First mention of POW! comics?

Buster, Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee, Wham, Smash, you name it!

Moderator: AndyB

Post Reply
User avatar
suebutcher
Posts: 348
Joined: 20 Feb 2013, 13:39
Location: Daylesford, Australia

First mention of POW! comics?

Post by suebutcher »

I'm currently drawing something in a Dan Decarlo style so I have all my tatty Archie comics out for reference. I thought you guys might be amused by this, the cover of Jughead #134, July 1966, published a year before Pow or Zap comics actually existed.
Attachments
jughead.jpg

User avatar
philcom55
Posts: 5170
Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: First mention of POW! comics?

Post by philcom55 »

It's particularly appropriate that the Shield was created by Irv Novick - the same artist whose panel in All-American Men of War #89 became the main inspiration for Roy Lichtenstein's Famous Pop Art painting 'Whaam!'

User avatar
suebutcher
Posts: 348
Joined: 20 Feb 2013, 13:39
Location: Daylesford, Australia

Re: First mention of POW! comics?

Post by suebutcher »

And I suppose that's the painting WHAM! comic got its name from?

User avatar
Digifiend
Posts: 7315
Joined: 15 Aug 2007, 11:43
Location: Hull, UK

Re: First mention of POW! comics?

Post by Digifiend »

Adam West Batman was on air before the Power Comics launched. If anything, the names of Pow and Wham came from either that or American comic books like the one that show was based on. Comic book sound effects. They did always feature superheroes after all (well, until Smash's 1969 relaunch anyway).

User avatar
suebutcher
Posts: 348
Joined: 20 Feb 2013, 13:39
Location: Daylesford, Australia

Re: First mention of POW! comics?

Post by suebutcher »

Not WHAM! though, which started in 1964, two years before Batman got to TV.

Lew Stringer
Posts: 7041
Joined: 01 Mar 2006, 00:59
Contact:

Re: First mention of POW! comics?

Post by Lew Stringer »

Digifiend wrote:Adam West Batman was on air before the Power Comics launched. If anything, the names of Pow and Wham came from either that or American comic books like the one that show was based on. Comic book sound effects. They did always feature superheroes after all (well, until Smash's 1969 relaunch anyway).
They didn't feature superheroes until the Hulk reprints started in Smash No.16 in May 1966. Wham had been around since June 1964 with no superhero content, and didn't carry any until August 1966 when the Fantastic Four reprints started.

Much as I dislike Lichtenstein for not crediting the artists he based his work on it's most likely his 'Whaam!' painting in 1963 that inspired the comic title Wham! in 1964. Then Odhams simply followed up with Smash! and Pow! because they wanted similar titles.
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.lewstringer.com
Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

User avatar
suebutcher
Posts: 348
Joined: 20 Feb 2013, 13:39
Location: Daylesford, Australia

Re: First mention of POW! comics?

Post by suebutcher »

"Whaam!" is pretty good, but most of Lichtenstein's early comic-based paintings are dreadful! The comics he swiped from were very much better. But it was just a move in a kind of modern art game, I don't know that he actually liked comics much. They were brightly coloured, all-American, and flat, and that's what counted at the time.

Post Reply