How time flies when you’re having fun. I started writing “Comics in Context” back in the summer of 2003, and now I’ve reached this column’s bicentennial. Each installment runs at least 5000 words, so by now I’ve written over a million words for “Comics in Context.”

Originally the column appeared at the IGN website, and, at the point that I’m writing this, you can still find the first 134 installments over there through Googling. When my redoubtable editor, Ken Plume, left IGN for Quick Stop Entertainment, my column and I followed. As I write this, Ken is in the process of posting the entire run of “Comics in Context” on its Quick Stop archive page: he’s already put the first thirty up. All of my Quick Stop columns (135 through the present) are available there, of course. Towards the end of my stay at IGN, it began altering the titles for my column; when Ken posts them here at Quick Stop, the original titles I gave them will be restored.

Reaching a hundredth or two hundredth anniversary of a column is a good point at which to take stock of what I’ve done in the past, and to determine what I should do in the future. As “Comics in Context” neared its hundredth installment, I told Ken that I realized that I hadn’t yet written about the most important figure in cartoon art. “Jack Kirby?” he asked. No, I meant Walt Disney, and with “Comics in Context” #100 I began a good number of installments about Disney and other important figures of the Golden Age of Hollywood animation. But Ken was right that I should have written about Kirby more than I had, and I took the opportunity with my recent columns about the “Galactus trilogy” and The Eternals.

For my readers’ benefit and my own, I have compiled an incomplete index of the many writers and artists about whom I’ve written in “Comics in Context” so far. Each person’s name is followed first, usually by the name of at least one of his or her works that I’ve mentioned, and then by the numbers of the columns in which he or she appears. Longtime readers will not be surprised that Neil Gaiman is far out in front of the competition.

