A visit to the Fallen Timbers battlefield will enable you to find out more about a consequential battle that helped open up the continent for settlement by the U.S.
Did you know that New Jersey has a drive-thru safari park? It's true! Here's what it's like to visit The Wild Safari Drive-Thru Adventure at Six Flags Great Adventure.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection contains more than 240,000 objects in its main building and annexes, way too much to see in one visit. Here are some of the highlights of the European and Modern Art in the main building.
Peter Jackson, the director best known for the Lord of the Ring and the Hobbit trilogies, used modern technology to bring to life archival footage of World War I in this new documentary.
Did you know that the Intrepid aircraft carrier is the home to military aircraft, a submarine, a space shuttle, and the Concorde? Find out why it's a great place for a family to spend a day in New York City.
DC Superhero Aquaman gets to star in his own action movie after appearing in two earlier movies. The result is a mixed bag but worth seeing by anyone who enjoys comic-book movies.
Spyscape is an interactive museum in Manhattan that emphasizes activities over informative displays. It's a great place for a family outing, but it's pricey.
The New York Comic Con continued to be the premiere pop event on the East Coast but the buzz seemed more subdued in 2018.
Ziplining is a great day out for any family. It's safe, fun and, best of all, outdoors! Here is our review of the zipline course closest to New York City.
One of the oldest streets in America, Elfreth's Alley is a living snapshot of what a city street would have looked like in the 1700s.
Visiting the Big Island so you can flop on a beach at one of the top resorts? Then this review isn't for you. But if you like to explore parks, visit historical sites, and have adventures, read on!
The X-Files was a science fiction show that developed rabid fans during its nine seasons on the air from 1993-2002. The show returns this month, and fans at the NY Comic Con were given a preview!
This book explores the work that comic-book artists in the 1940s did for the pulp magazines published by the company that would later become Marvel Comics. There's plenty of interesting art in here!
Muppets Most Wanted premiered this month and the movie adds to the long tradition of family entertainment produced by the Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and all the rest of the gang. Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey are on hand as the human...
EC Comics, officially known as Entertaining Comics, published some of the best-written and drawn comics of the early 1950s. Its publications were known for their great storytelling, with tales that were literate and a higher quality than other...
Essential Fantastic Four Volume 8 providces plenty of action and fun for any fan of superheroes and comic books. The Thing, Invisible Girl, Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic star in some great adventures!
In the mid-1970s, I was a young teenager faced with a true dilemma. I was standing in a store in Highland Park, New Jersey, that sold back issues of comic books, and I was looking at Daredevil No. 1. Its price tag was more than I had ever paid for...
The X-Men may be be a top comic book now and the stars of a hit movie series, but at the beginning they were second-class superheroes in the early years of their existence. Check them out here!
The stories in Marvel Essential Fantastic Four 7 first appeared in 1973 through 1975, when I was a preteen who read just about every comic book I could find. The Amazing Spider-Man was Marvel Comics' top-selling comic, but the Fantastic Four had...
The Kree-Skrull War was one of the most important events of the Marvel Universe in the 1970s, and this is your chance to find out what all the excitement was about!
The Captain America series went through an abrupt transition in late 1977. Co-creator Jack Kirby's controversial run on the comic ended and the superhero was returned to more classic stories.
Michigan's Warren Dunes State Park contains three miles of beach among its almost 2,000 acres of dunes, woods and campgrounds. Located on Lake Michigan near the border with Indiana, it is close enough for a day trip from Chicago so it also get a...
The Henry Ford Museum is a large complex outside Detroit, Michigan, dedicated to preserving American history and important cultural moments the country has seen.
The Smart Museum of Art is small but well worth seeing if you are near the University of Chicago campus. Though the museum says it has more than 12,000 items in its collection ranging from ancient ceramics to modern art, only a fraction seems to be...
The Oriental Institute packs more than 200,000 artifacts into a rather small museum located on the University of Chicago's campus. Founded in 1919, the museum focuses on the Near East, with items from digs in Egypt, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and...
The Robie House, built in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, is considered by many architecture historians to be the "cornerstone of modern architecture." The low-rise home is definitely the quintessential expression of Frank Lloyd Wright's...
I first visited the Skydeck back in the mid-1980s when I was a student in Chicago and the building was the Sears Tower. At that time, it was the tallest building in the world at 1,451 feet high. Today, it is only the eighth-tallest structure in the...
