Here's a review of Texas History Movies from the perspective of a Scoop reader, http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/. (By the way the book of acquied by the Texas State Historical Association, not the Texas Historical Society)."Comics in the classroom… in the Platinum Age?
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"The Eyes of Texas are upon you..." echoes the old refrain, and for collector Weldon Adams it seems particularly true. Though he started collecting in the '70s and places a high value on many of today's titles, in recent years he's found himself inexorably drawn to a little-documented series from the Platinum Age.
His enthusiasm for a collection of newspaper strips dating from 1926 was nothing he planned, though.
"I'm as surprised as anyone else that this is where I've ended up for the moment," said Adams, who counts JSA, Teen Titans and Noble Causes among his current favorites. "But this stuff is too cool!"
"My interest in the history of the industry started very early on," he said. "When I first discovered that there was an entire generation of superheroes that predated the ones that I knew about, well, I just had to know what that was all about! Those early JLA/JSA crossovers just set me on fire! And since there were no comic shops available to me in the early 70's, I had to hit the libraries and look for reference books on the industry. So I learned about the old characters and the people who created them at the same time. It seemed like every decade has it's own thing that made it fascinating to read about. The late '30s saw the creation of the true 'Superhero.' The '40s sent that hero to war. The '50s had a poor man's version of the McCarthy hearings that lead to the creation of a self-imposed regulating committee. The '60s saw both the rebirth of the superhero and his attempt to be relevant to the modern world. It was all fascinating to me. My interest in the history of the medium eventually lead me to an unusual find. At a yard sale, I found a small digest size paperback book that was a 1927 collection of newspaper strips. It was called Texas History Movies. My curiosity lead me to start research on this book that I am currently still working on.""
His enthusiasm for a collection of newspaper strips dating from 1926 was nothing he planned, though.
"I'm as surprised as anyone else that this is where I've ended up for the moment," said Adams, who counts JSA, Teen Titans and Noble Causes among his current favorites. "But this stuff is too cool!"
"My interest in the history of the industry started very early on," he said. "When I first discovered that there was an entire generation of superheroes that predated the ones that I knew about, well, I just had to know what that was all about! Those early JLA/JSA crossovers just set me on fire! And since there were no comic shops available to me in the early 70's, I had to hit the libraries and look for reference books on the industry. So I learned about the old characters and the people who created them at the same time. It seemed like every decade has it's own thing that made it fascinating to read about. The late '30s saw the creation of the true 'Superhero.' The '40s sent that hero to war. The '50s had a poor man's version of the McCarthy hearings that lead to the creation of a self-imposed regulating committee. The '60s saw both the rebirth of the superhero and his attempt to be relevant to the modern world. It was all fascinating to me. My interest in the history of the medium eventually lead me to an unusual find. At a yard sale, I found a small digest size paperback book that was a 1927 collection of newspaper strips. It was called Texas History Movies. My curiosity lead me to start research on this book that I am currently still working on.""
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