"ELMO'S JUNCTION"

"Post No. 740"

2011-05-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

Saw the new "Thor" flick. Fun stuff! Looking forward to seeing the "Green Lantern" movie, plus the new "X-men" flick, plus others.
"Summer", of sorts, has finally hit (at least for a few days, although it's turned much cooler now) here in S-Central, KY. after an overly wet, late Winter. Grass is growing like crazy. Already mowed both my own and mom's yards a half dozen times, but what with the ever increasing gasoline prices, I'm cutting that back to every ten days or so.
Traded some hardcovers & paperbacks on UFO's to a guy for The Essential THOR Vol. 2 (Still want to get Vol.'s 3 & 4 to have all of the Kirby stuff), the first 4 volumes of The Daily Spirit AND The Spirit Color Album. Since I already have nearly a full run of the Warren/Kitchen Sink Spirit magazines, the first 8 volumes of The DC Spirit hardcover archives, the 2 1960's Harvey issues and the two 1960's Super Comics issues, plus some of the Kitchen Sink regular comic and probably the first 20+ issues by DC Comics, that'll probably be about as much of The Spirit I actually want to collect.
Also found a few more J.T. Chick "tracts" I needed. Counting the variations I have plus foreign editions I think I must have around 155 of those now.
This year's started out steady in retail where I work, but seems to have slowed down a bit. (This past weekend was good, tho'.)
Finally, after over a year, I got my comic book collection back in order. I had sold one big lot of 3,000 comics to one dealer a year ago last Jan., then pulled another 5,000 for another lot to sell. This had left my personal collection in complete disarray, so I straightened out 34 "long" boxes and got everything back in alphabetical order and by company, then did an estimate of how many issues were in my collections these days. I figure it's around 7,000 (which means if you add everything together I'd had something like 15,000 comics before; my collection had gotten waaayyy out-of-hand).
And...
They say all good things must come to an end. Thus, this has as well.
Seven years ago on this date I wrote my first blog post. Since then I've written 739others, including this one. I was sort of amazed that people still read my rantings after that many years, but I've discovered that a few confess to still doing so.
And I've written about just anything that was going on in my personal life, or ideas, comments, reviews, collecting habits, so on and so on.
After a few years I actually began to number the posts rather than title them. And, after a few years my posts became less frequent. This was due to me just not having anything I thought interesting to say, or just being too busy to get around to writing something.
Seven years ago when I first started "Elmo's Junction", my life was somewhat different. My wife had a full time job. My parent's were both alive and well. Since then, my wife got laid off and hasn't found a fulltime job now for the past 2 years or better (in fact, she's currently unemployed), and my father passed away. Then my mother developed several health problems. I found my world being full of trips to hospitals, nursing homes, doctor visits, etc., etc., plus working more hours to pay the bills, plus attempting to take care of two households. I'm tired.
But just because I won't be "here", it doesn't mean you can't keep up with my silliness over on Facebook where my user name is "Dave Puck". And both my other blog sites will be accessable: "A Puck's tale" (personal publishing history) as well or the ever growing in lists, "Beatles and Bizarros" blog sites.
So...see ya, folks! Elmo has boarded the train...
And it's left "the Junction".
Thank you one and all.
Stay well.

"Post No. 739"

2011-05-01T08:04:00.001-07:00

Today is May the 1st, so "Happy May Day" Everyone! For more information regarding May Day celebrations, click onto the link HERE.

Well, with all the hub-bub regarding the "Thor" movie being released this coming Friday (and I still think they "missed the boat and SHOULD have released it on May 5th. instead as THAT's "Thor'sDay"), I got in the mood to re-read a big slew of classic Marvel silver-age stories regarding the Asguardian hero-god. So, since I don't have all of those great tales in their original editions these days, I dug out many reprint volumes I have lying around and from re-reading off and on tales from Marvel Masterworks, The 1st. Thor Essential, Thor Annuals 1-4, Marvel Special Edition 1-4 and the better part of the 19 issues of Marvel Spectacular, I was able to re-read pretty much the whole storyline from Journey Into Mystery 83 thru Thor 140.

I've gotten in the mood to re-read a lot of silver age stuff here of late. I'd just re-read about 20 Ditko issues of Spider-man, and I'll probably start in on Fantastic Fours next.

