George Tuska

After roughly four million installments of this column, it's probably pretty clear that I have a deep and abiding love the stranger side of old comics. That's one of the reasons that we're living in the best possible time to read comics, in an era when there are folks out there with a focus on digital preservation and archiving, which has given rise to an entire cottage industry of books like I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets, The League of Regrettable Superheroes, and Boody that put the focus on to the forgotten heroes of eras past. The latest entry into that shelf full of bizarre anthologies is Super Weird Heroes, an anthology curated by Craig Yoe, and folks, it kicks off with a doozy. See, the book opens up with one of many heroes who took the name "Atlas." What sets this guy apart, though, is that unlike all these other Silver Age long-underwear characters all of his super-powers are real! For... certain values of real.

George Tuska was one of those rare artists who could truly do it all; one of the comics industry's most prolific illustrators, who took on countless series and characters in a career that spanned six decades. But while his professional trademarks of adaptability, consistency, and longevity guaranteed him regular assignments, a devoted fanbase, and consistent employment for the length of his life, they also make him an easily-overlooked figure when trying to condense the history of comics into simple, slimmed-down narratives.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 hits stores today, a new series by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven that hopes to boost the profile of Marvel's space-faring super-team ahead of next summer's movie release, so that when your non-comics friends ask you, "Who are these Guardians of the Galaxy?", you don't answer, "the who-dians of the what-now?" But... who are the Guardians of t

Of all the spoooooky stories that I dig up to read every October, the ones that I like the best are the ones where the supernatural elements are just completely out of place. There's a level to that stuff that's perfect for Halloween and the way that the best horror stories, where the scary stuff is unexpected and jarring and wrong, and can strike at anyone at any time...