Episode 29 - Murdock and Marvel: 1989 Part 2 This week we finish up the 80s, and see what another round of Batmania can do to and for the comics world.  This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1989.   The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #262- 275, Marvel Tales #222, Marvel Comics Presents #19, Saga of the Sub-Mariner #9, What if…? #1-2, Excalibur #14, Wolverine #17   Writing credits: Ann Nocenti (262-275) Nocenti & Romita Jr (266 - Plot by Nocenti and Romita Jr., script by Nocenti)  Pencilers: John Romita Jr (262-263, 265-275), Steve Ditko (264)  Inks: Al Williamson (262-263, 265-275), Mike Manley and Williamson (264)  As the year begins, Daredevil is still missing and presumed dead. Though Daredevil is coached (taunted) by to live by his old mentor Stick. Meanwhile NYC is seeing objects come to life and attacking humans (Think Maximum Overdrive) – which seems to be part of the inferno event. Upon going to the hospital, Karen and Mary show up to visit and Karen learns Matt has been cheating on her. After an issue hiatus featuring the Owl and the Bombers because John Romita Jr was getting married and wasn’t available to draw, we see a resolution of sorts with Daredevil taking down a demon onslaught. After spending Christmas in a bar with Mephisto as Daredevil, Matt burns all his belongings and leaves NYC. What followings is a string of stories about Murdock being a loner and helping out as Daredevil when he can. He saves a man from a crashed plane, helps a man get out of an illegal loansharking business, saves a mutant girl from Blob and Pyro.  In September we see Daredevil and Spider-Man team up. This will be our spotlight story for the week. Next Daredevil helps Brandy Ash expose her father’s inhumane animal farm – which leads to release of young woman who was being experimented on known as number 9. This led to a multi-book story arch that finished out the year by introduced a new villain, Shotgun, and brought in the inhumans.  The year ends with a second December book that was part of the Acts of Vengeance event and shows Doctor Doom reviving Ultron and orders it to destroy Daredevil but it is conflicted by all the previous versions of itself and meeting Number 9.  New Powers, Toys or Places: half the year takes place outside of New York city, but seemly not outside New York state – in various small towns. New Supporting Characters: Amanda (young mutant saved from Freedom Force), Brandy Ash (young ecologist who doesn’t like her father’s farm), Number 9 (young woman experimented on by Skip Ash), inhumans (Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon Petragon, Karnak Mander-Azur) New Villains: Mephisto (demon lord who has drinks with Daredevil in a bar as a young woman), Blackheart (Mephisto’s “son”), Freedom Force (Blob, Pyro and Spiral), Skip Ash (terrible human to animals and young women), Shotgun (special forces in the military and member of the CIA called on by Skip Ash) This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #270 September 1989 “Blackheart” Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway So how is that “comics are dying” idea going a decade later?  Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 28 - Murdock and Marvel: 1989 Part 1 This week we finish up the 80s, and see what another round of Batmania can do to and for the comics world.  Pre-Show  Letter from Mo The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Swamp Thing Movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098193/Robert Crumb comic strip with Donald Trump: https://www.openculture.com/2016/06/r-crumb-takes-down-donald-trump-in-a-1989-cartoon.html Industry Trends Harvey Awards Notable Passings Dan's Favorite The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Rob Liefeld Dan's Favorite Due to the time it took to get through this and to fully cover Daredevil, we've split 1989 into 2 podcasts. Next week you'll hear the rest of this episode - which will be entirely on Daredevil.    Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 27 - Murdock and Marvel: 1988 This week we begin to see what happens when two massive Kaiju go to war in a region.  Everything else either runs away or is destroyed.  Such is the world of comics, circa 1988. The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Awards Dan's Favorite The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Series/Limited Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Bryan Hitch Dan's Favorite The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #250-261, West Coast Avengers #28, Thor #392, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Marvel Masterworks #5, Punisher War Journal #2 along with the Daredevil/Punisher Child’s Play and Hawkeye graphic novels.   Writing credits: Ann Nocenti (#250-261)  Pencilers: John Romita Jr (#250-261)  Inks: Al Williamson (#250-261)  The year being with a new artist, John Romita Jr, and the introduction of a new villain (Bullet) who’s been hired by Kelco as we see the continuation of the Tyrone Janson story from late last year. We also meet Bullet’s son, Lance, who is afraid the world will end at any moment. Next Daredevil takes on another new villain in Ammo and the Wild Boys during a blackout caused by the Apocalypse's Horsemen – which is part of the Fall of the Mutants event. Daredevil stops him and he ends up in prison. After being robbed several times, Kingpin hires the robber by offering the dissociative identity disorder alter Typhoid $1 million dollars to make Murdock/Daredevil fall in love with her and then crush him – which she agrees.  When then see Matt Murdock meeting the other alter, Mary. What follows is a brilliant story arch that lasts through the end of the year. Murdock does fall in love with Mary and ends up fighting Typhoid several times (but doesn’t realize the connection).  Other subplots going on throughout this arch:  Tyrone gets his day in court with Kelco Chemicals – whom is represented by Foggy Nelson – and wins thanks to some ghost lawyering by Murdock Karen Page realizes she’s losing Murdock as he’s sneaking around to meet with Mary Typhoid grows concerned that Mary’s love for Matt is allowing her to grow stronger and could eventually take over. Kingpin falls in love with Typhoid and eventually gets jealous of the Murdock/Mary relationship. After ordering Typhoid to take out Murdock/Daredevil, She assembles a team of Bullet, Ammo, the Wild Boys and Bushwacker to soften him up before she finishes the job. This climatic story is our spotlight story for the week. As the year ends, Daredevil is missing and Johnny Storm (aka the Human Torch) has been enlisted to help a desperate Karen find him. Meanwhile Kingpin isn’t exactly happy how Typhoid carried out his order, but sees it as an opportunity to expand in Hell’s Kitchen.  Strong year of storytelling and brilliant art throughout the year  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #260 November 1988 “Vital Signs”  Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Is it still an industry if there are only two companies? Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 26 - Murdock and Marvel: 1987 After the wonders of 1986 the comic industry found itself with a glut of new companies, new titles, and new awards shows.  How would it all work out?  