The Adler Planetarium in Chicago is the oldest in the United States, opening in 1930. The museum does a great job explaining the solar system, the planets, space exploration and the history of astronomy, and is well worth a visit when you are in...
Set aside the full day when visiting the Field Museum, Chicago's natural history museum, and you probably still won't be able to see and do everything you'd like to. The huge, huge collection housed by the museum is just too vast and too varied to...
Unity Temple, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was built between 1905 and 1908 in Oak Park, Illinois, just outside Chicago. The temple was one of the first buildings constructed with reinforced concrete as its main material, leading many...
The No. 1 tourist attraction in Chicago -- and all of the Midwest -- is Chicago's Navy Pier, which receives more than 8.6 million visitors each year according to the pier's operators. Originally built in 1916 as a shipping and entertainment area,...
Looking for a great way to spend a few hours with your children in Chicago? Visit the aquarium, located right in the heart of the city. There's plenty of fun things to do and lots of fish to see!
Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most influential American architects in the 20th century, and his impact is still felt in many of the buildings that are being built today. Born in Wisconsin, he got his start in Chicago after the famous 1871 fire...
Ernest Hemingway was one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century, as well as one of the most famous. A winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, the writer was born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Oak...
The Art Institute is one of the truly must-see attractions for any visitor to Chicago. World-renowned for its Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and American paintings, the institute says it contains about 300,000 artifacts and pieces of art...
The Museum of Science & Industry on the south side of Chicago is a wonderful place to spend a day for the entire family. The largest science museum in the western hemisphere, it has more than 2,000 things to see or do spread out over 75 halls. ...
We recently spent a seven-day vacation in Chicago, the third-most populous city in the United States. Chicago had plenty to see and do for our entire four-person family, with each of us getting to choose some attraction. There was great art and...
''My Little Pony: Equestria Girls'' is the new movie starring the cartoon characters from the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic television series. The animated movie stars Twilight Sparkle, her dragon Spike, and her friends Rainbow Dash,...
Spider-Man's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, died 40 years ago this summer, marking the end of one era in comic books and introducing a realism into the lives of superheroes that continues until today. Gwen's death wasn't the first to ever occur in a comic...
The Notre-Dame Basilica in the Vieux-Montreal section of the city is well worth a visit, as it is considered one of the grandest churches in North America. Completed in 1829, The building's Gothic Revival style makes it feel like it should be in...
Montreal's Science Center will keep any child entertained and busy for hours! There are plenty of activities and experiments for a child to do, and all have some educational component included. It's a great way to spend a half day if you are ever in...
The Musee du Chateau Ramezay is located close to the center of the Old Montreal section, which makes sense since it is housed in a home built in 1705 by the city's governor of that era, Claude de Ramezay. The stone building is very French-looking...
The deserted village of Feltville, which was also known as Glenside Park at one time, is in the northwest portion of the Watchung Reservation, a 1,945-acre park in central-north New Jersey that is largely undeveloped. The village was placed on the...
Marvel Essential Spider-Man volume 4 contains issues Nos. 69-89 of the original series, with writer Stan Lee putting our favorite web-slinger through some of the biggest fights of his career. These stories were originally published from February,...
Essential Spider-Man Volume No. 5 collects issues No. 90-113 of the original Amazing Spider-Man series. These stories, published in the early 1970s, include some issues that have become known as classics, including the death of Capt. Stacy, the...
French-born Marguerite Bourgeoys arrived in Montreal in 1653, when the Canadian city had about 50 inhabitants, and persuaded them to build the city's first stone chapel. Notre Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel is still an operating church in the Vieux...
The biosphere is a museum dedicated to increasing public awareness of the environmental issues facing the world today. It does this by mixing a lot of information about the environment with fun activities for children, and is well worth a visit if...
Montreal, the largest French-speaking city in the Canadian province of Quebec, was chosen as the site of our Spring Break family vacation this year. My daughter, the younger half of goldenrulecomics, is an honors student in French, and she wanted to...
The Cave of the Winds attraction on the American side is the greatest way to really feel the power of Niagara Falls and to see its beauty up close. You get as close as 20 feet to the water cascading down from hundreds of feet above! The strong...
Do you still rely on books or have you made the switch? I know that eReaders have their uses but here's some reasons I hesitate to ditch the old way of reading.
Old Fort Niagara stands on the mouth of Lake Ontario and was once one of the most strategically important forts in North America, fought over by three countries because the power that controlled the fort ruled the river. Now the fort is a National...
