No relation to the University of California Irvine.

filed under Categories indies 7 Comments

So I’ve had Scott McCloud‘s Zot! on the mind lately, inspired primarily by recently processing a nearly-complete run of the series, most of which were signed by Scott. As is usual whenever I’m dealing with comics at the store that I have and love in my own collection, this made me want to reread the entire series. This, on top of the fact that I’ve already got a giant “to read” pile caused by my eye troubles, of course.

That didn’t stop me from rereading a few issues anyway, primarily the 3-part 9-Jack-9 story from the black and white run, a heartbreaking read that also raised a question or two in my mind about the nature of 9-Jack-9 himself. In my brief Googling on that topic (as well as a particular loose thread regarding the nature of Zot’s parallel “future” Earth of 1965), I discovered this documentary. Understanding Scott McCloud’s Zot! is an overview of the comic, as well as a biographical sketch of McCloud, his family, his entry into comics, his meeting the wonderful Ivy…all squeezed into under half and hour. Well worth the watch, and I hope you spend the time to do so:


An addendum: I’ve probably mentioned a million times before that my very first issue of Zot! was in fact picking up brand new the Zot! #10 1/2 mini-comic by Matt Feazell (which I believe I first mentioned waaay back the first month of this site’s life).

That got me to start reading the regular Zot! series when #11 launched the black-and-white run, and naturally sent me back issue hunting for the earlier color run. The elusive #5 was the last one I needed, which took me what seemed to me like forever to find…but probably only a few months, in reality. Nevertheless, every time I come across an issue 5 in the wild, like in this collection I was working on, I can’t help but to think “where were you when I was looking for you back in ’86?”

“I AM DEFEATED!”

filed under Categories marvel, publishing 16 Comments

So I was talking with customer Sean the other day (Sean you may know from his appearances in my comments sections here) about this odd coincidince from a couple of Marvel comics released in 1984.

First off was Fantastic Four #271, released in June of that year, featuring story and art by John Byrne. Featured is a tribute tale in the style of the old Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/Steve Ditko “pre-superhero Marvel” monster comics, in which a strange creature or ‘nother is menacing the Good People of Earth, and someone (sometimes one lone brave man who may or may not be a scientist) must find a way to defeat it.

In this case, the monster is Gormuu, attacks upon whom only seem to make him larger and more dangerous. Our hero of the hour is Reed Richards, in the years before he and the rest of the Fantastic Four were exposed to cosmic rays and gained their super powers. Here we see Reed decide on a course of action, to the shocked response of a pre-Thing Ben Grimm:


Anyway, Reed sets his plan into motion, causing Gormuu to grow, GROW, which is cool with Gormuu at first, until he notices…


…eventually expanding into nothingness, as while he was growing in size, he was not increasing his mass. As such, his atoms dispersed across the universe and Reed chalks up his first(?) kill.

Two months later, in Avengers #250 (by Roger Stern, Al Milgrom, and, for this section of the comic, Roy Richardson), the titular team find themselves in conflict with the villain Maelstrom, who is also absorbing energy to increase his strength.

Vision realizes Maelstrom’s devices and controlling the flow of energy to him and that flow must be stopped:


…but Starfox (Starfox?) sez, he sez that the energy must instead continue to flow, and while the Scarlet Witch is incredulous, Vision, who knows a little something about mass density, picks up what Starfox is puttin’ down:


And couple pages of shouting and punching later, the plan is in full effect, and Maelstrom finds the extra energy he was getting is now out of control:


…and as you can see, totally pulls a Grommu, in fairly similar panels, and also expands into that aforementioned nothingness.

Again, these comics were only released two months apart, so it was a coincidence that the conclusions were so similar, surely. Unless of coursre this was an elaborate practical joke by the creative teams. The big surprise is that while the books were produced by two different editorial offices at Marvel, so the similarities wouldn’t have been caught, Big Jim Shooter not catching this ahead of time seems like it would be unlikely, unless it was too far along in the process to change up the stories. I have no idea, and am not even sure if anyone at Marvel ever acknowledged this happened. Did this ever get mentioned in interviews or reviews of the day that anyone saw?

I was a regular Fantastic Four reader at the time, and had picked up Avengers #250 because I would pick up extra-sised/anniversary issues of pretty much anything whether I regularly read the book or not. I can still remember being taken a little off guard by that Avengers conclusion, thinking “didn’t I just see that same ending somewhere” and realizing it was just a couple of months prior. Again, a weird coincidence, and one I’ve thought about for quite a long time.
 
 
 
 

Specal thanks to Bully, the atomically-dispersed bull, for his production assistance!

