having dreamed up many powerful baddies, we felt the way to top ourselves was to come up with an evil-doer who had almost godlike powers. Therefore, the choice was sort of a demi-god. We didnt want to use the tired old cliche about him wanting to conquer the world, why not have him not be a really evil person. After all, a demi-god would be beyond good and evil. What hed require is the force and energy from living planets. Kirby described his Biblical inspirations for Galactus and an accompanying character, and I had to come up with characters that were no longer stereotypes. I had to get something new, and for some reason, I went to the Bible. And I came up with Galactus and they were above mythic figures, and of course, they were the first gods. Kirby further explained, Galactus in actuality is a sort of god and he is beyond reproach, beyond anyones opinion. In a way he is kind of a Zeus, who fathered Hercules and he is his own legend, and of course, he and the Silver Surfer are sort of modern legends, and they are designed that way. In the nascent Marvel Universe, characters acted consistently, whatever comic they were appearing in and their actions reverberated through every title. It was pure soap opera but on a scale. All this led to the introduction of Galactus in Fantastic Four #48-50 and it culminated in Fantastic Four #50, which featured the Silver Surfer interceding on behalf of humankind against Galactus. After wrapping up the Inhumans story of the issue, the story moves to the Silver Surfer as he soars through the Andromeda Galaxy. They know that wherever the Silver Surfer appears, his master, Galactus, terrified, the Skrulls do everything they can to conceal their world from the Surfers perceptions
22.
Superhero
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A female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine. Fiction centered on characters, especially in American comic books since the 1930s, is known as superhero fiction. By most definitions, characters do not require actual supernatural or superhuman powers or phenomena to be deemed superheroes, some superheroes use their powers to counter daily crime while also combating threats against humanity from supervillains, who are their criminal counterparts. Often at least one of these supervillains will be the superheros archenemy, some long-running superheroes such as Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Spider-Man have a rogues gallery of many villains. The word superhero dates to at least 1917, antecedents of the archetype include such folkloric heroes as Robin Hood, who adventured in distinctive clothing. The 1903 play The Scarlet Pimpernel and its spinoffs popularized the idea of a masked avenger, during the 1940s there were many superheroes, and only a few of these were female. The Flash, Green Lantern and Blue Beetle debuted in this era, most of the other female costumed crime-fighters during this era lacked superpowers. The most iconic comic book superheroine, who debuted during the Golden Age, is Wonder Woman, inspired by the Amazons of Greek mythology, she was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston, with help and inspiration from his wife Elizabeth and their mutual lover Olive Byrne. Wonder Womans first appearance was in All Star Comics #8, published by All-American Publications, in 1952, Osamu Tezukas manga Tetsuwan Atom was published. The series focused upon a robot boy built by a scientist to replace his deceased son, the 1950s saw the Silver Age of Comics. During this era DC introduced the likes of Batwoman in 1956, Supergirl, Miss Arrowette,1958 saw the debut of superhero Moonlight Mask on Japanese television. In 1963, Astro Boy was adapted into a highly influential anime television series, Phantom Agents in 1964 focused on ninjas working for the Japanese government and would be the foundation for Sentai-type series. Another important event was the debut of Mazinger Z by Go Nagai, Go Nagai also wrote the manga Cutey Honey in 1973, although the Magical Girl genre already existed, Nagais manga introduced Transformation sequences that would become a staple of Magical Girl media. The dark Skull Man manga would later get a television adaptation, the protagonist was redesigned resemble a grasshopper, becoming the renowned first masked hero of the Kamen Rider series. Kamen Rider is a motorcycle riding hero in an insect-like costume, both major publishers began introducing new superheroines with a more distinct feminist theme as part of their origin stories or character development. Examples include Big Barda, Power Girl, and the Huntress by DC comics, and from Marvel, the second Black Widow, Shanna the She-Devil, and The Cat. In 1975 Shotaro Ishinomoris Himitsu Sentai Gorenger debuted on what is now TV Asahi, it brought the concepts of multi-colored teams, in 1978, Toei adapted Spider-Man into a live-action series. In subsequent decades, popular characters like Dazzler, She-Hulk, Elektra, Catwoman, Witchblade, Spider-Girl, Batgirl, volume 4 of the X-Men comic book series featured an all-female team as part of the Marvel NOW. branding initiative in 2013
23.
Supervillain
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A supervillain is a variant of the villainous stock character archetype commonly found in American comic books, sometimes possessing superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero, Supervillains are often used as foils to present a daunting challenge to a superhero. Other traits may include megalomania and possession of considerable resources to further their aims, many supervillains share some typical characteristics of real world dictators, gangsters, and terrorists, with aspirations of world domination or universal leadership. Some notable examples of female supervillains are Catwoman, Mystique, Harley Quinn, Talia al Ghul, Supervillains are sometimes members of supervillain groups, such as the Sinister Six, the Suicide Squad, the Brotherhood of Mutants, the Injustice League, and the Masters of Evil. The dictionary definition of supervillain at Wiktionary Media related to Supervillains at Wikimedia Commons
24.
