Tag Archives: comics

Disney Dithering on Next Marvel Movie Hero

Way back when Disney bought Marvel, a move first announced almost a year ago, a few questions immediately popped to fans’ minds. One of the most prominent: what will the movies look like? Will they take on a classy but maybe too squeaky-clean Disney shine? Will Disney keep their hands off entirely, or will the combination of Disney’s resources with the Marvel movie studio make for even bigger and better superhero films? We haven’t seen the answers to any of those questions yet. While Disney did profit from “Iron Man 2,” due to its release by Marvel Studios, now a … Continue reading →

Disney-Marvel Takeover Official

On December 30, 2009 Marvel shareholders voted to OK the Walt Disney Corporation’s purchase of Marvel Entertainment. For those who don’t know, Marvel Entertainment is one of the major comic book companies and owns franchises like X-Men and Spiderman. Despite the enormity of the deal, we will see few immediate changes in the output of either company, particularly in film. Most of Marvel’s main franchises, such as Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, and X-Men are already tied up in deals with other movie studios. The situation is similar for television series. Also, Marvel characters may not immediately, if at all, appear … Continue reading →

Inspiration for Famous Comic Strip Mommy Dies

Sad, sad, sad. The woman who served as the inspiration for the mommy in the world famous “Family Circus” comic has died. Thelma Keane was 82. According to news reports, Thelma, who was the wife of “Family Circus” creator Bil Keane, died of Alzheimer’s disease last Friday. I happen to be a huge “Family Circus” fan. I started collecting the comic when I was 7 years old (decades ago). I would use all the money I would get from Christmas and birthdays to fund my addiction to the small paperback books that followed the lives of two good-humored parents and … Continue reading →

Dr. Diabetes

When I was a kid my favorite comic book characters were Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead. That was decades ago. These days kids are not only the ones reading comic books, but many of them are creating their own series and generating quite a following in the process. Once comic book series in particular has been making headlines around the world recently, not so much because of its subject matter, but because of who is responsible for crafting the books. Thirteen-year-old Kamaal Washington battles diabetes every day. In his comic book, “Dr. Diabetes,” a sinister character that is determined to … Continue reading →

Using The Comics As A Teaching Tool

Fellow parenting blogger, Kori, recently wrote a blog about how she uses the newspaper as a way to jump-start conversations with her teens. I have also found the newspaper to be an invaluable teaching tool. Every section can be used to teach a new concept or reinforce one that your kids are learning. One section I especially like is the comics, especially the Sunday section. One activity you can use to teach or reinforce the concept of sequencing is to take a three or four comic panel, cut it out and then give it to your child and then have … Continue reading →

Housecleaning: You Never Know What You’ll Find

My mom is getting a jump-start on some serious house cleaning. She’s hosting Christmas this year and is expecting a house full of people. This will be the first year in almost a decade that we (all of my siblings, their spouses and children) will be spending Christmas together at my parent’s home in Hawaii (we usually come in waves during the holiday season; rarely are we all there at the same time). Needless to say, she is in overdrive trying to purge the spare rooms that were turned into “storage areas” after we left for college. I spoke to … Continue reading →