I don’t know what this has to do with the Scottish Open Volleyball Tournament, but there it is anyway.
Okay, okay, making with the clicky-clicky reveals that it’s a costumed volleyball team named…well, go see for yourself. Alas, the only award they won at this tourney was “Best Dressed Team” which I guess isn’t so bad.
So pal Dorian posted this dopey Birds of Prey panel, where a gun that was used in a crime was disposed of by one of our heroes by tossing it into a sewer drain and not, say, giving it to the police or anything.
And that reminded me of a scene that apparently appeared in a Marvel comic sometime in the late 70s/early 80s, that unfortunately I didn’t see myself. Rather, I read a reference to it in one of the many, many fanzines I have in the vast Mikester Comic Archives…but, again unfortunately, I don’t remember which one. The scene I’m thinking of involved a character disposing of a gun by…flushing it down a toilet.
Now, I was around guns a lot in my younger days, so I’m somewhat familiar with them. And I am also somewhat familiar with toilets, having found good use for them on occasion over the years. And I’m fairly certain, unless it’s a really small gun and/or a really large toilet, you ain’t getting rid of a gun that way.
Anyway, what I’m asking is if any of you know where the comic panel appeared, if it did appear and it’s not a figment of my fevered brain, and if you could let me know where. I’d like to see it for myself. I’m pretty sure it’s in a Spider-Man comic, and Bill Mantlo may be the writer responsible. I suppose I could plow though the store’s run of Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man, but I’m lazy.
In other news:
I did some readjusting of the links sidebar over there, including adding the newest member of the Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs…Batfatty! Longtime readers of my site might know him better as “pal JP,” who has contributed his fair share of material to this page of mine. Well, now, you can go straight to the source! He’s gathered lots of the craziest comic book images you’ll ever see, so go see ’em already.
Ladies and gentlemen…the Calculator:
So I had Kid Chris processing several old comics we purchased recently, and, flipping through a copy of Detective Comics #468 (Mar/Apr ’77), he wondered just what was up with this Calculator fella. “Yes,” I told Kid Chris, “the Calculator really did materialize objects out of his helmet that he could use to fight superheroes.”
I’m no Calculator scholar, but I figured objects just popped out of the front of his helmet, and I think this is the only time where I saw a hatch open on top. It reminds me a little of the scene in Time Bandits where the knife/drill thingie pops out of the top of David Warner’s head.
Besides, wouldn’t that crane make the Calculator awfully top-heavy? Or did that helmet generate unseen braces and supports to keep Calc upright? And really, what good is that going to do fighting Batman anyway?
Anyway, this story ends with this panel:
…where Batman is laughing because he (as Bruce Wayne) just screwed Morgan Edge on some business deal. Add that to your list of Things Batman Doesn’t Do Anymore. (Laugh, that is, not screw people on business deals.)
We also recently acquired a full run of Ultimate Marvel titles, from Ultimate Spider-Man #1 on up, including a complete set of that Ultimate Marvel magazine. You know, the one Marvel saw fit not to distribute to comic shops at first. Which is just as well, since later issues didn’t sell worth poop anyway. I was poking through the last issue, and saw this line in an interview with Jack Black about comics he enjoys:
“I got into the Black Knight, and the Minute Men by Alan Moore. Now, I like 8 Ball and Chris Weir who does those Acme novels.”
Okay, I’m not faulting Black for not remembering the name of Watchmen…he’s probably (and wisely) not obsessive about this stuff like we are. But surely an editor would have caught the misspellings…unless, of course, nobody gave a rat’s butt because it’s the last issue. “Hey, isn’t that supposed to be spelled W-A-R-E?” “Ah, who cares, nobody’s gonna read this anyway.”
Remember that Spider-Man entry in the smart-alecky Comics FAQ I posted a few days ago, where I said Spidey lives on in movies, TV, and toys? Peter David has a real-life example of this.
