Comics A-Z Podcast

K is for Katy Keene - America's Pin-Up and Fashion Icon

In the history of American comic books, some characters became famous by fighting crime, others by making readers laugh, and still others by representing the everyday dreams of young readers.

Katy Keene occupied a distinctive place among them. She was a fashion model, aspiring actress, singer, romantic heroine, and glamorous young woman whose adventures revolved around show business, personal relationships, and, above all, clothes.

Yet her lasting importance extended beyond her stylish appearance. Katy Keene was one of the more unusual examples of a comic-book character whose readers were invited to participate directly in the creative process, contributing fashion designs and other ideas that could appear in the published stories.

Created by cartoonist Bill Woggon, Katy first appeared in 1945, when American comic books were undergoing a major transformation. Superheroes still dominated much of the industry, but publishers were increasingly exploring humor, romance, teen culture, crime, horror, and other subjects.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Katy Keene (Archie Comics Presents)

Archie Comics 80th Anniversary Presents Katy Keene eBook

Katy Keene: Model Behavior

The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen: Awesome Female Characters from Comic Book History by Hope Nicholson

The History of Girls' Comics by Susan Brewer

Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel Comics by Margaret Stohl Jeanine Schaefer Judith Stephens

Dauntless Dames: High-Heeled Heroes of the Comics Trina Robbins

Women and the Comics — Trina Robbins and Catherine Yronwode

Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists, 1896–2013 — Trina Robbins

The Great Women Cartoonists — Trina Robbins

Gladys Parker: A Life in Comics, A Passion for Fashion — Trina Robbins

The Great Women Superheroes — Trina Robbins

Babes in Arms: Women in Comics During the Second World War — Trina Robbins

Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them — Edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Sigrid Ellis

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu One the best books about comics ever!

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

J is for James Bond - The Spy Who Conquered Comics

The history of Bond comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels offers a fascinating look at the evolution of the comics business itself. It encompasses the British newspaper tradition, American comic-book publishing, the influence of Hollywood, the emergence of licensed entertainment properties, and the changing standards of violence, sexuality, and political representation in popular entertainment.

Unlike superheroes, who often maintain a recognizable identity across generations of creators, James Bond has always been a licensed character whose portrayal depends upon a delicate balance between the original literary creation and the demands of contemporary audiences.

His comic-book history is therefore not simply a collection of illustrated spy stories. It is a record of how one of the twentieth century's most influential fictional characters adapted to changing media and international markets.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

James Bond Warren Ellis Collection

Ian Fleming's JAMES BOND Signature Comic Strip Collection Vol1 Coming from Titan Publishing in February of 2027. This is going to be great!

The Complete James Bond: Goldfinger - The Classic Comic Strip Collection

The Complete James Bond: Octopussy - The Classic Comic Strip Collection

James Bond: Spectre: The Complete Comic Strip Collection

From Blofeld to Moneypenny: Gender in James Bond

The James Bond Omnibus 003

The James Bond Omnibus 004

The James Bond Omnibus 005

The James Bond Omnibus 006

All in Color for a Dime — David G. Hartwell, editor

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones

Comic Book Nation by Bradford Wright

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu One the best books about comics ever!

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

I is for Ibis the Invincible - Magic, Myth, and the Golden Age of Comics

Among the more successful of the less-remembered characters of the Golden Age of Comics was Ibis the Invincible, a magical adventurer published by Fawcett Comics beginning in 1940.

He was not simply another Superman imitation. Ibis belonged to an older tradition of supernatural heroes that included comic-strip magician Mandrake the Magician, pulp occultists, stage magicians and the fantasy literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

What made him distinctive was the peculiar mixture of ancient Egyptian mythology, superhero action and contemporary American crime fighting that Fawcett created around him.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Ibis The Invincible #1: The Miracle Man In Golden Age Comic Action

Whiz Comics #154 HardPress Vintage Comic Book Collection KINDLE EDITION  only $3.99!

