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The Art of the Fantastic Four!

David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving |

I’ve always loved the Fantastic Four. They’re Marvel’s first family, a superhero team whose very creation helped spark a new era in comic books in the early 1960s. Since then, they’ve had various incarnations on film, in cartoons, radio, video games, toys and other merchandise, and, of course, in comics. Some of my first comic book experiences were Fantastic Four issues at school and at the local library. Because of that, I’m a big fan and an avid FF collector. So to commemorate the release of their new movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps, here’s a few of my favorite examples of Fantastic Four art from over the years.

Doomed to Repeat It

David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving |

There’s a quote that’s overused. Actually, a lot of quotes are overused. But there’s a quote about history that goes “Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” This line is said so often it’s easy to forget it has an origin of its own. It was written by the Spanish philosopher George Santayana in his 1905 book The Life of Reason. In our popular interpretation of it, chronicling and teaching history takes on a greater social responsibility and becomes a kind of vaccine against nonsense, bad ideas, and evil deeds. Which all sounds wonderful!

Except… the further we go into the 21st Century (and the 2020s specifically), I’ve been wondering more if that quote is accurate? Whether historical knowledge actually prevents anything at all from happening? Or does it just trap history in a Cassandra curse we can’t or won’t escape from?

If you’re really interested in history, then you should be familiar with the fact that most people aren’t. To some, it’s just boring. To others, the more distant the less relevant. More often though, people engage with the past like a buffet restaurant where they pick and choose things they like and leave the rest. This makes national histories in particular more closely resemble the Marvel Universe where truth becomes secondary to our attachments to a specific version of a story. The Marvel analogy also holds up if you consider what happens when a beloved story is reimagined, for example, or say a character is recast. People lose their minds! They don’t like that version, so, for them, it should be ignored, discarded, or angrily railed against.

Of course, the paradox is historical knowledge has never been more accessible or abundant than it is today: in books, archives, websites, documentaries, oral history interviews, databases, etc. Yet, bad ideas and evil deeds never pause to ask for a history lesson, because they don’t care and never did. And if history’s social value is not inextricably tied to the prevention business, then what mantra articulates its worth to absolutely anyone? Humanism? Nostalgia? A list of accomplishments? An attempt to reach back and understand others? Artful descriptions for the sake of descriptions? Something to talk about at parties?

If the harsh reality of our times means knowing our past and still being condemned to repeat it, that is an arduous road to walk. The humanizing part is that for too long we’ve imagined ourselves to be just a little smarter or better informed than our ancestors, when really everyone is just making their way in life. And sometimes, unfortunately, the only way out is through.

Look! Up in the Sky!

Captain America #314

The Typewriter Inheritance

The Picture Behind a Picture

David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving |

Yesterday, I was in a frenzy of photo scanning. I was going through a huge pile of film prints, envelopes, and folders from various family members with their own unique snapshots from over the years. Scanning everything had been one of my long postponed pandemic projects, but it turns out it’s pretty easy to delay doing that indefinitely. As you might have noticed, the pandemic ended a while back. In any case, once I got going I made a lot of progress, systematically scanning these forgotten photos. One, however, forced me to pause. There was a small framed picture of my brother and his friends in high school, but nothing else before that that day had been framed. Stranger still, the back of this cheap, wooden frame had been papered over and glued, so this specific photograph probably hadn’t been removed in decades. Examining the thing, I quickly resolved to tear up the back and pry the picture out. That’s when I found it. Between the paper covering and the photo, there was a plain piece of cardboard backing held in place by movable staples. So, I moved them! Hidden from view, the other side of the cardboard had a surprisingly nice landscape on it. I was confused if that had always been there or if it was someone’s long lost art project. I don’t think I’ll ever know the answer to that one. For years, this picture frame was proudly displayed on a shelf, photo facing out, and landscape obscured. Then for even more years after that, the whole thing just sat in a box. I guess most photos end up that way even if they’re digitized. But for whatever reason, I felt some special attachment to this meaningless piece of art. It was simple and colorful and buried for so long maybe it was now miraculously imbued with greater significance. I scanned it along with the photo it accompanied, then carefully put the little picture frame back together again. I carried on with my work until just about everything was backed up and scanned. I could have thrown the frame away afterwards, but I didn’t. At least, not yet. I like the picture. And the one behind that one too.

The Typewriter Inheritance

Hell Fighters!

David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving

I picked up an old book on the street entitled Hell Fighters: African American Soldiers in World War I by Michael L. Cooper. It’s 65-pages long and about the now famous Harlem Hellfighters. It’s a nice mix of words and pictures for young readers. Inside the front cover, I found a personalized inscription from the year that the book was published.

Christmas 1997

We’ve been talking about regiments because the African American Civil War Soldier Memorial is getting underway. But we haven’t yet learned about the New York 15th! I’m glad we can learn from each other.

Love, Mom

It took a minute for me to decipher the cursive writing. Then, I searched for the recipient online. He’s a grown man now, living several states away. Would he want his old book back, I wondered. Or would another parent I know want to teach their kids about important parts of American history?

The Typewriter Inheritance

World’s Worst Ad?

David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving

The history of advertising has included many unfortunate chapters. One example of this is this newspaper ad from a Washington DC shoe store from January 1918. At the height of the First World War, Everybody’s Shoe Store bragged how it “mowes down high prices,” featuring the then recently invented tank. This find is another example of me researching something totally unrelated in old newspapers, then stumbling across a bizarre ad that is so strange you initially think you imagined it. Regrettably, I didn’t. As an epilogue, no other ads for the store were like this and it appears to have shuttered around 1929.

Pride