On this day in 1841 in Philadelphia, PA, Edgar Allen Poe’s first detective story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” was published in Graham’s Magazine. It has been called the first detective story ever, with C. Auguste Dupin as the first true detective in fiction, the precursor of everyone from [[[Sherlock Holmes]]] to [[[Scooby Doo]]],…
http://www.bearmanormedia.com/ Al Bowlly Al Bowlly was Britain’s first pop singer, some say the world’s first, if you define pop singer as someone who stands in front of a band and sings the hits of the day strumming a guitar. He rose to prominence in the decade before the Second World War, before the phrase “pop…
http://www.bearmanormedia.com/ Dr. Mickey Smith, Barnard Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Mississippi, is the author of a new book, How Fibber McGee and Molly Won World War II. This entertaining essay combines serious subjects and comedy in chronicling a very special period in the broadcast life of one of radio’s most popular and best-loved…
http://www.bearmanormedia.com/ A history of the serial! “Congratulations on publishing Ron Backer’s excellent and insightful book Gripping Chapters which is probably the very best book on serials I have read in many years. The research and observations were a treat and I’ve already spent TOO much time reading and re-reading it for the great pleasure and…
Beginning a series of articles focusing on the major and minor players in the pulp publishing world! The first company to fall under the microscope is Wild Cat Books. WILD CAT BOOKS HISTORY: Originally began as “Secret Sanctum” in 1997 as a home-made, Xeroxed “fanzine” and was the first of its kind to feature full-color…
[[[The Horror! The Horror! Comic Books the Government Didn’t Want you to Read]]] By Jim Trombetta Abrams ComicsArts, 304 pages, $29.95 Comic book fans certainly know enough history to understand that the comics industry bowed to public pressure and created the Comics Code Authority to clean up its image. It resulted in countless professionals losing…
A century ago today, the Fight of the Century was fought. Today is the centennial of the fight between the first black heavyweight champion of the world, Jack Johnson, and the former heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries, who retired undefeated. The fight took place on July 4, 1910 in front of 20,000 people, at a…
The Golden Age of Comics usually refers to the first period of massive super-hero output, roughly 1938 to around 1950, give or take. Super-heroes lost their following, and desperate publishers rushed to replace capes with westerns, romance, and horror – or all three, if they could figure out how to do it. Sometimes, decisions were…
{{{Civil War Adventure]]] By Chuck Dixon & Gary Kwapisz History Graphics Press, 144 pages. $14.95 The graphic novel as memoir and teaching tool has become accepted in schools and libraries and there is a growing need for well-researched material. Thankfully, Chuck Dixon knows his history and how to do research. He’s displayed this in a…
Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Tor.com reminds us that on December 11, 1929, the world’s first club devoted to science fiction met for the first time in a Harlem apartment. They called themselves the Scienceers and within three years would count Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz among their members, along with the original Ray Palmer. Years…
Today is December 7th, a day that will live in infamy as the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that ushered the United States into the second World War. During the war, almost every comic shifted to a wartime footing, with covers of our heroes kicking the crap out of Nazis and fighting saboteurs…
On this day in 1605, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the English Parliament building, involved in a plot to blow up Parliament itself. The day was later known as “Guy Fawkes Day” and served as an inspiration for Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel, V for…