The Golden Age of Comic Books: 365 Days — By Les Daniels and Chip Kidd

The Fawcett Companion: The Best of FCA — P. C. Hamerlinck, editor

Superhero Comics of the Golden Age: The Illustrated History by Mike Benton

The Comic-Book Book — Don Thompson & Dick Lupoff, editors

All in Color for a Dime — David G. Hartwell, editor

The Encyclopedia of American Comics — edited by Ron Goulart

The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History — Robert C. Harvey

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones

Comic Book Nation by Bradford Wright

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu One the best books about comics ever!

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

H is for Burne Hogarth - From Tarzan to Teacher

Few artists in the history of the American newspaper comic strip approached their subject with the combination of theatricality, anatomical precision, classical training, and sheer visual energy possessed by Burne Hogarth. For millions of readers, Hogarth's name became inseparable from Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs's legendary jungle hero.

Yet Hogarth was considerably more than an illustrator of an established character.

He was an artist who regarded the comic strip as a legitimate form of visual storytelling, an educator who helped shape generations of commercial artists, and a theorist whose books on anatomy and drawing became standard references for artists long after his newspaper work had ended.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth

Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth

Drawing Dynamic Hands by Burne Hogarth

Dynamic Light and Shade by Burne Hogarth

Drawing the Human Head by Burne Hogarth

Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery by Burne Hogarth

The Arcane Eye of Hogarth by Burne Hogarth

Tarzan - In The City of Gold (Vol. 1): The Complete Burne Hogarth Sundays and Dailies Library

Tarzan - Versus The Barbarians (Vol. 2) The Complete Burne Hogarth Sundays and Dailies Library

Tarzan - and the Lost Tribes (Vol. 4) The Complete Burne Hogarth Sundays and Dailies Library

Tarzan - Tarzan and the Adventurers (Vol. 5) The Complete Burne Hogarth Sundays and Dailies Library

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan: Burne Hogarth's Lord of the Jungle

The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics — edited by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams

The Encyclopedia of American Comics — edited by Ron Goulart

Children of the Yellow Kid: The Evolution of the American Comic Strip by Robert C Harvey

The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History — Robert C. Harvey

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones

Comic Book Nation by Bradford Wright

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

G is for Gold Key Comics - The Original Leader in Licensed Comics

Gold Key Comics occupies a fascinating place in American comic-book history. It was neither the largest superhero publisher of its era nor the most aggressively experimental. It did not produce a continuous succession of characters as culturally dominant as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or the Fantastic Four.

Yet for millions of American children growing up during the 1960s and 1970s, Gold Key was one of the most recognizable names on the comic-book rack. Its books offered a remarkably broad mixture of science fiction, fantasy, adventure, horror, mystery, humor, television adaptations, movie tie-ins, Disney characters, newspaper-strip properties, and original creations.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

The Art of George Wilson

The Art of Walt Kelly

Pogo: The Complete Dell Comics — Walt Kelly

Carl Barks Library — Carl Barks

The Golden Age of Comic Books — Bill Schelly

American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960–1964 — John Wells

American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965–1969 — John Wells

The Encyclopedia of American Comics — Ron Goulart

Magnus, Robot Fighter Archives — Russ Manning

Russ Manning's Tarzan — Russ Manning

Turok, Son of Stone Archives — Western Publishing

The Unexpurgated Carl Barks — Carl Barks

Carl Barks and the Disney Comic Book — Geoffrey Blum

The Art of Walt Disney's Donald Duck

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones

Comic Book Nation by Bradford Wright

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

F is for Flash Gordon: Alex Raymond and the Legacy of a Science-Fiction Icon

Long before Star Wars, before Star Trek, before modern superhero comics transformed outer space into a familiar fictional landscape, there was Flash Gordon: the handsome Earthman rocketing across the cosmos, the beautiful Dale Arden at his side, the brilliant and sometimes dangerously obsessive Dr. Hans Zarkov behind them, and the three of them confronting tyrants, monsters, alien civilizations, giant creatures, flying warriors, strange machines and fantastic worlds. Created and initially illustrated by Alex Raymond, with stories by writer Don Moore, the strip was conceived partly as King Features' answer to the enormous popularity of Buck Rogers. Yet what began as a commercial attempt to compete with another science-fiction adventure quickly became something considerably more important. 

