Echoes of the Cold War still ring out over this world over sixty years later. The image of the Russians as the bad guys and America as the good guys was an incredible simplification to begin with, but many, many people bought into it.

When it comes to fictional creations, the stories from that era of roughly the mid-fifties to the mid-sixties range from the incredibly complex and very human ones such as John Le Carrre's The Spy Who Came in From the Cold to stories and characters that are essentially carry-overs from the days of pulp adventures such as James Bond and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Even Rocky and Bullwinkle fought the Cold War as they were being chased by Boris and Natasha.

The public's awareness of what the Cold War actually was meant that, for a very short while, the people who wrote the stories we read and the films we see knew that the public would really eat up anything spy-related that they could find. There were so many of them (spies) that by 1966 the genre was ripe for parody and Cinema serves up Matt Helm. By 1997, spy parodies were ripe for parody and we get Austin Powers.

This happens because the Cold War has a massive presence in the mindset of the world and that mindset has never really left us. Everyone on both sides of the battle sweats out the possible consequences of men with their finger on the button. The potential for tragedy on a global scale is real and we can come so close to the brink of disaster. It is a fear that is just as real today as countries demand the right to develop their own atomic weapons.

More than anything, a good spy story reduces the massive, world-wide conflict to a level that most of us can understand. It moves a global problem right back down to the story of usually, just one person. We, as the reader or viewer, are able to grasp the conflict easier because a good spy story reassures us that a single person can make a difference in this crazy world.

The world needed spies and in 1964 Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, Don Rico and Don Heck were going to give them one of the best ever. More than almost any other comic character, the early Black Widow needs to be dropped into a historical context because doing so reminds us that, of all the Avengers, she may be the one who has traveled the farthest, developing over time into one of the deepest and most complex characters in comics.

The Black Widow debuted in issue #52 of Tales of Suspense and by 1964 there were very few real spies left in comic books. The concept of spies itself does have a somewhat decent history in comics. One of the earliest was a feature by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster called "Spy" that had first appeared in 1937 in Detective Comics #3. That series lasted, off and on, until 1944.

Fawcett had Spy Smasher during WWII but by the Silver Age his presence was minimal at best. 1950 saw the debut of King Faraday over at DC. He lasted five issues. But by 1964 he was reduced to reprints in Showcase #50 and #51 under the title I-Spy. DC had also done an issue of James Bond in Showcase #43, but that was really a reprint of a Classics Illustrated adaptation of Dr. No.

When Natasha Romanoff first appeared spies were few and far between in comics. At Marvel Sgt. Fury was still leading the Howling Commandos. A year after Natasha shows up he is leading an amazing underground government-sponsored organization called S.H.E.I.L.D. So great was the public's demand for spy stories that Stan Lee and his cohorts in literary excellence reconfigured Nick and his soldiers for espionage.

The debut of Black Widow not only meant that the Marvel universe was growing; it meant that for almost the first time, a woman was doing the fighting. Yes, there was Sue Richards, but she was part of a team. Wasp was a solid character who had debuted a year earlier, but she hadn't really taken off. Maybe she wasn't a fully developed character yet, it's hard to say. DC had Wonder Woman but for all intents and purposes the Wonder Woman of 1964 was the Wonder Woman of 1954. But from the minute The Black Widow shows up, she is a force to be reckoned with.

The cover showcases Iron Man and The Crimson Dynamo doing battle but the real story is the be3hind the, clad in an expensive mink, her face shrouded by a veil and her arms covered in full length glove, the cover blurb tells us she is "The Gorgeous New Menace." Sure, she is pointing at Iron Man, after all it is his book, but even to this day her image is so striking that your eyes immediately drift right over to her.

Iron Man himself is a product of a Cold War mentality. How often were Communists or an unnamed country looking to grab whatever Tony Stark had just invented for their own nefarious purposes? What is amazing is that it took so long for a good old Russian Femme Fatale to show up at all!

What is one of Tony Stark's greatest weaknesses? Women! She gets Tony to take her to dinner while her friend Boris goes after that rotten defector, The Crimson Dynamo.

Iron Man saves the day and The Black Widow runs away form her failure. Now she is not only worried about Stark coming after her, she has her Communist bosses on her tail for not getting what they sent her for.

From this very first issue The Black Widow neither belongs to one side or another. It is a pattern of dual allegiance that will follow her over the next few years.

After her first appearance she comes right back in Tales Of Suspense #53 to try again. Only this time there is no Boris and she is dueling with Iron Man on her own terms. As far as a costume she is in the typical clichéd uniform for women of the day, pearls, veil, fancy dress and big hair.

It's her third appearance that sets the tone for a good portion of her career. In Tales of Suspense #57 she is put up on Long Island by her Russian overlords. Once there she runs into Hawkeye. It is one-sided love at first site. She talks him into going after Iron Man and this is a request that the archer is willing to give into. After #64, she is taken back to Russia, but she realizes that, even though he may not be the most intelligent archer in the forest, she actually likes Hawkeye.

In Tales of Suspense #65 she gets a make over. Gone are the pearls and the gowns, and in their place is anew uniform with fish-nets, a cape and once again, big hair. In the next few issues and over the next year she and Hawkeye become a bit of a couple and unfortunately for her, she is kidnapped and brainwashed into coming back to the Communist side of life.

Her next important appearance occurs a short while later. While she was dealing with the entire brainwashing problem, Hawkeye had chosen to change his lifestyle from that of a villain to a hero and shows up asking to join The Avengers. In issue #29 of that title The Black Widow shows up and Hawkeye is forced to make some choices. In issue #36 Hawkeye nominates a Black Widow with a clean brain for membership. The rest of the Avengers have trust issues about this.

