COMICS HISTORY | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Jan26

CATWOMAN’s Caught in a BAT ROMANCE — Again!

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jan 26, 2026

CATWOMAN’s Caught in a BAT ROMANCE — Again!

A MORRISON MONDAYS (belated) birthday tribute to JOHN ROMITA… By BILL MORRISON I think I would get very little pushback in asserting that John Romita Sr. is one of the greatest superhero artists the comics-loving world has ever known. But I contend that he is also at the very top of the heap when it comes to romance artists. The fantastic work he did for mushy DC titles such as Young Romance, Falling in Love, Girls’ Love Stories, and Heart Throbs, and his later covers for heart-breaking Marvel books like My Love and Our Love Story, hold a top spot among the things I love and collect. So, in celebration of Mr. Romita’s birthdate (it was Saturday), I present this image I drew a decade or so ago for a project titled “Chip Kidd Presents Batman Black and White: The Sketch Covers” which benefited the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. This drawing was inspired by Romita’s cover of Young Romance #134 from 1965. Romita romance may not be your thing, but just remember that it was John’s ability to draw stunningly beautiful women and ruggedly handsome men for DC’s love books that made Stan Lee sit up and take notice. Lee offered Romita Daredevil, and then Amazing Spider-Man, knowing that John’s appealing, romantic touch was just what was needed to round out the look of Marvel’s bombastic superhero books. And if the concept of a love triangle between Batman, Batgirl, and Catwoman looks familiar, you got me! I used the same idea for my homage to the cover of Young Romance #150 by Jay Scott Pike, covered here at 13th Dimension back in May of 2024. — Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below! — MORE — HOLY GENDER-BENDING! That Time ROBIN Was a Pin-Up Girl. Click here. — The Greatest Gallery of BATMAN ’66 Art You Will Ever See. Click here. — Eisner winner BILL MORRISON has been working in comics and publishing since 1993 when he co-founded Bongo Entertainment with Matt Groening, Cindy Vance and Steve Vance. At Bongo, and later as Executive Editor of Mad Magazine, he parodied the comics images he loved as a kid every chance he got. Not much has changed. Bill is on Instagram (@atomicbattery) and Facebook (Bill Morrison/Atomic Battery Studios), and regularly takes commissions and sells published art through 4C...

Jan26

SAL BUSCEMA DEAD AT 89

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jan 26, 2026

SAL BUSCEMA DEAD AT 89

A TRIBUTE — The TOP 13 SAL BUSCEMA HULK STORIES — RANKED: — UPDATED 1/26/26: Word came down today from multiple sources that Sal Buscema — who was born 90 years ago on Jan. 26, 1936 — died Friday, Jan. 23, at the age of 89. We originally reprinted this 2021 piece today to celebrate Buscema’s birthday. — Dan — By FRED VAN LENTE Happy 90th birthday to the great Sal Buscema, whose fluid and deceptively simple style made him one of my favorite Marvel artists when I was growing up! He was the definitive Incredible Hulk artist, having worked regularly on the title for about a decade, from 1975 to 1985. It was a real pleasure to go back and go through his entire run (#194 to #309!) throughout January, and I picked out my favorites… …but just as I was sitting down to write this I read a column by my friend Brian Cronin about an homage to Buscema in a recent issue of Immortal Hulk. Buscema had a very distinct way of rendering superheroic combat, partly derived from his older brother John (which was itself taken from Kirby) but he very much made it his own: a staple pose of his I have come to call the “Sal-Punch”. Below we have an early Sal-Punch from Incredible Hulk #198. Hulk swings his fist like Lou Gehrig in his prime. The opponent is launched into the air in an X-shaped formation. His mouth is open, teeth bared in neo-Kirby fashion. It is a perfect, almost Platonic ideal of what I call the two necessary qualities of a Sal-Punch: A) No direct contact between fist and victim. B) The sailing victim’s body is arranged in such a way that we can see their face; if it could speak, this expression would say, “Egads, I hath been most soundly Sal-Punched.” Once you have been made aware of the Sal-Punch, I guarantee you will no longer be able to not see it. Here are my TOP 13 favorite issues of Sal Buscema’s The Incredible Hulk — rated in ascending order of Sal-Punches. — 13. The Incredible Hulk #206: A Man-Brute Berserk! In his decade on this title, Buscema got to draw a lot of Hulk-goes-wild-and-smashes-everything issues. This is the best one. Jarella, Hulk’s green-skinned love-interest, got rather unceremoniously killed by a...

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