"Post No. 519"

Good ol' Ringo Starr turns 68 today. I saw a 1 hr. interview of Ringo on the tube Sunday morning right before work time. He was singing a new song called "Liverpool" (which was...okay), and later "Photograph" (which was nowhere as good without George's riffs). Still it's great to see one of the lads and hear him talk about current 'things". The interview was halfway decent (once he and Dave Stewart got tired of their mutual admiration of one another). So, "Happy Birthday, ringman"!

Been reading some misc. comics from the past few years again that I picked up this week. They consist of various issues of DC's Showcase '93, Showcase '95, Showcase '96, Legends of the DC Universe, plus a couple of issues of Marvel Comics' Ultimate Marvel team-Up.

Some of the better issues in these was Ultimate Marvel team-Up #12 (2002) with "Spiderman & Dr. Strange", written by Brian Bendis and with really quirky but enjoyable artwork by Ted McKeever. This issue had a re-telling of Strange's origin, plus dwelt on his son by the other dimensional babe, "Clea". As with many issues of this title it was a continued story so I don't know how it all turned out, but I did notice that Doc's origin now includes mention that his wife and unborn child were killed in the car accident which destroyed the use of his hands for surgery (something never even hinted upon in his original origin way back in 1963 in Strange tales #115). Dunt kno if'n I like dat addition. I really don't care for writers RE-writing a character to fit their own ideas of how he should have been since the originals were perfect to me in every way. But...not a bad story. / $2.25 / :^D

A couple of issues of Legends of the DC Universe stood out in the stack. Those being #14 (shown above/1999) which featured 55 pages + a cover by Steve ("Nexus") Rude, and written by Mark Evanier. This issue was written very Kirbyesque, and drawn in the same manner, featuring many of "the king's" creation such as "The Newsboy Legion", "The Guardian", "Darkseid", etc. It gave us the origin of the second version of The Guardian, plus featured appearances from Superman and Jimmy Olsen. It was a fun read. / $3.95 / :^D

Another issue in this bunch of LOTDCU that I liked was #20 (also 1999) which gave us the origin of "Abin Sur", telling where HE got his own "power ring", and it was set out west in the 1800's. Story by Steve Grant; artwork by Mike Zeck. / $1.99 /X^D

A couple of other issues that were okay were #'s 8 & 9, written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Greg Land & Dick Giordano, which revolved around the first meeting of Green Lantern and Green Arrow. / $1.99 /:^)

I confess to not reading all of the issues of Showcase '93, '95 & 96 yet, but one issue did stand out which was Showcase '93 #12 (12/93) with 10 pages of J.H. Williams III artwork inked by George Freeman on the Green Lantern episode, and The Creeper story called "A Cold Night In Hell", written by Keith Giffen with wonderfully weird artwork by Alan Grant. / $1.95 / X^D