Mikester

In which I link to a couple of my old posts while talking about a few of this week’s comics.

filed under Categories this week's comics 8 Comments

There may be a few SPOILERS ahead…check with a doctor before proceeding:

  • Dungeons & Dragons #2 – I haven’t checked…any beholders in this issue? Anyone? …Anyone?

  • Oh, hello there, three Green Lantern comics in one week. The main title, Green Lantern, reintroduces one of my favorite GL villains…one that I initially encountered when I first got into the character, decades ago, so it’s good to see him back. Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #5 has that wonderful blood-spewing cover I End-of-Civilizationed a few months back, and you can’t say the interior doesn’t deliver on the promise of that image. I haven’t read the Green Lantern/Plastic Man team-up comic yet, but it’s by Marv Wolfman and Brent Anderson, and it teams up Green Lantern and Plastic Man…unless it actually explodes into flames in my hands, I expect I’ll probably enjoy this.

  • Time Masters: Vanishing Point #5 – And hello there, surprise end-of-story villain reveal right there on the cover! I don’t know if it’s more annoying that his appearance is spoiled on the cover, or that despite being on the cover, he doesn’t do much more than show up in time for a “to be CONCLUDED” at the comic’s end.

    Okay, it’s not really a spoiler for anyone who read the original solicitation, announcing his presence in the comic, but that solicit kinda implies more than a meet ‘n’ greet, y’know?

    (Still not as bad a spoiler cover as this.)

  • Green Hornet #11 – Don’t really have anything to say about the comic, but have I mentioned that I seem to be the only person on the planet who thinks this forthcoming Green Hornet movie looks like it might be kind of fun? I mean, that’s okay if I think that, right?

  • Strange Tales 2 #3 – The story written by the late Harvey Pekar made me sad. Sorta caught me by surprise…I’d forgotten he was going to have anything in this issue. Totally picked the perfect character to write about, too. And it was nice that they dedicated the issue to him. Also, Ivan Brunetti’s cover, featuring all your favorite Marvel characters, is pretty great.

  • So I’m gonna pull Black Panther: Man Without Fear #513 for all our comic saver customers who get Daredevil, and hope they don’t decide to drop the book now that Daredevil isn’t in it. …Or is he in it? He’s on the cover, sorta. But his name’s not in the title, so I’m expecting numbers on this book to dip down to where Black Panther usually sells. Not that Daredevil was doing all that great in the first place…#512 kinda gathered dust, for some reason.

  • John Byrne’s Next Men #1 – Man, that was a lotta recap. Well, it has been, what, fifteen years at least since it’s been on the stands? Anyway, wasn’t bad, but will likely just sell to the few remaining people in the comics marketplace who remember reading the series the first time around.

    Is there anyone out there reading this post for whom this new issue was their first exposure to John Byrne’s Next Men? Let me know…I’m curious what you thought of it.

  • Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 3 TPB – Oh, man, they’re reprinting those post-Crisis issues of GL by Englehart and Staton, with the introduction of Kilowog and the arrival of Ch’p and Arisia and the rest of the GL Get-Along Gang on Earth. I hope they end up reprinting the entire run, because it’s awesomely bonkers (and the post at that link doesn’t even start to get into the crazy stuff).

  • Superman #706 – It’s Perry White Vs. That Newfangled Internet News Blogging All The Kids Are Into, in a comic that probably works better than it really should. The art’s a bit awkward, the resolution a bit pat, but it does touch upon something a little ethically untenable regarding the Superman milieu. The plot revolves around a popular blogger questioning the Planet’s relationship with Superman, and where it’s a bit inappropriate and…unprofessionally intimate, especially where Lois Lane’s concerned. And we watch Perry try to resolve this mess, while we, the reader, realize…uh, that blogger’s kinda onto something, with, um, that whole “Clark Kent works for the Planet, is married to Lois, writes stories about Superman, and, oh, right, is also Superman” kind of thing.

    Of course, this will go the way of the whole Clark Kent’s unused passport boondoggle and that’ll be that. Phew, close one, Clark!

So if Zeus comes at you while wearing a green jogging suit, sock him right in the beard.

filed under Categories advertising 12 Comments


1. “Completion certificate may be awarded.” “May.” “Whether you complete the training or not” feels very implied, here.

2. “This is the AMERICAN WAY not oriental.” I…um, oh dear.

3. I’m assuming the name “Americo” is a play on “judo.” Take that, Juds!

EDIT: 4. It seems pal Andrew covered the same ad in his own inimitable way a few years back. Recommended reading!

classified ad from DC Comics (November 1984)

From someone else’s backroom of misfit toys.

filed under Categories misfit toys 10 Comments

So I was doing my usual retail tour in my not-yet-panicking-but-soon rounds of Christmas shopping, and I made one of my two-or-three times yearly visits to the local giant toy store franchise. And of course, I found myself by that one shelf in the action figure aisle set aside for those toys forgotten by both God and man…prices usually slashed, sometimes not (though the price cut is inevitable, as the dust piles upon them, the packages worn from handling). Here are a few that caught my eye:

Hellboy II: Princess Nuala:


That was the first one to grab my attention. There sure were a lot of these on the shelves (along with one figure of that goblin in the cart). Nicely done action figure, but overlooked in favor of Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and the other monster figures, I’m guessing. Or just overproduced for assortments.