Lets go back to ’87 and find out… PreShow Banter  A tweet from Forrest about the Watchmen books. The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Awards Dan's Favorite The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Series/Limited Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Mark Bagley Dan's Favorite The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #238-249, Amazing Spider-Man #284 and #286-288, Marvel Saga the Official History #14-16 and #23, Classic X-Men #6, Marvel Fanfare #31, Spectacular Spider-Man #128, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 and Web of Spider-Man #30  Writing credits: Ann Nocenti (238-245, 247-249), Jim Owsley (246)  Pencilers: Sal Bucema (238), Louis Williams (239-240, 243-244), Todd McFarland (241), Keith Pollard (242), Chuck Patton (245), Tom Morgan (246), Keith Giffen (247), Rick Loenardi (248-249)  Inks: Steve Leiaoha (238), Al Williamson and Geof Isherwood (239), Williamson (240, 248-249), Al Milgrom (241), Danny Bulanadi (242) Williamson and Bulandi (243), Tony DeZuniga (244-246), Dan Hunt (247) Nerdist top Daredevil comic runs: https://nerdist.com/article/10-greatest-daredevil-comic-book-runs-of-all-time-ranked/ The year begins with the Daredevil befriending a group of kids called the Fatboys – who we’ll see many more times throughout the year – and Daredevil save a girl from Sabretooth We then get a series of stories from Nocenti featuring a new villain – First is Rot-Gut a Jack-the Ripper style villain who doesn’t have powers – just likes to cut up people, Next we had the Trixster who’s causing problems for the city of New York over Christmas, An everyday man accidently kills his boss and becomes the Caviar killer, and finally a drug dealer who uses voodoo to control things that incurs the wrath of a real voodoo creature. We then get likely the best story of the year and it guest stars the Black Panther. This will be our spotlight story for the week. As the year continues, we have more solo book stories that feel similar in scope and impact to the character as the ones before the spotlight book. We do see the return of Black Widow for an issue as the pair take down a deranged super soldier. Karen tries to get Matt back into office work by surprising him with new offices  There is a short-lived subplot where Karen Page starts to be frightened by the violence Daredevil dishes out, but she came to see it as fine after an issue or two. The year ends with a two-book story arc involving another new villain, Bushwacker, who has an arm he can convert into a gun that sees the return of Wolverine to aid him in tracking the villain – which leads to a battle between the two over how justice should be handled. In this story we also meet Tyrone Janson – who is blinded by chemicals dumped in the Hudson River.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #245 August 1987 “Burn” Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Bills come due. Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 24 - Murdock and Marvel: 1986 Part 2 If you are every arguing with friends about what was the best year in the history of comics, you could do worse than arguing for 1986.  With a ton of interesting independent books, vibrant small-press publishers popping up everywhere, and four of the most beloved stories in the history of comics, ’86 was definitely a banner year! This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1986.   The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #226-237, Spectacular Spider-Man #110, Amazing Spider-Man #277, Marvel Age Annual #2, Avengers Annual #15, Marvel Fanfare #27, Elektra: Assassin #1 and 4, Marvel Saga the Official History #13, and Marvel Graphic Novel: Daredevil Love and War  Writing credits: Frank Miller and Denny O’Neil (226), Frank Miller (227-233), Mark Gruenwald (234), Danny Fingeroth (235), Ann Nocenti (236), “John Harkness” (237)   Pencilers: David Mazzucchelli (226-233), Steve Ditko (234-235), Barry Windsor-Smith (236), Lois Williams (237)  Inks: Dennis Janke (226), David Mazzucchelli (227-233), Klaus Jansen (234), Danny Bulanadi (235), Windsor-Smith and Bob Wiacek (236), Al Williamson and Bulandi (237)  The year begins Frank Miller returning to the title and a story where Daredevil helps Gladiator save Betsy Beatty after confronting him stealing from a museum Next, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli start an iconic run of books that you’ve probably heard of “Born Again” that starts with book 227 and finishes with 233. This incredible will be the spotlight for this week. After Born Again, we get four stand-alone stories by four different writers to finish out the year. The first against a weird “hero” named Mad Cap who spouts nonsense and seemly can’t be killed. Next Daredevil takes on Mr. Hyde yet again. Then Daredevil and the Black Widow team up to track down another deranged member of the Super Soldier Project. Finally, Daredevil takes on the Klaw who’s looking to re-establish himself by taking him down. Issue #237 was initially going to be the start of Steve Engelhart’s run on DD, but he was replaced by Ann Nocenti after writing just one issue, which he had his name taken off of, and the pen name “John Harkness” was credited Daredevil: Love and War GN told the story of how the Kingpin kidnapped a psychiatrist’s wife to coerce him to help his wife, who was not recovering well from her accident and her captivity in the sewers.  By the end of the story we find out Vanessa only wants to escape from Fisk, and he sends her away to Europe with the doctor and his wife so she can heal and start a new life. Elektra: Assassin is completely batshit.  Fully painted by Bill S., it is wildly experimental and confusing.  Elektra and a cyborg who is obsessed with her try to stop a presidential candidate who looks kind of like Dan Quayle from doing the will of “the beast” and causing a nuclear holocaust.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #227 February 1986 “Apocalypse” through Daredevil #233 August 1986 “Armageddon” Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway It was the Best of Times, but it led to the Worst of Times.  Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 24 - Murdock and Marvel: 1986 Part 1 If you are every arguing with friends about what was the best year in the history of comics, you could do worse than arguing for 1986.  With a ton of interesting independent books, vibrant small-press publishers popping up everywhere, and four of the most beloved stories in the history of comics, ’86 was definitely a banner year! The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Kirby Awards Dan's Favorite The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Alan Davis Dan's Favorite Due to the time it took to get through this and to fully cover Daredevil, we've split 1986 into 2 podcasts. Next week you'll hear the rest of this episode - which will be entirely on Daredevil.    Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 23 - Murdock and Marvel: 1985 This year Marvel is all about the cash grab, and so we get Secret Wars II, a bunch of vaguely copyright-infringing kids books, and some fantastic Bill Sienkiewicz art that makes everything else worth it.  Let’s talk 1985 in comics, Marvel and Daredevil. The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Comics and Sequential Art: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33476.Comics_and_Sequential_Art Industry Trends Eagle/Kirby Awards Dan's Favorite The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Peter David Dan's Favorite The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #214-225, Fantastic Four #281, Marvel Tales #181, Spectacular Spider-Man #108-109, Marvel Fanfare #23   Writing credits: Denny O’Neil (214-18, 220-222, 225), Frank Miller (219), O’Neil and Jim Shooter (223), Jim Owsley (224)  Pencilers: David Mazzucchelli (214-17, 220-223, 225), Sal Buscema (218), John Buscema (219), Dan Jurgens and Geof Isherwood (224)  Inks: David Mazzucchelli (214-17, 220-221, 225), Ian Akin and Brian Garvey (218), Gerry Talaoc (219), Kim DeMulder (222-223), Mel Candido and Bruce Patterson (224)  The year starts with the conclusion of the Micah Synn story that took most of 1984. Synn is weakened and running for his life. Daredevil saves Synn from Kingpin’s men and some homeless men before himself asking for help. Next was an interesting if not confusing western inspired story taking place in two different places and times that seemed to have a connection to Daredevil We learn in a story with the Gael that Glorianna works for the I.R.A. as the Old Woman of Beare We get another story with the Jester who breaks out of prison just so he can kidnap a noted actor and take his place for a tv production of Cyranno De Bergerac. In that story we see Daredevil dress up as the Jester and lead police around as a distraction allowing the Jester to finish his flawless performance. We got a really fascinating story from Frank Miller in which Matt Murdock doesn't appear as Daredevil at all nor does he even speak. Next, we get a tragic end to a long-time character. This will be our spotlight for this week. The follow-up to that story takes Daredevil/Murdock to Venice, Italy in which he succeeds in getting the patents back – but it doesn’t help his feelings of guilt. The Mudd Brothers kidnap Glorianna and Daredevil and Black Widow come to her rescue. We get a tie-in to Secret Wars with a character called the Beyonder that…in all honesty… Didn’t make much sense.  