Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography

https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/

The following was written for a reading class, I took in the summer of 1990, on literacy as part of
the course requirements of my doctorate in education at Texas A&M University. The professor
teaching the class was John Stansel and this was one of the most interesting assignments I ever
had. The focus of the assignment was to write a history of our relationship to text and the
lessons we learned from this history. The article has been updated as of March 11, 2012 but only
superficially.

My earliest memory of a comic book is Superman #168 pictured above. This issue was
published in April 1964. From the date of publication I can deduce I was seven years old. The
issue I owned has long been lost to the same world where missing socks and lost souls go. The
issue I currently own was bought over twenty years later at a comic book store. The plot was
simple as comic book plots go. Lex Luthor, a bad guy, gains Superman like powers on the planet
named Lexor. On Lexor, Luthor was the hero and Superman was considered a villain. This was
an example of role reversal.

The planet of Lexor is in a solar system with a red sun like Superman's native planet Krypton
and is larger than Earth and therefore the gravitational pull is higher. Superman has no powers
on planets like Lexor which resemble his home planet of Krypton. You can tell that Lexor has a
red sun because the cover has a red sun clearly glowing. This issue explains various dreams I
have had of wandering in deserts with a red sun beating down. Superman heroically (foolishly?)
decides to travel to Lexor in order to bring Luthor back to justice.
Through a bizarre set of circumstances, Luthor and Superman end up back on Earth in San
Francisco in the year 1906. Superman has adventures with Lillian Russell, an actress of that
time period and Lillian just happens to mention that Diamond Jim Brady is an admirer of
hers. The Great Earthquake of San Francisco occurs while Superman is around. Superman
helps Lillian heat up food with his heat vision that is served to the hungry victims of the
Earthquake and by the way he captures Luthor.

At the age of seven, I was exposed to space travel, the relativity of perceptions of social roles,
super science, time travel and assorted trivia about the period of 1906. This was good stuff and I
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
2
am hooked. During this time period, I did not throw away my comic books. I preferred comic
books to such other consumer goods as candy. Candy after all is eaten and soon gone. A comic
book can be read over and over again. A comic book is forever. A boy with a stack of comic
books is invincible. The T.V. may be monopolized by adults, your sisters may want to play dolls
which were okay now and then but give me a break but I can easily occupy myself for an entire
Saturday reading comic books.

My mother, Lucia Fox Lockert, was a professor of Romance Languages at Michigan State
University. My father, Hugh Fox Jr., was a professor of American Thought and Language at the
same university. They had read Marshall McLuhan and had heard the word that pop culture
was alright. They even encouraged my addiction by being amused how I constantly turned
down toys and candy for an equivalent money amount of comic books.
At some point I learned how to tell stories. My stories were simple. I would remember a
superhero story I had read a couple of hundred times and regurgitate what I had read. I still use
this trick when I tell stories to little kids. Sometimes I change the story around a little bit but
mostly I stick with the comic book version.

I have two sisters: Cecilia and Marcella. Cecilia is one year younger. Marcella is two years
younger. Both of my sisters would occasionally sit down in my room and read comic
books. Marcella, my favorite sister when I was young, and I would spend hours sitting side by
side reading stacks of comic books. I told Marcela more stories than Cecilia. She would ask me
arcane questions like "What is the secret identity of Green Lantern?" Green Lantern is a
relatively minor deity in the pantheon of superheroes but I knew the answer anyway. I could
even name his girlfriend and of course the girl friends are really irrelevant and trivial. Marcela
was properly impressed. I think this taught me the potential social prestige of an accurate
memorization of textual facts.

In the neighborhood boys would ask the really big questions about life like "Who is stronger,
Batman or Superman? This was an easy theological question since anyone knows that however
admirable Batman may be, he is the worlds greatest detective, Batman doesn't have
superpowers and Superman does. Superman can move mountains and survive a direct hit from
an H-Bomb. This was the age of innocence. Superman is powerful. Superman is
good. Superman always knows what to do. Well this was the case during the Silver
age. Supermans mythos has since then been pulled more than taffy as I detail in my article
written long after this essay: The Myth of Superman Revisited.

The Silver age Superman that I grew up with has love affairs with the double L's (Lois Lane,
Lana Lang, Loris Lemuris, etc) but never sex. Oh sure, he occasionally kisses Lois Lane but this
is not a French kiss. Lex Luthor is also a double L. Superman's Kryptonian name is Kal El and
he is of the family of Jor El (yes, more L's).
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
3

The double L coincidences of Superman's life are of course an example of synchronicity as

defined by Koestler (1972) in his book The Roots of Coincidence but synchronicity was not part
of my vocabulary back then. I do know because of the double L's that coincidence was worth
paying attention to when reading. I grew up to be a person who gets a kick out
coincidences. My birthday is on April 15 the same day taxes are due. The year I was born is 1957
when Sputnik was launched, Sputnik has a major impact on education and I later enter the
profession of education. I focus on computer assisted language learning at the doctoral
level. The satellite is a harbinger of the current high tech age.