As the team goes out to battle an alien they all fall in battle. Eventually it is left up to Hawkeye and Black Widow. Hawkeye, as an Avenger, can't kill the Alien, but Black Widow has no compunctions about making that threat. The Alien believes she will do it and leaves. When the other Avengers come back to reality, neither Hawkeye nor Widow ever gives them the details.

This is how her long association with The Avengers begins. A touch of deceit, for no real Avenger would ever threaten to kill anyone. In her early years she is not really a member, but does stand with them over the course of quite a few good battles.

By now it is 1967 and, in the real world, the concept of a spy begins to move into parody, readers fascination with spies begins to wane. By 1967 Marvel (and Stan Lee) is quite sure that the company is on its feet and going to stay afloat by publishing comic books. In another year or so a new distribution deal opens the flood gates for Marvel as they can finally start to print as many titles as they want to.

As we leave the early Black Widow in 1967 comics are swiftly on their way to becoming the amazing hobby and the big business that we know today. Which means that characters are needed and detailed stories are needed about those characters as every year new fans are added to the Merry Marvel Marching Society. This means a solid character that resounds well with fans such as The Black Widow is going to evolve and change into the fantastic hero she is today.

After her first encounter with The Avengers she is now a hero in the Marvel Universe, but at her heart Natasha is a spy. This leads to her joining S.H.E.I.L.D for her talents in espionage are too much for Fury to pass up. Over time she breaks it off with Hawkeye and takes up a relationship with Daredevil that lasts quite a while. Eventually she breaks it off with him. As with any character that has been in print this long, it gets complicated.

One of the most important parts of her long history is her relationship with The Avengers, especially now that the new Avengers movie is clearly going to feature Black Widow as a major member of the Avengers Team. Today it is how she began that relationship with the Avengers which catch our attention. No matter what, the world needs a good spy, and she is one of the best ever seen in the pages of a comic book.

A long time ago, way before cell phones, before beepers and even preceding push button telephones, adventurous children who wanted to escape the tyranny of parental rule dreamed of escaping away to the Circus. Today circuses are almost completely unknown, but up until about 1972, almost every young man in America knew that when things got tough, they had the option of running away to the circus. As you can see in the film Roustabout, even Elvis knew this.

Young Clint Barton lost his parents in a car crash. All he had left was his brother Bernard. After the crash the two orphans were sent to children’s home. It wasn’t the best place in the world to be, so when the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders caught their eye, they took the chance to escape. When it comes to comic book origin stories, this is certainly something different than an alien sending his son to Earth as his planet exploded around him, or possibly being gifted with a power ring by a dying interplanetary policeman.

In the sixties Marvel had revolutionized comics by introducing concepts and origins that might established a very deep and quick connection to a new generation of readers. Marvel had already given super spider powers to a teenage geek, exposed a mild mannered scientist to radiation that gave him a second personality that emerged when he experienced fits of temper and they had introduced a super-smart scientist who built an amazing suit of robot armor. These heroes argued, they doubted themselves, they had girl troubles. In general the heroes behaved like people in the real world.

Clint Barton joined the circus as a roustabout. He and his brother worked hard. As time went on other performers began to train him for a lifetime under the big top. Barton was taken in by the great Swordsman. The Swordsman saw to it that young Barton received training in as many aspects of the circus as possible. Most notably, Clint learned how to handle a bow and arrow from the amazing archer Trickshot. The young escapee from the children's home was now pointed towards the big time.

Then one day Barton happened to interrupt the Swordsman when he was counting out the loot from a recent robbery. Naturally Swordsman did what any good mentor would do; he offered the young man a chance to grow rich with him. Declining the invitation, Barton and The Swordsman ended up fighting, with Barton lying near death on the floor. Swordsman disappeared. When Clint's brother Barney found out that Clint had passed up such an opportunity Barney disappeared as well.

Left with no one to count on, Cliff was taken in by the performer Trickshot. The archer brought him back to life and when Cliff was healthy, gave him even more rigorous training in the skill of archery. Unfortunately Trickshot was also an extortionist. He talked Burton in going out on a job with him. The plan was to get money form the criminal Marko. In another unfortunate occurrence Trickster killed Marko during the visit and Cliff killed one of Marko's bodyguards.

That bodyguard was also the brother who had abandoned him, Barney Burton. Appalled at his actions, Cliff and Trickster end up in a fight. The Trickster walked away, but Cliff had some problems.

Over the course of the next few years Burton, who was now calling himself Hawkeye and appearing in costume, worked in various carnivals. One day he sees Iron Man at the circus. Inspired by Tony Stark's heroic deeds, Hawkeye decides to become a crime fighter. A these things seem to happen in Clint's life, even when he thought he was doing something good, he ends up paying for it. The very first night he goes out the police figure him to be a criminal. In one second he is a wanted man.

So what do we know about Clint Barton/Hawkeye now? He is a decent guy who is trying to do the right thing. He has a good heart but his temper and ego and obsessive nature can cause problems. He is easily influenced by the authority figure in his life but as soon as he finds out that the authority figure is criminal in nature; he will stand right up to that authority figure and get into a massive fight with them, usually getting beat to within an inch of his life (at least in his early adventures). Even when he is inspired to become heroic and serve justice, he is inexplicably branded a villain.

You would image that at some point, given his experience, that Hawkeye would stop trusting those around him. It doesn't happen He meets the beautiful and talented spy and villain Black Widow and somehow she manages to convince him to take on Iron Man.

Hawkeye's humble beginnings in the circus have given rise to one of the most complex and entertaining characters in the Marvel Universe. From his first appearance in Tales of Suspense # 57, (Sept 1964) he was a fan favorite and today he is one of the longest lasting heroes in the Marvel universe. Hawkeye is one of the mainstays in the Avengers and has served that team admirably over the years, both as a leader and as a troublemaker.

