So on Sunday, a lady brought by a pile of stuff to sell to the shop, and I went through the cards, the toys, the magazines, and came up basically empty…except for this:
The British hardcover Dukes of Hazzard annual…I had no idea them Duke boys had enough of a following in dear old Blighty to warrant a series of annuals, but there were apparently at least six of them. I hoped and prayed it was a comics annual, but alas, it was just short stories and puzzles and at least one article explaining CB radio jargon, all copiously illustrated with color photos of the cast:
There’s also an article at the beginning of the volume with sort of a FAQ, explaining what kind of car the General Lee is (“The General Lee is what is known in the USA as a ‘muscle car’”) and whether or not Hazzard County is a real place (well, there’s a town in Kentucky named Hazard that has some ties to the show).
Oh, and did I mention there’s a page of jokes? There’s a page of jokes:
There’s also a two page board game, with the unfortunate name of “The YeeHaa! Game,” page one of which may be seen below:
…in which players, when landing upon the “Yee-Haw!” square, must balance out the advantage of being able to interfere with another player’s progress in the game by bearing the indignity of having to shout out “YEE-HAW!” while doing so.* No, really, it’s in the rules:
Now we’ve had this book in our possession for all of about a day and I’ve already sold the thing via the Internet, so I’ll have to ship this sucker out when I’m back in the shop on Tuesday. I’ve gone from not knowing this even existed to already missing it within in a matter of hours.
Oh, I’d hold onto you like a limpet if I could, Dukes of Hazzard Annual.
* Maybe you can mix things up a bit by shouting out “Manara!” instead. …Or maybe not.
I’m currently reading Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, Sean Howe’s tell-all book about the history of the company and the personalities therein. Reading a handful of excerpts here ‘n’ there, such as this one over at The Comics Journal, finally got me to pick it up, and it’s been fascinating reading. I’m only up to about the early ’70s in the narrative, and boy howdy there’s a lotta drugs involved, but I am really looking forward to the material that covers what was going on with the company during my time as a funnybook salesman, starting with the big industry boom in the late 1980s.
That Comics Journal-ran excerpt covers a bit of that period, which is what probably finally convinced me to grab the book. I mean, there’s a quote from the editor of Secret Defenders describing the book as “that piece of shit,” which is both hilarious and, from a retailing standpoint, a wee bit annoying (as in “thanks for selling us a comic y’all really believed in,” even though I realize there may have been only so much even the editor could have done at that particular time in history). I’m kinda half-hoping the book would add to that title’s notoriety, and we’d have folks picking up back issues just out of curiosity just to see how bad it actually was for its own editor to say such things. No huge increase of back issue demand just yet! (Historically, this is the only issue of the series that anyone ever looks for…and I suspect demand will only increase as future Marvel flicks come along, presumably building on that character’s Avengers mid-credits cameo.)
Another comics-related-but-not-actually-comics thing I’ve been enjoying recently is season two of The Walking Dead, even though I’m not a reader of the comic it’s based on. Nothing against the comic, really, but I didn’t get into it early on, and suddenly there’s now seventeen trade paperbacks (or, alternatively, two huge omnibi) and I’m way behind, and I already read enough comics, and blah blah poor me life is hard. But the show is a lot of relatively-harrowing fun, and the zombies are suitably gross, and I like a lot of the actors. The show has yet to top the excellent series premiere, but the second season’s focus on the cast trying to make a home at the seemingly-safe farm, and its build-up to the apocalyptic season ending, made for some perfectly fine serialized horror storytelling.
Two other things about Walking Dead: 1. Every time I hear the main character’s name, I think of the cartoonist. 2. I wonder how soon after the TV show ends that the market will be flooded with all those different covers for the comic’s hundredth issue? I mean, those sold way above and beyond what the comic normally sells. (I remember discussing our ordering strategies on #100 as we were trying to decide our numbers…I argued for lots of copies of the $19.99 wraparound chromium cover variant as I figured that would do well for Internet sales. Everyone else thought I was crazy, but we ordered my recommended number anyway…only to have them sell completely out on the shelf in the shop within a couple of days of their release.)
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?