Anyway, digressing aside, these reprints took me thru Thor's origin/1st. app., intros of the other Asguardian gods, 1st. app.'s of "The Excecutioner and Enchantress, Absorbing Man, The Trail of The Gods, the Norn Stones, intro of The Destroyer", etc., etc. and so on. Great Kirby stuff, and not too shabby a job by Joe Sinnott as well on some of the pre-1964 issues of JIM. Stories that made me a Marvel Maniac "back in the days". 'Shame I can't seem to enjoy the comics this company produces today as I did back then, but times change, people change, tastes change.

Rain here again in S-Central, KY., and they say if it rains on the 1st. it'll rain 15 days out of the month. Wouldn't surprize me a bit since we've already had a surplus of rain since Jan. 1st.; some 23 inches total.

And, I'm glad the royal wedding is finally over with, altho' we'll be hearing it constantly for the next year and then have to suffer thru every pregnancy Kate has "forever". The one thing I learned the most by watching that wedding is that British women wear REALLY UGLY HATS to such an occasion. (Let's hope Kate and William have a much better relationship and marriage than with Di and Charles.)

Start my vacation Tuesday and will be off from work for 5 days. Would have been a whole week but I told them I'd work next weekend just for the extra bucks, then I'll have the following Monday after Mother's Day off before I go back to the regular grind. Not doing anything "special" during that time off. Weather-permitting I'll work on my riding lawn mower to try to get that where it'll work again as I really don't won't to have to use a push mower on both my own and my mother's yards again thru what will probably end up being an exceptionally hot Summer. Tuesday, in fact, I have to take mom to a doctor's apointment, which will pretty much kill that first day. Just as well as more rain's predicted for that day.

Not a whole lot has happened to me since I last blogged. My tax refund still hasn't arrived, but after talking with an agent of the IRS the other day he assures me it should be here "worse case scenerio" within the next month. That money's pretty much all slated for use before it even gets here.

In fact, after two years of my wife being laid off from here last fulltime job and having to work partimers, she was let go,(for no good reasons, I might add) from her job just last week (again) about the time I thought we might get back on our feet again. It's always something.

"Post No. 738"

2011-04-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Stormy weather certainly has been the theme for April here in S-Central, KY. Fortunately I've had no more "large" limbs fall in the yard since the storm we had on the 1st., but dozens of smaller ones. Seems like I have to call the city for limb pick-up about once a month. Would luv to have these two very large trees cut to the ground that are in front of my house, but it'd probably cost a couple grand for that, so....

Anyway, the 14th. of April came and went and I never even remembered that it marked the 11th. year since I was hired in retail at the place I work. Days all seem to just run together after so many years.

Bought a lot of 300+ comic books from the 70s-modern at the local flea market a couple weeks back for a paultry sum of $15., which means I had about a nickle each in them. From that lot I pulled about 75 to either keep or read, and of course, after I read those, they go back into a lot of around 5,400: 1970s to modern I'm trying to sell "as a lot". Ones I kept included a high grade copy of Marvel's Kull #3 circa 1972 with nice John Severin artwork, a copy of the Amazing Spider-man Annual #12 which was all Frank Miller art, several modern books written/drawn by John Byrne and also several issues of Dark Horse Pub.s Spyboy written by Peter David. I also read one of the modern series Marvel produced of Starjammers, but was not impressed. More so I was impressed with several issues of DC Comics' The Human Race (but not enuff to keep them). I pulled 32 misc. issues of "Star Trek-Star Wars" comics and stuck them on eBay "as a lot" in case you'd like to look at that; a link to this auction is HERE. I also kept around the first dozen issues of The Ultimate Marvel Team-Up but haven't decided whether or not to keep them (as I put most all of the other "ultimate stuff" in the books I'm selling), but these are written by Bendis and illustrated by several decent artists such as Allred, Matt Wagner, Sienkiewicz, Totleben and McKeever.

Mowing has also been the theme for the past month. The grass gets so thick and tall that I have to stop the push mower numberous times just to clean out from underneath it from it clogging up so bad. All of this rain makes a vicious circle. I mow my front yard, then have to mow mom's front yard, then I mow my back yard, then her back yard, and by that time it seems I have to start all over again. What with gasoline prices high this year it plays hell on the wallet.

I see that next Friday's episode of Smallville will indeed feature "Booster Gold", the wannabe superhero from the future. Hope they do this character justice as I always liked the 1980's DC series.

Lots of new superhero movies soon to be out: Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, the newest Superman. I'd sort'a like to see "Cowboys VS. Aliens" as it's such a silly concept, but I still haven't seen "The Cowboy Way" where cowboys were fighting ninjas. (Heard it was pretty lame.) Well, I'm sure none of these could be as good as "Valley of the Gwangi" where cowboys fought a dinosaur, and that flick was made before all of the current use of computerized special effects.

