This summer Quirk Books released an interesting look at the obscure side of comic books with The League of Regrettable Superheroes.  Cartoonist and graphic designer Jon Morris delved into the archives of Digital Comic Museum and Comic Book Plus to locate oddities from the Golden Age of comics to modern times.

Morris showcases 100 of these characters, many that only survived one issue of a long forgotten publication.  You’ll meet Invisible Scarlet O’Neil, Ghost Patrol, Moongirl, and even Nightmare and Sleepy.  Sprinkled with interesting facts from the comic book world, Morris includes plenty of trivia.  One character way ahead of her time– Spider Queen seems to have had all the powers Spider-man would maintain, yet she predated him in comics by 20 years.  Other entries are curious selections, like Rom the Spacenight–star of a pretty popular series in the early 1980s that had a sizable fan base.

You’ll see plenty of examples of full color covers and interior art from the characters represented, as well as characters created by legends in comics like Will Eisner, Gil Kane, C.C. Beck, Neal Adams, Herb Trimpe, and Joe Simon, whose other characters would become much more well known.

No doubt many a cosplayer could find some inspiration in the pages of this volume.

A hardcover coffee table book that can be appreciated by comic book aficionados and general fans alike, you can order The League of Regrettable Superheroes from Amazon.com here.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com