Like any long lasting comic hero his history has become complex. Over time he convinced the Black Widow to switch sides, made peace with iron Man, joined the Avengers, fought with Captain America, believed that he was in love with The Scarlet Witch, took on the identity of Goliath, returned to being Hawkeye, led the Avengers on the West Coast and developed other identities.

Why has Hawkeye managed to last so long? One of the biggest reasons is the most basic. The concept of a heroic archer is as old as Greek Mythology, maybe even older. The Greeks considered great skill with a bow and arrow to be one of the highest callings possible. There is something primal and yet simple about the thought of one man with only a bow and arrow fighting for what is right. That concept easily moves through centuries of story telling through the legends of King Arthur and into modern times with Robin Hood. Another recent example would be Legolas in Lord of the Rings.

Some people wonder why, when he was first introduced, Hawkeye wasn't just given a solo title of his own. After all, the concept was very fully developed and almost everyone loves an archer. Hadn't Green Arrow managed to survive the passage from the Golden Age into the Silver?

In 1964 new heroes at Marvel were being introduced with amazing frequency at Marvel. In fact the only thing really holding Marvel back from flooding the newsstands with new titles was their distribution deal with the exact same company that distributed DC, which also happened to be DC.

This meant Stan and the bullpen had to place any new heroes into the eight titles they could distribute a month. Ironically these real world restrictions helped solidify and unify the Marvel universe. Fans not only has a limited number of titles to pick up every month, which made it easier for them to buy each one, but the characters that populated the books  were forced to interact with each other because very few of them had solo titles.

This led to Hawkeye's origin being inextricably linked in with Iron Man. Stan Lee had to put Hawkeye somewhere and Iron Man may have been the most logical fit at the time. By the end of the decade Marvel had arranged to get much better distribution which led to a new explosion of Marvel on the stands.

Today Hawkeye is one of the most consistent and interesting characters in the Marvel Universe. Others may be more popular or be cool among the super-hip, Hawkeye transcends it all. His loyalty to the Avengers pays off this spring with his appearance in the new Avengers film.

Hawkeyes future was set in stone when he stood up to The Swordsman. In his heart he is good. And nothing can keep a good man down. Not even a communist wench like The Black Widow.

Catwoman has never failed to do anything less than captivate or confuse the man who has chased her since the spring of 1940. Her appearances in any title are guaranteed to cause a spike in sales. For more than the last decade she has built a massive audience in her own books. She is one of the fullest and most well-rounded characters in comic history.

Yes, Wonder Woman has more history, a golden lasso, an invisible plane, Etta Candy and Steve Trevor, but The Mighty Amazon is removed from the average person. Through many of her incarnations she has walked with Gods.

Catwoman has never been anything less than an adult and real person. And besides, everyone knows that villains are more fun. Especially when they straddle the thin line between villain and hero with as much skill as Catwoman does. That ambiguity makes her all the more attractive and inviting.

Over the years the story of her origin has grown and become more detailed, but the essence of who she is as a person— the core of her character—was there right from the beginning. Selina Kyle has been by Batman's side since his earliest days. Batman #1 not only holds the first appearance of The Joker, but it also held Catwoman's first appearance as well.

That first story may have lacked a proper name (she was called "The Cat") and it may have lacked a traditional comic book costume, but it truly holds it all holds everything about Catwoman that would make her great. In the story of a jewelry robbery at sea we see her confidence, her skill at deception, a calculating burglary and her willingness to do what it takes to get the job done. The story also makes it very clear that there is an attraction between her and Batman right from the start.

Her next appearance drives home the idea that she is unsure about how she feels for Batman. In Batman #2 (Summer 1940) she is seen with The Joker in a new and untitled story. Still without a proper costume, The Cat steals the jewelry from the Joker but as the Clown Prince threatens the life of Robin, she does the unexpected. She offers up her bounty if The Joker will spare the life of the Boy Wonder. She is last seen diving from the bottom of the rope ladder that hangs from the Bat-Plane. This story is also significant because it is the first time that she is directly referred to as "The Cat-Woman". The hyphen in her name would disappear in Batman #10.

In the space of her first two appearances we are given the entirety of who she is. Batman wants her and she loves jewels but she doesn't want to take them home at the expense of Robin's life. Every detail of her life that has been built up over the next seventy years is only icing.

Bob Kane has said that her character and appearance was inspired by both the famed actress Jean Harlow and Kane's second cousin by marriage, Ruth Steel. Given how much has been documented about Bill Finger's involvement in the origins of Batman, Robin and the Joker, it is more than likely that Finger played a part in Catwoman's evolution as well.

Batman #3 (Winter 1940) features one of the most bizarre costumes that Catwoman has ever worn. The splash panel for "The Batman vs. The Cat-Woman" shows her running across a rooftop wearing the head of a cat. She sports an orange dress and a crimson cape. Near the end as Batman attempts to put her in custody she pulls him in and kisses the obviously startled hero. As soon as she does she pushes him away and makes her escape.

Her history after these first three appearances begins to grow. By 1951 she has become Selina Kyle, a name that would stay with her until the present day. Catwoman was a hit from that first exchange due to her distinct and over-present sexuality. That sexuality was deemed in appropriate by the Comics Code Authority and as a result, Catwoman did not appear in a Batman title from September 1954 until November 1966. While that incredible heat would be toned down as times and the characters change over the next fourteen years, the template had been set. While she disappeared when the Comic Code Authority came along, she came back with a vengeance thanks to television.

