Cut-ups and questions.
I know, I’ve talked about this before, but I was preparing a bunch of these cards for the eBay, and I was struck by it again. Now, most of the costume cards we get nowadays are from recent shows…you get a costume (generally a shirt or a pair of pants) worn by Supporting Actor #2 or Guest Actor or, even sometimes, the Lead Actor in one episode or ‘nother, chop it up, glue the pieces into these extree-thick trading cards, and disperse them out to the non-sport trading card masses.
When they do this to costumes from recent shows and movies, it doesn’t seem so tragic. But when they do it to a thirty year old costume like Lt. Ilia’s up there, taken from a…well, I hesitate to call Star Trek: The Motion Picture a classic, but we all know it, I’m sure the majority of you folks reading this have seen at least a bit of it, and we all recognize Persis Khambatta and her bald head and her gray uniform. So this costume, a recognizable piece of film history (to overstate it only slightly) has been sitting around in storage since the late ’70s, only to be pulled and and cut up and distributed on trading cards. That seems a little sad to me…sure, it’s neat that the fans can get a piece of something that appeared in a movie they liked, but I think I’d rather have seen that costume (and the other costumes destroyed for this set) remain intact.
Then again, that’s easy for me to say. I didn’t have to store these costumes for thirty years. Not everything is meant to be kept around forever.
And while I say it seems less tragic to do this to costumes from newer shows, who knows? Maybe in thirty years fans will look back on what we were getting up to today and exclaim “I can’t believe they cut up Buffy’s Doublemeat Palace pants for trading cards! What a loss to television history!”
Okay, that’s a bit of a bummer, so here’s something we can all enjoy: a signature card from the guy who played Young Spock in Star Trek III:
A few follow-up response to comments left recently:
“So is there any bit of that Elseworlds 80 Page Giant that hasn’t been reprinted somewhere by now?”
Well, I took a quick look at the Wikipedia listing of contents, and I think of the stories listed, only Superman’s Babysitter story and the Super Sons story escaped their pulping fate. As far as I know, anyway…if I missed one, let me know.
“Just out of curiosity, how are back-issue sales on the first dozen Original Watchmen comics?”
So far, not too much action. Right now people are just interested in reading the story, so they’re going for the trades. However, as the movie approaches, people will start asking for copies of the comics for “investment potential” and such, much like how we were wiped out of every copy of Amazing Spider-Man #252 (1st black costume) prior to the third Spider-Man flick. As you can infer from my statements yesterday, none of this demand will continue past the film’s release.
Joe G. relates:
“It made me wonder just how many hardcore, long time comics readers have never bothered with Watchmen and that’s why it keeps selling.”
And that’s something I need to remember when I think “how can there be anyone who hasn’t yet read Watchmen?” Not everyone has been buying and reading comics for 30+ years like I have. Some people new to the hobby just haven’t got around to it. Some people old to the hobby haven’t got around to it. Some people in the hobby were born long after Watchmen was completed. There’s still plenty of potential audience for the book within the hobby, as baffling as that may seem, but that’s good. I’ll be happy to sell it to them.
LaRue wonders
“Was that issue with Arcane as a half-spider strangling Swamp-Thing on the cover part of the Pasko era?”
Yes…that would be issue #19 of Saga of the Swamp Thing, which was Pasko’s last on the series. That issue is also discussed in my old post about comic book Easter eggs.
And Jack T. asks
“where can I get more Herbie? ????”
Well, I can point you in the direction of this post at Again with The Comics, with a full Herbie story, but since he was linked by Boing Boing, I suspect you already know about that.
As for actual reprints…well, a few years back A+ Comics published several black and white comics reprinting Herbie stories in no particular order, and of varying printing quality. But it was better than (a fat little) nothing.
And Dark Horse attempted a 10(?) issue color mini-series reprinting classic Herbie tales along with new Herbie back-up stories by current creators. Alas, only two issues made it out the door, and the series was canned.
I should also note Herbie guest-starred in issue #31 of Flaming Carrot. If anyone can “get” Herbie, it’s FC’s creator Bob Burden.
A full chronological reprinting of all of Herbie’s adventures, recolored, on nice paper, perhaps in Archive-style format, would be ideal, if perhaps nearly, but not quite, as unlikely as that long-awaited Absolute Edition Sonic Distruptors hardcover and slipcase, complete with unpublished ending. But someday, perhaps…someday.
