Blog Archives
The Many Origins of the Justice League
How did the Justice League get together the first time? Was it to stop an invasion from space? By whom? Did it have something to do with Mars? Apokalips? Appellax? Appa-what? Ask different people and you’ll get different answers. How many origins of the Justice League have there been anyway? That’s what we’re going to find out here, as we explore the many origins of the Justice League.
Mat Langford’s Gaming World – A Brief History of Main-Stream Gaming Consoles
To tie in with May’s Origin theme, I’ve decided to write up a little something on the history of the main-stream video game console.
Even though I wasn’t around for some of the earlier iterations, I have played all of them, and all of them – while they ranged from terrible to incredible – have left a distinct mark on the culture of gaming.
Magnavox Odyssey
Many people think of Atari’s Pong as the starting block for video gaming when in fact, there was a little known system that predated it. In 1972, Magnavox released a console called the Magnavox Odyssey, marketed as the first true commercial home video game console. It had a peripheral light gun for a shooting gallery game, very similar to that of the Nintendo Entertainment System (Duck Hunt anyone?).
Hoax Hunters, Mad Men, Swamp Thing And The Art Of The Origin Story With Guest Blogger Michael Moreci
All this month at Biff Bam Pop we’re looking at Origin stories – from films and comics and debut albums, to authors and their work. As part of this, writer Michael Moreci has written about the origin of his new series Hoax Hunters (you can read our previous interview with Michael here). For all you aspiring comic book creators out there, this is great insight into one artists’ creative process. Without further adieu, take it away Michael:
Origin stories are boring.
There, I got that off my chest (and I even mean it, in a way).
The necessity of origins stories is an unusual thing, I think, because it’s so exclusive to comics. Not to say other mediums don’t incorporate origins into their narratives (they do), they just don’t have the same level of devotion as comics do. Let’s face it: Comics are obsessed with origins. Year One, Earth One, Season One, reboots, secret origins, on and on. It never stops.
Now, before getting any further, let me preface what I’m about to say with a simple disclosure: I will never, ever be the creator who tracks down reviewers and confronts them about a bad review. Unless the critic gets something egregiously wrong or insults a member of my family, I won’t dissuade—or worse, bully—them from holding whatever opinion they have. So there. That said, I can express some frustration I had over a few reviews of Hoax Hunters #0 in a general way for the sake of this topic.
Tales from the Longbox – The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (1983)
Every other week, Jason Shayer will highlight an issue or a run of issues pulled from the horde of comic book long boxes that occupy more room in his house than his wife can tolerate. Each of these reviews will delve into what made that issue or run significant as well as discuss the creative personalities behind the work. “Long Box” refers to the lengthy, white cardboard boxes most comics find themselves stored within – bagged, alphabetized and numerically ordered.
Amazing Spider-Man #238 (March 1983)
Writer: Roger Stern
Artists: John Romita Jr./John Romita Sr.
In retrospect, Amazing Spider-Man #238 was the most important issue of Spider-Man of the 1980s. At the time though, no one was expecting the birth of a new supervillain who would plague Spider-Man for years to come.