Adams, Neal (Batman): 129
Adams, Scott (Dilbert): 66
Addams, Charles (The New Yorker cartoonist): 72
Arno, Peter (The New Yorker cartoonist): 157
Arriola, Gus (Gordo): 66
Austin, Terry (sketchbook): 90
Avery, Tex (MGM animated cartoons): 100, 101, 173, 188, 189
Bails, Jerry (comics historian): 157
Baker, Kyle (Plastic Man): 27
Barks, Carl (Uncle Scrooge): 24, 114
Baum, L. Frank (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz [prose novel]): 25
Bird, Brad (The Incredibles, Ratatouille [animated films]): 62, 186
Blake, William (illustrator): 72
Block, Herbert (“Herblock”) (editorial cartoons): 159
Bolland, Brian (Batman: The Killing Joke): 193
Boreanaz, David (Bones [TV]): 144
Bradbury, Ray (science fiction author): 8, 98
Brinkley, Nell (illustrator): 159
Brunetti, Ivan (“Speak: Nine Cartoonists” exhibit): 122
Burns, Charles (“Speak: Nine Cartoonists” exhibit): 122
Burroughs, Edgar Rice (Tarzan of the Apes [prose novel]): 132
Burton, Tim (Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride [film]): 103
Bushmiller, Ernie (Nancy): 66
Busiek, Kurt (Astro City): 14, 21, 37, 63, 70, 178
Byrne, John (Generations 2): 25, 66, 200
Caniff, Milton (Terry and the Pirates): 66, 71, 154
Capp, Al (Li’l Abner): 66, 71, 177
Chabon, Michael (JSA All-Stars): 21
Cho, Frank (Liberty Meadows): 66
Clampett, Bob (Warners animated cartoons): 101
Claremont, Chris (The Uncanny X-Men): 37, 39, 124, 134, 135, 172
Cleese, John (True Brit): 66
Clowes, Daniel (Eightball): 64, 122
Cockrum, Dave (X-Men): 156, 172
Colan, Gene (Daredevil): 170, 171
Cole, Jack (Plastic Man): 27
Coogan, Peter (Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre [prose book]): 98, 141, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166
Cooke, Darwyn (The New Frontier): 30
Cornwell, Dean (illustrator): 131, 159
Crane, Roy (Wash Tubbs): 71
Cronenberg, David (A History of Violence [film]): 111
Cruikshank, George (Charles Dickens’ illustrator): 159
Crumb, Robert (Mr. Natural): 64, 122, 156
Curtis, Dan (Dark Shadows [TV]): 11, 12
Daumier, Honore (caricaturist): 159
David, Peter (Hulk: The End): 2, 38, 81
Davis, Stuart (painter): 159
DeFalco, Tom (Comic Creators on Spider-Man [book]): 44
Dini, Paul (Zatanna): 24, 27, 29, 180
Dirks, Rudolph (The Katzenjammer Kids): 59, 71
Disney, Walt (animated feature films): 109, 110, 136, 157, 158, 160, 161, 165, 177
Ditko, Steve (The Amazing Spider-Man): 64, 113
Donner, Richard (Superman: The Movie [film]): 90, 143
Doran, Colleen (A Distant Soil): 6, 123
Drake, Stan (The Heart of Juliet Jones): 66
Dr. Seuss (Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas): 24
Dunst, Kirsten (Spider-Man [films]): 45, 46, 181, 182, 183
Dushku, Eliza (Tru Calling [TV]): 10, 120
Eisner, Will (The Spirit): 6, 25, 64, 66, 68, 69, 71, 80, 81, 94, 155, 159, 179, 180
Englehart, Steve (Batman: Dark Detective): 84, 87, 88, 90, 93, 104
Evanier, Mark (San Diego Comic Con panel moderator): 6, 8, 94, 95, 141, 145, 147
Feiffer, Jules (The Great Comic Book Heroes [book]): 26
Feininger, Lyonel (Kin-Der-Kids): 59, 71, 151, 152
Finger, Bill (Batman): 94, 97, 145
Fingeroth, Danny (Superman on the Couch [prose book]): 41, 200
Fisher, Bud (Mutt and Jeff): 71
Flagg, James Montgomery (illustrator): 131, 159
Fleischer, Max and Dave (Betty Boop and Popeye animated cartoons): 116, 117, 118, 152, 157, 177, 190
Foster, Hal (Prince Valiant): 71, 177
Franklin, Benjamin (political cartoon): 159
Freleng, Friz (Warners animated cartoons): 101
Frid, Jonathan (Dark Shadows [TV]): 11, 149