The year ends with Daredevil taking down a new villain, the Saturion, and returning a locket to a blind man and then taking on another Spider-Man villain – the Vulture. There is also an epilogue with Black Crow was never followed on.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #220 July 1985 “Fog” Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Quality counts less than we’d like. Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 22 - Murdock and Marvel: 1984 This week we enter continue with the massive expansion era for Marvel and the Direct Market, with important new creators, new companies, and a whole lot of turtles…its 1984!  The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Cartoon Art Museum: https://www.cartoonart.org/ Eagle Awards Dan's Favorite The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings Box Brown’s “The He-Man Effect”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250261403/thehemaneffect  New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Arthur Adams Dan's Favorite The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #202-213, Incredible Hulk #291 and 293, Defenders #127, Spider-Man and Daredevil Special Edition #1, Marvel Team-up #140-141, Elektra Saga #3-4, Marvel Age #17  Writing credits: Denny O’Neill (202, 204-207, 211-213), Steven Grant (203), Harlan Ellison and Arthur Byron Cover (208), Arthur Byron Cover (209), Denny O’Neill and David Mazzucchelli (210)  Pencilers: William Johnson (202, 205, 207), Geof Isherwood (203), Luke McDonnell (204), David Mazzucchelli (206, 208-13)  Inks: Danny Bulanadi (202-206, 208-11, 213), Bulanadi and Mel Candido (207), Bulanadi and Pat Redding (212)  The year starts and ends with Micah Synn – Chief of an East African Kingorge Tribe who are also descendants of British explorers who have been isolated until very recently. Synn, his two wives and a group of other followers have traveled to the United States. Many of the books this year chronicle Synn turning from a media darling to a wanted criminal hunted by Daredevil and Kingpin. It starts off in Assistant Editor’s month where we meet Micah Synn, his group and Professor Horactio Piper who wants to Enlist Nelson & Murdock to help with legal documents for Synn and company. Synn gets arrested for stealing food and then attacking a store owner as well as 3 police officers, upon release one of Micah’s wives walks into the street and is hit by a car. At the hospital, Synn attacks another office before Daredevil intervenes.  One of the few detours from the Synn story, Daredevil takes on a new foe – The Trump – whom has one of Daredevil’s childhood bullies is accused of helping. Daredevil stops Trump from taking a shipment of weapons. After being confronted by Foggy, Murdock drops Schmidt as a client. Back to Synn, An assassination attempt on the chief that has ties to his family is thwarted by Daredevil and Debbie Harris throws a party and becomes infatuated with the Synn. Next we meet Glorianna O’Breen, Debbie Harris’ niece from Ireland, who is in New York over concerns she’s in danger after her father is killed. Which turns out to be true. Daredevil saves her from being abducted and then saves her from a friend of her father’s that turns out to be a killer called the Gael. Micah Synn and company crash a Christmas Party and Matt Murdock’s house which leads to a stolen kiss with Debbie Harris and another battle between Daredevil (aided by Kingpin no less) and Synn. Another side story, As Daredevil must find a Russian defector and stolen microchip for Hydra in order to save a captured Black Widow. Daredevil finds the defector but not the chip and instead saves widow without it and the pair take down the Hydra agents who captured her. Next Daredevil stumbles into a murder house trap set by the mother of a former villain. This story will be our spotlight story for the week. Back to Synn, Chief Micah files a restraining order against Daredevil and his men have a run-in with Kingpin. During yet another battle between Synn and Daredevil, Synn learns of Murdock’s secret.  Micah captures Becky and Vanessa for a human sacrifice to his god; DD intervenes, but Vanessa is killed; Kingpin reveals that Vanessa was really an actress he hired to keep his wife safe; DD and Kingpin team-up to take down Micah. Matt Murdock holds a press conference to get the word out on Micah Synn, but his and Becky Blake’s account is called into question by Foggy Nelson (at the urging of his wife Debbie). Harris then goes to Synn and professes her love to him and it’s met with indifference and a needless slap to the face sending her to the ground. As the year ends, the story with Synn is still going. Harris remains captive by Synn. Professor Piper seems able to look the other way on Synn until a friend and colleague of his is inadvertently killed. Piper creates a diversion and frees Harris who returns home and tells him what happened with Synn. When Foggy goes to confront Synn, he finds Piper dead and Synn’s men looking to fight. Daredevil arrives and makes quick work of the tribesmen, but they aren’t able to find Micah Synn.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #208 July 1984 “The Deadliest Night of My Life” Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway This is a golden age. Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 21 - Murdock and Marvel: 1983 This year things really start to accelerate in the comics world, as the direct market kicks into high gear. Marvel leads the way again, with a truly astounding number of new books. Welcome to the crazy years, folks. Its time to talk 1983.  Convergence Con: https://www.convergence-con.org/ The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Eagle Awards Dan's Favorite The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Paul Neary Dan's Favorite The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #190-201, Incredible Hulk #279, Marvel Two-in-One #96, Marvel Fanfare #7, Iron Man #169 and Fantastic Four #255  Writing credits: Frank Miller (190-91), Alan Brennert (192), Larry Hama (193), Denny O’Neil (194-201)  Pencilers: Klaus Janson (190, 192-96), Frank Miller (191), Larry Hama and William Johnson (197), William Johnson (198-201)  Inks: Klaus Janson (190, 192-96), Terry Austin (191), Larry Hama and Klaus Janson (197), Danny Bulanadi (198-201)  The year starts with another Double Issue as DD, Widow and Stone race to keep the Hand from resurrecting Elektra; Unbeknownst to DD, Stone finishes the job the Hand started, and Elektra lives again.Daredevil visits Bullseye telling him a story about a recent client and how’s he’s questioning what he’s doing. This amazing story is our spotlight story this week.Next, we have a story about kingpin trying to get Ben Urich under his thumb by using his wife's desire for a new house to turn Urich dirty; ultimately Ben must decide how best to be a good reporter, a good husband and a good man.DD is on the trail of some stolen missiles, and they lead him to a cruise ship and a traveling magician who doesn't know the gun she stole from a guard she killed at the heist doesn't work.Tarkington Brown, who works for the mayor, finds that he only has a few weeks to live, so he recruits some cops to form a criminal killing murder squad as his way of making a final contribution before he dies; While she is drunk at a party, Heather tells Tark that Matt is DD, and Tarkington sends his squad to take down the Man Without Fear.The incapacitated Bullseye is kidnapped from his hospital by mysterious Asian agents. In the process, they shoot a visiting Wolverine, who tries to intervene. When Daredevil investigates, a recuperated Wolverine insists that the two team up and work on the case which sends Daredevil to Honshu Japan (the largest island). There he meets up with Dark Wind’s daughter, Yuriko, who offers to help Daredevil find Bullseye if he’s able to help her save her love interest from the power sway of her father. We learn Dark wind took Bullseye to repair his paralyzed body with adamantium so he can kill a Japanese delegate he doesn’t agree with. Now healed, Bullseye betrays Dark Wind and makes his way back to the States; while Yuriko kills her father to save DD's life.The 5-book story arc ends with Bullseye back in New York who is looking to get back on Kingpin’s payroll as a hit man. Black Widow comes checking in on Daredevil and a climactic battle in an old arena Jack Murdock once wrestled in to try to make ends meet. After a lengthy battle, Daredevil looks to finish Bullseye once and for all but is stopped by an image of his father that reminds him who he is (which is not a killer).The year ends with someone takes a shot at Foggy, and a wounded Daredevil enlists the Black Widow's aid in trying to find out who is trying to kill his partner. Issue 201 cover is by John Byrne.