Starting my "vacation" this coming May 3rd., and it'll run thru May 9th. No special plans. Probably filled with mowing yards par usual, and I have to take mom to the doctor the first day of it. Too broke to do anything else like visit my fave comic book store. Last year I got to where it was located and took my wife to a craft store, then just turned around and came back home. Times' been hard here on the ol' ~D.Puck' household for the past couple years, but perhaps are picking up now that my wife has landed a fairly fulltime job and whenever our tax return finally makes it in. Last time I checked on that with the I.R.S. site, they said it was "being processed", which is better than the usual statement of it "being delayed".

Found a copy of the CD soundtrack to "Pulp Fiction" for a buck recently. Always enjoyed the film and the music used, especially "Jungle Boogie" and "Commache".

Went over to my aunt's place and got her car started the other day. Battery was dead, so I cleaned the posts and jump-started it and it seems fine now save that the battery probably needs a good, full charge. 'Shame I can't fix my own as I still have that leaky water pump and am awaiting funds to have that replaced.

Got one job finished today I had slated to do ASAP, which was trimming mom's hedges down a good 3+ feet as they were getting literally too tall for me to trim. Now they're only a couple feet tall and easy to maintain.

And, finally... May the 16th. is the 7th. Anniversary of the "Elmo Jenkins" blog site. It will also be the last one as I'm closing down shop here. Fellow bloggers can still access this site as well as my biographical "A Puck's Tale", and the listings on "Beatles and Bizarros", but if you want to see what I've been up to you'll just have to look at my Facebook page, which is under the user name of Dave Puck.

"Post No. 737"

2011-04-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

Today is April 1st., of course, also known as "April Fool's Day", or "All Fool's Day". For a history of this date click
here. Beware opening any suspicious emails!

Tomorrow, April 2nd., is the birth date of my late father, William E. ("Eddie") Puckett. Born April 2nd., 1920, he would have been 91 years old.

Usually, the first three months of the year just seem to fly on by for me, but it seems like it's been a long time now since January 1st.. I suppose it's because of the cold weather we've had for the past four months.

Not that we haven't had a "few" warmer days, but even then there were storms, one of which knocked down a 20 foot limb from high in a tree in my front yard. We were lucky that there were no vehicles parked underneath it as it weighed probably 150 lbs.! Just today I finally was able to get it all chopped up, sawed up and split up for anyone that wants the free wood for the burning.

I've had a leaky water pump now for a month and am still awaiting my federal tax return to have it repaired. I filled my federal on February 11th., electronically, and on the 25th. got a reply that it had been rejected because "someone else" was using my social security number! I then had to mail it in and now there's been a delay. I've tried to contact the irs through both the phone and on line, but that's a pointless waste of time and effort. Finally got a reply that it would arrive no later than April 26th.!

Anyway, I took my car to a local garage to get an estimate, and although the pump itself would be less that $30., it'd cost #130.00 (!) just to install it. I'm trying to find a "shadetree" mechanic locally who will do it for less.

Another date, not really important, but one I always keep track of is the 14th. of this month. This 14th. of April will mark my 11th. year in retail at work.

I've been pretty busy working on inking the "Bootz'x" comic series. Thus far, I've completed all of the work on the first three issues. If you wish to click Here, you can read a complete seven page back up story which is proposed for the 3rd. issue. (If the photos come up too small, simply "refresh" or press F5, and it'll come up larger to read. There's an "arrow" to the right of each page to progress it on to the next.)

Finally got around to reading a couple of comic book collections as well; the 1990's DC hardcover by Jerry Ordway: "Power of Shazam!" (which was very good), as well as the "DC Showcase present's Enemy Ace" which is excellant and reprints at least the first 40 appearances of the character, mostly drawn by Joe Kubert. i was especially happy to get the latter as I sold the first 25 or so app.'s of EA in the original comic books back a year ago in January.
(Please pardon any "typos"; March was a long month.)

"Post No. 736"

2011-03-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

My cousin, Timmy Green died a couple of days back. Timmy was a good friend and one heck of a good mechanic. He had his garage about 2 miles from I live and if I ever had car problems, he was the one to fix them. Timmy had a great sense of humor and was a very hard worker, and my sympathies go out to him and his family.

...

I'm not sure who I'll use as a mechanic now. I have a coolant leak on my '95 Taurus, and I'm not sure if it's a hose or the water pump. This morning I took it by one local mechanic, but he didn't fool with water pumps, but suggested another mechanic who told me he was covered up with work and would have to make an apointment for me later this month. That would suit me fine as long as my auto holds up as I'm still awaiting my tax refund from the federal before I do do anything.

