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…so to celebrate, lemme reach again into the long-neglected AiT/Planetlar Box o’Love, and pull out The Couriers 02: Dirtbike Manifesto by Brian Wood and Rob G. Not much to say, really…it’s another one of Wood’s tautly-told fun and not terribly deep action movies with humor and gunplay, as the two couriers in question (Moustafa and Special) find themselves tracking down gunrunners in “redneck country” — a bit outside the city-life to which Moustafa and Special are accustomed. Again, the dialogue is sparse, telling you exactly what you need to know, and the art is deceptively simple…at first glance, it looks rushed and crude, but as the story continues, you begin to appreciate its expressiveness. Some of the fast-action “blur” effects (as when Moustafa rolls out of the way of gunfire, near the beginning of the book) don’t work quite so well, but these sequences are few and far between. So, it’s another fun book from Ait/Planetlar, and worth a look. Also, if you haven’t read the first Couriers book, don’t worry…I hadn’t either, and had no problem getting into the story. What little backstory you need (mostly, just setting up what Moustafa and Special do for a living) is given to you right away.

In other news:

Pal Dorian doesn’t have access to a computer for the moment, but updates to his site should resume shortly.

The Return of Johnny DC! Well, he’s exchanged his professor’s cap for a cape, but that’s a great darn logo.

Everyone’s already discussed the new DC solicitations, but I just wanted to note how glad I am to see the Superman: True Brit book by Kim “Howard” Johnson, John Cleese, and John Byrne…I know it’ll be more Johnson than Cleese, but having any involvement from Cleese on a Superman book has got to be worth waiting for. Plus, in regards to the new Adam Strange series…that’s a great redesign for Adam’s helmet.

Hello, everyone from The Randi Rhodes Show Forum! Don’t “skip past most everything” — read the rest of my site! I won’t bite, I promise!

And, to wrap up my 300th post…I bring you Detective Comics #300:

Flat Earth (the Mike Sterling of Another World) has been posting the editorial pages and links to sample art from the Cancelled Comic Cavalcades (here and here).

Bob Rozakis discusses the CCC in this article, which continues on for several more parts (links to which you can find at the bottom of this page).

Oh, and for all you people reading Identity Crisis and wondering who the Calculator is…Rozakis, the creator of the character, details his history here, here, here, and here.

So I really don’t know a whole lot about this particular comic, beyond that it features tennis pro Stan Smith and that it came out sometime in the early 1970s. Oh, and that it features the art of Frank McLaughlin.

Anyway, this comic features a little girl, Marie, asking Stan Smith for tips on playing tennis. Like any sports pro would, Smith immediately agrees and proceeds to spend the rest of the day giving Marie valuable one-on-one tennis training for absolutely no cost whatsoever. However, along with proper racket handling and positioning on the court, apparently Pepsi is required for your best tennis play:

And Pepsi looks silently on as Marie gives her touching and heartfelt thanks to Smith for his lessons:







On the back cover – oh, look, apparently Pepsi sponsored this comic. Who knew?







I leave you with this final tip, not just for improved tennis skills, for for a healthier life in general…just remember to drink lots and lots of Pepsi at every opportunity:

1. Chaosmonkey posts a re-dialogued piece of Avengers art that makes me laugh for very immature reasons. Thor’s line, in particular.

2. Les Super-Heros DC en France. Check out the live-action-TV-version-of-the-Tick-esque costume on the Flash here.

3. Well, there’s that topic of discussion going around (as seen here, here, here, here, and here) where you’re supposed to pick your “dream teams” for various comic books. I started on my list (Jerry Siegel and Curt Swan on Superman, Matt Baker on Lois Lane, Jack Kirby on Man-Thing (you know that would be cool), Mike Parobeck on Batman, Lou Fine on Fantastic Four) when I realized all the creators on my list have passed away. How depressing. However, they’re not any less likely than some of the teams that have been suggested.

Living creators, this time: Dan Clowes and Fred Hembeck switching off on Jimmy Olsen, Grant Morrison on Rogue and Gambit (just to cause aneurysms in X-fans), George Perez on JLA (I know he’s done it before, but no one does a group book like him), Garth Ennis and Todd McFarlane on Jonah Hex (just because I think McFarlane’s art is well-suited for a western-style comic…go with me on this…and as long as he’s paired with a real writer, it wouldn’t be too bad), Harvey Pekar on Spider-Man (all those people who thought Spidey was unique because of his “real-life” problems before…they ain’t seen nothing yet), Brian Bolland on Batman…well, that’s enough.

EDIT: Just thought of another one…now, I’m not casting aspersions on the character’s current curator Kyle Baker (pretty much as close to an actual “dream-team” style creator-character match-up as you’re gonna get), but what would a John Stanley Plastic Man comic have been like? The mind boggles, reels, then boggles again.

