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As some of you may recall, I recently moved to a new house here in lovely Ventura County, CA. And, when you move to a new house, you suddenly get a whole lot of gardening and window treatment flyers left on your doorstep. I received one such flyer today:

“It’s a blind…it’s a shutter
It’s a custom drapery treatment

You can have it all with…

WINDOW WONDER WOMAN”

Now, it seems to me I recall the DC Comics lawyers going after a — oh, I don’t recall, a car dealership or something? — that was using the phrase “Dynamic Duo,” which, it turns out, is copyrighted by the good folks at DC. I wonder how “Window Wonder Woman” (which, according to the flyer, has been around for 40 years) managed to slip past the DC radar? Was adding “Window” enough to keep this person from being harassed by The Man?

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In the “thanks but no thanks” department:

“Comic novice”

“I am looking for a recommendation for something that might get me interested. To give some parameters, I would rule out *standard* super hero or horror stuff (but am open to something different) In general I am a science fiction/space opera fan. Long Epics with good characters. I would be looking more for story than for art. Any direction would be appreciated.”

First response?

“X-MEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, that’s the only comics I ever read, I used to have a spiderman comic with kull in it, and it was great.”

Yeah, these forums posts are a few years old, but it made me laugh. And the guy looking for good comics ended up with the Invisibles, so at least there’s a happy ending.

from New Beginning #4 (1992) by Terry Kalkanian & Bruce White

*If it makes you feel any better, Dave survives. “Tragic near-death” isn’t as catchy.

“So, Mike, what’d you do at work today?”

“Oh, looked for the death of Aquababy.”

“That’s ni…uh, what?”

For some reason, that subject was brought up over the weekend, which had me turn to the Overstreet Price Guide to track down the exact issue in which this happened. (I suppose I could have e-mailed Laura, keeper of all Aqua-knowledge, but why make things easy on myself?)

Anyway, I don’t bring this up to talk about the death of Aquababy (which the mighty Dave’s Long Box has already covered quite well), but to talk about Overstreet’s guide notations. You’d think, given Overstreet’s predilection for the lurid, they’d be all over a character death like this. But, no, here’s how it’s listed:

“441-452-Aquaman app.”

Adding insult to Aquababy’s injury, issue 443 is pointed out for special attention:

“443-Fisherman app.”

I’m guessing, since, as Dave mentions, Aquababy’s death is remarkably underplayed, and not even cover-featured, it’s just been missed by whoever it is that decides what gets notated and what doesn’t.

Just poking through the Adventure listings, I see notations that would be of use to fans, like “Death Earth-2 Batman,” and “Unpubbed G.A. Black Canary story,” but then you see something like “Intro. Mighty Girl” in #453. One, I think this is the one and only appearance of “Mighty Girl,” and two, given who Mighty Girl really is, fans may be more interested in knowing that this issue actually features a young Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon (er…SPOILER, I guess).

Now, I’ve heard anecdotal evidence of comic dealers putting crazy notations on some of the comics they’d list in ads, just as a goof, only to see those same notations show up in subsequent price guides. I’m guessing this is the result of price guide researchers scouring comic listings and actual sales seeing these notations, thinking “hey, people must be looking for ‘Mighty Girl’ appearances,” and adding that info to their guides.

I need to start doing that in our ads. “Silver Surfer #59: 1st hatless Thanos – $99.95.”

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Hey, as a result of those House of M/X-Men: The 198 shenanigans, did the Sub-Mariner, as “Marvel’s first mutant,” lose his powers? Or is he a different kind of mutant from all those X-folks runnin’ around, and thus unaffected? (The things I wonder about at work, sometimes.)

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“Graphic novel is enjoyable”

“The comic book genre has evolved quite a bit over the past few years, though, resulting in a new incarnation called ‘graphic novels.'”

Actually, it’s a positive review of Paul Has A Summer Job, so I shouldn’t make fun. I’d rather have a well-meaning positive article (or an open-minded critical appraisal) than something like this (found via The Comics Reporter):

“I used to be crazy about comic books. But I really can’t figure out why anyone would pay good money for such supposed ‘adult’ versions of the stuff I read back then, or why reams of words have been wasted explicating such ‘books.'”

Ouch. (EDIT: Just noticed that same quote had been posted on the Great Curve’s “Heroes & Villains” entry earlier today. Didn’t mean to step on any toes, there!)

from Soap Opera Love #2 (March 1983) – art by Pete Morisi

from Soap Opera Love #2 (March 1983) – art by A. Martinez & J. Zuniga

Etcetera & The Comic Reader #86 (June 1972) – art by Alan Kupperberg & Steve Mitchell

Here is some positive feedback recently left for our store account on the eBay:

“like a log in the fire, burning itself to create warmth and comfort for us all”

“like the snowflake slowly dancing across the scy [sic] to greet the weary ground”

“like a cool wind blowing against the legs freshly discarded from a pair of socks”

Had I known that selling Moebius books would inspire feedback poetry, I would do it more often.

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Hey! Here’s an advance look at Spider-Man’s new temporary costume change: “it’s playing an important role in the future of the web-slinger!” So, what’s the general consensus as to how long it’ll be around? Three months? Six months? Will it last out a year? It’ll be gone before the next movie rolls around, at any rate.

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A brief look at the DC Comics forums:

“Can Kid Eternity call upon Barry Allen?”

Hey, yeah, can he?

“How far can they take Joker without an R rating?”

“He can kill, shoot, hit someone with a car, throw some joker bombs…make people laugh themselves silly….but what happens when Doctor Joker wants to come out and play? Or if Joker wants to be a hair stylist…I mean…I am not saying show us blood goar and all that…but I mean…even Braveheart got an R rating for all the crap they were doing to William Wallace offstage”

“IMPORTANT 2006 NEWS! SPOILER WARNING! VERY EXCITING!”

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Nightwing Sucks Flash is better”

The first page of Superman #423 (1986):

As reprinted in the new DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore TPB:

The missing text appears nowhere in the book that I can see. I believe the technical term for this is “a major screw-up.”

(Thanks to commenter Garrie for pointing this out to me.)

As odd as it may seem, my recent run of Bat posts about the ’60s Batman TV show was made without realizing that today is the show’s 40th anniversary.

Funny how things work out, sometimes.

Best thing I got at the store on New Comics Day:

…the Visions of Frank DVD, featuring nine different animated interpretations of Jim Woodring‘s comic work. (There’s a RealPlayer clip of one of the animations on this page to get a taste.) The dreamlike qualities of the comics translate very successfully to motion, at least in the half I’ve had time to watch so far. It’s a little pricey, considering it’s less than an hour long, but production value is high (particularly on the package…very sharp looking, and includes a small 16-page booklet which reprints a couple Frank strips), and how could you not want a DVD in your collection with this menu page:

I should also note that along with the original soundtracks for each of the animations, there is a second set of accompanying tracks by different artists, including one by the inimitable Dame Darcy.

I also ordered another Japanese Jim Woodring import item, this one a book called The Lute String, that was supposed to come in this Wednesday as well…but, alas, our entire order for this item was shorted by Diamond. I’ll have to wait for more Frank fun until next week, when the replacements will (hopefully) arrive.

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Other new comics news:

The Batman Strikes #17 – So, upon seeing the Riddler on the cover, only one question comes to mind: are there any good character designs on this cartoon? Good heavens.

Marvel Milestones Bloodstone, X-51 and Captain Marvel II – “Quick, run into the archives and grab three completely random comics…we’ll slap ’em together and reprint them under one cover!” “Genius!”

DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore – Quite frankly, I’d rather they just 1) kept the old edition of this book in print, and 2) kept the Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow and Killing Joke books in print separately (and yes, I know there are economic reasons why they don’t). I foresee people looking for Killing Joke in the future not being terribly happy that it’s now only available in a $20 paperback. (Then again, it’s not as if Killing Joke didn’t go through a bazillion printings…they should be relatively easy to find…I hope.) Nice cover, though.

Ed The Happy Clown #4 – Have I mentioned that I hope he collects these, with the footnotes, when he’s done with the series? Probably. I wish I’d paid closer attention, and picked these up from the start.

Elfquest The Discovery #1 – Still not an Elfquest follower…sorry, but I thought I’d better mention it in case anyone wasn’t aware that Wendy ‘n’ Richard are doing a brand new full-color mini-series. For those of you who like this kind of thing, it looks like it’ll be the kind of thing that you want.

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Mark Evanier pointed to the William Shatner DVD Club…and, as pal Dorian pointed out to me, it’s not a club sending out DVDs starring Shatner…it’s a club with DVDs picked by…well, take a look at the FAQ:

“…All films distributed through the William Shatner DVD Club are chosen by William Shatner himself with the help of his team of expert film critics and programming professionals from organizations such as the Sci-Fi Channel.”

And, quite frankly, I think they’re missing a bet. They should just have movies starring William Shatner. And when they run out of already-produced Shatner movies, they should start making new ones. One a month, every month, forever, each one starring the Shat, on any topic you can think of. (Well, except softcore erotica, like Red Shatner Diaries or something…I’m not ready for that.) Heck, maybe we could get another Spplat Attack sequel or something.

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Because you demanded it…some more Batman TV show links:

Fiendish Observational Comedian has some Bat-comments, including the three Bat-characters he thinks (and I agree!) that have never been better portrayed in live action than on this show.

Fearless Fred Hembeck has some personal observations (under Jan. 12) about our favorite Bat-show…he is perhaps not as enamored of it as I, but you won’t be able to tell from the effort he put into his specialized Batman TV Page. Great stuff!

Tom “Superfrankenstein” Peyer has a fine selection of Batman TV show links and some good show stills…he did it last year, too.

Great work all around, Bat-friends!