When Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art was first published in 1993, it arrived as something of a paradox: a comic book that sought to explain what comics are, how they function, and why they matter. Created by Scott McCloud, the work occupies a singular place in both comics history and media theory. It is at once a manifesto, a textbook, a historical survey, and a philosophical treatise—yet it is delivered entirely through the very medium it analyzes.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

Reinventing Comics: The Evolution of an Art Form by Scott McCloud

Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels by Scott McCloud

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

From their origins in the 1960s Silver Age of comics to their reinvention in the 1980s and their subsequent expansion across television, film, and digital media, the Teen Titans have functioned as both a reflection of generational anxieties and a proving ground for new storytelling approaches within DC Comics.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 1 (2022 Edition)

New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 2

Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle between Marvel and DC By Reed Tucker

DC Comics : Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes by Les Daniels

American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1960s Volume Two: 1965-1969 by Wells and Dallas

The DC Comics Encyclopedia by Matthew K. Manning

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

Since his debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962, Spider‑Man has become not merely a superhero but a modern myth — a figure whose struggles, triumphs, and moral dilemmas have mirrored the anxieties and aspirations of generations.

His creation sits at the intersection of two towering creative forces, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, whose collaboration, and eventual conflict, produced one of the most enduring icons of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The character’s evolution across comics, television, film, and merchandising has made him a cultural touchstone, a symbol of youthful potential, and a lens through which American society has explored responsibility, power, alienation, and identity.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story — Sean Howe

Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle between Marvel and DC — Reed Tucker

The Ten Cent Plague — by David Hajdu

Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book — Jordan Raphael & Tom Spurgeon

John Romita, And All That Jazz 

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

Dave Stevens remains one of the most distinctive figures in modern comic art history. His career defies conventional metrics of success: he produced relatively little work yet achieved enduring influence.

Through The Rocketeer, Stevens created more than a character—he created a visual language. His fusion of nostalgia, technical mastery, and personal passion resulted in a body of work that continues to resonate decades later.

Featured biography - Dave Stevens

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Vamps and Vixens: The Seductive Art of Dave Stevens, Verotik (1998)

Dave Stevens: Selected Sketches and Studies, (Vols. 1–4), Bulldog Studios

Brush with Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens, Underwood Books (2008)

Dave Steven's The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures, IDW Publishing (2010)

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 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. 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. He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic 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

Among the pantheon of American comic-book heroes, few characters embody the ideological convictions of their creator as thoroughly as The Question, introduced by Steve Ditko in 1967 for Charlton Comics.

Where most superheroes are collaborative constructions—shaped by editors, writers, artists, and decades of reinterpretation—The Question stands as a rare example of a character whose core identity is inseparable from the worldview of the man who conceived him.

To understand The Question is to understand Ditko: his aesthetics, his philosophy, his uncompromising moral absolutism, and his lifelong devotion to the Objectivist ideas of Ayn Rand.

Featured biography - Steve Ditko

Recommended reading list for this episode:

The Steve Ditko DC Omnibus (DC Comics, 2012)

Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko (Fantagraphics, 2008)

The Creativity of Steve Ditko (IDW, 2010)

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (Harper Perennial, 1993)

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (Basic Books, 2004)

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story (HarperCollins, 2012)

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 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. 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. He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic 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

Charles Schulz's Peanuts is a masterpiece of American art—a work of humor, melancholy, philosophy, and beauty. It captures the essence of being human: the struggle to belong, the fear of failure, the hope for connection, and the courage to keep trying.

Featured biography - Charles Schulz.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Schulz and Peanuts — David Michaelis (2007)

My Life with Charlie Brown — Charles M. Schulz, ed. M. Thomas Inge (2010)

Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz — Rheta Grimsley Johnson (1989)

The Complete Peanuts (Fantagraphics, 2004–present) — with essays by various scholars

Peanuts: A Golden Celebration — Charles M. Schulz (2000)

The Peanuts Papers — Editor, Andrew Blauner (2019)

The Gospel According to Peanuts — Robert Short (1965)

A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition — Lee Mendelson (2000)

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 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. 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. He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic 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

Marvel’s Western comics are more than relics of a bygone era. They are foundational texts in the history of the company. They shaped the careers of key creators, sustained the publisher through lean years, and introduced storytelling techniques that would later define the Marvel Universe.

Featured biographies Doug Wildey & Dick Ayers

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.

Recommended reading for this episode:

Marvel Masterworks: Rawhide Kid

Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier

The Secret History of Marvel Comics by Blake Bell & Dr. Michael J. Vassallo

Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution by Ronin Ro

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe

COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics. 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. 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. He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic 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

Debuting in 1939, Namor is not only among the earliest costumed heroes in American comics, but he also closely coincided with archetypal figures such as Superman, Batman, and Captain America. Most importantly, he represents one of the earliest examples of a morally complex antihero in comics—an aristocratic warrior who is as likely to attack humanity as to save it.

Recommended reading for this episode:

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe

Marvel Comics The Timely Years 1939–1949 by Brad C. Bishop

Timely Confidential: When the Golden Age of Comics Was Young by Allen Bellman

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.

Hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated, and TV Comics. 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. Kevin was also the Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic, card, and toy distributor in the country, and the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic related merchandise.

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

This podcast is made by humans.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

For more than half a century, MAD Magazine was not merely a humor publication. It was an attitude, a worldview, a survival guide for young readers navigating a confusing modern world filled with advertising lies, political hypocrisy, corporate doublespeak, and pop-culture absurdity. If Superman stood for idealism and Reader’s Digest stood for earnest uplift, MAD stood for skepticism—armed with jokes, cartoons, parody lyrics, and relentless mockery.

Recommended reading for this episode:

MAD Art: A Visual Celebration of the Art of MAD Magazine and the Idiots Who Create It — Mark Evanier (2002)

The MAD World of William M. Gaines by Frank Jacobs (1972)

Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America by Bill Schelly (2015)

Al Jaffee’s Mad Life by Mary-Lou Weisman (2010)

Foul Play!: The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s EC Comics by Grant Geissman (2005)

Tales of Terror! The EC Companion by Fred von Bernewitz & Grant Geissman (2000)

The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu (2008)

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.

Hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated, and TV Comics. 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. Kevin was also the Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic, card, and toy distributor in the country, and the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic related merchandise.

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

This podcast is made by humans.

© Kevin Cleary 2026

From the outset, Little Orphan Annie distinguished itself. It wasn’t merely a humorous sketch or a suburban gag panel — it was a serialized adventure with recurring characters, dramatic arcs, and a wide thematic range.

Its blend of youthful innocence, gritty street-wise adventures, and socio-political flair helped it become both popular and provocative, captivating adults as well as children.

Recommended reading list for this episode:

Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray – (IDW / Library of American Comics editions) 2008

The Autobiography of Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray 1948

The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard & Dale Crain 1977

Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890–1945 by Ian Gordon 1998

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.

Hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated, and TV Comics. 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. Kevin was also the Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic, card, and toy distributor in the country, and the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic related merchandise.

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

This podcast is made by humans.

© Kevin Cleary 2026