Skrull
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The Skrulls are a fictional race of extraterrestrial shapeshifters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Skrulls have been featured in several decades of Marvel Comics, usually as villains bent on invading Earth. The Skrulls first appeared in Fantastic Four #2 and were created by Stan Lee, millions of years ago, the Celestials performed genetic experiments on the reptilian ancestors of the Skrulls, resulting in three branches of Skrulls, The Prime, the Deviants and the Eternals. Klybn implored them to spare his life, as killing him would kill part of their heritage, the Deviants leader, Slgurt, eventually fell in love with Klybn, with the two eventually becoming the gods of the Skrull pantheon. As Klybn could not change, Slgurt vowed to never keep the shape for too long. Taking the name Prime Skrull, the last original Skrull escaped to Earth in the 20th century, from that point, the Skrulls began to expand their territory. When they encountered a new race, they transformed themselves to resemble that race. The Skrull empire that resulted from these contacts was based on free trade, the empire is controlled by an emperor and each of the 978 worlds is controlled by a governor. Seventeen members of each race were taken to different uninhabited planetoids where they were left with sufficient supplies for one year, at the end of that period, whichever group had done the most with themselves would be adjudged the most worthy. The Kree were taken to Earths Moon where they built a city while the Cotati were taken to another barren world in a different solar system. Realizing that the Cotati were going to win, the enraged Kree killed all the Cotati, because of the immense distances involved, decades passed before the Skrulls learned of the Kree’s activities. By this time it was too late, the Kree were now advanced and audacious enough to attack the Skrulls in their home galaxy. Their entire culture was remade in the warrior image, the Kree-Skrull War continued for thousands of years with only brief interruptions. The Skrull Throneworld is later moved from Skrullos to the more central Tarnax IV, the Kree Accuser Ronan had wrested control of the Kree Empire from the Supreme Intelligence and attacked the Skrulls, reigniting hostilities. The Avengers become involved once the Super Skrull kidnaps Captain Marvel, Agents, rogue Inhumans and legions of Skrulls. The Supreme Intelligence ends the conflict by revealing to Avengers ally Rick Jones that he has vast mental potential. The Supreme Intelligence announces that, while the Kree and Skrulls have reached genetic dead ends and it was revealed years later that the conflict produced a Kree-Skrull hybrid, Hulkling, who is the child of one-time lovers Captain Marvel and the Skrull Princess Anelle. The Skrulls became aware of Earth when they discovered a space warp linking Earth, later they discovered the Earth possesses an equidistant link to Hala
25.
Watcher (comics)
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The Watchers are a race of fictional extraterrestrials appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the first Watcher—named Uatu—appears in Fantastic Four #13, the Watchers are one of the oldest species in the universe and are committed to observing and compiling knowledge on all aspects of the universe. When the Watchers returned to Prosilicus, the survivors blamed them for causing the catastrophe by giving the Prosilicans nuclear technology before they were ready for it, the Watchers then took a vow never to interfere with other civilizations. Despite this, the Watcher Uatu has revealed himself to the team the Fantastic Four. In his first appearance, he made them battle the Red Ghost and he complimented Reed Richards and claimed he would go to a more distant part of the Galaxy to observe humanity. He aids them on several occasions against global threats such as the Molecule Man, Galactus, the Leader discovered his existence and tracked him to his world. He transported the Hulk there to get the Ultimate Machine, which all the information in the Universe. The Hulk battled the Amphibious Qnax, who had also sent to recover the machine. The Watcher transported them away from his machines to battle, and he then took the Hulk back to his base, where the Hulk took the Machine despite the Watchers warnings. The Leader transported him back to Earth and tried to use the device, however, the tremendous amount of knowledge proved too much for the Leader. He collapsed to the ground, unmoving, and the Hulk assumed that he died of shock, when the Hulk tried to use the machine himself, Uatu allowed him to hear the voice of Rick Jones, after which the Hulk removed the device. The Watcher then transported the Ultimate Machine back to his planet, after blatant interference with the mission of the Kree soldier Mar-Vell, Uatu is put on trial by his own race, but is released on the provision that he never directly interfere again. Uatu is later banished by his race for aiding the Fantastic Four against the threat of his nephew, Aron, the Renegade Watcher. The Dreaming Celestial later scans Uatu and learns the Watcher has broken his pact of non-interference almost 400 times, the Celestial also reveals the Watchers, like the Celestials themselves, are servants of a concept called Fulcrum, with apparent consequences for interference. There is also a tongue in cheek splintered off faction of Watchers that call themselves The Critics, who not only observe events, but also give dramatic critique as they take place. The only known Critic looks similar to other Watchers, but wears a mustache, goatee, dark sunglasses and they also have access to highly advanced technology. Acba Aron – A renegade Watcher, atul Ecce – The Watcher who first came upon the newborn Galactus. But despite realizing the danger of his existence, he not to eliminate him in his helpless state thereby contributing to his evolution into the Devourer of Worlds
26.
Stranger (comics)
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The Stranger is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Stranger first appeared in X-Men #11 and was created by Stan Lee, the character is a cosmic entity and principally a scientist and surveyor of worlds, first visiting Earth out of curiosity. The same title depicts Magnetos escape and return to Earth using a spaceship he repairs when the Stranger leaves the planet, however, the Stranger recaptures the villain after Professor X telepathically alerts the Stranger. He transports to Earth a machine that increases his power over the Hulk. The character is dissuaded from this course of action by the Hulks alter-ego, however he takes the supervillain Abomination into space with him, thinking him truly evil. In the title the Silver Surfer, the Stranger again attempts to destroy the Earth, after a battle with the Silver Surfer and learning that a human scientist sacrificed himself to defuse the bomb, the Stranger retreats. In the title Fantastic Four the Stranger aids the team against the entity the Overmind, and in Thor watches as the Thunder God battles the characters servant of the time. The title Avengers features a story in which the Toad impersonates the Stranger, the true Stranger encounters the Kree warrior Captain Marvel in the title of the same name, and in Marvel Team-Up encounters the hero Spider-Man when trying to obtain the Soul Gem from Adam Warlock. In the limited series Infinity Gauntlet, the Stranger appears among the gathering of cosmic entities opposing the Titan Thanos, in the limited series Starblast the Stranger is instrumental in merging the New Universe into the Marvel Universe. He next appears in a flashback story in Professor Xavier and the X-Men. He next appears in Marvel Universe, The End, again among the beings opposing Thanos, the Stranger prominently features in the limited series Beyond. Posing as the Beyonder wherein he captures several heroes and villains, the entity also possesses a laboratory world, where items are stored, and beings of interest, referred to as specimens, are kept prisoner for study. Stranger appeared in The Super Hero Squad Show episode The Saga of Beta Ray Bill, there, he confronted both Bill and Thor. Stranger was defeated with the force of Mjolnir and cleaning appliances
