1. How embarrassing…I thought I had Legomancer over there in my links list this whole time, and I didn’t. Oops, I guess the egg is in my face.
2. It looks like everyone on the freakin’ planet has their copy of The Complete Peanuts, Volume 1, except me. I had to go and wait to get the copies at my shop, instead of advance-ordering from the publisher like all the cool kids are doing. Gosh dang it. I needs me some early Peanuts, and I needs ’em now.
2a. I did, however, receive my copy of Li’l Beginnings, the collection of Schulz’s Peanuts precursor Li’l Folks. It’s a gorgeous book…the gold stamping on the front cover really stands out, and the strips inside are reprinted at darn near full-page size. It’s just as good as I hoped it would be.
3. So the other day at the store a fella is browsing the racks, glancing through various titles, looking at some of the books on the shelves and so on. Then a friend of his comes into the store to come get him…apparently Guy #1 was waiting on his friend to do some business in a nearby store, and decided to pass the time looking around in our shop. Okay, that’s fine. But as they’re leaving, the second fella asks Guy #1 “hey, you wanted to buy anything?” Guy #1 responds “nah. Can you believe it…grown men actually draw these things!”
Sigh. Grown women draw them too, thank you. What did he think…they were slapped together by preschoolers? Generated entirely by computers? (Well, some, maybe.)
4. I was doing a little restocking at the shop yesterday, and noticed that we had actually sold most of a run of Hex. Sure, you remember Hex, don’t you? At the end of Jonah Hex #92 (the last issue of that series, published in 1985), Jonah vanishes in a flash of light in front of a bar full of people. What happened to him? Well, he ended up in the apocalyptic post-nuclear not-at-all-like-Road Warrior world of…the future! Hex, which ran 18 issues, featured Jonah using his old-west know-how in this new world, filled with giant insects, robots, flying ships, a future version of Batman, corrupt corporations, etc. etc., so on, and so forth. It was all completely inappropriate, and you know what? I’ll defend this series with my dying breath. I wish DC would occasionally do more things like this…take some of their characters and just do something completely bizarre and out of left field with them. Where’s my Aquaman: Space Ranger series? The John Byrne Forum had a good thing going with the Batman’s Moon Patrol (and Monkey) gag series they came up with. (Heck, what I wouldn’t give to see Batman fighting aliens again, and I don’t mean in JLA…I mean in his own books.) Or how ’bout “Sue Dibny is…The Spectre!” Why not? The Spectre’s position looks like it’ll need filling, and if the rumors are true about the Elongated Man’s wife…well, she may be in a position to take the job. I’d buy it…wouldn’t you? Don’t lie to me, of course you would.
Now, was Hex any good? No, of course not. Was it entertaining? Sure it was, in a real B-movie “I can’t believe they’re actually doing this” kind of way. The last few issues were illustrated by Keith Giffen, and the series ends on on absolutely appalling, but perfect, note, one designed to keep the hardcore Jonah Hex fans happy in regards to previously established continuity regarding Jonah’s eventual fate. (Won’t spoil it here, but I’ll post it in the comments if you’re interested.)