I've had a lot of problems with my tax return this year. We filed electronically over two weeks ago, and the following Friday we got a call from our preparer that our form had been rejected due to someone else using my SS#! It was finally discovered that this was a mistake made by some other tax preparer somewhere, that they'd accidently written down MY SS# on someone else's form. So, anyway, my preparer had to mail it in to the IRS and now it's delaying my refund by several weeks (always something).

I finally finished inking and proof-reading a 20 page strip I'd been working on for several months off-and-on, and will sometime soon take the 11" x 17" originals to have them reduced so that I can scan them on my own scanner, then the whole issuewill be posted to my Facebook page in a new album. (I'll note that here "when" that happens.)

Work's stayed steady at the retail store and I don't have much time off this week. I rarely seem to get two days off in a row, so this one day between 3 or 4 others means I have a lot of catching up to do. I'm still studying my Chinese tutoial. Currently I'm trying to learn "colors", having already gone through and memorized most of the greetings and simply words and the names of several animals. Lord help me IF I ever think about trying to learn how to write Chinese characters, however.

I have found what I think is an interesting mistake listed in both The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, as well as The Grand Data Base" regarding the date of a Gold Key comic. It was the movie adaptation of "Mutany on The Bounty".

The copyright on the cover of the comic states 1962, as well as the indica AND the little cover date on the splash page's bottom right-hand panel states "11/62". (This was also a 1962 film.) If this is true, it would tie the issue of Doctor Solar Man of the Atom No.1 as being the FIRST GK comic book. It's a shame one can't go back in time to when those books were originally on the shelves (spin racks, "whatever") and actually see if both titles were there at the same time.

"Post No. 735"

2011-02-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

With three days off from work in a row, after working 6 straight days, I've actually had to "fight" to find me something to occupy my time. Already I've worked on a leak over the entranceway and one on the back porch, helped my wife with some of her craft stuff, helped clean up this house, etc., etc. Even tried to fix my riding lawn mower so I wouldn't have to use the old push-type this coming Summer, and I still find I have time on my hands.

I did get around to working more on inking a 20 page comic. Still lack around 6 pages having that finished. Probably 5 pages left by tomorrow as I ink fairly fast.

Stopped by the local flea market this morning and found a VHS copy of "Time Bandits" for a buck that I added to my collection of Beatles' tapes (since George Harrison co-produced that film and did the music soundtrack). But really, not much else.

So I looked at some misc. websites and saw where on "Smallville", "Booster Gold" AND the current version of the "Blue Beetle" will soon appear. They really need to fiesty-up that show since it's the final season and get rid of all the metaphysical crapola storylines they've used of late.

I read where Marvel's going to kill off a different character every quarter, so with The Human Torch now done, it's the Ultimate Spider-man's turn soon, which really suits me as I can't say I've ever cared much for any of the Marvel Ultimate series.

At least we've had some warmer weather here in S-Central, KY. to work outside. Hope it's a sign that it'll hang around a while now.

"Post No. 734"

2011-02-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

I am so sick of Winter. With that said, we're expecting even more of the "white crap" to fall here tonight in S-Central, KY. and I'm thankful simply because we don't live even further up north. I feel for all those in Chicago and above this year. Global Warming? Weather shifts? Signs of 12-21-12? Who knows, but this season has certainly taken a toll from all of us this time.

Turned in the damage to the front entrance way and back room to my insurance company just to see if I could get any help financially to fix leaks in both sections, but to no avail. Was told neither damage was caused from wind or hail, so I suppose I'll just let the wood rot to the point it falls in since I definately do not have the money to repair either. The front entrance way, in particular, needs a new metal roof over it, so all I know to do is wait until I get any money back from taxes this year and invest in yet more silicon and some sort of roofing coating to spread over the entire thing. Of course, I'll have to wait until I get decent weather to do this. And, the interior ceiling can't be replaced until I get the leak fixed. Just be redundant.

Picked up a few books recently. Three silver-age comics: DC's Sugar & Spike #'s 74 & 77 and The Flash #177. The S&S's are always a fun read, and The Flash has a x-over of the G-Age Flash w/Infantino art. Nice additions to my older comics.

I also found one of the Doc Savage Omnibus paperbacks, the last one (#13), which is rather scarce and reprints the last 5 of the DS pulps. It's got that final tale where Doc battles "Satan", which I've always wanted to read. I think I still need about 20 odd later Doc books to complete a full set.