``Red Red Wine, Go to My Head.'' It's the opening lines of a song that has been covered many times, by many artists, because so many of us have reached for a bottle to help us forget a lost love. Neil Diamond wrote the song and first recorded it...
George Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge, a national historical park in Pennsylvania, is a great place for a family to visit. The park was the site of the 1777-78 winter encampment of the Continental Army fighting against the British in the...
Jacqueline ''Jack'' Daniels is a Chicago cop who specializes in stopping serial killers, and during a series of books she has triumphed with tenacity, grit and humor. Author J.A. Konrath for the most part has done a great job in devising a...
Marvel Masterworks Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 5 collects issues No. 41-50 plus the lead story of Spider-Man Annual No. 3. John Romita had taken over the art chores on the series in issue No. 39, and he continues in this volume to make Spider-Man's...
Marvel Masterworks Amazing Spider-Man Volume 6 contains issue Nos. 51-61 of the original series as well as Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 4. These tales originally appeared in 1967-1968, when writer Stan Lee was at the top of his game and each tale...
Marvel Masterworks the Amazing Spider-Man volume 4 contains issues 31-40 of his original series. This 10-issue collection starts out with a magnificent three-part fight against Dr. Octopus and ends with a two-part tale in which the Green Goblin...
Marvel Masterworks Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 contains issues 11-19 of the original series, as well as Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 1 published in 1964. Writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko were beginning to hit their stride during these issues,...
Marvel Essential Amazing Spider-Man volume 3 collects issues 44-68 of the original comic book series. All the stories were written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita (who got help from Don Heck from issues 57-64). This was 1967 to 1969, when...
''I Will Teach You to be Rich'' is a personal finance book that promises to get your financial life in order in six weeks -- and it pretty much will if you do follow the plan. Author Ramit Sethi (photo left) writes with a clear entertaining style,...
Marvel Essential Classic X-Men Volume 2 includes issues No. 25-53, along with Avengers No. 53 in which the X-Men guest star. The highlights of this collection are two issues drawn by the great Jim Steranko and the first extended U.S. work by Barry...
Who is Goldenrulecomics? Actually, the better question is who ARE Goldenrulecomics! I am the father of a teenager, and we live in New Jersey. I handle the writing of our articles, while the teenager does the technical side of the things we do...
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man first appeared at the end of 1976, and was a comic book aimed at cashing in on the growing popularity of Spider-Man. In fact, with the publication of this series Spider-Man was appearing in three monthly...
Comic book artist Joe Kubert died on Aug. 12, 2012, after more than seven decades of drawing and creating comic books. Over those many years he worked on a wide variety of comics, but he is probably best known as the co-creator of such war series as...
Whether it is Superman or Spider-Man, Batman or the X-Men, superheroes and their comic-book world are almost everywhere in today's society. Once dismissed as pap for little boys, the genre has in recent decades become the subject of many serious and...
Thor, one of Marvel Comics' mightiest heroes, debuted 50 years ago in a comic book called Journey into Mystery. One of the Marvel Universe's earliest characters, he has become one of the most durable and popular Marvel heroes. Marvel Masterworks:...
Our family recently visited Nova Scotia, which a wonderful place that has a wide variety of things to do for everyone. We wrote an online diary of the trip, which you can see here. After publishing the diary, we realized there were some bits of...
The Frick Collection is an art museum in Manhattan's Upper East Side, and is world-famous for its collection of Old Master paintings. Included in the collection are works by Goya, El Greco, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Whistler, among many others. The...
Nova Scotia offered our family a good mix of what we seek when we go away on vacation. There's beautiful scenery to hike through, historical and cultural sites to visit, and plenty of activities for the two children -- especially since we always get...
Marvel Essential Spider-Man Volume 1 contains the debut story of Marvel Comics' most-popular character, who first appeared 50 years ago in the summer of 1962. In addition to that fateful tale, contained in Amazing Fantasy No. 15, this Essential...
Marvel Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 3 contains perhaps the most-sustained run of great comic book stories of the 1960s. This collection of Fantastic Four No. 41-63 plus Fantastic Four Annuals 3 and 4 contains the original Galactus saga, with its...
Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Volume 1 contains the first nine stories that Miller drew of Daredevil in the late 1970s (issues 158-161, 163-167). Bringing Miller's vivid artwork, influenced by film noir, to the title resuscitated a comic book...
Marvel Essential Captain America Volume 2 contains Captain America Nos. 103-126 from 1968-1970. Captain America had been splitting the Tales of Suspense comic book series with Iron Man through issue No. 99, and the title was renamed Captain America...
