How to get into comics. June 10, 2022 The Golden Age of DC Comics 365 Days

hey there welcome back once again it is time for the golden age of dc comics 365 days where i take this beloved hardcover coffee table book given to me by one of my best friends about two decades ago this has been surfing my coffee table ever since and it's a great source of comic book conversation the kind we used to have back in the comic book shops and that's what i'm looking to do here recreate those conversations and that vibe i like to start off with uh a few words about the book itself there's a dis there's a link in the description last time i checked i believe it's uh about 12 or so uh if you want your own copy and it was a 2004 abrams publication written and curated by les daniels chip kid and jeff speer i use this book for its intended purpose it's a page a day i open to today's date we look at some comic book art we read the blurb and then we talk about comic books and we're going to talk about comic books every day for the rest of the year 2 and 3 p.m us eastern that's when we talk about comic books first and secondly i'd like to give you gratitude i am blessed that you have tuned in today i um i take very uh high stock in escapism and we need escapism as a necessary ingredient to flex our imaginations and in our modern day we're you we're being used more and more our fictions are being used for activism and for one-sided agenda if that's how you see it that's how i see it it's just my opinion yet um we're losing that escapism we need to forget this planet's worries just for a few moments every day and a comic book can do that it's maybe music art a tv show a movie i mean seriously don't let anyone bully you into saying that activism is is is greater than escapism because it's the opposite i mean there is a place for activism and uh but do we have to be constantly lectured and reminded no we need a quick break from this stuff we'll come back to it and then take care of the problems we can do both don't let anyone sell you on the the the illusion of non-choice and what goes great with a coffee table book and a coffee table pull up a chair and we're gonna have some freshly brewed coffee ah i have a cuppa ooh guatemalan huawei tanago a medium to dark roast mmm this is so good but let's get to it the golden age of con the golden age of dc comics runs between 1938 and 1955 the silver age 1955 um 1955 to 1970 the bronze age i'm a bronze age baby 1970 to 1985 and the copper age runs from 1985 until i say 2000 and that we were there was a millennium age between 2000 and 2015 and we're currently in a new um a new age of comics yeah since 2015. yeah and there's a conversation there as well i'd love for you to be part of that so come aboard and let's crack the book open today is june the 10th and we have got one of the most famous bald people in comic books no not me we're talking superman's nemesis lex luthor here let's look at the art neither blazing volcanoes nor flying bullets not even atom bombs or the most terrible engines of destruction devised by his enemies have ever been able to harm superman yet a mere pearl a handful a few you see it clips off that that narrative box there but there we see superman we see lex luthor very happy to be putting superman into an uncomfortable situation and so let's read this blurb and then we'll get to it do i have show i have show notes i use show notes i use show notes i have show notes huh this is story by alvin schwartz pencils by wayne boring who is a famous not so boring artist he's a famous superman artist i need to wet my whistle ah there we go inks by stan k this is from action comics number one 41 from february of 1950 and this is great because uh this is probably one of the the last appearances of of luthor because luthor vanished for a long time i'm reading this from the wiki and he came back in superboy number 59 in 1957 at the beginning of the silver age so june 10th described as a quote unquote criminal genius lex luthor has been the consummate foe of superman ever since the villain was first introduced in 1940 today luthor is depicted as a fiendish financier but for most of his career he was the archetypical mad scientist in this story luthor's secret weapon the hairless male factor is chortling over the invention of an artificial kryptonite the malevolent mineral from superman's home planet that is the only thing that can lay the hero low and the cherry on the cake is that superman has been forced to bring luthor all the exotic ingredients for the secret weapon in order to protect hostage lois lane of course superman prevails during the conclu during during the confusion some of the synthetic kryptonite is stolen by a pickpocket named danny the dip his adventures extend into the next issue a rare example from this era of dc of a continued story that's interesting because most comic books are written um in six parts like four to eventually over six issues six individual floppy magazines to be collected eventually into what we call the trade paperback and that's the the goal of the pr of a publication these days but yeah this is uh that's lex luthor and um here's an interesting tidbit i'm going to read this from the weeki [Music] um in luthor's earliest appearances he is shown as a middle-aged man with a full head of red hair less