Adults and kids alike participate in Free Comic Book Day the 1st Saturday in May.
- In 2001 comic book retailer Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics in Concord, California noticed how the success of movies based on comic books. As a way to expose all those moviegoers to the joys of the comic books that inspired the big screen characters, Field created Free Comic Book Day the opening weekend of Spider-Man in 2002. Thanks to Field, there is a whole new generation of comic book fans that might never have existed if it weren’t for him.
- Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s famous contract with DC sold Superman for $130, plus a 10-year contract to do the book, plus 32.5% to 40% of net proceeds derived from the newspaper strip, plus 5% of all other licensing. In 1942 alone, they made $63,776.46 in Superman income, the equivalent of $986,459.35 in 2017 dollars.
- Marvel’s Origin series was colored direct from the pencils. Penciler Andy Kubert is right-handed, but colorist Richard Isanove is a lefty. Isanove had to scan and flip the pages to color them left-handed. Even though he was using a stylus, he had to match the “brushstroke” of the art. He effectively colored the book backward!
- Stan Lee was a judo instructor in the U.S. Army in World War II.
- Artist Gene Colan modeled his Dracula in Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula after actor Jack Palance. In the days before Google and DVRs, Colan would actually sit in front of the TV with a Polaroid camera when Palance was on and shoot photo reference right from the screen!
- The 1940’s comic book superhero called Red Bee fought the Nazis using trained bees. His favorite bee was named Michael and lived in Red Bee’s belt buckle. He first appeared in Hit Comics #1, published in July 1940 by Quality Comics. Later on, DC Comics acquired the character in 1956.
- What $1.5M Can Get You These Days. Name: Action Comics, No. 1; Value: $1,500,000.
- This American comic book series – which first introduced Superman to the world – made its debut in April 1938. This comic is popularly known as the holy grail of comic book collectibles. This 1938 issue was the first comic book to feature a superhero of any kind – his name was Superman.
- The world’s largest publicly available comic book collection belongs to the Library of Congress. They currently hold over 100,000 individual issues. Among those are some very rare comics; includes color microfiche of selected early comic book titles like Superman, More Fun, Action Comics and special reprints.
- The Disney character who has appeared in the most films is Donald Duck. He is also the fifth most published comic book character, behind Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine. – Source
- In the late 1940’s, comic books were seen as a direct cause of juvenile crime. Children were forced to burn their comics in schoolyards and a Senate hearing was held which led to the Comics Code Authority and later the Canadian ban of all comic books. – Source
- In 70’s DC Comics published a comic book where Superman fights Muhammad Ali and Superman lost. – Source
- Although superheroes may have led to the creation of comic books, a superhero comic isn’t actually the highest-selling comic book of all time. Micky Maus, a German series featuring Disney characters, still stands at #1 as of June 2018, with over 1 billion copies sold. British series The Beano comes in second with over 1 billion. Superheroes enter the list at #4 with Superman at 600 million and #5 with Batman at 600 million.
- Depending on the type, the symbols used to censor words in comic books are called jarns, quips, nittles or grawlixes. Most of the terms have just been lumped under the blanket term, grawlixes.
- Nicolas Coppola took his stage name, Nic Cage, from the Marvel character Luke Cage.
- Michael Jackson wanted to play Spider-Man in a movie, so he tried to buy Marvel comics in the ’90s.
- Technically, Gotham City is in New Jersey, and Metropolis is in Delaware.
- Wayne Enterprises, which is controlled by Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne, owns The Daily Planet, the newspaper that Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, works for.
- The word ‘braniac‘ comes from the Superman villain of the same name.
- The creator of Wonder Woman (and her lasso of truth) also helped create the first lie detector.
- Elvis Presley loved reading comic books as a boy. His favorite hero was Captain Marvel, Jr. It is reputed he got the original inspiration for his jet black hair with the curl hanging down in the middle of his forehead was inspired by Captain Marvel, Jr.
- When Joe DiMaggio was playing with the New York Yankees, he loved reading Superman comic books, but he was too embarrassed to buy them himself; he thought it tarnished his image. So he would send other Yankee players to go to the local newsstand and buy the latest issues for him
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