My Childhood Window
Like so many,
I have never struggled
To bring back youth that was lost,
For, I moved not from my childhood days,
So full of songs of innocence.
I have never struggled
To bring back youth that was lost,
For, I moved not from my childhood days,
So full of songs of innocence.
Peeping from the frames of an antique
Slow-moving dead past
With faded torments,
Self-indulgent pity,
I saw a toxic political era,
A sea of scandal,
Where leaders for life view state assets
As their own cash cows
And place gains in international banks
While their poor people starve.
Slow-moving dead past
With faded torments,
Self-indulgent pity,
I saw a toxic political era,
A sea of scandal,
Where leaders for life view state assets
As their own cash cows
And place gains in international banks
While their poor people starve.
From my river of silence,
I saw men and women,
Hearts parched up,
Sinking slowly in the mire of depression,
Brutalized and victimized,
Standing the test of time
In the world of collective tangling.
I saw men and women,
Hearts parched up,
Sinking slowly in the mire of depression,
Brutalized and victimized,
Standing the test of time
In the world of collective tangling.
Playing with the butterflies,
In the grassy plains
With scent of morning shrubs,
Pursuing my dreams
In the world of Superman, Batman,
Green Lantern, Green Hornet,
Spider Man, all connected to green,
I got transported to time and space.
In the grassy plains
With scent of morning shrubs,
Pursuing my dreams
In the world of Superman, Batman,
Green Lantern, Green Hornet,
Spider Man, all connected to green,
I got transported to time and space.
I again opened the window
Of my childhood days
And I saw the fury of aerial bombardments,
The endless treadmill of violence and war,
Seventy thousand men raped,
In a year in one land,
Three thousand lives lost in a single war,
Sirens wailing, women and children crying,
Babies fastened to the beaten
Leather breasts of their mothers.
Of my childhood days
And I saw the fury of aerial bombardments,
The endless treadmill of violence and war,
Seventy thousand men raped,
In a year in one land,
Three thousand lives lost in a single war,
Sirens wailing, women and children crying,
Babies fastened to the beaten
Leather breasts of their mothers.
I closed my window,
Never to open it again.
I talked to my Teddy Bears
And they cried for me.
They held me in their arms
And together, we cried.
They burst the boils in my heart
To drain the painful liquid away
While our ship cut
Through the waves of the night.
Never to open it again.
I talked to my Teddy Bears
And they cried for me.
They held me in their arms
And together, we cried.
They burst the boils in my heart
To drain the painful liquid away
While our ship cut
Through the waves of the night.
Batman, Spider-Man, Superman
The modern comic book genre (and the superhero genre with which it is most closely associated) began with the publication of “Action Comics” #1 on 18 April 1938 (though it was cover-dated June). National Allied Publications (later, in 1977, officially renamed DC Comics, in honor of “Detective Comics,” though it had been branding itself Superman-DC as early as 1940) which debuted in February 1937) wanted a new magazine and gave “Detective Comics” editor Vin Sulllivan the task. Sullivan did not have time to solicit new material but had inventory and stockpile page he could uses; nonetheless, he felt that he needed a lead character to attract an audience. One of his staff members came across a rejected newspaper comic strip that writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster (whose “Slam Bradley” was featured in “Detective ”), and Sullivan told them he would buy the strips for $130 if they could paste them into 13 comic book pages. The publisher Jack Liebowitz later claimed that it was a “pure accident” that the magazine’s cover and lead story featured Superman. The issue’s print run of 200,00 copies quickly sold out, and soon it was publishing some 1 million copies a month, though it was not immediately apparent that Superman was the main cause; he was given his own title in June 1939 . (A surviving copy of “Action Comics” #1 was sold for $3.2 in 2014). Hoping to repeat Superman’s success, Bob Kane, who was drawing the humorous “Oscar the Gumshoe” for “Detective,” created the Bat-Man in 1939 and teamed up with writer Bill Finger; Batman debuted in “Detective Comics” 27 (May 1939) and became the main cover feature beginning with issue #35 (Jan. 1940); he gained his own title in Spring 1940. (In 2010 a copy of “Detective’ 27 sold for $1,075,000). The 2 characters are by far the most successful comic book superheroes and have starred in cartoons, movie serials, feature films, newspaper comic strips, TV series, Broadway musicals, electronic games, and other popular culture media. Liebowitz’ All-American Publications, which was independent of National but was part of the CE publishing empire) introduced Green Lantern in “All-American Comics” #16 (July 1940) and was also featured in “Comic Cavalcade” and had his own title from 1941-1949; his last appearance was in “All Star Comics” #57 (1951). Green Lantern was created by Martin Nodell (as Mart Dellon) and Bill Finger. A new Green Lantern came into existence in DC’s “Showcase” #22 (September-October 1959), when editor Julius Schwartz, artist Gil Kane, and writer John Broome revived some aspects of the original character but with a different costume
ReplyDeleteand origin.
ReplyDeleteAlthough DC dominated the superhero genre for decades, other companies (and media) created notable figures. Its chief rival in the comic book business is Marvel Comics, which began in 1939 as Timely Publications in 1939 (which began with “Marvel Comics” #1 in 1939), survived through the 1950s as Atlas Comics, and changed its name to marvel IN 1961. One of its 1st (and biggest) successes was Spider-Man, created by Stan lee and Steve Ditko in “Amazing Fantasy” #15, which appeared in June 1962. The publisher Martin Goodman allowed Lee and Ditko to proceed only because he had already decided that #15 would be the last issue of “Amazing Fantasy.” Amazed at the issue’s financial success, Goodman launched “The Amazing Spider-Man” #1 debuted in January 1963 and became the company’s most successful title. Hundreds of millions of comics, under various titles, featuring Spider-Man have been sold around the world. In 2014, global retail sales of licensed products related to Spider-Man reached approximately $1.3 billion, exceeding the global licensing revenue of Batman, Superman, and the Avengers combined. Only a few comic book superheroes had their origins outside of comic books. George W. Trendle, writer Fran Striker, and director James Jewell, who had jointly created the Lone Ranger in 1933 for Trendle’s WXYZ radio station in Detroit, Michigan, brought out the Green Hornet on 31 January 1936. The series was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1938 and then in 1939 to NBC Blue and its successors the Blue Network and the American Broadcasting Company until 8 September 1950. The radio series was revived for a few months in the fall of 1952.The character appeared in 2 movie serials in 1940 1nd 194, and 6 issues of “Green Hornet Comics” (scripted by Striker) appeared in 1940, published by Holyoke. Harvey Comics revived the series in 1942, publishing it until 1949. A few months after the radio series ended Dell Comics tried to revive the character in 1953 with the one-shot appearance in “Four Color.” Dell’s successor “Gold Key” produced a 3-issue series in 1967, based on the 1966-1967 TV series (which featured Bruce Lee as his sidekick Kato). In 1989 Ron Fortier and Jeff Butler reconciled the different multimedia versions of Green Hornet in a new multigenerational series produced by NOW Comics. The series lasted until 1995, when NOW went out of business. Kevin Smith and Jonathan Lau restored the comic strip character again for Dynamite Entertainment in 2009, and Seth Rogen starred in a 2011 film.