There’s a small bit of satisfaction in knowing that the somewhat appalling Loonatics Unleashed anime-esque redesign of the Looney Tunes characters from a few years back is currently being held by the current cartoon developers as an example of what not to do. (I mean, I get having to keep your old properties modern and relevant, but sheesh.)
Over at the latest installment of Awesome Hospital, HydrogenGuy asks if that’s a picture of “Swamp Thing wearing a Mike Sterling cap?” And indeed, there’s a pic of Swampy wearing a baseball cap with the letter “M” on the front. (There’s also a pic of a naked bottom at that link, so if you work for WE HATE CARTOON PICTURES OF NAKED BUTTS Industries, I would perhaps not look at the image at work.)
Now, I know I could just ask the guys what create the strip, since I’m in regular contact with most of them, but I’m just going to go ahead and assume that, yes, that’s a drawing of Swamp Thing with a Mike Sterling hat. And if those guys say any different, they’re lying.
Via a comment someone left on my site and was caught by the spam filter (and, um, was accidentally deleted…sorry!), the third and final volume of the Swamp Thing TV series is coming out on DVD, available directly from Shout Factory. It’s a terrible series, but I do have to keep that Swamp Thing collection complete, don’cha know. (Also, the linked article makes two mistakes: 1) it notes Roger Corman’s involvement in the film series, even though he wasn’t involved in the films, far as I know, and 2) the writer accidentally refers to the two feature films as “horrid,” which is clearly not true. I mean, c’mon, just LOOK AT THIS:
You people sure act fast! As I noted yesterday, Max Huffman of Mocktopus fame was in dire need of a new computer, and thus offered up his drawin’ skills in exchange for donations. Well, he’s already met his goal, but if he keeps getting money, maybe he can get an even fancier computer! Plus, he’s going to need that extra money to cover postage once he starts shipping all the drawings he’s sending to donors (especially if he’s shipping overseas).
So the Season 9 finale of Smallville aired last week, and the prologue for that episode featured a flash-forward to the year 2013, where Lois is a full-fledged reporter for the Daily Planet, Perry White is the Chief, and Clark is off to a super-rescue, diverting a plane from a collision course with the Planet building:
A closer look at what’s going on in the reflection, there:
And enjoy it, because that’s probably all we’ll get of Clark Kent in the costume until, as has been stated by folks on the show, the very end. An end that’s finally in sight, as the news is now out that the show is wrapping up next season.
What I am hoping for is that we get an episode or two (or maybe a two-hour series finale) of some honest-to-goodness Superman action rather than just a closing shot of Clark finally donning the familiar togs. That would be, I think, the proper payoff for 10 years of meandering and teasing and hints at his “ultimate destiny.” It’d be nice if Michael Rosenbaum would come back to reprise his role as Lex Luthor for the last episode, but I suspect they couldn’t pay him enough to shave his head again.
And while the show did improve a bit in the last couple of years…yeah, it’s goofy, but it’s a fun goofy, but I think enough’s enough at this point. It was probably enough several points ago. Plus, after this last year with Zod as the primary antagonist, I don’t think I ever need to hear the phrase “kneel…before Zod” ever again. Sorry, General.
Actress Allison Mack, who portrays the popular supporting character “Chloe Sullivan” (who has never made an appearance in the regular Superman comics, despite the occasional announcement), is apparently scaling back her participation in the final season, which may disappoint the folks who made this commercial.* I remember very early on thinking the eventual reveal would be that Chloe, to separate herself from her tabloid-esque beginnings, would change her professional name to “Lois Lane.” Luckily I don’t have a day job doing psychic predictions, though my accuracy rate is about the same.
So anyway…sorry to see you go, Smallville, but not too sorry. It is going to be a bit strange after next season to not have Smallville to kick around anymore, though I imagine there are plenty of people out there who probably thought it ended years ago.
Another superhero show that’s shuffled off this mortal coil is Heroes, which will not be returning next season, and nobody seems particularly torn up about it. Well, I suspect the cast and crew aren’t terribly pleased. And it is a bit of a shame, I think, since this last season was actually pretty good, with a creepy and occasionally oddly sympathetic antagonist (which resulted in this lawsuit, by the way).
I liked the cast, I like the interactions of the characters, and while the plots and events were pretty familiar to anyone who’s ever read a comic book ever, it was still fun to see it all played out in live action. There’s maybe a slight chance of a wrap-up movie to conclude everything, which would be nice (and probably would help the chances of continuing DVD sales, if people know there’s an actual conclusion to the story), but I’m not holding my breath.
• • •
Max Huffman, creator of the most excellent webcomic Mocktopus, needs help, as the laptop he uses to produce his comics has kicked the bucket, and needs a new one to continue gifting us with his art. If you go to this Kickstarter page, you can contribute to the cause and, for your trouble, get cool stuff! For a ridiculously low $5, you’ll get a signed custom sketch! (I’m totally asking for Swamp Thing.) So go help the kid out…he’s a good guy who does funny comics, and I’m sure we’d all would like to read more of them.
* I may have also contributed a bit of commentary about the commercial to pal Dorian‘s News Briefs over at the Bureau Chiefs site.
