Blog Archives

So not making friends here

Because in the course of dissecting an autobiographical point, I’m forced to say things you don’t wanna hear about the Wild Cards series.

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Two men

In general this blog makes the case that 1970s culture in particular was not a hive of evil ignorance as I often see it described, but then again … Read the rest of this entry

Carol Danvers spits on your grave

Yet another example of that precise gap in my superhero comics buying: purchasing Ms. Marvel #1 and following as the newsstand’s inconsistent provision allowed, then missing the whole Avengers/X-Men story, to discover it upon returning to the titles in the late 80s. Then, in retrospect, discovering the original meaning had been long erased.

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Yay Emp!

This is Doctor Xaos Comics Madness post #100! After this one, WINTER BREAK BEGINSthe next real post will arrive January 3, 2016. Stay tuned, though, for some announcements during the interim.

emp1 Read the rest of this entry

Puh-leeze!

falcon1I usually don’t blog what-happened-just-now style, but right now it fits. Today (Nov 29) featured the second time in a week, and in my whole life, that a working person who happened to be black addressed me – 50ish, white – as “boss.” Read the rest of this entry

Family values

publicspiritvirago

That’s the Sleepman’s voice-over, their son’s

Fourth and last in my series of posts about Marshal Law, specifically the 6-issue original series titled “Fear and Loathing.” The previous posts were Looking for a hero, Back from the Zone, and Unpleasantries. This one is about the villains.

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Unpleasantries

sleepmanThis is the third of my series of posts regarding the original 6-issue series Marshal Law. The two previous two were Looking for a hero and Back from the Zone. This one’s a little shy on visual content, because it’d be gross. I want to talk about rape in 1986-1988 comics, which means a shocking lot of it.

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No one joins a “cult”

which spells "Jim Jones"

which spells “Jim Jones”

Cult leader supervillains! Can you get any more evil than that? Not in comics, you can’t. But their cults are strangely vague. Read the rest of this entry

MCI misdemeanors and felonies

All right, let's get it over with.

All right, let’s get it over with.

BONUS POST: Thanks to Markku Tuovinen and his May pledge at the Doctor Xaos Patreon! Jared Sorensen once cogently explained why dungeons have doors: so the player-characters can break them down. Think about it; if you didn’t want them to do it, then you would have just put a wall there. Mind control in superhero comics is precisely the same in its purpose: so a hero can shake it off. Fully or just enough to resist doing the one single dastardly thing on which the villain’s plan hinges, either way.

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Never heard of’em

... which happen to be our very own writers and editors!

… which happen to be our very own writers and editors!

I’d been reading comics for about four years. I had read Origin of Marvel Comics, and Son of Origins, I’d struggled with The Steranko History of Comics volume 1,  I had my issues of FOOM coming in the mail, and I had an envelope stuffed with Marvel Value Stamps. I was eleven, I was finally afforded an allowance that didn’t vanish with a single candy bar, and more than anything in the world, and as far as real life is concerned, considering I’d already met Leonard Nimoy, I wanted to be in on the ground floor of a new, world-beating, mighty Marvel comic magazine. Read the rest of this entry

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