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Just learned about The Nostalgia League directly from its webmaster today…the front page is “javascript ahoy!” but it’s got an interesting look to it. Of interest to this weblog would be the Comic Rack section, with a focus on books from the 70s and earlier (as you might imagine from the domain name)…”HUH?” is fun (here’s a good example), and there’s lots of pictures of completely random items (comics, pulps, toys, etc.) in the Gallery section.

Instead of finishing up reading today’s new comic acquisitions, I ventured into the vast Comic Archives and pulled out my run of Enigma by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo for rereading. Sometimes you just get the urge, you know?

I did read the new issue of Cerebus, however…so finally it’s become readable and compelling again, and, of course, the series ends next month. Ah, well. Pal Dorian and I were lamenting the fact that there’s been no return visit from the Groucho Marx stand-in Lord Julius (as Sim’s take on the elderly Groucho would have been quite interesting), but that doesn’t seem likely. I’m still holding out for a last page appearance, though!

Confidential to ComicsOne regarding Para Para: it’s spelled “suave.”

In all fairness, I’m entirely for a comic about dancing gangsters.

EDIT: Pal Tom points out “athelete” as well. I suddenly have more sympathy for the editor.

After seeing the panel that was here* (found via Journalista), I felt the internet comics community needed to see this:

from Batman #200, March 1968

It’s really the lurid “I have such sights to show you” look in Alfred’s eye that makes this panel so great.

*Panel appears to be gone now…it was a bunch of JLAers being told by a villain that everyone they’ve touched will die…Flash thinks “Iris, no!” Atom thinks “Oh, Jean!” Batman thinks “Robin! What have I done to you?”

More than you ever wanted to know about Adventures of Kool-Aid Man comics (via Pop Culture Junk Mail).

Mark Evanier posted a bit about the forthcoming Complete Peanuts collections, and included a colored panel of one of the great early Peanuts strips…the one where Charlie Brown is gazing at a rack full of luridly-titled comic books. How many titles in that panel have since become titles of real comics?

Hey, cool, Gary Panter has a weblog. Found it via this discussion about best comic weblogs on the Comics Journal message boards…thanks to pal Ian for his mention of me.

Also found a nice mention of my site on this fun-looking page…sure, they got my name wrong, but they got the link right, and by golly, that’s good enough for me.

from The Bugaloos #1 (1971) published by Charlton Comics

Thought Balloons reads Wizard Magazine so you don’t have to…apparently, squirrelled away between the potty jokes and the comic-investing reports is a brief note stating that Evan Dorkin and Mike Allred are working on a Metal Men comic. Oh, please please please be true…granted, this is Wizard we’re talking about, so take this info with a grain of salt, but boy, doesn’t that sound like a hoot?

An allegedly straight take on Space Ghost is forthcoming from DC Comics, and, as my pal Dorian has said, this could either be absolutely brilliant or an absolute car crash. If it takes the tone of, say, Alan Moore’s Tom Strong (i.e. somewhat tongue-in-cheek), it might not be too bad…though it has a long way to go to match Steve Rude’s masterful version from a few years back.

I know some hardcore Space Ghost fans were appalled by Cartoon Network’s Coast-to-Coast spoof, feeling it impugned the integrity of the character…hate to tell you this, but SG, like most cartoons, was created to keep kids on their butts in front of the TV so the network could force-feed them commercials. There’s the character’s integrity. If anyone got any entertainment at all out of the cartoons…well, that was most likely an welcome, if unintended, side effect.

And yes, yes, I know Alex Toth designed the character…that’s probably the only reason the show worked as well as it did.

Additional linkage: an incredibly comprehensive FAQ for the original cartoon