I presume the other fella’s name was, like, Blutus.

filed under Categories cerebus, popeye, retailing 11 Comments

So last week, will richards remarked

“I seems ta remembersk a parody featuring Squinteye the Sailor (again, more appropriate than Popeye?), but can’t recall which comic that was in.”

I replied in the comments, but thought I’d point it out On Main, as the kids say. To the best of my knowledge, Squinteye stems from the 1985 release Cerebus Jam #1. This was a comic in which the regular Cerebus team, Dave Sim and Gerhard, team up with another creator to produce a short story. Said creators include Murphy Anderson, Will Eisner, and noted Popeye fan Terry Austin, who co-produced this tale of a Young Cerebus encountering a grizzled sailor down at the docks.

Eventually Squinteye bumps into an old adversary:

…who is dispatched in the typical fashion:

…leaving something of an impact on our junior main character:


According to the story notes in this issue, Sim provided very rough sketches of “Squinteye” and Bluto on the pages, which Austin very meticulously finished, including details like the dead Jeep on the (magically-changing) shoulder.

Like most Cerebus art in the main book, it’s quite stunningly detailed, and Austin fits right in with his legendary illustrative talent. It’s well worth tracking down a copy of this comic…all the stories found within are a lot of fun.

• • •

Snark Shark takes a bite at me with

“twitter: ‘somebody’s breaking street date’

“How much trouble can they get in for that?”

Mr. Shark is referring to a couple of posts I made on the somehow-still-functional-mostly Twitter about a customer who came in Tuesday and indicated a DC book released that day had already been purchased by him days earlier. Given that specific books’ release date was the 14th, if he bought it earlier, then some other retailer sold it too early. (Assuming the customer isn’t mistaken of course.)

Putting street dates on books allows retailers to ship them to stores early, to allow for more time to process and count the received goods, as well as report shortages and damages more a more timely replacement. For example, I received DC Comics due for release on the 21st this past Tuesday, the 14th. My shipments from Penguin Random House (containing my Marvel and IDW and, soon, Dark Horse orders) generally arrive the Friday before the following Wednesday’s release date, though Monday is relatively common too. Diamond shipments with goods for sale Wednesday arrive on that week’s Tuesday, but the occasional delay or UPS error can mean I’m scrambling to process the order Wednesday morning before opening for the day.

For the most part, assuming no shipping delays, this is a lot easier on me than in Ye Olden Tymes, when everything showed up on Wednesday for that day’s release, and hopefully the shipment arrived early enough in the morning that everyone rushed through getting the order counted and shelved and maybe pulled for the comic savers before opening. Unless UPS decided to start at the other end of its route and we ended up getting our boxes at, like, 4 in the afternoon, which did happen. (Eventually we just had the boxes held at the UPS center, and I would pick them up on my way to work that morning.)

Now for early shipments to work, that requires retailers to stick to the street dates, and Diamond used to send out “secret shoppers” to keep tabs on stores and make sure they weren’t breaking street dates by putting material out too early. From all accounts I’ve heard, these distributor spies were obvious as all hell, but to the best of my knowledge I’ve never dealt with any, either at my previous place of employment or at my shop. So, either I’ve never been tagged as a secret shopper target, or my secret shoppers knew what they were doing and actually remained secret. Not that it mattered, since I never broke street dates.

To get to Snark Shark’s question, finally, as to what would be the penalty for selling stuff too early — first they’d stop shipping stuff to you early temporarily, and then I’d have to assume if you’re a repeat offender they’d stop the early shipping permanently. That would mean whatever poor bastard got caught breaking street dates would be back to the Bad Old Process of trying to get stuff taken care of the very morning of its release, which can be done but it’s a pain in the ass.

So anyway, don’t do this, fellow retailers. And again, not that I’m sure this happened in the first place in this instance, as I’m half-convinced this particular customer was mistaken about getting that comic early.

• • •

Again, sorry for the dearth in entries the last few days. There’s a period in March where I have a bunch of medical stuff all in a row, so it might happen again. Be forewarned, be forearmed!

This site could have been solely a “Death of Superman” blog, you realize.

filed under Categories death of superman, obituary 7 Comments

So reading digital comics paid off…by getting a special print edition as a prize! I subscribe to DC Universe Infinite, DC Comics’ online digital library, which comes in handy when I need a scan from a DC book not in my possession, or when I want to, say, reread a bunch of Animal Man without trying to figure out where my copies are in my currently-in-disarray Vast Comics Archives.

Specifically, I subscribe to the “Ultra” level, giving you wider access to DC’s library, along with special offers and freebies…like this free variant edition trade paperback of the 30th anniversary edition of Death of Superman with art by Ivan Reis:


And here’s the back cover…note, no UPC code or cover price:


Inside the front cover, which I didn’t scan here because doing so would likely screw up the book, is a text introduction thanking recipients of this item for being DC Universe Infinite Subscribers, ballyhooing that this edition is exclusive to said subscribers, how great the digital service is, etc.