The Borg Hugh from Star Trek TNG has the same first name as I do. Hugh the Borg does not
have a name and designates himself as the third of five. I come from a nuclear family of five
members and I am the oldest son. I am also a third of five. Geordi names Hugh as a play on the
word you. I have heard Hugh/you jokes my entire life.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15th just like me. I have been plagued by futuristic visions
just like he was. The visions come in visual form like they did for Leonardo da Vinci. I am an
amateur artist but prefer to describe my visions in narrative form. My novel Half Square is the
biggest compilation of my futuristic visions in narrative form.
The role of astrological coincidence in my life seems large. My sisters, my first wife are
Libras. My longest lasting male friendship, from high school to the present, has been with a
Libra. My mother is a fellow Aries. My mother and I share a need to explore internal and
external spaces. Dr. Florez, my dissertation advisor, and a huge influence on my life is a
Leo. My worst personal relationships in life have tended to be with those born under the signs
of Aquarius including my father. Piscean women are ber females and I am an ber male so the
relationship is great. I tend to find Piscean men to be whinny and impractical. Most of the
relevant actors in my life are accounted for by five astrological signs. Furthermore, the persons
under these signs seem to exert similar influences on me. Libras tend to nurture me. Those
under the sign of Aries tend to challenge me. Leos tend to lead me. The water sign people tend
to douse my own Aries flame and confuse me which isn't always bad. Do these coincidences
mean anything? The fact that I pay attention to supposedly mystical "mumbo jumbo" like
astrology is probably related to the way coincidence is used as a literary device in Superman. I
wonder if some strange destiny guided me to Superman comic books in the first place. DC
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
4
comic books long ago established that Superman is a Leo (Twilight Zone music in the
background) despite being born on another planet.
Krypton was the home planet of Superman. Krypton was paradise. The people wore head bands
that give them a futuristic look. The head bands represent rank and status. Alien clothing can
be a form of language. A science council governs the whole planet. I like the idea of peaceful
planetary rule to this day. I like the United Nations.
Jor El predicts the demise of Krypton using a cross section of the planet showing how magna
will push out from the center and like a balloon blown to far will explode. Jor El is ridiculed by
the Science Council but of course he turns out to right. In second grade I am explaining how
volcanoes work to a bunch of fellow second grade classmates. I explain how the center of the
Earth was super hot, so hot that rock melts and forms magna. The kids tell me I am crazy but I
remember Jor El's example and stick to my guns. Mrs. Rice backs me up and my buddies are
made to look foolish. I love every minute of the experience. In that moment I love
scientists. Scientists get to run planets. Scientists get to be right when everybody else was
wrong. Lex Luthor was a skunk but with no superpowers, a state of being I share with him, he
can do battle with the mighty Superman even if he always does lose.
Superman is no slouch in the science department himself. Superman can build robots that can
take his place in a pinch. Superman even tries building an android (Superman #174, January,
1965) which tries to take his place and almost succeeds. In this issue I was exposed to the
difference between robots and androids and the danger of machines that are just too darn smart
for their own good. I am eight years old when this issue was published.
Superman doesn't only rely on his superpowers. Superman occasionally uses a product of alien
or Kryptonian science to solve really tough problems. Superman has even been known to
confiscate super weapons, such as Braniac's shrinking ray, from his opponents and use them
against other enemies. Supermans ultimate weapon is the Phantom Zone Ray which can exile
even super beings into the inescapable Phantom Zone.

For the record, the super advanced Kryptonians exiled the cats of evil Kryptonians to the
Phantom Zone along with their owners in Superboy (v1, #136, pg. 22). Does that make any
sense whatsoever? So was Hitler's cat evil? Krypto becomes more intelligent under a yellow sun
since he gains relative super intelligence but how would Phantom Zone cats gain super
intelligence and be able to advise humanoid cats? There is no sun in the Phantom Zone! I was
nine at the time and little Susan McDonald down the street could not understand why I
obsessed over this issue so I dumped her as my "girl friend". We were too young anyway and
she was constantly trying to marry my Captain Action, action figure, to her Barbies, yuck! Not
the first time my intellect got me into trouble with the opposite sex. For every gal that likes an
intellectual sort of guy there are three who don't understand such a guy and you don't date what
you don't understand.
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
5

Why are these cats in the Phantom Zone? Why can they talk? Why did I care when I was nine?
Superman is a super tool user. Today I am a gadget lover. I like tools. I even like tools that I
have no idea how to use.

