Grendel: Red, White & Black #1 (September 2002) – art by Matt Wagner
Reminder: regular service will resume on this website tomorrow.
Yeah, I know, “big whoop.”
House of Mystery #148 (January 1965) – art by Joe Certa
Blackhawk #131 (December 1958) – art by Dick Dillin & Sheldon Moldoff
Action Comics #317 (October 1964) – art by Curt Swan & George Klein
Reminder: normal weblogging service will resume Monday, August 7th.
Flash #188 (May 1969) – art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito
Black Cat Mystery #45 (August 1953) – art by Howard Nostrand
NOW ENTERING "LOW CONTENT MODE."
Superman #422 (August 1986) – art by Brian Bolland
Regular service will resume Monday, August 7th.
I’ll still be around, checking e-mail and such, but I’ll just be posting an image a day for the rest of the week.
Everything will be back to normal next Monday, I promise.
See you then!
"i belive that a human would be able to do unnatural things on a planet with a red sun."
“Would we possess powers under a red sun?”
“Kryptonians are god-like under a yellow sun, could it work in reverse for us?”
“im watching the science of superman on national geographic, that is a big no.”
“I’d i imagine it’s because we don’t have have the ability to absorb solar energy. Shine a red light on your self and see if you get any stronger.”
“This is seriously a dumb question. The obvious answer is no coz we can absorb some of the solar rays but not the energy.”
“I know I’ve seen our sun turning red sometimes but not officially red. Where is the real one and How can I reach it?”
“…The way our cells are, there is no way we can absorb solar ENERGY n use it for our own purposes. If it were so, then why do we need to eat when we cud absorb a lot of energy like supes does(altho he eats for the fun of it i think)?
N goin near a red sun is seriously a dumb thing to do, coz ur life will be cut short by supernova or something after the sun fails.”“If Superman, under one yellow sun, has amazing powers, does that mean if there were 2 yellow suns, like on Star Wars Tattonine, would he have double his amazing powers? What more powers could he possibly have?”
“He could possibly be more omnipotent, it is debatable. But some would argue that two suns would charge his atoms so much that they would explode.”
“i belive that a human would be able to do unnatural things on a planet with a red sun. i dont know if youd get supermans powers, but i think youd get something.”
“The higher gravity on a red sun palnet would make humans very weak. If you could lift a 100 pounds here than there maybe you could only lift one.”
“Red suns have little to nothing to do with Superman’s powers, other than feed him. The lower red sun may have something to do with sight, but we’d be next to crippled (visually) in an atmosphere with lower light levels than that we are accustomed to. We would, indeed, be the Daredevils of Krypton”
"More Fun Than You’ve Ever Known"
from a coverless copy of Frisky Fables (circa late 1940s)
T-shirts, my Wednesday, some incredibly brief reviews, and stamps.
I’ve mentioned this before, about how this image:
…stripped of what little context it had as an Identity Crisis cover and slapped onto a poster, seemed to be an odd choice for a stand-alone, “iconic” presentation of one of DC’s most marketable characters.
Well, this week, we received the t-shirt version of this image. “Hey, nice shirt! But, um, why is Wonder Woman holding a noose?” “I don’t know, man, but isn’t it cool!”
My Wednesday:
So I’m sitting at the store that morning, waiting for UPS to drop off our delivery of the new comics, when I received a call from Diamond. “So sorry,” sez Diamond, “but your boxes weren’t given to UPS yesterday, so they won’t be arriving today. We’ll get them to you on Thursday, we promise.”
I then thought about all the folks coming in for the rest of the day, asking us where the hell the new comics were, and having to explain to them that it wasn’t our fault, I swear.
And that’s how Mike found himself making an emergency 3 1/2 hour round trip to Diamond’s Los Angeles warehouse, in the hot afternoon, with no working air conditioning in his 12-year-old pickup. I was sweating so much that there was apparently some dirt on my seatbelt that transferred to my shirt, leaving a dark stripe across my front. I was sweating so much my pants were damp for the rest of the day. (Damp with sweat, I reemphasize.)
I’m sure you all were happy to read that.
The entire trip down I was trying to talk myself into turning around and just forgetting about it, thinking, “Is this really necessary? Will it hurt that much to have the comics delayed by one day?” I was still thinking this even as I pulled into Diamond’s parking lot. But, my customers needed their comics, and employees Aaron and Nathan had already been telling folks that the comics would be there that afternoon, so I guess I was pretty much committed to the trip. And I’d be lying if I said that the thought “But I have to do my ‘End of Civilization’ post!” didn’t cross my mind very briefly at least once.
On the plus side, shortly after I returned that afternoon, Sergio Aragones popped by the store, just to say “hi!” and sign some comics and books. So, he was inadvertantly exposed to my sweaty, stained, damp-pantsed self, for which I was very apologetic.
This was not one of my best days.
Received another batch of Boom! Studios books for review, and…well, after Wednesday’s brouhaha, I wasn’t much in the mood for funnybook readin’. But, at least let me note them briefly. Two of them are the latest installments of Boom!’s serialized adventure comics. Jeremiah Harm #4 continues the dark-humored bounty-hunter-versus-alien-criminals-on-Earth storyline, though this issue is weighted more towards the action and less towards the humor. Still, it’s a quick and fun read…grotesque and violent and amusing, a slightly less lowbrow Lobo, if I may.
Second Wave #5 follows the strategy of most of the previous issues, keeping the alien invasion as a background menace, while focusing on the menace provided by the humans themselves. The “judge/jury/executioner” sheriff who “takes the law into his own hands” is a little on the cliched side, but it’s more than balanced out by the woman who’s not a nurse, but “close enough for government work,” as she says. She’s clearly an character with an interesting back story, and not afraid to make some tough decisions, and I hope we learn more about her. The art continues to be clear and expressive, though the occasional panel given a grey wash treatment tends to be a jarring change from the black and white linework of the rest of the book.
The debut this week is The Black Plague by Joe Casey and Julia Bax, a one-shot that’s leading into another series. It’s a thin premise, but promising…a couple of retired men play chess against each other in the park, and it becomes clear that the two of them used to be arch-nemeses, a superhero and a supervillain. Meanwhile, a new version of the supervillain, the Black Plague, strikes against the crime families of the city…and to say more would spoil the “twist” at the end. As I said, it’s a slight premise, but the real strength that unites most of Boom! Studios’ output is the characterization…how the folks in the stories deal with the situations they find themselves in, more than just shoving them through each plot point in order. This comic doesn’t appear to be any exception, as the banter between the retirees is light and interesting (and gives us a perspective on superheroics we don’t often see in comics), and the relationship between the new Black Plague and another cast member is only briefly touched upon, but shows promise.
I too bought those DC Comics postage stamps (in fact, pretty much as soon as I walked in the door at our local post office, where I do a lot of business, every clerk there pointed them out to me). I’d been meaning to post about it, but Bully gives us some good coverage…and Comic Treadmill has front ‘n’ back scans.