At least it’s not another hardcover.
JohnJ dares to inquire
“You didn’t mention Swamp Thing: Tales from the Bayou which collects all the new Swmapy material from those Walmart exclusives along with a few other things. Maybe you were waiting for a full entry just about it?”
If I didn’t mention it in my End of Civilization post, it’s probably just because I didn’t immediately have a joke (or, rather, a “joke”) come to mind as I was frenetically paging through Previews. But, oh yes, I’m definitely aware of it, and will certainly order a copy or four for myself.
As JohnJ said, Swamp Thing: Tales from the Bayou trade paperback (cover image above) does indeed collect together those new stories from the sevenSwamp Thing Giants that were theoretically found within Walmarts across the country with the apparent exception of the four stores in my immediate area, of course. But it also contains the short Swampy tales from the Winter Special, Swamp Thing Halloween Horror (another Walmart exclusive giant) and the Young Monsters in Love one-shot.
Interestingly, the recent Swamp Thing hardcover Roots of Terror, which is still in print and available, also collects the stories from the Winter Special, Halloween Giant and Young Monsters in Love. However, Bayou does not have the story from Cursed Comics Cavalcade which Roots does.
So, while I must have this trade to get those elusive Swamp Thing Giant stories, it is just a little annoying that they’re doubling up on reprints on that other material, instead of just doing, I don’t know, a thinner trade or a two-part comic book sized reprinting like Batman Universe etc. But I guess I’m tripling up on some of this material since I do own some of it in its original form, so I, the Guy Who Owns Like Two Dozen Reprints of House of Secrets #92, am not really in a position to grouse.
Still waiting for Superman #16 from Walmart so I can start ignoring the display. Out of all of them, I only missed one issue way back in month 5.
Also wanted to mention, I’ve been watching dvds of Doom Patrol season 1 and the f-bombs are slightly less than the Titans. I think the actors are even noticing since in episode 10 Cliff Steele actually says “What the hell?” once. Maybe that’s what Fraser said to the writers?
And to be extra goofy, there’s a gag reel where the swears are bleeped and little Robotman heads cover the lips of the speakers. Don’t want to offend lip readers?
On that subject of covering the speaker’s mouth when bleeping naughty words, I am reminded of the Tony Awards broadcast the year AVENUE Q was up for Best Musical.
Facts you need to know here about AVENUE Q: 1. Most of the characters are puppets, and the puppeteers appear on-stage. There is no crouching down behind desks. 2. It is a very risque play, with many naughty words.
So, the Tony Awards ceremony always includes a song from each of the Best Musical nominees. For AVENUE Q, this was “It Sucks to Be Me,” in which one of the puppets shouts the f-word. CBS not only bleeped the word, but put a bar over the shouter’s mouth. Over the puppet’s mouth, that is. You could still clearly see the puppeteer saying the word.
I’m trying to imagine the behavior so rude that you never again go into any establishment selling the same item. “I haven’t stopped for gas since the way they treated me at that Exxon back in ’95!”