Another funny animal lost in the mists of time.
from Coo Coo Comics #2 (Dec. 1942)
In other news:
- If you enjoyed the funny animal strip I posted yesterday, Mark has improved upon it.
- H at the Comic Treadmill tells of the day Dr. Fate met my namesake.
- From The Comics Journal #281 (out this week!), Steven Grant writes this in the intro to his interview with Gilbert Hernandez:
“Then there are the Hernandez brothers. Coming out of nowhere (or Oxnard, Calif., which amounts to the same thing)….”
As an Oxnard native and current resident, I have two things to say: “Hey!” — and “Well, actually, I can’t really argue with that.”
But then again, our fine town was repeatedly referenced on Alf, so we’ve got that going for us.
- Related to pal Dorian’s “comics in antique stores” thing: there used to be an “antique store” (or “thrift store”…the difference between the two generally being the prices being asked) that would price any comics they got in by coming to our store and seeing our prices for the same books. Invariably, their books were in much worse shape than ours, so their comics would all end up being overpriced for their conditions.
The specific example I remember is Avengers #1 (the Gold Key based on the ’60s TV show)…we had a very nice copy priced at $150. The thrift store folks also priced their copy at $150, and had it framed on the wall of their shop…where I was able to get a good look at it and determine that it had apparently been run over by a truck at some point in the comic’s history.
- Depressing thought of the day: having a very specific vision for a new direction for one’s favorite comic book character (like, oh, say, Swamp Thing), and 1) knowing with absolute certainty that there’s no way on God’s green Earth that the publisher would ever, ever go for it, 2) not that they’d even want to talk to me about it in the first place, and 3) the more I think about this particular direction, the more I gotta see it.
Sad when it happens to someone you know, isn’t it?
- Just watched the new Invincible Iron Man cartoon, and I think Marvel’s direct-to-video animated movies have a serious case of diminishing returns. The first Ultimate Avengers was slight but watchable (if you avoid the appallingly-incompetent text commentary), and that was the best of them. The second Ultimate Avengers couldn’t keep my interest for the 80-minute running time, and Iron Man turned out to be a snoozefest as well. Characters I didn’t care about, action sequences that were more endured than enjoyed…it just didn’t do anything for me. The opening sequence from the forthcoming Dr. Strange movie that’s included on the disc didn’t fill me with high hopes for improvement.
Here’s hoping the DC direct-to-video flicks are better…but then, they’d almost have to be.