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Flash Gordon: Classic Collection by Alex Raymond

Alex Raymond: His Life and Art by Tom Roberts

Alex Raymond: The Power of the Image by Ron Goulart, Daniel Herman

Children of the Yellow Kid: The Evolution of the American Comic Strip by Robert C. Harvey

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls

The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art by Coulton Waugh

The Encyclopedia of American Comics - Ron Goulart, editor

The Comics: Since 1945 by Brian Walker

The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics

100 Years of American Newspaper Comics by Maurice Horn

The Comic Strip Century by Bill Blackbeard and Dale Crain

The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones

Comic Book Nation by Bradford Wright

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

E is for E-Man - An Independent Hero for Many Publishers

E-Man's history is inseparable from the history of independent comics. E-Man began at Charlton, returned through First Comics in the 1980s, was revived by Comico and Alpha Productions in the 1990s, appeared in later independent publications including Digital Webbing Press, and eventually returned to Charlton-related publishing. The character's ability to survive the collapse or transformation of one publisher after another is perhaps his greatest accomplishment. E-Man never became a Superman-sized commercial property. Instead, he became something arguably more appropriate to his creators' intentions: a genuine cult character whose audience remained loyal for decades.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Nicola Cuti's Comic Book Guide for the Artist, Writer & Letterer

E-Man: The Early Years

E-Man: Recharged #1 Digital Webbing The Comico Comics

E-Man: The Idol / Curse of the Idol

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones

Comic Book Nation by Bradford Wright

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

D is for Doonesbury - The comic strip that changed everything

Few American comic strips have changed as dramatically as their country changed around them. Peanuts transformed the newspaper strip into a vehicle for introspection; The Far Side expanded its possibilities for surreal humor; Calvin and Hobbes demonstrated the expressive range of the medium. But Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury accomplished something different. It turned the daily newspaper comic strip into a running chronicle of American political, cultural, and social life.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Trudeau & Doonesbury: A Biography: The Cartoonist Who Turned the News into Art by Joshua Kendall

The Doonesbury Chronicles — Garry Trudeau (1975)

Doonesbury's Greatest Hits — Garry Trudeau (1978)

The People's Doonesbury: Notes from Underfoot — Garry Trudeau (1981

Doonesbury Dossier: The Reagan Years — Garry Trudeau (1984)

Doonesbury Deluxe: Selected Glances Askance — Garry Trudeau (1987)

Doonesbury by G.B. Trudeau  This is the original collection of Yale strips.

40: A Doonesbury Retrospective — Garry Trudeau (2010) Must Read!

Dbury@50: The Complete Digital Doonesbury — Garry Trudeau (2020)

The Comics: Since 1945 by Brian Walker

The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics

100 Years of American Newspaper Comics by Maurice Horn

The Comic Strip Century by Bill Blackbeard and Dale Crain

The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

C is for Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family - The World’s Mightiest Mortal

There was a time, difficult to imagine today, when Superman was not unquestionably the most successful superhero in American popular culture. Batman was still a relatively young character. Wonder Woman had only recently arrived. Marvel Comics did not yet exist in its modern form.

One of the most commercially successful comic-book characters in the world was a red-uniformed, lightning-bolt-chested hero whose greatest secret was that beneath the muscles, cape, and impossible powers was just an ordinary boy.

His name was Captain Marvel.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

The Fawcett Companion: The Best of FCA — P.C. Hamerlinck, editor

The Shazam! Archives, Vol. 1

The Shazam! Family Archives Vol. 1

Shazam!: A Celebration of 75 Years

Superheroes of the Golden Age by Mike Benton

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

B is for Blondie - America's First Family of the Comic Strip

Beginning life as the adventures of a carefree flapper during the Jazz Age, it evolved into perhaps the definitive portrait of the American suburban family. For nearly a century readers have watched Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead navigate marriage, parenthood, careers, neighbors, and the everyday absurdities of modern life.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Blondie: The Bumstead Family History

The Comics: Since 1945 by Brian Walker

The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics

100 Years of American Newspaper Comics by Maurice Horn

The Comic Strip Century by Bill Blackbeard and Dale Crain

The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips

COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics.  Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country. 

Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.

He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.

Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.

This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.

© Kevin Cleary 2026