Gaiman, Neil (1602, Anansi Boys, Eternals)–5, 8, 13, 17, 18, 21, 25, 28, 32, 33, 35, 36, 65, 67, 72, 85, 105, 106, 107, 108, 129, 144, 164, 191, 192, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199
Garis, Howard Roger (“Uncle Wiggily” books): 177
Geppi, Steve (Geppi’s Entertainment Museum): 176, 177
Gerber, Steve (Superman: Last Stand on Krypton): 27
Gibbons, Dave (Watchmen): 65, 193
Gillray, James (caricaturist): 71, 72
Gould, Chester (Dick Tracy): 66, 71, 153
Gray, Harold (Little Orphan Annie): 71, 177
Groening, Matt (The Simpsons [TV and film]): 8, 188
Gruelle, Johnny (Raggedy Ann and Andy [book illustrator]): 159
Gruenwald, Mark (Squadron Supreme): 150
Guisewite, Cathy (Cathy): 66
Guston, Philip (cartoon-like paintings): 20
Hamill, Mark (Comic Book: The Movie [film]): 7
Harris, Thomas (Hannibal [prose novel and film]): 165
Harvey, R. C. (The Art of the Comic Book [prose book]): 69
Hembeck, Fred (“The Fred Hembeck Show” [Quick Stop column]): 76, 79, 113
Henson, Jim (The Muppets): 47, 96, 114, 115
Hernandez, Jaime (Love and Rockets): 122
Herriman, George (Krazy Kat): 59, 71, 152, 177
Hinton, S. E. (Hawkes Harbor [prose novel]): 70
Hogarth, Burne (Tarzan): 66
Hogarth, William (18th century sequential artist): 71, 159
Homer, Winslow (illustrator): 159
Howell, Richard (Soulsearchers and Company): 38
Idle, Eric (Monty Python’s Spamalot [musical]): 82
Irving, John (“An Evening with Harry, Carrie and Garp”): 148
Jackson, Peter (King Kong [film]): 31, 99, 121
Jenkins, Paul (The Sentry): 63
Johnston, Lynn (For Better or for Worse): 66
Jones, Chuck (Warners animated cartoons): 24, 72, 101, 102
Kanigher, Robert (Enemy Ace): 64
Kelly, Walt (Pogo): 24, 66, 76, 177
King, Frank (Gasoline Alley): 122, 153
King, Stephen (The Dark Tower): 26, 148, 169
Kirby, Jack (The Eternals): 6, 59, 64, 95, 155, 184, 185, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199
Kitchen, Denis (Will Eisner’s agent and publisher): 80, 145, 170
Kring, Tim (Heroes [TV]): 163
Kubert, Joe (Enemy Ace): 64, 193
Kuper, Peter (Metamorphoses): 28
Kurtzman, Harvey (MAD): 156
Landau, Juliet (Buffy the Vampire Slayer [TV]): 169
Lantz, Walter (Woody Woodpecker animated cartoons): 189
Lasseter, John (Cars [animated film]): 120, 137, 138
Lee, Ang (Hulk [film]): 2
Lee, Jim (All-Star Batman and Robin): 119, 178
Lee, Stan (Fantastic Four): 6, 15, 16, 59, 64, 71, 113, 142, 168, 170, 171, 184, 185
Leonardo da Vinci (caricatures): 159
Leyendecker, J. C. (illustrator): 131
Lichtenstein, Roy (comics-based paintings): 153
Loeb, Jeph (Hulk: Gray): 16, 27, 49, 75
Lucas, George (Star Wars [films]): 86
MacDonald, Heidi (“The Beat”): 167
Maguire, Tobey (Spider-Man [films]): 45, 46, 181, 182, 183
Mayer, Robert (SuperFolks [prose novel]): 63
McCay, Winsor (Little Nemo in Slumberland): 60, 71, 151, 157, 177
McCloud, Scott (Making Comics): 81, 156
McCracken, Craig (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends [TV]): 55, 103, 115
McDonnell, Patrick (Mutts): 24, 66
McFarlane, Todd (Spider-Man): 124
McKean, Dave (MirrorMask [film]): 10, 85
McManus, George (Bringing Up Father): 60
Meltzer, Brad (Identity Crisis): 57, 58, 63, 67
Mignola, Mike (Hellboy): 40
Miller, Frank (The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Sin City, 300): 30, 31, 34, 65, 78, 79, 83, 92, 119, 125, 146, 175, 178
Miyazaki, Hayao (Howl’s Moving Castle [animated film]): 91
Moore, Alan (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta, Watchmen): 22, 23, 32, 65, 66, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 193