It is impossible to discuss any history of Catwoman without bringing up her appearance in television and on screen. The 1966 debut of the Batman TV series changed television and comic history. While the advent of the Silver Age brought back many comic fans as well as making new ones along the way, nothing could have predicted the effect that the Batman TV show would have on the hobby. Since she was essentially absent from the books due to her sex appeal, it is ironic that Julie Newmar's sultry portrayal of her is what brought her back to the page. Newmar's incredible appeal also brought sons and fathers together as they both watched the show for different reasons. As the show went on Catwoman would be played by two other very appealing actress, Eartha Kitt (Season 3) and Lee Merriwether (Batman: The Movie), it is still Newmar that brought the character back into the public's consciousness.

In the eye of the general public Tim Burton's 1989 Batman reminded everyone that the campy nature of the TV series was no longer applicable. Catwoman was such a strong character that Burton made her a very important part of the sequel, Batman Returns. Michelle Pfeiffer's take on the character practically burnt the screen down. The popularity of the film also sparked even more of demand for Catwoman on the printed page. In 1993 she was given her first continuing series and it lasted 96 issues. Since then she has been a prominent part of not only Batman's world but the general DC Universe as well.

Today Catwoman stands to take another big leap in the consciousness of the public as the third Dark Knight movie; The Dark Knight Rises gets ready to debut in May of this year. Anne Hathaway has been cast at Selina and from the publicity and pictures from the set; she is going to remind everyone that Catwoman is the greatest woman in comic history.

The most recent poster for The Dark Knight Rises has a shadowy figure walking away from Batman's broken cowl. Those who read Batman on a regular basis know that this is Bane, one of the most spectacular villains created in the last twenty years. The image of the broken cowl suggests that Batman is done for.

As soon as this poster hit a good number of people in the press seem to think that the demise of Batman is exactly what director Christopher Nolan and crew have in mind for next summer's blockbuster release.
Which brings to mind, who is Bane? And why does he get to kill Batman when The Joker didn't?

Second question first. The Joker can't kill Batman because there would be no one for him to goof off with any more. The Joker knows that. He needs Batman like the flower needs the rain. He can't kill him. What would happen after he knocked the Caped Crusader out of the picture? Retirement to a beach with a bucket of Coronas to his left? Maybe Skiing in Aspen?

So that leaves Bane, possibly the most powerful villain Batman has ever faced, to do the job. A massive persona in both mind and body, Bane is every bit the perfect match for Batman. While those who see the poster and the photographs that have been taken from the set of the film will marvel at his physique, Bane is no fool. He spent a lot of time honing on his mind, as well as his biceps.

Bane started young. A native of the Caribbean Republic of Santa Prisca, he spent his early years in jail. His father, Sir Edmund Dorrance, is also better known as King Snake. This master of the martial arts made his first appearance in 1991 in Robin #2. One night, while working with local anti-communist rebels in Santa Prisca, his camp was attacked by stooges working for the local government that King Snake was looking to help topple.

While gunfire tore around him he saw looked for the young rebel woman he had been intimate with. When he saw here she appeared to be dead. Thinking the worst, he took off assuming she was dead. As it happens she was not only still living, but pregnant with the Bane.

Seething with anger that King Snake had escaped the local militia, the corrupt government decided to award a life sentence to King Snake in absentia. Lacking Snake himself, they passed that sentence on to that both Bane and his mother. As a result Bane spent a good number of his early years behind bars in a prison cell in Santa Prisca. His mother passed away at age six. The prison officials simply threw the body of his mother into shark-infested waters as he watched. From there, his anger and rage only grew. With the help of a few other prisoners as well as a Jesuit priest who schools him in a more traditional sense, Bane develops his first class mind into a first grade weapon.

At one point Bane served ten years in solitary confinement but this only added to his personal determination and significantly increased his mythic status inside the prison walls. When he came out he was atop the prison hierarchy, so powerful that the other prisoners would follow his word instead of the Warden's.

As the Warden and other officials, watched his rise to the top of prison society, they grew worried and eventually decided that he had to go. They forced him to volunteer for an experimental drug program. The drug they injected him with was called Venom. It had killed every one of its other test subjects and nearly does the same to Bane. But through sheer force of will he survives. Once he begins to regain his health he finds that his muscles now look almost freakish in nature and his stamina is increased as well. While not super-human, he is definitely knocking on the door of that classification.

One unfortunate side effect is that he now needs the drug Venom delivered into his system every twelve hours. To deal with the need he develops a costume, which will feed him the drug in regular intervals. This explains the system of tubes that grace his side as well as the head mask which helps keep him alive.
Bane is the creation of Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Graham Nolan. The villain was originally designed along the lines of the pulp hero Doc Savage, if he was viewed through a very dark looking glass. While Bane and Doc shared the qualities of discipline, self-motivation and highly developed skills, Doc used his for good and Bane didn't.

Denny O'Neil is also associated with the creation of Bane, although his input is generally acknowledged to be a bit unclear. What is certain is that he introduced the concept of Venom and the island of Santa Prisca into the DC Universe. The island first appears during an early Question story line and Venom is featured in Legends of the Dark Knight storyline issues #16-20 (which are collected in the TP Venom).

Bane's first appearance was in Batman: Vengeance of the Bane #1 (January 1993). Most famously he is the man who broke Batman's back. Since then, Bane has gone to become fully incorporated into the DC Universe. Eventually he finds out that King Snake is his father, which causes some real problems! Bane also shows up during Infinite Crisis. Recently he encountered Hourman, and during that battle it was revealed that the earliest days of research into Hourman's Miraclo pill allowed for the creation of Venom.

So why does Bane get to kill Batman, if that is in fact what will happen in the film? For our money it has to do with the detailed and very deep characterization created by Dixon, Moench and Nolan.

The character has an origin that is also similar to Batman's. They both found themselves without a father at an early age. Bruce Wayne had the shelter of money and Bane, for better or worse, had the shelter of a prison environment in which they both could grow. Both men were absolutely driven and seem to poses a will of steel. They have trained themselves rigorously for years while honing their intellect and mental skills to the peak of human perfection.

