Mikester

This is a space pirate captain:

This is a member of her crew:

Here’s that member of the crew getting pasted by Ultra Boy:

Their spacesuits have skulls ‘n’ crossbones on them. Ooh, piratey:

The space pirate captain makes time with a pirated-up Ultra Boy:

In non-pirate news, Steve Ditko draws an appealing Phantom Girl:

from Legion of Super-Heroes #274 (April 1981)
by Gerry Conway, Steve Ditko & Frank Chiaramonte

CLICK TO MAKE AVENGE-IER

EDIT: Image revised…see comments. If you need to recast your vote, feel free.

A few items from the new DC solicitations:

Well, this is interesting…a trade paperback collection of Paul Kupperberg and Mike Mignola’s Phantom Stranger mini-series, rounded out by a reprinting of the multiple origin stories from Secret Origins #10. Given Mignola’s popularity (and the fact that he now has two big-budget Hollywood movies based on his Hellboy work), I’m surprised we haven’t seen more reprinting of his older material to take advantage of current interest. I think sooner or later we’ll get a Rocket Raccoon book from Marvel, since that character’s been popping up a bit more lately. Or a book of his collaborations with Bill Mantlo on Alpha Flight or Incredible Hulk.

X-Files Special #0 – Funny, I was just talking about the Topps X-Files series the other day with the employees, about how it was a “hot” comic that came out right in the midst of the collapsed comics market. Kinda curious about how we’re gonna order this new “Special” “#0” (stack the deck, why don’t you), since it’s been a while since anyone really cared about X-Files, like since about two or three seasons before the show was finally canceled*. I’m expecting this new X-Files comic to sell about on the same level as the recent Xena and Army of Darkness series — okay low-to-mid-level seller, with a small but loyal audience.

Really, honestly – God bless Rick Veitch. Army @ Love: The Art of War #1 — can’t wait.

The Un-Men #13 — The last issue, which is too bad. This ended up being a pretty good, dark-humored series, which unfortunately didn’t grab people with its less-than-strong opening. Ah, well…I don’t think this quite puts the kibosh on any future Swamp Thing related series, but I don’t expect we’ll be seeing any in the immediate future.

DC Universe Special: Ambush Bug #1 – Aside from the…unpleasantness, these old Ambush Bug stores are pretty funny. The Supergirl story is the weaker of the bunch, but does feature some nice latter-day Carmine Infantino art.

“Based on the upcoming March 6, 2009, Warner Bros. movie WATCHMEN, DC DIRECT brings both long-time and new fans of WATCHMEN what they crave: collectible action figures, intricately clothed 1:6 scale deluxe collector figures, exquisitely sculpted busts, and straight-from-the-set prop replicas! All products feature movie accurate likenesses and costume detailing!

“Get ready for a three-month WATCHMEN movie product extravaganza from DC Direct, beginning in January 2009 and continuing through the release of the WATCHMEN movie in March 2009.”

Hoo boy.

* Before any of you X-Files fans get your knickers in knots, lemme just note that I’m still watching the way past its sell-by date Smallville, so I’m not exactly taking the moral high ground here.

Sad to report that noted comics retailer Rory Root has passed away. I’ve never met him myself, but I’ve certainly been aware of his presence and influence in this industry.

His store’s website has been converted into a temporary memorial page. A new memorial site is in the works, and I’ll post the link to that one when it’s ready.

So long, Rory.

From the letters page for the May 26-June 1 2008 edition of TV Guide:

So, for those of you who don’t know, Computo was a creation of Brainiac 5’s that ended up going berserk, killing one of Triplicate Girl’s bodies, and was just an all-around real bummer, man.

Eventually, Brainiac 5 managed to tame the Computo program, making it into an electronic assistant for the Legion. Reaction from other Legionnaires was mixed, leaving Brainiac to explain the situation to Computo like so:

Which, I guess, is all well and good, except in the very next panel Brainiac 5 does this:

Whoa, what? “I have revived my homicidal computer, allegedly ‘tamed’ it as far as any of you know, and now I LAUGH MANIACALLY at what I have wrought! HA HA!” And there the story ends, leaving the Legionnaires wondering why Brainy is laughing like that. I mean, it’s not like he hasn’t had a history of instability and a couple nervous breakdowns resulting in dangerously criminal activity or anything.

As you can see by the giant blue ball growing out of Brainy’s face there, the following issue features the Science Police, which is a wonderfully evocative name. “YOU HAVE BROKEN THERMODYNAMIC LAW…you’re UNDER ARREST!” Well, that’s not really what they get up to, enforcing the laws of science or anything. It’s basically just the equivalent of “Space Police” or “Future Police” or “Mega Nu-Manhattan Police-bots 2984” — it’s just there to make ’em seem different from the mystically-oriented, spellcasting police of our time period, because, you know, those Science Police fight crime with SCIENCE.

Here are a few items from the Science Police activity blotter:

Panel One: “Folk art” = “comic books” in that panel, there. I wonder if those guys made a beeline for the Witchblade comics like our thief/thieves.

Panel Two: I…I don’t know. That’s just weird, frankly. I do like the gratuitous use of the word “lunatic.”

Panel Three: “HULK BUSTED ON TAX FRAUD.” “Hulk not report tips! IRS not find out! Hulk smart, have more money for lottery!”

images from Legion of Super-Heroes #311 (May 1984) and #312 (June 1984) by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, Larry Mahlstedt & Karl Kesel

from Adventure Comics #329 (Feb. 1965 – reprinted in Legion Archives Vol. 4)
– by Jerry Siegel & Jim Mooney

Well, as it turns out, I got in really, really late, and I wanted to post a little something about Will Elder, and that doesn’t leave me with a lot of time to write a full-on post like I was planning. So my further comments on Lex Luthor will have to wait a day or two, and, yes, I still plan on getting back to my Legion content, so hold your horses there, friend.

But let me address a few things:

• I did finish watching the Phantom film, and it remained light and watchable through the remainder of its run time. (SPOILERS, I guess.) Hey, the Phantom fought pirates! All right! That whole “power ring versus the skulls” thing at the end, though…I’m not well versed in the character’s history, though I’ve read some Phantom over the years and have enjoyed the strip. However, I don’t remember the Phantom’s ring being able to do that.

  One thing I noticed about the film is how beautifully it was shot…lots of very scenic island jungle shots. The closing credits ran over just several still(?) photos of the various island locales, which was a nice touch. And Billy Zane as the Phantom…when he was in costume, he was Always! In! Action! making short, sudden moves and posing heroically, regardless of the situation. Sometimes he looked like just popped right out of the funny pages.

  And the petulant pouty faces Treat Williams makes when the pirates capture him are priceless.

  Overall, despite that dodgy stunt in the first half of the movie, with the whole jumping from plane to horse thing which, you know, c’mon, it’s a pretty solid action adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

  The DVD appears to be out of print, but you can find ’em cheap on Amazon. Oh, and speaking of which:

  
  By the way, saying I didn’t want to see “Slam Evil!” in the comments just inspired you all to post that very thing, didn’t it?

• I posted the answers to the trading card quote quiz from the other day, if you really needed them.
• We had a customer on Thursday telling Employee Aaron what a fan he was of the Invincible Super-Blog. He hadn’t heard of Progressive Ruin.

  STOP PAYING OFF MY CUSTOMERS, SIMS.

• We’re experiencing increased demand for the original Frank Miller Wolverine mini-series. Inspired by the forthcoming Wolvie movie, perhaps? Seems that’s still a ways away to be having an influence on sales, but who knows?
• If playing “Rhinestone Cowboy” on the store CD player during business hours is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.