Dig them squiggles on the knees!

Arguably, it's even creepier than the original!

You know, I've been getting a bang out of Fred Hembeck's comics since the days when DC published his DATELINE @!!?* strips on the "Daily Planet" page that ran right next to the letter columns (back in the days when there actually were letter columns.) I still think his "Bah, Hembeck!" is one of the best things ever written about the appeal of Silver Age DC and Marvel comics (and his comparison of Superman to Elvis and the Fantastic Four to the Beatles is dead-on.* So imagine, then, how happy I was to find that he thinks my comics are swell, too. He tells the story here of how Jerry Lewis ended up putting a copy of my HERO: POWERS AND ABILITIES trade paperback in his mailbox, and he tells it damn funny (funnily? Is that a word?) too. What can I say? I'm honored!

Swing by Fred's own site, too, for lots of entertaining blogging, comic book essays, and those well-known Hembeck-ized versions of comic book covers . He's even got some you can buy, including a pair of LOIS LANE and JIMMY OLSEN covers where Supes' girlfriend and pal become -- gasp! -- fat. They just don't make comics like that anymore! (The cover pictured above, a recreation of Wally Wood's classic psuedo-Klan SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES #6 cover isn't for sale, but I had to include it because it's so well done -- and so much darker than the DC and Marvel nostalgia Fred is famous for. )

So check out Fred's site, and check out "The Fred Hembeck Show" where, in Episode 13, he tells the tale of Jerry Lewis and HERO. Because, really -- don't you want to read even more about me? (Don't answer that.)

*OK, here's what Fred says, in a nutshell (though it's been a while since I've read it so I might get the details slightly wrong): Early Superman was sort of rough around the edges like Elvis -- but when he became wildly popular, he became more mainstreamed, more suitable for a family audience -- just like Elvis in his bland movies. The Fantastic Four started out simpler and edgier too, like the Beatles in their early days and on their first, more straight ahead rock-and-roll records. But, like the Beatles, the Fantastic Four soon broke out of the mold of being another super-hero group and...went cosmic. The Galactus Saga and what followed for the Fantastic Four were like "Sergeant Pepper" and what followed for the Fab Four. And, what Fred implies in both cases, is that while sales soared and new ground was broken, something was lost when those rough-and-tumble early days gave way to more ambitious storylines/songs. Trust me, he says it a lot better than that, but it's as good a comparison of pop comics and pop music as I've seen.