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #191 February 1983 “Roulette”  Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway The start of superstar creators. Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 20 - Murdock and Marvel: 1982 Have you noticed that every year for about a decade we have been recounting the impending death of the comic industry, with sales seemly slipping another 10% and publishers falling to the wayside?  I am happy to say that at least for Marvel this is the year that things started to turn around.  Its 1982, and the Direct Market is showing its power as Marvel and others pile onboard the comic shop train. The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Passings Eagle Awards Dan's Favorite The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Paul Smith Dan's Favorite The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #178-189, Power Man and Iron First #77, Defenders #103-106, Marvel Graphic Novel #1, Fantastic Four #242, Contest of Champions #1-3, Dazzler #21, Marvel Team-up #123, Incredible Hulk #277-278  Writing credits: Frank Miller (178-189), Roger McKenzie (183)  Pencilers:  Frank Miller (178-184), Klaus Jansen (181,185-189) The year begins with Kingpin trying to and successfully recruiting Elektra and Matt Murdock looking into Mayoral Candidate Randolph Cherryh as an intern has come forward with evidence he’s working for Wilson Fisk. Meanwhile, Nelson and Murdock have a new office in a New York high rise.  Elektra then “encourages” Daredevil and Ben Urich to drop the Cherryh/Fisk story he’s about to run for the Daily Bugle. The latter getting a Sai in the chest.  Despite this, Urich and Murdock realize Vanessa Fisk may still be alive and are able to find/rescue her from the King of the Sewers. Daredevil then hands her over to Fisk. In exchange, Cherryh (who was just elected Mayor of New York) is forced to resign his new post. Kingpin orders Elektra to kill Murdock’s partner, Foggy Nelson, as payback. In a BIG double Issue narrated by Bullseye, we see the villain escape prison, learn Matt Murdock’s secret, attack and kill Elektra before battling and losing to Daredevil which puts him in the hospital. This is our feature story this week. Murdock has trouble dealing with Elektra’s death and starts acting out at work and as our horned hero. At one point he accuses Kingpin of hiding her.  A young girl on drugs takes a dive out of her school window and dies, and her brother, DD and the Punisher are all trying to track down the dealer responsible; Matt proposes to Heather. Daredevil and the Punisher get into a fight over how to bring the dealer to justice.  The cover blurb "No More Mr. Nice Guy" is a reference to the 1972 Alice Cooper song of the same name. This is a reworking of a story that was pulled because of code concerns Next Foggy begins to investigate why Heather's company is making bombs and this causes him to run up against both Eric Slaughter and the Kingpin; Daredevil ends up caught in an explosion that messes up his radar sense. That doesn’t stop Murdock from gather evidence to take down Glenn Industries even as his other sense go haywire. Meanwhile He’s also pressuring Heather to accept the proposal. As Daredevil's hyper senses continue to get worse and he seeks out Stick for help; In a fight with the Hand, the Black Widow is poisoned. The ninja villain Kirigi is reanimated, and his body is made whole from his previous decapitation by Elektra. (Kah Ear Ah Gee) Black Widow is dying of poison she got in a fight with the Hand and is desperately trying to find DD to help; Matt is recovering his hyper senses in an isolation chamber under the watchful eye of Stick and his ninja. The year ends with The Black Widow dying to the poison but then resurrected by Stone (Stick’s right hand man); Daredevil and company have a free-for-all with the Hand, in which Stick gives his life to save Matt; Widow and Foggy break up Heather and Matt using handwritten notes; Stone tells Daredevil that the Hand is planning on resurrecting Elektra like they did Kirigi. Daredevil sales went up from 130,000 copies an issue in 1981 to 180,000 in 1982.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #181 from April 1982 “Last Hand”  Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Early Returns on Direct Market prove promising Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 19 - Murdock and Marvel: 1981 Welcome, my friends, to the dawning of a new Golden Age for Marvel Comics! Researching this episode was also a trip down memory lane for for Dan, because this was the summer when he first pulled a comic book off the spinner rack.  Let's take a look back at the wonder that was 1981 in comics! Announcement: This Week in Marvel Unlimited – Hiatus while we rethink the format.  Siena has tired of current Marvel comics offerings... The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Eagle Awards or lack thereof Passings Wally Wood https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/the-life-and-legend-of-wallace-wood-volume-1  https://www.amazon.com/Wallys-World-Brilliant-Tragic-Worlds/dp/188759180X   Fredric Wertham https://www.amazon.com/Seal-Approval-History-Studies-Popular/dp/087805975X The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Ann Nocenti The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #168-177, Defenders #91, Amazing Spider-Man #218-219, Marvel Team-Up #107, Marvel Two-in-One #78, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4, Rom #23 and Moon Knight #13  Writing credits: Frank Miller (168-177)  Pencilers:  Frank Miller (168-177) Inks: Klaus Janson (168-1977)  The year begins with a bang as we are introduced to a previous love interest of Murdock’s, Elektra Natchois. This fantastic story is this week’s spotlight.  Next Daredevil saves Bullseye who has a brain tumor and needs surgery. After that, We meet Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin. Who is negotiating giving up information on his former colleagues as an East Coast crime boss to the US government. His wife, Vanessa, goes to New York to hire Nelson and Murdock but is captured by the mob. She ultimately “dies” during a botched exchange that nearly kills Fisk. Angry, Kingpin reasserts control of the East Coast mob scene and hires a now healthy Bullseye as an assassin. Daredevil comes calling and takes Bullseye down but leaves the Kingpin in power to rebuild his organization. It’s during the previous story arch that - on the cover of issue 171, June 1981 – the cover notes Daredevil is back to a monthly title. Next, A lady killer is roaming the streets, and he looks exactly like Melvin Potter. Daredevil tracks down the man responsible for crippling Becky and clears the Gladiator. Important background information is given this issue on Rebecca Blake. She had been assaulted years ago by Michael Reese and lost the use of her legs. She had not reported the assault, but does so this issue at the urging of Matt Murdock. Kingpin secretly hires the Hand to take out Matt Murdock, but Elektra and Gladiator get in the way; When the Hand blows up his law office at the storefront, Daredevil loses his radar sense. Daredevil is without his radar sense and teamed-up with Elektra against the Hand and their master assassin, Kirigi. While Matt is off fighting ninja, Foggy is defending the Gladiator in court. Daredevil and Elektra hunt down Matt's old teacher Stick to try to get Murdock’s radar sense back; meanwhile Turk steals the Mauler uniform to try and take down Daredevil. Elektra has a final confrontation with Kirigi. (Kear-ah-gee) The year ends with Stick successfully helping Murdock get his radar sense back through training and some very vivid dreams. We learn Wilson Fisk is trying to put a figurehead in his control in the mayor’s office but is exposed by Ben Urich at the Daily Bugle. This angers Fisk who appears planning some sort of action – that may involve Elektra, whom he wants to find.