Radioactive Man, odd inquiries, monsters, shilling, bills, and Popeye.
So, at long last, I got my 7-11 exclusive Radioactive Man funnybook (#711, natch), courtesy pal Brook. He heard of my need, kept an eye out, and lo, he did find a stack of freshly delivered Radioactive Man comics in the distant and wild jungles of Montalvo, and picked up a copy for me. He’s a swell guy, that Brook.
I’m not sure what the distribution is like on these things…is there just one batch shipped per store (when Brook went back to check for more copies at that particular 7-11, they were gone), are there follow-up shipments, does every 7-11 get them? I have no idea. The 7-11s in my neck of the woods never seemed to have received any, or they only received one shipment and blew everything out already.
Anyway, I’ve discussed the contents previously (two reprints, one new story), along with a couple gag ads I suspect have seen print before, and the new front and back covers pictured above. It’s a nice little package, and even the shrinkwrap is attention-grabbing…here’s a close-up of the top of the bag:
If you still want a copy of this, haunt your local 7-11, or wait a few weeks for the Simpsons movie to be out of theatres, and copies of this comic should be cheap and plentiful on the eBay.
Apparently I missed a weird moment or two at the store when I was out on Monday. There was a customer there who was following Employee Aaron around and asking him an endless series of questions. Here are actual examples:
1. “Why does Cthulhu have to be so scary?”
2. “Do I look gay?”
Wow, how do you answer that? “First, Cthulhu is scary because he wasn’t hugged enough as a youngster and now he’s acting out. Second…yes.” Okay, I have no idea what the guy actually looked like, but if someone asks you that, you might as well just say “yes” and see what will happen.
Also, apparently the most popular weapon used by comic book characters is the katana. Sure, why not?
MY NAME
IS HORACE
Sorry, just watched the Monster Squad DVD, and that’s been stuck in my head ever since. Even more so than “Wolfman’s got nards!” And you know, when my pal Rob and I were sitting in the movie theatre, and we heard that particular bit of nard-related dialogue, we both knew right then that a cinematic legend had been born.
Now, perhaps this film hasn’t aged quite as well as its thematic cousin The Goonies…the effects are a little more creaky, the plot contrivances a little more, well, contrived. Plus, I think I’ve had sneezes that are longer than the runtime of this flick. But, it’s an amiable enough movie with plenty of laughs and amusing performances by the leads, the monsters themselves are nicely designed, and the DVD release (which I’d been anticipating for quite a while now) has about a bazillion extras, so…well, I don’t buy too many DVDs any more, but I had to have this one in the collection. Plus, it does the “fighting all the classic monsters in one movie” thing a hell of a lot better than Van Helsing.
Those of you offended by crass commercialism, turn away for a moment.
I was going to put up the Babylon 5 link with yesterday’s post, until I realized I was talking about how the version of the DVD distributed by a major national chain comes with extra material, and putting up an Amazon link with that seemed…well, kind of silly. But, if you don’t care about the extra comic book, there’s a link for your convenience.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to fill up my site with Amazon ad after Amazon ad. I will use them once in a while, but I won’t overdo it, I promise. (I have another DVD in my possession at the moment that I’ll eventually discuss here, and that’s definitely getting an Amazon link posted with it, just out of sheer perversity).
And why the Popeye DVD link? I mean, aside from the fact that old Popeye cartoons are the Greatest Thing Ever? You’ll see in a moment.
One thing I’m glad about the San Diego Comic Con being over…that mad crunch of product being released over the last month in order to have it out for the show has finally lightened up a bit. Combined with the higher than usual number of “event” books and Big Releases, along with folks trying to get their books out before the end of the month so they wouldn’t be considered late and made returnable…our distributor bills were insane.
Luckily business has been pretty good, but still, those bills were reaching ’90s boom levels, almost.
In honor of the release of the original, wonderful Popeye cartoons on DVD, please enjoy Popeye Vs. Anime, a video you’ve already seen on Boingboing but I wanted to put here anyway:
I would note that Popeye seems a little out of character, as he would help anyone in need regardless of how freaky they may seem, but I don’t want to be that guy, you know?