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Joe Sinnott
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Joe Sinnott is an American comic book artist. Working primarily as an inker, Sinnott is best known for his stint on Marvel Comics Fantastic Four, from 1965 to 1981. During his 60 years as a Marvel freelancer and then salaried artist working from home, Sinnott inked virtually every title, with notable runs on The Avengers, The Defenders. I knew I couldnt satisfy everyone and I had to save the very most important strips for, to most pencilers, having Joe Sinnott ink their artwork was tantamount to grabbing the brass ring. Sinnott, who as of 2012 continues to ink the The Amazing Spider-Man Sunday comic strip, had his art appear on two US Postal Service commemorative stamps in 2007. He grew up in a house that catered primarily to schoolteachers. His childhood comics influences include the comic strip Terry and the Pirates, after serving with the Seabees in Okinawa during World War II, driving a munitions truck, he was discharged in May 1946. After working three years in his fathers cement-manufacturing plant, he was accepted into the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City in March 1949, Sinnotts first solo professional art job was the backup feature Trudi in the St. John Publications humor comic Mopsy #12. Later, during a school vacation in August 1950, he married his fiancée Betty Kirlauski. Cartoonists and Illustrators School instructor Tom Gill asked Sinnott to be his assistant on Gills freelance comics work, with classmate Norman Steinberg, Sinnott spent nine months drawing backgrounds and incidentals on, initially, Gills Western-movie tie-in comics for Dell Comics. Sinnott recalled in 1992 taking the Long Island Rail Road every weekend and he said in 2003, Tom was paying us very well. I was still attending school and worked for Tom at nights and weekends, with night work added after he tired of commuting to Long Island and began working my room on 75th Street for $7 a week. Sinnott in 1992 recalled his earliest work for Gill being the Western comic Red Warrior and later including Kent Blake of the Secret Service, Tom would do all of the heads. Wed do the backgrounds and the figures, but since they were Toms accounts, I did this for about nine months. It was great learning, he said, adding, I can never have enough good to say about Tom Gill, so I went over to see Stan and he gave me a script right away. Due to creator credits not generally being given at the time and he said in 2003, I used to go up and sit in a little reading room with four or five other artists. It got so that every week I went up, the guys would be in the room. Bob Powell, Gene Colan, people like that, I got to talking to them
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Cameo appearance
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A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance or voice part of a known person in a work of the performing arts, typically unnamed or appearing as themselves. Short appearances by celebrities, film directors, politicians, athletes or musicians are common, a crew member of the show or movie playing a minor role can be referred to as a cameo as well, such as Alfred Hitchcocks frequently performed cameos. Originally cameo role meant a character part that stands out from the other minor parts. The Oxford English Dictionary connects this with the meaning a short literary sketch or portrait, which is based on the meaning of cameo. More recently, cameo has come to refer to any short appearances, whether as a character or as oneself, such as the examples below. Cameos are generally not credited because of their brevity, or a mismatch between the celebritys stature and the film or TV show in which he or she is appearing. Others are acknowledgments of a contribution to an earlier work, as in the case of many film adaptations of TV series. Others honour artists or celebrities known for work in a particular field, possibly the best-known series of cameos was by the director Alfred Hitchcock, who made very brief appearances in most of his films. Cameos also occur in novels and other literary works, “Literary cameos” usually involve an established character from another work who makes a brief appearance to establish a shared universe setting, to make a point, or to offer homage. Balzac often employed this practice, as in his Comédie humaine, a cameo appearance can be made by the author of a work to put a sort of personal signature on a story. Vladimir Nabokov often put himself in his novels, for instance, quentin Tarantino provides cameos or small roles in at least 10 of his movies. Likewise, Peter Jackson has made cameos in all of his movies, except for his first feature-length movie Bad Taste in which he plays a main character. For example, he plays a peasant eating a carrot in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Desolation of Smaug, a Rohan warrior in The Two Towers, director Martin Scorsese appears in the background of his films as a bystander or an unseen character. In Whos That Knocking at My Door, he appears as one of the gangsters, he is a crew man in After Hours. He opens up his 1986 film The Color of Money with a monologue on the art of playing pool. In addition, he appears with his wife and daughter as wealthy New Yorkers in Gangs of New York, in a same way, Roman Polanski appears as a hired hoodlum in his film Chinatown, slitting Jack Nicholsons nose with the blade of his clasp knife. Directors sometimes cast well-known lead actors with whom they have worked in the past in other films, mike Todds film Around the World in 80 Days was filled with cameo roles, and others. The stars in cameo roles were pictured in oval insets in posters for the film, among the many cameos featured in the film Maverick, actor Danny Glover appears as the lead bank robber
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Thor (Marvel Comics)
