One of the best comic blogs on the web is Dial B for Blog, run by the pseudonymous "Robby Reed." Oh, wait. I probably need to explain the reference here. In the sixties, DC had a comic book called House of Mystery and it featured for a time, a strip called "Dial H for Hero" about a kid named Robby Reed who had a magic device that looked like an old-fashioned telephone dial. Every time he dialed H-E-R-O on it, he was magically transformed into a different super-hero, almost all of which were new and never seen again after the one appearance. The comic was written by Dave Wood and drawn by Jim Mooney.
(Quick aside because if I don't put it here, I'll forget to mention it: Congrats to Jim Mooney, one of the great gentlemen of our business, on his recent and successful cataract surgery. I am told he's regained the use of an eye that hasn't worked so well for many years…and isn't that a wonderful thing to hear? He's probably drawing better than ever now, and he was already pretty darned good.)
Where was I? Oh, yes: Robby Reed. Well, the Robby Reed who runs Dial B for Blog isn't the same guy. I figured this out because the Robby Reed in the comic book was a fictional character. I'm not sure who the Identity Thief is who runs the blog but today, he's posted the first in a ten-part (10!) series on Ira Schnapp, one of the most important figures in the history of comic books.
Who, you may have just muttered aloud, was Ira Schnapp? Well, go read Part One of Ten (10!) and maybe you'll begin to get the idea. This is a long overdue bit of research and, as the saying goes, it about time.