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Here’s a nice feature on pal Randy regarding his illustration work for Star Wars.

Randy’s a good guy, and has been doing our front window paintings for years…we’ve had Plastic Man fighting Wolverine, we’ve had Darth Maul in a Santa hat, we’ve had Spider-Man kicking back at the beach, and we’ve had this:

You can find a clean copy of that image on this page.

All of Randy’s window designs are lots of fun, and always get a great deal of attention and positive comments from customers and passers-by. If you like his art, you have a chance of getting an original piece by him from the Star Wars Heritage card set, as he’s one of the artists supplying the sketch chase cards.

On a completely unrelated note, apparently Bazooka Joe has had new people join his gang. (I can’t believe we lost our chance to have a Goth girl appear in Bazooka Joe comics. Crud!)

Felix the Cat #55 (September 1954)

So there I was, poking through issue #169 of Amazing Spider-Man (written by Len Wein, illustrated by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, from June 1977) when I spotted the following panel:

Okay, that’s definitely your standard-issue mid-to-late-70s Stan Lee caricature, but what’s with the careful attention to detail with those two kids? That seemed a little unusual.

Well, the answer to that is no farther away than this issue’s letters column:

Say it with me: “SPIDER-MAN DANCE CONTEST.” One can only imagine. The TV show Wonderama is recalled on this page — one of the reader-contributed memories mentions said contest. It appears that someone in a Spider-Man costume did “The Spider-Man Dance” on the show, and then the contest was to see which kid in the studio audience could best perform that same dance. Actually, the way the memory is actually phrased, one could infer that Stan Lee did the dance as well. I really, really hope Stan actually did do “The Spider-Man Dance.” If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.

By the way, since some of you are probably wondering, here’s a little more information re: Vera Valiant.

And what the heck, here’s Stan the Man’s very own Marvel Universe-style page.

Please, please, please tell me that the promo for next week’s episode of Smallville — the one apparently about “meteor rock”-enhanced cosmetic surgery — was not blurbed with the phrase “KRYP/TUCK.” And especially please tell me that the phrase wasn’t in giant green letters.

Anyway, this week’s episode was a little more focused than the season opener, as Clark, Lois, and eventually Lana all join in the search for the formerly presumed-dead and now just presumed-missing Chloe. We also get some closure (maybe) on the Lionel Luthor arc from last season. I do call a big “no way” on Lois digging up her cousin’s grave in broad daylight without being noticed, however. But we do begin to get a feel for how a relationship between the brash Lois and the usually reserved Clark would actually work.

Oh and (big SPOILER) I also call “no way” on how Chloe survived. If my memory serves, didn’t the house explode as soon as the front door shut? It didn’t seem as if there was enough time for the escape scenario described in this episode to play out.

In other news:

Peter David says his upcoming storyline on Hulk will only be five issues long, unlike the usual six issues Marvel seems to insist on for eventual trade paperback reprinting. David will still do a sixth stand-alone story…so we’ll get all six of those in a trade anyway, I’m sure. I particularly like this comment of his:

I could (pardon the expression) pad it out to six, but what’s the point of that?

Gee, I can’t think of any writers at Marvel who might be doing that. Can you?

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Atlas Archives is a site devoted to the brief existence of the 1970s publisher. The Grim Ghost is a particular favorite of mine.

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The Comic Treadmill looks at what must be one of the greatest records ever, “Songs & Stories About The Justice League of America.”

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I’m glad to see someone else has noticed the same problem I had with the last issue of Green Lantern…namely, Kyle just taking the bad guy at his word that Mom is fine and dandy. Did anyone even look at this script before it was published?

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I don’t really care what the new Sin City trade dress looks like, just so long as the books are available when people ask us for them, what with the interest in the movie and all. You know, just for a nice change of pace.

I’m not holding my breath, though. Yeah, I know what Dark Horse is claiming, but that smoke’s been blown our way before.

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Rick, who runs the fine and good weblog Eat More People, has voluntarily removed himself the Comics Update-A-Tron 3000 due to his reduction in funnybook-related content, but don’t let that stop you from visiting! This month, he plans on discussing a different horror movie every day — a worthwhile endeavor.

Via pal JP, an eBay auction for a poster for another unauthorized and completely insane Batman movie, right up there with James Batman, Batman Fights Dracula, and Alyas Batman and Robin.

Because you demanded it:

Mighty Mouse #10 (July 1991)

In case you can’t see it…that’s “Late Night with David Udderman.”

You can see the Mighty Mouse Crisis on Infinite Earths tribute cover here…it’s from the Homages page at the excellent George Perez fan site.

Ack! No new Justice League Unlimited last night! But I did finally see, thanks to the Netflix, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, the latest installment in the Batman: The Animated Series feature-length (well, 75 minutes, anyway) films. The animation was nice and clear, if not very smooth…near the beginning, the character of Kathy Duquesne is shown with a hip-wiggling walk that’s supposed to be sexy, but looks more like her legs are out of joint. Plus, there are some scenes where the action sequences look more like you’re watching a flip-book. And is every road in Gotham City elevated? Otherwise, the actual “mystery” of the Batwoman is played out nicely, with a twist that I half-suspected at the beginning, didn’t think they’d do, then was surprised when they did it anyway. The villains of the piece (the Penguin, Rupert Thorne, and an arrival later in the film) don’t exactly inspire a lot of interest, though I suppose they can’t draw from the Joker well every time. And it was nice to hear David Odgen Stiers as the Penguin.

One of the bonus features is the much-praised short “Chase Me,” which focuses on what Bruce Wayne would rather be doing instead of being trapped at some socialite gathering: chasing Catwoman through the streets of Gotham. The gimmick is that there is no dialogue or sound effects…the only soundtrack is a musical accompaniment, which is quite effective. You can see some screen grabs from the short here.

Overall — heck, worth a rental.

In other news:

• H at The Comic Treadmill has posted a theory on who he believes may be the killer in Identity Crisis…and makes a convincing argument. More convincing than Nightwing, for goodness’ sake. Plus, upon rereading…I don’t see anything that would really contradict this guess…and the killer standing in the shadows on page 14 does bear a passing resemblance to the character in question, given that he does appear to be drawn as being a little heavier-set now.)

  Also, Comic Treadmill has put up a new poll asking who you think is the mystery killer in Identity Crisis. One option is we members of the Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County California And Outlying Environs (which is, as always, ACAPCWOVCCAOE for short)…so of course, that’s the one I voted for, and far be it for me to perhaps suggest that others do the same, if you know what’s good for you. I mean, at least get us more votes than Yoko Ono!

• Speaking of Identity Crisis and the ACAPCWOVCCAOE, pal Dorian shows up Meltzer (and Marz, for that matter) for the pikers they are.
  

Mighty Mouse #6 (March 1991) – cover by Milton Knight

The fact that there’s someone willing to go out in public dressed in a Thanos costume proves to me that there is still beauty in this world.

I can’t stop looking at Firestorm’s big flaming head, either. It’s hypnotic.

About Comics’ forthcoming publication It’s Only A Game, reprinting the little-seen comic strip by Charles M. Schulz and Jim Sasseville, is now available for preorder. (Buying it through this link gives a little chunk o’change to publisher Nat Gertler.)