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Thor is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He has starred in several ongoing series and limited series, and is a member of the superhero team the Avengers. The character has appeared in associated Marvel merchandise including animated television series, clothing, toys, trading cards, video games. The character was first portrayed in action by Eric Allan Kramer in the 1988 television movie The Incredible Hulk Returns. Thor placed 14th on IGNs list of Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time in 2011, a different version of the mythological Thor had appeared previously in Venus #12-13. Lee in 2002 described Thors genesis early in the Marvel pantheon, following the creation of the Hulk and it finally came to me, Dont make him human — make him a god. I decided readers were already pretty familiar with the Greek and Roman gods and it might be fun to delve into the old Norse legends. In a 1984 interview Kirby said I did a version of Thor for D. C. in the fifties before I did him for Marvel. I created Thor at Marvel because I was forever enamored of legends, which is why I knew about Balder, Heimdall, I tried to update Thor and put him into a superhero costume, but he was still Thor. And in a 1992 interview, Kirby said knew the Thor legends very well, I felt that might be a new thing for comics, taking the old legends and modernizing them. Subsequent stories of the 13-page feature The Mighty Thor continued to be plotted by Lee, various artists penciled the feature, including Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Don Heck, and Al Hartley. With Journey into Mystery #101, the series began a long and definitive run by writer and co-plotter Lee, Lee and Kirby included Thor in The Avengers #1 as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has appeared in every subsequent volume of the series. The five-page featurette Tales of Asgard was added in Journey into Mystery #97, the feature itself expanded to 18 pages in #105, which eliminated the remaining anthological story from each issue, it was reduced to 16 pages five issues later. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that the adventures of Thor were gradually transformed from stories about a superhero into a spectacular saga. Artist Chic Stone, who inked several early Thor stories, observed that Kirby could just lead you through all these different worlds, the readers would follow him anywhere. Journey into Mystery was retitled Thor with issue #126, Tales of Asgard was replaced by a five-page featurette starring the Inhumans from #146–152, after which featurettes were dropped and the Thor stories expanded to Marvels then-standard 20-page length. Marvel filed for a trademark for The Mighty Thor in 1967, after Kirby left the title, Neal Adams penciled issues #180-181
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Galactus
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Galactus is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Formerly a mortal man, Galactus is an entity who originally consumed planets to sustain his life force. Galactus was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in the comic book Fantastic Four #48, Lee and Kirby had desired to introduce a character that broke away from the archetype of the standard villain, culminating in the creation of Galactus. Frequently accompanied by a herald, the character has appeared as both antagonist and protagonist in central and supporting roles, since debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books, Galactus has played a role in over five decades of Marvel continuity. The character has featured in other Marvel media, such as arcade games, video games, animated television series. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist-coplotter Jack Kirby, the character debuted in The Fantastic Four #48, as Lee recalled in 1993, Galactus was simply another in a long line of super-villains whom we loved creating. We felt the way to top ourselves was to come up with an evil-doer who had almost godlike powers. Therefore, the choice was sort of demi-god, but now what would we do with him. We didnt want to use the tired old cliche about him wanting to conquer the world, why not have him not be a really evil person. After all, a demi-god would be beyond good and evil. Hed require is the force and energy from living planets. Kirby described his Biblical inspirations for Galactus and an accompanying character, and I had to come up with characters that were no longer stereotypes. I had to get something new. And. for some reason, I went to the Bible, and I came up with Galactus. They were above mythic figures, and of course, they were the first gods, Kirby elaborated, Galactus in actuality is a sort of god. He is beyond reproach, beyond anyones opinion, in a way he is kind of a Zeus, who fathered Hercules. He is his own legend, and of course, he and the Silver Surfer are sort of modern legends, in the nascent Marvel Universe, characters acted consistently, whatever comic they were appearing in. Their actions reverberated through every title and it was pure soap opera but on a cosmic scale, and Galactus epitomized its epic sweep. This led to the introduction of Galactus in Fantastic Four #48–50, Kirby did not intend Galactus to reappear, to preserve the characters awe-inspiring presence
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Graphic novel
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A graphic novel is a book made up of comics content. Although the word normally refers to long fictional works, the term graphic novel is applied broadly and includes fiction, non-fiction. It is distinguished from the comic book, which is used for comics periodicals. Fan historian Richard Kyle coined the term graphic novel in an essay in the November 1964 issue of the comics fanzine Capa-Alpha, the Book Industry Study Group began using graphic novel as a category in book stores in 2001. In the publishing trade, the term extends to material that would not be considered a novel if produced in another medium. Collections of comic books that do not form a story, anthologies or collections of loosely related pieces. The term is sometimes used to distinguish between works created as standalone stories, in contrast to collections or compilations of a story arc from a comic book series published in book form. As the exact definition of the novel is debated, the origins of the form are open to interpretation. The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck is the oldest recognized American example of comics used to this end, the first American edition was published in 1842 by Wilson & Company in New York City using the original printing plates from the 1841 edition. Another early predecessor is Journey to the Gold Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags by brothers J. A. D. and D. F. Read, inspired by The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. In 1894 Caran dAche broached the idea of a novel in a letter to the newspaper Le Figaro. In the United States there is a tradition of reissuing previously published comic strips in book form. In 1897 the Hearst Syndicate published such a collection of The Yellow Kid by Richard Outcault, the 1920s saw a revival of the medieval woodcut tradition, with Belgian Frans Masereel cited as the undisputed king of this revival. American Lynd Ward also worked in this tradition, publishing Gods Man, in 1929, the 1940s saw the launching of Classics Illustrated, a comic-book series that primarily adapted notable, public domain novels into standalone comic books for young readers. In 1947 Fawcett Comics published Comics Novel #1, Anarcho, Dictator of Death, by the late 1960s, American comic book creators were becoming more adventurous with the form. Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin self-published a 40-page, magazine-format comics novel, savage in 1968—the same year Marvel Comics published two issues of The Spectacular Spider-Man in a similar format. Meanwhile, in continental Europe, the tradition of collecting serials of popular strips such as The Adventures of Tintin or Asterix led to long-form narratives published initially as serials. By 1969, the author John Updike, who had entertained ideas of becoming a cartoonist in his youth, addressed the Bristol Literary Society, on the death of the novel
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Marvel Fireside Books
