And now, the greatest insult ever.

filed under Categories justice league 13 Comments

from Justice League of America #141 (April 1977) by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin


Your project for the week: you must call someone an “insolent squirrel” at least once. Like your boss. Or your spouse. Try it, it’s fun!*

* Not responsible for resulting job loss or divorce. Will totally take credit if you get punched in the nose, however.

Where you can find Halloween-type comics stuff, since I’ve not really been on top of it on my own site this year.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, sir-links-a-lot 5 Comments

Since I’ve been distracted over the last couple of weeks by my dental issues, I’ve not yet properly settled into the proper Halloween spirit…which is a shame, since I do so love all the costumes and decorations and such for the holiday. But some of my pals have been in the Halloweenish mood of late:

And I’m sure there are others, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. Any others, drop ’em in the comments section…go ahead, plug the hell out of the Halloween posts on your or your friends’ websites.

To be honest, I have no idea what I’m going to do for Halloween this year. I’m never going to top this. And I’m still pretty happy with this guest post I wrote for The Horror Blog on Five Scary Superman Moments.

Maybe I’ll just post a picture of me in my Nancy costume. Surely that’ll be frightening enough.

I’m all complainy and stuff.

filed under Categories this week's comics 13 Comments

And now…the Best Comic Cover of the Week:


And the contents ain’t half-bad either. All of Boom! Studios Muppet comics are entertaining, but The Muppet Show really is the platonic ideal of a Fun Comic Book. Cartoonist Roger Langridge knocks it out of the park, every time.

Some other comics this week:

  • I was planning on picking up Vertigo Resurrected, the latest in DC’s 100-page mini-trade paperbacks, since this is the first printed appearance of the long-shelved Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez Hellblazer story “Shoot.” However, the reprints that fill up the rest of the book are short stories from Vertigo’s many anthology books from over the years, none of which I’d bought (for whatever reason…I have no real excuse), which means the entire volume is new to me. That worked out nicely.

  • Legion of Super-Heroes #6 – I’d pretty much made the decision last week, when I skipped the new issue of Adventure Comics, which is essentially a second Legion title. But, yeah, after nearly 30 years of Legion-reading, I think I finally reached my saturation point. Nothing specific I can really pin down as being the last straw…it’s just a case of being “enough’s enough,” I think. The last couple of issues have been bit of a slog, I can’t get involved in the characters and plotlines…I took the hint and dropped the books.

  • DC Universe Legacies #6 – …But that said, the Legion back-up in this book was actually pretty amusing. The lead story, which, like the rest of the series, is For Advanced Fans Only, retelling events from the era of Crisis on Infinite Earths through Legends, is about as good as this kind of thing is able to get. Nice art from Jerry Ordway, George Perez and and Scotts Kolins and Koblish.

  • Okay, Green Lantern Corps #53 introduces a new villain…well, actually an old villain of sorts, as it’s a Weaponer from the Anti-Matter Universe of Qward, which should be familiar to GL fans, and he’s got a good gimmick, and Sinestro’s in this too and we all like Sinestro. So, it’s some good ol’ fashioned superhero stuff and it’s all fine.

    But seriously, it just reminds me that there are three ongoing Green Lantern series, and…was there actually talk of a fourth ongoing? So for the first time in years, the Green Lantern franchise manages to gain some sales success, and, as always, the response to a comic selling well is the publisher doing its damnedest to dig the golden eggs out of that goose’s body by pumping out more of the same thing. Marvel did it with Marvel Zombies, they’re well on their way to doing it with Deadpool, and now DC is following suit with too many GL series. And I suspect DC is going to discover something similar with the Batman franchise, which will soon be “the one by Grant Morrison that actually sells” and “a bunch of other titles that don’t sell nearly as well,” which…well, that’s kind of where we’re at right now, anyway.

    And the thing that gets me is that there’s nothing particularly wrong with any of these books…all the GL books are fun, there’s nothing particularly wrong quality-wise with the Deadpool titles…I mean, they’re not for me, but the people who do read them seem to enjoy them, and all the Batman books are okay…but do we really need a Batman and a Batman and Robin? Do we really need a Green Lantern Corps and a Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors?

    …

    Sigh. Sorry, felt like shouting into the wind there, a bit. Don’t mind me.

    And yeah, I know, “do we really need any comics?” Yes, yes we do.

  • Still enjoying the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, which is current at #4 of the five-issue mini “Hardcases,” which is, what, the fourth or fifth mini-series out of the approximately 1000 mini-series it’s going to take to compete this project? But it’s a good adaptation, and I find it odd that this comic, which is basically a word-for-word retelling of the novel, still maintains my interest, while the multiple series based on King’s Dark Tower, featuring untold tales and new storylines, lost me and, judging at least by our sales, most of its readership several months ago.

  • Charles Burns has a new handsome volume of cartooning out this week…Xed Out. Gorgeous production values on this book. You can see a picture of the cover here, which really doesn’t do it justice.

  • Okay, here’s another potential cover of the week, from Loki #1:


    Boy, Loki’s never been happier. Just look at that joy on his face.

Progressive Ruin presents…Your Grandparents’ End of Civilization.

filed under Categories golden age 7 Comments


How would you get anyone to join your Liars’ Club? “Hey, I have a Liars’ Club…wanna join?” “Ah, you joker, you don’t really have a club.” “No, honest, guys, I do!”


You know, the “mistakes are impossible” promise is quite a bit to live up to.


We think the book should teach you…can’t say for sure, you are awfully pathetic.


I have to admit, I’ve never been happier.


I will of course insist on being called “Radio Mike” from now on.


At last, I can finally add up my midgets.


