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…here are four plastic Death’s Head II pins, recently acquired in a collection that contained a tote bag of goodies acquired at the 1993 San Diego Comic Con:
Why were there four of them? I couldn’t say. But I own them now, for better or worse.
Here, have a close-up of one of them:
Anyway, I had every intention of starting my look at your responses to the 1990s-est comic book, but alas time was not on my side. I’ll try to get to it this Friday. Thanks, as always, for reading, pals.
So longtime readers remember how I love buttons. Hoo boy, do I love gathering pinbacks of all kinds to admire and display. Of late, my button acquisition has slowed down a bit, as I haven’t had the time to properly maintain the collection, though a few here and there still end up in my hands just as a matter of course.
I bring this up because I recently purchased a run of the British Warrior magazine, famous of course for being the initial home for the Marvelman revival and V for Vendetta, early and important works by writer Alan Moore (with artists Garry Leach and David Lloyd, respectively). Included in the batch was a copy of the Marvelman Special, which I’d previously discussed on this site at length several years ago (though honestly it feels like I just did so…time flies, and all that).
I didn’t mention it at the time, but was reminded of it again looking at this other copy of the magazine that appeared in this collection…there is a great ad for buttons (or “badges,” if you prefer) on the back cover:
…featuring several of the properties that have been appearing in Warrior. My eyes of course immediately went to the swell batch of Marvelman pins that I would love to get my greedy mitts on, down there in the bottom row. I went looking on the eBays and found nothing, though I did find this pic via Google image search, and I hope the person who posted it on this message board doesn’t mind me using part of his (or her, I don’t know!) pic here:
Those are some snazzy pins, and would look great on my blazer or my beanie. Alas, all I have is this ad to remember them by (though pal Dave suggested I make them into pogs, and I don’t know if I should thank him or hate him for even bringing that up).
I also found the Axel Pressbutton badges to be amusing, particularly since they come in “clean” and “blood-splattered” variations:
I’m going to guess that anyone who actually wore one of these was poked right in the pinback several times a day. Probably had a good bruise beneath by the time the poor sap got home.
This Bojeffries Saga pin with Ginda is amazing:
And if you haven’t thought about Zirk in a while, don’t you think it’s time you have?
Speaking of Marvelman pins, like I was just a moment ago if you remember, I was reminded of the button released by Eclipse Comics back in 1986, back when they were handling the character (under the Marvel Comics-enforced name of Miracleman). Under the thrall of Mr. Moore and of Miracleman as I was, combined with my long-existent love of pin collecting, I of course had to have this item, which I wore on my jacket and/or backpack to high school, to such admiring calls of my classmates as “who the hell is that?” and “hey, get a load of the dork!” Anyway, 31 years on, I still have the button in my possession, and though I featured a tiny little scan of it on this very site quite a while ago, I thought I’d rescan it and give you some big ol’ pics. To wit:
A little wear and tear on the button, to be sure, but still a beloved item in the collection just the same. Hopefully I can track down some of those other Marvelman pins at some point…I recently told a pal that I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of knick knack-y detritus in my home, but I have a soft spot for Marvel/Miracleman, and for pinbacks, and especially for the two combined.
[Some minor SPOILERS for Batman #21 ahead.]
The lentincular covers are back on the shelves this week, thanks to DC’s first installment in the “We’re Finally Getting Around to That Whole Watchmen Thing” storyline running through Batman and Flash for the next few issues. Ah, the long-missed “zzzzzip-zzzzzip” sounds of those covers sliding against each other as customers pull their copies off the rack. Actually, I’m surprised it took DC this long to get back to doing these fancy movin’ picture covers, since they certainly grab attention (even if they’re hard to stack on the rack in any sizable quantity if you don’t have anything at the front of the shelf to keep them from toppling over and falling off, since they don’t exactly lay flat). I mean, I can understand why they don’t, given the extra lead time it takes to get these printed after taking in orders, so saving them for special occasions like this, where it’s worth the extra hassle, makes sense.
However, I will note that I’m getting lots of requests for the non-lenticular variants on this issue, as compared to the newsstand editions of the lenticular covers the last time we did this which mostly just kinda sat there and stared back at me from the rack with their sad little eyes.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with the actual content, which is the first storyline to actually revolve around the connection between the DC Universe and the Watchmen since that DC Universe Rebirth special from last year. Yes, there have been references here and there to “something bigger” going on behind the various reality-changing shenanigans going on, most notably in the recent “Superman Reborn” series of comics, as well as the occasional mention in Flash and either Titans or Teen Titans or maybe both…I’m specifically thinking of whatever one had the old Flash villain Abra Kadabra. The whole “Dr. Oz” thing that’s been in the Superman books had been assumed by some folks to be Ozymandias from Watchmen, though that seems a little too on-the-nose and obvious (which doesn’t rule it out, I do realize). He is involved somehow in the whole Watchmen event, but I feel like there’ll be a different reveal than “Gasp! It’s Ozymandias!” Maybe it’s Bubastis. Or an in-his-fightin’-trim Seymour.
