"Wherever bearded men in fezzes brandish daggers on riverbanks, Uncle Sam will be there to stop them!"
from National Comics #44 (Oct. 1944)
Just a little patriotic panelology for this post-Election Day.
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Just a little patriotic panelology for this post-Election Day.
Maybe you can’t vote for Swamp Thing, but get out there and vote anyway.
from Swamp Thing #113 (Nov. 1991)
by Nancy Collins, Tom Yeates & Shepherd Hendrix
I’m going to guess that Swamp Thing kickin’ it on the couch watching TV with Abby and their kid and their hippie friend is probably not what Wein and Wrightson imagined when they first created this character. But it’s great anyway.
Anyway, you Americans reading this, if you haven’t done so already, get out there and vote!
And remember: Papoon for President! He’s Not Insane!
This is the only issue of Cable that I have in my collection.
Cable #34 (August 1996) by Jeph Loeb & Ian Churchill
Bought only because it was crossing over with an issue of Incredible Hulk, which I’d been reading since 1983. Not because I had any particular interest in the X-Men “Onslaught” storyline. Not because I had any particular need to see Hulk fight Cable. But just because “hmmmm…issue #444 of Hulk is going to feature the second half of the story, so I guess I’d better buy Cable #34 to get the first half.”
And that’s how crossovers like this are supposed to work. Get the fan who only reads this title to try out that title, and maybe enough a small portion of those who did buy that title will like what they read, and keep buying it.
As you may have surmised from the title of this post, I didn’t keep buying Cable, though the comic was okay enough, I guess. It promised Cable fighting the Hulk, and it delivered Cable fighting the Hulk. In fact, it delivered more than that, since the X-Men’s Storm popped up, too. And it did have the nice touch of Cable fighting some of the different incarnations of the Hulk (“The Professor,” Gray Hulk, Savage Hulk) which was fun. There were also a couple of pages setting up a fight with X-Men villain Apocalypse in a future Cable issue, which didn’t have anything to do with the Hulk and Cable beating the tar out of each other, so, eh, didn’t care.
But the “first half of the story” I bought this for was, essentially, Hulk going after Cable on the behalf of this Onslaught cat. I think I probably could have gone into the Hulk half of this story cold, and understood that the first half of the story involved a fight of some kind. Frankly, you can go into most superhero comics cold and assume a fight lead into whatever it is you’re reading.
Anyway, I don’t tend to do that sort of thing — buying an issue of a comic I don’t normally read for a crossover — any more. I barely even did it then, in the mid ’90s. In fact, if it was any character other than the Hulk, I may have passed. If I miss a chapter of a story along the way…well, heck, I’ve read enough comics, I can probably fill in the blanks for myself. (“Hmmm…bet they fought in that chapter I missed.”)
There are one-off crossovers that I’d meant to buy but never got around to picking up. Like that one issue of Micronauts that follows up on a story in Fantastic Four. And I’m not saying I’d never follow a character into another title for a crossover story…I’d follow Swamp Thing to just about any comic, not that it’s, you know, been much of a problem lately. (And yes, I know about his appearances in that new Ambush Bug mini.)
So, in conclusion: Cable #34 – completely unnecessary to following the ongoing Hulk storylines of the time, but it was a fun all-fight issue and sometimes that’s enough. Didn’t need it, but I’m glad I own it.
In which Mike gets the response he least expected; plus other entertainments.
So yesterday I decided to e-mail someone at eBay anyway about the whole canceled auction thing I talked about in my last post. I didn’t anything to come of it, other than alleviating my need to say something to somebody there, even though I figured I’d get a canned response. Or, like the last time this happened to me, I’d just get the ol’ “too bad so sad” from whoever was in the office answering e-mails that day.
I e-mailed them, asking that since my Honk! auctions were canned for allegedly being “too mature” for the regular listings, if I could look forward to those other Honk! auctions from other sellers being pulled as well. And the response I got was…oops, sorry, we shouldn’t have canceled your auctions…that was our mistake, so we’re reinstating them.
Whoa. EBay totally admitted that they fouled up, and corrected the error. That was the absolute last response I expected. Now, it could be I just caught someone in the office on a good day, or the person answering actually read what I was saying and looked at the auctions in question instead of just cutting ‘n’ pasting from eBay’s policies, so I’m not expecting this to be the standard outcome when a similar situation occurs again. But it’s nice to know that it’s not entirely hopeless when it comes to getting someone there to reconsider a bad decision.
