Will Shetterly's Blog, page 52

Black Panther vs the Black Panthers

Nighthawks at the Diner - the nerdiest comics thing I've ever made

Anyone who recognizes all three should be treated with awe or fear, because the third is extremely obscure. I'll identify them from right to left: 1. In the cowboy hat: Nighthawk (DC Comics) 2. In the yellow mask: Nighthawk (Marvel Comics) 3. In the green trunks: Night Hawk (Chesler) | Public Domain Super Heroes

Red Son Superman versus Sovietman! plus their suits for Poser and DAZ

I read Superman: Red Son too long ago to remember why it disappointed me. I suspect I wanted to either read a fun story in an alternate world or a profound commentary on capitalism, communism, libertarianism, and authoritarianism, and I didn't get either. When I decided to recreate the character's costume, I realized something else. While I admire the Red Son Superman's design, I know it

Waku, Prince of the Bantu, Marvel's first major black hero

I've noted often that in the 1960s, Marvel was better with race and DC was better with gender. Marvel was better with race in the 1950s too. Their first black character to win cover status and an on-going series was Waku, who appeared in Jungle Tales: One regular feature in Jungle Tales, "Waku, Prince of the Bantu", starred an African chieftain in Africa, with no regularly featured

On the public domain Superman, plus a free Fleischer Superman for Poser and DAZ

Max Fleischer made Superman fly—literally. Before his Superman cartoons, Superman was limited to running faster than a speeding locomotive and leaping tall buildings with a single bound. But animating a jumping character requires a lot of drawings, so Fleischer chose to make him fly, and the comic books imitated him. After the cartoon rights reverted, DC Comics failed to renew the copyright

Are Mickey Mouse's spats and gloves racist? The argument against.

I love Ty Templeton's comics, but I think he and the people he's siding with are wrong about Mickey Mouse's spats and gloves coming from the minstrel tradition. Here's the comic: The Gloves are Off Bun Toons! And here's the condensed version of my argument in the comments: 1. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928. One year earlier, Cole Porter wrote Puttin' On the Ritz, which opens: Have you seen

Four and a half Golden Age female superheroes in modest costumes

The most famous female superhero of the Golden Age of comics, Wonder Woman, shows a bit of skin. Perhaps the next most famous, the Phantom Lady, shows even more. But just as costumes for men ranged from Namor's speedos to Batman's almost full-concealment, so did those for women. The Woman In Red could be the superhero for any very conservative religion: Nelvana was fully covered and had a

A guide to my posts on public domain superheroes of color

I made the following posts thinking there would only be a few of them, so I didn't try to organize them. Now that I may be done with them, I recommend reading them in this order: On servants, sidekicks, and partners, or why I don't put Lothar, Kato, and Tonto among the first superheroes of color The Red Mask, the first black masked hero or a white man who passed as black? The first

The Bronze Terror, a forgotten American Indian superhero. Plus Starlight? Bonus: Johnny Fox

There are enough native North American superheroes from the Golden Age to make a team. In addition to the Bird Man, Buckskin, Mantoka, and Freezum, there's the Bronze Terror: Bronze Terror: "Returning to his reservation after law school, Apache Jeff Dixon discovers that his father, Chief White Falcon, has been framed for murder. He dons a costume to fight for his father and later for the

The Bronze Terror, a forgotten American Indian superhero. Plus Starlight?

There are enough native North American superheroes from the Golden Age to make a team. In addition to the Bird Man, Buckskin, Mantoka, and Freezum, there's the Bronze Terror: Bronze Terror: "Returning to his reservation after law school, Apache Jeff Dixon discovers that his father, Chief White Falcon, has been framed for murder. He dons a costume to fight for his father and later for the