"Post No. 601"

The above pic is courtesy of Urlesque as their choice of the single worst comic book panel they're recently seen. As one person commented on it, "It outta be made into a t-shirt!"

Something interesting I noticed here lately. Remember that cover of Classics Illustrated Special Edition "The Story of Jesus" #129 (1958) that I post here occasionally at Christmas and Easter? My own personal copy from my collection? Well, upon looking at listings for CISEs, I noticed that they didn't have that variation in their gallery. They had the one where Jesus is standing on the mount, but not the 3 camels cover. So I submitted a scan of mine and, lo & behold, they are currently using it. Yes, This Scan is my actual copy. (How's 'bout dat?)

Sure has been cold here of late. So much so that we went and bought an extra electric heater for the living room; one with a thermostat and the tip-over cut-off safety feature. Sure helps knock off the chill (even if I do prefer gas heat) and our kitty cat is assured of staying warmer when we're not home. In fact, he's already taken it over and made him a permanant spot to lay in front of it.

We even got our first little dusting of snow the other morning; not more than a half an inch, which quickly melted off the roads, but lingered on in the shady spots for a few days. We've been pretty lucky so far in these parts this Winter, save for the bone-chilling temps (especially at night). I had people comment on it being only 15 degrees, one afternoon at work, and I asked them what their complaint was? That was 15 times what the temperature was when I got up at 5:30 that morning!

Unfortunately, I have heard of a possible Winter storm heading our way. Just hope we miss that!

And...on to other things...

Won a good size lot of the 1980's Comico comic book series, by Matt Wagner, Mage and as usual will be happy when that arrives. Some 23 books total. This was my personal favorite of the Wagner series, next being probably "Grendel" (the 3 issue plus Primer app.'s), and then probably that 4 issue mini series of The Demon DC Comics did some 20 year ago. It's sad that Comico didn't last longer tha it did, that is, publishing on a regular basis. They got in trouble when they went for newstand distribution, and that resulted on a lot of unsold returns, which eventually led to their doom. There was much talent that came out of this company, and they were definately one of the better alternate press companies (along with Pacific, Eclipse, Warp Graphics, etc.) of the 1980's.

But, as I said, those haven't come in yet, so let's talk about something that did arrive. Today I got in a "Silver Surfer" figure produced in 2007 which came with a DVD which contains "The Lost Fantastic Four Story". You see, in 1970 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby talked over the plot that was going to become Fantastic Four #102. Jack drew the pencils, but when Stan got them, he didn't feel that they matched what he had discussed with Jack, so he put them aside. Parts of that story later appeared as "flashback" scenes in Fantastic Four #108, but the rest remained unpublished, and the pages had never been put together until this DVD. With the help of Jack Kirby's estate, Marvel reassembled most of that story, Stan rescripted it, and Joe Sinnott inked pages that weren't inked before.

Ron Frenz filled in on pencils for any gaps in that existing material, and worked in Kirby's classic style. What impresses me is that this isn't a CD ROM, but an actual DVD that you just pop into your DVD player. I'm sure if one had a pretty large screne t.v., it'd be most impressive! (One can control the page flow simply by pressing either a < or > button on your DVD remote.)

This shows the original artwork (minus word balloons), then the artwork in color, each page followed by a text breakdown of each individual panel. Kirby's (nearly last)FF artwork looks crisp and well-defined, even more so that issues a dozen before it. The ending of the story as well as the plot is different than suggested in FF 108 (which, incidently, appeared on the newstands at approximately the same time of his DC New Gods #1). For those who want to see this lost work, it's well-worth the purchase price, plus as a bonus one gets a pretty neat, nicely detailed, seven inch "Silver Surfer" figure with a base ready for display.