Welcome to the latest installment of your breath of snark free air!

Enjoy!

COOL COMIC THINGS

Trenchcoats are cool.

This is an indisputed fact.

Comic books knew this, and almost as soon as there WERE comic book heroes, there were folks in trenchcoats. Slam Bradley was known to sport one from time to time while doing his detective work, as did fellow detective Speed Saunders. The most popular of the early trenchcoat wearers, though, was probably Dr. Occult.

Dr. Occult was basically Slam Bradley and Speed Saunders, only more occult-y. His two-fisted adventures proved to last a little bit longer than the other two characters. The most popular of the the trenchcoat heroes, though, was the Phantom Stranger. He was the first trenchcoat fella to get his OWN series! He was also the first trenchcoat hero to join the Justice League!

Trenchcoat heroes had a lull period in the 60s, 70s and most of the 80s, with only Phantom Stranger really keeping the coolness alive.

Then John Constantine appeared in the pages of Swamp Thing, and people remember just how cool trenchcoats were!

Within a few years of the launch of John Constantine's trenchcoat's comic, Marvel let loose some two-fisted action of their own! First, they introduced Gambit into the pages of Uncanny X-Men. Gambit's trenchcoat was so cool that even when the X-Men all started wearing matching costumes, Gambit managed to keep his coat. Next, the original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, returned...and he was packing trenchcoat! Even former sidekicks got into the action, as Captain America's former sidekick, Nomad, got his own comic (conveniently timed with when he began wearing a trenchcoat. Coincidence? I think not). Soon, even established characters like Punisher were getting jealous. THEY wanted to be cool as well! So Punisher began wearing trenchcoats a lot.

The success of the Hellboy and Sin City movies should come as no surprise to anyone.

After all, Frank Miller knew enough to make Dwight and Marv both wear trenchcoats, and Mike Mignola was sure to give his character, Hellboy, a trenchcoat.

Finally, DC eventually realized just what was selling, and in 1999, they put together possibly THE coolest comic ever...The Trenchcoat Brigade!

SNARK FREE CHALLENGE

If you were creating the Fantastic Four from scratch, how would you tie Doctor Doom to the group?

FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST

I sometimes find it fun to see when the first time a particular character first appeared on a comic book cover, so let's find out!!

Batman #1 saw the first appearance of both The Joker and Catwoman, but neither character was on the cover any time soon, and in both cases, Detective Comics JUST nipped Batman in the bud.

Joker took his first bow in Detective Comics #52, mere months before his first Batman cover appearance in #11.



Likewise, Catwoman's cover debut in Detective Comics #122 also proceeded her Batman cover debut in #42 by only a couple of months.



Compared to Catwoman, who had to wait about forty issues before making a cover appearance, Batman's butler Alfred only had to wait ten issues after his first appearance in Batman #16 to show up on the cover of Batman #26.



Commisioner Gordon, however, had the longest wait. Gordon appeared in the very FIRST Batman comic story in 1939, yet did not make a cover appearance until 1969, and Batman #211.



The oddest thing is that Gordon's next cover appearance?

Batman #212!!

WHO IS IT?

Remember, tell me your answer and what number clue gave it away!

1. This creator illustrated funny animal comics during the 40s.

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2. This creator drew "Tommy Tomorrow" for DC Comics.

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3. This creator was a longtime Spider-Man inker.

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4. This creatordrew Steve Gerber's Omega the Unknown.

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5. This creator drew Supergirl backups in Action Comics for years.

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Who is it?

COVER HOMAGE

One cool point to the first person who can tell me which cover this Captain America cover is homaging!



Here is an archive of past cover homages!

Well, that's it for this installment of Snark Free Corner.

Hope you had fun!