Mikester

Holiday Hiatus #1 – Swamp Thing versus a car.

filed under Categories low content mode, swamp thing 3 Comments


Your pal Mike needs to recharge his batteries something fierce, so it’s gonna be Low Content Mode on the site through the end of the year. But it’s Low Content Mode with Swamp Thing, so hopefully that’ll be okay.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and hopefully with the New Year will come a newly-refreshed Mike.
 

image from Saga of the Swamp Thing #1 (May 1982) by Marty Pasko and Tom Yeates

So just before Stanley and his Monster debuted in Fox and the Crow #95…

filed under Categories brat finks, low content mode 5 Comments

…the Brat Finks were already there, beating Stanley and said monster by one issue:


Okay, that panel actually is from #95, and not their first appearance, but I was collecting SAHM stories, not Brat Finks stories, so I don’t have #94 in the Vast Mikester Comic Archives.

…Mostly I’m just posting this here for the sheer 1960s-ness of the title “Brat Finks.” Also, for that one Brat Fink wielding the axe:


Out of context like that, we’re just one brief leap away from a funny animal EC horror comic. Tales from the Habitrail, with your host The Old Hamster Wheel Keeper.

…Sorry, gang, I think Christmas is getting to me.

 

image from Fox and the Crow #95 (December 1965/January 1966)

I don’t know why I’m fascinated with the existence of Spanner’s Galaxy…

filed under Categories low content mode, spanner's galaxy 9 Comments


…other than being a fun oddball superhero sci-fi mini-series published by DC in the mid-1980s. There were a fair number of these from DC at the time, like Atari Force (nominally a tie-in to the video game company, but ended up being an imaginative and exciting adventure series beautifully drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Eduardo Barreto) and Sun Devils (Dan Jurgens’ space opera, characters from which appeared in later Superman comics, if I remember correctly).

No point to this really, other than a brief twinge of nostalgia for when DC would publish comics like these, not under a separate imprint like Vertigo or Helix, not as any kind of spin-off or tie-in to a superhero comic…just short runs of strange sci-fi or fantasy stories (or, rather superhero comics with sci-fi or fantasy trappings) that were here, told their stories, and were gone.
 

from Spanner’s Galaxy #1 (December 1984) by Nicola Cuti & Tom Mandrake

No post today.

filed under Categories low content mode 7 Comments

…Yeah, I know, I suck. Sorry, it’s just been one of those weeks so far, and it’s only…about five minutes past midnight on Tuesday as I write this? Urgh.

Anyway, I am going to get to the New 52 comments eventually, I promise, and I’m working on other site content-type stuff, so I’m not going anywhere. But, you know…Christmastime abhors a vacuum, and my free time has been pretty much shot for the next day or three. I’ll be back up to speed eventually, but for the time being…please have some patience, and sorry for the lack of real, or at least coherent, content.

…Er, yeah. No post today. See you tomorrow, with any luck.

So I don’t even know why I do this to myself.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, publishing, reader participation, superman 4 Comments

I suppose I should probably get around to discussing your responses to my inquiry about how folks feel regarding DC’s New 52 initiative. …Especially since, thanks to Jim, we’re up to 52 comments! Coincidence? …Nah.

I’m probably going to go through over the next day or so and respond more thoroughly to specific comments, but the first thing that I noticed was that a few people are not entirely thrilled with Action Comics thus far, citing plot or art concerns. And, I can understand that….

A PROGRESSIVE RUIN ACTION ALERT! Okay, I just deleted several rambling paragraphs about changes to the Superman franchise and how this new status quo may be interfering with Morrison’s storytelling, or at least reader interaction with same, and blah blah blah you can read what I already wrote about some of my disconnect with this New 52 Superman here. In essence, I think Morrison may have been better served picking up from where the previous Superman creative teams left off, and just telling crazy new stories with the franchise’s toys (like he did with his New X-Men run) without having to deal with these editorially-mandated alterations. Of course, “Superman’s New Costumes!” gets more real world media attention than “Mad Scottish Writer Takes Over Superman, Vows Revenge” so that probably wasn’t going to happen.

Anyway, a lot of what I wrote felt awfully dismissive of people’s reactions to the actual plotting and pacing of the stories, which I totally wasn’t intending to do, so out all that went. I do think there’d be less of a disconnect if it were stories about the Superman we knew and not the post-Flashpoint version, but that wouldn’t necessarily address any storytelling concerns folks might have. I mean, I like Morrison’s Action quite a bit, and it’s selling very well for us, but I can see where people might not be so into it. “‘Your mileage may vary,’ he clichéd.”

I do admit that I’m not sure I like how Jimmy Olsen is being drawn in Action. I prefer the “Representational Archie Andrews” version of the character.

Urgh. My struggling over even that bit of incoherent weblogging took up all my ProgRuin time tonight, and then some, so I’ll get to your specific comments and such tomorrow. Especially those terrible, terrible things being said about Swamp Thing.

…Yes, today’s post was bit of a carwreck. Please enjoy its flaming glory, and I’ll see you tomorrow.