A few years ago, the popular media of the United States focused on the comic book world for one dramatic, 'tragic' event - the death of Superman. After months of hype, the long-awaited death issue, Superman #375, was released, packaged in a black bag bearing a blood-red logo, complete with a black arm band. The book's price immediately skyrocketed. Thousands of people who normally paid no attention to the comic universe swarmed local shops, driving the book's 'value' to upwards of thirty dollars overnight. Over the next few weeks, the book could be found with a price tag of as high as $100. Today, Superman #375 is valued in Wizard: The Guide to Comics at a disappointing, anticlimactic ten bucks.
What happened? To start, the book was printed in enormous quantities. After the first few weeks of sales, when new shipments of the issue arrived in comic stores, the book's price began to drop. The long-term value of the book was also adversely affected in two ways. First, Superman returned to the comic scene, alive and well, a mere four months later. This may have been a surprise (or an outrage) to many of the non-collectors who purchased the book, but was not much of a shock to the average fifteen-year old Superman fan, well acquainted with the 'dead today, back tomorrow' mentality of the genre. Finally, the black package or "polybag," while supposedly designed to preserve the book, was actually made of a cheap, slightly-acidic plastic that would eventually turn the issue's once-white pages to a plaque-like brown. Thus, collectors were forces to decide between damaging their copy of Superman #375 by opening it or by keeping it in it's corrosive wrapping. Both paths ultimately led to a drop in the book's value.
Sadly enough, this sort of hype with no follow-through occurs on a near-monthly basis in the world of comics. Major publishing houses routinely emphasize the 'collectibility' of their output, hoping to snag the attention of young collectors eager to validate their hobby by earning a bit of cash on the side. The simple truth is that the vast majority of the comics that are produced today are highly unlikely to become valuable, mostly because of one simple, undeniable fact.
Today's comics are published in enormous quantities. A typical issue of The Amazing Spider Man will have a print run between 300,000 and 500,000 copies.
History has proven the use of chemical weapons ranging back for decades. From the Greeks in ancient Europe using Greek fire to South American tribes using a form of tear gas made of grounded up hot chili peppers to scare away enemy tribes. As well as dipping the tips of spear heads with a poisonous toxin. Poisonous toxins used from live reptiles like frogs and venom from the snakes found from whichever region had enough potency venom to exterminate. The past has proven, that in order for Armies to survive and win, it relied on out smarting the enemy. New technologies and the evolution of weaponry were left to the brightest minds from those eras to develop.
Though biological weapons have been available for under a century, there is a long history of their use between 1914 and 1972. Chemical warfare was first introduced in 1914 at the beginning of World War I. Because of the new style of warfare with automatic weapons, trenches were dug out from the ground to defend against a slaughter. The introduction of this issue caused us to invent weapons such as the grenade, flame thrower, and finally, biological weapons. Biological weapons were distributed by hoses, grenades, and aerial attacks. By doing this, we eliminated many enemy trenches and saved a large amount of Ally lives. (Menace)
In addition to, revolutionizing characters, Stan Lee made many of his comic books intricate and interesting compared to simple boring comic books in the past. His intricate comics had to do with his...
The French were the first to start experimenting on chemical agents in 1912. They first used it on their people as riot control to capture criminals that who had robbed a bank. They used 26 millimeter grenades filled with chemical agents into the center of the group criminals they were attempting to apprehend. It was not said if it was effective but continued to look into using it for other means. However, the Germans at this time had not been interested in producing any kinds of chemical weapons.
Chabon asserts that comic books used to be extremely popular among people of all ages, but children were the main audience. Through the years, authors aimed to get a larger adult audience interested in comics. They started changing
In 1941, Stan Lee, the creator of the Marvel universe, released his firs comic book about the patriotic hero Captain America. This comic was released during World War 2 to give the Americans a sense of hope and to let people know that we’re not alone. Marvel does a good job with its comics because they want to show you that even when times get tough, as long as you have hope things will get better. A good example of this would be Spiderman. When his Uncle Ben died, his last words to Peter were, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” Spiderman goes on to
Early in the beginning of the poem we see Aeneas, surrounded by blood thirsty Greeks, trying to save his family-fighting as well-and, after an apparition of Hector pleas with him to leave, eve...
The first Christian Church (the Orthodox Church) came to be in the Late Roman Empire because of Jesus of Nazareth, and the first Christian Emperor Constantine. The messages Jesus wanted to reach his disciples were this: brotherhood, equality, elevation of the poor, and anti-materialism. He preached a lifestyle that changed mankind, and gave people hope. Jesus gave the people of the Late Roman Empire some hope, and guided them through times of need. On the other hand you have the Catholic Church in Medieval Europe, with a lot of power in the medieval society. The Catholic Church was the western counterpart the Eastern Orthodox Church and it slowly became a very strict religion. Their mission was simple: faith+good works=salvation. Religion over 2000 years ago was almost more important then, than it is today. It was new, and it was important, the rise of Christianity played a central role in the early historical
The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with an insight into the Super Hero Series Batman. This crime fighter originally appeared in Detective Comics issue #27 in 1939. It later became a comic book series, a TV series and a movie series. The character Batman is second only to Superman as a Super Hero. Amazingly Batman has no super powers, but he does have a lot of neat crime fighting gadgets. In this paper, we will explore the creation of Batman, his supporting cast of characters both good and bad and the gadgets he used.
Chemical warfare has been used as early as B.C. and A.D. Mostly used as smoke screens, incendiary devices, and some that may have been disguised as sleeping agents. “During the sieges of Plataea and Delium, the Spartan army used arsenic smoke. The pitch and sulfur were ignited and the consequence was a fire greater than anyone had ever yet seen produced by human agency’, the Greek historian wrote” (Coleman, 2005). The Romans used toxic smoke against the Charakitanes in Spain. The Charakitanes were defeated in two da...
Orders can actually be produced right over the Internet. For someone in England who might want to buy a comic book from a site in the United Sates, the Englishman h...
“The Golden Age of Comics” PBS. PBS, 2011 Web. Retrieved on February 11 2014 from http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/the-golden-age-of-comics/
Chemical weapons have been used for thousands of years in the form of poison-tipped spears and arrows, but evidence has been found to suggest the existence of more advanced chemical weapons in ancient and classical times.An example of ancient chemical warfare was during the Stone Age within hunter-gatherer societies in southern Africa. A people known as the San applied poisons obtained from their natural environment to the tip of their arrows. These poisons were in the front of scorpion or snake venom, but it is believed that some plants were also utilized. The arrow was fired into the target of choice, the hunter then tracking the poisoned animal until the toxin caused its death.
Most people believe that graphic novels are just an art book with minimal text. They believe it is just for entertainment for kids or young adults. They think that graphic novels are just like comics. But to get to the point, graphic novels are just like all the other novels. They are a piece of literature that tells a story and pulls out the reader’s imagination, so that they feel that they are a part of the story or can even relate to the story. Graphic novels have changed and developed into such remarkable pieces of literature and should be accepted by all scholars to be placed in that category. According to John Ridley, “There are still some people out there who believe comic books are nothing more than, well, comic books. But the true cognoscenti know graphic novels are-at their best-an amazing blend of art, literature and the theater of the mind”.
Reality Of Copyright Owner And Consumer Interests In Fan Fiction." SMU Law Review 58.4 (2005): 1551-1581. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 2 Apr. 2014.