Ladies and gentlemen…pal Dorian and me:
Yesterday, a question from a customer who didn’t know what he was getting himself into: “Hey, do you know anything about Swamp Thing?”
No, no, don’t worry, I didn’t lay into him with every single fact about Swamp Thing that I have swirling around my brain — I don’t want to be one of those guys — but I did try to tell him that the current issue is probably not the best place to start with the character, and that he might want to try some older issues first. He didn’t listen to me and bought the current issue anyway, so hopefully he’ll be more intrigued than confused and come back for more. We’ll see.
Another question I occasionally get hit with:
Customer: “So, what’s good?”
Me: “Well, this Acme Novelty Library graphic novel is really good…it’s a darkly-humored examination of loneliness and alienation.”
Customer: “Huh, that’s interesting…say, has Michael Turner done anything lately? We draws some fantastic babes.”
The problem is that my definition of “good” and the customer’s definition are usually at odds with each other…this example is just a slight exaggeration, but when given not much to work with beyond “I’m looking for something good,” it can be a minor struggle to find something appropriate. Now, I’ve been at this for a long time…once I get an idea of the kind of thing the customer’s looking for, even if it’s something I don’t much care for myself, even if it’s the worst comic book ever, I can generally find something to the customer’s taste.
Of course, sometimes what the customer is asking for is entirely different from what they apparently want. I had a woman ask me for a female superhero comic, one that wasn’t “oversexualized” or “exploitive.” I immediately thought of Go Girl, by Trina Robbins and Anne Timmons…a perfectly innocent and charming comic written by one of the industry’s most prominent feminist cartoonists…nope, apparently Go Girl’s breasts were too large, and thus was too sexist.
What that customer ended up buying…Dogwitch. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not casting aspersions on Dogwitch, but given the book’s mature content, it didn’t seem like the sort of thing she was asking for. Plus, that’s kinda stretching the definition of “superhero” a bit.
And don’t get me started on the Sam Keith “fans,” who “love all his work,” but won’t buy Four Women or The Maxx or Zero Girl, but only want his Wolverine comics.
Requests I don’t get enough of: “I have $900 in my pocket, and I want to spend it on any items in the store that have been sitting around for a while, and you’d be happy to see leave the shelves. What have you got?” “Right this way to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks, sir!”
Some quick linky-linky, since I’m a busy man:
Thanks to Boom Studios publisher Ross Richie, who said some nice things about my site on his new forum.
David “meme”-tagged me, and I haven’t had time to really go through it and answer all the questions, aside from “5 things I would do with $100,000,000: Buy 400,000,000 copies of Daredevil #41 and build a stairway to the moon with them,” which is only one, well, maybe two things, so, well, there you go.
So Wednesday we received a couple new Sesame Street Cine-Mangas from Tokyopop, Elmo & Zoe Fly A Kite and Happy Hungry Monsters, which is actually one of the few good uses of the “let’s construct a new story out of stills borrowed from several TV episodes” Cine-Manga format. Nice, big, colorful photos in a book that’s a little larger than the normal manga format (if a bit thinner) and competitively priced with other children’s books. 
There may have been a slight nostalgic feeling, as I remember reading several Sesame Street books as a kid, and it’s always nice to see old friends Grover and the Cookie Monster still getting the attention they deserve. (I don’t know about these Elmo and Zoe newcomers, though.) The Happy Hungry Monsters book does have a slightly disturbing scene where a milk carton with an eyeball tells Cookie Monster about how great milk is, basically cajoling CM into sucking out the carton’s innards. Well, perhaps put more delicately than that, but still.
Other new releases include the first installment of Top Ten mini-series, the one not written by Alan Moore, which has caused some small measure of consternation here and there. Well, don’t worry, it’s fine…author Paul Di Filippo doesn’t quite have the juggling of several storylines down like Moore did on this series, and he’s not quite as subtle with the character nuance and motivation as Moore is…but heck, it’s still darn good reading, and it’s nice to see these characters again. And it’s illustrated by Jerry Ordway, who’s more or less incapable of doing a bad drawing.
