Since I’ve been distracted over the last couple of weeks by my dental issues, I’ve not yet properly settled into the proper Halloween spirit…which is a shame, since I do so love all the costumes and decorations and such for the holiday. But some of my pals have been in the Halloweenish mood of late:
And I’m sure there are others, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. Any others, drop ’em in the comments section…go ahead, plug the hell out of the Halloween posts on your or your friends’ websites.
To be honest, I have no idea what I’m going to do for Halloween this year. I’m never going to top this. And I’m still pretty happy with this guest post I wrote for The Horror Blog on Five Scary Superman Moments.
Maybe I’ll just post a picture of me in my Nancy costume. Surely that’ll be frightening enough.
And the contents ain’t half-bad either. All of Boom! Studios Muppet comics are entertaining, but The Muppet Show really is the platonic ideal of a Fun Comic Book. Cartoonist Roger Langridge knocks it out of the park, every time.
Some other comics this week:
I was planning on picking up Vertigo Resurrected, the latest in DC’s 100-page mini-trade paperbacks, since this is the first printed appearance of the long-shelved Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez Hellblazer story “Shoot.” However, the reprints that fill up the rest of the book are short stories from Vertigo’s many anthology books from over the years, none of which I’d bought (for whatever reason…I have no real excuse), which means the entire volume is new to me. That worked out nicely.
Legion of Super-Heroes #6 – I’d pretty much made the decision last week, when I skipped the new issue of Adventure Comics, which is essentially a second Legion title. But, yeah, after nearly 30 years of Legion-reading, I think I finally reached my saturation point. Nothing specific I can really pin down as being the last straw…it’s just a case of being “enough’s enough,” I think. The last couple of issues have been bit of a slog, I can’t get involved in the characters and plotlines…I took the hint and dropped the books.
DC Universe Legacies #6 – …But that said, the Legion back-up in this book was actually pretty amusing. The lead story, which, like the rest of the series, is For Advanced Fans Only, retelling events from the era of Crisis on Infinite Earths through Legends, is about as good as this kind of thing is able to get. Nice art from Jerry Ordway, George Perez and and Scotts Kolins and Koblish.
Okay, Green Lantern Corps #53 introduces a new villain…well, actually an old villain of sorts, as it’s a Weaponer from the Anti-Matter Universe of Qward, which should be familiar to GL fans, and he’s got a good gimmick, and Sinestro’s in this too and we all like Sinestro. So, it’s some good ol’ fashioned superhero stuff and it’s all fine.
But seriously, it just reminds me that there are three ongoing Green Lantern series, and…was there actually talk of a fourth ongoing? So for the first time in years, the Green Lantern franchise manages to gain some sales success, and, as always, the response to a comic selling well is the publisher doing its damnedest to dig the golden eggs out of that goose’s body by pumping out more of the same thing. Marvel did it with Marvel Zombies, they’re well on their way to doing it with Deadpool, and now DC is following suit with too many GL series. And I suspect DC is going to discover something similar with the Batman franchise, which will soon be “the one by Grant Morrison that actually sells” and “a bunch of other titles that don’t sell nearly as well,” which…well, that’s kind of where we’re at right now, anyway.
And the thing that gets me is that there’s nothing particularly wrong with any of these books…all the GL books are fun, there’s nothing particularly wrong quality-wise with the Deadpool titles…I mean, they’re not for me, but the people who do read them seem to enjoy them, and all the Batman books are okay…but do we really need a Batman and a Batman and Robin? Do we really need a Green Lantern Corps and a Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors?
…
Sigh. Sorry, felt like shouting into the wind there, a bit. Don’t mind me.
And yeah, I know, “do we really need any comics?” Yes, yes we do.
Still enjoying the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, which is current at #4 of the five-issue mini “Hardcases,” which is, what, the fourth or fifth mini-series out of the approximately 1000 mini-series it’s going to take to compete this project? But it’s a good adaptation, and I find it odd that this comic, which is basically a word-for-word retelling of the novel, still maintains my interest, while the multiple series based on King’s Dark Tower, featuring untold tales and new storylines, lost me and, judging at least by our sales, most of its readership several months ago.
Charles Burns has a new handsome volume of cartooning out this week…Xed Out. Gorgeous production values on this book. You can see a picture of the cover here, which really doesn’t do it justice.