Harmonica shown to scale; measures 4 1/2 feet in width.


When we say “kidding,” we actually mean “annoying.”

images from an ad in Feature Comics #121 (April 1948)

To think I’d forgotten the glorious image of Batman shaking hands with Ed McMahon.

filed under Categories television 10 Comments

Due out today:


The Legends of the Super Heroes DVD from Warner Archives, the made-on-demand online DVD shop for films and TV shows that, for whatever reason, couldn’t swing a general retail DVD release.

Now, I haven’t seen these two specials (“The Challenge” – our heroes versus the Legion of Doom, and “The Roast” – a celebrity roast hosted by Ed McMahon) since they originally aired in the late ’70s, but I recall, as an eleven-year-old Mikester, enjoying them, cheesy as they were. Here’s a taste:


BONUS: Comedian Jeff Altman pops up as Flash villain the Weather Wizard at the end of the clip.

Yeah, it’s really heavy on the camp, but whereas the comedic aspects of the similar ’60s Batman TV show were more knowing and self-aware and amusing, I suspect the out-and-out farce of Legends may be hard to take for those of us who still hold out a little hope for some remaining dignity for our four-color friends who wear tights and fly around and punch each other. I mean, I don’t know…like I said, I haven’t seen these in decades, so I can’t tell if the awkward half-assedness of the proceedings would ultimately result in being sort of entertainingly charming or simply unbearable. A mix of both, I’m presuming.

But still…Jeff Altman as the Weather Wizard! Okay, I don’t know why I’m fixated on that, but I am. What can I say, I like Jeff Altman. And Night Court‘s Marsha Warfield apparently appears in there, somewhere. And it’s the only live action versions of some of these characters, like Legion of Super-Heroes baddie Mordru, and Captain Marvel’s nemesis Sivana. And then there’s Ghetto Man, which…yeah, I know, but he comes out and rips on the heroes with a short bit of stand-up which, watching it just now via the YouTube, actually has a couple of pretty good superhero jokes in there…plus, he and Batman totally hip-bump as he’s coming onstage, and that’s awesome.

So anyway, Legends of the Super Heroes…it’s now officially out there in non-bootleg form for anyone who dares to watch it. Not sure if I’ll get it, myself…but I suppose nostalgic curiosity will eventually win out. If nothing else, it’s an interesting artifact of the time. Plus, it features Jeff Altman. Have I mentioned that?

And now a thing that only bothers me.

filed under Categories smallville 10 Comments

A couple of things that occurred to me as I was watching the most recent episode, #200, of Smallville (SPOILER WARNINGS):

  • Since this is Smallville‘s tenth season, that means the show has been running for nearly 1/7th of Superman’s existence. Pretty weird, huh? (That’s the kind of insight that keeps readers comin’ back!)

  • Now this next thing reminded me of a strange feeling of…I don’t know, oddness, I guess, that I’ve had regarding this series since it began. At the beginning of the show, we get a reminder at the Smallville High reunion, via a banner, that the “present” of the show takes place in the year 2010. Okay, that’s no secret, but it does provide a timeframe for comparison when Clark is thrust into the future, and sees this date on a copy of The Daily Planet:


    Also, we learn, along with Clark, that not only did the gang pick up a replacement Jimmy Olsen along the way (if you don’t know, don’t ask), but that by this point, Clark is openly acting as Superman. Well, not “openly” in that people know Clark is Superman, but you know what I mean. (Also, we, the viewers, know he’s been doing it for at least four years, since the last flash-forward to some Superman action was to 2013.)

    The reason I bring that all up…when I was but a young Mikester, I grew up with the idea that Clark was Superboy first, then Superman later. The Superboy stories took place “in the past,” while Superman stories took place in the present day. Now, “in the past” was this nebulous period that ranged from the ’30s to the ’70s, depending of course what period of Superboy you happened to be reading.

    This is probably what is creating this odd sense of dissonance I have as I’m watching Smallville, which is, for all intents and purposes, “The Adventures of Superboy.” Suddenly, “Superboy” is the present-day storyline, while “Superman” is a thing that, while we’re aware it’s going to happen, won’t be happening for a while yet. (Okay, it’ll probably happen in a few months, at this end of this season, but this has been the tone for the series since the beginning.) Not having Superman as the present day, current version of the character feels…I hate to say “wrong,” because it’s not, it’s just a new interpretation of the character, but to this old fanboy who’s read more comics than is probably good for him, this alteration of the traditional Superboy/Superman temporal relationship to the real world calendar does stir up strange responses in me. And the most strange response is actually typing the phrase “alteration of the traditional Superboy/Superman temporal relationship to the real world calendar” for which I have no excuse.

    Anyway, that’s been bugging me for a while, so there, it’s finally off my chest and onto my weblog. Where it belongs.

  • The very brief snippets of Superman-type action we’ve seen over the years makes me wish we’d get more than, maybe, the one episode we might actually get of full-on Superman adventures in this series. I’d particularly like to see more of 2017’s no-nonsense Clark Kent that we saw all too briefly.

    Would I want another season of (let’s call it) Metropolis, focusing on Superman, from the same folks? …Maybe if they dialed back the “emo” a bit.

Three things I found on the eBay.

filed under Categories popeye, the eBay 5 Comments

MING DEMANDS MORE GLITTER: a Ming the Merciless iron-on transfer from 1979 that features, yes, glitter. Thanks, Disco Era!


Here’s an old Popeye and Olive pin, featuring Popeye before the tragic loss of his right eye:


And then there’s this:


This belt buckle is delivering a message, and that message is “Batman will traumatize the skulls of criminals…for America,” which is something we can all get behind, surely.