pal plugging

Comics blogger? I prefer the term “Panelogical Onanist.”

filed under Categories free comic book day, pal plugging, sir-links-a-lot 2 Comments

Don’t forget that tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day, and I’ve written about it plenty in the past, so click on that “free comic book day” tag on this post (or just click here) to see what I’ve said in previous years. I’ve been spending the last few days preparing for this Saturday, sorting out our comics into the prepackaged age-appropriate baggies (you can read about that particular strategy here) and planning out whatever sales and such we’re going to have that same day.

This year we ordered even more comics than in previous years, particularly since we had really upped our orders last year and we were still mostly through our FCBD stock halfway through the day. I’ll let you know how we did this time around!

Oh, and formerly employee Aaron and his lovely wife (and part-time employee) Kempo will be gracing us with their presence and helping out at the shop that day, since I guess this year they’ll be able to make it. I mean, they claim they had something more important to do on Free Comic Book Day last year, but pffft, whatever.

So, Free Comic Book Day…get yerself to a funnybook emporium and help yourself to some freebies. I recommend the Donald Duck Family comic from Fantagraphics…I think that one was my favorite from this year’s batch. For reviews of most of this year’s offerings, I pass you along to pal Dorian.

• • •

In other news:

No joke…

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, here comes the april fool, pal plugging, sluggo, swamp thing 4 Comments

…this is one fabulous image:


So Daniel Butler, artist of Copernicus Jones, has been drawing personalized Twitter icons for folks, and, well, you can see what I asked for…and baby, I sure got it. If you want Mr. Butler to create an icon just for you, then hie yourself hither to this site for details and samples!

In other news…I don’t really have an April Fool’s Day post this year, which is only the second AFD I’ve missed, so hey, you know, my record’s still pretty good. Besides, will I ever top this? No sir, I will not.

However, I did add a new category for my previous April Fool’s posts, so you can go enjoy my past glories, back when this website was good. And the 2005 posts may not make sense out of context without seeing this, a screenshot of when pal Dorian and I switched our website templates for the day. …Of course, neither of our sites now look like they did then, so consider the word “context” at its lowest value, if you would.

Also, the joke here is that I included two fake items. …I wonder if anyone out there is still going store to store looking for them?

Probably more “monster” than “bird,” but I’ve remembered it as a bird for 37 years and that’s what I’m sticking with.

filed under Categories cartoons, pal plugging 11 Comments

So just on a whim (and still riding that ape high after rewatching the excellent Rise of the Planet of the Apes), I decided to rent from the Netflix the first disc of the Return to the Planet of the Apes animated series from the mid-1970s:


Now, because I’m old, I was around to watch this when it originally aired…and I haven’t seen it since. According to this Wikipedia page it had been rerun a number of times since, even relatively recently. But I never saw it again after my initial viewings, and for decades all I retained of what I watched was a brief scene of a giant bird swooping down and grabbing something. …Yeah, I know, but I’m pretty sure Beneath the Planet of the Apes would’ve been improved by a giant bird.

I popped the disc in and watched the first episode…the theme music is evocative of the original movie, and the opening sequence is interesting:


…be sure to stay for the dramatic reading of the name of the series at the very end.

I’ve only seen the first episode so far, and while it seems like things pick up a bit in the later episodes, judging by the plot descriptions on the Wiki page, the initial installment is very casually paced. I think we spend about, oh, ten minutes watching our human cast wander through the desert:


And there’s a lot of “panning over still images” as animation, and reused shots, and other cost-cutting devices common to this sort of thing. However, it’s sort of nice to watch a cartoon that is, as I said, casually paced: holding a shot for more than a second, and not constantly screaming at you. It also seems like it’s relatively intelligently written, giant birds aside, and I look forward to delving a little deeper into this series.

I can’t say I’m exactly reliving childhood memories with this, since, aside from the one barely-remembered scene, I don’t recall any of it. And before you ask…I’m planning on checking out the DVDs for the live-action TV series, too.

I’m also throwing one of these thingies here, since it’s been a while and I can stand to have a little more Amazon action:


It’s shameless, I know.

To offset my selfish grab for pennies, let me recommend a couple of Planet of the Apes-related books by Rich Handley of Roots of the Swamp Thing fame: Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology and Lexicon of the Planet of the Apes: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia, and you can learn about both of ’em (and download free excerpts) right here.

Man-Thing: hyphen. Swamp Thing: no hyphen.

filed under Categories pal plugging 2 Comments

So hey, what’s up with this little guy?