Okay, here’s another potential cover of the week, from Loki #1:
Boy, Loki’s never been happier. Just look at that joy on his face.
How would you get anyone to join your Liars’ Club? “Hey, I have a Liars’ Club…wanna join?” “Ah, you joker, you don’t really have a club.” “No, honest, guys, I do!”
You know, the “mistakes are impossible” promise is quite a bit to live up to.
We think the book should teach you…can’t say for sure, you are awfully pathetic.
I have to admit, I’ve never been happier.
I will of course insist on being called “Radio Mike” from now on.
At last, I can finally add up my midgets.
Harmonica shown to scale; measures 4 1/2 feet in width.
When we say “kidding,” we actually mean “annoying.”
images from an ad in Feature Comics #121 (April 1948)
The Legends of the Super Heroes DVD from Warner Archives, the made-on-demand online DVD shop for films and TV shows that, for whatever reason, couldn’t swing a general retail DVD release.
Now, I haven’t seen these two specials (“The Challenge” – our heroes versus the Legion of Doom, and “The Roast” – a celebrity roast hosted by Ed McMahon) since they originally aired in the late ’70s, but I recall, as an eleven-year-old Mikester, enjoying them, cheesy as they were. Here’s a taste:
BONUS: Comedian Jeff Altman pops up as Flash villain the Weather Wizard at the end of the clip.
Yeah, it’s really heavy on the camp, but whereas the comedic aspects of the similar ’60s Batman TV show were more knowing and self-aware and amusing, I suspect the out-and-out farce of Legends may be hard to take for those of us who still hold out a little hope for some remaining dignity for our four-color friends who wear tights and fly around and punch each other. I mean, I don’t know…like I said, I haven’t seen these in decades, so I can’t tell if the awkward half-assedness of the proceedings would ultimately result in being sort of entertainingly charming or simply unbearable. A mix of both, I’m presuming.
But still…Jeff Altman as the Weather Wizard! Okay, I don’t know why I’m fixated on that, but I am. What can I say, I like Jeff Altman. And Night Court‘s Marsha Warfield apparently appears in there, somewhere. And it’s the only live action versions of some of these characters, like Legion of Super-Heroes baddie Mordru, and Captain Marvel’s nemesis Sivana. And then there’s Ghetto Man, which…yeah, I know, but he comes out and rips on the heroes with a short bit of stand-up which, watching it just now via the YouTube, actually has a couple of pretty good superhero jokes in there…plus, he and Batman totally hip-bump as he’s coming onstage, and that’s awesome.
So anyway, Legends of the Super Heroes…it’s now officially out there in non-bootleg form for anyone who dares to watch it. Not sure if I’ll get it, myself…but I suppose nostalgic curiosity will eventually win out. If nothing else, it’s an interesting artifact of the time. Plus, it features Jeff Altman. Have I mentioned that?
A couple of things that occurred to me as I was watching the most recent episode, #200, of Smallville (SPOILER WARNINGS):
Since this is Smallville‘s tenth season, that means the show has been running for nearly 1/7th of Superman’s existence. Pretty weird, huh? (That’s the kind of insight that keeps readers comin’ back!)
Now this next thing reminded me of a strange feeling of…I don’t know, oddness, I guess, that I’ve had regarding this series since it began. At the beginning of the show, we get a reminder at the Smallville High reunion, via a banner, that the “present” of the show takes place in the year 2010. Okay, that’s no secret, but it does provide a timeframe for comparison when Clark is thrust into the future, and sees this date on a copy of The Daily Planet:
Also, we learn, along with Clark, that not only did the gang pick up a replacement Jimmy Olsen along the way (if you don’t know, don’t ask), but that by this point, Clark is openly acting as Superman. Well, not “openly” in that people know Clark is Superman, but you know what I mean. (Also, we, the viewers, know he’s been doing it for at least four years, since the last flash-forward to some Superman action was to 2013.)
The reason I bring that all up…when I was but a young Mikester, I grew up with the idea that Clark was Superboy first, then Superman later. The Superboy stories took place “in the past,” while Superman stories took place in the present day. Now, “in the past” was this nebulous period that ranged from the ’30s to the ’70s, depending of course what period of Superboy you happened to be reading.