The Essential Fantastic Four Volume 1 contains some of the most important stories that Marvel Comics ever published. This book contains the first 20 issues of the original Fantastic Four series, plus its first annual. The first issue, published in...
The Phillips Collection opened in 1921 as America's first museum of modern art, and it is still considered one of the premiere places to see such masterpieces. The building houses almost 3,000 pieces of art, though I don't think it's big enough for...
The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are located in the same building, and are officially called the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. But no one really uses that official title! Many...
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, photographs, maps and other items in its collection. The Thomas Jefferson Building (shown here) is the main building of the library and opened in 1897. The...
Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. was the scene of America's greatest tragedy. On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln, having successfully guided the country through four years of bloody Civil War, was shot by a southern sympathizer. The...
The National Gallery of Art is located on the National Mall in Washington D.C., and is a great change of pace from the many museums that are nearby. The paintings range from the Middle Ages through modern times, and there is even an outside garden...
The National Museum of American History in the heart of Washington D.C. is one of those places that can really capture the attention of every member of the family, because it has such a wide range of exhibits. Where else can you see the First...
The Smithsonian National Zoological Park, commonly known as the National Zoo, is a great place to take the kids when they need a break from all the monuments, museums and historical sites in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1889, the zoo is about a...
The classic story of ''The Borrowers,'' the little people who live beneath the floorboards who only take what they need to survive and things that won't be missed by a house's homeowners, becomes the tale of a young girl named Arrietty in this...
Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Volume 1 reprints the superhero's adventures in Tales of Suspense No. 59-81 in full color. This was Captain America's first series in the 1960s after the character was revived in the Avengers comic book. It's a...
C.J. Henderson, a writer of novels and comic books, spoke at KotoriCon 2012, the anime festival at Gloucester County College in Sewell, New Jersey. His panel , entitled ''Abuse the Author,'' was less a presentation than an hourlong...
Hundreds of anime fans, role-playing participants, and cosplayers converged in southern New Jersey for KotoriCon 2012, held Jan. 6-7 at Gloucester County College in Sewell, New Jersey. My teenager and I took the trek down from northern New Jersey on...
Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 highlights the rebirth of the team in 1975-1976, reprinting Giant-Size X-Men No. 1 and X-Men No. 94-100. Promoted as the ``All-New, All-Different'' X-Men, the drab comic-book series was revitalized when...
Warren Buffett is one of the world's foremost investors, and this book explores some of the principles he follows when deciding where to invest.
Start Your Own Blogging Business, from Entrepreneur Magazine's Startup Series, is a comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to make money on the Internet through a blog. Author Jason R. Rich touches many bases in describing what it takes to build a...
Donald Trump, the famous real estate developer and TV star, and Robert Kiyosaki, best-selling author of the ''Rich Dad, Poor Dad'' series of motivational books, team up for a second time to provide advice on being successful in the business world. ...
Start Your Own e-Business, from Entrepreneur Magazine's Startup Series, is a comprehensive guide for anyone who is considering trying to make money on the Internet. Author Lynie Arden touches many bases in describing what it takes to achieve success...
The Ford Mansion in Morristown, New Jersey, served as George Washington's Revolutionary War headquarters during the winter of 1779-1780, close enough to New York City to muster against the British enemy yet protected by the Watchung Mountains. In...
Marvel Essential Classic X-Men volume 3 is a real hodge-podge of stories that shows just how far below the radar screen the original X-Men had fallen in the early 1970s. The X-Men series, which had debuted in 1963, was Marvel Comics' poorest-selling...
X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga collects issues No. 129-137 of the original X-Men comic-book series, a series of tales that ends with the final battle over Jean Grey's existence as the Phoenix. Or at least that's how it was when the comics were...
The New York Comic Book Convention occurred Oct. 13-16, 2011, and coupled with the New York Anime Festival, drew more than 100,000 comic-book fans, video game addicts, cosplayers and indulgent parents over the four days. Marvel Comics and DC Comics...
This volume reprints Uncanny X-Men No. 101-110 in full color, a collection of 10 comics during a run that really established the new X-Men as a major franchise for Marvel Comics. The new team had only been introduced a year earlier, and in this...
Marvel Essential Captain America Volume 1 reprints Captain America's stories from Tales of Suspense No. 59-99 as well as the first three issues of the newly-renamed Captain America series (No. 100-102). In addition to these 1960s tales, there is a...