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #168 from January 1981 “Elektra”  Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Women have been a big part of comics – in the stories and making them – for a LONG time now. Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 18 - Murdock and Marvel: 1980 It’s a rough time for America and for comics in general, but big things are happening at Marvel this year, and it’s a great time to be a Daredevil fan.  Let’s talk a bit about the start of a new decade, and a new era for this podcast’s featured hero – welcome to 1980! Announcement: Duane screwed up... That's why the podcast was late last week. Sorry. The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Eagle Awards The Year in Marvel Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Louise Simonson The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil 162-167, Avengers #191, Marvel Treasury Edition #25, Captain America #250, Defenders #88-90 and Marvel Two-in-One #69  Writing: Michael Fleisher (162), Roger McKenzie (163-4), McKenzie/Miller (165-6), David Michelinie (167)  Art: Steve Ditko (162), Frank Miller (163-7)  After absorbing a large amount of radiation while stopping a malfunctioning reactor, Daredevil passes out and comes to with amnesia. Mr. Hyle, a boxing promoter, tries to recruit him to be a prizefighter – but when he refuses to fight - Hyle shoots his trainer causing Daredevil to regain his memories and he quickly defeats Hyle, his henchmen and a pet leopard. Next, Daredevil confronts the Hulk as he wreaks havoc in NYC. Daredevil convinces him to turn back in Bruce Banner. Banner agrees to leave the city, but in trying to do so the Hulk comes out again. Daredevil confronts again only to be badly beaten and collapses. Rather than killing Daredevil, a confused Hulk leaps out of the city. Daredevil lays motionless as our story ends.  While in the hospital recovering from the Hulk attack, we finally get a payoff in the Ben Urich investigation into Murdock/Daredevil. Urich questions Daredevil and he admits the two are the same person. We get another recap of his origin story. After recounting his story, Matt tells Ben that if he publishes his story, he can no longer be Daredevil. After some reflection, Ben burns his papers keeping Murdock’s secret intact.  Heather finds out that her company is doing business with Doc Ock, and Daredevil (alone) comes to her rescue when she is captured. The Widow realizes her relationship with Matt is through and leaves New York. This is our spotlight story for the week. Foggy’s wedding day with Debbie Harris finally arrives, but the Gladiator holds a group of kids (and their teacher/chaperone) hostage. Foggy “loses” the wedding ring giving Murdock an excuse to take down the Gladiator and return during the ceremony. Turns out the ring was in Foggy’s pocket the whole time. Issue 166 featured a new cover logo said to be designed by Miller. Slanted “Daredevil” with it getting smaller to larger. And just below it “The Man without Fear!” In Defenders, Matt Murdock acts as Kyle Richmond’s (aka Nighthawk) Lawyer and ends up fighting Fem-Force and is captured before being broken out by Nighthawk. The two then help the Hulk fight Fem-Forces along with Hellcat and Valkyrie – who are being mind-controlled by Mandrill. They free the defenders but Mandrill escapes. The year ends with a new villain, the Mauler who is going after Edwin Cord – who’s trying to recruit Murdock for a lawyer job at his company Cordco Incorporated. We learn Mauler is Aaron Soames, a 30+ year employee of Cord’s who was recently denied his pension due to a clerical error (he never existed). Mauler gets a bit of revenge by destroying Cord’s driver’s license and credit cards before being shot and killed by Cord’s security team. Because of his security clearance and the mauler suit being government property, Cord can’t be brought to justice beyond getting knocked out by Daredevil.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #165 July 1980 “Arms of the Octopus” Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Marvel is in an interesting place and an appreciation of Jim Shooter Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 17 - Murdock and Marvel: 1979 This week the industry tries to pick itself back up after the disastrous DC implosion, the Direct Market starts to take on its modern look, and sales and hope are dwindling with retailers, publishers and creators.  Its time to see if the 70s go out with a whimper or a bang (hint: it’s a whimper).  Lets look at 1979. The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Eagle Awards The Year in Marvel The year of licensed I.P.s Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Steven Grant The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #156-161, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #26-28, Captain America #234-236, and Avengers #190  Writing credits: Roger McKenzie (156-161) Mary Jo Duffy (157)  Pencilers:  Gene Colan (156-157), Frank Miller (158-161) The year begins with Daredevil at Avengers mansion picking a fight with Beast, Hercules, Captain America and threatening Black Widow. After again issuing the warning to Widow, Daredevil collapses and is rushed to the hospital – where we learn he’s gone into a coma. During his hospital stay we see a dream sequence where Daredevil fights himself (which explains the cover of the issue (Daredevil fighting Daredevil) and Death-Stalker tries to make a move to kill him once and for all. He’s first delayed by the Avengers and then confronted by an awakened Daredevil himself before escaping. Next we see the Ani-Men trash the Legal Storefront and hurt Foggy as Heather Glenn, Becky Blake look on and Black Widow tries to create a diversion so Murdock can become Daredevil. Ultimately Murdock is kidnapped by the Unholy Three. Though Widow is able to take down Bird-Man as they make their escape. This leads to a final confrontation with the Death-Stalker in a cemetery – next to a grave site with Matt Murdock’s name on it. Death-Stalker kills Ape-Man and Cat-Man rather than giving them their reward for bringing him Murdock. We also learn that the Death-Stalker was once another villain Daredevil took on – The Exterminator (whom he fought way back in issue 40). Daredevil and Death-Stalker fight but the fight ends when Death-Stalker re-materializes while passing through a tombstone. This is our spotlight this week. The year ends on a three-book story arc involving Eric Slaughter who is hired by a mysterious Mr Poindexter to capture and/or kill Daredevil for half a million dollars. This leads to Daredevil fighting them at a pier at midnight and when they are unsuccessful in taking him down, we learn that Poindexter aka Bullseye has kidnapped Black Widow as a way to get to Daredevil. Meanwhile we see Ben Urich looking into Daredevil and Matt Murdock at Fogwell’s Gym (and it seems like he’s made the connection). Back in the action, Daredevil goes to confront Bullseye and Slaughter at Coney Island. Bullseye stages a death of Black Widow on a roller coaster but Daredevil “sees” right through it. The scene shifts to the arcade where a final battle takes place between Daredevil, a freed Black Widow and Bullseye, Slaughter and his men.  