I’m going to get right to this: It’s a helluva year when we lose both Mr. Spock and Batgirl. — UPDATED 5/16/19: Yvonne Craig was born May 16, 1937 — 82 years ago. This article was first published shortly after Craig died in August 2015. But it’s as timely now as it was then. PLUS: Click here for an up-close look at an original Batgirl costume. Gorgeous stuff. — Dan) — 1. She set the Batgirl standard. I know that may sound self-evident but Yvonne Craig really embodied the role. She was bright, cheerful and energetic. It wasn’t just that she was written that way — Craig really sold it. — 2. She saved the third season. Craig never walked through an episode. (Actually her walk was really confident and appealing, but you know what I mean.) Season 3 is rightfully considered the series’ low point from a writing (and, at times, performance) perspective. But all the way until the end — through the Cassandras, Nora Clavicles and Minervas — she was relentlessly sharp and, dare I say, on her toes. — 3. She was my first TV girlfriend. Whenever her episodes were on, it was like a special event. And the funny thing is, it wasn’t until much later that I realized every episode she was in was only a half-hour. I thought Julie Newmar was really cool as Catwoman but I didn’t understand bad-girl appeal until I was older. Batgirl fought on the side of good — something I could more readily comprehend. She was the Crimefighter Next Door. — 4. This. — 5. Artists love drawing her. I so dug Sandy Jarrell‘s Batgirl work on Batman ’66, I asked him to do an Yvonne Craig commission. He was all too happy to do it. (He takes commissions at his website here.) — 6. She looked great out of the costume too: — 7. Today’s Batgirl is Yvonne Craig’s spiritual granddaughter. Old-time viewers or readers who gave up on comics would do well to pick up the current Batgirl by Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher and Babs Tarr. If you say to yourself, “Well, that’s not my Batgirl,” then you’re just being stubborn. Because the Batgirl that DC is publishing today is the closest to the Yvonne Craig Batgirl as any version I’ve ever read. — 8. This. —...
Bookworm, shnookworm… — Hey, we all have at least a little nerd in us. Otherwise, why would you be here? So dig this groovy list of comics’ greatest dorks by writer Paul Constant, whose Planet of the Nerds #2 — art by Alan Robinson, colors by Felipe Sobreiro — is out May 15 from the awesome AHOY Comics. — By PAUL CONSTANT Chances are good that if you’re reading this essay, someone has called you a nerd at some point in your life and meant it as an insult. Kids can be cruel, and the cruelest bullies of all turn the things you most love into a weakness — an object of shame. Until fairly recently, loving comics too much could get you mocked and even beaten up at any high school in America. So it’s probably not a coincidence that comics have traditionally featured nerds of all kinds as heroes, as villains, and as supporting characters. We like to see ourselves reflected in our entertainment — sometimes accurately, sometimes as a funhouse-mirror version of ourselves. You could probably populate a good-sized Midwestern city with all the nerds who have appeared in comics through history. My first full-length comic, Planet of the Nerds, is an update and investigation of the century-long love affair between nerds and comics. It’s about three jocks from the 1980s who are cryogenically frozen and accidentally revived in the modern age, when nerds rule the Earth. In their own time, the jocks were Big Men on Campus. But in 2019, when everyone is a superhero fan, programming is a high-paying gig, and the wealthiest people on the planet are computer geeks, the jocks find themselves at the bottom of the pecking order. Naturally, they declare war. As I prepared to write Planet of the Nerds, I had to do a lot of thinking about how nerds have been represented in popular culture through the years. The 13 nerds I’m sharing on this list might not all be the most popular or relatable nerds in comics history, but taken in aggregate they represent the wide varieties of the American nerd experience — both the good and the bad. So, here are 13 GREAT COMIC-BOOK NERDS — RANKED: — 13. Forge. Man, Forge is the best. Yes, he’s a prickly one-legged Native American with a terrible mustache...
I’m going to get right to this: It’s a helluva year when we lose both Mr. Spock and Batgirl.
From his Bronze Age revival to today…