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The series enabled fans of the old comic books to have access to the stories without having to pay exorbitant prices for the original back issues. Many of the books featured painted covers illustrated by artists as Bob Larkin, John Romita Sr. Marvel Publisher Stan Lee came up with the idea of compiling the origins of some of their most popular characters in a format similar to Jules Feiffers 1965 book The Great Comic Book Heroes. The two Origins books were followed by Bring on the Bad Guys, origins of a selection of Marvel villains, one of the Marvel Fireside Books superhero story editions was not a reprint but an original story. The Silver Surfer by Stan Lee, with art by Kirby and Joe Sinnott, was a new take on the late 1960s icon, and is considered by many to be one of the first true graphic novels. In conjunction with their reprint collections, Marvel and Fireside also produced a number of activity and game books, how-to books, the most well-known and popular book of this kind was 1978s How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, which is still in print. Marvel/Fireside published 24 different books, many with multiple printings in hardcover and paperback. DC Comics also formed a partnership with Fireside in 1979–1980. Website with retrospective reviews of the Marvel Fireside Books
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Simon & Schuster
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Simon & Schuster, Inc. a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, is an American publishing company founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard Simon and Max Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster publishes 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints, in 1924, Richard Simons aunt, a crossword puzzle enthusiast, asked whether there was a book of New York World crossword puzzles, which were very popular at the time. After discovering that none had been published, Simon and Max Schuster decided to launch a company to exploit the opportunity, at the time, Simon was a piano salesman and Schuster was editor of an automotive trade magazine. They pooled US$8,000 to start a company to publish crossword puzzles, fad publishing became the business model for the new publishing house, which set out to exploit current fads and trends and publish books with commercial appeal. Instead of signing authors with a manuscript, they came up with their own ideas. In the 1930, the moved to what was known as Publishers Row on Park Avenue in Manhattan. In 1939, with Robert Fair de Graff, Simon & Schuster founded Pocket Books, in 1942, Simon & Schuster, or Essandess as it is called in the initial announcement, launched the Little Golden Books series in cooperation with the Artists and Writers Guild. Simon & Schusters partner in the venture was the Western Printing and Lithographing Company, Western Printing bought out Simon & Schusters interest in 1958. In 1944, Marshall Field III, owner of the Chicago Sun, purchased Simon & Schuster, following Fields death in 1957, his heirs sold the company back to Richard Simon and Max Schuster, while Leon Shimkin and James Jacobson acquired Pocket Books. In the 1950s and 1960s, many publishers including Simon & Schuster turned toward educational publishing due to the boom market. Pocket Books focused on paperbacks for the market instead of textbooks. By 1964 it had published over 200 titles and was expected to put out another 400 by the end of that year, Books published under the imprint included classic reprints such as Lorna Doone, Ivanhoe, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Robinson Crusoe. In 1966, Max Schuster retired and sold his half of Simon & Schuster to Leon Shimkin, Shimkin then merged Simon & Schuster with Pocket Books under the name of Simon & Schuster. Among his many bestsellers was Joseph Hellers Catch-22, in 1976, Gulf+Western headed by Charles Bluhdorn acquired S&S, which was grossing about US$50 million a year for $11 million, most of it in Gulf+Western stock. After the death of Bluhdorn in 1983, Simon & Schuster made the decision to diversify, bluhdorns successor Martin Davis told The New York Times, Society was undergoing dramatic changes, so that there was a greater need for textbooks, maps and educational information. We saw the opportunity to diversify into areas, which are more stable. In 1984, CEO Richard E. Snyder acquired Esquire Corporation, buying everything, Prentice Hall was brought into the company fold in 1985 for over $700 million and Martin Davis said that Prentice Hall became the road map for remodeling the company and a catalyst for change. This acquisition was followed by Silver Burdett in 1986, mapmaker Gousha in 1987, part of the acquisition included educational publisher Allyn & Bacon which according to Michael Korda became the nucleus of S&Ss educational and informational business
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Vince Colletta
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This included a few landmark early issues of Marvel Comics Fantastic Four, and a long, celebrated run on the character Thor in Journey into Mystery and The Mighty Thor. He settled in Brooklyn, New York City, where his wife, the family then moved to New Jersey and opened an Italian market, severing any ties to the Mafia. The following year he began his collaboration with Marvel, at the companys 1950s iteration. Collettas work also appeared in genres as jungle adventure and horror/fantasy. His last confirmed work for decades was I Cant Marry Now in Love Diary #6. Collettas first confirmed work as an inker of another artists pencils is unknown, historians pinpoint Collettas first inking of Jack Kirbys pencils as either the cover of Kid Colt, Outlaw #100 or, the cover of Love Romances #98. Members of artist Wally Woods studio were among those who assisted or ghosted on Collettas mid-1960s Charlton stories, as an inker for Marvel in the 1960s, Colletta worked on nearly every title, including some of the earliest issues of Daredevil. Colletta began his run on Kirbys The Mighty Thor feature with the Tales of Asgard backup in Journey into Mystery #106. Colletta graduated to the feature with #116. Colletta also inked Journey into Mystery Annual #1, which introduced Hercules to the Marvel universe, historians and critics consider Collettas Thor work to be his creative highlight. Historian Nick Simon said, For me, the Kirby/Colletta version of Thor is the definitive one, author and Silver Age of Comic Books historian Pierre Comtois wrote that. Be that as it may, what Colletta chose to keep, Colletta would also pencil stories in many 1960s issues of Charlton Comics Teen-Age Love and First Kiss. He occasionally inked romance stories penciled by Joe Sinnott, and other pencilers on such titles as Charltons Gunmaster, and Dell Comics Guerrilla War, Jungle War Stories, and Western series Idaho. While Collettas rates were good and he brought an innocent Marvel Age look to Jacks new heroes, he was prone to erasing background characters and transforming ustling crowd scenes easier silhouettes. Kirby confidante Mark Evanier and inker Wally Wood eventually convinced a reluctant Kirby to ask DC Publisher Carmine Infantino to remove Colletta from inking Kirbys titles. He was replaced by inker Mike Royer, causing fans to write to DC in complaint. Collettas frequent assistant Art Cappello did much of the inking on these comics. He was named DCs art director in May 1976, resigning the post in May 1979 and his time there included discovering future industry star Frank Miller
35.
