The Blog at the End of the Day!

This is The Blog at the End of the Day! Whenever you're actually reading this, just know that I sat down at the end of the day to share some thoughts.

I didn't read very many comic books during the '90's. Cathy and I got married, May 6th, 1990. I had just started a job in the mailroom of a railroad company. I moved up into the accounting department. That didn't work out so well. I moved on to another mailroom. That didn't work out too well either. I was struggling to find the right fit. That was when Cathy told me that I had a face voice for radio. I took a course in broadcasting. Cathy and I drove out to the class together. She'd read or do needlepoint or go to the mall, while I was in class. One of my classmates was a fellow geek. He was excited about this storyline called The Death of Superman. One night he came in with a box of trading cards he had just bought. The cards were for that storyline. He was telling us all that he was blown away that two years before, DC Comics and the creative team behind the storyline had begun planning it all.

I'm not sure if it still works out that way, but I knew what he was talking about. A comic book takes time to write, edit, pencil, ink, letter, color and print before it hits store shelves. I may have missed a step or two, there, but you understand what I'm getting at. It's a process.

The '90's had it's gimmicks. The Death of Superman. Batman faced Knightfall, where Bruce Wayne's back was broken by Bane and a character named Azrael (Jean-Paul Valley) took over, not Dick Grayson. Oliver Queen was blown up and his son took over as Green Arrow, not his ward, Roy Harper who was Speedy. Or maybe he had become Arsenal. Wally West, the former Kid Flash was still The Flash. Barry Allen had made the ultimate sacrifice in 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths. During The Death of Superman, one of the four replacements, Cyborg-Superman, Hank Henshaw destroyed Coast City, paving the way for the Emerald Twilight storyline over in Green Lantern. Hal Jordan snapped over the destruction of his hometown and pretty much turned on the Green Lantern Corps. He became the villain Parallax, Kyle Rayner took over as Earth's Green Lantern. Green Lantern back-up Guy Gardner became Warrior. Green Lantern John Stewart was off-world somewhere.

There were two comic books that I followed regularly during the '90's. One was The Batman Adventures, a tie-in comic book to Batman: The Animated Series.

The other was Starman.

There was a third book. It was only eighteen issues and an Annual. It was Impact Comics' The Comet. 

DC Comics had licensed a number of the Archie Red Circle characters. Google, Wikipedia and Comic Vine can help you get more background if you're curious.

The Comet was re-imagined by [edit] Tom Lyle with Mark Waid. It's been awhile since I've read The Comet. Tonight, I am digging all eighteen issues, the Impact! Special, the annual, the first three issues of The Crusaders and The Crucible mini-series to re-read. I remember the book being a lot of fun to read. The surprise twist near the end of the run was a real gut-punch. 

I'm going to star re-reading The Comet tonight in honor of artist Tom Lyle's birthday.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.