When it comes to fiction they are also from the same gene pool. Doc Savage predates Batman and Superman. A read of any Doc Savage storyline from the early thirties will reveal the influence that the character had on Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, Bob Kane and Bill Finger (as well as anyone else creating comics in the late thirties and early forties). Both Bane and Batman are part of the tradition of self-made men driven by something that almost everyone else doesn’t seem to hold in their DNA.

Bane and Batman have both walked the same road. The Joker hasn't. He is a freak. In the grandest themes of most fiction, most men kill themselves. Either through the choices they have made or their own foolish behavior. Batman and Bane are close to being the same man. One of them kills willingly and the other doesn't.

Bane is an amazingly complex villain who matches Batman on almost every single level. The film looks to be every bit as good as the last installment. We won’t know if Batman dies during the course of the film until next July. Until then it is sure going to be fun to speculate what Nolan has in store for us.

Barney Google: Gambling, Horse Races and High-Toned Women!
IDW Publishing
$39.99

With eyes that jumped out of the page and into the reader's lap and also blessed with an ever-present cigar hanging out the side of his mouth, Barney Google may the perfect image for the age of prohibition. Sure there was F. Scott Fitzgerald but the people he wrote of were more often than not way too pretty as well as rich while every one of them seemed to hang back in either a state of ennui or envy. And more importantly he couldn't draw a funny horse with one-tenth the skill of Billy DeBeck. In order to appreciate Hemingway you had to hang out in France with people who, were once again suffering from ennui or still reeling from the horrible shock of The Great War. And while Hemingway may have drawn better horses than Fitzgerald, they still weren't Spark Plug.

DeBeck deserves to mentioned in the same breath as those greats for he wrote of an America that was close to the front door of millions of people, an America that a lot of people were just discovering for the first time. In the twenties our country was not only dealing with a massive amount of immigrants it was also in the process of moving from a rural-based economy to an urban setting where people lived tightly together and poverty may only be one block over. Millions flocked to this country from overseas and while many did in fact go west, a good number of them stayed behind in New York, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Chicago. And Barney Google lived in a city.

The city had crap games, ever-present police, wives that couldn't find their no-good husbands, restaurants, con-men, train stations, scams and hot little girls who all seemed to carry a look of innocence and baffle-eyed wonder. There was also a race track near by where there was always action to be had and always trouble to be found. This is where Barney Google lived and thrived.

Last year IDW and Yoe Studios! published a beautifully bound collected hardcover which showcases the first years of Barney Google as a strip proper. The character had first appeared in 1919 but it is more accurate to begin a retrospective of the character and strip by starting in 1922 and continuing through out that entire year. When he was first seen in 1919 inside a conventional straight multiple panel strip, Google was a tall and thin man. As time went on DeBeck modified the character until he reached his much more familiar stature as a short everyman.

For that is who Google really is, a guy just trying to get by. Sure he has a smart retort to a dumb waiter and little patience when dealing with a stupid clerk or a dumb friend, but in the end he was a lot closer to normal than many other comic characters at the time. As absurd as his appearance may be, he was still rooted in a reality that readers could understand.

He was drawn by a master-craftsman who exaggerated his physical traits in a style that only served to drive home the punch-line found at the end of every strip. In that end he had the same problems and concerns as the people reading the strip did. And this is what brought people back day after day. They saw themselves in Barney Google.

IDW has printed each strip in a full page style that reminds us how much modern readers have lost in their lives when newspapers began shrinking their comic pages about fifty years ago. The early days of cartooning (as many called it at the time) allowed for the publishing of a good-sized strip that fully captured the reader’s attention. Every strip in this volume is clear and every detail to be found in DeBeck’s wonderful art is highlighted by printing it as the artist intended it to be seen.

In his early years DeBeck kept Barney in a four-panel, punch-line-at-the end format and the style serves the character well. It helps that by the time Google appeared DeBeck was an experienced newspaper and cartoon artist. From the very start each strip sets up a nice joke at the end. Whether it is a reaction, a verbal retort or a piece of vaudevillian slapstick, DeBeck always closes with a winner.

His line is direct and never manages to overwhelm his panels with too much "artistry" while still retaining a style that, as Craig Yoe notes in his highly enjoyable introduction "ranks with such greats as Frank Frazetta, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Heinrich Kley, Charles Dana Gibson, Reed Crandall, Edgar Degas, Lou Fine, David Ingres and Milo Manara."

For me, I see a bit more of Gibson than anyone else. Especially when a flapper shows up or in some of the fashions that the older, more matronly women are seen wearing. Still, Yoe is right on the money when he puts DeBeck in the same league as those more familiar names. There is a minimalism to his backgrounds that creates the impression of a much bigger city that fills the panel while never detracting form the people in the front. When he needed to DeBeck could also create a complete environment to flesh out his storyline. In late October 1922 and into November of that same year he takes Barney and Spark Plug out to sea. The scenes on the boat are crowded but so balanced your eye never feels like it is being overwhelmed.

The book has been edited and designed by Yoe and produced by Clizia Gussoni. The love that they have for Google's history shines through ever page. Yoe doesn't miss a note when looking for as much as can be found in the evolution of both Google and DeBeck's career ands life. Especially enlightening is his recounting of how songwriter Billy Rose went about creating on of the biggest song hits of 1923, Barney Google with the Goo-Goo-Googley eyes. Rose's approach to his song-writing work was as deliberate as Neil Sedaka, Carol King or Don Kirshner and a hundred others were when they went after the top-forty teen market forty-odd years later.