Anyway, we don’t get a whole lot regarding any actual Watchmen characters yet, aside from what we can assume is an off-screen Dr. Manhattan doing away with the villain. There’s also a bit of business where the Comedian’s button reacts to the Psycho Pirate’s mask…a reference to (and likely a plot point based on) the conclusion of the now-30-year-old Crisis on Infinite Earths, which left Psycho Pirate as the one character who remembered the pre-Crisis multiverse…well, aside from everyone else who remembered it. (That situation was more-or-less twisted back into its original intent later in Animal Man.) And on top of all that, the comic is laid out in the 9-panel-grid in which Watchmen was largely presented.
I’m not 100% convinced we’re going to see any Watchmen characters in this particular story, honestly, beyond maybe a fleeting glimpse…I mean, we’ll find out within the next three weeks, of course. There’s more to come, too…the Batman issue I just placed orders for is already following up on the events in this storyline, so my guess is whatever big reveal we’re getting now is going to be “huh, there’s a multiverse and this button is from another universe and someone from said universe is futzing around with us.” Okay, I think the characters knew most of that already, but my point is that the full-on “Naked Blue Man Versus the DC Universe” is waiting for a Big Event Crossover Thingie down the line, and not happening in this Batman/Flash crossover that’s running now. Like I said, we’ll find out how right or wrong I am soon enough.
So Former Employee Aaron (in that he’s no longer doing my cruel, heartless bidding…he’s still at my former place of employment) has a buttonmaker, and I’d featured some of his creations on the site before. Well, the last time I saw him, when I stopped by the old shop to do a little horse-tradin’, he had a surprise for me. Another handmade Swamp Thing pin:
Why yes, that is Swamp Thing as drawn by Steve Bissette and John Totleben from Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 (1984). Now to await a formal occasion for which I may use said pin as the perfect complement to my coat and tails.
In other news:
- So Brian Cronin over at Comic Book Resources put up an article discussing the old Nickelodeon TV show Video Comics, which I talked about myself, due to the Swamp Thing connection, about four years ago. Brian was good enough to link back to my old post, since I had a few additional memories about the show not covered in his article. Thanks, Brian!
- Hey, Matt Wilson is running a Kickstarter to fund his next comics project, Everything Will be Okay, done in conjunction with Joe Hunter, Rodrio Vargas, and Josh Krach. Looks like it would be fun, and they have a little ways to go yet on reaching their goals, so pitch in if you can!
- Bully, the Little Punching Bull presents…Daredevil versus Hitler! (No, not that Daredevil.)
I’m not reading Infinity, but hell yes I’m down for some Infinity buttons:
Look for ’em at your shop today, but good luck finding that rare Black Bolt “chase” button.
Of course, none of these are a patch on my other Thanos button:
OH YEAH.
On a related note, I would totally read an ongoing Jim Starlin Presents comic where he just does whatever with any characters he can get his hands on. (We almost had that in his last ‘Breed series.) …Like, Dreadstar, Warlock, the Weird and Captain Marvel teaming up to fight the evil Mongul/Thanos/Lord High Papal triumvirate of terror. I would buy that comic like my life depended on it.
…but here’s a Howard the Duck button Employee Aaron made for me recently:
“Hi, Rogue button!”
Sorry, this is all I have for today’s post. Actual content will resume tomorrow. …Boy, Rogue sure looked different back then. Found this button when we were doing a little cleaning up/emptying of storage areas around the shop…sold tons of these white-background X-Men buttons back in the early-to-mid 1980s.
Also found during the clean-up: an envelope containing $3 we owed to pal Cully for selling copies of his Skulldog Comics mini, $6 we owe to a guy for selling his mini-comic even though I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen the guy in over a decade, a stack of Thieves World novels I was supposed to take home a long time ago, an ersatz Oscar statue prop left behind by a friend when he used our shop for a student film he was making, a love letter written to a former employee (sorry, Timmy, not you), some foil Pokemon stickers (none of them of the greatest Pokemon of all time), and the Peanuts comic that I scanned from for yesterday’s post.
I suspect if we continue cleaning out our cabinets, we’ll eventually find out what happened to former employee Nathan.
So I haven’t shown you folks any more items from my button collection lately, and since my back is still on the mend, I figured this would be something relatively easy to do and wouldn’t require propping myself up at the computer desk for too long.
First, I’m not sure if I showed this button to you yet:
…but it’s a promo for
this book
which I don’t own but probably should. I’ll have to look into that.
I did recently get this button:
…gifted to me by
pal Andres. I don’t know why this society has to be secret. Say it loud, say it proud!
Kid Chris gave me this pin, after a trip to (I believe) that Las Vegas Star Trek thing:
I don’t know if that’s Scotty or just a generic red shirt about-to-die guy, but still, pretty awesome.
I don’t have anything to say about the next set of pins except that this is fantastic:
I think Pal Dorian is responsible for me having these okay, he says “no,” which means I don’t remember who gave these to me, which makes me a terrible friend:
I really do love the Smurfs, you guys. I’ll probably even go see
that movie.
I have no idea how I even got this:
If there was a “Schwing!” button, I don’t want to know. Especially if it uses the same pic.