‘Course, I already sold the mags outside of eBay, but it’s the thought that counts. And I sold them to a regular reader, which is even better. Thanks to him, and again thanks to you folks for putting up with the commercial break.
Pal Scott mentioned in yesterday’s comments the follow-up magazine to Honk!, called Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, another comics anthology. He didn’t much care for it, and according to my records, I only have a couple of issues in the vast Mikester Comic Archives, so I guess I didn’t either. Which is odd, because looking at my collection I seem to have quite a few late ’80s/early ’90s magazine-sized comics anthologies from a variety of publishers. There was Buzzard from Cat-Head Comics, or the Drawn & Quarterly series, or Tundra’s Hyena. All good stuff…well, mostly good, all missed. That sure was a different time in the marketplace.
Employee Aaron went with friends to West Hollywood last night to celebrate Halloween, and aside from seeing men that Aaron quickly realized weren’t supposed to be dressed as Wildcat, he spotted one “Ted Kord as the Blue Beetle” costume and one person in a full-on Captain America outfit. To the latter Aaron said “I’m sorry for your loss,” but “Cap” didn’t get it or even hear it, apparently. Ah, well.
And Joker Costume Count: well, 6 or 7 or so, as Aaron reports not seeing anyone in the costume until later in the evening, when he saw a bunch of Jokers running around in a group, all in the Dark Knight nurse costume. Disturbing.
Another commercial announcement…
…hot on the heels of the Arlo-fest in the last post, but I just discovered that four issues of Fantagraphics’ Honk! mag that I listed on eBay were pulled, because they’re “Mature Material” and need to be listed in the naughty section. Well, as “Mature Material” goes, they’re pretty tame…considering at any given time, you can find Faust or Weirdo or even Eros Graphic Novels (EDIT: and even more aggravating, other copies of Honk! magazine) listed in the regular sections and eBay stores with nary a sign o’trouble.
So, fine, forget eBay…you folks wanna buy copies of Honk! magazine?
Click the thumbnails for larger pics…the majority of each issue’s contents are listed on the cover. 2 and 4 contain text pieces by Alan Moore. All mags average VG to VG/F. 3 has a 1/8 spine split at the spine’s top. 1 has a printing flaw causing some discolored spots along the spine. Each mag contains Big Laffs…only parting with ’em out of necessity, alas.
$5.00 each, plus $2.75 first class shipping. Two or more, it’s bumped up to $4.80 shipping. International shipping: $7.50 for one mag, $11.95 (or $9.95 Canada/Mexico) for 2-4 mags. I take the PayPal, as well as checks or money orders. Checks will have to clear first.
I only have one copy of each, so first come, first served. If you want ’em, just drop me a line at mikester (at) progressiveruin (dot) com, and I’ll send back details. Don’t use the comments section to request ’em…let’s save that for the folks rightfully taking me to task over this sales pitch.
(EDIT: They’re bought! Thanks for your patience, internet pals. I’ll leave this post up for the Honk! scans, in case anyone’s interested, and for my eBay griping…because, really, there just aren’t enough people complaining on the internet.)
Sorry again for the commercial announcement, but it was either this or me blowing my stack in an e-mail to eBay that’ll just get a canned response. KEEP MIKE FROM GIVING HIMSELF AN ANEURYSM…buy his comics!
It’s November, so you know what that means…
…it means Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant being played every day at the shop until Thanksgiving!
That sound you hear off in the distance is the employees shouting for sheer joy!
And you can play Alice’s Restaurant every day, too…if you don’t have it already, here you go:
That’s the original album on CD, the 30th anniversary rerecording of the album, the movie version (which I have to admit I haven’t seen yet, but will soon!), and that last link is to the MP3 version.
And for you folks what want it for free, here’s a performance on the YouTube from 2005. Enjoy, won’t you?
By the way:
HALLOWEEN JOKER COSTUME COUNT: 1 (which I saw at the end of the evening, when I dropped by the grocery store on my way home and saw a Joker wandering around the jams and jellies section)
Also…should’ve linked to this earlier, and I’m going to hear about it when I see him…but Pal Dorian‘s been doing Dario Argento Week, starting here and continuing over the next few days. Grand stuff, not for the squeamish.