Won on ebay as well was another pb; a Bruce Tegner self-defence book on judo. I bought probably 15 different ones of these when I was a teenager, obsessed on learning oriental fighting techniques. He wrote books on all sorts of fighting methods, greatly step-by-step illustrated with photographs. I'd love to have some more of those again.

Retail's picked up a bit at work and I think we'll have a better year overall whenever the weather breaks, people start getting back in tax refunds and school's out.

"Post No. 733"

2011-01-10T15:14:00.001-08:00

Hello, and welcome to my first post of 2011. Hope everyone had a great Christmas (or, "whatever") and the happiest of New Year's!

Worked up a trade deal with a local guy on 40+ silver and bronze-age DC's today. They were just misc. comics, mostly from the latter 1960's, plus six were from the 1970's, but all were decent books.

The ones from the 1970's included 5 different issues of Our Fighting Forces with Kirby artwork (in fact, had I not gotten rid of my 70's DC Kirby stuff in that lot of 3,000 comics I sold a year ago this month, it would have probably completed a set of his work in the title *sigh*).

Also one of the issues of Adventure Comics w/Supergirl was from the early 70's, where she got her first new costume, plus a Superman 253 which is a 25 cent Giant w/a Golden Age Supes' reprint. Everything else was 1969 or before. The oldest, a Mystery In Space 86 from 1963 w/Infantino artwork. Then there is 3 issues of Action, 7 more issues of Adventure (2 w/The Legion and the rest w/Supergirl including 381-381, her first three issues), 2 issues of Aquaman, 2 issues of Metal Men (including a #24 which retells their origin), 5 issues of Green Lantern with Gil Kane art, 2 Jimmy Olsens, 2 JLAs, 3 Teen Titans, plus single issues each of The Atom , Atom-Hawkman, Bomba, Challengers of the Unknown, Hawkman, & Plastic Man.

There were single issues of Captain Action, a No. 1 which was the only issue I needed to complete a set of the five. This, to me, was a great DC title with wonderful artwork. Wally Wood did the art on #1, and Gil Kane did 2-5, and all issues were written by either Jim Shooter or Gil Kane. I was really glad to get this issue.

There's a Hawk & Dove #1, with Steve Ditko artwork, of course. Their second app. and his second big brainchild for DC after leaving Marvel.

The Adventure Comics #381 was "Supergirl's" first solo book after her very lengthly stay as a back-up character in Action Comics for a good ten years.

And lastly, a the Flash #160, aka 80 Pg. Giant #21, which probably holds the most memories for me. I wasn't quite 15 years old when it appeared and it contained great reprints from really early issues of the silver-age Flash, plus my favorite "Kid Flash" story, "King of The Beatniks". This issue also contained a Golden-Age reprint of the original Flash, PLUS a reprint from a golden age Adventure Comics of "Johnny Quick" with that wonderful Mort Meskin artwork! That one reprint made me an instant Meskin fan.

I recall the local Newsberry's 5 and Dime only carried 25 cent Giants in their comic line, and the company they got them from never picked them back up, so any comics they bought just sat around on the racks until they finally sold out. And I remember seeing a stack of probably a dozen of them at that store for at least a year!

This will make a great stack to re-read and enjoy the nostalgia of 4-colored pages and that sweet smell of printer's ink.

In Utter News..., we missed the snow here where I live in South-Central, Kentucky last night, but another front is approaching tonight so we'll probably get more of the white crap. Only an inch or so perhaps though, and I don't foresee any problems taking my mother downtown to her doctor's apointment tomorrow morning. Perhaps since we had an early Winter, we'll have an early Spring as well. (I hope.)

"Post No. 732"

2010-12-31T16:35:00.000-08:00

On this, my last blog post of the year, I'll "catch up" a bit since my last lengthly post.

Yesterday I took my mother to her pacemaker doctor in Elizabethtown, KY. (45 miles from here). She got an excellant report and doesn't have to come back for another checkup until April. My chief complant isn't taking her to the doctor, but the distance we always have to drive (about 100 miles round trip). I'm thinking that there must be a closer place for this checkup, perhaps at a doctor in nearly Glasgow, KY. (only 14 miles from her house). She has a checkup with her local doctor this coming Tuesday and I'm certainly going to ask about that, especially with the cost of gasoline jumping all the time, problems getting a full day off to take her, plus I'm not sure how much longer my vehicle's going to keep making these longer trips. It's a '95 Ford Taurus, and it's been an exceptionally good car, but I've put a lot of miles on it over the years, the tires are getting bad, it needs a long over due oil change, and the brake light came on on this trip. I depressed it several times and the light went off, and I didn't see any leakage under the vehicle and the master cylinder was still full, so I'm thinking perhaps the master cylinder may be going out and that'll be another unneeded expense these days.

