A handful of random observations.
- Going through a few of my bookmarked sites…there sure are a lot of dead comic blogs I still have in my bookmark file. A whole lot of ’em kicked the bucket in the 2006/2007 range, it seems, with a few actually wrapping things up with a “goodbye” post, and a bunch with the “sorry about the lack of updates, we’ll be back soon!” messages that are pretty much the same thing as a “goodbye” post. And of course there’s one or two that just end abruptly…just a post as usual, then pffft, gone.
Well, I promise that should I ever stop posting on this site, I’ll give you a final “goodbye” message. I won’t leave you hanging. Unless, of course, I’m hit by a truck or taken out by a meteorite or something, in which case you’ll all just have to
make fun ofmourn me in the comments section of my last post. And hopefully, it won’t be one of my more embarrassing posts, like a picture of me with a shaggy beard and posing with an iPad or anything.I’ve no intention of ending the site any time soon, just so you know. I mean, at some point I’ll wise up and stop posting on a daily basis, but nope, I’m still stupid and doing this every single day…especially since I’m so close to a seven year run of daily posts.
…
Oh, Good Lord.
- A few days back, I noted that Neilalien was looking for comic book limericks…well, actually, he’s specifically looking for Dr. Strange-related limericks, and he’s already posted a few, mostly filthy dirty filthy, ones on his site. Well, that makes me feel a little silly for sending him one that 1) wasn’t even vaguely racy, and 2) about a comic book character that wasn’t Dr. Strange. Whoops.
- Spent a good chunk of Saturday going through our miscellaneous indie titles boxes, containing lots of small press, short run books that only had a few issues, or from a publisher that only published that one title, or what have you. Aside from coming across the occasional comic with a price tag featuring the handwriting of an employee who hasn’t worked here since ’97, I came across a copy of a comic called Blade, that sadly I did not bring home to scan the cover, especially since the Grand Comic Database only has the second issue, and it looks like it’s up to me to complete that GCD entry on the series.
Anyway, Employee Aaron and I were kind of poking through this issue, being amazed and amused at just how violent it is, and at how 90% of the book is dialogue-sparse, but the last page is nearly all word-balloons, a giant exposition dump.
Oh, and it’s all drawn by Tony Harris, who’s definitely come a long way.
- This is neat: Kevin Church wrote up a Guide to The Rack, with links to key installments of the strip. He was also nice enough to specify my involvement in the development of the comic’s most horrifying character.
- Hearing some comments from the customers about there being too many Avengers titles. Not angry or upset or anything…just a sort of…bemusement and a feeling of non-surprise that this is what Marvel is doing with the relaunch. Going to have to keep a close eye on how sales go on them.
- Kind of getting flooded with all the $1 sampler books DC, Marvel and Image are churning out. And some odd things are getting reprinted: sure, we can always use more Chew #1s, but not terribly sure we needed that reprint of the Free Comic Book Day Spider-Man. Ah, well, we can always give ’em away next FCBD. Or build a fort out of them.
- Lots of requests lately for just plain ol’ logo t-shirts, particularly for Superman and Green Lantern, who, I understand, ain’t got nothing on me. Okay, I should probably edit that out, but I’m not going to.
- Had a customer ask about a 3-D Plastic Man comic that he remembered from his childhood in the 1950s. Anyone know of such a thing? I did some quick searches here an’ there in my usual online funnybook resource haunts, and came up with nada. If you have any info, please let me know, internet pals!
I assume you have a preference for the Grand Comicbook Database over Comic Book DB (http://comicbookdb.com)? I’ve found the latter more useful, myself.
The earliest 3D comics that I’m aware of are from the 1980’s where a few places printed a red and blue offset image to be viewed through the usual glasses. It’s possible that something was printed as a kind of tie in to the plastic man cartoon from that period which makes me wonder if the customer was off on his dates.
As a 3d comic collector, I can tell you that the first ever 3d comic was a Mighty Mouse comic from 1953. It hit the stands just before the Three Stooges comic that you see erroneously listed as the first. My collection is nowhere near complete (a couple hundred at best) but I have never run into anything with Plastic Man yet unless he shows up in one of those DC ones from the late 90’s. I would suggest getting in touch with Ray Zone, if anyone knows for sure it would be him. http://www.ray3dzone.com/ . I’ve used his knowledge for years in tracking down comics and to help make lists. I am also unaware of any 3d issues published by Quality Comics during the 1950’s. There were other stretchy heroes around, maybe it was one of them.
The saddest blog is Mike Wieringo’s, with the last update 2 days before he died, and absolutely no idication of his status nearly 3 years since his death.
Still going strong, thank you very much…. but I have the good sense to take weekends off. If I put it upon myself to do every day, I’d have a nervous breakdown…. or a ghost writer…. or the Ghost Rider writing my blog, since he seems to have a lot of time on his hands these days.
I agree…. if people tune in to read, it’s only polite to let them know there won’t be any future posts and to say a proper good-bye and thank you for their interest.