Superman lives in the Fortress of Solitude were he keeps trophies and does "research" on such
problems as reversing the effects of Braniac's shrinking ray on Kandor. Kandor was a city that
was shrunken by Braniac prior to the destruction of Krypton and kept in a bottle in the Fortress
of Solitude. Superman also does research on finding and antidote to Kryptonite. Research
seems like pretty fun stuff in Superman's world. As I will find out in a doctoral program, years
later, I really was innocent back then!

Superman comic books have a lot of big words especially in the area of science. Superman
related words such as "antidote" and "invulnerable" will impress the heck out of adults when you
are seven to nine years of age. The big problem was I would read these words and would have
no idea what so ever as to how to pronounce them. Eventually I did learn and by a certain age I
could, as my sister puts it, sound like I swallowed a dictionary. Sounding like you swallowed a
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
6
dictionary is a very useful trait when your parents are professors who also sound like they
swallowed a dictionary and seem to pay more attention to fellow dictionary swallowers.
Between the ages of 7-15 I thought that when I grew up I was going to be a "scientist". I was not
always sure what scientists did but I wanted to be one. By third grade I could do such an
excellent mad scientist imitation. A keen eyed cub-scout leader had me do just such an
imitation as a skit. At the age of 34 I decided to be a professor and do educational research so
that what I ultimately have chosen to do with my life is related to my earliest conceptions of an
appropriate vocation. I originally wrote this essay when I was 34 in 1991. I am now 54 as of the
year 2012. I posted my first blog article on March 31st 2008 and since then have written well
over a hundred articles about comic books but this was the first one.

I moved to Asia when I was 39 in 1999 and teaching second language college students turned
out to be a challenge and, if I do say so myself, became one of those Western super teachers that
Asian universities like to show off when visitors come over. My signature teaching lesson
combine high tech with cosplay to create a lesson that motivates often shy Asian students.
I have well over a hundred lessons online in the areas of communication and multicultural
education and numerical communication. However, I still do my research articles. There are
many advantages to putting a lesson online for presentation purposes over PowerPoint. I must
add that both my parents have made it quite clear that in their humble opinions professors are
superior to millionaires, presidents and possibly even other types of professionals. For my
parents, education was not related to status rather education was status.
Superman does not kill. Superman's villains do not kill. Death Rays, antimatter bombs and
super science are routinely used but hardly anybody gets killed. There was never any blood in a
Superman comic book. You could tell that someone was really injured by the fact that their
clothing gets slightly torn, their shirt tail was hanging out, their hair was mussed and if things
are really bad an eye was swollen. The main characters quite simply cannot die. If a main
character appears to die then rest assured this was a trick. When I grow up I want to be a main
character and not die. Main characters can die in imaginary stories i.e. stories that are told but
don't really happen.

I loved imaginary stories. You can tell an imaginary story by a little seal at the beginning of the
story that tells you that this was an imaginary story. Occasionally I overlook this little seal and
in shock at the events that follow you rush to the first page and look for the little
seal. Impossible stuff happens like Lois Lane marrying Superman and having
children. Sometimes the children have superpowers sometimes they don't. I have one set of
blogs that focus on what if dates. I have another set of blogs that focus on what if fights
between heroes from two universes. I suppose my loved of imaginary stories is where these
blogs really started. Currently, DC uses Elseworlds to refer to the equivalent of their imaginary
stories and the whole thing is much more organized. One of my favorites of this line is based on
the premise that Supermans rocket carrying him as an infant to Earth landed in Russia instead
of the US and how this would have changed the DC Universe. Marvel uses the What If title to do
the same thing.

I specifically remember one imaginary story (80 pg. Giant, #1) in which the world finally ends in
a nuclear war.
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
7

Jimmy Olsen and Superman bug out to the moon. When they come back there are no humans
left, no bodies either. Plants have overgrown what was once Metropolis. I was sad. I was
angry. I was shocked. I became aware of nuclear war. There were problems even too big for
Superman.

Superman has a personal code of honor above and beyond his obedience to the laws of the
United States of America, which was on a plaque somewhere in the Fortress of Solitude. Part of
the code of honor includes a rule about killing. So far this sounds like one of the Ten
Commandments but there was a difference. Superman tries to avoid killing any life, including
aliens, animals and even microbes. The idea of the overall sanctity of all life was very strongly
imprinted in me by Superman. I am currently a member of Green Peace. Our household does
recycle. I am sure my commitment to ecological issues was to some extent formed by my
experience with Superman.