George Klein (comics)
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George Dunsford Klein was an American comic book artist and cartoonist whose career stretched from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of comic books. Klein was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, to George and Matilda Klein, by age four, he was living with his family in Laramie, Wyoming. In 1940, at age 24, Klein was living in Norfolk and he served in the U. S. Army in World War II. Klein attended the Kansas City Art Institute and New Yorks Cartoonists, at Marvel Comics 1940s precursor, Timely Comics, Klein was both a penciler and an inker, initially on superhero features. He was among the pencilers of the super-speedster the Whizzer, in All Winners Comics #8–9 and he had inked that early Marvel character, over Mike Sekowskys pencils, as early as All Winners #3. Klein also worked on the characters Miss America, the Young Allies, the Black Marvel, the Golden Age Black Widow, the Defender, and, under the pseudonym Nick Karlton, the Challenger. Because he was on staff, Klein frequently did not sign his artwork – a typical though not ironclad industry habit at the time – making it difficult to assess his Golden Age output, in the post-war era, Klein drew for a variety of publishers. For DC Comics, nearly ten years before teaming with penciler Curt Swan on various Superman titles, for American Comics Group, Klein worked on such horror/suspense titles as Adventures into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds, and Out of the Night. By late in the decade he was doing stories for Prize Comics Black Magic. In 1955, Klein began his association with penciler Curt Swan on a variety of titles in DC Comics Superman family. Starting with uncredited but generally recognized inks over Swan in Superboy #38 – on a story featuring the Boy of Steel vs. – Klein soon took on the features there and in Adventure Comics starring Superboy, Superman, starting in late 1961. Kleins final DC work was Adventure Comics #367, in 1961, penciler Jack Kirby and writer-editor Stan Lee began revitalizing comics with the superhero team the Fantastic Four. The teams first two issues were published without formal creator credits, in the manner of times, and their inker has never been definitively established, since that time, further scholarship has given tentative credit to Klein. The standard Grand Comics Database, for example, lists the inker credit for issue #1 as George Klein, George Klein, or Chris Rule have been suggested as the inker but there is no consensus. That database credits Klein as inker for issue #2 with the caveat, Inking often attributed to Dick Ayers, the credit given reflects the current consensus. Another standard reference, the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators, gives George Klein. as inker for issue #1 and Sol Brodsky. George Klein. for #2, with the note, On the letter page of Fantastic Four #272 and #281
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Jack Morelli
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Jack Morelli is a comic book letterer and author, also credited under the name John Morelli. He has designed many comic book logos and his lettering is notable for being the basis for the computer font used by John Byrne when he letters his own work. Morelli was a staff letterer at Marvel during the 1980s, where he was known by the affectionate nickname Squid. During this time, Morelli also worked in editorial and wrote some comics, most notably the 1998 Peter Parker Annual featuring Elektra, Morelli has also worked for DC Comics and Archie Comics. In 2007, Morelli and Mark Chiarello authored Heroes of the Negro Leagues, published by Abrams and it was named the second best sports book of 2007 by Amazon. com. Morelli won the 2015 Harvey Award for Best Letterer for his work on Afterlife with Archie, Morelli is an avid weightlifter, and during the 1980s some Marvel staffers thought he looked like Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Jack Morelli on ComicVine Jack Morelli at the Comic Book DB
37.
Ron Wilson (comics)
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Ron Wilson is an American comic book artist known for his work on titles starring the Marvel Comics character The Thing, including the titles Marvel Two-in-One and The Thing. Wilson spent eleven years, from 1975 to 1986, chronicling The Things adventures through different comic titles, Ron Wilson was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in the Canarsie neighborhood. Wilson entered the industry in the early 1970s at Marvel Comics where he produced both cover illustrations and interior artwork. He was the regular artist on Marvel Two-in-One from 1975–1978 and again from 1980–1983, while working on titles such as Black Goliath, Power Man, The Hulk. In the 1980s, after the cancellation of Marvel Two-in-One, Wilson teamed with writer John Byrne on The Thing, in 1983 he plotted and drew Super Boxers. He drew the entire run of Marvels Masters of the Universe, wilsons work also appeared in The Avengers, Captain America, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Iron Man, and What If. In 1990, Wilson illustrated an issue of Urth 4 for Continuity Comics and his work appeared regularly in Marvel Comics Presents in 1992–1994. Ron contributed to the crafting of DC Comics Milestone Media imprint providing character design work, in 2008, he provided a cover for the second issue of the pro wrestling-themed mini-series Headlocked published by Visionary Comics. As of 2012, Wilson was preparing a new creator-owned project Battle Rappers, Ron Wilson at the Comic Book DB Ron Wilson at Mikes Amazing World of Comics Ron Wilson at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
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Jack Abel
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Jack Abel was an American comic book artist best known as an inker for leading publishers DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He was DCs primary inker on the Superman titles in the late 1960s and early 1970s and he sometimes used the pseudonym Gary Michaels. After a reshuffling at DC c and he had already inked Gene Colan there on a long stretch of Iron Man stories beginning with Tales of Suspense #73, under the pseudonym Gary Michaels. As Colan recalled, He did a lot of Iron Man with me and he had a very slick line, which was okay on Iron Man, of course. Iron Man was made of iron, so you want it to look like metal, but when it came to stone and dark corners and garbage, he wasnt the man for that. From the mid-1970s, Abel inked not only for Marvel and again DC, but for the smaller companies Gold Key, Charlton Comics, Atlas/Seaboard, and Skywald Publications. Baseball-fan Abel, who in the 1970s rented studio space at Neal Adams and Dick Giordanos Continuity Associates, outside comic books, Abel inked John Celardo from 1967-1969 on the syndicated comic strip Tales of the Green Beret, written by author Robin Moore. In 2016, Abel was nominated and tied for runner-up for the Inkwell Awards Special Recognition Award, Jack Abel at the Comic Book DB The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators Comic Art & Graffix Gallery, Murphy Anderson interview. WebCite archive Remembering Jack Abel, Comic Book Marketplace, vol,2, #46, Reminiscences by Gene Colan, Peter David, Joe Giella, Russ Heath, Joe Kubert, Alan Kupperberg, and Steve Mitchell Schenk, Ramon, ed. Charlton Personnel. Archived from the original on March 5,2008, additional WebCitation archive made June 15,2010
39.