Heroes: Exploding Man Peter:


Handful of these warming the pegs…good luck moving this hideous thing now that the series has been over for a year, and not liked for nearly four years.

The Jonah Hex movie action figures:


Surprisingly, there were a bunch of the Megan Fox figures on the shelves, and only a couple of the Jonah Hex and Turnbull. These figures didn’t look too bad, actually…unlike the movie, which was too long even at 72 minutes.

The Spirit – The Octopus action figure:


As the only person on the planet who liked the movie, that essentially makes me the one-man target audience for this action figure, and I still didn’t buy it. But it’s pretty amazing, I have to admit.

Watchmen Kubrick sets:


Two sets, three figures each, $19.99 a pop. Dr. Manhattan sees a price reduction in these items’ futures.

And this next item wasn’t a leftover toy, I don’t think…it was on the shelf facing the previous toys, and looked like it was still part of an active line. I’d known about it, but this was the first time I’d seen in person the giant f’-off Marvel Universe Galactus figure:


It’s ginormous, stupid, and beautiful, all at the same time. It’s also fifty bones, which, alas, I wasn’t about to drop when I’m shopping for presents for other folks.

Other figures from the land of unloved toys: a bunch of Prince of Persia figures, from a film which is pretty much done and gone now; those 3 1/2 inch figures from the Star Trek reboot movie, which seem so quaint and backwards now that most figures are larger and more detailed; and the Tron: Legacy figures, which…whoops, sorry, those weren’t on the close-out shelves. Getting ahead of myself, there.

For those of you still looking for that perfect Christmas gift.

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The upraised red-colored fist and the red star seem at odds with the overtly-capitalist “MAKE $$$” blurb, but who am I to judge?

And how would you make money with it, anyway? “Hold on, let me untwist that bottlecap for you!” [one bionically untwisted bottlecap later] “That’ll be $1.50, please.” Or extortion, of course: “Give me your money or you’ll get such a bionic tweak!”

I wonder what this actually was. It was only a buck back in 1977, which I realize is the equivalent of, what, $1300 today (well, okay, about three and a half bucks), which wouldn’t cover the cost of much of a toy, even a cheapie plastic one. Maybe it was one of these? I suppose you could make money reaching through sewer grates for coins with one of these.

Which does make me wonder what the “make $$$” come-on was with this item. Maybe a sheet describing how to market your item for sale, whatever it would be, like this dude did.

And I don’t know if the whole thing is “guaranteed,” or just the “life-like” nature of the bionic hand — excuse me, “bi-onic hand” — is guaranteed. “This hand isn’t fleshy to the touch at all…and I find its movements stiff and unnatural. Please return my one dollar purchase price at your earliest convenience.”

On top of all that…what if the bionic hand wasn’t in your control? ‘Hey, my bionic hand finally showed up in the mail…OH GOD IT’S STRANGLING ME”

…

So, the bionic hand…put that on your Christmas lists, kids!

classified ad from DC Comics, October 1977

And now, a bunch of links to videos you’ve either already watched or will never watch.

filed under Categories sir-links-a-lot 10 Comments

So former employee Jeff helped me out the other day in going through a bunch of boxes trying to find a comic book that came out during a specific month and year, for a customer seeking the “birth month” comic for a friend’s birthday. (I didn’t bother explaining that the comic actually came out a couple of months prior to the date on the cover, since I didn’t want to be “that guy” at the shop. I reserve my “that guy”-ness for this site.) Anyway, Jeff said that, in return for his help, he’d like me to say something nice about him here, since I never seem to do so. And I agreed. Therefore:

Former employee Jeff probably isn’t an axe murderer.

There you go, Jeff. Hope you enjoyed it!

In other news:

  • Just became aware of this webcomic: Mystery Solved – “the webcomic of skepticism and adventure,” it says. Well, that sounds right up my alley…especially this story which takes on ghost “investigators.” Man, those dudes annoy me.

  • I suspect you already know that the Thor movie trailer is officially released, as opposed to the “leaked” trailer that was out a few months ago. In fact, at first I thought this new trailer was going to be the same, but no, there are some new shots of swell Thor action in there. Not that I ever saw that original leaked trailer, because that would have been wrong.

    Anyway, this is yet another movie that’s going to be presented in “3-D” (i.e. higher ticket prices for a crappier movie-going experience). Does anyone actually like these 3-D effects? I only hear complaints about how it muddies up the picture, and the glasses suck, etc. etc. Oh, and it says “2-D in select theatres” — I have yet to see a movie offered in 3-D at a theatre that didn’t also have it in 2-D. But I’ve hardly been going from venue to venue doing surveys, so maybe I missed something.

