You’re all a bunch of sinners.
So this comic came out last week:
…which also happened to be the same week this comic came out:
We sold out of the former. We have yet to sell a single copy of the latter.
The theological implications are staggering.
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…which also happened to be the same week this comic came out:
We sold out of the former. We have yet to sell a single copy of the latter.
“I’ve got the GUNS!”
So there I was, helping a customer track down some back issues, when suddenly he asks me, “So…this is kind of a strange one, but do you have any…Mighty Mites?”
“Do I?” sez I, and I direct the gentleman not to our miscellaneous M section, not to our “black and white indies of the 1980s” section, but, by God, to our honest-to-goodness for real “Mighty Mites” section.
As I was going through these with the customer, I opened up one issue to check on its publication date for him…this issue, Mighty Mites Vol. 2 #2 (September 1987) in fact:
And what do I happen to find within?
A SWAMP THING PARODY I DID NOT PREVIOUSLY KNOW ABOUT:
“Sump Thing” shows up as an antagonist for the Mighty Mites, and along the way there are brief cameos from other stars of the 1980s black and white indie boon…like the Miami Mice, Boris the Bear, Cerebus, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and so on. However, there is an extended guest-appearance by another star of the ’80s scene, who pops in to save the day:
Yup, that’s Mr. Monster, drawn (and presumably dialoged) by Mike Gilbert, and lettered by regular Mr. Monster letterer Ken Bruzenak (and appear courtesy Eclipse Comics…thanks pals!) So that makes appearances of two characters (or parodies of characters) of interest to me that I had not known about for over 20 years. Well, better late than never, I suppose.
Coincidentally enough, the customer bought pretty much every issue except that particular one with the Swamp Thing parody. I swear I didn’t plead with him to not buy it.
Of extra interest to Swamp Thing fans is the included riff on the “battle” Swamp Thing and his allies had with…well, the giant Embodiment of Evil from issue #50. Like Swampy and pals in that issue, the Mites find themselves trapped within Sump Thing’s body, attempting to explain to the creature what its purpose is. Sort of a moot point, since (SPOILER) Sump Thing gets totally smoked by Mr. Monster’s big guns.
The saddest picture of all time.
Yours truly, unshaven, in his red shirt, with his Red Lantern ring, taking pictures of old Star Wars action figures from the backroom using his makeshift “art studio” (two magazine boxes arranged to make a white background).
This is how the eBay magic happens, people.
(Photo by Employee Aaron, who will pay for this someday.)
Sluggo Saturday #53.
IS IN THE OTHER DIRECTION
from The Best of Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy (1988) – thanks to pal Andres
Nobody loves the Copperhead action figure.
So no less than THREE current and former employees had this to say upon seeing the Copperhead action figure…without having heard the others say these things, by the way:
- “Copperhead? Really?”
- “Is he a member of [G.I. Joe’s counterpart terrorist organization] Cobra?”
End result: I had to kill all three of them. Sometimes it’s best.
Don’t know why Copperhead stood out so much…I thought it was more strange that you just had a random member of the Metal Men (Iron) in the assortment. Did get a few comments about the Desaad figure in the assortment, though, which isn’t nearly as disturbing as the Super Powers version from the ’80s, but still…”enjoy your action figure of a sadistic torturer, kids!”
Also of note, the Mary Marvel figure in the set is named “Mary Batson,” because of, well, you know, the whole Marvel Comics thing. (Like that set of SHAZAM figures from DC Direct a while back, with “Captain, Jr.” an’ all). Plus, if you get all the figures, each package has a piece o’Darkseid that you can assemble: you can see some of the figures and the fully-assembled Darkseid here.
The figures come with some pinback buttons featuring oddly-cropped cover images of classic, and not-so-classic, DC Comics (though the one I saw of this cover wasn’t too bad). Those pins weren’t nuthin’ on the pins Employee Aaron and I made a while back.
Yup. Those were some good pins we made. Too bad Aaron had to die.
So I’ve been waiting for a collection of this story for about 25 years.
At long, long last, the entire “Metamorphosis Odyssey,” Jim Starlin’s serialized space opera from the early issues of Epic Illustrated, is now under one cover. Well, it had been reprinted before, but…um, not very well, shall we say, and let’s leave it at that. But this version includes the color on the pages that originally were in color, and hasn’t also been relettered with extra typos, so there you go.
“Metamorphosis Odyssey” was one of my favorite stories as a teenaged Mikester…a sprawling space adventure with lots of oddball characters and a slightly whacked-out cosmic plot and with a solution to the heroes’ problems that is, perhaps, a tad on the extreme side. (You can read the plot summary here if you want to know what I’m talking about.) Anyway, it’s nice to have it all under one cover, since I’m too lazy to dig out the Epics whenever I want to reread it.