Superman does not lie. Superman would not even lie if his life depended on it. The fact that
Superman never lies give him practically an extra superpower. For example, a villain can
exchange Supermans promise to let them get away in exchange for the life of Lois Lane (this
was a very common occurrence). A reputation for truthfulness is a form of power. I remember
this when I am tempted to lie. The idea of a code of honor on a plaque somewhere in my
apartment appeals to me. I am not sure what the rules would be.
The lifelong literacy lessons I learned from my love affair with the Silver age Superman are
many. I learned that text is valuable. Text costs money and is worth more than candy. Text can
entertain. Only fools throw away text. Text is durable. Later I learn that text online can go
global and even become viral. I love text!

Text can teach you as well as entertain in a seamless manner. I learned a lot of science. I
developed a scientific "world view" complete with solar systems, galaxies and scientific
rules. Superman can't change the past because this would involve a time paradox.
What I didn't learn was equally interesting. I didn't learn about sex and violence. I didn't learn
except years later when I was slugged in the mouth that your own blood tastes salty and that
Batman has picked a heck of a way to make a living. I didn't learn about evil. Lex Luthor at his
worst, pales beside a Hitler or even a Sadam Hussein. I learned that good was totally different
from evil. Bad guys in superman knew that they were bad guys. I didn't learn that each of us
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
8
carries both good and evil together yet apart. I learned a lot about science. I did learn that
science can go wrong but I didn't learn that science itself is an unclear word with many
meanings. The Science Council ruled "scientifically" and this phrase seemed to have a meaning
for me which I have long since forgotten. In 1962 under the leadership of Stan Lee, Marvel
Comic Books published the first issue of The Fantastic Four and the Marvel Age began.

The Marvel Years

In March, 1964 Avengers #4 was published.

I distinctly remember reading this comic book. This was the first Marvel comic book I had ever
read. It blew my mind! There was another universe out there! The Marvel universe was of
course different than the DC universe. Superman lived in a world with Batman, the Flash,
Green Lantern, Wonderwoman, the Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow. These heroes would
all appear together in the Justice League of America. I knew the DC Universe backwards and
forwards.

I do not own an original of this issue and only own a reprint. The issue signals the first Silver
Age appearance of Captain America. A near mint copy of this issue is worth $325.00
(Overstreet,1990) as of 1991 when this essay was first written. Marvel was a different publishing
company than the publishers of Superman (D.C.). Marvel comic books were hard to
find. Basically I bought my comic books in drug stores, supermarkets and very rarely in
bookstores.

I would catch occasional glimpses of the Marvel universe. The Marvel universe was disturbing
and fascinating. I would have to piece together what the heck was going on from a few issues
here and there. Marvel also had the irritating habit of continuing a story in the next issue and
even had plots that would require several issues. DC hardly ever took even two issues to
complete a story. Somewhere between 1966 and 1968 I became a confirmed Marvel fan. In
1968 I gave my mom the Marvel speech in which I explained in great detail why DC was
infinitely inferior to Marvel. By this time period I was embarrassed to be around buddies who
even talked about Superman and Batman.

I distinctly remember reading an issue with Iron Man (Tales of Suspense#55) around
1966. Iron Man was a person without super powers who put on a suit of armor that enabled him
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
9
to fly, have super strength, shoot out beams of various sorts and his armor protected hin from
injury. I was amazed with a section in that issue that gave a detailed description about how his
armor worked. There were instructions all over the place. The armour had a battery, a chest
plate light, servo mechanisms, repulsor rays which worked on electro magnetism, jet propelled
boots with fuel storage clearly identified, etc., etc. This was certainly one step above Batman's
utility belt. After all I knew about real life tanks, bullet proof vests and knights of the middle
ages. Iron Man just made more sense than Batman. Iron Man's secret identity was Tony Stark
who owned Stark Industries which was a leading electronics company that supplied arms
technology to the military. Iron Man was a very logical extension of real life military
technology. Recently, I ran into an article by a military think tank that proposed an armor
warrior quite similar to Iron Man.

Much, much, later I would write an article about Super Soldiers and it all started with my
interest in comic books. I wonder if the members of the think tank had ever read Iron Man.
The Marvel Universe was more detailed, more complex and more realistic than the D.C.
universe. The characters were "Byronic heroes" as a reader pointed out in a letter to Tales of
Astonish. Was the Hulk a good guy or bad guy? Well that depends on how you look at the
issue. The Hulk was in a sense a victim of gamma ray radiation unleashed by a Gamma
Bomb. When Bruce Banner turned into the Hulk he certainly seemed to be in a state of
diminished mental capacity. The Hulk had two distinct personalities like Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde. The Hulk fought good guys like Thor and the fight wasn't just a misunderstanding as was
generally the case when good guys fight each other.

