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§ April 19th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
Shane from Near Mint Heroes added quite a few Blue Beetle links in the comments section for this post…so if you’re so inclined, check them out.
Anyway, I hope you all liked those links…I figured I’d do it to inform some of those people out there who are all up in arms about Beetle’s fate in DC Countdown, but have never actually read anything with him in it (including DC Countdown).
Oh, relax, I’m just ribbin’ ya. Mostly.
So while I was doing my searches I came across several message board discussions revolving around the possibility of a “Blue Beetle III.” I imagine it’s pretty likely, since there was a lot of emphasis in DC Countdown about how Ted wasn’t the first Blue Beetle (and, one may infer, not the last). Either that, or we’ll get Blue Beetle: Rebirth in a few years (right after Sue Dibny: Rebirth and Wesley Dodds: Rebirth).
Yes, I know the “[dead character]: Rebirth” joke is a big cliche, now, but it still makes me laugh. I’m old, and easily amused.
Speakin’ o’Sue, I also saw a lot of people on message boards here and there floating the idea of Sue as the new Spectre (an idea I was pushing for last May – under May 2nd, if it doesn’t load properly). I still think that would be a funny idea…Sue and her hubby, the Elongated Man, can still travel around solving crimes, but every once in a while Sue will suddenly transform into a white-skinned green-cloaked giant and…I don’t know, turn the bad guys into ice sculptures and put the acetylene torch to them, or something. Heck, I’d buy it…I’ve spent good money on worse comics.
At any rate, it should come as no surprise that most message board people don’t think that Sue becoming the Spectre would be a good idea. Ah, well…I liked the idea of Jack Black as Green Lantern*, too…I’m used to being the odd man out.
So, enough of my ranting. Let me just tell you to pay a visit to The Absorbascon, a weblog discussing DC Comics. It’s named after one of DC’s nuttier Silver Age thingies, so how can you go wrong?
* I swear to God, that Petition Online site is a non-stop goldmine of comedy. This is the greatest site ever.
§ April 19th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
Ted Kord Blue Beetle links:
A history of the character.
Pencilled Blue Beetle pages from an aborted weekly comic.
BB makes this list of Maxim‘s “25 Lamest Superheroes Ever.”
BB Microheroes – Silver and Golden ages.
A thorough review of the DC Direct figure.
Customized “Blue ‘n’ Gold” figures, and, what the heck, have another custom BB figure.
These folks are apparently looking for duplicate BB Overpower game cards.
Marvel RPG stats and Champions RPG stats.
A cute, cartoony drawing of BB and Booster Gold.
“End the debauchery of the so-called major crossovers.” – a petition to save Ted Kord.
A chronological list of BB’s DC appearances.
The HeroClix figure.
He likes Blue Beetle.
And for the Golden Age Blue Beetle:
An overview of the character’s publishing history.
MP3s for the original Blue Beetle radio serials.
A gallery of covers, plus some Phantom Lady covers for good measure. (Warning – pop-ups.)
A brief bio of creator Charles Nicholas.
A customized action figure – since we’ll never, ever see an authorized one.
An issue of Blue Beetle is noted on this page of marijuana references in comic books.
§ April 18th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
These mini-comics (measuring about 2 3/4 inches wide by 4 1/4 inches tall) were originally packaged with the Super Powers action figures and candy packages of the early-mid 1980s. I acquired a big pile of the comics in a collection a while back, so I was able to get my hands on these without having to accumulate a bunch of action figures at the same time. They’re about 16 pages long, no more than two or three panels per page.
Some of the minis, like the ones above, feature abbreviated origins of the characters or, in the case of the Justice League, feature the formation of the team. With only 16 pages (including cover and an ad page) there’s not a lot of room, but the JLA comic features an important lesson for children everywhere:
The “Yellow Tornado” doesn’t really have a ring to it, does it? But why wouldn’t he be an American? Wasn’t he built in America? (Or doesn’t the America of Earth-2 count?)
Not just the big names were featured…the comics introduced kids to some of the lesser lights of the DC Universe as well, in those pre-Justice League Unlimited days:
Villains were spotlighted as well:
Dig that karate chop Brainiac is delivering on Batman, there. Also, at first glance, it looks like Lex Luthor isn’t even on the cover of his own comic…but if you squint just right:
And sure, Darkseid is a natural for a DC toy line like this, but the very idea of trying to sum up Jack Kirby’s other Fourth World characters in 16-page mini-comics…well, that’s a little mind-boggling:
All things considered, they didn’t do a bad job, though DeSaad had to be toned down a bit, as you might imagine. That said, DeSaad has the greatest line of dialogue out of all these minis: “Eh? Your arrow — it’s short-circuiting my vibro-hoses!”