The book also includes the two graphic novels The Price (introducing Dreadstar supporting character Syzygy Darklock) and Dreadstar, as well as the one-off story from a later Epic introducing Willow. The stories are as they originally appeared…any black and white pages in the stories aren’t colorized, and The Price is the original version, not the slightly censored version that appeared in Dreadstar Annual #1. Yes, that means there’s no smoke obscuring your cat-god penis, in case you were concerned. And I know you were.
I keep hoping Starlin will return to the Dreadstar universe someday, if only just to wrap the whole thing up once and for all, but in the meantime, I’m glad I finally was able to get a collection of that serial. And to think the only reason I got into Dreadstar in the first place was because Berni(e) Wrightson did a back-up story in issue #6, causing me to pick it up, and I ended up enjoying the lead story as well.
Oh, and someone tell Dynamite it’s “Vanth Dreadstar,” not “Vance” — easy enough mistake to make, but still.
In other news:
- Matt Digges tells his side of the story re: Free Comic Book Day. Includes a comic strip!
- As I originally noted here, some of my fellow Bureau Chiefs, the folks what are behind Fake AP Stylebook, went to a conference in Massachusetts, and Dave and Andrew were Bad Enough Dudes to bring back photos and reports of their experiences.
- Who gets the chicks? Hank McCoy gets the chicks. And how.
And then there was that time Bill (reportedly) saw a UFO.
From a 1974 UFO magazine article about celebrity sightings of things…not of this world.
Your pal Mike needs a day off…
…because he’s been busy with things and, you know, stuff. As such, I’m calling a “time out” for today, and will instead suggest you go read Max Huffman’s Mocktopus Comics, because they’re fantastic. This one is still my favorite. Plus, the kid’s only, like, sixteen years old. When I was sixteen, I was still trying to work out “left” and “your other left.”
Anyway, go read his comic, and also feel free to berate me for my laziness in the comments section here.
“He believes in direct action!”
AND THEN…
WITHOUT WARNING…
TO SUM UP…
from Love Diary #43 (April / May 1966)
And so ends another Free Comic Book Day.
So there I was, in the midst of Free Comic Book Day at the shop, processing more comics for distribution to the teeming masses and feeling the rest of my hair go gray, when up comes Matt Digges, the artist fella from the world’s greatest webcomic about an awesome hospital, Awesome Hospital. In his hands was an envelope which he hands to me, saying “this is in appreciation for all the hard work you put into Free Comic Book Day.” I said “uh, thanks!” perhaps a bit hesitantly because 1) what was in the envelope? Whaaat? 2) I actually didn’t recognize Mr. Digges, as it’d been a while since the last time I’d seen him, and when it comes to faces, I have the memory of a goldfish that’s been smacked in the head with a crowbar a few times.
Anyway, here is what was in the envelope…a piece of original Matt Digges art, which looks a little something…like this:
In case you need a little context, here you go.
A big thanks to Matt for this great piece of art! To think that before I came along, hardly anyone had thought about any kind of conjunction between Swamp Thing and the Nancyverse. And now, here we are.
What a world.
As for the rest of our Free Comic Book Day…in past FCBDs, when we opened our doors in the morning, sometimes it would take about an hour or so for the crowds to really start pouring in, which would make me nervous for a few minutes: “oh, man, nobody’s coming in, we’re doomed.” But yesterday, as soon as kicked the door open, the store was almost immediately filled with people. And it pretty much stayed that way ’til the late afternoon, with the exception of one ten or fifteen minute lull where the store was strangely empty.
Ultimately, we gave away a ton of comics, sold a bunch of product, and once again made back our costs and then some. And, most importantly, made a bunch of folks very happy!
I had this conversation more than once:
(Customer with bags of free comics in hand) “So, wait, these are free?”
(Me) “Yup. All free.”
(Customer) “Wait…all them? All these here, that I’m carrying.”
(Me, looking to make sure there aren’t any non-FCBD books): “Yes, those are all free.”
(Customer) “Whoa. Far out, man.”
Very special thanks to Employee Aaron’s girlfriend Kempo, who was a trooper, hanging out all day and running Free Comic Central, the tables from which customers picked up their free books. And to Andres, who stuck around for a couple of hours and helped me process some of the FCBD books into age-appropriate bags for distribution. And to Official Store Cook Dana, who brought us cookies, and to Jorean, for filling in for Kempo briefly so the poor girl could get a break. And to Sam, who performed the occasional miscellaneous store duty so we didn’t have to.
A big thank you goes to customers Rob and Dave, along with known child associates Spenser and Morgan, who made the trip from the far-off and nigh-mythical land of Bakersfield just to enjoy FCBD at our shop. That’s quite the trip, and I certainly appreciate their business. (Yes, “business.” They bought stuff!)
So that was our Free Comic Book Day…nothing unusual (well, aside from that pic above), just busy busy busy.
How was your FCBD experience?
