I’m just going to assume that he’s Doc Savage’s bad-ass cousin.

filed under Categories FOOM 12 Comments

So some of you may remember the saga of Humus Sapien (originally “Humus Sapiens”), a contest-winning fan-made character who first appeared in Marvel Comics’ news ‘n’ interview ‘zine FOOM #3 (Fall 1973). The character was supposed to be used in a comic at the time, but the folks at Marvel never got around to it…until the year 2001, when the character finally made its professional debut in an issue of Thunderbolts. It’s a fun and interesting story, and you can read a newspaper account of the events right here.

Anyway, that issue of FOOM announcing Humus Sapiens’ victory also ran a few shots of other submissions, a few of which I’d like to share here:

The name of this character certainly gets right to the point:


“IN THIS ISSUE: Mr. Kung-Fu faces the nefarious menace of…Señor Judo!”

I like the Legion of Super-Heroes-vibe I’m getting off this next fella:


He probably would have got along just fine with Substitute Legionnaire Infectious Lass.

This next fella sort of reminds me of Spider-Man’s Iron Spider outfit:


Sort of like a low-rent Doctor Octopus, only not able to reach as far, and with the very specific power of quickly feeding bits of food from the seabottom into his mouth.

This next fella raises more questions than he answers:


Is he part rock? Is he a practicing Christian? Whatever’s going on, he doesn’t look too happy about it.

And now…um….


I will say I have to admire the fact that this dude’s costume is basically just super-flares.

This one cracks me up:


…mostly because I’m picturing him as just some guy who got his hands on a sword and a Viking helmet and is always following Thor around and trying to be his pal. “C’mon, man…just swing by the apartment. I got the new Candlemass album!”

I sorta like the look of this guy’s costume:


…though his power appears to be the ability to make huge oil stains on your driveway. Hey, thanks, guy, got that covered.

I’m going to guess this character’s ability is not taking your guff:


…and proceeding the beat the crap out of you. And looking damn good while doing it.

Now, this character didn’t have a name printed along with him:


I’m going with “The Sensual Scotsman,” assuming, of course, that isn’t redundant.

Surely you can see the connections among all these events.

filed under Categories advertising 3 Comments

Detail of “truth about UFOs”-type ad from Super Star Heroes #1 (December 1978):


“A UFO is sighted over Centreville, VA in December 2002…exactly one year later, Mike Sterling starts his comics blog. Coincidence?”

BONUS: to fight the coming (or, rather, ongoing) UFO invasion, we’re gonna need a well-armed populace. So scrape together your eleven 1978-dollars and send in for this:


I suspect what kids were expecting (“HA! Take that, car!” [shoots gun, car explodes]) was quite a bit different from what they ended up with (“Oh, look, I can shine a red dot on the wall for the cat to chase”).

SUB-MARINER SATURDAY #1.

filed under Categories saturday 2 Comments

NAMOR HAS HAD IT

WITH THESE MOTHERFREAKIN’ SLYTHERIN

from Marvel Mystery Comics #8 (June 1940) by Bill Everett
– reprinted in Marvel Super-Heroes #1 (October 1966)

If that’s a mass-produced storebought Superboy Identity Detection Kit, Clark’s in big trouble.

filed under Categories batman, green arrow, superman 15 Comments

Now, if I were Bully, I’d probably have dozens of examples ready to go, but alas, I am no stuffed bull, and thus only have the two immediately available. But I do so love the occasional chart, diagram, or other collection of evidence used when someone is trying to puzzle out some secret identity or other:


I also liked when the handlettered text is thoughtfully arranged so that none of it would be obscured when someone placed their thumb over the page.

And then there’s this cover detail from one of the earliest Superboy stories I ever remember reading (in a ’70s reprint):


I hope those aren’t a pair of Clark’s glasses made using the glass from his Kryptonian rocket ship that brought him to Earth as a baby. The material for those are in limited supply, and you’d figure Clark would keep better tabs on them.