Here’s another promotional badge (dated 1998) I never actually got around to wearing:
People still asked me about the series back then anyway. You can still ask me about it now, if you want, though keep in mind I haven’t read it in several years.
• • •
So The Bureau Chiefs, the crew behind Fake AP Stylebook, have finally started up an online store where you can buy shirts, mugs, buttons, and stickers featuring many popular Fake AP entries. (Including that one about “ATM Machines,” which I may have been responsible for.) Order often, order lots…I stand to make upwards of tens of cents off these things, so buy, buy, buy! More designs coming soon!
So there I was, back in the mid-1980s, going with my friend Eric to pop into the local record store to buy a Dio album. Afterward, sitting in Eric’s car as we were headed back to his house, I decided to pull the record…yes, “record,” an actual platter inside a large cardboard sleeve…out of the bag to get a look at the cover art:
“My, that’s certainly something,” thought mid-80s Mike to himself.
I was not a diehard fan of Mr. Ronnie James Dio in that I didn’t loyally buy every single album he released, but I did appreciate his talent and songs from those two early albums, Holy Diver and The Last in Line, still remain constantly-replayed favorites on the ol’ iPod.
And this video…this video. I saw it all of once back in the ’80s, and never saw it again until I thought about searching for it on the YouTube, but for whatever reason, images from this particular music video remained stuck in my head for years. I mean, sure it’s completely ridiculous, and it looks like it had a budget of about three bucks:
…but it had Dio shocking a cyborg in the crotch with his handheld bug zapper, and friends, it doesn’t get much better than that. (Also, I think Star Trek: The Next Generation owes a wee bit of the Borg’s visuals to that video.)
So long, RJD. You contributed some much loved songs to the soundtrack of my life, and for that I’ll always be appreciative.
This is a 1993 promotional card sent out to retailers plugging Wizard‘s tie-in to the whole “Death of Superman” brouhaha. The front is a shiny silver with embossed lettering, which is the sort of thing that never really comes through that well when I scan it, but you get the idea:
The back has all the important details you need to know:
In fairness, 1) it did have huge sales, but I’m not sure it was entirely due to whatever they were calling “foil covers” that week…frankly, it could have been a plain brown wrapper with stick figures drawn by the publisher’s 3-year-old nephew and it would have sold like gangbusters during the “Death of Superman” feeding frenzy; and 2) we did indeed sell every issue we ordered. Actually, as I recall this particular special was pretty good…lots of interviews and interesting features and, I have to admit, the cover was pretty snazzy.
Not sure what the whole “order proud!” thing was about, unless I’m not recalling our chests swelling with pride as we jotted down our numbers in the Previews order form. Ah, well.
Also, they used “its” when they meant “it’s.” C’MON, PEOPLE.
• • •
In totally unrelated news, I’d better note this article before my email box is filled with messages telling me about it:
“‘We feel we had a lot to develop from Wes Craven’s original Swamp Thing,” said director Kenny Ortega, ‘Like more back-story on Dr. Alec Holland, or a more sinister Dr. Arcane, and, of course, more of Swamp Thing singing.'”
So I haven’t shown you folks any more items from my button collection lately, and since my back is still on the mend, I figured this would be something relatively easy to do and wouldn’t require propping myself up at the computer desk for too long.
First, I’m not sure if I showed this button to you yet:
…but it’s a promo for this book which I don’t own but probably should. I’ll have to look into that.
I did recently get this button:
…gifted to me by pal Andres. I don’t know why this society has to be secret. Say it loud, say it proud!
Kid Chris gave me this pin, after a trip to (I believe) that Las Vegas Star Trek thing:
I don’t know if that’s Scotty or just a generic red shirt about-to-die guy, but still, pretty awesome.
I don’t have anything to say about the next set of pins except that this is fantastic:
I thinkPal Dorian is responsible for me having these okay, he says “no,” which means I don’t remember who gave these to me, which makes me a terrible friend:
I really do love the Smurfs, you guys. I’ll probably even go see that movie.
I have no idea how I even got this:
If there was a “Schwing!” button, I don’t want to know. Especially if it uses the same pic.
Here’s another item picked up for me at a San Diego Comic Con from some years back…the Hellboy Convention Sketchbook, copyrighted 2001:
Digest-sized, 24 black and white pages plus covers, hand-signed in pencil on the first page by Mike Mignola, numbered 652/1000. Each page features a single illustration of Hellboy.
Mostly I’m just posting these Hellboy items to make Hellboy Fan #1 Employee Aaron jealous.
But partially I’m posting them because I’m having some slight back trouble again…not as bad as last time, thankfully, but sitting in front of a computer and typing is not the most comfortable thing at the moment. So please excuse my Low Content Hellboy Week as I recuperate.
…it occurred to me that I never showed these to you, a couple of Hellboy promo cards a friend of mine picked up for me at the San Diego Comic Con about ten years ago:
They’re blank on the back for autographs and sketches, which my friend also happened to get for me. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola slapped his John Hancock on the back of one card, and on the back of the other, he did this:
which I don’t own but probably should. I’ll have to look into that.