Morrison, Grant (New X-Men): 28
Nast, Thomas (editorial cartoons): 24, 159
Nelson, Michael J. (RiffTrax): 185
Nevins, Jess (Heroes and Monsters [prose book]): 37
Nolan, Christopher (Batman Begins [film]): 89, 90
O’Donnell, Peter (Modesty Blaise): 61
Oliphant, Pat (editorial cartoons): 159
O’Neil, Dennis (Batman): 32
Opper, Frederick (Happy Hooligan): 60
Otomo, Katsuhiro (Steamboy [film]): 77
Outcault, Richard (The Yellow Kid): 59, 71
Panter, Gary (Jimbo): 122, 156
Park, Nick (Wallace and Gromit): 47, 112
Parker, Lara (Dark Shadows [TV and prose novels]): 149
Pekar, Harvey (American Splendor): 6, 64, 73, 111
Powell, Michael and Pressburger, Emeric (The Tales of Hoffman [film]): 85
Raimi, Sam (Spider-Man [films]): 45, 46, 181, 182, 183
Raymond, Alex (Flash Gordon): 71
Reeves, George (The Adventures of Superman [TV]): 48
Revere, Paul (political illustration): 159
Rigg, Diana (The Avengers [TV]): 52, 53
Robinson, Jerry (Batman): 94, 97, 141, 145
Rockwell, Norman (illustrator): 131
Rodriguez, Robert (Frank Miller’s Sin City [film]): 78, 79, 83, 92
Rogers, Marshall (Batman: Dark Detective): 84, 87, 88, 90, 93, 104, 171
Romita, John Sr. (The Amazing Spider-Man): 124
Rosa, Don (Uncle Scrooge): 114, 119
Ross, Alex (Justice): 29, 30, 66, 159, 193
Rowling, J. K. (Harry Potter [prose novels]): 148, 187
Sale, Tim (Hulk: Gray): 16, 27, 49
Schaffenberger, Kurt (Hero Gets Girl): 27
Schulz, Charles M. (Peanuts): 24, 66, 120, 154, 157, 177
Schumer, Arlen (The Silver Age of Comic Book Art [history book]): 26
Schwartz, Julius (Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, etc.): 32, 176
Segar, E. C. (Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye): 63, 71, 152, 157, 177
Seth (“Speak: Nine Cartoonists” exhibit): 122
Simon, Joe (Captain America): 125
Singer, Bryan (Superman Returns [film]): 139, 143
Sinnott, Joe (Fantastic Four): 170, 171
Smith, Jeff (Bone): 78, 167
Smith, Kevin (Quick Stop); 146, 147
Snicket, Lemony (Little Lit): 24
Sondheim, Stephen (composer): 77
Spiegelman, Art (Maus): 24, 59, 60, 61, 64, 80, 122
Starr, Leonard (Mary Perkins On Stage): 66
Steig, William (Shrek! [illustrated book]): 186
Steinberg, Flo (Marvel legend): 170, 171
Steinberg, Saul (illustrator): 159
Steranko, Jim (Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD): 64, 124
Stern, Roger (Superman: The Never-Ending Battle [prose novel]): 90
Sterrett, Cliff (Polly and Her Pals): 71
Story, Tim (Fantastic Four movies): 93, 184, 185
Straczynski, J. Michael (The Amazing Spider-Man): 14, 58
Tarantino, Quentin (Kill Bill [film]): 10
Tartakovsky, Genndy (Star Wars: Clone Wars [TV]): 21, 55
Tenniel, Sir John (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland): 159
Thomas, Roy (Alter Ego): 66
Thurber, James (The New Yorker cartoonist): 157
Timm, Bruce (Batman: The Animated Series): 144
Topffer, Rodolphe (19th century sequential artist): 71
Travers, P. L. (Mary Poppins [prose novels]): 158, 160
Trudeau, G. B. (Doonesbury): 66
Uslan, Michael (The Spirit [film]): 80, 169, 170, 193
Vess, Charles (Sandman): 65
Walker, Brian (“Masters of American Comics” exhibit): 66, 71, 145, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156
Ware, Chris (Jimmy Corrigan): 122, 156
Watterson, Bill (Calvin and Hobbes): 66
West, Adam (Batman [TV]): 50
West, Billy (Futurama [TV]): 147
Whedon, Joss (Buffy the Vampire Slayer [TV]): 9, 13, 42, 43, 54, 58, 77, 98, 164
Zemeckis, Robert (The Polar Express [film]): 66, 83