I wonder if there’s something like this in a Green Arrow comic, with pictures of Oliver Queen and Green Arrow side by side with the notation “Queen’s beard and Arrow’s beard – CONNECTION?”
 

images from Superboy #93 (December 1961) by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye, and Batman #134 (September 1960) by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff

This site does not condone the concussing of ponies.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, retailing, this week's comics 8 Comments

So now that I finally started using my Tumblr site, I believe I finally found a purpose for it (aside from using it to comment on friends’ posts and reblogging awesome things, like this unused Superman versus Titano cover by Curt Swan). I think I may be using it as a “commentary track” or “greatest hits” supplement for this site, revisiting old posts and images and providing some additional info, background material, or just reminding folks of some of the older, sillier stuff. Okay, I did just repost that recent Klarion pic but c’mon, that pic is fantastic.

In other news…I’m sure most of you are aware by now of the Diamond street dates thing, in which retailers can get their comics on Tuesday in order to prep them for Wednesday sale, and woe betide you if you sell them early. I hear tell that Diamond has “secret shoppers” out there in the wild, enforcing the Wednesday street dates. Well, considering I yell even at Employee Aaron if he even looks at the books as I’m breaking down the order, I think I’m pretty safe there.

But anyway, this Tuesday, we had a large order of gaming product come in from Diamond, along with our usual comics order. I mean, a very large order. It was all prepaid for by a customer, so we had the coin of the realm on hand to take care of it, but still, it’s a bit imposing when you check the status of your UPS shipment and discover sixty boxes waiting for you. There’s always that fear that maybe your finger slipped while placing your orders three months ago and you accidentally ordered 15,000 copies of Green Hornet: Aftermath #4 and they all turned up today and OH GOD. But no, it was just the games stuff, and it was about fifty boxes all of approximately the same size and shape and while Aaron and I were tempted to build a fort with them, alas, we were too busy.

It was also a fairly sizable comics ship week as well, with a handful of notable items, like Superman #713, the next issue after the surprise Krypto fill-in for the scheduled Muslim superhero story. Some folks claimed the fill-in had something to do with the powers-that-be not liking the originally-planned story showing Superman rescuing a kitten, as it undermined the strength of the character or something. Well…guess what happens in this new issue? Go on, guess. Okay, it involves a roof, not a tree, but if anyone’s really going to split hairs over that, they are welcome to jump up my hinder.

Oh, and Superman #713 has this awesome Jeff Smith variant, and they should totally give Smith his own Superman series to do. (And speaking of Smith, the new issue of Rasl is out this week, too.)

The next issue of the Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown mini is also released this week, which turned out to be the only Flashpoint book I’m reading. I wasn’t going to be reading any of them, but those cats over at the War Rocket Ajax podcast convinced me to give it a try via their discussion of it on the show, and they were right: this is the stuff.

And this action figure is out this week. This is a gargantuan hunk of plastic. You could probably concuss a pony with this thing. I am praying this is how Tom Hardy looks in The Dark Knight Rises.

Or you didn’t interact with me there because you just plain don’t like me.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, sir-links-a-lot 11 Comments

 

  • Those of you who are on the Tumblr, and didn’t want to interact with me there because my regular Tumblr site Estate 4.1 depressed the hell out of you…well, I remembered that I had grabbed the “mikester” user name there a long time ago, but never did anything with that account, so Mike Sterlng’s Progressive Tumblr is now open for business. Mostly I’m just using it so I can comment on and occasionally reblog friends’ posts without breaking the Estate 4.1 “character.”

    Estate 4.1 will still be continuing, so don’t you worry your pretty little heads over that.

  • Bully, the Bull Who Is Stuffed and a Bull And Is Stuffed Also, sticks it to comic book stickers!

  • This week’s Nobody’s Favorites is a character that…I actually sort of liked the idea of, just for how crazy it sounded.

  • MAVERICK PUNCH!

  • So the Dark Knight Rises teaser poster for the film is out. Kind of a neat design.

  • H at the Comic Treadmill writes about currently taking a hiatus from comics and the previous times he’d done so.

    …I was trying to think if I’d ever had a comics hiatus, and…well, not since I’ve started selling the things, obviously, but before that? I think once I started buying comics regularly, I never stopped. My purchasing dipped a bit at times, sure. And even now, the number of comics I actually pick up each week is pretty low. But I’ve never hit a point where I felt the need to give them up entirely. I suspect even at my lowest ebb I’d still be buying Swamp Thing. If there was one coming out, of course.

  • And I wanted to post a special thanks to Matt and Lynnea, readers of the site who were nice enough to stop by the store, say “hi!” and see me in all my disheveled, unshaven and sweaty glory. Yes, they were just that lucky. Thanks again for visiting, guys!

Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization, 1980 Edition.

filed under Categories advertising, End of Civilization 7 Comments

ad detail from Fantastic Films #20 (December 1980)


Five hundred dollars? In 1980? That’s like a billionty dollars in 2011 money. …Oh, okay, it’s closer to about $1,300 or so, according to that currency conversion site I checked it on. But still, that’s a lot of scratch for someone to dole out for a sci-fi collectible at the time. Or maybe it wasn’t…I don’t know, I was only 11 at the time, I was too busy keeping tabs on my couple of bucks’ worth of comics-buying budget to worry about slapping down five bills for something that dear, and, let’s face it*, completely awesome.

By the way, this isn’t a sculpture…it’s a “custom limited edition mask” (it says elsewhere on the page) from Don Post Studios, which “comes complete with its own attractive display case” and “each [mask] is individually crafted as your order is received.”

It also says each set is “serialized and recorded,” so…I wonder if you could contact the studio today with a serial number to verify that the mask is authentic, or establish chain of ownership? I’m guessing so. I’m sure it’s all computerized, but I still amused myself by picturing a beat-up old notebook, with each purchaser’s name scribbled in it along with the serial number, with “PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT THE FACEHUGGER MASK” in felt tip pen on the cover, sitting on a shelf somewhere in the office.

And you know, the more I think about it…I’m betting as rare as this item likely is now, that $500 price tag was probably a bargain.
 

* Almost wrote “let’s face-hugger it.” So glad I resisted the temptation.

This is why I never believe you when you tell me your comics are “in excellent condition.”

filed under Categories retailing 26 Comments

1. Call me at the shop on Wednesday.

2. Tell me you have a bunch of comics for sale in “really good shape.”

3. I ask how old they are, you say they’re “pretty old.”

4. I ask you for some titles, you tell me X-Force, Groo, Elric, X-Factor and so on.

5. I say “bring ’em in, let me take a look at them,” warning you that I’ll probably only be interested in the Groo books (and maybe the Elric).

6. You say you’ll be in Thursday.

7. Thursday. You don’t come in.

8. Friday. You do come in, with a filthy plastic crate filled with even filthier comics. Waterlogged, beat to hell, and just plain dirty comics. Even the comics that are in plastic bags (about half of them) are ratty and filthy.

9. I take a brief look through the comics, not even wanting to touch them, in the off-chance there might be something salvageable.

10. I decide it’s not really worth the effort, and tell you I’m not interested in any of these.

11. You take your crate of comics and depart.

12. I go home at the end of my shift Friday evening.

13. I come into the store Saturday morning. Sitting on the floor by the front counter – that same filthy plastic crate of the even filthier comics.

14. Employee who worked the closing shift the night before tells me that, after I left, an employee at a neighboring business brought the crate of comics to us, having found it dumped in the bed of his pickup truck.

15. So I end up having to deal with this box of crap comics anyway. I pull the plastic bags off the ones that are bagged so that I can dump them in the recycle bin, while going through the comics and seeing if anything actually is salvageable.

16. End result: about 200 or so unsellable comics dumped into the recylcer; about two dozen comics just about good enough for the bargain bin; two comics actually worth keeping and pricing for the regular back issue stock (that one issue of the original What If series with “What If Elektra Had Lived”) and Sub-Mariner #42); and one copy of Zot! #10 1/2 with rusty staples that I ended up giving to Employee Aaron.

17. Just to be clear, had I actually gone through the collection and paid him for the two comics I actually wanted, I may have paid two dollars, tops, for them. And maybe another buck or so for the Zot! just because you don’t see those too much any more. Ultimately, not really worth the time and effort involved here, and only really bothered with them once they were dumped on us just because I was averse to simply throwing away the comics without checking for anything usable.

18. As for the plastic crate: put outside by the back door, where hopefully someone will take it away. And not, say, dump it into the bed of any neighbor’s pickup truck. Or my pickup truck.

19. So in the future, should you happen to call and tell me you have comics for sale, and they’re all in mint condition…I’ll try to suppress the sigh, but no promises.

Satan Saturday #2.

filed under Categories saturday 3 Comments

MORE TRUSTING THAN YOUR CELL PHONE COMPANY

AND ONLY HALF AS EVIL

from The Unexpected #196 (March 1980) by Mike W. Barr & Vic Catan