Yoe and Gussoni make sure that the work of DeBeck is placed in a proper historical context which only adds to the enjoyment found in IDW’s book. Artist Richard Thomson’s introduction incorporates his own take on Google and Spark Plug while managing to cram an entire art lesson into four panels, just like DeBeck crammed an entire life into four panels.

The book also contains the first Barney Google strip from June 17, 1919 and it serves an interesting comparison to the character we see three years later.  This is just one of the many features found in the introduction. There is also a good number of collectibles that remind us how important cross-marketing has been in comic history. Just like today where the Simpsons and Family guy move into a massive range of products such as figures and toys and DVDs, early cartoonists were also trying to do the same.
If you can get your character picked up by the Syndicate and into a strip the next step is toys and as the century moved forward, cartoons on the big screen. Yoe provides an overview of Google’s career on the Broadway stage and in cartoons and also finds a connection between DeBeck and Walt Disney. Hakes American and Collectibles have contributed a detailed image of a rare windup tin toy that dates to 1923-1924 and comes from Germany. The editor makes sure that the work is placed in a proper historical context which only adds to the enjoyment found in DeBeck's work.

The introduction is followed by a scrapbook of photographs and images and rare drawings form DeBeck’s life. Again they only serve to enhance the work that he did as we see DeBeck on the town in a tuxedo and at the board with his head turned towards the camera smiling.

From the colorful hardcover to the attention shown to each page in this volume, Barney Google is not only a celebration of one of comics most successful and fun characters, it is also a reference book for anyone who ever wondered what the twenties really looked like, especially if you were a gifted cartoonist.

Radio talks directly to you. Your mind fills in the blanks with what you can't see, allowing you to actively participate, to indulge your imagination. That is the main reason that radio has never disappeared. It may have moved off earth and into space with satellites, or over to the internet, but at its core, radio allows you to participate in a way that no other medium can ever do. The modern equivalent is the massive success of books on tape. Only radio offers the listener so much more.

In a recent interview Tom Brown, CEO of Radio Archives told CPG what radio means to him.

"From the fast talking DJs that I heard in my younger days to the radio dramas and adventure shows that we deal with every day here at work, radio never lets me down. Radio makes me feel a part of the action in a way that movies, TV and video games never really do."

He mentions the company's recent live adaptations of pulp stories of The Spider as a prime example. "As you listen to these audio books there is something about the urgency in the actor's voice, the slight turn of a phrase that you wouldn't have thought of if you were reading the story. There are the sound effects and the music that surrounds everything that really brings me into the story. The action just doesn't let up. Not having the visuals allows your mind to work on another level. You fill in the blanks on your own. Radio makes you part of the action like nothing else."

It is exactly for these reasons that radio has never faded away. The excitement of the radio is grabbing new listeners every day. In fact, the newest form of electronic mass communication, the internet, is helping to fuel a resurgence of interest in one of the oldest forms of electronic mass communication, the radio.

"When I ask new customers how they found us they will often tell me that they heard an old radio show on another site, maybe just a three minute clip, and they just had to hear more," says Brown. "What amazes me is when I take a phone order from someone new and I find out that they are just seventeen. You’d figure that someone that young is only going to be into video games or DVDs, but they tell me they found a program like Space Patrol on a fan site and just had to hear more."

Brown started Radio Archives over eleven years ago in order to bring the programs he loved to fans everywhere. After a career in business finance he found himself able to retire early. Unsure what to do with his newly found free time, he realized there were two things that he loved more than almost anything else, radio and high quality audio. He had been a hobbyist in both for years. Today the company is specializing in restorations of old time radio, pulp fiction and a new Will Murray's Pulp Classic Line of audio books.

"When I was younger, during the late fifties and early sixties, I worked at a TV station. Everyone else was standing around watching the action, but I was up in the sound booth. I loved the sound, high quality audio. Not seeing the action in front of the cameras didn’t bother me one bit."

Once formed, the priority of Radio Archives was to bring the best of old time radio to the fan in as high a quality format as possible. Brown tells CPG what they had to do in order to achieve their goal.

"First we seek out the network master recordings on 16" transcription disks. After cleaning and transferring the disks, we process the radio shows using the highest quality $40,000 CEDAR hardware to remove clicks, crackle and scratches. Then we manually we go through every second of the radio show and repair all defects. This takes 8 hours for every 1 hour CD and that is after we have found the master source recordings and processed it with CEDAR hardware.

He continues. "If you get a show from Radio Archives, we have cleaned it up and done everything possible to present the original work in the best light possible."

Collectors responded to the quality of Radio Archives releases and as time has gone on the company have been able to expand into brand new productions which they are calling audio books. "The first two featured Doc Savage. Our newest one, the third in the series is The Spider. The character was the third most popular pulp hero in print. He fell right behind Doc Savage and The Shadow. But unlike The Shadow, and to a lesser extent, The Spider hadn't really ever found a home on radio before."

The decision to adapt The Spider followed the success that Radio Archives was having selling the modern adaptations of Doc Savage. In the mid-eighties Producer-director Roger Rittner of the LA-based Variety Arts Radio Theatre, working with NPR, had brought Doc Savage to the airwaves. These shows proved to be one of the consistently best selling titles that Radio Archives has in its vast catalog.

"The Doc Savage series was done beautifully. When we got the license for The Spider, we knew we had a lot to measure up to. We contacted Roger Rittner to come in and work on them and he jumped at the chance. We knew that we had something special."

"Spider stories were often over the top. Rittner has really translated that energy into the new books. There are lots of sound effects. It is amazing to hear. Acting as narrator and primary actor, Nick Santa Maria gives a performance that is perfectly suited to the fast paced audio adventures. Working with Nick is Robin Riker. She played Pat Savage in the Adventures of Doc Savage adventures for NPR. Our customers site Pat as their favorite actress in the new audio books."

