Carmine Infantino vs Neal Adams

 

 

Batman #253 was a magical wonderful comic when it was released back in 1973! Batman versus The Joker by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams! The iconic cover of that issue by Mr. Adams is shown above, and here is a zoom-in of the upper portion:

 

 

Current-day artist Dakota Anderson wondered out loud: what if that same cover design had instead been drawn a handful of years earlier during the Silver Age by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson? Dakota put brush to paper and came up with this:

 

Great, right?!

Over here you can read the full article and see the full drawing image by Dakota Anderson (no relation to Murphy Anderson as far as I know).

 

 

Gerry Conway, NOT Gary!

 

Very sorry to hear about the passing of Gerry Conway recently. The gentleman wrote quite a few comics I liked a great deal back in the 1970s.

DC just last month started publishing a new series of Mr. Conway's Firestorm. There have been a number of revivals of the character through the years and this new version might just be my favorite since the original Conway and Al Milgrom series way back in 1978.

 But there is a horrendous error in last week's Firestorm #2. A splash page from that issue is shown above, and below is the pertinent zoom-in: 

To get the co-creator's name wrong is an awful flub and I hope the editors will apologize for their error. The comic itself is well-written and well-drawn and definitely worth a look if you haven't come across it yet. 

R.I.P. Gerry Conway

Jack Kirby Way

Jack Kirby is my favorite comic book artist of all time!  

The Hayfamzone Blog has been dedicated to Jack Kirby since its inception 20 years ago, and the rest of the world is finally waking up to smell the coffee.

In New York City two days ago, there was an honorary street-naming ceremony honoring Mr. Kirby. I'm pleased to share some photos that were taken at that event by my emissary. 

I was unable to attend in person, but this article by Heidi MacDonald makes me feel like I was there.

Hooray for Jack Kirby! 

Darkseid by Alex Ross

 

Jack Kirby's Darkseid

 by Alex Ross

Is it a painting?

Or a 3-D model?

Not sure!

But I definitely like it!

Hooray for Jack Kirby! 

 

 

 

Jack Kirby, from the Ghetto to the Cosmos

 

 

Jack Kirby Alert!

Opening TODAY in New York City!

A pop-up museum exhibit on the life of The King!

Jack Kirby, From the Ghetto to the Cosmos!

Hooray for Jack Kirby! 

 

 

 

Frank Varipapa Published Fantasy Unlimited in 1977

 This article is coming soon!

My Favorite 2025 Comic Book (so far)

 

The Shade. 

 Is he a villain? A tragic hero? Both? Neither? 

The character first appeared in 1940s Golden Age DC Comics (as a villain in exactly one issue of Flash Comics), and then he was revived in a mid-1960s issue of The Flash (also as a villain). And he has continued to endure in the sixty years since the Silver Age! 

James Robinson wrote him perfectly in the 1990s Starman series. Geoff Johns wrote him perfectly on the Stargirl television series. He has even had his own multi-issue comic series in two different decades! (He was less of a villain in all those appearances.)

And now he has returned! A couple of weeks ago saw the publication of The Flash: Bad Moon Rising Specail #1. Strictly speaking this comic is labelled as Part 4 of a multi-part Flash story, but it works very well as a stand-alone Shade story if a reader is not up-to-the-minute in the goings-on over in The Flash. 

The Shade is definitely not a villain in this comic. The 40-page story is beautifully written and perfectly drawn; this is my favorite comic book issue up to this point in 2025. I was not familiar previously with writer Alex Paknadel nor with artist Daniel Bayliss but I will definitely be watching for their future work!