While we were in E-Town I wanted to stop by Barnes and Noble and check out their discount racks of trade paperbacks, but was just too tired after sitting in the doctor's office waiting for so long, but we stopped at The Peddler's Mall, a place filled with several hundred booths by individual venders. I didn't have a whole lot of time to look around, but still managed to spend less than $10. on a small bag of various action figures (some superhero, such as one of the recent Burger King/Batman-The Brave & The Bold "Aquaman" figure, and a lego "Robin" to go w/my Batman one), plus four misc comic books: The Human Target (DC-VertigoX) #5, The Human Corps (DC) #4, Squadron Supreme (Marvel/2006 series) #6, and Dawn (Sirus) #2.

Been working an awful lot here of late which keeps me exhasted. I worked several days a couple weeks ago, then on the day I was off had to take mom to her foot dr.'s apointment, then worked several more days and had Christmas Day off which pretty much was just shot spending all day at my aunt's for dinner, etc., then working 4 more days and having yesterday off to take mom to E-Town, then I'll have to work until Monday before I have another. (I'm pretty pooped.)

Christmas was okay. As I stated, my wife and mom and I went to my Aunt Sally's house for dinner since we had Thanksgiving at mom's. My wife gave me a nice flannel, quilted jacket and long-sleeved shirt, my cousin leslie gave us a $20. Wallyworld gift card, my aunt gave me three older $1. coins (Eisnhowers from 1974-75, bi-centenniel types for my coin collection), mom gave me house slippers and t-shirts, and a friend gave me a copy of Superman III on DVD (which was the only one I needed to complete a set of the Christopher Reeve films of the character).

I finally got a bonus at work, but it wasn't any more than last year's; at least it will help on bills. (I'll not be off any during my "local" comic book shop's 30% off sale on all merchandise this month anyway.)

A very Happy New Year to one and all. Meet me back here again "sometime" next year!

"Post No. 731"

2010-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

Happy 88th. Birthday Wishes to Stan "the man" Lee today! Hope he had a Great One!

"Post No. 730"

2010-12-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

Least we forget the true meaning of this day. A blessed and Happy Christmas from ~D.Puck'.

"Post No. 729"

2010-12-08T16:50:00.000-08:00

It was 30 years Ago today, Sgt. Pepper's Band ceased to play. JOHN LENNON: Not forgotten.

(Click onto my Facebook link in the right column for musical tribute.)

"Post No. 728"

2010-11-26T18:19:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving went well for us this year with my aging mother still in relatively good health. My wife and I went down to her house and I cooked a 8 lb. turkey breast and between mom and my wife, plus items brought by my Aunt Sally and Cousin Leslie, we enjoyed a nice meal. In fact. I overate and ended up with indigestion and after I came home had to take a couple of Tums and lie down for a good two hours.

Today was Black Friday for us in retail and a very hectic day, not just with the many customers, but both I and one other person was attempting to order items for the store from the wholeside side and restock shelves, but it seemed like everytime I turned around I had to stop what I was doing to do "something else" for someone. But I did finally manage to get the tools out in my section of the store and we called an extra employee in to help on the register so we could get caught up a bit. Sales were down, naturally, but not as bad as they could have been. Still it's nothing like the days about 10 years past when we'd do $7-10K and had 6 or 7 people all running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to help the customers.

Won a few issues of HULK V2 which will just about complete a set from 92-111 giving me the run of "Planet Hulk/World War Hulks" at last. Expect them in soon. I still haven't gotten to my regular comic book shop and that's been 2 years last August the last time I visited there.

Finally have started work on the 6th. issue of that lmt. series that I've worked on now for the past (almost) 2-1/2 years. Most of it's in pencils so even if I do finish the first 6 issues before the end of the year it'll take another good year just to ink the thing. In the meantime, I have another project I want to work on that I'm getting antsy about.

Woke up to ice and snow some this morning and frigid temperatures. Yesterday it was in the 70's and today it barely got into the 40's. "Supposed" to warm up this weekend.

My leaves are gone now. Cold weather's on its way.

"Post No. 727"

2010-11-09T16:57:00.000-08:00

Today is my mother's 86 birthday, so a very happiest of birthdays to you, mom!