The success of their first Spider offering bodes well for new releases. "In addition to releasing the new audio books of the original Doc Savage audio books by Will Murray, we are planning on doing three or four of the Spider books every year. These are considered the enhanced books. There is so much in the way of music and sound effects. We are going to continue to do these books until we are through all 118 original stories."

The success of the new Will Murray Audio Books is only building on the other shows available through Radio Archives. They have a massive catalog of older radio shows available through their site.

"Old time radio has always had 12 categories of programs. These include comedy, detectives, adventure etc. Of the twelve categories detectives has always been the most popular. But we also have really strong sales in comedy, drama, horror and especially science fiction."

"With the arrival of the new audio books we decided to add a thirteenth category to our listings: Pulp Radio. These are fast paced adventure stories with heroes who are strong-minded and larger than life. Sometimes the categories can cross, such as detectives or science fiction. But the idea of pulp characters needed their own identifying header to help customers navigate through our listings."

Given the excitement over the action orientated series Brown is quick to remind us that other categories are doing well. "Our best selling comedy is Fibber McGee and Molly. We recently have found five hundred shows that may not have been heard before. We have been releasing these over the last few years."

Brown has a special respect for some of the more obscure shows. "Calling All Cars from the thirties is a great one. It is a bit similar to the old Broderick Crawford TV show from the fifties, Highway Patrol. It is almost the template for all the police procedural shows that have ever followed, including the CSI and Law & Order shows that are currently on TV. Calling All Cars came from William M. Robson, who was the award winning producer of Suspense and lot of other high quality shows that came later. This is the show where he broke into the business and you can see how what made him a great producer was there from the start."

In science fiction Brown mentions a real oddity. "Planet Man is not well known but it is so over the top that I can't believe it. The sound effects are pretty darn good for that one. The entire production, by any standards, is just a bucket of fun. In horror the I believe that Weird Circle is very over looked by even the best of fans. A lot of them are public domain stories by Poe and the dramatizations, music and sound effects are among the best I have ever heard."

There is one show that really stands out for Brown. "From the streets of Cairo I like the show Rocky Jordon. Jack Moyles, the star was very much like the Bogart in Casablanca and I have to say that the entire series is highly influenced by the film Casablanca. The show tells the stories of a mystery detective in North Africa during the thirties and forties."

In addition to the audio books and classic radio shows, Radio Archives also showcases printed pulp fiction. From The Shadow to The Spider and over to Doc Savage, they have a good number of hard to find titles available.

Joining the older books, Radio Archives is about to announce that they are moving into publishing original works as well. As we were coming to the end of our interview with Mr. Brown, he told CPG that, "In the next few days we are getting ready to announce that we are opening a Pulp Bookstore. In fact, we are planning on moving into printing originals very soon." Information about that bookstore should be up at Radio Archives by the time we post this interview.

If you have never heard how much a good radio show can grab and entertain a listener or fan, please visit Radio Archives. They have a lot of samples and each and every one of their descriptions is incredibly detailed. For complete information on everything they offer, you can find them at www.radioarchives.com.

October has been a good month for collectible sale on eBay. Some of the highlights from the month thus far include:

- Steve Ditko's original art for page #12 of Amazing Spider-Man #6 sold for $35,000. The eight panel page features a great battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus.

- Captain Action Steve Canyon Uniform from 1966 sold for $924. Created by Ideal Toys, Captain Action was one of the very earliest and most successful action figures marketed at young boys. What made Captain Action so special was that you could buy uniforms for the figure that crossed company lines. Among the heroes available as extra costumes were Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, The Phantom and Aquaman, just to name a few. These figures were available in two waves, the first in 1966, and the second in 1967. As part of that first wave, a Steve Canyon box set is one of the harder sets for a collector to find. The box was listed as in mint condition and held all inserts and accessories.

- Featuring the first meeting of The Hulk and The Thing, a CGC 9.4 copy of Fantastic Four #12 realized $48,201. This copy is registered as part of The Saginaw Collection. The book features Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers cover and art with a story by Stan Lee.

- The original art for page 11 of V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, recently sold for $5,844. The page features V and Evey in the Shadow gallery for the first time. It page also holds appearances by Mr. Prothero , the "Voice of Fate."

- A copy of the first issue of Green Lantern from the fall of 1941 recently realized $11,000. The book, famous for its iconic cover by Howard Purcell featuring a saber-bearing villain attacking Alan Scott while the power battery frames the two, has been graded 7.5 by CGC. According to the CGC Census there are only six other copies graded higher.

- A near mint Mego Palitoy Robin UK action figure recently sold for $675. The figure is still on its card.

Blondie: The Courtship and Wedding, Complete Daily Comics 1930-1933
IDW Publishing

Eighty years in and Blondie is still going strong. Even though she has anchored one of the strongest and most durable strips in comic history, she is often taken for granted by those who read her. My Mom and Dad both love her and have been reading the strip for at least sixty-five years. But neither of them was aware of her storied past.

When I told them about Blondie's history as a street-wise little flapper and Dagwood's history as the disinherited son of a Railroad magnate, they were stunned. Any other image of Blondie than the overly familiar idea that she is the near-perfect suburban American housewife was beyond their ken.

IDW's beautiful reproduction of her earliest adventures in Blondie: The Courtship and Wedding, Complete Daily Comics 1930-1933 will open their eyes. In this wonderful reprinting we are reminded that in her earliest appearances, Blondie was much closer to the tradition of pretty girl strips than the domestic comedy she evolved into.

The tradition of pretty young women in newspaper comic strips had basically started with Polly and her Pals in 1912 and continued through Winnie Winkle in 1920 right into the strip Chic Young drew before he created Blondie, Dumb Dora. Any evidence of a suburban housewife Blondie would evolve into is still years away. Instead, in IDW's reprint of her first three years we see a hot young woman dealing with the world around her.

