There’s nothing quite like pestering clerks at local video stores and explaining to them that you’re looking for a DVD of Swamp Thing cartoons. Yes, they all looked at me like I was a crazy person. And no, I didn’t have any luck, so I had to order it online.
Anyway, it’s out today, so if you want to see how not to make a Swamp Thing cartoon, this DVD has five 20-minute lessons on that very subject.
Johanna is running a swell contest where you, yes, you, Sir and/or Ma’am, can win yourself some free copies of Peter David’s equally-swell-though-underappreciated series Fallen Angel.
What the heck, it’s free, and you might get some good readin’ out of it.
Comic Strip Tip #1: Having kids that have died due to implied neglect as a punchline may be a little on the rough side.
If you’re a member of Emusic, and you’re a fan of the all-time greatest live-action version of Batman, you can download an album’s worth of Neil Hefti‘s music from the series.
1. Finally, after months (well, days) of me badgering him, pal Dorian has posted photographic proof of the Baby Huey movie.
2. All I have to say about the most recent episode of Justice League Unlimited – God bless you, Paul Dini, for giving us an animated version of B’wana Beast. I even got a kick out of his “surfer” accent (and somewhere, The World’s Biggest B’wana Beast Fan is writing a letter of protest). The episode as a whole was a lot of fun, and very much played for laughs…that was original Not Ready for Prime Time Player Laraine Newman as Medusa! Also, they’re still playing with the romantic connection between Batman and Wonder Woman…when did this whole Batman/WW romance Zeitgeist start going around? It’s been popping up in the comics over the last couple of years, now it’s in the cartoons…somehow, this is all Grant Morrison’s fault, I’m sure.
3. That panel to the right is from the infamous Iron Man #157, as described in detail over on the Comic Treadmill. And yes, having now perused said funnybook, it’s as incredibly average as H says. Really, the most you can say about it is that yes, it fills 20 (or however many) pages, thus allowing Marvel to publish an Iron Man comic that month.
3a. And yes, H and Mag, I do indeed have more copies of this comic available.
3b. Speaking of the Treadmill, did you see this panel Mag posted? If you like out-of-context comic panels, like I know I do, then you really need to check it out.
4. For those of you who had a hard time believing that people treat our store like a day-care center like Dorian said, let me relate a story from Sunday: so I was working at the back counter, putting together some reorders, when I spotted a couple of little girls (about 3 and 4, maybe) wandering around unattended. They were running (which I had to put a stop to before they fell and got hurt), they were spinning one of the comic racks around as fast as they could (I had to put a stop to that too, being the mean old man that I am), they were coming to the counter I was working at and grabbing papers, tape dispensers, what have you, off that counter, and just generally getting underfoot (particularly in employees-only areas). No parents in sight, mind you. After a few minutes of trying to be patient with them, I finally had to draw the line when the older girl grabbed one of my pencils and attempted to write on some of the comic boxes.
Well, that was enough. I finally tracked down their parents, who up to this point had made no attempt to keep tabs on their kids, on the other side of the store (we have a fairly sizable shop) and informed them that they’ll have to supervise their children. The mom’s response? “But I’ve been supervising them all day.” Yes, I swear to you, she actually said that. I’m sorry if asking you to do your job as a parent is an inconvenience, but unless you’re going to pay me some babysitting money, I’m not going to take care of your children for you.
5. And here’s something incredibly immature of me to post, but you know kids were giggling over these panels 35 years ago:
Alas, the real world encroaches on my weblogging time today, so all I’ll probably be able to post for you is another comic cover:
H explains the reason why Mag mail-ordered a copy of Iron Man #157 from me a few weeks ago.
First thing I’m gonna do when I go into the shop tomorrow…dig out a copy of Iron Man #157 and see if it’s as glorious as they claim.
Found via pal Andy, Acclaim files for bankruptcy. Do they still have any control over the old Valiant Comics properties? I honestly have no idea. I do know Magnus Robot Fighter is being published elsewhere.
1. Customer buys something that ends up costing $10.83. Pulls 72 dollars out of his pocket. Hands me a ten dollar bill, and asks his friend if he has eighty-three cents in change. Friend dutifully counts out and hands over eighty-three cents. I wonder this whole time why the friend didn’t tell the customer “what, would it kill you to just give him another dollar?”
2. I noticed on the cover of one of the science fiction magazines we carry a small blurb ballyhooing an article about behind-the-scenes stuff on the original Star Trek TV series. Okay, really, at this point is there anything else we need to know about the original Star Trek series? Haven’t we all seen interviews with every actor, actress, extra, scriptwriter, director, production designer, key grip, lighting tech, make-up artist, “red-shirt,” tribble-wrangler, and their spouses by now? I suppose if you went to one of those “celebrity” autograph conventions you might get an actor who played Romulan Guard #3 to tell you some unsavory story from the show that never saw print due to fear of legal action, but that’s probably about it.
Besides, shouldn’t we all just move on to the vastly superior Space: 1999?
3. Okay, so the Hulk has his own weblog, which appears to have inspired a similar Green Arrow weblog (though the Hulk appears to have a better grasp of capitalization). I was half-tempted to add to the fray with my own Archie Andrews weblog (“Dear ‘blog: I didn’t get laid again today”) but I spend enough time just doing this site. So, for any of you enterprising individuals out there, that’s a free idea, and this address still appears to be available. Archie.blogspot.com is taken, though not updated in three years.
