...but that can wait for later. Instead, have a pic of pissed-off Galactus:
from Fantastic Four #123 (June 1972) by Stan Lee, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott
I don't know that Galactus is my
favorite Marvel character, but he's certainly in the top five...along with Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Dr. Doom, and the Thing. If there were a comic that teamed up all five characters for an exciting "novel-length 18-page adventure," I'd be all over it.
from Star Trek #25 (July 1974) - scan courtesy of Kevin Church,
so I didn't have to bust the spine on my copy of Enterprise Logs #3 to get the pic
Or maybe Spock was simply trying to fit in, and he was doing this completely insincere and creepy robotic laugh to show Kirk that he was totally down with his Earth humor based on embarrassment and humiliation.
At any rate, I certainly hope Scotty reported this to Space Human Resources. Or kept this little incident in mind the next time Kirk hit him up for some hooch.
So my dad was cleaning his garage and found a few old boxes of my stuff, and he gave me call and asked me to come by and pick 'em up if I wanted them. Mostly it was a bunch of old books (which doesn't surprise me) and binders of trading cards (which DID surprise me, since I thought I had them all at my house, but apparently were stored there during one of my moves years ago).
Anyway, I brought the boxes back home and started sorting through them...and found a few things of interest. For example, I totally thought I'd long ago sold off those
Doctor Who books I mentioned in
this post, but nope -- here they are:
Well, that's a picture of a couple of them, anyway. There were about a dozen in one of these boxes, but it seemed like I had a lot more of these at the time. Heck, maybe I do...there're still quite a few boxes left to go through in my parents' garage. I think I'm going to give some of these a quick rereading now that I'm a little more up on my Who.
Another book I found was this slim volume of
Star Trek stories from 1982:
"Travel with your favorite Star Trek II characters into six new and original short stories written especially for you!" ...For me? Aw, you
shouldn't have! I like how it's specifically Star Trek
II stories, since, you know, the movie an' all. I suppose the stories take place in more or less the same timeframe, but a quick flip-through doesn't reveal anything
specifically tied to the second film (like any mentions of Khan or Saavik or anything). I could be wrong.
The back cover does have this great shot of Scotty and his mesmerizing Space Moustache:
GAZE INTO MY MOUSTACHE AND KNOW FEARHad a handful of books like these in the boxes as well:
Man, I sure liked reading about video games. Now, I wasn't one of those kids who obsessed about getting high scores and perfecting my gameplay or anything. I just
liked reading about video games, about the mechanics of the games, about games on other systems, about arcade games I haven't seen yet, and so on. Still do, in fact...a link to this
very technically detailed examination of Pac Man made the rounds again recently, and I found myself sucked into it again.
So, yeah, I've got a few of these books floating around in my possession. I'm looking forward to rereading these now that I've got them in my hands again.
Okay, now for some of the trading cards...there were about a half dozen thick binders of these, which included all my Marvel Universe cards, my Death of Superman set, the first TSR Dungeons & Dragons set (not quite sure why I have those), and many others. I can see why I had most of the sets in these binders, but I really have no idea why I have a full set of
Home Improvement cards:
I mean, I liked the show and all, but still...seriously, how does a thing like this happen?
I even have a full set of the special removable "static cling" cards:
Hmmm..."Big Tool." Yeah, I think that's a fairly good self-assessment. I was really into the trading card thing at one point in my life, and there was a time or two when I didn't show a whole lot of...discretion, shall we say.
However, I have absolutely no regrets about owning these:
Superman III trading cards, baby. A full set,
including stickers. I can feel your jealousy over the intertubes.
And one more item from Mike's Boxes of Mystery: I realize this may slightly contradict my previous claim that I wasn't a video game score hound, but, you know, Activision used to offer prizes for people who scored a certain number of points (or otherwise achieved some specific goal) on their games, and if I managed to get that score, I certainly wanted my prize. Usually it was a sew-on patch (and I collected...and still have...a few of those), but for their
Stampede game, you still got a patch, but you also got one of these:
That would be a genuine metal Stampede buckle, my friends, still in the original cellophane wrapper. The 40 year old me is thinking "put this on eBay," but the 12 year old me is saying "PUT THAT BAD BOY ON A BELT."
I think the 12 year old me is going to win.
This was a promo giveaway for the
Legion of Super-Heroes, 1st reboot version, from 1997. The sheet is 5 inches by 8 inches, with each sticker about an inch on each side, and drawn by (I think) Jeffrey Moy.
You know, looking at this...I kinda miss Gates (fifth row down, second from right), though he's been popping up in the kinda missing-in-action
Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds mini-series. (Speaking of which...how weird is that going to look on the rack when the next issue comes out? It's almost going to be like seeing a new comic with the old "Atlantis Attacks!" crossover banner on it.)
Also, that Proty sticker in the lower left hand corner? I think you'll agree with me that it's completely awesome.
Visually it's a very striking, very attractive film, and the performances are very much of the Adam West "play it straight to enhance the hilarity" school of thought, with the possible exception of Samuel Jackson, who seemed intent on sinking his teeth into every piece of scenery that came within reach. The dialogue is pulpier than a pulpy thing filled with pulp, but that fit right in with the general over-the-top goofy tone of the film. It's Frank Miller's Spirit, not Will Eisner's, obviously, but hell, it kept my attention and it made me laugh. And that initial fight scene between the Octopus and the Spirit was a hoot. Toilets
are always funny.
So, yeah, I liked it quite a bit. Let the
admonishments begin.
