Sunday misc.
- So the other day, as we’re processing that large collection of ’70s comics I’d mentioned previously, employee Aaron pointed to a cover of Pebbles and Bam-Bam (based on this cartoon) and asked….
Aaron: “Hey, Mike, who’s this character?”
Me: “Oh, that’s Schleprock.”
Aaron. “Schleprock, huh? Okay, thanks.”
Me: “WHY DO I KNOW THIS?”
Okay, that’s not a terribly obscure bit of trivia of anything. But it just reminded me that one of the side effects of selling funnybooks for a living is that memories of childhood ephemera don’t fade into vague impressions and mental background noise. They remain fresh and clear and almost certainly occupying that part of the brain that could be of more use, say, keeping track of your home mortgage’s impound account. Ah, well, the price one pays…..
- Speaking of childhood memories, I wish I could wipe my mind of this:
This is from 1968, though Archie cartoons were created and rerun through the ’70s, and they were all just as annoying. I dare you to listen to Jughead’s voice (at the 40 second mark) and not want to put a fist through your monitor.And whoever had the soul-withering idea to add laugh tracks to cartoons…gaaaah, it’s too much to bear.
- I saw someone point out that there’s a splash page in the latest issue of Civil War where one character is holding another character, beaten and battered, in his arms, while standing in a doorway. The drawing has the notation “after Keown” — i.e. Dale Keown, who drew a similar image during his run on Incredible Hulk.
So there’s only one way that particular scene could have been drawn? I mean, all you needed to do is, say, shift the camera angle a tad, and viola, “homage” no longer required. Just seemed a bit odd to me, is all.
- Okay, that said…I kinda like the idea of that character returning to the Marvel Universe and interacting with superheroes. Well, I like it in theory, anyway, in some odd, nostalgic way, and not in a “oh, boy, I can’t wait to buy another series starring that character” way.
- It’s no secret which character I’m talking about, is it? No, not “U.S. War Machine.”
- Dear customer: even if I did know the phone number of a particular Big Name Funnybook Artist, I’m not going to give it to you so you can call him at, most likely, 3 in the morning and pitch your “great” ideas.
- One of the things I miss about having pal Dorian working at the store is the ability to immediately show him crazy comics the second I come across them in any collections I’m processing. Now I have to wait for him to turn up at the shop to get his comics, and I have to remember which comics I wanted to show him that I’d seen earlier in the week, and…heck, sometimes it’s just easier to scan everything and let him see ’em on my site.
- For your information, the soundtrack CD for the new Tenacious D movie isn’t work-safe. Just sayin’.*
- As pal Dorian and I were talking the other day about, well, comics…I know, big surprise…I realized that we no longer have people asking about the extremely late and I’m not convinced will ever actually finish Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine mini-series. The fans have given up hope, their spirits broken, shattered, faded mockeries of their former selves, wandering the comic shop aisles with a vague unease over that one series, from so long ago, the name of which they can no longer remember, which remains uncompleted to this very day.
Or they just shrugged their shoulders, said “eh, typical,” and soldiered on to the next late, hot series.
- Can’t resist these image-“memes,” even when I should. My contribution to Beaucoupkevin‘s:
EDIT: More Validus pics here.
* Yes, I knew that before I even put the CD in the player. No, I didn’t play it while customers** were in the store.
** Dorian doesn’t count.