Why, that’s an enlarged detail from one of the drawings by pal Tom Foxmarnick that appears in the February 2012 issue of ImagineFX, currently on the stands! It has a nice full-color two-page spread of Tom’s work, and well worth checking out.

I’ve featured Tom’s art on this site before, which you may remember from the most terrifying MODOK-variation of all time, or this pic of Swamp Thing and Man-Thing wreaking some havoc. You can also see more of his work on his Deviantart page, or, if you bought that horror anthology Taboo, you can read his story “Check-Out Time in #2, or “39th and Norton” in #7. Or you can catch his work in pretty much any issue of CARtoons from the ’80s through the ’90s.

Anyway, Tom’s a swell guy, and I’ve always enjoyed his fine cartooning, so I’m always happy to plug it whenever the opportunity arises.

• • •

Speaking of pal-plugging, pal Cathy has put together the final word on all you people out there who consistently misspell Spider-Man. Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking about you. If you’re having trouble remembering if “Spider-Man” requires a hyphen, then print out this informative cartoon and, I don’t know, glue it to the inside of your car’s windshield or something. And learn well from it, my friends…learn very well.

MY FIRST GELATINOUS CUBE POST FOR 2012.

filed under Categories gelatinous cube, pal plugging, sir-links-a-lot

So Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull Who Apparently Can Work an iPad with His Little Hooves, knowing of my particular obsession with the classic Dungeons & Dragons monster the Gelatinous Cube, sent along this screenshot from the iPad game Puzzle Quest 2:


Oh, you poor, misguided warrior. There is no defeating…the Gelatinous Cube.

In other news:

  • Speaking of Bully, I helped him out a bit with his “366 Days of Alfred Pennyworth” project.

  • If you remember this Sluggo Saturday (the one with the wholly-inappropriate Dolly Parton gag I made), the folks at Boing Boing present the strip in full, and come to sort of the same conclusion I had about what was going on there. (Thanks to pal Andres for letting me know about this!)

  • ~P~ at Sanctum Sanctorum wants you to put words in Dr. Strange’s mouth! (~P~’s example of what he’s kind of looking for is…slightly Not Safe for Work…but what are you doing goofing off at work and looking at comic book websites for anyway? Well, except for mine, of course.)

  • Not comics, but pal Dawn has written a book (FaeMaker: Making Fantasy Characters with Polymer Clay) and I thought I’d point that out to you folks. You might have seen her selling her wares at a San Diego Con or two, and she’s a swell gal…so please pick up her book if that sounds like something you’d be into!

  • Pal Dave whips out a long-awaited new installment of “This Used to Be The Future” with…The Secret Story of Ray-Gun 64!

  • As pal Dorian says: “Useful.”

If I use any more “quotation marks,” I’m going to turn into a “Jack Kirby” script.

filed under Categories pal plugging, retailing 1 Comment

 

  • There’s really nothing quite like standing there and feeling the covers to multiple copies of R. Crumb’s Big Ass Comics #1, trying to determine the relative glossiness of the cover stock (which indicates what printing the book is, according to the Underground Price Guide), and then noticing someone is watching you do this with a “what the hell are you doing?” look in his eye. “Just can’t get enough of these sexy, sexy vulture women,” sez I.

  • Thanks to DC sticking to their strict new scheduling for the New 52 books, last week was a “skip week,” meaning no New 52 books on the stands. Seeing as how it’s been a while since we’ve had a real skip week, giving the general publishing strategy of “get it out there as soon as it’s ready” that everyone seemed to be following, I’ve had to explain the concept of “skip weeks” several times over the last few days. Not just to folks coming in for the new Action Comics, but to some of the newer employees as well. …At least there was no “fifth week event” to fill the shelves this time around, and some of my customers were grateful for the break.

  • Speaking of things that came out last week, the Gumby Arthur Adams Specials trade paperback apparently had some behind-the-scenes shenanigans going on, as it was released with big ol’ color stickers over the logos, replacing them with a logo that reads “Gumby Spring Specials.” (And, as Greg notes, neither of the comics reprinted inside were “Spring Specials,” so…huh?) One sticker on the front cover, another sticker on the back cover, one on the copyright page inside, and “Arthur Adams” inked out on the spine. …Hopefully, this will be returnable, since it was going to be a hard sell at $12.99 as it was for this thin digest. The stickers are just going to make it more difficult. Too bad, as it is absolutely wonderful cartooning from Adams, with scripts by Bob Burden and Steve Purcell, which totally deserves being kept in print. With any luck, a future edition will be sticker-free.

  • And this has nothing to do with funnybook retailing, but I wanted to note that pals Dor and Ken have trailer reviews up. Always a good read.