Bullseye briefly gets the upper hand before Daredevil is able to knock him to the ground. Bullseye tells Slaughter and his men to attack, but they refuse saying they respect Daredevil and don’t believe he’ll honor their contract – which allows Daredevil and Widow to tie him up and take him to the authorities. New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #158 from May 1979 “A Grave Mistake!”  Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway ROM and the Toys of 1979 Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 16 - Murdock and Marvel: 1978 This week Marvel starts to steady the ship, even as the Distinguished Competition is kneecapped by their corporate overlords.  Prices go up!  Prices go down!  Great new companies sprout up!  Established companies die!  And as usual there are predictions about the impending death of comics.  Welcome to 1978, everyone.  Preshow Listener Mail from ZachDuane at Fan Fusion (https://www.phoenixfanfusion.com/) The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Dr. Strange TV Movie: https://archive.org/details/dr.-strange-1978-movie Industry Trends Eagle Awards The Year in Marvel Chaos continues and a big name leaves...again. Events & Happenings New Titles New Characters Series Ending Who's in the Bullpen Marvel Comics in the 1970s by Eliot Borenstein (https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501769368/marvel-comics-in-the-1970s/)ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Frank Miller The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #150-155, Marvel Two-In-One #37-39, Human Fly #9, Thor #271, Marvel Team-Up #73 and Fantastic Four Annual #13  Writing credits: Jim Shooter (150), Roger McKenzie/Shooter/Kane (151), McKenzie (152-155)  Pencilers:  Carmine Infantino (150, 152), Gil Kane (151), Gene Colan (153-154), Frank Robbins (155)  The year begins with Daredevil looking for Killgrave. Meanwhile, another of New York’s elite that was manipulated by Killgrave hires the Paladin to hunt down Killgrave as well. Eventually Daredevil and Paladin meet, briefly fight and part ways.  After a bad dream, Murdock decides to come clean to Heather Glenn about his Daredevil secret and tell her that Maxwell Glenn is innocent and he’s working to find the person responsible. While waiting for Heather to come home, he answers her phone and learns Maxwell Glenn has committed suicide in prison. When she arrives, he still comes clean and Heather blames Daredevil/Matt for everything including Maxwell Glenn’s death. She then disappears. In the Marvel Two-In-One, Matt Murdock is called on to represent Ben Grimm as he’s trial for causing too much damage in New York but leads to Daredevil briefly working for the Mad Thinker whom is out to get Grimm. However, with the Help of Vision and Yellowjacket, they are able to take down the villain. Knowing he can’t fix his relationship with Heather, Daredevil orchestrates an intervention/meet-up between Debbie Harris and Foggy Nelson in Central Park – which leads to them deciding they are going to get married again. While in Central Park, Daredevil has another run-in with the Paladin. Next Daredevil is lured into a trap with Heather Glenn as the bait by Mister Hyde and Cobra. After a lengthy battle that includes the Billy Club being destroyed (again) and Hyde and Daredevil falling from the 12th floor of Glenn’s apartment complex, Daredevil is captured. That leads to an epic final show-down in which Daredevil must take on the Jester, Gladiator, Hyde, Cobra (and briefly Paladin) who are under the influence of Killgrave. This will be our spotlight story for the week. The year ends with Daredevil experiencing mysterious headaches which is causing him trouble with his radar sense. We also learn Death-Stalker is working on a plan to get Daredevil. At the Storefront, Murdock interviews and hires a new assistant. During the walk to dinner, Murdock learns Black Widow is in town with the Avengers so he bails on Becky Blake and Foggy. As Daredevil, he invades Avengers mansion taking down Beast and Captain America and calls out Black Widow saying “She’ll pay dearly”  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #154 September 1978 "Arena" Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway The Strange Case of Jack Kirby Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Marvel Unlimited for May 19-25  Dan and Siena return after a month away, and immediately dig into a number of new first issues, including the constantly rebooting Scarlet Witch, a new Spider-Punk mini-series, and Ultimate X-Men. QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE WEEK https://www.marvel.com/comics/calendar/ 20 total new comics5 are Infinity Comics15 are regular monthly issuesThere are 4 1st issues JUMPING ON POINTS Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver #1Spider-Punk: Arms Race #1Ultimate X-Men #1Night Thrasher #1 BINGEABLE Nothing ending this week PICK OF THE WEEK Siena - Ultimate X-MenDan - Vengeance of the Moon Knight PANEL OF THE WEEK Siena: Spider-Punk - Any of the big full-page spreadsDan: Thunderbolts p. 14 with giant Winter Soldier vs. American Flag Godzilla WHAT’S NEXT See you next week for another look at what’s new in the world of Marvel Unlimited! We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at unlimitedanswers@comicsovertime.com or find us on Instagram or Bluesky as @comicsovertime. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get our weekly look at what is new on the Marvel Unlimited App.  You can find us anywhere fine podcasts are available, including iTunes, Google, Amazon, Spotify and our hosting platform Podbean! ------------------ Our Website: https://comicsovertime.podbean.com/ Music: “Superhero Intro” by ArctSound

Episode 15 - Murdock and Marvel: 1977 Its 1977, and this week we see the dawn of a number of very influential independent titles, and Marvel and DC continue to try to bash each other into the ground.  Comics are gaining in popularity on TV, with THREE superhero shows now on the small screen, and Marvel catches a tiger by the tail as it agrees to do a comic book adaptation of a movie that is about to change everything for geek culture in America.  Preshow Murdock & Marvel on a break for Duane’s move.Next Show should be June 5th.Marvel Unlimited Show will return in the meantime. The Year in Comics  Notable and Newsworthy Industry Trends Eagle Awards The Year in Marvel Overall it was a rough year, as delays and problems are rampant.  This is evidenced by our own Daredevil, who only managed to get out 9 issues this year, after a decade of monthly releases. New Titles Series Ending New Characters Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Mike Zeck The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #141-149, Iron Fist #11, Marvel Team-Up #56, Avengers #159 and Marvel Comics Super Special #1 Marv Wolfman starts the year as writer, but Jim Shooter takes over with issue 144. Bob Brown also starts the year as artist but like Wolfman, would leave after issue 143 with 30 artist credits in the series. Later in 1977, Brown would lose his battle with Leukemia. Artist credits from 144-149 include Lee Elias, George Tuska, Gil Kane and Klaus Jansen.The year starts with Daredevil taking down Maxwell Glenn’s assistant Stone after he takes a shot at Foggy Nelson. If that wasn’t enough, Bulleye is back in town, captures Daredevil with the cunning use of a paper airplane (“In my hands anything is a deadly weapon”) and ties him to a giant crossbow arrow and fires him towards New Jersey. Though Daredevil is able to escape the death trap with the help of Nova. Next Daredevil must take on Cobra and Hyde who are again working together and trying to steal a new serum recipe from a couple who have a rooftop jungle (and a pet lion) in the middle of the city.  