That arrow was shot by Green Arrow, which brings me to the appeal of some of these minis: the odd pairing of heroes and/or villains in the books. The later minis primarily had Fourth World villains as foils for the heroes, so you had Green Arrow fighting DeSaad, as I mentioned, or Red Tornado and Aquaman versus Mantis, of all things. The Joker mini has Batman and Aquaman teaming up, an Aquaman mini has him joining forces with the Flash against the Penguin, and one of the Hawkman minis has him teaming with Green Lantern against Lex Luthor.
Given the nature of these minis, as pack-in supplements secondary to the toys themselves, that they’re entertaining at all is something of a miracle. Simplistic, sure, but fun as well. Similar mini-comics packaged with the new Justice League Unlimited toys, detailing some of the background characters that haven’t yet been featured leads in the cartoon but have been made into action figures (like the Steve Ditko Starman, for example) wouldn’t be a bad idea, I think.
Just got a look at our Diamond invoice for all the stuff coming in on Wednesday.
Good gravy.
Most (if not all) of the remaining Free Comic Book Day books, three different toy lines, and pretty much every comic book ever published by Marvel and DC. Okay, maybe I exaggerated slightly on that last bit, but it’s still a gargantuan pile of material that’ll be darkening our doorstep midweek.
Don’t really have a point to make beyond that, other than trying to vent a little shock. Egads.
A few years ago, I received several e-mails and phone calls over the space of about a week from people all over the country looking for the last issue of Marvel’s Masters of the Universe series. As far as I knew, and still know now, it’s not a particularly rare or “hot” item, and it wasn’t very expensive (no more than a couple bucks at most). But, suddenly, I started receiving a bunch of requests for this single comic all at once…literally one right after the other.
After the first couple of requests, I started asking people, “hey, why are you looking for this? Was there an article in a magazine somewhere? Did some Masters of the Universe fanclub newsletter promote this issue? What’s going on?”
The only answer I got was variations on “I need it to complete my collection” — no one owned up to being inspired otherwise to claim this particular funnybook.
Luckily, I had enough copies to fill demand, but I’m still left wondering. The most likely explanation: that all these people were clued into the comic by a single source, but didn’t want to tell me for fear that I’d jack up the price…a fear that’s about 98% unwarranted. Other explanations: it was a prank on us (an odd prank, since everyone actually paid for their comics); or, as odd as it may seem, just by complete coincidence, otherwise unconnected people from across this great nation all decided within a few days of each other that they needed to complete their Masters of the Universe comic book collection, and chose our store to do so.
Again, no real point to this…I was just reminded of it a couple days ago and thought I’d share.
Hey, are you on a dial-up internet connection? If so, does my page take an awful long time to load for you, or does it load reasonably quickly (considering 1) you’re on dial-up, and 2) I tend to use a lot of images)? Just being Mr. Curious.
§ April 17th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
Added to the weblogroll: Dave’s Long Box, a nice collection of views and reviews of comics past. His takedown of Superman #75 is fine readin’.
I suppose as a longtime seller of funnybooks that I should say something regarding DC Comics’ abrupt cancellation of the Humanoids/2000 AD line. It’s quite a shame, really, as the books did have a small but growing audience at our shop, and I’m glad DC at least tried to expand their publishing line. The format and pricing of the volumes were just right, the material was solid (including some classic Alan Moore material that should always be in print and available)…it’s just too bad that it didn’t catch on at more stores. Okay, Judge Dredd stuff is becoming increasingly more difficult to move…unless it’s that Batman/Judge Dredd trade, people just don’t seem to be interested in the character anymore…but most everything else did okay for us.
At least the publisher Rebellion is picking up where DC left off, which is good news. More quality material is always welcome.
Speaking of books…Sin City, still not available for reorder from Diamond. Which, at this point, is fine, since interest is now pretty much kaput, aside from the occasional 12-year-old who tries to talk Mom into buying it for him. I’m sure there’ll be plenty to be had once the big chain bookstores start returning their copies to Dark Horse in a few weeks.