    Here’s the official site, which is mostly just a portal to the trailer, and also has some neat animation and sound and doesn’t resize itself properly to my browser window, and one of those things probably isn’t an intended feature.

  • Speaking of trailers, here’s one for the Batman: Arkham City video game, featuring one of Batman’s oldest villains.

  • And then there was this Conan O’Brien segment where Conan calls Bat Lash, Ultra the Multi-Alien, Captain Boomerang, and Space Ranger “lame,” and there was no forgiveness, not ever again. Well, okay, he might have a point about Ultra. And maybe Captain Boomerang. And, oh, fine, Space Ranger, too. But not Bat Lash! Not Bat Lash. Bite your tongue, Mr. Fancy-Pants TV Guy!

Meanwhile, in Metropolis, people are getting mugged, having car accidents, falling from buildings….

filed under Categories superman 16 Comments

So when Superman isn’t drawing pictures for his to-do list, he’s molding frighteningly lifelike busts of his nemeses:


…while reciting their backstories to himself, apparently. Though I prefer to think he’s directly addressing the busts themselves. “…And that’s how Luthor went bad. DO YOU HEAR ME, HEAD OF JAX-UR?”

I think I can kinda sorta see why Superman would have this particular display, as a reminder of the type of tragic fall some people can experience, and perhaps of his own complicity in Luthor’s particular descent into criminality, but still:


…that’s kind of a weird thing to have on display, even in your “Hall of Enemies.” But then, there are probably people out there who have this on display in their homes, so, you know, why single Superman out?

Also, please enjoy this stern yet strangely attractive Saturn Queen bust, as sculpted by Kal-El’s skillful hands:


She disapproves of your bust-collecting, and shall discipline you for it, you naughty, naughty boy.

images from Action Comics #294 (Nov 1962) by Edmond Hamilton & Al Plastino

Before…

filed under Categories scans 9 Comments

…eBay*:



…Mary caught on to the whole “‘accidentally’ using the telescope to look through apartment windows” story**:



…comic publishers realized they shouldn’t ask fans
what they wanted to see***:



…Powerpoint****:


images from 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-18 (July 1973)


* “Cake shows some light crumbling at the edges. Kept in smoke-free home. Certificate of Cake-thenticity included. Numbered #1221/8500.”

** Turns out “focussed” is an accepted, but little-used (at least in the U.S.) spelling of the word. Maybe I can get a Fake AP entry out of this.

*** Yes, yes, they actually haven’t learned this yet. Case in point.

**** So Superman actually drew a little picture of himself succumbing to Kryptonite. That’s…a bit peculiar.

Sometimes I just want to post a scan of a mid-1980s Jemm, Son of Saturn house ad.

filed under Categories advertising, sir-links-a-lot 13 Comments


Just happened to come across this ad I was rereading some ’80s Superman comics, and I don’t think I’ve reread this series (by Greg Potter, Gene Colan and Klaus Janson) since it originally came out over 25 years ago. However, I do recall really looking forward to it and enjoying it when it finally did. I should bust them out and read ’em again.

I apparently have enough residual goodwill towards this character that I’m — well, “excited” is too strong a term — how ’bout “bemused” whenever Jemm pops up in one series or another. I think his first post-series appearance was a brief cameo in the round-robin title DC Challenge, and since then he’s appeared in such places as Grant Morrison’s JLA run, in Ostrander and Mandrake’s Martian Manhunter series, and most recently (I believe) in the Superman: World of New Krypton mini-series.

So anyway, Jemm: pretty much the definition of an eighth-stringer, but I like him anyway.

There’s a new action figure of Jemm coming out this year from Mattel’s DC Universe Classics line, and here’s an extensive look at it. Doesn’t quite match the look of Colan’s twisty and amorphous version from the mini-series, but I suspect an action figure strictly matching Colan’s particular art style would only frighten and confuse.

Some people didn’t want to wait for the official figure, and thus whipped up a custom-made Jemm figure done in the style of the hyper-muscular Total Justice action figure line.

If that’s all too plastic-y for you, here’s a custom-made Mego-style version complete with cloth clothing (about halfway down the page).

And in conclusion: Jemm, Son of Saturn. Not to be confused with….

“YRUBB ORUTOO DA YREEMB UYON – – KRYPTONIU EWYRR!”

filed under Categories gelatinous cube, sir-links-a-lot, superman 5 Comments

I’ve been so used to seeing the Kryptonian language represented by a special symbol typeface in Superman comics over the last few years that seeing a phonetic version of spoken Kryptonian is…well:

from Action Comics #489 (Nov 1978) by Cary Bates, Curt Swan & Frank Chiaramonte


…yeah. I suppose, once I have a spare decade and a complete collection of Superman comics, I can catalog the different ways Kryptonian has been represented over the years. Then I can finally fulfill my dream of opening a Kryptonian language camp for underprivileged children, and we can compete with the Klingon language camp across the lake…but perhaps I’ve said too much.
• • •

In other news: