sir-links-a-lot – Page 10 – Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin

More like “Sir Links-A-Little.”

February 2, 2011February 2, 2011 filed under sir-links-a-lot 10 Comments

The Rack, the comic strip about a comic shop by Kevin Church and Benjamin Birdie, has come to a shocking and somewhat abrupt end. This was a fine run of a great comic that wasn’t just nerd jokes and never wallowed in fanboy whining. I’ll miss it.
Of course, if this turns out to be some elaborate plot stunt by Kevin and Birdie, I’ll strangle the both of ’em.

For another strip in the same “universe” as The Rack, Mr. Church and Paul Salvi present The Line.

Andrew brings us more Nobody’s Favorites…this time, a group of characters I never much liked when they popped up in Legion, and had their own short-lived series I never read. …A ringing endorsement!

From a fellow Bureau Chief comes this new project: The Content Farm! Learn how to do things in ways that may or may not be practical!

“Come back, little man! Krogg kill you!”

January 25, 2011 filed under sir-links-a-lot, superman 10 Comments

So I was given this 1978 Superman puzzle the other day:

Yes, there's probably an off-color gag in the 'O-So-Long' name, I know.

This “Superman O-So-Long 3 Foot Jigsaw Puzzle” features a portion of a story by Gerry Conway, Curt Swan and Jack Abel that was originally presented in Superman Family #187 (Jan/Feb 1978). I didn’t have access to this particular issue, either at the shop or in the Vast Mikester Comic Archives, but I did have part one of the story in #186, which featured the Earth-2 Superman. That it seemed to be the Earth-2 version featured in the puzzle surprised me just a little, although, aside from the altered “S” shield you can see in the excerpt below, there are no parallel-Earth shenanigans readily evident:

…And as it turns out, it wasn’t strictly speaking the Earth-2 Superman as such. According to this brief synopsis, this Krogg dude is too much for any one Superman to handle, so using a “transmatter machine” the two Supermen are merged into one “Super-Superman.” At which point, Super-Superman straight-up kills Krogg and calls it a day. Basically, Super-Superman notices some kind of energy build-up in Krogg, and helps it along by adding to the energy with his heat vision, until, well, you saw what happened up there.

Anyway, my only real exposure to this story is via this hip new jigsaw puzzle format in which all the kids are reading their comics nowadays, so I don’t know if there’s a reference to Krogg being some kind of “artificial lifeform” or “android” or something in the full version. Otherwise…yeah, Superman’s plan was to raise Krogg’s critical mass until he went kablooie. No indication he was about to kablooie on his own, like “hmmm, he’s about to explode, so my heat vision will speed the process!” It’s totally “hey, he’s got too much energy inside him, I’ll just add to it ’til he pops!” …Maybe they changed it for the puzzle, but reading that synopsis, it doesn’t seem like it.

I wonder if there’s a database somewhere of all the times Superman just kills people. That seems like something appropriately obsessive for a comics fan to do.

…Why are you all looking at me?

• • •
In other news:

Thanks for your responses to my Comics Code Authority post from the other day…they’ve made for some interesting reading. I don’t know that I have any kind of follow-up or meta-analysis or anything, but I liked hearing from you folks anyway. By the way, check out this article, which claims the CCA has essentially been out of business for a while now.

Swamp Thing and Man-Thing: best pals! (Thanks to Reader Rob for the link!)

Calling the New Guardians “Nobody’s Favorites” would seem almost redundant…but I kind of have a soft spot for them anyway. I have a fondness for Englehart’s ’80s DC work, including Green Lantern, Millennium and, yes, New Guardians. So damned silly and earnest, but still evoke that nostalgic twinge.

In fact, Marvel probably can stop doing Wolverine comics now.

January 20, 2011 filed under sir-links-a-lot 1 Comment

Say, remember that Fred Hembeck Sluggo sketch I won on the eBay a few days back? It showed up in the mail just yesterday, and it looks great. On the reverse is a Fred self-portrait headsketch, identifying it as an official Hembeck sketch card, with the name (“Sluggo”) and the number (“1 of 1”). If you want a Hembeck sketch of your own, there are plenty of other great originals available.

I’m just going to say the title Zeppi-Zo, Interplanetary Clown, and you’re just gonna have to go and experience it yourself.

A very happy seventh blogiversary to Tim O’Neil! Glad he’s still around and dropping thoughts on “event” comics and the like.

Speaking of blogiversaries, Chris Sims just had his sixth. He’s a talented kid…he’ll probably get somewhere someday, if he applies himself.

Internet pal Euge of Adam Warrock fame has released another free track for your downloading enjoyment…accompanied by an appropriate panel scan from some Golden Age comic or ‘nother that I sent him a while back.

I like the Comics Reporter’s new site layout. Much less cramped.

Seriously, pal Dorian is busting me up with his Flop posts. (NOTE: Some images may approach Not Safe for Work levels.)

Speaking of pal Dorian…wha huh?

“Donald Duck. Every day. Because he is awesome.” Well said.

Andrew tries to explain Spiral Zone to us and still have it make sense.

Thanks to Bully, the Bull Who Is Little And By The Way Is Also Stuffed, I now know everything there is to know about Wolverine. Everything.

The importance of being Sluggo.

January 13, 2011January 13, 2011 filed under sir-links-a-lot, sluggo 5 Comments

And then there was the time when I won the eBay auction for this awesome original Fred Hembeck sketch:

…which should be winging its way to my home via the tender mercies of the post office within a week or two. Can’t wait!

There was another recent Hembeck sketch auction that I was tempted by, but alas, couldn’t squeeze that into the budget this time around. Still recovering from Christmas an’ all, don’t you know. (Thanks to pal Dorian for informing me of these auctions…I spend so much time selling things on the eBay that I rarely do any actual shopping there!)

Speaking of Sluggo, which is a rare around these parts I realize, Boing Boing’s David Pescovitz put up a post about Sluggo expressing his inner beatnik. In the comments there, Twitter pal MrJM was good enough to remind folks about my Sluggo Saturday shenanigans, which Mr. Pescovitz responded by describing that little project of mine as “so much fun,” which was much appreciated.

Pal Andres also turns up in the comments, blaming me for hooking him on Nancy and Sluggo. I am an enabler.

One other person in the comments wonders if the two Sluggo beatnik panels presented there are from the same strip, or even by the same artist…and another person notes that he believes one of the panels is by noted Nancy-ologist Bill Griffith. Well, I can assure both these folks that 1) the panels are from the same strip, 2) the strip is by Ernie Bushmiller, and 3) the strip in question appears in Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy Vol. 4 (a flip book with “Bums, Beatniks and Hippies” on one side, “Artists and Con Artists” on the other), published by Kitchen Sink Press in 1991.

But anyway…”hello” to any new folks popping in! I’m Mike, I sell funnybooks for a living, and I like Sluggo and Swamp Thing and All Star Batman and Robin. …Hey, wait, where are you going? Come back!

• • •
In other news:

Benjamin Birdie, artist of America’s most beloved webcomic about a comic shop, The Rack, has started a new project entitled “Benjamin: Yesterday” in which he expresses the many moods of Benjamin Birdie in a daily sketch diary. No words, no “strips” as such…just a single drawing of Birdie being Birdie, every day. Very nicely done.

Dr. Polite Scott has posted his Best (and Worst) Comic Book Medicine of 2010 awards, and it probably comes as no surprise which writer dominates the “Worst Medicine” categories. (Though the linked Superboy story — not by this writer — is amazing.)

A Nice Cup of Comics – a Tumblr celebrating the intersection of comic books and the drinking of tea, which relaxes the mind and soothes the soul. And who couldn’t use a little of that, nowadays?

Ruinalista.

January 11, 2011January 10, 2011 filed under sir-links-a-lot 16 Comments

You know, if I were releasing a boatload of Avengers comics to the stands every month:

…I don’t know that I’d obscure the subtitle of one of them, keeping customers from quickly identifying which Avengers title it happens to be. But, hey, what do I know, I just sell the things. It’s not like I’ve had to point it out to people specifically looking for it or anything.

In other news:

Comics colorist Tom Ziuko is having financial woes due to health problems and can use a bit of help. You can read the details from fellow comics pro Alan Kupperburg at that link, and you can donate what you can to Kupperburg’s PayPal account: kupperberg (AT) earthlink.net.

In case you don’t get enough Alan Moore during your day (unlike this dude, who apparently has), BEHOLD: A Moment of Moore, providing your regular required dosage of that fabulous bearded man’s life and work.
Related projects: A Moment of Ellis, starring the work of your pal Warren Ellis, and A Moment of Morrison, starring Grant Morrison. And this site isn’t called “A Moment of Moebius” but it totally could be.

Sadly, no “A Moment of Chris Claremont” site appears to exist. …GET MOVING, INTERNET. (Just day after day of panels of characters saying or thinking “I…hurt.”)

Speaking of Mr. Morrison, pal Dorian provides, as part of his ongoing Paperback Book Club project, the cover of Morrison’s Lovely Biscuits.

You’ve already seen this, but you must see it again: Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull with a Quick Hoof on the Remote Control brings you “Commissioner Gordon Is A Jerk” (and he totally is). This is the greatest thing.

Jim Woodring has created a giant pen (the construction of which you can follow by going back through his weblog, and you can see video footage of the pen right here. Why would a man do such a thing? Why would a man not? It was demonstrated at the Gage Academy of Art on Sunday, and I look forward to the eventual release of video of the event. (Gary Groth tweets that the demonstration was both “physically & aesthetically” pleasing.)
EDIT: And here are photos of the giant pen in action, via Boing Boing.

Ragnell discusses the problems of liking a particular character, but not liking the books she appears in.

Whoops! Neilalien points out a bit of a continuity snafu in a recent Avengers storyline, as well as providing commentary on Dr. Strange’s appearance in the story, and the somewhat drab way magic is being used there.

Tim O’Neil discusses Crisis on Infinite Earths, the two Secret Wars series, and other crossover events and their impact. The brave man defends both Secret Wars, and you know what? So do I. Those are some crazy comics, man. Just pure “what the–!?” pouring over the pages.

Palookaville #20 – the last comic book?

Not really comics, and a bit Not Safe for Work-ish: one of the gals at the Shatner-centric Look at His Butt podcast is selling off some Trek ‘zines, and from one of said ‘zines is this fantastic fan drawing of Spock and a young lady. That Spock face needs to be a shirt.

Don’t hold your breath for a new Wonder Woman TV show, kids. It may be a while.

Kevin Church and Benjamin Birdie have finished The Rack‘s “Baller Dogz Saga,” and you can follow this four-color Greek Tragedy right here. (SUPER TWITTER FLASHBACK: Employee Aaron and I provide BALLER DOGZ COSPLAY.)

As long as I’m talking about me: the Fantagraphics weblog notes that the prediction jokingly made by a commenter in my predictions posts, about broadcaster Al Roker writing an intro for Fanta’s forthcoming Carl Barks’ ducks reprints, isn’t too far-fetched: Roker will be writing an introduction for the next volume of the Complete Peanuts.

Milo George presents his favorite Superman, and it’s one of my favorites, too.

Speaking of Superman, Siskoid has been detailing the many, many variations of Superman from comics, TV, movies and more, including a version of Superman that’s generally praised, though the movie he appears in is not, and a later Pre-1980s-Reboot Superman from a favorite comic of mine.

And here’s a Superman DC would rather you forgot about: Wonder Man, an early Superman knock-off DC sued out of existence.

Tom Spurgeon has been unloading all kinds of great interviews over the last few weeks, like this recent one with Dan Clowes.
EDIT: And here’s a link to all of the interviews!

Here’s a review of the new superhero TV show The Cape, which describes it as “NBC’s newest attempt at bringing the insanely popular comic book genre to TV” since Misfits of Science, which isn’t mentioned, but surely one can read between the lines, there. And, sadly, the “insanely popular” only applies to Spider-Man, Iron Man, Batman and other hit super-films, and not to the comics themselves, some of which have as many as hundreds of readers! (Unless the “insane” refers to some of the readers, in which case…yeah, okay, you got me.)
Anyway, didn’t catch the show, since I’ve eschewed the cable thing a while back. Any good? (Yeah, I know, I could read the review…but I’d rather hear it from you folks. Even the crazy people.)

The “Ruinalista” title is just a gag for this extree-long links post. I’m not doing this on a regular basis!

On the other hand, the Gladstone albums came with those cool trading cards.

January 4, 2011 filed under sir-links-a-lot 6 Comments

Still looking for your 2011 comic book predictions, so please feel free to add them in the comments on that post…even if they are just gag predictions, you jokers. I’ll probably discuss some of the predictions in a couple of days, and maybe lay down a few of my own.

In other news:

Well, here comes the fourth ongoing Green Lantern series, only it’s all about the Red Lanterns, which seems awfully unnecessary, except 1) it’s written by Peter Milligan, so, you know, it’ll probably be good, and 2) Dex-Starr, the Red Lantern cat is in it, and who can resist a cute little homicidal kitty? Stronger folks than me, that’s who.
This still leaves us with about two too many Green Lantern-related comics, but DC’s still riding that huge bump of interest in the franchise after the sales success of Blackest Night, and sales on the GL books are still very strong. Plus, Marvel’s not the only company that’ll saturate the shelves with books tying into a forthcoming movie…just that DC doesn’t get to do it too often.

In other DC news, letter columns are coming back, so losing those two pages of story and art in DC’s books in order to keep the price point (temporarily) at $2.99 will be countered by content provided by you, the reader.
I used to really like reading letters columns, probably for the same reason I enjoy fanzines…exposure to what other fans are thinking about the same books I’m reading (and of course trying to glean hints about What’s to Come from the editorial responses). Nowadays, for those of us who regularly endure online fandom, there’s no shortage of this sort of thing available to those who want it, even if it’s without the editorial filter that would weed out the…less socially-adapted, shall we say. I admit I’d sort of stopped reading the letter pages in recent years, before DC dropped them entirely. Not sure I’m looking forward to their return, but…hmm, I wonder if I wrote in, they’d let me plug my site? Always look for the silver lining!

(Johanna has additional commentary.)

So Bully, The Little Bull What Is Stuffed, was pulling your leg (with his little stuffed hooves wrapped around your ankle, tugging furiously) with his 365 Days with The Guy Freaking Out on The Cover of Action Comics #1, but he’s not pulling your leg with 365 Days with the Warriors Three! Spend the year the way our forefathers intended…with Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg!

Big news from Fantagraphics, as they’re publishing the complete Disney Ducks work of Carl Barks in full color hardcover volumes. This really is some of the best storytelling comics has to offer, and if you don’t have any of this stuff already, you need to check it out.
Now, I already spent 10+ years (and, ahem, more money than I care to think about) buying the Gladstone color Carl Barks Library softcover albums, which, as I seem to recall, covered nearly all of Barks’ Disney output. There was apparently a story or two that were left out…I don’t recall the specifics, but I seem to remember at least one Daisy Duck story not making it into the series, and probably more that that…but they are long out of print, and the binding on these wasn’t the best in the world, so the Fantagraphics project is quite welcome. There are some comics that should never be unavailable, and the work of Carl Barks is at the top of that list.

Things from my comments sections, both wonderful and terrifying.

December 31, 2010December 31, 2010 filed under cartoons, sir-links-a-lot 11 Comments

So, you, the readers, have been contributing a bit of content in my comments sections recently, which I always appreciate…partially because I always like finding out about new things, but mostly so I can appropriate what you’ve submitted and turn it into site content.

Like, for example, reader Cobalt informing me about the fact that the little rabbit in the old Pete Puma cartoon is saying actual dialogue, just sped up very fast (a fact I may have been somewhat aware of, but never really thought about it until, well, now). And then reader Mike points me in the direction of this YouTube clip, where the little rabbit’s voice is slowed down into comprehensibility. Interestingly, while most of the dialogue is meaningful in context, there is a small bit where the rabbit is talking about an oak tree that doesn’t seem to relate to anything (which someone in the video’s comment section, in a rare instance of a YouTube commenter actually being sane, also notes). It sort of sounds to me like this piece of dialogue was just spliced in to extend this particular bit of the rabbit’s sped-up speech to fit the animation. I haven’t any idea, really, and maybe someone else can clear it up for us.

Another thing dropped into a recent comments section was from reader A.L., who produces the beautifully-illustrated webcomic Rose Madder. He has earned the title “Arch-Nemesis of Progressive Ruin” for daring to drop a link to this piece of Disney merchandise, and baby, if I have to think about Minnie Mouse squeezing her tuckus into a slinky, form-fitting Tron outfit, then so do you:

YOU CAN’T

UNTHINK IT
Just a little something to bring with you into the new year. No need to thank me.

And speaking of the new year…I certainly hope you all have a safe and happy new year’s celebration, and I’ll see you all in 2011! At least, those of you who are still willing to come back to the site after what A.L. and I have done to you.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Sometimes you just have to link to a page of sound clips from a Pete Puma cartoon.

December 28, 2010December 28, 2010 filed under cartoons, Christmas, sir-links-a-lot 10 Comments

MORE CHRISTMAS GIFTS:

Given to me by Employee Aaron is this fine example of science journalism:

He’s a card, that former employee Aaron.

And given by me to pal Dorian was a bottle o’hooch with a custom label featuring Dor’s favorite character. You can see the actual bottle at Dor’s site, and right here is a better look at the label itself:

In other news:

Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull, is just about to wrap up 365 Days of Hank McCoy, but get a load of this new thing: 365 Days with The Guy Freaking Out on the Cover of Action Comics #1. Fantastic.

It’s time once again for another installment of Nobody Else’s Favorites…gimme a D!

Here’s the full original art for a very depressing Christmas story, illustrated by Rick Veitch and written by the late Steve Perry.

For no good reason whatsoever, Employee Aaron and I like doing impressions of the relatively little-used Warner Brothers character Pete Puma (as voiced, back in the ’50s and even ’til today by Stan Freberg). And that’s why I’m posting this page of clips from the Pete Puma cartoon “Rabbit’s Kin.” Enjoy.

P-Tor over at Sanctum Sanctorum informs me that there is are a series of fundraising auctions for Bill Mantlo, the former comics writer who was seriously injured years ago, and now needs full-time medical care. All the pieces feature Rom, and some of the contributing artists include Zack Soto and Mike Allred. You can also the see the artwork here.

Breaking news!

December 21, 2010December 21, 2010 filed under sir-links-a-lot 12 Comments

Because they're breaking stuff! Get it? GET IT?

So the big news from yesterday’s release of DC Comics’ March 2011 solicitations is that, finally…finally we’re getting Sugar and Spike archive editions. Well, one volume at least, anyway, reprinting issues #1 through #10 at an admittedly-dear $59.99, but that still works out to about six bucks an issue, and if you’re buying these issues right now for six bones apiece out of a store’s back issue bin, let me know where you shop because I’m totally going there. Otherwise, that seems like a bargain to me, to get some recolored classic Sheldon Mayer work in a format that won’t feel like it’s about to crumble beneath my fingertips.

In other forthcoming funnybook announcement news, more books for the next Free Comic Book Day are now posted on the official FCBD site, with some interesting offerings to be found there. Of course the usual reliable suspects make their appearances (like the consistently entertaining Bongo Comics Simpsons/Futurama comic, and another surely-great John Stanley sampler from Drawn & Quarterly) and some surprises (Viper Comics’ Inspector Gadget seems like one that’ll go over well), and some “oh, not again” ones ( ::cough:: Overstreet ::cough::). And then there’s the Heroclix figurine giveaway:

“BEWARE MY POWER, BIG CUCUMBER’S MIGHT”

In even more other news:

Nothing says “Christmas” like a gorilla luchadore, and by God, the El Gorgo guys have got you covered. Are you quite ready for the El Gorgo Christmas Special, available to read completely for free?

Here’s a Christmastime contest giveaway where one lucky winner can win the entire five-volume Batman No Man’s Land trade paperback series. Four runners-up will ~~be punished with~~ receive Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts Of Darkness. Anyway, that’s a whole lotta Batman to get for free, so take a chance, why don’cha.

Gerry over at CO2 Comics has a list of Christmas comic wishes for Santa. (Gerry also reveals that he regularly performs as Santa for events and at malls and such…I can’t imagine a job that is as simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking as being Santa and listening to kids’ Christmas wishes. Good on him that he does this.)

Hey, it’s the War Rocket Ajax Christmas special, guest-starring Matt Fraction! …I haven’t linked to this podcast in a while. I’m sorry. It’s still going, you know. And it’s still pretty good. They got a new guy co-hosting. He’s working out alright.

Dirk Deppey, former Comics Journal editor and longtime “Journalista” weblogger has been laid off by Fantagraphics, and will be ending his run on Journalista this Wednesday. I started my mornings with his comic news linkblogging and sardonic commentary for years, and it’s a shame he’ll no longer be writing that column.
On a more personal note, I attribute a lot of this very site’s early (and continuing) success to Deppey’s singling me out, way back when in Journalista 1.0 (prior to the column’s brief hiatus) as “definitely one of the better new comics bloggers to emerge so far this year,” a quote I still desperately hang onto with both hands despite my emergence being seven years in the past. It was that bit of encouragement and his willingness to link approvingly to things I’d written that made me realize maybe, just maybe, this dumb website of mine may actually be of some value and / or amusement to folks outside my immediate circle of friends. (And that it was from an official representative of The Comic Journal, a magazine I’d been enjoying and admiring for years…well, consider my mind blown.) So, whether Mr. Deppey wants to take the blame or not, he’s a big part of the reason why I’m even still here, doing whatever it is I do.

Thanks, Dirk, for all the work you’ve done over the years, and I certainly hope and expect to see more from you in the future!

Words to live by.

December 19, 2010 filed under sir-links-a-lot, supergirl 11 Comments

Here's hoping that's not a Gwen Stacy-style 'snap.'

from Adventure #413 (Dec 1971) by John Albano, Art Saaf & Bob Oksner

In other news:

Dispatches from The Fridge: a new women ‘n’ comics linkblog from pals Lisa and Kalinara.

Panels for Primates is a charity comics anthology raising awareness for the Primate Rescue Center…the first story is by Stuart Moore and Rick Geary, and it’s a good’un. Click the “chapter” links across the top of the page for more contributions…updates every Wednesday.

While Bully the Little Stuffed Bull successfully makes the argument that both Steve and Diana are big jerks to each other, I find myself most fascinated by what must be the most hideous rendition of Superman I’ve ever seen in that last panel there.

CAPTAIN AMERICA BURNS IN FIRE. Well, an alleged Captain America, anyway. Or maybe Cap was just smoke-damaged. But I had no idea there was this level of contention over who really is the real Captain America.