This is an impressive list, even if I do say so myself. Even so, I see gaps. How is it that I haven’t gotten around to writing about Bill Sienkiewicz yet? Or Otto Messmer’s Felix the Cat animated cartoons? Someday, here or elsewhere, I intend to write about the work of the two great Silver Age DC writers John Broome and Gardner Fox. There are also major figures who have already made my list, but I feel I haven’t written enough about them yet: expect to see columns about Walt Kelly’s Pogo and Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates in the foreseeable future. My main area of interest will remain American comics and animation, but I should make more forays into foreign language comics and cartoon art. The forthcoming Persepolis movie will afford one opportunity early next year, and since 2007 is the centennial of Herge’s birth, I should stop postponing taking a look at his creation Tintin. And of course there are always new projects on the horizon: Robert Zemeckis, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary’s Beowulf film looms ahead, which will also give me the excuse to write about the original Beowulf, the earliest great megaheroic work in (archaic) English.

I will also continue exploring new creations by writers, artists, and even film directors whose work has interested me in the past. For example, back in “Comics in Context” #41 I wrote about former Marvel editor Danny Fingeroth’s book Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society. I recently interviewed him about his new book, Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics and the Creation of the Superhero, which was published this month (October) by Continuum.

Fingeroth’s book is about a subject that has been attracting attention of late: the role that Jewish-Americans had in originating the superhero genre in the 1930s and developing it right through the present day. Among the many important Jewish-American writers and artists whom Fingeroth discusses are Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of the first superhero, Superman; Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson, the creators of the Batman mythos; Joe Simon, co-creator of Captain America; Will Eisner, creator of the Spirit; and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, founding fathers of the Marvel Universe.

Lee, Eisner and Simon also worked as editors, and Fingeroth perceptively likens two other Jewish-Americans, Silver Age DC editors Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz, to auteur filmmakers. “In the same way that a John Ford or Orson Welles movie is always recognizable as such,” Schwartz and Weisinger projected “the personality of the editors” in their comics, as “interpreted through the skills of the writers and artists they employed” (Fingeroth, Disguised as Clark Kent, p. 82).

Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay provided a fictionalized portrayal of Jewish-American comics creators of the 1930s and 1940s. In his excellent book Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book, Gerard Jones revealed the true history of that generation, concentrating on Siegel and Shuster. Using that history as his basis, in Disguised as Clark Kent Fingeroth investigates how Jewish-American culture may be reflected in the thematic content of superhero stories over the decades, for example, through he sense of being an outsider (see Spider-Man) and concerns with coping against racial prejudice (see X-Men).

Fingeroth also looks beyond the superhero genre’s founding generation to Jewish comics creators of later generations. “As the Passover Seder. . . instructs Jews to tell the story of the Exodus as if they themselves were slaves freed from Egypt, then perhaps each generation of Jewish creators must define the superhero metaphor for itself” (Fingeroth p. 121).

But nowadays the population of superhero comics writers, artists and editors is not only far larger but also far more diverse in background than it was when the genre started out in the late 1930s. As Fingeroth told me (in a part that wasn’t included in the published interview), “I find it more interesting how many non-Jewish creators are attracted to superheroes these days. Thanks to the phenomenon of fandom, as well as other social factors, comics have become a business peopled, on the creative end, certainly, by people from all over the world, not just the highly Jewish New York metropolitan area.”

Moreover, it’s now been nearly seventy years since Superman first appeared. The first generation of creators in the superhero genre grew up during the Great Depression, in a world that was on the brink of war; many of them were the children of Eastern European immigrants. Today’s comics writers and artists have necessarily grown up in very different circumstances. How does this affect their approach to the genre and the characters that were created by a previous generation?

Let’s start by examining the familiar concept of Superman’s secret identity of Clark Kent. In his book Fingeroth repeats the familiar argument that the secret identity motif relates to the immigrants’ efforts at assimilation into mainstream American society. By giving him the WASPy name of “Clark,” “the Kents, literally and figuratively anglicized their newfound son,” (Fingeroth p. 46). Similarly, as Fingeroth pointed out earlier, Jacob Kurtzberg took the “Irish-sounding” name “Jack Kirby” (Fingeroth p. 31). Superman was the “real” identity; “Clark Kent” was the identity he and his foster parents invented so that he could blend in with mainstream society.

In “rebooting” Superman in the 1986 mini-series The Man of Steel, John Byrne followed his characteristic policy of going “back to the basics” with a longrunning superhero. But he was also sharply revising certain aspects of the Superman legend. Byrne rejected the tradition whereby “Clark Kent” was Superman’s disguise, in which he pretended to be not just “mild-mannered” but downright timid and clumsy, a “caricature” of humanity, in Jules Feiffer’s description (in his pioneering study, The Great Comic Book Heroes). In issue 1 of The Man of Steel, Clark and his foster parents devise the Superman persona as a means of preventing the general public from recognizing who he truly is: Clark Kent.

Byrne appeared to be thinking not of the immigrant’s problems with assimilation but of the contemporary concern for privacy in a culture that worships celebrity. (I refer you to Time TV critic Jamie Poniewozik’s description of Disney Channel character Hannah Montana as “Superman for tween girls”: a normal girl with a secret identity as a celebrity pop singer.)