Oh, and Kaz on Herbie the Fat Fury, just to be perverse.

EDIT AGAIN: Congratulations to pal Andy and his wife for having successfully spawned a beautiful baby boy.

Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #1 (1978) – cover by Al Milgrom

Because pal Reid demanded it, the line-ups of each issue of Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, copied right outta Overstreet:

#1

Black Lightning #12, cover to #13

Claw #13-#14

The Deserter #1

Doorway to Nightmare #6

Firestorm #6 (the storyline in this issue later appeared, more or less, as Flash back-ups)

The Green Team #2, #3 (I thought this was an error in Overstreet, since there never was a Green Team #1, but the editorial page in CCC #1 does specifically state that these are the issues printed within. I suppose the Green Team’s first appearance in 1st Issue Special is considered #1)

#2

Kamandi #60, #61

Prez #5

Shade #9

Showcase #105 (featuring Deadman), #106 (the Creeper)

Secret Society of Super-Villains #16, #17

The Vixen #1 (finally made her first apperance a few years later in Action Comics #521)

covers for Army at War #2, Battle Classics #3, Demand Classics #1, #2, Mr. Miracle #26, Ragman #6, Weird Mystery #25, #26, Western Classics #1, #2

Short on time, so….

1. I’m sorry, but did I really see Elliot S! Maggin’s Superman novels get described as being “badly written?” Are these people high?

2. Quite possibly my favorite X-Men drawing by John Byrne (from 1981):

No, this isn’t the discussion of the Swamp Thing/Challengers of the Unknown crossover I promised (well, sort promised) a while back…but it is a digest-sized Mexican edition of that comic, published in 1983. It seems like an odd choice of a comic to reissue in foreign lands. The text of the book has been redone in Spanish with what looks like machine-lettering, though some things need no translation:







Even more odd was the back-up story, one of the Earth-2 “Mr. and Mrs. Superman” stories from Superman Family:







And this isn’t just any “Mr. and Mrs. Superman” story…it’s the marriage of the Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman story! I can only wonder what our neighbors to the south thought of this particular comic. I mean, the lead story has the Challs, Deadman, Swamp Thing (who is inexplicably huge on the cover), and Rip Hunter Time Master, and the back-up has parallel universe versions of familiar superheroes, now settled down with wives. By the way, the last panel of this story has Clark revealing to the new Mrs. Wayne his secret:







…a panel that makes me smirk for no real good reason.

Also included in this comic were four Christmas postcards…well, four were originally included, but alas, by the time I got my mitts on this, only two cards were left, and they both look like this:

“Soon-to-be-dead Supergirl wishes you a Merry Christmas!”

How to ask me for a comic book back issue:

Correct: “Do you have Kilt-Man And His Mighty Caber of Justice #1?”

Incorrect: “Well, back when I was a boy out in Kellerman County, we didn’t have a whole lot to do, really. Sure, there were always chores on the farm…we didn’t get an allowance as such, but occasionally we’d get a dime or two here and there from Ma if Pa wasn’t looking, and we’d go over to the local general store and buy us a bag of candy, and maybe a soda pop if it was a hot day, and it usually was…Kellerman County could get pretty hot, I’ll tell you that for free. Anyway, we’d buy our candy, and maybe a soda pop, and we’d go sit behind the widow Reifsnyder’s barn and eat our candy and look at the ducks out on the pond. Sometimes I’d sit with my buddy Lorenz and he and I would just shoot the breeze for hours and hours. Lorenz’ father was a good man…ran a garage over on Schmidt Street, and I don’t think there was a day I saw him that he wasn’t covered with grease from being hip-deep in some automobile or another. The one car he was always working on was Mrs. Bauer’s old Ford…he kept telling her that she should just break down and buy a new car, as all the money she was pouring into her Ford could easily cover the cost of a replacement. She was stubborn, though, just like her husband. Mr. Bauer didn’t take any lip service from anyone…you try to tell him anything contrary to what he already thinks, and he’ll just put his foot down and refuse to budge. This one time, at the general store I was telling you about earlier, he brought a big pile of groceries up to the counter, and when the clerk was done totalling him up, Mr. Bauer insisted that the clerk overcharged him on the eggs. The clerk told him (rightly, too) that the brand of eggs Mr. Bauer was buying were no longer 25% off, like they were last week. Well, Mr. Bauer would have none of it. The clerk kept trying to explain, Mr. Bauer kept shaking his head and getting redder and redder, and finally he just pushed the groceries on the counter toward the clerk and stomped right out through the door. Most of the groceries fell to the floor — eggs, milk, apples, even a couple comic books for the Bauer boys. To this day, I remember that one of those comic books was Kilt-Man And His Mighty Caber of Justice #1…do you have that?”

Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (1978) – cover by Alex Saviuk

Dirk Deppey has posted his final entry to Journalista. I’m sure we all wish him luck on The Comics Journal.