Been a while since I last blogged, but I've posted a lot of personal photos and a little more artwork over on my Facebook page (in case anyone wants to click on it and take a look). Won 7 or 8 silver-age comics that I should be able to pick up before the end of the week. A couple of issues of Tales of Suspense (#'s 93 & 94, I think), a handful of Gold Keys such as Space Family Robinson 19, Mighty Samson 10, and even a Doctor Solar 2, an odd issue of Archie's Mighty Comics w/Steel Sterling & The Fox, and...something else (I forget right off). The Doctor Solar is the best one of the lot. The issues of TOS has the first mention and first app. of the cultish character, "Modock".

Also picked up two nice store DVD copies of "The Posidon Adventure" and "Jaws", a couple fave flicks that I'll enjoy rewatching on some rainy day off from work.

Yesterday was very busy for me on a day off from work when I once again emptied the gutters and raked/mulched those up, put plastic on an outside windown (which was a real pain in the ass), and used some "Great Stuff" sealant around places on the roof. Also had a guy come over and clean out/relight one of our heaters. Just getting things more prepared for colder weather.

Work has picked up, and I don't think it's all just Christmas shoppers, either. They say the economy isn't any better, and for people trying to find jobs that's maybe true, but people ARE spending well. In fact, we just had one of the best weekends saleswise in retail since last year.

We have nothing special planned for Thanksgiving this year. My cousin's wife has been in the hospital very ill since last May, so no going out in the country for that again this year (perhaps, never again sadly), but we'll cook a meal and take it down to mom's to eat. Christmas will be a bit skimpy for us as my wife has yet to find another full time job.

Been busy working on that limited series I've previously mentioned here. Lack about one full issue having half of that done, but, most of that's still in pencils.

I was happy with the results of the national elections, but not too pleased with our local ones. (Well...you take what you can get.)

"Post No. 726"

2010-10-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

I picked up a copy of the 1972 l.p. "Elephant's Memory" at yesterday's flea market for 50 cents. EM was one of John Lennon's old back-up bands, and this l.p. was produced by John and Yoko. Ironically, yesterday would also have been Lennon's birthday.

In fact, December 8th. will be the 30th. year anniversary of his death. To commemorate the life of John Lennon, my "Beatles & Bizarros" blog site will be getting a New Look. I'll be reversing the order of listings on the page where the Beatles app.'s in comic books will be first. I'll probably change the format of the template a bit as well; perhaps a different colored background.

Over on my Facebook page (link in the right column) I posted three songs in the memory of John, one "by" Elephant's Memory, and two by John (in case you'd like to go over there and give them a listen). David Allen Jones also posted several tribute songs to John on his own FB page, so you might want to listen to those as well.

Went by the local fleamarkets today and picked up a couple of the old Steve Reeves "Hercules" flicks, which were always fun things to watch. As a kid I was engrossed in mythology from the study of the Ancient Greeks, Norse, etc., everything from every book I could read in the local library and/or school library, movies based on such as well as comic books Those will be a good way to kill a lazy afternoon sometime. A major motion picture adaptation will be - IS being made - of "Thor" which will be released in a year or two, which I'm anxious to see.

My old friend Mala Shaw, a comic book collector/dealer from Louisville, KY. stopped by for a little while after I got off work yesterday evening. He had several $1.@ books for sell, but I'm a bit short of spending cash this week. I did, however, pick up 5 from one of his long boxes, which included copies of DC's House of Mystery #'s 214 (Wrightson cover & Aragones), 225 (100 PGR. Giant with a Kirby reprint, plus art by Frank Thorne, Don Heck, Sergio Aragones & Alex nino, with a "Phantom Stranger" reprint from the early 1950's as well as a "Spectre" cameo), MAX-Marvel's Supreme Power #13, written by Straczynski and artwork by Gary Frank, and a Supernatural Thrillers #7 from 1974 with the origin of "The Living Mummy" (Alcala artwork), and the first issue of the Aircel limited series "The Walking Dead" from 1989 (shame that wasn't the Kirkman/Image version as that's bringing some "big bucks" these days).

Got today off and have, as stated, already gone by the flea markets, took mom to church, changed a tire on my wife's van and later plan on getting up on the roof "playing Spider-man" to check the gutters for leaves that are already beginning to fall. Hard to tell it's Autumn here in S-Central, KY. today with temperatures getting up to 90 degrees! Guess I should appreciate not having to turn on the heat.

