"Still In The Heat Wave"

First I'd like to thank everyone that either commented or emailed me personally regarding the previous posting here.

I still have no real comments one way or the other regarding that post; just thought everyone needs a forum whether they're credible or not, and you can just mark that one down as one of my semi-yearly politicals.

(And besides...didn't I tell you that after all of that "waxing nostalgic" from last month that I'd present something completely different*heh!)

Any hoo...as they say... "on to other things".

Picked up three recent comics today: Justice League of America (DC) #11, Justice League Unlimited (DC) #35, and The Sensational Spider-man (Marvel) #39.

JLA #11 was really good this time around. The Brad Meltzer story had "Red Arrow" and "Vixen" trapped beneath the rubble of a fallen building, both injured and trying to escape. The artwork's by Gene Ha, whose work I've enjoyed since the days he did Ghost for Dark Horse Comics. It's an "A+" issue.

Sensational Spider-man's story revolves around Aunt May being in a coma, supposingly not to awaken, and Eddie Brock being in the same hospital dying of a terminal illness. In his delusions he keeps seeing "Venom" and it speaking to him, telling him to kill May to extract vengence on Peter Parker. Had he "killed" May, this story may have been a bit more interesting. He does obviously kill his nurse and then dons a make-shift Venon costume to do-in Pete's elderly aunt, but cops out at the end and attempts suicide only to be saved by Peter Parker. Overall, a disapointing story and in the "C" catagory with kudos to the interesting artwork Rick Hoberg, Stepano Galdiano & Clayton Crain done in a Lee Weeks style and the eye-catching black-type painted cover. But I'm afraid that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's writing was a bit dismal. Besides, just how many times can they kill off May? 'Should have left her dead the first time instead of bringing her back rejuvenated in that "Ultimated Spider-man" title.

The JLA Unlimited I probably wouldn't have purchased had I known it wasn't a "Metal Men" appearance. Looked like it when I first glanced at the cover, but it turned out to be a story of "Steel" and his neice, Natasha, (who wanted to be a full-fledged JLA member). Which it's fine for "what is is", but even at that rates no more than a "B" grade.

And I picked up a couple of those "Legion of Super-Hero" figures McDonald's giving out these days (giveaways, my ass! They've upped the price to a buck fifty each for those now!). Got "Braniac 5", and one of their villians, "Tharok". I'll more than likely just find me a full set on eBay or pick those up eventually at flea markets, but I did want to check them out first. (There's 8 figures in the full set.) They're sort'a neat; come in a little ilustrated box and look just like their counterparts on the LOSHs animated series.

And...what else...? Oh yeah...There's a NEW piece of artwork (or, at least one no one's ever seen outside of myself) over on my "Unpublished Work" link. This is a full page from a comic strip called : "Such Characters". (There's a little box down at the right hand corner of this art you can "click" and it'll make it larger, and for those who are so inclined you can stand on your head and look at this piece and see that it "works either way", LOL!)

Been down in my back this week, but finally a bit better today. I probably strained it while mowing the bank of my folk's yard for them last Wednesday since that's fairly steep and there's no way to do that with a riding mower (so it's the old "push" one in that part). Went ahead and worked every day though. You know me. Takes being mortally wounded to get me to call in sick. It has been a rough week, however. Yesterday made eight days straight without a full day off, plus this heat wave and temps everyday in the mid to high 90's or even into the three diget mark. Next week's not supposed to be any cooler either. Just be glad when Autumn finally arrives and I can get back to some "serious" outdoor work around this house.

And I'm still awaiting the arrival of a copy of Super Comics Plastic man #16 (1964) which I won back on 7/15, and mailed payment out immediately. I suppose the seller waited the courtesy time period for the check to clear, but it was finally marked as "payment received" on 8/6 and it's still to arrive. You may say that I should have used "PayPal", but I've discovered that this doesn't always speed up the delivery of a won item. No indeed. I've paid with PP many a time, and I still find sellers (in general) just like to take their good damn time to mail anything out. I think part of this problem is that they get a bit over their heads in auctions and wins, then don't have enough extra help to get items mailed. In fact, there's been several times I used PP and paid for priority mail, only to have the item still take a month to arrive and the seller used media mail instead. It's a bit of a "trap" for the buyer at times, because you dare not leave bad feedback UNLESS the seller leaves their FB first, or they will (more than likely) neg' you as well for no good reason. Ebay has just so very many sellers they just can't police them all, and "safe harbor' is certainly a joke; ask just about anyone that's reported a seller to that department. But I'll give this seller the benefit of the doubt and wait yet another couple of weeks. I'm patient. (I'll just remind myself to not bid on this seller's merchandise in the future.) And to be honest about it, in all of the years I've purchased items from on-line auctions I can only recall 3 items that i either didn't receive, or, weren't as described. Two of those dealers are now NARU'd from eBay selling, so things do eventually catch up with them. Just another reason though "why' I'd rather buy an item in person (whether it's from a personal contact or at a store) than over The Net.