The Owl breaks Man-Bull out of prison and asks him to be his bodyguard and kidnap a doctor who can help him regain the use of his legs. Once captured the doctor gives the Owl an exoskeleton which allows him to walk and fly. But it also has (unknown to the Owl) a flaw that Daredevil is able to exploit to defeat the villain. Next, we see Bullseye again set his sights on Daredevil. This time challenging him to a duel at a TV Studio while broadcasting it. With Daredevil’s radar sense on the fritz due to a golf ball, Daredevil takes a beating (and being shot) Daredevil is finally able to take down Bullseye in the Studio’s wrestling ring. When pressed who hired him, Bullseye says the name “Glenn”. Daredevil goes to confront Maxwell Glenn and he confesses to several crimes (including kidnapping Deborah Harris, Foggy’s Fiancée) without much resistance. We learn that Killgrave was pulling the strings and after Harris is rescued, Maxwell Glenn is arrested. Daredevil realizes something is up and upon returning to Glenn’s office he finds a secret door leading to Killgrave and a group of entranced business leaders. Killgrave escapes while Daredevil has to fight through the group. On the search for Killgrave and a way to clear Maxwell Glenn’s name, Daredevil runs into Death-Stalker instead. Death-Stalker creates a new Smasher in an attempt to take down his foe. The two have fight on a rooftop and then a final battle in an alley where Daredevil causes Smasher to drop a garbage bin on himself. As the year ends, Heather Glenn decides to leave Matt Murdock because he wasn’t there for her during the whole ordeal with her father. And Debbie Harris will not see or talk to Foggy as she’s still in shock from her kidnapping. As a preview at the end of issue 149, we see the message: Next: Daredevil’s Landmark 150th issue, introducing the power of Paladin and possibly the most shattering shock ending ever!  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #146 June 1977 “Duel!” Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Marvel is in a lot of trouble Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 14 - Murdock and Marvel: 1976 Another year of Marvel and DC vying for minds and coins of comic book readers which is consolidating the industry despite some up and coming indie publishers. To that end, Marvel is now publishing over a 3rd of all comics in the U.S. But is it sustainable and at what cost? This week we'll look at all that, the return of Jack Kirby to Marvel and Daredevil's adventure with Uri Gellar in this week's spotlight.   Preshow Marvel Unlimited Show on a short break The Year in Comics  The Big Stories Industry Trends 1976 Top 10 comics The Year in Marvel Marvel puts out over 1/3 of all comics published in America in 1976.  New Titles (and lots of reprints) Series Ending New Characters Big Moments Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Bob Layton The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #129-140, Ghost Rider #20, Daredevil Annual #4 Marv Wolfman is the writer for most of the appearances in the Daredevil series. Bob Brown (art) and Klaus Janson (ink) start off the year on art. Jim Mooney is on inks when Klaus Janson isn’t (133-139). Bill Mantlo wrote issue 140. John Buscema (136-137), John Byrne (138), George Tuska (Annual #4) and Sal Buscema (139-140) get art credits the latter half of the year. 1976 starts with an angry Man-Bull wreaking havoc after losing his court case (despite Matt Murdock representing him) and attempting to steal a heavy statue for the Matador before Daredevil can intervene. Matt opens his storefront legal clinic, Foggy loses his reelection campaign for D.A. to Blake Tower and Daredevil stops a human sacrifice in Central Park.  Next Daredevil must deal with a new hero with impeccable aim in Bullseye, out in public and then under the big top of a circus.  Daredevil and Uri Geller take down Mind-Wave during his attack on Wall Street. This will be the Spotlight story for this week. The Chameleon looking to make a quick buck becoming other people and ends up taking on Daredevil and Torpedo – whom Daredevil still doesn’t trust/believe. We also learn that Deborah Harris is missing but Foggy isn’t telling anyone.  When been tested for several issue that the Jester is working on a plan to get Daredevil and now we find out what it is – Framing Daredevil for Murder of 3 NYPD. Daredevil tries to clear his name but the fake TV reports tell people to kill all super heroes and he almost gets hung. A final confrontation happens in Jesters deadly murder maze that ends up being more deadly for the Jester than Daredevil. Another kidnapping… This time Karen Page. Daredevil works with Johnny Blaze (aka Ghost Rider) to save Page from a new Death’s Head who turns out to be another old villain Death Stalker (who is seeking Paxton Page’s (Karen’s Dad) formulas to free himself). Ghost Rider burns him up with his hellfire. During the whole ordeal, Matt realizes he just wants to be friends with Karen and that he does love Heather. In Daredevil Annual #4, Daredevil and Black Panther try to stop a blackmail scheme while Namor wants the new technology to harness the ocean’s tides as power stopped. We get a new villain in Mind-Master, but his attempt to kill them both with mental energy shorts out his own mind in the process, reverting him back to normal. Next, Daredevil tries to find the junkie wife of a mad bomber who is devastating the city as well as a runaway boy with hemophilia. The year ends with Daredevil taking on Gladiator and Beetle at Grand Central Station after they escape from prison and hijack a train heading to New York. Daredevil saves some innocent bystanders. Gladiator seriously wounds Daredevil's back, but also wounds his partner the Beetle in his rage which takes him out of the action and allows DD to finish off the remaining foe  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #133 May 1976 " Mind-Wave and His Fearsome Think Tank"  Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Falling apart from the inside Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 13 - Murdock and Marvel: 1975 It's 1975. Things are improving a bit in the world but in comics the race continues to fill up newsstands. With that, we start seeing more company causalities if you weren't D.C. or Marvel. We have 2 comic gods duking it out in the rookie of the year and in the spotlight this week, we see Daredevil take on... A comic book character!?!?! Preshow Recap of Dan and Sienna's C2E2 and their panel The Year in Comics  The Big Stories Industry Trends 1975 Top 10 comics The Year in Marvel Average of about 40 comics per month published, for a total of 474.  Most were in the Marvel Universe.  Tons of new titles, and also tons of cancellations.  They were trying for new markets and new readers. New Titles (and lots of reprints) Series Ending New Characters Big Moments Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: John Byrne The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #117-128, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #8, Giant-Size Defenders #3, Thor #233, Defenders #24-25 A number of writers worked on Daredevil this year: Starting with Chris Claremont and Steve Gerber in 117, Gerry Conway in 118, Tony Isabella in 119-122, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman in 124. Marv Wolfman finished the year as writer.William Robert (Bob) Brown provides art for most of those and is joined by Klaus Jansen starting with issue #124 The year starts with the Owl trying to steal Daredevils mind but he agrees to release him if Black Widow kidnaps someone – who turns out to be Shanna the She-Devil. The two women work together to trick the Owl and save Daredevil. Daredevil lost his billy club at the end of last year, but it returns thanks to Ivan Petrovich. Though Black Widow returns to San Francisco. Next Daredevil takes on the Circus of Crime and saves New York City from being hypnotized and lose all their money. Though one member – Blackwing gets away. Daredevil then sees Pop Fenton, his dad’s old trainer, and attempts to save him and his former boxer – now priest – Father Gawaine from Juan Aponte who’s been working with a doctor who’s recreated Iron Man villain the Crusher strength formula. After the battle, he dies in Pop Fenton’s arms. New Years arrives and Black Widow comes to visit and they attend a New Year’s Eve party thrown by Foggy Nelson – though Widow isn’t happy about it. Though it was for the best because agents of Hydra attack being led by El Jaguar. We learn they are after Foggy because SHIELD is intending to have him join their advisory