So, watching last week’s new episode of Smallville, something occurred to me. Lex, due to some Kryptonite-rock shenanigans, is split into two beings: one “good,” and one “evil.” And you know what? The evil Lex is much more interesting. Having Lex (complete with Kryptonite ring) in out-and-out conflict with the 20-something Teen of Steel is a great deal more compelling than Smallville‘s usual pussyfooting around: “oh, will Lex succeed in his struggle to remain a good person, or will blood will out?” Plus, if I hear one more knowing conversation between any other cast member and Clark along the lines of “it’s like he has two identities, a secret self that he keeps hidden from the world,” I’m gonna shoot my TV Elvis-style. Well, okay, not really, but you know what I mean.
I’m totally stealing a link out of pal Dorian‘s comments section, where Tom from Comics Ate My Brain points Dor in the direction of the most anally-retentive DC Universe timeline I have ever seen. It’s absolutely fantastic.
§ April 16th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
Robot Sherlock Holmes.
ROBOT SHERLOCK HOLMES.
ROBOT SHERLOCK HOLMES.
from Nova #20 & #21 (July/September 1978) by Marv Wolfman, Carmine Infantino, Dave Hunt, John Buscema, Bob McLeod & Josef Rubinstein (whew!)
§ April 15th, 2005 § Filed under watchmen Comments Off on Spoilers for Watchmen ahead, I guess, if you happen to be a Charlton fan.
As I was processing back issues today:
Me (holding a copy of Watchmen #12): “Wow, hard to believe it’s been nearly 20 years, and we’re still talking about this comic.”
Pal Dorian: “Did you ever read Watchmen and picture the original Charlton heroes in the main characters’ parts?”
M: “Oh, sure. Actually, it’s a good thing Moore didn’t use the Charlton characters as he planned…I have a feeling Watchmen would have been long forgotten if he had. Well, except for the Charlton fans bitching about what he did to ‘their’ characters.”
D: “‘Oh no! Peter Cannon’s a villain!'”
M: “‘I can’t believe they killed off the Question!'”
§ April 15th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
So yesterday, Kid Chris comes out of the store’s back room where he had been putting away some backstock, and he’s holding a copy of the first printing of the Batman: A Death in The Family trade paperback. That’s the book, for the two of you who don’t know, that DC rushed out to reprint the then-hot four issue series featuring the death of the Jason Todd Robin, as voted on by the fans. Anyway, Kid Chris figured we could probably use it out front and he hands it to pal Dorian to process…when Dor notices the list of quotes on the back cover.
Now, Dor wanted to put this on his own site, but he’s burning through his bandwidth like it’s goin’ out of style, so I offered to put it up here.* Now, the first thing Dor noticed is how unflattering those quotes are, considering that they’re being used to sell the book. Particularly the “but the real murderers are the Batman readers” one — it all feels very negative (unsurprisingly so, given the story’s content), presenting the fans as a bunch of bloodthirsty thugs. Whether that’s a fair assessment of the people who voted for Robin’s death I’ll let others discuss, but I’m sure at least a few people voted for his demise just to see if DC would go through with it.
The best quote**, though, has got to be the last one from then-editor Denny O’Neil: “It would be a really sleazy stunt to bring him back.”
Oops.
By a complete coincidence, as Dor and I were discussing this book, a customer brought a copy of the current printing of this book up to the register to purchase. And, sure enough, the quotes are still on the back cover of this most recent edition (the twelfth printing, I believe). Given recent events in Batman, DC might want to consider quietly dropping at least O’Neil’s quote from the back cover.
Now, don’t get us wrong…both Dor and I think the return of Mr. Todd is a perfectly acceptable turn of events in the Batman comics, and actually not a bad idea for a Batman villain. Though, after the disappointing tease in Hush, it’s no longer the shocking surprise it could have been. Ah, well.
EDIT: A quick Google search on O’Neil’s quote shows that Dor and I aren’t the only ones to notice…though we’re probably the only ones to be amused by the whole situation!
* I’m already over my free bandwidth allotment for the month, so what’s a few more gigabytes of transfer?
** Though the “Holy Ayatollah, Batman” one is pretty good, too.
§ April 14th, 2005 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on
A hearty “welcome back” to Franklin Harris, whose hiatus was thankfully shorter than expected.
Things I shouldn’t have to say at work: “No, I don’t want to touch your waxy package.”
Er…that’s it, really. Yeah, I know, small update. What do you want for free?
EDIT: I apologize for the stupid typos in my previous post. And for the typos that may remain. And typos in this post as well.
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