The arrival of Star Wars: General Grevious #4 prompted pal Dorian to ask me if there was any contextual evidence in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith for the apparent fan-belief that Grevious was, in fact, a resurrected Darth Maul. To which I said “wha-huh?” People aren’t really thinking that, are they? I mean, c’mon.
So Marvel can’t wait to rush out reprints of books that really don’t need them (like, say, any given issue of Captain America), but for Defenders, a book we’re actually seeing demand for, and the first issue of which has completely sold out…I know it says sold out at “retailer level,” but my reorders all went to backorder, which means “no dice, jack.” Shame, as I would have bumped orders way up, but there’s no point since people won’t want to have only four issues of a five issue series.
Dear kid in the store on new comics day: no, you may not lie down completely flat on the ground in front of the register so you can read comics neither you nor your parents intend to buy. Yes, I guess that makes me the jerk.
(Don’t worry…I didn’t make him cry or anything, and in fact I gave him some left over Free Comic Book Day comics, because I am right and good. Practically saintlike, in fact.)
A few days ago, a customer said something quite nice as he was walking into the store: “You know, every time I walk into this store, no matter how busy or not-busy it is, you guys are always working! I’ve been to a lot of stores where the guys behind the counter are just reading comics, but you guys — you guys are always doing something.” That made me feel pretty good.
Of course, on Wednesday pal Cully caught me paging through a comic…”reading on the job, eh?” Ah, well…the job can’t be all fistfights and gunplay, you know.
And remember…
Due out today: G.I. Spy #1, from the fine folks at Boom Studios. Andrew Cosby and Matt Haley present us with a spy-versus-Nazis story, with the twist being that the G.I. Spy in question, Jack Shepherd, is a beginner in the James Bond business, making such neophyte mistakes as, oh, say, accidentally knocking out his own partner during a scuffle. It could have easily been a slapstick farce, but it’s still enough of a serious adventure to satisfy the “no humor in my comics, thank you” crowd, while keeping the attention of those of us who appreciate a light-humored touch to our action comics. Snappily written, well drawn, and though the whole spy genre has been worked through pretty thoroughly over the last few decades, G.I. Spy‘s presentation is attractive enough to stand out in a crowed field.
Nice twist: Albert Einstein as the scientific advisor to our heroes. Hey, who doesn’t like Einstein?
Alan David Doane brings us KOCHALKAHOLIC, a weblog devoted to the life and times of James Kochalka, Superstar. Go, enjoy.
Found on this page…a new UK DVD edition of the 1980 Flash Gordon film, complete with Brian Blessed commentary.
Let me repeat that:
That darn well had better show up on the U.S. version.
At long last, the national nightmare is over…I finally have my DSL connection at the new house. I can catch up on what I’ve been missing on the Comicsweblogosphere, like…um, well, I’m sure something’s been going on, anyway.
So my post from Sunday night seemed to awaken some warm fuzzies toward the late Marvel Age house organ, and, yes, there was much to recommend it. Several of you mentioned Fred Hembeck‘s regular contributions to the mag, and a lot of the covers were fun…I keep waiting for the collectors’ market to notice those Groo covers Sergio Aragones provided for it. And one issue had some sample pages by one Kyle Baker, along with a “critique” of his work by some established Marvel artist or other.
My favorite issue featured the official Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars letters pages, with a smiling Jim Shooter pictured on the cover, sitting among the stacks and stacks of mail. The introduction to the letters section stated “some people are awe-struck, some are shocked, some are amazed — and everybody loves it!” …Which resulted in several people popping up in the fan press at the time, claiming that they had in fact sent in negative letters commenting on Secret Wars. At any rate, if you can find this issue of Marvel Age (#20) check it out…you gotta read it.
