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So I’ve been going through the box o’buttons from this recently received collection, and there aren’t a whole lot of comic-related buttons…mostly they’re music or sports or TV/movies, what have you. But there are a few, and I thought I’d lay a handful of ’em on you today.

I swear this button reminds me of a dial on a rotary phone…what a cool-looking phone that would have been, huh?

Yeah, yeah, I know, “what’s a rotary phone?” Get out of here, kid, you bother me.

Whoops, the button’s a little lop-sided in this scan…just tilt your head a bit:

Just a manufacturer’s mark on that button, no copyright info.

Presumably this button means that they saw Superman art at the museum, and not just some guy wandering the halls in a Superman costume:

…but it was the Bicentennial year, and people were doing all kinds of crazy things, so who knows? A quick Googling turned up no historical info on the event, but I’m assuming it was a show of original comic art.

Direct from 1966:

I really really really want to replace that Iron Man image with the picture from this cover. You don’t even need to click the link…you know which cover it is, since I link to it every opportunity I get.

Not comic-related, but amusing enough to share:

I say, that’s hard cheese. Who doesn’t like “Louie Louie” (“said Mike, moments before his comments section filled with people decrying the song’s existence”)?

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In other news:

• Internet pal Andrew, that smart feller what’s responsible for one of the smartest and best-written comics blogs in existence, has just opened the doors on his new site Pronounced Woo-Bin. It’s a celebration of things Bostonian…specifically, that fabulous accent that Andrew himself demonstrates in his own voice with choice audio clips. Seriously, it’s fantastic.
• Say, you remember that Ian Brill chap, don’t you? Tall guy, glasses, wavy black hair, pegleg, eyepatch? He has a story in Zombie Tales #5, illustrated by Jason Ho. It’s out this week, so ask your retailer for “that comic with Ian Brill in it…no, not those Warhammer ones, the ones with the shambling dead,” and he’ll go “Oh, why yes, of course, that zombie comic with the story by young Master Brill,” and he’ll pass a copy right over to you, surely.

  Ian speaks a little about this comic right here.

• Pal Nat has unleashed upon an unsuspecting world The Licensable Bear™ Big Book of Officially Licensed Fun!, reprinting Licensable Bear™ strips and appearances and columns and merchandise images and oh, so much more. Ask for it at your local funnybook emporium.

  If that’s not enough Licensable Bear™ for you, have a new informative video from our beshirted ursine consumer expert!

THERE EXISTS

A SLUGGO PLANING WOOD PIN

Well, I haven’t yet found the ad for the Marvel coins that feature the silver and gold versions, but I did happen upon the ad for the Star Trek coin I featured the end of this post:

That’s twice the price of the Marvel coins. Trek don’t come cheap. (Though the sculpt on the Trek coins was a tad more elaborate, admittedly.)

On the same page was this terrifying ad:

“Eat, laugh, talk, receive scorn when you say it’s supposed to be a ‘Planet of the Apes’ mask.” I’m sure we all remember the swollen red lips the apes had. Well, okay, maybe in the remake:

Also, never forget:

LINCOLN PENNY LOVES YOU

So I’m sure some of you remember seeing this ad, which ran in mid-1970s Marvel comics:

I’ve seen it plenty of times myself, but it wasn’t until this past weekend, with the arrival of that large collection of miscellaneous collectibles, that I’ve seen the actual coins themselves. They measure about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and they look a little something…like this:

The coins’ backs:

I don’t know why the progression of Banner-to-Hulk on the back of that Hulk coin makes me laugh, but it just does. Also, I should note that the serial numbering mentioned in the ad are etched on the coins’ edges.

You could buy the coins just on their own for $2.50 each (with a generous discount if you buy in quantity), or you could buy a variety of accessories:

There were several coins in this collection we acquired, but alas, no belt buckle or bolo tie were to be found. However, we did have several in the convenient “neck chain” setting, such as this Conan coin:

And we had a set of three silver variations of the coins in the lucite holders…interesting that the lucite holders cost nearly as much as the coins themselves. Here’s the Hulk one:

I don’t have information on the silver versions of these coins, as they’re not noted in the ad I’ve found, and I haven’t gotten around to tracking down any follow-up ads yet. I’m reasonably certain I remember seeing the silver coins (and gold versions, too!) advertised, so if any of you happen to remember what those other coin types cost originally, feel free to drop that info in the comments.

Also, there were a couple of these in the collection as well:

Dude…so close to just keeping this for myself.

[SETTING: Saturday at the comic shop. Mike is sorting through some recently received boxes filled with magazines and very miscellaneous collectibles. Pal Dorian arrives on the scene….]