Rom (comics)
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Rom the Space Knight is a fictional character and cosmic superhero created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy for Parker Brothers, currently a subsidiary of Hasbro, Rom appeared in the American comic book Rom, Spaceknight by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, and published by Marvel Comics. In July 2015, IDW Publishing began publishing a new Rom comic book series, Rom was a toy co-created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. It was sold to Parker Brothers, and was the inspiration for the book series Rom. The toy was originally named COBOL, after the programming language, the toy set a precedent for the game publishing company, which up until that time had only ever produced board games. As this was a new venture for the company, and given that electronic toys were still very new, a decision was made to produce the figure as cheaply as possible. As a result, the product had very few points of articulation, and twin red LEDs served as Roms eyes instead of the originally envisioned green. Not long after its debut, Rom appeared in the box of the cover of Time magazines December 10,1979. It was featured in the article, Those Beeping, Thinking Toys. Rom was licensed to Palitoy in the United Kingdom to extend the Space Adventurer line of Action Man, to build interest in the toy, Parker Brothers licensed the character to Marvel Comics, which created a comic book featuring Rom. The comic expanded on the premise that Rom was a cyborg and gave him an origin, personality, set of supporting characters and villains, the comic was written by Bill Mantlo and initially illustrated by artist Sal Buscema. Buscema stated in a 2010 interview, I liked the character, and I liked what they did with it. I thought the concept was quite good and it made it attractive to do. I almost hate to say this, but it was pretty easy to draw, Buscema was the main artist for the series from its creation through 1984. Steve Ditko took over for the two years of the original run. Ultimately, the toy failed and only sold 200,000 to 300,000 units in the US, Parker Brothers subsequently abandoned the line. The comic book outlasted the toy which it was created to support, the series lasted for 75 issues from December 1979 to February 1986 and Roms regular encounters with mainstream heroes and villains establishing him as part of Marvel continuity. On May 7,2016, having licensed the character from Parker Brothers parent company, Hasbro, the free issue serves as a prologue to a new ongoing series which began in July 2016
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Fantastic Four
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The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1, which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium. As the first superhero team title produced by Marvel Comics, it formed a cornerstone of the companys 1960s rise from a division of a publishing company to a pop culture conglomerate. Since their original 1961 introduction, the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a dysfunctional, yet loving. Breaking convention with other comic book archetypes of the time, they would squabble, the Fantastic Four have been adapted into other media, including four animated series and four live-action films. According to Lee, writing in 1974, Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes, if the Justice League is selling, spoke he, why dont we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes. Determined to carve a career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books, Lee concluded that, For just this once. Lee said he created a synopsis for the first Fantastic Four story that he gave to penciller Jack Kirby, Kirby turned in his penciled art pages to Lee, who added dialogue and captions. Kirby claims he came up with the idea for the Fantastic Four in Marvels offices, Kirby also sought to establish, more credibly and on numerous occasions, that the visual elements of the strip were his conceptions. He regularly pointed to a team he had created for rival publisher DC Comics in the 1950s, F you notice the uniforms, theyre the same. I always give them a skintight uniform with a belt, the Challengers and the FF have a minimum of decoration. And of course, the Things skin is a kind of decoration, the chest insignia of a 4 within a circle, however, was designed by Lee. The characters wear no uniforms in the first two issues, given the conflicting statements, outside commentators have found it hard to identify with precise detail who created the Fantastic Four. Comics historian R. C. Harvey believes that the Fantastic Four was a furtherance of the work Kirby had been doing previously, but Harvey notes that the Marvel Method of collaboration allowed each man to claim credit, and that Lees dialogue added to the direction the team took. Wells argues that it was Lees contributions which set the framework within which Kirby worked, and this made Lee more responsible. Comics historian Mark Evanier, an assistant to Jack Kirby in the 1970s, says that the considered opinion of Lee and Kirbys contemporaries was that Fantastic Four was created by Stan. No further division of credit seemed appropriate, the release of The Fantastic Four #1 was an unexpected success
41.
Howard University
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Howard University is a federally chartered, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university in Washington, D. C. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a university with high research activity and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. From its outset it has been nonsectarian and open to people of both genders and all races, Howard is classified as a Tier 1 national university and ranks second among HBCUs by U. S. News & World Report. Howard is the only HBCU ranked in the top 75 on the 2015 Bloomberg Businessweek college rankings, the Princeton Review ranked the school of business #1 in opportunities for minority students and in the top five for most competitive students. The National Law Journal ranked the law school among the top 25 in the nation for placing graduates at the best law firms, Howard has produced four Rhodes Scholars between 1986 and 2017. Between 1998 and 2009, Howard University produced a Marshall Scholar, in 2011, the Huffington Post named Howard the second best-dressed college in the nation. Howard is the most comprehensive HBCU in the nation and produces the most black doctorate recipients of any university, within a few weeks, the project expanded to include a provision for establishing a university. Within two years, the University consisted of the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Medicine, the new institution was named for General Oliver Otis Howard, a Civil War hero, who was both the founder of the University and, at the time, Commissioner of the Freedmens Bureau. Howard later served as President of the university from 1869–74, U. S. Congress chartered Howard on March 2,1867, and much of its early funding came from endowment, private benefaction, and tuition. An annual congressional appropriation administered by the U. S. Department of Education funds Howard University, many improvements were made on campus. Howard Hall was renovated and made a dormitory for women, J. Stanley Durkee, Howards last white president, was appointed in 1918. The Great Depression years of the 1930s brought hardship to campus, despite appeals from Eleanor Roosevelt, Howard saw its budget cut below Hoover administration levels during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Howard University has played an important role in American history and the Civil Rights Movement on a number of occasions, alain Locke, Chair of the Department of Philosophy and first African American Rhodes Scholar, authored The New Negro, which helped to usher in the Harlem Renaissance. Ralph Bunche, the first Nobel Peace Prize winner of African descent, beginning in 1942, Howard University students pioneered the stool-sitting technique, which was to play a prominent role in the later civil rights movement. By January,1943, students had begun to organize regular sit-ins and pickets at cigar stores and cafeterias around Washington and these protests continued until the administration asked the students to stop in the Fall of 1944. Historian Rayford Logan served as chair of the Department of History, E. Franklin Frazier served as chair of the Department of Sociology. Sterling Allen Brown served as chair of the Department of English, at the time, the Voting Rights bill was still pending in the House of Representatives. In 1975 the historic Freedmans Hospital closed after 112 years of use as Howard University College of Medicines primary teaching hospital, Howard University Hospital opened that same year and continues to be used as Howard University College of Medicines primary teaching hospital with service to the surrounding community