committee. Eventually Foggy is captured by Hydra when Foggy gives himself up to save Black Widow from the Dreadnought. Black Widow and Daredevil scour the city looking for Foggy and end up fighting El Jaguar and Blackwing who turns out to be the son of Supreme Hydra – Silvermane – as Fury’s forces head into a trap. They are able to avoid the trap with Life Model Decoys. In a final battle with Hydra, the Black Widow destroys the Dreadnought by shooting it in its only weak spot. Daredevil then goes up against Jackhammer and easily defeats him. El Jaguar is knocked out by Dum Dum Dugan, and Man-Killer is incapacitated when Ivan places a jamming device on her exoskeleton. With their plan failing, Blackwing and Silvermane make a hurried escape and the remaining Hydra agents are captured. Next Daredevil takes on Copperhead – a real life recreation of a 1930s comic book. This two book arc is this week’s spotlight. A new Torpedo show up looking to complete an important mission but when he’s killed during a battle with Daredevil, former pro quarterback Brock Jones takes the costume and wants to complete the mission. Those two then fight as Jones attempts to explain the mission. In the process they destroy the home of an innocent family. When the mother yells at them for the destruction, they stop fighting and leave. As the year ends, Murdock says he’s done being Daredevil but it doesn’t last long as he’s needed to take on Death-Starker who’s stealing artifacts from museums in an attempt to build a powerful weapon. In their final battle, Death-Stalker ends up disappearing while standing on a platform near a mysterious Sky-Walker.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #124 Aug 1975 "In the Coils of the Copperhead!" and Daredevil #125 Sep 1975 “Vengeance Is the Copperhead!”  Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Inmates running the asylum Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Episode 12 - Murdock and Marvel: 1974 Well, here we are in 1974, when Richard Nixon leaves the White House in shame in real life even as he is shown to be leading a secret criminal organization in the Marvel universe.  The economy is a mess, crime is up, and comics are affected in all sorts of ways. Preshow Reminder about Dan and Sienna's C2E2 PanelSaturday, April 27th from 10:30am – 11:30am.  Room S405-B The Year in Comics  The Big Stories Shazam Winners (final year) Comic Fan Art Awards (formerly Goethe Awards) The Year in Marvel Marvel published 86 different titles in 1974, including 9 new quarterly “Giant-Size” books, resulting in anywhere from 31 to 50 different Marvel titles hitting the stands each month. New Titles (and lots of reprints) Series Ending New Characters Big Moments Who's in the Bullpen ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: George Perez The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #107-116, Man-Thing #1, Marvel Two-in-One #3, Marvel Team-Up #25 Steve Gerber (writer) and William Robert (Bob) Brown (art) were the main creative pair for most of the year. Sal Buscema on art in Marvel 2-in-1. Gene Colan returned to go art on #112 and #116. Captain Marvel comes to the aid of Daredevil and Black Widow in their attempt to take down Kerwin Broderick and his Terrex. But it is Moon Dragon amplifying Angar’s powers that trap the Terrex in a black void where it is killed along with Broderick.During all this we learn that Captain O’Hara’s brother has died in Africa Next Daredevil takes on the Beetle while Moon Dragon hangs out at the Daredevil/Black Widow Mansion. Daredevil then heads back to New York after hearing about an assassination attempt on Foggy Nelson. We also learn Foggy has a sister named Candice. We learn the Beetle was hired by the Black Spectre criminal organization who are looking to overthrow the US government and attempt to forcefully recruit Daredevil and Black Widow to their cause.In the 2-in-1, Daredevil and Thing board the Black Spectre Zeppelin in an attempt to confront their leader, but it doesn’t go well and they have to flee. Daredevil is finally able to unmask the Black Spectre leader and it’s an apish mutant known as the Mandrill. Shanna and Daredevil are captured by another hired villain, Silver Samurai, and brought back to the Zepplin where they find Black Widow has also been kidnapped and is being mind controlled. The final showdown with Mandrill and Black Spectre comes in Washington D.C. at the White House after Daredevil is able to snap Black Widow from her mind control. Black Widow and Shanna are able to defeat Nekra when she’s distracted by the explosion and Daredevil defeats Mandrill on the white house roof after he falls – but no body of the mutant is found. Next Matt Murdock/Daredevil go to Florida in search of Gladiator and Candice Nelson – whom he kidnapped. The trail takes him to the Everglades where he finds Candice but also Death Stalker – whom hired Gladiator to get the project notes. Death Stalker captures Daredevil but the Man-Thing intervenes which ultimately saves Daredevil from the Gladiator.  Death Stalker heads to New York and tries to lure Murdock/Daredevil into a trap with the help of Foggy Nelson, but it doesn’t go as planned and Death Stalker escapes. Foggy and Matt hide Candice at Matt’s hotel. A final confrontation takes place in a chemical plant with Daredevil using his Billy Club to know Death Stalker into a vat of acid (along with the project notes).    The year ends with Daredevil returning to San Francisco to help Black Widow and her financial woes, but the pair are attacked and defeated by the Owl. He loads the unconscious heroes on his chopper so he can deal with them as he sees fit.  New Powers, Toys or Places New Supporting Characters New Villains This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #112 August 1974 “Death of a Nation?”  Recap Why We Picked This Story The Takeaway Crediting Creators in the collaborative and evolving world of corporate comics https://www.newsfromme.com/2024/04/08/claws-for-debate-part-1/ Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.  Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.  My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.  BOOKLIST  The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!  Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.  Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.  Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition.  Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.    Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.  Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

Marvel Unlimited for April 7 - 13  Siena was puzzled about the way the Captain America storyline was set up, questioned why Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1 did not have Moon Knight in it, and appears to have reached her saturation point with Marvel Zombies.  On the bright side, Beware of the Planet of the Apes, Kid Venom and the Fantastic Four provided solid wins.   QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE WEEK https://www.marvel.com/comics/calendar/ 21 total new comics5 are Infinity Comics15 are regular monthly issuesThere are 2 1st issuesPlus 1 older comic JUMPING ON POINTS Kid VenomMiguel O’HaraBeware the Planet of the ApesVengeance of the Moon Knight (not really)Rise of the Powers of X (not really) BINGEABLE Marvel ZombiesSilver Surfer Legacy RebirthStar Wars High RepublicDoctor Strange PICK OF THE WEEK Siena - Beware of the Planet of the Apes #1Dan - Kid Venom: Origins PANEL OF THE WEEK Siena: Kid Venom: Origins #1, p. 9 and Captain America #5, p. 6 Dan: FF #15, p. 19 WHAT’S NEXT See you next week for another look at what’s new in the world of Marvel Unlimited! We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at unlimitedanswers@comicsovertime.com or find us on Instagram or Bluesky as @comicsovertime. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get our weekly look at what is new on the Marvel Unlimited App.  You can find us anywhere fine podcasts are available, including iTunes, Google, Amazon, Spotify and our hosting platform Podbean! ------------------ Our Website: https://comicsovertime.podbean.com/ Music: “Superhero Intro” by ArctSound