Me: “Hey, Dor, look what was in this collection of stuff we just got…Avengers kid’s swimtrunks!”

Dorian: “Um….”

Me: “Don’t worry, they appear to be brand new and unworn. So, whaddya think? Are they me?” (jokingly holds swimtrunks at about waist level, like he’s sizing them for himself)

Dor: (pulls out camera)

Me: “Oh no, no, no, no, no.”

Dor: “What? I just want to take a picture of you holdi….”

Me: “NO.”

Dor: “C’mon, not even just for our friends?”

Me: “NO.”

Dor: “Really?”

Me: “NO. You know what those guys would do.”

Dor: “Are you sure?”

Me: “I don’t think I need a picture of me, a man nearly 40 years old, posing with a pair of boy’s swimtrunks floating around the internet.”

New Employee Tim: “Hey, I’m only 15, I’ll hold ’em for a picture!”

Dor & Me: “NO!“

AUNT MAY

IS WATCHING YOU MASTURBATE

Found stuck to a pole at a local gas station last Wednesday evening. About 4 inches high, about 2 1/4 inches wide, printed by inkjet printer on one of those free Priority Mail address label stickers you can get at any U.S. post office.

Well, I thought it was interesting.

I certainly hoped you all achieved sufficient Sluggo-ness over the last day or so. Or even Balzan-ness. I know I have.

And now, miscellaneous bullet-pointed items:

• So once again I was prepping to ship a box of funnybooks to one of my mail order comic saver system subscribers, a fellow who gets his books shipped to him every two to three months. I’d sort through the books, double checking to make sure nothing was skipped, and, as usual, I noticed that in the same amount of time since I last shipped to this customer, some titles have only released one or two issues, while others have released as many as four.

  One of the titles that have only managed to get out one issue since about late June is Fantastic Four, by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. As you likely know, this was the creative team for Marvel’s Ultimates and Ultimates 2 series, both of which were plagued with delays. (And to be fair, the currently running Ultimates 3 by Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira is having some timeliness problems as well.) The assumption was, that when they took over the FF, that there would be lateness problems with this title as well, though there were assurances in pre-release interviews that they’d be able to maintain a monthly schedule.

  After seeing we only had one FF for the summer, I went back to our cycle sheets and pulled out the release dates for each issue since Millar and Hitch’s first:

  #554 – arrived 2/13

  #555 – arrived 3/12

  #556 – arrived 4/9

  #557 – arrived 5/21

  #558 – arrived 6/25

  #559 – arrived 8/13

  We’re not talking All Star Batman levels of lateness here…only a couple of issues were significantly off-schedule…but things do appear to be slipping a bit. Which is a shame, because I am quite enjoying this run of FF, and it is selling reasonably well.

• Speaking of selling well, my restock of Secret Six #1 came in this week…and sold out almost immediately. Also having good sales are Final Crisis: Revelations #2 and Dead-Pool #1, which wasn’t really a surprise given how many of my customers are vocal Dead-Pool fans.
• Thursday afternoon at the shop, I was trying to quickly fill out a shipping form for a package pickup, as the delivery man was standing there waiting on me. While I was doing so, the gentleman engaged in a little comics small-talk:
  

  Delivery Man: “So, what comics are the hot items right now?”

  Me (delivering the stock, mostly-true-and-doesn’t-require-a-lot-of-explaining-about-what-“crossovers”-are answer): “Oh, you know, Batman, Spider-Man….”

  DM: “They still publish those?”

  Me: “Sure they do.”

  DM: “Are they still fighting the same villains?”

  Me (thinks about explaining Anti-Venom and Hush, decides against it): “Yeah, pretty much.”

  DM: “So you’re not supposed to read these, right?”

  Me: “Of course you are.”

  DM: “I heard that comic guys just buy their comics and immediately seal them up in plastic cases.”

  Me: “I don’t try to encourage that with my customers. I want them to read their comics.”

  DM: “Huh. Hey, that comic where Superman died…is that still worth a lot?”

  And by that time, I was done with the shipping form (though my handwriting may have been a bit rushed-looking at the end, there). He’s just making small talk while he’s waiting on me, I know…but it’s amazing how often I get these exact same questions, usually from folks just killing time.

• Since the topic came up a few days ago here, and sorta came up in this post, I just wanted to remind people of my particular views on comics hording and investing, such as this post about one collection of “investments” that ended up in our hands, and this sarcasm-fest.

BALZAN OF THE CAT PEOPLE

CONTEMPLATE HIM

…then it is time to contemplate Sluggo:

CONTEMPLATE HIM

See you tomorrow.