Showing posts with label Luke Cage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luke Cage. Show all posts

Friday, February 3, 2023

Friday Fun: CALVIN

The Black Panther was not the first Black Marvel character to get a cover-featured series!
He wasn't even the second!
He was the third!
First was Luke Cage, who received his own title...
...and was the star of his own Netflix series!
Note: Though the series ended, three of the stars have gone on to headline other shows...
Simone Missick (Misty Knight) on All RiseMike Colter (Luke Cage) on Evil and Rosario Dawson (Clare Temple/Night Nurse) on the upcoming Ahsoka!
(BTW, Luke Cage is now available on Disney+!)
The second character was...
WHO???
Several months before Prince T'Challa took over a reprint book, Jungle Action, and began a memorable series that served as part of the plot of the billion-dollar blockbuster movie...
...this character took over another reprint book and began a series that nobody remembers!
You can read every never-reprinted tale featuring Calvin and his buddies HERE!
What makes the strip even more fascinating, beyond the vaudeville-level humor, is the identity of the writer-artist behind it!
"Kevin Banks" was not a pseudonym for an already-established creative, but an editorial staffer at Marvel in the early 1970s who received his "big break" with this strip!
Trivia: Kevin was the first (and so far, onlyMarvel creator to have a head shot illustration on an on-going series!
Even the ever-amazing comics researcher Nick Caputo could find little about the mysterious Mr Banks, as seen HERE.
What did Banks did after working at Marvel?
Did he work in advertising?
Become an art instructor?
Switch careers and become an accountant or fireman?
We may never know the answer...

BTW, this is our 5,000th post!

Friday, February 5, 2021

Friday Fun CALVIN: Marvel's First African-American Humor Character!

The Black Panther was not the first Black Marvel character to get a cover-featured series!
He wasn't even the second!
He was the third!
First was Luke Cage, who received his own title...
Note: Though the series has ended, two of the stars have gone on to headline new CBS series!
Simone Missick (Misty Knight) on All Rise and Mike Colter (Luke Cage) on Evil!
Plus Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple/Night Nurse) is appearing on The Mandalorian!
The second character was...
WHO???
Several months before Prince T'Challa took over a reprint book, Jungle Action, and began a memorable series that served as part of the plot of the billion-dollar blockbuster movie...
...this character took over another reprint book and began a series that nobody remembers!
[You can read every never-reprinted tale featuring Calvin and his buddies HERE!]
What makes the strip even more fascinating, beyond the vaudeville-level humor, is the identity of the writer-artist behind it!
"Kevin Banks" was not a pseudonym for an already-established creative, but an editorial staffer at Marvel in the early 1970s who received his "big break" with this strip!
Trivia: Kevin was the first (and so far, onlyMarvel creator to have a head shot illustration on an on-going series!
Even the ever-amazing comics researcher Nick Caputo could find little about the mysterious Mr Banks, as seen HERE.
What did Banks did after working at Marvel?
Did he work in advertising?
Become an art instructor?
Switch careers and become an accountant or fireman?
We may never know the answer...

Monday, February 1, 2021

Monday Madness AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY in A Tale Twice-Told!

What do this comic...
...and this comic...
...have in common...besides both being published as a joint project by Marvel Comics and the American Cancer Society?
Here's the inside covers from both books...
1982
1998
Figure it out?
Here's one more comparison...the back covers from both books...
1982
1998
Isn't it odd Luke seems to have forgotten cigar-smoking Nick Fury and Ben (the Thing) Grimm?
The answer is...it's the exact same comic script (including word balloons and captions), just illustrated by two different art teams a decade apart!
(OK, to be fair, the text in the block Cage is lifting is different..but that's the only thing, and it's not story-related!)
You'll see both versions of this tale Tuesday through Friday at our "brother" RetroBlog