What, more buttons?

§ May 23rd, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on What, more buttons?

Oh, I have a lot more pins and badges in my collection…see here and here for the first two installments.

That Superman sheriff’s badge on the left was a promo for DC’s The Kents, an unusual series about Jonathan Kent’s ancestors in the Old West. It’s a nice metal badge (dated 1997), about 2 1/2 inches wide, and sorta reminds me of an old radio serial mailaway item. On the right is the “Superman Commemorative Pin” from ’93, a high-quality cloisonne pin featuring the four Supermen emblems from the “Return of Superman” storyline. It’s surprisingly heavy, given its size. Plus, I think it’s kinda neat looking.

Dave Lartigue mentioned that first pin, the Invisibles pin from ’94. I don’t recall the story Dave relates, about Grant Morrison wanting the pin to be completely white, but it certainly sounds like something Morrison would do!

The second pin is from the mid-’80s, and there’s kind of a sad irony in that slogan there, I’d imagine. Anyway, I had bought an issue of Batman off a newsstand, and inside the comic was a customer survey card that promised a free gift if one were to fill it out and send it in. Well, who am I to pass up a free gift? When I received the gift in question, it was a copy of Legends #1, which I already had (being the dutiful DC crossover follower that I was…er, am), and that button, telling me that Legends #1 was apparently not just for kids.

Third is one of those cheapie metal badges, the kind with the little bendy-bit at the top that you’d fold over and latch onto your pocket. This one is advertising the late-80s Starman series. No “Goodbye STARMAN” button was released when they disposed of this version of the character in the Starman series that followed.

Fourth is a cloisonne pin advertising the then-forthcoming release (on November 16th, 1990) of the first Robin mini-series. I believe DC sent a bunch of extras of these to give away to customers as well, so they were sparing no expense to get the word out.

Fifth – hey, remember DC’s imprint Paradox Press? Neither does DC.

From 1991. Okay, so I don’t have much to say about this particular button. I liked the TV show well enough, I guess. I’m surprised we haven’t seen a DVD release yet.

That first pin was advertising either a free comic or a mailaway comic offer (Dethgrip 1/2, in case the glare obscures the name) in the Overstreet Price Guide‘s Wizard-clone Fan. There’s no date on it, but hey, it’s a button advertising a promo comic released with a price guide. It must be the early ’90s.

There was no amount of money you could have paid me to make me willingly wear that 1991 “Mutant Genesis” badge in the shop. Please note the lack of my name on said badge.

The “One Nation Under DOOM” pin plugged a 1995 crossover for Marvel’s 2099 line, in which the future version of the good doctor takes over the planet, or some such thing. That’s a great pin, perfect for political rallies: “Hey, where’d you get the swell Dick Cheney pin?” (It’s a joke, son…relax!)

I got that Archie Fan Club button back when I worked for a public library, sometime in the Stone Age. Well, okay, 1987. The library subscribed to several Archie comics, so we occasionally received promo materials, including that swank button. Somewhere I also have an Archie ink pen that can write in three different colors, and lemme tell ya, that impresses the ladies.

Sure, right now the Rann/Thanagar War is all the rage (that’s a button featuring the emblem of those Thanagarian scoundrels, advertising some Hawkman series or another), but surely you remember Operation: Galactic Storm? Our Earth heroes somehow got caught up in the conflict between the spacefaring empires of the Kree and the Shi’ar, and Marvel encouraged fans to choose sides by issuing buttons for both alien races (but none for the heroes, tellingly). Were you a right and good Kree booster, or were you a downright reprehensible Shi’ar supporter? By the way, I have no idea if those two buttons are right side up or not.

And thus is my existence summed up.

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