Another Special Guest Star

This episode showcases Mister U.S.  Created by Nat Gertler and Mark Lewis, he first appeared in Big Bang Comics #8 (Image Comics).  As Nat explains, Mister U.S. is a patriotic superhero in the tradition of The Shield and Captain America. 

Mister U.S. Copyright and TM 1997 Nat Gertler and Mark Lewis

Big Bang Comics #8 is an excellent parody.  It begins with this paragraph by Nat’s alias, Professor Garbanzo:  “Comics are one of the few original American art forms, a rarified group which includes jazz, animation and those wooden lawn ducks with propellor wings that twirl in opposite directions when the wind blows.  It has taken the better part of a century for comics to get the sort of boring, academic pseudo-intellectual analysis that they have long deserved.” 

Ouch.  This is the kind of writing I produced in college, but funny.  The issue goes on to present several Mister U.S. adventures in the format of a faux anniversary retrospective collection.  You can read more background here.   

Nat is also a publisher of comic books, books about comics, and other interesting things.