Spider-Man was another "realistic" Marvel character. After being bitten by a radioactive spider
he received the ability to lift 20 times his own weight like a Spider. Spider Man also had spider
sense which was a type ESP that alerted him to immediate danger. I do not know if spiders
possess this type of ESP but cockroaches certainly do. Spider-Man initially decides to use his
powers not to benefit mankind but to make money as a celebrity that shows off his powers to
entertain people. Now think about it, if you had superpowers would you really go out and fight
crime? Also, Spider-Man was an insecure teenager who acted like an insecure teenager and
would even do such things as vow to quit crime fighting after Doctor Octopus beat the tar out of
him.
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
10
There were some less "realistic" heroes like Thor. Thor was the Asgardian god of thunder and
pretty much the strongest guy in the Marvel Universe in a manner analogous to Superman in the
D.C. universe. The Marvel years created new theological perspectives. A new question was who
was stronger "Superman or Thor". This question was more difficult to answer because Thor's
demonstrations of strength are distinctly different than Superman's. Thor grits his teeth, and
makes vows like "as a warrior born and raised in the tradition of Asgard I will lift this impossible
weight no matter what the strain to heart and soul". When Thor lifts a bus you know that a bus
has been lifted. Superman never even works up a sweat when he lifts a bus. Strictly speaking
the Silver age Superman is stronger than the Thor of the same time period.
The Silver age Superman could under the proper conditions move planets. The modern
Superman was radically depowered. How many times has the DC Universe been rebooted? Five
times! There was the 1985 Crisis of the Infinite Earths. That was fixed in 1994 with Zero
Hour. Then there was the Infinite Crisis in 2005-2006. In 2011 came Flashpoint. Finally there
is the current (2012) New 52! In the New 52, DC has my hero going into space with a t-shirt,
jeans and a gas mask. I kind of hate the DC company for doing this to my Silver age
Superman. The constant universe reboots at DC are like a train wreck I do not want to watch
but cannot help but watch.

The New 52 Universe Superman! I could really learn to hate this guy! He looks like a yahoo!
Due to a lack of reboots at Marvel, Thors power levels have been more or less constant
throughout his career. The Marvel Universe Handbook (1991), the definitive reference work
about the Marvel universe, states that Thor can lift around 100 tons. Straining to lift buses just
made more sense than moving planets and not even sweating. I will admit to being a Thor
fan. I think this a left over from my original Superman worship. Like Superman Thor is pretty
strong. Unlike Superman, Thor has a living breathing father that he has a really weird
relationship with. Thor's father is Odin, the all father of Asgard, one of the fundamental forces
of universe and really pretty tyrannical. As an adolescent I could identify with Thor's
relationship with his dad. The correct answer to the Superman versus Thor question is which
Superman? Thor would flatten the New 52 Superman with one hand!
By 1968 I was writing science fiction stories of my own and I brought a lot of the literary lessons
to the process that I learned from Marvel. I understood that fiction could be made more
interesting and believable via attention to detail, continuity, plot development, complex
characters and by connecting fictional events to actual events.
The Marvel universe centered around the real city of New York and not imaginary D.C. cities like
Metropolis and Gotham City. You could go to New York and look up the residences of most of
the Marvel superheroes which were on real streets in New York. The current Marvel universe
reference works have detailed maps of New York complete with histories of what happened in
various sections in New York.

In part because of my exposure to the Marvel universe I became an excellent "liar/story

teller". In 1967 I convinced my sister Marcela that a gadget I found in a trash dumpster allowed
me to control all insect life via electronic waves that their antennae were sensitive to. I of course
stole the idea from Ant-Man who controlled ants in precisely such a manner. I made my sister
an offer she couldn't refuse. She could obey all my orders totally or face the combined attack of
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
11
all insect life within a radius of twenty miles. I think the twenty mile radius part was what really
convinced her. I of course added the proviso that if she told mom or dad about my threat I
would immediately initiate a mobilization of six legged creatures everywhere. The lie/story
worked! Mention of this incident to my sister is not a very good idea since she generally hurls
any object near the vicinity of her hand at my head at a very high velocity.
In the mid-seventies Marvel stopped growing creatively. Most collectors do not value the 70's
Marvel comic books very much and they have with rare exceptions a much lower monetary value
than material produced in the sixties. Some Marvel stuff of the eighties is worth more than
seventies stuff confounding the generalization that older comic books are worth more than
newer comic books.

In 1975 I graduated from high-school. I didn't buy comic books but instead would read them in
bookstores. In 1981 I graduated from college and shortly thereafter moved to Houston in order
to teach ESL at Fleming Jr. High-school. The quality of comic books took a downward spiral
during the seventies. Most comic book collectors don't get to excited with mid to late seventies
stuff on the whole. I myself would occasionally flip through one in a book store but I sensed that
the creative days of the sixties were gone. I had not really bought more than ten comic books in
the entire ten year period between 1972-1982.

