Reflections on Groundhog Days past
Word Balloons #1200: On Groundhog Day, taking a look back at comics columns and Februaries gone by
On Friday, Feb. 2, 2001, I started a weekly column on comic books that ran for 22 years in The Oklahoman, the daily newspaper of Oklahoma City. That first column was about writer Peter Milligan and artist Mike Allred taking over “X-Force.” That began a streak of columns that continues to this day here at Substack.
Prior to that, I’d been writing about comics since the early 1990s for websites, zines and my college paper. And I’d written a trial column the previous November on Alex Ross and Shazam! The weekly column felt like a great extension of that, bringing what I learned as a comics fan and retailer to the printed page.
The column’s association with The Oklahoman ended in February of 2023, but I didn’t feel like I was done writing about comics yet. So, I moved the column to Substack, which has also become a new home for my film reviews, film writing, and other pieces.
Over the years, I’ve had some exciting Groundhog Day weekends, often relating to my column at the time. Here are a few highlights:
In 2007, the Groundhog Day paper featured interviews with two of my comic-book heroes:
Steve “The Dude” Rude and Stan “The Man” Lee.
Rude talked about his plans for new “Nexus” and “Moth” comics at the time.
“They’ll have all the sock ’em, rock ’em action that all great fiction has — and I’m thinking of, like, (Jack) Kirby books from the 1960s and 1970s — he dealt with the greatest issues that mankind has ever had to look in the face at — but they were always inspirational,” Rude said.
“And when things got bad, there always came a hero, which is the essence of comics, to try and do what’s right. And that’s what I love about comic books.”
Stan was promoting a DVD interview that benefited the Hero Initiative. He also talked about how he learned to appreciate his legacy.
“As I travel around and meet more and more people, I’m amazed at how important comic books were to so many people over the years,” Lee said. “And so many of them will say to me how much these comics meant when they were young, and some of them say that they still mean a lot to them. They still read them. And it’s very gratifying to hear that from so many people.”
The next year, I talked to Marvel’s Tom Brevoort, as well as Oklahoma City-area comic retailers, about the then-controversial take on Captain America’s former sidekick, Bucky, taking over for Cap, and wielding a gun while doing so.
“(Expect) the same kind of high-intensity action and sophisticated suspense that the series has become renowned for, but with a slightly different point of view at the helm,” Brevoort said in an interview with The Oklahoman. “You’ll see the Red Skull’s master plan put into action and the appearance of another figure who has a different viewpoint on the legacy of Captain America from that of Bucky.”
In 2011, I reminisced about the changes in 10 years of writing a column and updated readers on my progress in attempting to read 2,011 comics in the year 2011.
The 2012 column was an advance on the ComicsPRO meeting in Dallas happening the following week. My enduring memory of that event was a late evening spent in the hotel lobby/restaurant area with Todd McFarlane, who was regaling several retailers with his ideas, stories, and insights.
In 2015, the film I co-wrote with Sterling Gates (“The Flash”), “The Posthuman Project,” opened in theaters on this weekend. It debuted at the deadCenter Film Festival in 2014 and had just won the best feature award at Trail Dance prior to its theatrical release, as my colleague Brandy McDonnell wrote about in the Jan. 30, 2015 edition of The Oklahoman. Director Kyle Roberts was back in theaters in 2023, with his latest, “What Rhymes With Reason,” which will be available on VOD platforms on Feb. 6, 2024.
In 2016, I again celebrated, this time with a 15th-anniversary column in the paper, looking at how comics had become source material for hit movies and TV shows like “The Flash.”
In 2022, on Feb. 4, I wrote about the Milligan-Allred series “X-Cellent,” which was kind of a fun way to bring the column full circle.
The final Groundhog Day weekend column to run at The Oklahoman promoted Michael Bendure’s radio show, airing that weekend and celebrating the music of superhero films. I wrapped up my run with The Oklahoman later that month and moved over to Substack, where I’ve now been for nearly a year. I’ve enjoyed continuing to share thoughts about comics, at times with help from my friend Dean Compton of theunspokendecade.com. Coincidentally, today’s Word Balloons marks the 1200th weekly column.
Meanwhile, Mike Allred is still making comics. He’ll be the artist for “Batman” Dark Age,” written by Mark Russell, set to debut in March.
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewLprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.