Mikester

Not that you need me to point out something on Newsarama, but this Mike Parobeck retrospective on the tenth anniversary of his death is a must-read. Parobeck was one of my favorite cartoonists…I was going to say “at the time,” but he remains one of my favorite comic book artists, and his loss was a great one.

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I also learned on Newsarama (among other sources) about the “Man of Miracles” figure in a forthcoming Spawn toyline. Looks like Todd McFarlane is continuing his quest to muddy up the issues regarding ownership of the Marvelman/Miracleman character. Oy.

I went to pull some choice quotes from the Spawn message board thread regarding this particular figure line, but the proliferation of giant signature images completely shut my brain down. Particularly the CGI dancing anime girl. What th–?

Well, here are a few comments regarding “Man of Miracles,” anyway:

“Man of Miracles looks nothing like he did in the comic… what a jip. He still rocks.”

“I AM SO BUYING MAN OF MIRACLES!!!! Obviously, it is Miracleman, just however McF managed to reimagine him so he could use him… But I will get that one, as it’s the closest thing I will likely ever get to an actual Miracleman figure”

“I think that the idea of Man of Miracles being an updated Miracle Man.
is too cool. I dig the updated uniform and do not care that it it not
comic accurate.”

“Man of Miracles: Boring. The comic version would have been a cool figure, he needs the face tatoos if nothing else.”

“MoM: Not good and will still be on toy shelves in 2007.”

“I am so friggin’ tired of Todd’s random obsession with this lame character and his annoyingly proliferated need to use it regardless of infringing ownership rights.”

“I know that another company is releasing old Miracleman comics, so I would take that as a sign that Todd doesn not have the comic rights for Miracleman. However, by the statue and 3″ figure, we know that he does have the figure rights. So, he looks different in the comic because he can’t look like or be Miracleman, but this series presented Todd with the opportunity to make a Miracleman figure, to which he has the rights.”

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To follow up on a previous post, Chris “Lefty” Brown’s weblog can now be found at leftybrown.blogspot.com…at least until the situation with his former web address is cleared up.

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As long as I’m pointing to past posts, I tried desperately to find something substantial online regarding the Olivia Newton-John and (I believe) Dino De Laurentiis Silver Surfer film project for yesterday’s post. There is a brief mention in the Comics Journal thing I linked, but I was hoping to find a little more on the topic. Of course, there may not be more, aside from “well, we were going to make this movie until realized it was a lot of money for something that was going to be a flop, so we gave up.” Ah, well. I just wanted to bring it up in case some of you didn’t know such a thing had actually almost come to pass.

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The newest installment of Mike Sterling’s Behind the Counter is now up at Comic Book Galaxy, where I lead off with one of my favorite puzzling back issue stories. Enjoy, won’t you?

Boy, you don’t often see ads like this (from the back cover of a ’70s Marvel) for children’s toys nowadays:

“Hey, kids…Satan thinks these model cars are great, and you will too!”

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So a couple years back, Dave introduced his convenient and essential comics weblog update tracker, which I immediately and sorta facetiously dubbed the “Comics Weblog Update-A-Tron 3000” — for which Dave, I’m sure, has never forgiven me. (In truth, he comments on the name at the end of his FAQ.)

Just on a whim, I did a little Googling on that particular title, and got just shy of 17,000 matches. Most of which, of course, are links duplicated on multiple archive pages on the same weblog, and that doesn’t count the various permutations of the name I’ve seen…but still, Dave, I’m sorry for saddling your great contribution to the Comicsweblogosphere with my smart-aleckiness.

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Speaking of the weblogs, what happened to Chris “Lefty” Brown’s site? Now there’s some kinda empty weblog in its place. Is it just a glitch? Did he change web addresses? Did he quit his site and some else picked up the name? Was it (and I’m really hoping this isn’t the case) stolen out from under him? Does anyone know what happened?

EDIT: Just followed a link from Eddie-torial Comments to one of Chris’ archive pages, so those still appear to be up.

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So long, Grandpa.

“It’s Clark Kent, Superstar”

“After three decades battling to save Earth, Superman has a new mission. This time he must brighten up religious education as a modern-day model of Jesus Christ.

“Religious education teachers are being urged to make use of the fictional hero to give children an insight into morality and religious thinking.”

(“Three decades?”)

Happy birthday to that swell cat, Scott Saavedra, who’s, what, 21, 22 now? Something like that.

Anyway, good wishes to you, sir!

Doris Nelson: Atomic Housewife #1 (August 1996) – art by James M. Anderson

This, by the way, is the greatest comic company name/logo of all time:

My condolences to the family and friends of Seth Fisher, who left us too soon.

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More new comic day notes, before I forget:

The Fogel’s Underground Comix Price Guide is finally out…the first thorough price guide for underground and adult comix since the nearly quarter-century old Jay Kennedy guide. Flipping through it, I can see that they’ve attempted to include more recent titles ignored by Overstreet…the Eros Comix titles, for example, and some Drawn & Quarterly books. An interesting touch is, along with the standard Good/Fine/Mint pricing columns for each title, the inclusion of a “Highest Realized Price” column that notes the highest price a certain comic may have achieved in, say, an online auction or other sale, usually far in excess of the “Mint” price. (I wonder if any of our UG auctions on the eBay made it into this book?)

I kinda wish it didn’t have the mostly-nekkid girl on the cover, though…makes it tough to rack. I suppose I could order the Odd Bodkins variant cover, but the $39.95 price tag on the variation is a bit dear…$29.95 for the regular edition is high enough.