This is probably what is creating this odd sense of dissonance I have as I’m watching Smallville, which is, for all intents and purposes, “The Adventures of Superboy.” Suddenly, “Superboy” is the present-day storyline, while “Superman” is a thing that, while we’re aware it’s going to happen, won’t be happening for a while yet. (Okay, it’ll probably happen in a few months, at this end of this season, but this has been the tone for the series since the beginning.) Not having Superman as the present day, current version of the character feels…I hate to say “wrong,” because it’s not, it’s just a new interpretation of the character, but to this old fanboy who’s read more comics than is probably good for him, this alteration of the traditional Superboy/Superman temporal relationship to the real world calendar does stir up strange responses in me. And the most strange response is actually typing the phrase “alteration of the traditional Superboy/Superman temporal relationship to the real world calendar” for which I have no excuse.
Anyway, that’s been bugging me for a while, so there, it’s finally off my chest and onto my weblog. Where it belongs.
The very brief snippets of Superman-type action we’ve seen over the years makes me wish we’d get more than, maybe, the one episode we might actually get of full-on Superman adventures in this series. I’d particularly like to see more of 2017’s no-nonsense Clark Kent that we saw all too briefly.
Would I want another season of (let’s call it) Metropolis, focusing on Superman, from the same folks? …Maybe if they dialed back the “emo” a bit.
This belt buckle is delivering a message, and that message is “Batman will traumatize the skulls of criminals…for America,” which is something we can all get behind, surely.
The weird thing about coming across previously unreprinted strips in The Complete Bloom County (volume 3 of which was released this week) is that you feel like a bunch of your friends finally got around to telling you about this great time they all had a while back, and, oh, wait, we never told you? Man, you should have been there, it was awesome. And you’re all: “I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about any of this. I’ve been missing out all this time” and you feel just slightly put out about it.
Or maybe that’s just me. I did read all the original Bloom County collections to the point of memorization, almost, so seeing “new” strips comes as a strange shock, even more so than seeing long-lost Peanuts strips in the Fantagraphics collections. Not sure why that is, really…perhaps that there are so many Peanuts strips and strip collections and so on that it doesn’t feel odd when you spot a strip you hadn’t seen before. Whereas the number of Bloom County books are, what, less than a dozen? And it feels more like a “continuity” strip than Peanuts…when a sequence is suddenly placed back into its original context in the middle of other much more familiar storylines, the effect is jarring.
And there I go overthinking it. I’m just glad there is a Complete Bloom County series at all. I kinda wish creator Berke Breathed supplied more strip commentaries, as those have been entertaining, but…well, I’m not gonna complain.
By the way, in volume 3, there exists the single most terrifying image ever presented in the comics format: the reveal of Opus the Penguin’s post-plastic surgery nose. To this day that disturbs me with its unnaturalness. (No, I’m not posting the picture here. You’ll have to go find it yourself.)
Some other brief thoughts about this week’s new comics:
Issue #4 of The Simpsons spin-off Comic Book Guy actually has some Comic Book Guy in it, which is nice…series has been a fun read overall • • • Incredible Hulks #614 is almost like daring me to read it…I couldn’t care less about Hulk’s son, Skaar, or whatever, and the only reason I picked it up is because I’ve been reading this comic since I was 12, which is the worst reason in the world to read anything and I’ll have more thoughts on this (and another long-read title that I really am dropping) in a future post • • • I do like Green Lantern comics an’ all, but we don’t need three ongoing titles (two of which came out this week)…so, no reason at all why the story in the Emerald Warriors comic couldn’t have been folded into Green Lantern Corps? • • • Irredeemable #18 drops about as nasty a bit of business performed by a “hero” as I’ve ever seen in a superhero book, and I don’t mean by the series’ main antagonist, the Plutonian…a genuinely upsetting reveal • • • So, is Batman saying “‘the average guy’ isn’t our problem” in Superman #702 quite possibly the worst characterization of Batman ever? And like people asked me when I brought this up on the Twitter…which Batman is this, anyway? The still time-lost Bruce Wayne or current cape caretaker Dick Grayson? disregard that…it’s Dick • • • Muppet Sherlock Holmes #2 continues to cater to my strange fascination with Sherlock Holmes pastiches. And it’s Muppets, and Muppets are always wonderful. If you do not love the Muppets, then we have nothing more to say to each other. …I SAID GOOD DAY • • • Untold Tales of Blackest Night is entirely unnecessary, but if you needed more Blackest Night stuff, here it is, and it’s about as good as you’d need it to be. The Animal Man segment feels like a set-up for a new series • • • I like Hellblazer, so I’ll be reading this City of Demon mini-series, but honestly, it’s not like Hellblazer is selling so crazy-hot that we need what amounts to two of ’em on the shelves at the same time. Should have been folded into the regular series • • • the first issue of Strange Tales II (indie artists take on Marvel Comics) didn’t start off with a bang like the first issue of the previous series did…still, entertaining reading, with the standout being the Galactus/Magneto team-up by Perry Bible Fellowship‘s Nicholas Gurewitch • • • Turok Son of Stone #1 is out, and…I don’t know, I love the old Dell / Gold Key Turoks, and every time there’s a new revival, I realize you Can’t Go Home Again. Kinda like Turok himself, in a way…okay, I’ll stop • • • nice of DC to announce their intention to keep the $2.99 price point, saving customers money, just the week before releasing four Bruce Wayne The Road Home one-shot tie-ins at the same time, or five if you count Return of Bruce Wayne • • • Tiny Titans / Little Archie may actually contain too much cute. It’s a beauty to behold.
So Wednesday I had a customer ask me where he could find the Black Freighter comic book, as seen in the Watchmen film. “Only in Watchmen, my friend,” I told him, but I’m still really surprised no new comic-format tie-ins to the film were released. A “replica” Black Freighter comic would have been kind of neat, and perhaps not as…off-putting to the purists as, say, a Nite Owl & Silk Spectre mini-series. Well, there was that fan-made attempt at reconstructing the comic from its excerpts in Watchmen. But I suppose the Black Freighter DVD that was released made an actual comic book release redundant.
…Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m about a year out of date with this Watchmen movie tie-in talk. Look, I’ve been out of it for about a week, and this guy really did ask me this yesterday. I gotta work with what I got, man.
Also, pal Brandon passed this link along to me, and I was going to put it up as one of my sick day posts, but a quick Googling showed that it already made the rounds on some of the comic news sites. But, eh, what the hell…a song about Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl. It ain’t too shabby.
And in all my griping over the last few days about my painful dental issues, I see I never did mention that poor ol’ Employee Aaron managed to get one of his toes broken. No, no, not as a result of a cruel and unfair punishment meted out by me for violating one of our draconian workplace rules. This time. He was doing something at home, like, I think, saving a bunch of nuns and orphans from a buffalo stampede, when he tripped and fell, and, whoops, there goes the pinkie toe. So Sir Aaron Limps-a-lot is staggering around the shop, I can’t talk to anyone because my cheek has swollen up into a hot, painful lump the size of a Ford Festiva, and Ralph has pneumonia, dengue fever and the yaws…we’re a fine bunch.
So former employee pal Sean‘s band, The Kill Junkies, just released their first album Steamroller which is available from Amazon in that convenient MP3 format. It’s more metal than a really metal thing filled with metal, so it may not be for gentler ears, but Sean’s a swell guy and I’m happy to support his creative endeavors.
And now…NAKED SUPERMAN AND BATMAN (safe for work, from a Code-approved comic)! I find the jar containing the brain of the Gorilla Boss (visible in one of the panels) to be simultaneously creepy and sad.
Hey, gang…I’m finally feeling a little better, thanks to these horse pills the doctor gave me, and while last night was probably the most miserable I’ve been, I believe I’m past the worst of it. Thank you for all your well-wishes, and hopefully I’ll be back to business as usual on this site by tomorrow.
I do have a couple of links, though:
Here are the results to a 1995 Marvel reader survey, in which the Punisher is voted “least favorite superhero,” 53% of respondents are still enjoying the Clone Saga, and 24% are online. It’s fascinating reading.
Pal Dorian has been doing horror movie reviews as part of his Halloween celebration, and today he hits one of my favorites. I actually saw this one in the theater!
which is available from Amazon in that convenient MP3 format. It’s more metal than a really metal thing filled with metal, so it may not be for gentler ears, but Sean’s a swell guy and I’m happy to support his creative endeavors.