than a year later however an artistic mistake resulted in luthor being depicted as completely bald in a newspaper strip not only with superman in comic books but there were movies there were radio shows and a daily newspaper strip in the and that's where the big comics went was the daily newspaper everyone read newspapers only you know kids read funny books you know what i mean um the original era is attributed to leo nowak the studio artist who illustrated superman dailies during this period one hypothesis is that noak mistook luthor for the ultra humanite a recurring mad scientist foe of superman who in his golden age incarnation resembled a balding elderly man other evidence suggests luthor's design was confused with that of a stockier bald henchman in superman number four of spring 1940. luthor's next appearance occurs in superman number 10 may 4 may 1941 in which noack depicts him as a significantly heavier with visible jowls the character's abrupt hair loss has been made referenced to several times over the course of his history in 1960 writer jerry siegel altered luthor's backstory to incorporate his hair loss into his origin which in superboy um apparently this is a retcon retroactive continuity going back and changing origin stories why to make more room for modern stories to so we can tell more stories so like a retcon is kind of like a double-edged sword you know it cuts both ways that luthor grew up in smallville an idolized superboy and luthor being a child genius a teen genius was uh making artificial life in in his in his lab and there was an accident in a fire and he yelled out for help for superboy superboy came put out the fire but by doing that he destroyed luthor's experiment and the toxic fumes from that um infected luthor and he lost all of his red hair yeah and so luthor blamed superboy for all that calamity instead of blaming himself for taking an experiment too far and luthor is um really kind of a great he's the opposite of superman and now luthor is a lot like joker joker to batman joker is what is what we call a cipher i want to look this up real quick and get you a more succinct um uh definition um and a cipher is a um it's a character and a character let me just character aside for character well a cypher is a um is a person often a fictional character who is a blank slate and that's um so a cipher has little personality and the viewer or readers can project their own ideas and values onto that character so specifically the writer can make luthor or joker anything they need to be to suit story anything they need to be just to challenge the protagonist namely batman or superman respectively so luthor has changed over the past 82 years from mad scientist to financier to plain out evil bad guy with a with a a mechanicalized suit and kryptonite at his disposal in 2000 um he was elected president of the united states of america and that was and said really made superman mad and it was also kind of maybe or maybe not prophetic to about 16 years later i'm not i we don't get political on this station or on this show but i can't help but notice the similarities that but that was a a really good storyline in my humble opinion was the president luthor um arc that lasted for a couple of years and it had some major effects on superman but uh what do you think leave a comment in the comment section we are talking about the golden age of dc comics and we're going to be talking about comic books every day for the rest of the year so tune in tomorrow 3 p.m us eastern and we'll find out who we're talking about when we turn the page tomorrow uh we talk about spirituality here hashtag lighten up it's about enlightenment and how spirituality can help improve the quality of your daily life i'm an amateur theologian an ordained minister i love talking about spirituality so join us here i'm a professional chef i share with you my cooking hacks i have the playlist what's cooking apparently my soups are wicked popular i make daily content about superheroes and and comic books and pop culture i also have cute animal videos uh when i walk to this to the subway station in the morning i see bunnies eating their breakfast and i think it's the cutest thing and i hear a bird's song it's like a disney movie you know just the opening of a disney movie and i share that with you here so please tune in like subscribe turn on the notifications and uh you know what have a great day i'm very blessed that you're here with me right now cheers good luck namaste see you in the funny pages and we'll do this all again tomorrow at 3 p.m us eastern ciao have a good day bye

Channel: Eric O'Sullivan

Views: 50

Keywords: Sully, Rev Sully, Rev. Sully, Reverend Sully, Buy Comicbooks, Sell Comicbooks, Buy Comics, Sell Comics, Coffee, comics, comicbooks, comicbook, DC Comics, Superman, The Batman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, The Flash, Flashpoint, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Golden Age, Golden Age of Comics, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Silver Age Comics, Bronze Age Comics, MARVEL, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Charlton Comics, Fawcett Comics, Shazam, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain marvel Junior

Id: QEwU3RTBYfo

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 10 2022