This is a perfect book for an older fan to discover the true history behind their lovable housewife. At the other end of the age spectrum it is also the perfect book for a new, much younger reader to find that Blondie was once as radical a youth as they might perceive themselves to be in 2011.

Each daily strip in this volume is crystal clear and the detail of Young's line, and the work of those who he hired such as Alex Raymond (1931), is beautiful to look at. (The Sunday Blondie strips were not part of the daily continuity). IDW sets the highest standards possible for quality in the world of newspaper strip reprints and this is among their best looking volumes ever.

Blondie's early run is a time capsule look at America at the dawn of the depression. That is if you were really rich. As created by Chic Young, Blondie gave the reader a look into a world most could only dream of at the time, the world of the really rich; a world that most of the strip's regular readers had little hope of ever really seeing in 1930.

But more than anything else that was crucial to the strips longevity, Young created strong characters that readers could easily identify with. These were characters that could be read every day, year after year and never become tired or boring. They could grow with the reader and change as the years, and America, advanced across the decades.

Before creating Blondie, Young was known as a very strong cartoonist. He had already experienced success with another strip pretty-girl daily comic strip, Dumb Dora and was making good money for the Syndicate.

The strip was popular, but Young bristled when King Features Syndicate refused his request for a raise. Sure of his own skills and worth as an artist and writer, he left Dora and than went on vacation. When he returned Young spent a few weeks creating Blondie. His next step was to take the early strips to the very same Syndicate that had refused his earlier request for a raise. The very same editor who had turned him down for a raise made a deal with him within an hour.

This is all covered in detail inside the thorough and detailed essay about the origins of Blondie as written by noted comic historian Brian Walker. Walker and IDW have fleshed out the essay with a wide range of original art as well as early publicity work that was created by the Syndicate and Young to help sell the strip.

The highlight of the book may be the crisp and clean reproduction of the original art for the February 17, 1933 wedding of Blondie and Dagwood. It serves as a perfect example of how good an artist Young and his assistants actually were. Walker's writing puts the strip in perfect historical perspective and also serves as a reminder of what it took for a strip off the ground in those early days of newspaper syndication.

As mentioned earlier, the characters we know today are radically different than the ones that debuted in 1930. When she first appeared Blondie herself was street-wise poor near-waif who was out for a good time. But she is still a woman who conducted herself with a strong feel for what was right and what was wrong.

Her self-assurance in the world around her is evident in the very first week of strips. She is neither intimidated by wealth nor is she impressed with social standing. When Dagwood points out the woman that his parents want him to marry, Blondie responds by telling him "It's up to you, Dagwood, to decide which of us you'd be happiest with." And she means it.

There isn't a note of insincerity in the way that creator Chic Young has written the character. It is the very same woman who would eighty years later be leading a family through the battles of every day life. Her consistency as a character, regardless of her age, is another example of how smart Young was as a writer.

Dagwood, as originally written, was the son of a millionaire railroad magnate. He can be a bit naïve and occasionally oblivious to what is going on around him, but he knows this. He loves Blondie. When his mother and father heard that he was determined to marry Blondie, they threatened to disinherit him. The conflict of the snobs vs. the outcasts (such as Blondie) is what fuels the first three years of the strip's run. That conflict is the exact same comedic idea that runs through the classic film Caddyshack. It may not be as wild, but Young makes a goldmine out of it.

In the three years that lead to their wedding, Young creates a rich and full world that is populated with quite a few memorable characters. While she was in love with Dagwood, Blondie still had other beaus. But none has the sparkle of Dagwood. And Blondie knows it.

Dagwood's parents are as stuffy and condescending as you would expect from people so rich. Their friends are even worse. Blondie deals with all of them with a smile and usually closes out each daily with a quip that deflates the pomposity of those around her.

While the characters are different than the ones we know today, Young's strong and sure line is there from the beginning. One of his stock gimmicks is the use of punctuation, stars or lines to emphasize reactions. He was an expert at extending the action outside of the last panel by throwing a few well placed stars and lines right after Blondie's little smart-alleck remark.

Another stock gag in his repertoire was having a character being knocked off their feet as a response to something Blondie (and occasionally someone else) has said. When Mr. Bumpstead leaves his feet at the end of that first week, Young is setting a template that Mr. Dithers and Dagwood would be following eighty years later.

And as time-worn as that gag may be, we still smile when we see it.

Because she is so familiar to so many of us, and because she translated to well into mediums such as Radio and Film, many forget how skilled an artist Young and his associates really were. In the early years he gives Blondie such a perfect sense of fashion that he rivals anything that would follow in strip known for their portrayals of women's fashions such as Winnie Winkle and Brenda Starr.

At its heart Blondie is a comic strip equivalent of a familiar radio or TV sit-com. As it is reprinted in the IDW collection it reminds us how much that theatrical convention found root in comics and than evolved as radio and TV eventually supplanted comic strips in the public consciousness.

Those who may dismiss the strip as pedestrian or boring should take a look at Blondie's early years. They are in for a real surprise.

Illustrated by Michael Turner, on 11x17 Aspen art board, a half-page splash of art from the acclaimed Superman/Batman series featuring the first ever fully costumed and full body appearance of Supergirl recently sold for $7,000 on eBay.

According to the seller "This best selling series also showcased Turner's first ever sequential foray into the world of DC comics and set the stage for the long awaited return of Supergirl after nearly a 20 year absence! Originating from Superman/Batman issue #12 page 17, this stunning page also features several shots of Superman."

A copy of Batman #232 graded 9.6 by CGC recently brought $1,000 on eBay. The issues features a Neal Adams cover with interior art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. It also contains the first appearance of Ra's Al Ghul.