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Terry Austin (comics)
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Terry Austin is an American comic book artist, working primarily as an inker. He is best known for his work embellishing John Byrnes pencils on Uncanny X-Men from 1977 to 1981, Austin grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Wayne State University. He started inking comics as an assistant to Dick Giordano and Neal Adams, Austin came to prominence in 1976–1977, inking Marshall Rogers pencils on a celebrated run of Batman stories for DCs Detective Comics collaborating with writer Steve Englehart. He later teamed with Rogers again on Marvels Doctor Strange, in 1977, Austin and penciler John Byrne became the new art team on Uncanny X-Men. With writer Chris Claremont they produced a series of stories — particularly The Dark Phoenix Saga — which elevated the title into the top-selling American comic book. Austin left Uncanny X-Men in 1981 and has worked on a variety of titles for both Marvel and DC, including Doctor Strange, Superman vol. 2, Justice League and Green Lantern, Austin contributed to several anniversary issues for DC including Justice League of America #200, Superman #400, and Batman #400. He was the inker of DCs Superman Adventures for nearly six years. His inking work since 2002 has included five years of inking the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series for Archie Comics. Austins inking — especially in the 1970s and early 1980s — is notable for its smooth, precise rendering, Austin wrote and inked the Dark Horse Comics adaptation of Splinter of the Minds Eye produced in 1995. His rare penciling jobs can be seen on the covers of Uncanny X-Men #123 and #142, as well as his self-published book, Austin resides near Poughkeepsie, New York, where he plays volleyball and gets together often with fellow comics veteran Fred Hembeck. Terry Austin at the Comic Book DB Terry Austin at Mikes Amazing World of Comics Terry Austin at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
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Epic Illustrated
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Epic Illustrated was a comics anthology in magazine format published in the United States by Marvel Comics. The series lasted for 34 issues from Spring 1980–February 1986, a color comic-book imprint, Epic Comics, was spun off in 1982. The magazine was initiated under editor Rick Marschall in 1979 under the title Odyssey, after Marschall learned of at least seven other magazines titled Odyssey, the project was renamed Epic Illustrated and launched as a standalone series. Marschall was replaced by editor Archie Goodwin in September 1979, several months before the first issue was published, the anthology featured heroic fiction and genre stories, primarily fantasy and science fiction, but in a broad range of styles. Goodwin commissioned stories by new artists, including Stephen R. Bissette, Pepe Moreno, Jon J Muth, Rick Veitch. The full-color magazine format, allowed for a range of color than the traditional three-color printing process, and many of the stories. Fantasy artists who did not normally work in the field, such as Richard Corben, Frank Frazetta, The Brothers Hildebrandt. The contributors to the series retained ownership of their material and were paid royalties, Epic Illustrated also included an occasional Marvel Comics protagonist, such as the first issues Silver Surfer story by Stan Lee and John Buscema. Each issue usually featured a story, a number of regular serials. Writer-penciler John Byrne and inker Terry Austin produced The Last Galactus Story as a serial in Epic Illustrated #26–34, nine of a scheduled 10 installments appeared. Each ran six pages, except part eight, which ran 12, due to its expensive nature to the company and low sales, the magazine was canceled with issue #34, leaving the last chapter of Galactus unpublished and the story unfinished. Metamorphosis Odyssey a serial by Jim Starlin in issues #1–9, which introduced his Dreadstar character, a Tale Of Elric of Melniboné, The Dreaming City by Michael Moorcock, Roy Thomas, and P. Craig Russell in issues #3, #4, and #14. Ken Steacys adaptations of Harlan Ellisons short stories, Sleeping Dogs in issue #4, Life Hutch in #6, abraxas and the Earthman by Rick Veitch in issues #10–17. Marada by Chris Claremont and John Bolton in issues #10–12 and #22–23, Last of the Dragons by Carl Potts with Dennis ONeil, Terry Austin, and Marie Severin in issues #15–20. Generation Zero by Pepe Moreno and Archie Goodwin in issues #17–24, the Sacred and The Profane by Dean Motter and Ken Steacy in issues #20–26. Young Cerebus a series of vignettes of the life of Cerebus by Dave Sim in issues #26, #28
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Limited series (comics)
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In the field of comic books, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from a series in that the number of issues is finite and determined before production. The term is used interchangeably with miniseries and maxiseries, usually depending on the length. In Dark Horse Comics definition of a series, This term primarily applies to a connected series of individual comic books. A limited series refers to a book series with a clear beginning, middle. Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics refer to limited series of two to eleven issues as miniseries and series of issues or more as maxiseries. The limited series has a story to tell. It follows the standard plot set-up of beginning, middle, usually, all plot points are covered by the end of the series. There have been limited series done in a format. Limited series are often done by a creative team, but in cases where there are changes. The number of issues is determined by some combination of the writers plotting. In 1979, in the process of recovering from the DC Implosion, publisher DC Comics experimented with a new format in the World of Krypton miniseries, as DC termed such short-run works. The new format allowed the company to tell stories that may not have fit into a series and to showcase characters into a short story without the risk. With the success of the format, DC followed by experimenting with longer stories. Debuting in 1982, Camelot 3000 was the first limited series to run to twelve issues, DC coined the term maxiseries as a promotional description for this. It did not take long for other publishers to begin using the limited-series format, Marvel Comics used it to feature popular characters from team titles and put them in solo adventures. Wolverines earliest solo adventures were told in limited series, crossovers were introduced in limited series form before the concept of multi-title crossovers was conceived. Contest of Champions brought forth the idea of an event affecting the Marvel Universe
