100 Days of Fantasy: Day 86

This is an ongoing series looking at books that have influenced me as a fantasy writer.

World's Finest #256
by Dennis O'Neil

To be fair, Dennis O'Neil penned the main story of this comic book, and one other. World's Finest was made up of one main story plus a handful of shorter tales, and other writer's worked on those other stories.

But I'm focusing on the cover story.

A purple werewolf. From Krypton, Superman's home planet.

Will the world ever be the same?

Maybe, maybe not. But it didn't matter because it was just a comic book and we knew the heroes would win in the end. This comic book was from back in 1979, so it was before comic books had become dark and gritty and ... well, had become more adult. Not that there's anything wrong with more modern comics, because I've enjoyed many of them and consider some downright literature.

But I also have a fondness for the old-style, somewhat goofy comic books. Back when spandex was still considered hot stuff.

By today's standards, many of the story lines would be considered silly, sometimes awful, but not always. And still, even if some of the stories were a bit childish, they were written for the target audience, children.

As a writer, I've learned a lot from comic books over the years, and this particular issue of World's Finest always had a strong appeal to me because it was the first comic book I remember reading that included more than just one story and one main character or group of characters. Batman and Superman had the cover, but inside were also tales of Green Arrow, Black Lightning, Black Canary, Hawkman, Captain Marvel and a few other side characters.

To the nine-year-old version of me, this was more than just a comic book. It was a new universe, one that featured all possibilities and any kind of character.

And yes, it was all kind of silly.

Nuthin' wrong with that from time to time.