Mikester

The Defamer celeb gossip weblog has this to say about Comic Book Resource’s report on some big-whoop Superman Returns merchandise unveiling, including the CBR columnist’s interview with Kate “Lois Lane” Bosworth:

“…Holding the sweaty, trembling palm of a comic book nerd for over a minute puts [Bosworth] on a higher level of starlet PR appearance saintliness in our books, and we have no doubt our graphic novel enthusiast not only has refrained from washing it in the hours since, but has also put that palm to good, Lois Lane-lusting use.”

Oh, dear. Well, good to know comic fans are still being held in such high regard.

Yes, I changed the corner box image already. Usually I change it once a week, but I didn’t care for the pic I used this time (but it’s still represented on this page). So, instead, you get another picture of America’s favorite hero, CAPTAIN DUDE.

Speaking of CAPTAIN DUDE, the upshot of his story is that he isn’t really the fancypants he presents himself to be. He basically acts and dresses like that to make himself appear larger than life, a morale-boosting hero that gives the other grunts something to talk about. Or complain about. Or give the enemy something to aim at, what with those brightly-colored shirts he’s wearing. Anyway, that copy of U.S. Marines #1 was the best fifty cents I’ve spent on comics lately.

That’s right, only fifty cents. It was one pre-loved comic.

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Boing Boing links to this site, which features MP3 files for the Mad Magazine flexidisc “It’s A Super-Spectacular Day.” The original disc had eight different series of grooves, so depending on where you put down the needle, you’d get a different ending to the song. About three or four years ago, I was on a “recording records to my computer to convert to MP3” binge, and “It’s A Super-Spectacular Day” was one of the records that made the conversion. Well, the first five or six versions of the track were easy to grab, but trying to get those last two took forever.

It does make me wish that more of Mad‘s flexidisc offerings were available on CD…there’s Mad Grooves, and apparently flexi tracks are also on the Totally Mad CD-ROM collection (where the “Super-Spectacular” MP3s above came from). I remember really enjoying the entirety of the Mad Disco flexidisc, which may say something unfortunately revealing about me.

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Looking at that Mad Disco cover at the last link really made me feel old. I remember buying it when it came out, despite being really, really outraged at the price. Your standard Mad was $0.75, and the thicker specials were $1.50 (even the ones with flexidiscs, such as the very one that had the “Super-Spectacular Day” record). That Mad Disco was two bucks, and it was the same size as a regular issue. (I remember it being even thinner than a regular issue, but my memory may be playing tricks on me…Overstreet says it’s 36 pages.) I don’t know why I didn’t just pass it up, but I guess, being the Mad fan that I was, I couldn’t stand the idea of letting an issue slip by.

And don’t get me started on Alien: The Illustrated Story. $3.95!? And it fell apart almost as soon as you tried to read it? You bastards!

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Return to Comics sums up my feelings about the new Zoom Suit comic at the end of his post. We have yet to sell one copy of at our shop, which is funny, because back in October I received a letter from this publisher telling me that fans in our area were writing to the company and requesting promo materials for this comic. Surely they weren’t trying to suck me into the hype whirlwind that’s been surrounding this comic for months now?

Anyway, like Kurt at Return to Comics, I read a copy of this that we received a couple months ago, and it was…eh. I’m guessing I’m not the target audience for this (i.e. someone who’s been reading comics for more years than probably is healthy, and has seen it all before). It’s certainly colorful, there’s definitely a lot of money put into it (both the comic’s production and the advertising), and it’s not terrible, really, just kinda average; unfortunately, no one around here is buying just yet. Maybe the prerelease hype has been going on for so long that nobody’s realized that, oh, hey, there’s actually supposed to be a comic book coming out. Though I imagine the actual performance of the comic is secondary to getting a movie/toy/video game/miscellaneous licensing deal of some kind. Can’t blame ’em, really…that’s where the real money’s at. Good luck to them, at any rate.

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Found a really stupid and embarrassing typo at the end of this post from Bat-Week…using “worst” when I meant “worse,” and it’d been like that for months. Gaaah…Mike no like think.

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I go on and on and on about price guides over in my new Behind the Counter column at the slightly refurbished Comic Book Galaxy. Believe it or not, I actually cut some stuff out…man, don’t I ever shut up?

from U.S. Marines #1 (Fall 1964)

From Yahoo news:

“A newspaper promotion for Tom Cruise’s upcoming ‘Mission: Impossible III’ got off to an explosive start when a county arson squad blew up a news rack, thinking it contained a bomb.”

Because, you see, when a movie fails at the box office, it’s referred to colloquially as being a…oh, forget it.

But first, a couple notes about new comics day:

Hey, a New Avengers cover that actually reflects the contents of the comic! In this case, the marriage of Luke Cage and Brian Mich…er, Jessica Jones. In fairness, I do like this cover, strangely gentle and charming compared to the others in the series.

What Were They Thinking: Some People Never Learn, the new wacky one-shot from Boom Studios, is silly fun. The premise, where Keith Giffen, Mike Leib, John Rogers, and others supply new dialogue to some old, public domain funnybook stories, is amusing…though seeing this comic just makes me wish we could have the original comics just printed “as is” without the redialoguing gimmick. Sorry, just being a killjoy, don’t mind me. But there are a few good laughs in this issue (one of my favorites is an art credit for one story, given as “a past master who deserved better”), and you get some nice Basil Wolverton art to boot.