The Dark Knight Returns

In 1982 Houston was a big booming city. My wife and I both got jobs, had no children and no
mortgage payments. I had something I had never had in my life and this was disposable
income. I liked to just get in the car and drive around Houston in an aimless manner which I
justified as exploring. Once while driving, I saw the sign "The Third Planet" and underneath "we
buy and sell comic books". I drove into the drive way.
Comic Book stores are to comic book buyers what shooting galleries are to drug users. Sales
people in comic book stores know their comic books. Comic Books are not relegated to some
corner of the store in a comic book store as in a book store. The salespeople do not put price
tags on comic books which destroys the covers leaving them worthless. Comic book store people
know better than to put comic book in the same bag as a heavy book since heavy books can rip
comic book covers off. Comic book stores sell bags, backing boards, and special boxes for comic
books. The clerks are up on the trends, the artists, the writers and the conventions. There seem
to be an inordinate number of owners of comic book stores that have graduate degree in the
liberal arts. Comic book stores can be a financially dangerous place.
As I flipped though the new comic books I had a vague sense that the quality was improving
after the dry years of the 70's. I recently bought a lot of Showcase Presents issues that reprint
early DC stuff and Essential Marvel that reprint Marvel stuff. I had owned most of the issues
reprinted in my first collection and was amazed how bad the comics were in terms of plot,
characterization and most of all dialogue. I am sure most readers have had the experience of
watching some TV show they loved as a kid and watching it for the first time years later as an
adult. You wonder, how could I have loved this show? This was the same experience.
There had been the rise of independents. Independents were comic book companies that were
not DC or Marvel and often catered to the adult comic book reader that had been raised on
comic books and perhaps has a different sensitivity to the medium. I was an example of such a
reader. I had after all been reading comic books for over twenty years. Much but not all of this
changed in the 1980's. The comic book that gets the most credit is the Dark Knight Returns by
Frank Miller which was a major revamping of a very stale character from my distant past i.e.
Batman. During the 1980's to the present I started collecting again with a passion. I have also
had time to think about myself and my obsession and this thinking forms the basis of the
reflections below.
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
12
Reflections (1987-1990)
At this point I would like to put forth some reflections about comic books I have formulated over
the last four years or so. These "reflections" can in part be seen as language lessons or stories I
have learned. I now look at comic books in a more "intellectual manner". I have tried to
describe how I perceived comic books when I was younger and this is very different than how I
perceive comic books now but those prior experiences set the stage for my current
perceptions. The medium itself has changed dramatically in the last ten years. I really believe
that by far some of the finest work of this media has been produced in the last ten years and the
fine work goes on. Comic books have achieved the ultimate sign of maturity for a media by going
beyond an imitation stage of prior media. Comic books have imitated both cinema and
literature. The recent movies about Batman, Dick Tracy, The Punisher and the Flash suggest
that the direction of imitation may even be reversing itself.
At the most basic level comic books rely on a combination of text and pictures to communicate
messages. Everything else about how a comic book should be created needs to be
questioned. The problem was that the basics had become encrusted with conventions by the
seventies which had the net effect of interfering with the full creative potential of this
medium. In a way comic books became a prisoner of their own history. The Marvel Age was
followed by the Marvel way which was just one way of an infinite potential ways of making
comic books that might be just as valid. I have already mentioned the lifelong lessons I learned
from my love affair with the Silver Age Superman and these are core ways of looking about text
that will probably never change. The following is a short list of some ways of rethinking the
"way" of comic books as of 1991 when this essay was first written and many of them are already
dated by changes in the comic book industry brought about by the internet.

1) The dominance of the superhero subgenre had become near total by the seventies. Other
genres which had flourished in the fifties such as romance, war, cartoons, western and detective
comic books are still a very small part of the total market nearly. The superhero genre is a very
small part of the genre of science fiction. Even in science fiction books as opposed to comic
books, superheroes are not that prominent and the dominance of comic books by superheroes is
somewhat of a mystery. For example, Japan which has the highest per capita comic book
consumption supports a wide variety of comic book genres. Even in the U.S. in the fifties both
there were westerns, love stories, war stories (Combat being an example of excellence in this
genre) and detective stories. Some of the better current comic books use other genres (Heavy
Metal) or act as parodies of the superhero genre (Justice League of America, Volume 2)

2) The basic sequential order of comic book panels needs to be questioned. The Sunday funnies
generally go from left to right in a straight line. Comic books can have the freedom to use an
entire page as a panel or even two pages. The panels themselves can have a shape or direction
that acts as a message in its own right. For example, panels in a spiral arrangement can vary
dramatically suggest events going towards some central end. Panels put forth in a scattered
haphazard manner can suggest the chaos of the situation being described. Panels in comic
books are like the cells in a motion picture but are perceived simultaneously in a page as a
totality and can therefore suggest a larger temporal order. The potential gestalt qualities of
comic book panels can be exploited artistically.

3) The role of the graphic properties of the text used had become stagnant in the seventies. The
old convention of having "BAM" in big bold letters had been developed to death. Recently, the
use of none text has been explored very creatively by G.I Joe, a generally unoriginal comic book,
in which no text is used in an entire story about two groups of ninjas in combat, The idea of the
silence of ninjas is reinforced by the lack of text which is the equivalent of sound in a textual
medium.
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
13
The Legion of Superheroes has one page devoted to what appears to be a computer screen with a
history or newspaper of the 25th century. The font and style of the text varies depending on the
type of message being conveyed. The graphic properties of letters can be manipulated in order
to achieve a semantic effect due to the experience we associate with certain fonts and with
certain messages. The graphic characteristics of text itself can be an important part of the
message generated by text.

4) Experimentation with the different materials used to make comic books such as ink and
paper had not occurred in the seventies. The comic of the seventies was slightly smaller than the
comic book of the fifties but otherwise used the same paper, ink and printing techniques. In the
eighties there have been experiments with Baxter paper, varying sizes of comic books and new
types of ink. As of June 1991, Marvel published Ghost Rider 16# which has a very scary glow in
the dark cover. Marvel in the same month published Silver Surfer 50# which had a embossed
silvery cover.

5) The primacy of the role of the artists and writers over the character being written is being
slowly established as in other more mature media such as film and literature. For example one
talks about the films of Fellini and the plays of Shakespeare but not until recently the comic
books of Frank Miller. There is a new trend for collectors to buy the works of particular artists
and writers rather than particular superheroes which is positive. I personally think Alan Moore
and Frank Miller are premiere writers in the area of comic books and their past work has
become increasingly hard to find and quite expensive. Since I first wrote this essay, Alan Moore
has gone on to create incredible comic book universe which I detail in Alan Moores Superhero
Universe Reboots.

6) Talking to the third wall was a rarely used device in the seventies. Comic book chracters did
not communicate directly to the reader or show in any way that they were aware that they were
comic book characters. In the eighties, She Hulk, volume 2, issues 1-10, under the direction of
David Byrne, made direct references to the reader, a standard practice which enabled a level of
parody that could not have otherwise been achieved.

7)Reference or acknowledgement to historical antecedents within the medium of comic books by

new comic books was rare and has become increasingly more common. The idea of being
deliberately derivative in such a manner that the historical antecedent was apparent was not
present in comic books as in other art forms. For example, West Side Story borrows from
Romeo and Juliet and this allows a level of comparison and contrast that can add to the
work. Mel Brooks in the movie Vertigo very consciously makes references to the films of Alfred
Hitchcock via parody. The She Hulk used comic book history as part of its parody. Years later I
would write DC vs. Marvel: Fourth Wall Heroes.

8) The possible graphic connection between more than one comic book cover was not explored
more fully until recently. Several comic books in a series can be arranged to form one big
picture as the comic book series The Deluxe Edition of the Marvel Universe shows. The back
cover of Alan Moore's Watchmen shows a clock dripping with blood. As the series continues the
same picture is used except that the blood has dripped further symbolizing that the time to avoid
nuclear Armageddon is running out. Alan Moore, in the same series, had the cover be the same
as the first panel on the first page giving the comic book equivalent of a cinematic zoom.

9) In the past the importance of semantic content relative to the visual aspects of the comic book
has been underrated. A comic consists of text and pictures. The pictures can be absolutely
beautiful but will not make up for a poor plot, poor dialogues and poor organization. A comic
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
14
book can be visually less than perfect yet excellent dialogue, excellent plot, and excellent
organization will make for a superior comic book. Alan Moore's Big Numbers uses a dialogue
centered approach in which the comic book jumps from conversation to conversation between
different sets of people. Comic books can make references to the big ideas and the big
events. Alan Moore, in Swamp Thing, has not been afraid to explore the whole idea of
synchronicity. The level of art work of comic books in the eighties is noticeably superior over
much of what was produced in the sixties yet the sixties comic are still considered able to hold
their own and this may because of how well written they were.