The book itself contains, in case you can’t see it on the second scan above, the original “Death of Superman” story from the ’90s, plus the Newstime magazine one-shot (the in-universe Newsweek/Time news magazine), and the Day of Doom mini from the early 2000s. There are also several pages at the back, including images of the original art, photos of related promotional material and merchandise, sketches, and even a nice clear shot of the editorial whiteboard used to plan out the story (that I posted blurry pics of way back when, pulled from a DVD extra feature).

For some reason I was under the impression that this was going to be a variant for the recently-released 30th Anniversary Death of Superman Special. But this is nice too.

• • •

On a sad note, Pat, AKA “Jungle Kitty” of the Star-Trek-Especially-William Shatner “Look at His Butt” podcast, passed away recently. I have been a fan of the show since it first came to my attention back in 2006, even appearing as a guest on one episode. As such I always had a special place in my heart for this show and JK and her partner in Trek-crime Lene, and it’s hard to imagine that we won’t be getting any more of their shared discussion on the franchise.

It honestly was one of those cases where you tuned into the show and it sounded like you were just having a friendly and funny chat with your friends about stuff you really liked. I wrote a more extensive tribute to her and the show that Lene will be reading on the next, and likely final, episode of the podcast, so I won’t repeat it all here. But I can definitely say I’ll miss hearing her voice and her passion for all things Trek.

So long, JK.

I could only get “Ojo Saltón” in Google Translate by splitting the name.

filed under Categories popeye 10 Comments

So Reader John sent along a weird item from his own Vast Comics Archive, feeling that I’d be a good home, or at least a home, for this 1974 release. Identified as “Popeye L-2″ on the indicia, this is an educational item for both Spanish and English readers:

This is the front cover:


And here’s the back:


The Grand Comics Database entry calls this a “flip-book,” which it isn’t, really. The front and back covers are both oriented in the same direction, and the pages don’t suddenly turn upside-down halfway through necessitating turning the whole book over to start reading from the other side. The book just reads straight through, with this intro on the inside front cover:


Then you get this story (reprinted from Charlton’s Popeye #96 from 1969, first in Spanish:


…then in English:


…along with other short strips (in both languages) and vocabulary tests and such.

I’ve got to say…I’ve never seen a copy of this. The GCD entry says there are other comics like this from King Features…issue #L-1 is Beetle Bailey, for example.

Anyway, this is a neat item, so big thanks to John for sending it my way!

SPECIAL BONUS: yet another straight-on look at Popeye’s anatomically improbable face:


The pipe doesn’t go in your nariz, Popeye!

The 1990s-est thing that’s ever 1990s-ed.

filed under Categories Uncategorized 10 Comments

Sorry, didn’t get around to writing a proper post last night, so here’s a very autographed copy of Deathmate Black:

…featuring the signatures of (inhales) Jim Lee, Brandon Choi, Mike Heisler, Alex Garner, J. Scott Campbell, Brett Booth, Scott Clark, Marc Silvestri, and Joe Chiodo.

See, here’s a Certificate of Auth–I mean, a “Dealers Attestation” saying so:


And yes, I’ve already sold it, sorry 1990s Image and/or Valiant Comics fans!

No live-action Demon yet, far as I can tell.

filed under Categories dc comics 29 Comments


Sure, I know, everyone’s seen this, James Gunn’s announcement of DC’s movie/TV plans over the next couple or three years. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the announcement that we’re getting a Swamp Thing movie out of this. Maybe.

According to Gunn, this is the first stage (or most of the first stage) of their decade-long multimedia plan of, well, catching up to Marvel. (That Gunn repeatedly uses the word “marvelous” in this pitch is, as I’d said on Twitter, either a poor choice of words on his part, or entirely deliberate.) This “chapter” is titled “Gods and Monsters,” recycling a title previously used by DC, and so called because, like I said before, Swamp Thing is involved here, as are the Creature Commandos, in a move that I’m pretty sure no one predicted. The “Gods” part would be the new Superman film, a movie with the Authority (also a surprise, particularly to the original artist), and Supergirl, and so on. And then there’s the Green Lantern and Booster Gold TV shows coming to HBO Max, not sure which side those fall on. Or I’m just being too literal.

Of course, I’m like someone asked to watch a new Netflix show or pick up a new Marvel first issue…I’ve no confidence in any of this actually lasting. The way the new regime at Warner Bros. cuts/cancels/just outright buries things, like shelving the nearly-complete Batgirl movie and dropping a bunch of stuff off their HBO Max service, I feel like all it’s going to take is for one thing to underperform in this proposed slate of releases, and, poof, Gunn is gone, all the shows are cancelled, and we’re back to square one. And by “square one” I mean “a Batman movie of some kind.”