Or the cover could be a representation of the swordfight scene.

filed under Categories pal plugging, swamp thing 3 Comments

 

  • Hey, got a buck? Sure you do, and you should spend it on the first digital-downloadable issue of Dracula the Unconquered, from Chris Sims, Steve Downer, and Josh Krach. A free six page preview is available at the site, but I’ve read the whole thing, and I assure you…it’s vampiric action as you like it!

  • As I write this, the final installment of The Loneliest Astronauts isn’t up yet, but should be up sometime on Tuesday, and I’d like to congratulate Kevin Church and Ming Doyle on the completion of this entertaining project. …And if you folks out there haven’t read any of The Loneliest Astronauts…start right here!

  • Speaking of that Kevin Church cat…perhaps you’ve heard of Fake Criterions, where folks design their own artsy-type covers for films that likely would never make it into the Criterion Collection, but if they did, maybe they’d look a little something…like this. But anyway, Kevin whipped up a theoretical cover for a classic film that the Criterion folks have, thus far, overlooked. And here’s a second cover for the same film, because, you know, if any film deserves two Criterion editions….

    It’s a good thing I didn’t contribute my own Criterion-style cover, because it probably would have been inspired by the movie still I put up in this post.

What the well-dressed Swamp Thing fan will be wearing very soon.

filed under Categories pal plugging, swamp thing, this week's comics 4 Comments

I was going to save these for my next End of Civilization post, but decided I couldn’t wait. Now, I’m not much of a t-shirt wearer, but I think I will make an exception for these fine items, available in the October issue of Previews:


That’s the cover of the new Swamp Thing #1 by Yanick Paquette, and here is a plain ol’ logo shirt:


…one of which I’ve been awaiting for a long time. At last, I can finally retire (well, more retire) this worn-out piece of clothing.

• • •

In other news…I picked up five of the new DC #1s this week (minor spoilers ahead):

  • Superman #1: lots of stuff crammed into this issue — interesting, but can’t really describe it as “enjoyable” — and the last hope that someone, anyone, could make Superman’s new costume look good is finally dashed…though George Perez comes closest on the cover.

  • Aquaman #1: pulls off the nice trick of taking all the criticisms and mockeries aimed at Aquaman over the years and putting them in the mouths of a bunch of folks harassing our fishy friend. Effectively puts reader in position of siding with the hero against all those old jokes, probably a more effective defense than attempts at bad-assifying the character. I wasn’t planning to get this, but picked it up on a whim and, surprisingly, turned out to be one of my favorite relaunches of this whole New 52 hoohar.

  • Fury of Firestorm #1: noted just recently that I love the Firestorm character, but I’m not quite sure what I think of this new version. It’s a complete reboot, which seems to be taking things in a slightly different direction, and…I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. I’ll keep reading and see what happens. However, I am not down with reboot Cliff Carmichael…sorry, this is “Superman’s new costume” level of tragedy.

  • Green Lantern: New Guardians #1: think this may be the “one Green Lantern title too many” series. I’ve said before that I’ve probably had enough of the different-colored Lantern corps for the time being, so it’s probably not you, baby, it’s me. However, totally judging this from just this one issue, this feels like it’s more suited to a storyline in another GL book rather than a series on its own. Then again, you can probably say that about every GL series beyond the first one.

  • Justice League Dark #1: only picked it up because of John Constantine, not expecting much…but turned out to be not half-bad. Still in the “let’s get the band together” part of the story, being only the first issue an’ all, but am looking forward to more. And looking forward to any possible Swamp Thing cameos, but that goes without saying.

Also picked up Love & Rockets #4 by those Jaime and Gilbert cats, which is, as usual, a masterpiece of comics storytelling despite its lack of Swamp Thing. L&R, always recommended.

…If you want reviews of all of last week’s DC #1s, pal Dorian has got you covered.

And then there was the time sarcastic time-traveling Clark Kent got put in his place.

filed under Categories pal plugging, superman, swamp thing 6 Comments

from DC Comics Presents #26 (May 1984) by Mark Evanier, Irv Novick & Dennis Jensen


• • •

In other news:

  • That Chris Sims, he’s got more free comics for you to read: The Hard Ones, with cowriter Chad Bowers and artist Rusty Shackles, is available right here for free download!

  • It’s not often I see Swamp Thing on Yahoo’s front page:


    …but hey, there he is.

    It’s a story celebrating both Heather Locklear’s 50th birthday, as well as her…colorful film career. It refers to her part in 1989’s Return of the Swamp Thing as “her first awful film role,” and I can only assume that was a typo, and they actually meant “awe-inspiring.”