We also received our huge boatload of Free Comic Book Day comics…in fact, my dad stopped by the store to borrow my truck, and we recruited him to help us unload the boxes. NO ONE IS SAFE. Anyway, even with the bazillion boxes we received, we still didn’t receive our freebie books from Archie and Bongo. Oy. If I have to wait ’til next week for the replacements, that’s gonna put a hitch in my sorting the books for distribution on FCBD.

On a non-comics note, I received my copy of Frederick C. Wiebel’s Backwards into The Future: The Recorded History of the Firesign Theatre directly from the author, and I am thanked on the acknowledgement pages. I had contributed a couple scans (though it doesn’t appear they made it into the book), and had otherwise been a longtime supporter of his Firesign-related endeavors, and it cheered me up immensely after a somewhat stressful day to see my name listed there. Thanks, Fred!

And now, what you’ve been waiting for/expecting/dreading/planning to scroll quickly by: Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization. (Previous installments: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 — do you folks even need these links?) Grab Volume XVI, issue #5 of Diamond Previews and follow along, no?

p. 120 – Swamp Thing #29 – Now, I’ve been asked by a few people what I think about this being the final issue of this latest Swamp Thing series. And, honestly…it doesn’t really bother me. I’ve enjoyed some of the stories, but never really warmed to the series as a whole. It never seemed to escape the long shadow of the previous series, and I’m beginning to think a fresh start away from the previous strands of continuity may be necessary to give a new Swamp Thing series a chance. I wouldn’t even mind having Swampy back in the mainstream DC Universe, teaming up with Batman, hanging with Superman…but I’m not going to hold my breath. So anyway, sorry to see it go, better luck next time.

p. 124 – Aquaman 13″ Deluxe Collector Figure – my, that’s some shiny fabric.

p. 151 – Todd McFarlane Archive fine art print:

“Own a piece of SPAWN history: the lovingly re-colored cover to SPAWN #2. Printed as an 11″ x 17″ image on 13″ x 17″ extra thick museum quality stock. Strictly limited to 250 pieces.”

IT’S A $20 TINY POSTER ON THICK PAPER.

p. 270 – Battlestar Galactica #1:

“Picking up from the final pages of the best-selling #0 issue….”

By “best-selling,” they mean “ordered in large quantities by retailers, but the issue hasn’t actually shipped out yet so we have no idea how it’ll be received by actual readers.”

p. 366 – Swampmen: Muck Monsters of the Comics – Oh, you huge teases. It better not get delayed again or there’ll be heck to pay. HECK, I tell you!

p. 390 – V for Vendetta: From Script to Film – “This film isn’t stupid enough! ADD MORE STUPID.” (Okay, to be fair, this happens to nearly every movie.)

p. 394 – Erotic Manga: Draw Like The Experts TP:

“…This guide to drawing the characteristic erotic manga characters seen on shonen and softcore hentai comics.”

Oh, I don’t know if this is a good idea.

p. 399 – Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way SC – I only mention this since some of you have been puzzled by one of my “since 1969” quotes that references this book.

p. 419 – Okay, now this is cool…t-shirts featuring the EC Comics horror hosts the Crypt-Keeper, the Old Witch, the Vault-Keeper, as well as the EC logo. Oh, man, I want all of them.

p. 423 – Star Wars: Vader, Fett & Lando ringer t-shirt: I don’t know why this makes me laugh, but it just does.

p. 436 – McFarlane Monsters’ Greatest Women Previews U.S. Exclusive 3-Pack: a rerelease of three figures from previous McFarlane Monster sets…well, take a look your own self. Bondage, blood, and…um, bikinis, I guess. I imagine this will probably sell fairly well, since I’m still getting requests for those figures even now.

p. 442 – Necronomicon Plush Book:

WHAT?

p. 460 – Star Wars Interactive R2-D2 Figure:

“Grab his attention by saying ‘Hey, Artoo!’ and he’s ready for more than 40 voice commands! Ask him if he remembers his famous friends, like Luke Skywalker, C-3P0 or Jabba the Hutt. Each name will stir up a different response depending on Artoo’s ‘feelings’ for that character.”

Okay, that sounds silly, but he does other things, too, like “jazz[ing] up your next party with ‘Spin The Droid.'” Um, yeah. And since when is Jabba one of Artoo’s friends?

p. 468 – Pirates of the Caribbean II: Davey Jones’ Key Replica:

Man, you’ve got to be a fan to buy this.

p. 514 – POG Marvel Series 1 Foil Packs & POG Marvel Series 1 Slammers: NO, NO, PLEASE GOD DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN.

p. 516 – V for Vendetta Dagger Prop Replica: So it only looks like a pointy, presumably sharp dagger, but not actually? I’m assuming it’s permanently mounted in the “shadowbox,” so no one can get stabbed by it…but what an odd thing to memorialize from this film.

p. 516 – Mr. T in Your Pocket Keychain:

“It includes such phrases as ‘Shut up fool!’, ‘Don’t gimme no back talk, sucka!’, and ‘Don’t make me mad! Grrrr!'”

I don’t care what you think…I need this. I want Mr. T in my pocket, and I don’t care who knows it.

p. 526 – Elvis Collector’s Edition Yahtzee: licensing has now officially gone too far…at least until the next installment of The End of Civilization, when I’m sure I’ll find something even more horrifying.