10) The functions of a comic book in the United Sates have remained relatively
unchanged. Comic books are bought and sold in order to entertain. Comic books are not
generally used to educate, inform or persuade. This is in marked contrast with Japan which
uses comic books for the whole range of language functions described. I am told that
somewhere in Japan there is a comic book on real estate law.
A big exception to this trend is new Classics Illustrated which presumably has an educational
function. The new Classics Illustrated are a superior product that uses some of the best artists
currently around to presents classic literature in comic book form. Comic books seem to be
underutilized for certain communication functions in particular.
Any operation involving putting something mechanical together, such as bicycle, will probably
be better understood in comic book form than any other format short of video tape. Some
manufactures seem to know this simple lesson and schools do not.

11) Computer art had a huge influence on comic books of the eighties to the present. Scanned
images can be manipulated to create both complex and subtle effects. Crash has the honor of
being the first comic book that makes the claim of being totally created via computer art
methods. Shatter is another comic book which relies heavily on scanned images and achieves
eerie artistic effects which fit the darkly futuristic world this comic book is set in.

12) The literary lesson of the last four years that I call reflections is one of an abstract perception
of media comparison. The lessons I learned from comparing comic books to other media I now
use to compare computers as a media to other types of media. I think the same lesson of the
need of any media to go beyond the imitation of prior media can be applied to
computers. Computers should not be electronic pages turners and bad imitations of
textbooks. A media can be deconstructed conceptually and once reduced to basics then looked
at in an open and creative manner that forces the full potential of that media to be unlocked. To
some extent I think that comic book literacy has helped me in the area of computer literacy and
perhaps has created for me a type of inter-media literacy. My current interests in hypermedia
which would bring together text, sound and pictures in an interactive manner is probably to
some extent influenced by the power that I perceive in a text picture connection. One of the
problems of comic books was that they didn't pronounce words. Why didn't I ask an adult how
to pronounce a word? I like many children just didn't. A hypermedia system would remove that
last barrier that I perceive as an inherent limitation of comic books. On the other hand comic
books are a heck of a lot cheaper and a lot easier to use than current hypermedia systems.

13) Comic books demonstrate several important whole language lessons. Pearson (1988)
emphasizes the curricular concepts of authenticity and integration in the whole language
curriculum. Comic books may show a usual level of integration. Comic books are an example of
the integration of at least science, fantasy and language. Comic books are a type of science
fiction which is accessible in part because of the word/picture connection but also because the
content is aimed at the fantasy life of the age group the comic book is written for. The X Men
and relatives have been the most popular comic book title of the last ten years. The X Men
 Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/comic-book-autobiography/
15
revolve around the idea of adolescents manifesting mutant powers during puberty which make
them "different". In the Marvel universe, puberty is linked with the biological processes
associated with mutation. The hook for a teenager is the potent fantasy basis of the
plots. Learning words like "genetics" and concepts like the "mutation" are an unplanned school
knowledge benefit.

Pearson describes authenticity as the being determined in part by the gap between "real life" and
"school based" activities. Comic books may show an unusual level of authenticity. A more
authentic langue event lessens the gap between "real life" and "school based" activities. I
sometimes wonder if in fact our deepest most vivid fantasies are more "real" than the presumed
reality of the "outside" empirical world. The Voyage of the Mimi (Gibbon and Hooper, 1988), a
multimedia system, is a series of plot based science lessons that seem similar to what a comic
book does except for one key difference. In Voyage of the Mimi, the students follow a whale
around the world and have adventures with scientific solutions. When I was teenager and even
now there were a lot of things I was more interested in following than whales. Voyage of the
Mimi is strong in the area of language and science integration but neglects the power of certain
types of fantasies. For example, finding a lost love via scientific solutions may be a more
relevant fantasy to most human beings than finding a whale.
14) This last language lesson is usually the first one put forth by apologists for comic books. The
"seduction" of ones mind by a language experience such as comic books can be one of the most
pleasant and enlightening experiences a person can have. This experience may transfer to books
and other more "acceptable" formats of literacy and therefore have a social utility but ultimately
who cares since the language experience has validity in its own right.

REFERENCES
Boatner, E.B. Good lord ! choke...gasp...it's EC. In Official overstreet price guide 1979-
1980. Ed. R.M., Overstreet. New York: The House of Collectibles. (1990). pp. A43-A76.

Gibbon, S. & Hooper, K. The voyage of the MIMI. In Interactive multimedia: Visions for
developers, educators & information providers. Eds. S. Ambron &

K. Hooper. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, (1988). pp. 143-156.

Koestler, A. (1972). The roots of coincidence. New York: Random House.

Overstreet, R.M. (1990). Official overstreet price guide 1990-1991. New York: The House of
Collectibles.

Pearson, D. P. (1989) Commentary: reading the whole-language movement. The Elementary

School Journal, 90(2).

Wertham, F. (1954). Seduction of the innocent. New York: Rinehart

The Marvel Universe Handbook (1991). New York: Marvel Comic Books.