Thomas Edison, one of America's greatest inventors, lived for more than four decades in a 29-room mansion called Glenmont in the exclusive Llewellyn Park neighborhood of West Orange, New Jersey, a short distance from the laboratory complex where he...
The Gettysburg Visitor Center and Museum, located in the Gettysburg National Military Park, is the best place to start any visit to the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania. The museum does a very complete job in explaining the causes of the war;...
The Thomas Edison laboratory in New Jersey is a great family day trip. Edison was the inventor of the first practical electric bulb, the motion picture camera and the phonograph, but some say his greatest achievement was the creation of the...
Marvel Essential X-Men collects Giant-Size X-Men 1 and X-Men 94-119. Giant-Size X-Men No. 1 introduced the new team of superheroes, reviving the X-Men comic. The revival started in 1975 and made the comic book the hottest series for many years. It...
The Fantastic Four rocked the comic-book world when it debuted in 1961, with writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby introducing more characterization and realism into superhero comics than existed previously. In the stories collected in this volume,...
Essential Iron Fist Volume 1 collects the first four years' worth of Marvel comics starring the character, who debuted in 1974 during a martial arts craze. The series is mainly known for some of the earliest work by writer Chris Claremont and artist...
Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Vol. 2 collects issues 168-182 of the original Daredevil series. Issue 168 was the first comic of the series that Miller both wrote and drew. More importantly the issue introduced Elektra, the ninja assassin who...
Marvel Essential: Avengers Vol. 3 contains issues 47 to 68 of the comic's original series, as well as Avengers Annual No. 2. For the most part this collection is a great run of comic books as writer Roy Thomas matures as the series goes along. The...
Gene Colan developed such a moody, cinematic style during his six decades as a comic book artist that his work was as easily identified as the art of Jack Kirby or Jim Steranko. He never received the fame that they did, which I think is a real...
Marvel Essential: The Rampaging Hulk 1 is a collection of Hulk stories from his short-lived late 1970s magazine. This volume includes the tales from issues 1 through 9, when the magazine was titled the Rampaging Hulk, and 10 to 15, when it was...
Geppi's Entertainment Museum is located in Baltimore and is dedicated to all sorts of American pop culture: comic books, television, radio, movies, magazines and lots and lots of toys! Mickey Mouse, The Beatles, Ronald McDonald, The Yellow Kid,...
The Avengers Volume 1 was one of the first four collections when Marvel Comics began publishing its Marvel Masterworks series in 1987. Since then the company has come out with new editions and reprints that vary, contain fewer stories or bonus...
Marvel Comics began publishing its Marvel Masterworks series in 1987 with The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1, among others. Since then the company has come out with new editions and reprints that vary slightly, contain fewer stories or bonus material,...
The Essential Spider-Man Vol. 8 contains issues No. 161-185 of the Amazing Spider-Man series, plus Nova issue No. 12 and the Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 11. Note that it is Spider-Man, not Spiderman, which is how a lot of people misspell it! The...
Strange and Stranger: the World of Steve Ditko was published in 2008 by Fantagraphics Books. Author Blake Bell traces the life story of this legendary and reclusive comic book artist over six decades, using dozens of illustrations and interviews...
The Shadow, that mysterious crime-fighter from the 1930s pulps, is back in regular publication, with a series of books from Nostalgia Ventures. Each volume contains two stories of the Master Avenger, as well as articles and other extras. This one,...
We used this guidebook for a long weekend in Baltimore, and never felt the need to consult any other tour books or seek out more information from the Baltimore visitor center. This book had all the information we needed. Lots of good details and...
The Ghost Rider has been one of the more enduring characters introduced by Marvel Comics after the comics code was relaxed in the early 1970s. He has starred in several series and even a few movies!
Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine is a great place to visit, full of inspiring history, lovely grounds and cool views. It's also a place to learn more about the birth of the National Anthem and the War of 1812 -- a conflict that is...
DC: The New Frontier was a series of six comic book issues in 2004 that focused on the 1950s, when many of the major superheroes that populate the modern DC universe were introduced, joining the iconic trio of World War II-era characters Superman,...
If you haven't seen a James Kuhn video, you are missing an unusual performance artist. Using theatrical paint on his face and sometimes his head and torso, he creates well-known figures. By moving his body and features, he creates what he calls...
''Everything is Beautiful'' packs a lot of emotion in a very simple song that is as true today as when it hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts in Spring 1970. The use of children singing the hymn ''Jesus Loves the Little Children'' gives the song more...