Hellboy: Makoma #1 – It’s nice to finally have a Hellboy story that isn’t filled with footnotes and references to previous Hellboy comics. There are footnotes, but they’re explanatory, not pointers to previous funnybooks.

Thunderbolt Jaxon #1 – I know pal Dorian has said that the publishing of these revivals of old British superheroes is probably an attempt on DC’s part to keep Alan Moore happy…but I was wondering if, maybe, some small incentive for publishing these titles is the hope that one of them will turn out to be yet another Miracleman (a previous British superhero revival that achieved some small measure of renown). Just a random, barely-supported thought.

Green Lantern #8 Neal Adams variant cover – Oh goodness, that’s not a good drawing. Okay, I mean, technically, it’s fine, I guess…I think the (presumed) editorial direction had more to do with its inherent creepiness than any of Mr. Adams’ artistic ability. “Okay, they have to be struggling with the evil plant creature, but they have to look happy while they’re struggling….” The big grins on GL’s and GA’s faces just plain disturb me.

Welcome to Heaven, Dr. Franklin is a story by William Messner-Loebs (originally serialized in Cerebus many years ago) about Benjamin Franklin’s experiences in the afterlife. Bizarre, funny, and highly recommended…follow that link for a sample of the artwork. I didn’t pick it up myself, since I already have the story, but I’ve managed to hand-sell a few copies of this at the shop to some likely suspects.

Marvel Romance – So I was looking at this reprint of “classic” Marvel romance comics, when this idea popped, fully formed, into my twisted little mind.

“The Marvel Comics Romance Podcast,” starring Stan Lee.

I want to hear Stan Lee reading his own romance comics aloud, particularly the ones told from the first person perspective of the female lead. To hear Lee say something along the lines of “Why doesn’t Johnny love me? Why? Why?” would be a little bit like heaven.

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Just spotted this interview with Steven Grant on a DVD review site…mostly about his work on the Punisher, but hits a couple other topics as well. Interesting reading. (Though, just to check, I went to his Comic Book Resources column and saw that he plugged it there, so you probably already know about it. Ah, well.)

…so I’ll just leave you with a question:

Who would win in a fight: the Silver Twist or the Green Glob?

Aquaman #39:

Pal Corey: “So does Aquaman still have his hand made from magical water?”

Me: “Yes, as far as I know…it looks like he’s just wearing his glove over the hand in this new issue.”

C: “They never did fully use Aquaman’s water hand.”

Me: “‘Hey! I’m my own bidet!‘”

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ABC A-Z Terra Obscura & Splash Brannigan – This is probably more what people were expecting when this project was first announced…images of characters with accompanying text pieces, like Marvel Universe or DC’s Who’s Who. However, it wouldn’t be an Alan Moore-related project without some kind of production error, and there appears to be one in this comic as well. If you look at the left side of the centerspread, you’ll notice a big empty white space right above two character images…a space where two short text pieces were probably supposed to go. Oops. Otherwise, I quite enjoyed this particular comic…but then, I was one of the dozen people that apparently really liked the Terra Obscura series, so your own mileage may vary.

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Buffy Magazine#23: “In this issue, we catch up with [any given actor/actress from Buffy or Angel] and ask [him/her] what’s been going on since leaving the series.”

Actor/actress: “Well, I’m doing okay…I just wish I wouldn’t keep getting bothered every few months about doing interviews with fan magazines based around a property I haven’t been involved with for three years now.”

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Why Mike and pal Dorian are stupid, Chapter One:

Introduction – media magazines like those for Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, and so on, come published with two covers. One is intended for newsstands, and the other is a “Previews Exclusive” edition, with a different cover, that is sold only through specialty shops. In the past, we’ve ordered equal numbers on both covers for our store, and sometimes one cover variant of a magazine will be shorted, leaving us to wonder which cover it is we actually received. It’s not indicated in the magazine itself, the solicitation information, or on the invoice. There was absolutely no way to tell…until realization finally dawned today after calling in several shortages of this type to Diamond, and I afterward had this exchange to Dorian, who was there to get his funnybook fix:

M: “Hey, you know how we used to have trouble telling the Previews Exclusive cover from the regular cover?”

D: “Right.”

M: “Well, we were shorted on one of the covers for both Lost and Buffy, but looking at the Battlestar Galactica magazines we got, it suddenly dawned on me that the newsstand cover is probably the one…with the UPC CODE. The Previews cover has none…at least, that’s what the situation appears to be with the Galactica mags.”

D: (slaps head) “And it took us how many years to figure this out?”

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Don’t let Mike talk to the customers:

Customer: “Hey, is this series any good? It’s written by Jeph Loeb.”*

M: “Well, I haven’t read that particular comic, but the man did bring us Teen Wolf.”

Customer: [purchases comic]

(Okay, maybe I should be allowed to talk to the customers….)

* Yeah, yeah, I know, “he answered his own question.” Quiet, you.

From the February 6-12 2006 edition of TV Guide:

That’s from the full-page ad…here’s the listing from the “Highlights” page for Wednesday (2/8):

“Bones uses her own superpowers to analyze the killing of a comic-book geek in another case of a troubled kid that the forensics freak feels a connection to.”

So either this will be another exaggerated, stereotyped portrayal of a comic book fan…or it will be a dead-on portrayal of a certain type of comic book fan. Either way, look to your favorite comics message board for much wailing and rending of garments after this airs…particularly if it hits too close to home for some folks.

(Actually, I’ve never seen this Bones show…any good?)

For more educational viewing, tune in to your local PBS station Sunday night (2/12) for Nature:

“Peter Parker could learn a thing or two about arachnids from aficionado Martin Nicholas, who chats with Spider-Man creator Stan Lee about spiders’ abilities….”