I mean, I don’t know, maybe Gunn and whatever that other guy’s name was have got some pretty solid contracts locked down allowing them the time to develop these properties. But with Swamp Thing the last in line here, I’m not holding my breath. I’m glad to see it’s on their minds, anyway.

Making a…some kind of leap in collecting, not quite sure, it’ll come to me.

filed under Categories from the vast Mikester comic archives, indies 2 Comments


So anyway, I was bugging pal Nat about finding a copy of Quantum Creep #1 from Parody Press, featuring an early script job by him, and having him autograph it for me. Then Sunday he surprises me with a fresh copy from his own stock personalized just for me! Sometimes I’m luckier than I deserve.

In case this isn’t obvious, Quantum Creep is a parody of the sci-fi TV show Quantum Leap (which has a currently-running reboot/relaunch which is quite enjoyable, by the way). Hopefully this isn’t telling tales out of school, but Nat told me that he and his partner on the book, Ted Slampyak, were presented with that cover (painted by Thad Rhodes III) and tasked with writing a spoof of the show around it.

I haven’t yet had a chance to properly read it yet, but a quick glance through the book show it’s appealingly cartooned, and I’ve spotted a few good gags…it’s written by Nat, after all, and I know he’s funny and clever. And now that I have this comic, I’ll need to complete my collection of Nat’s Parody Press books, of which there seem to be quite a few listed in this book’s editorial page. And some of those I’ve never even heard of before, surprisingly, so this will be quite the education!

Well, that was certainly a word balloon to blow up and display on my site.

filed under Categories publishing 10 Comments

Last time, Daniel T said

“Not familiar with the Preacher example. More on it?”

And I didn’t think I was going to be able to track it down easily, as I couldn’t remember where in the run it appeared, but find it I did! I was talking about obvious lettering alterations/fixes in comics, usually replacing something else (like in Wednesday‘s example of “ass” being replaced with “butt” in Animal Man #1. So here is this splash page, as originally printed in Preacher #61, May 2000:


And here is the same splash as it appeared in trades and digitally:

A closer look at the word balloons in question, original first:


Then fixed (slightly pixelated as I had to resize it from a screenshot):


Now I don’t know for certain that this was adjusted dialogue, replacing something that, knowing Garth Ennis, was probably much worse. But when I see lettering like that which clearly does not match the lettering in the rest of the book, there’s some sort of thing going on. (And I know I didn’t provide examples of other lettering in the original issue #61 here, but I assure you it’s a lot neater than what’s in that word balloon.)

Also, it sort of looks like “arse” was a replacement in that first word balloon, but the whole thing looking as it does makes it appear as if the balloon’s entire contents were replaced.

And the fact that it was relettered again for later editions says to me that it was some kind of fix that needed refixing.

Anyway, just thought that was interesting, a production thing that stuck in my head for the, what, 22 years since this was published.

Elsewhere in the Preacher run, there’s a sequence where Starr (that’s the bald-headed fellow on the page shown here) is making comments at some gathering that I think were also relettered after the fact, so I’ll see if I can’t find those, too.

On a slightly related, and marginally less sweary, note, Chris V noted that Animal Man wasn’t technically a “mature readers” book, the likely reason why “ass” was verboten in the dialogue. And he’s right, of course, that we didn’t start going whole hog with George Carlin’s Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television ’til the Vertigo label was applied.

My counter was that he was correct, but it seemed as if DC was a tad bit…edgier in their more upscale direct-sales-only monthlies than in the regular newsstand books. Not necessarily in language (hence the editing in Animal Man), but certainly in other ways, such as the complained-about-at-the-time violence in Omega Men, the moral ambiguity of Vigilante, and something a little more contemporary to Animal Man, the nekkid ghost-sex scene in Spectre (which as I said to Chris, was meant to be a little more “obscured” than it was except for a production error, but even still, more than you’d get in a newsstand comic).

Basically, the books, being sold only through comic shops, weren’t Comics Code-approved, and boundaries were certainly tested. I also noted Vigilante may have had slightly harsher language early on, but taking a quick pass through the first three issues I know I read at the time, I didn’t spot anything particularly egregious, but maybe I’m conflating those with the later two-parter by Alan Moore. I’ll have to do a little more research here.

Interestingly, just a few months after that Animal Man #1 was released, DC’s newsstand-available and Comics Code-approved Justice League International #23 came out with this panel:


…so who knows what was even going on at DC at the time. And don’t get me started on the Comics Code approving use of the word “shit.”