"Cooling Down"

I guess Autumn has finally arrived here. This was the first morning that I noticed the real leaves falling in the yard (and not just the leaves from the top of the tall trees here that had died during Summer's relentless lack of rain). Temperature today is a high of 72, and 42 tonight in contrast to the previous 80s and 90s.

I've added a couple of modern "Bizarro" app.'s over on my "Beatles & Bizarros" blog site, as well as perhaps a new Beatles cameo. In one of the new comics I've bought this past week, there appears to be an app. of John Lennon (panel 6 of page 16) in the Dark Horse title, Emily the Strange: The Death Issue special. Since I'm going to review a few new comics I may as well begin with that one.

The "Emily Special" is from a previous series by Rob Reger (among other writers) and artists such as Buzz Parker, Ryan Hill and Tim Biskup; 28 pages plus a two-color cover for $3.50. I'm sure there are those who really like this character, and I'm also sure that it appeals mostly to those who like alternative-type comic book titles, "new wave" imagery and goth-type artwork. Personally it didn't appeal to me. Oh, it's okay for what it is, but what little plot there is in this title is erratic and it feels more like just a "jam" book for misc. artists and writers rather than anything that can be taken seriously. I won't rate it because of that aspect. (IF I had to do so, I'd give it an "A+" for those who love this sort of thing, and a "D+" for those that do not.)

The one Marvel Comic I got this time is the latest Fantastic Four (#549), which continues their battle with the "Frightful Five" from the previous issue. This is yet another decent issue of FF, and The Black Panther and Storm still play well within the storyline. We see Susan Storm very assertive with her powers in this issue, showing that she's indeed a valuable (as always) player in the FF. I do wish that Michael Turner would pay a little more attention to the elements actually playing within the book though, as his covers seem just a bit too symbolic no matter how well rendered.

The rest of these are DC titles.

Action Comics #855 is by Johns, Donner, Powell and Stewart, and it has Superman visiting the square "Bizarro World". The artwork is a little quirky, but it just seems to fit this particular issue and the first part of a new storyline called "Escape from Bizarro World". We get to see some Bizarros that haven't been around in a long time, such as twisted versions of "Perry White", "Lois Lane" and "Clark Kent". It also brings up an interesting point I had never considered about Superman's powers under various other color suns. If Supes is powerless under a red star, has powers under a yellow star, then what about a younger BLUE star such as that near the Bizarro planet? Would his powers be stronger, or would he even develope NEW powers? (I'll give dis suck'ca a "A+", just cause I'm such a Biz-Fan.)

JLA Classified #42 gives us some new insights on the origin of "The Martian Manhunter", as well as his first meeting with the JLA. This story read "okay" and was pretty decent, but it destroys some continuity to my mind which to this day is still hung in a Silver-Age mode. Because when the JLA first appeared back in The Brave & The Bold #29 (1959), "J'onn J'onzz" was a foremost player. In fact, Superman and Batman were purposely left to the side to emphasize on OTHER DC heroes such as The Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and The Flash. It was the same scenario that was used in "The Justice Society" title in the 1940's to give their lesser-known heroes more time. Okay. I know this ISN'T the Silver-Age and all of that's changed these days. Still a good read, so: "B+".

Superman #667 has cameos and app.'s by Zatanna, The Phantom Stranger, and the Atlantian wizard, "Arion" as the man of steel does battle with "Subjekt-17". This is actually a pretty good story by the likes of Busiek, Pacheco and Merino. Especially impressive are the fight scenes in the rain. Hey! We even see "Lana Lang"! (Give it an "A Minus".)

And lastly, Teen Titans #49 continues the "Amazons Attack!" thingy, of which, over-all, has not impressed me a bit. Mostly I bought it for the Supergirl appearance, but there was a nice little play between Robin (or, I guess he's called "Nightwing" these days) and the current version of "Wonder Girl". About a "C+" on this comic.


And, on to "other" things.....


This past weekend was VERY hectic for me. As I previously blogged, we had that auction business to get over with, and I noticed that on the way home from it that the car sounded a little "off". I hadn't wanted to even take the car that day as I knew we couldn't haul anything large in it had we won a bid. And, sure enough, my wife won the bid on an antique sewing machine and some tables, none of which I could haul back in the Taurus so we had to leave them there to pick up "sometime" else this week. Plus mom wanted to go and there wasn't room in the van with the back seat taken out to haul junk around in, so the car it was.

The next morning (Sunday) was a work day for me. I got about 1/10th. of a mile from home and I thought I had a flat tire. Got out and checked them and they "looked" okay, so I continued on to work. Got about another 2 miles further and a large chuck of tread came off the front, right tire! It didn't "blow", mind you; just 12-14" inches of rubber came loose and was flapping around leaving the thin, bare undertire. So I pulled in next to an office building and called mom on my cell phone to come follow me home as all I had as a spare was the doenut. I had already got it changed when she arrived and when I got the car back home I was going to simply walk down to her house and borrow the old pickup truck to go to work.

The battery was dead in the truck and it wouldn't jump.

So I get mom to give me a ride to work (and later come pick me up). I knew I was going to HAVE to buy me at least two new tires. Well, I've been saving all of my loose change for a couple months now and had over $100. put back, so I had my wife go Monday and get me a couple of new tires. In the meanwhile, Sunday night when I got home I had to go back down to mom's, hook up the battery charger for a couple of hours on the pickup, then go back down again and get the truck and bring it home to use to ride to work on Monday.

Monday night I took the truck back to mom's and changed the doenut spare to ride to work yesteray (Tuesday). When I got home last night, not only did I change one of the back tires with the other new one, but rotated all four tires by hand. I did that in 30 minutes. I don't think I've ever changed 4 tires that fast before, but my wife was fixing dinner and said it'd be about a half an hour, and sure enough, I had them all done before it was ready.

So at least all of that's squared away again now and I have some tires back on the car (or, at least until yet another of the old ones go).

And, to close today...

I haven't seen a single comment on this site now in a month. This leads me to believe that perhaps it's time for this to go into yet another sleep mode for a while. I've really got a lot of other things to do than just blog, and it'd be different IF I knew some people were reading my comments. Looks like it'll be the occasional one or two times a month again for a while. (See you then.)