Upon first publicly using his super-powers, Clark is mobbed by onlookers. Admitting to his “fear” of the mob, Clark tells his foster parents, “They were all over me! Like wild animals. Like maggots. Clawing. Pulling. Screaming at me” (Byrne, The Man of Steel #1, p. 28). That’s when Pa Kent comes up with the idea of the Superman persona and costume: the public will pay attention to Superman and leave Clark alone. Clark isn’t worried about assimilating into society; he is desperate to find privacy–a “fortress of solitude”–“where no one will ever think to look for me” (Byrne, The Man of Steel #1, p. 30)

The Man of Steel ends with Byrne boldly overturning another element of Weisinger-era tradition. In his book Fingeroth traces how editor Mort Weisinger and his writers (who included Jerry Siegel) portrayed Superman as longing for Krypton, as if it were a lost paradise. Fingeroth persuasively establishes that “survivor’s guilt” is a significant theme in Weisinger’s Superman, as well as in Batman and the Silver Age Captain America. These are concepts that would resonate with Jewish-Americans of Siegel and Weisinger’s generation, who were aware that they had survived, whereas the Jews of Europe perished in the Holocaust.

In the final issue of The Man of Steel, Superman discovers that he is from Krypton when one of his dead father Jor-El’s devices imprints that knowledge on his mind. At first Byrne seems to be evoking the theme of “survivor’s guilt” theme and even explicitly alluding to the Holocaust: Superman exclaims, “ A planet that died! Died in a terrible fiery holocaust that shattered the world. . .and left only one survivor. Me!!” (Byrne, The Man of Steel #6, p. 20).

But then, in an extraordinary speech, Superman denies that his Kryptonian background has anything to do with his sense of self: “I may have been conceived out there in the endless depths of space. . .but I was born when the rocket opened, on Earth, in America. I’ll cherish always the memories Jor-El and Lara gave me. . .but only as curious mementos of a life that might have been. Krypton bred me, but it was Earth that gave me all I am. All that matters. It was Krypton that made me Superman, but it is the Earth that makes me human!!” (Byrne, The Man of Steel p. 22). It’s not a question of assimilation. Byrne’s Superman was born and raised in America, and doesn’t consider himself truly Kryptonian at all.

Perhaps this shift in attitude was to be expected, nearly a half century after Superman’s 1938 debut. By 1986 perhaps the majority of Superman’s readers were two or more generations removed from their immigrant forebears, and had no emotional connection to their ancestral homelands.

(I am well aware that the status of The Man of Steel in current DC continuity is questionable. My point is that it is an example of how contemporary creators in the superhero genre may view longrunning characters differently than a previous generation of creators did.)

Similarly, in the Smallville television series, Clark is the “real” person who is destined someday to adopt the Superman persona. Smallville’s Clark clearly prefers to consider himself an Earthman, the show portrays Jor-El ambiguously, and its references to Krypton make it seem vaguely sinister rather than an idyllic lost world. Far from longing for Krypton, Smallville’s Clark would probably be happier if he had no connection with the place (apart from his newly arrived cousin Kara).

Are these shifts in attitude towards Krypton necessary adaptations to changing times? Or is something important in the Superman concept being lost?

So I wonder what is the fate of the superhero genre seven decades after its start. Will it continue to be successfully reinvented and reenergized with each succeeding generation? Or is the superhero genre doomed inevitably to fade in vitality and purpose the further we get from the time and circumstances in which it originated in Depression-era New York City? I will return to this subject and explore Danny Fingeroth’s Disguised as Clark Kent further next week.

ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF AND OTHERS

You can read my interview with Danny Fingeroth about his book Disguised as Clark Kent in the October 23, 2007 edition of Publishers Weekly’s online newsletter Comics Week.

Then go read Ken Plume’s interview with Monty Python’s Terry Jones, concerning topics ranging from Chaucer’s humor to the similarities between 21st century America and the Roman Empire, here at Quick Stop.

Now that I’ve written my two hundredth “Comics in Context,” “The Fred Hembeck Show,” which took a break at number 100, will never catch up with me! But the reason that Fred has taken a leave of absence from his Quick Stop column is that he’s been busy putting together a retrospective of his entire career in comics, The Nearly Complete Essential Hembeck Archives Omnibus, which comes out next February. You can find out more by visiting the Omnibus’s official site.

–Copyright 2007 Peter Sanderson

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