"Post No. 725"

2010-10-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't call myself a die-hand fan of Robert Kirkman's work, but I have to admit that I've enjoyed every comic book of which he's associated that I've read thus far, which included a few issues of Image's The Astonishing Wolfman, Britt, and several issues of The Invincible. He writes books and creates characters that are fun to read, and that, to me, is what enjoying comic books is all about. I'm anxious to see the AMC series adapting his "The Walking Dead" (premiering at 9PMCST/10PM Eastern on Halloween night).

The afore mentioned comics were from that larger lot of 80 misc. comics I won recently and finally completed reading. In just yesterday was another lot I'd won of the first 23 issues of the 1980's Capitol/First Comics title, The Badger. During the 1980's there was such an explosion of great titles from alternate publishers it was difficult to keep up with what was "out there" as well as attempting to weed out the really bad ones from the lot, but Badger, written by Mike Baron (who also wrote another title which I thought was excellant called Nexus) was always on my buying list. Along the way through the years most of that '80's stuff got traded off or sold, so it was nice to get the first nearly 2 dozen of those back in my collections. Not a title probably that I'd ever attempt to complete (I think there was nearly 80 issues total), but definately worth having and re-reading here nearly 30 years down the road.

I had today off from work and having finished up my mowing last night (for hopefully one of the very few times I'll have to do that chore for the rest of the year), I had some free time and took my mother to buy her a new pair of shoes, did some housework and grocery shopping, posted some songs over on my Facebook page, and generally relaxed a bit. Watched another of the four episodes from a Fantastic Four DVD (which contains 4 different animated shows from 2006). The most modern version of the animated FF is sometimes okay and sometimes so-so. For instance, I can't say I like the hair style on "Johnny - Human Torch - Storm", but the animators seemed to think hair sticking straight up resembles a match flame, and I see no reason why "The Thing" should have the FF symbol painted on his chest (in blue, yet!), but overall, they aren't too bad. The episode I watched today starred "Antman" (Henry Pym, one of Marvel's oldest silver-age characters), and they basterized his appearance by changing his blonde hair to black and giving him a goatee (Geez).

Began re-reading a classic favorite of mine last night, H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. Interesting that my 1994 printing has reproductions of the original engravings by Walter Paget. Walter Paget and his brothers were all illustrators in the late 1800's, and one of his brothers used the image of Walter for the first drawn depiction of the character, "Sherlock Holmes".

"Post No. 724"

2010-09-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

Been helping my wife get some crafts together for her next show. Today I cut out seven yard ornaments, painted same and nailed stakes to them. Punpkins and black cats mostly; Halloween stuff. We only have two holidays that yard stake ornaments do well, Halloween and Christmas, so if we don't have any for those our opportunity is missed until the next year.

Also got up on the roof and calked every place I could possibly see that I thought rain might be able to blow in as I still haven't been able to completely stop a leak in our entranceway. It's still coming in between the glass in a side window and until I can get that fixed, repairing the ceiling would be redundant.

And too, early this morning I took my mom to get her flu shot and around to a couple other places for items she needed, so I've had a full day.

Still need to mow the yard and that's slated for tomorrow. Always "something" to keep me busy.

I got in a couple of lots of misc. comics that I'd won on different auctions; mostly 2000-2010 stuff, most of which were Marvel, and most of those various titles of The Avengers. Several of these Marvel comics were the "Secret Invasion" x-overs, some of which were interesting and others sorta "blah". The issues I got of the Mighty Avengers" were nice as each had a homage cover of some vintage Marvel comic, like the cover of Tales to Astonish 27, Strange Tales 135, etc.

There was an issue of The Astonishing X-men #28, which I figured I'd really like as it was written by Warren Ellis, but I found it nearly uncomprehendable. I'd read his hero-type books before and I thought them okay, but really I think Mr. Ellis does much, much better with non-mainstream subjects. (The artwork in that issue was pretty ... well, I just didn't care for it.)

I discovered two didferent Beatles app.'s or mentions in this lot (already have them listed in my "Beatles & Bizarros" blog listings).

The Ultimate Avengers 1-3 were interesting with some pretty decent artwork, but I really can't say I care much for the ultimate version of "The Red Skull". A couple of the better more modern Marvels in this lot were Spider-woman (2009) #1, and Web of Spider-man (2010) #2. The latter featured a new version of the origin of the villian, "Electro", with a few original Steve Ditko panels reprinted from Amazing Spider-man #9 (1964), and a pretty funny "J.Jonah Jameson" backup story.

The funniest was the M.O.D.O.K. Reign-Delay One-Shot #1 from 2009, by Ryan Dunlavey. It just shows me that at least someone at Marvel still has the intelligence to publish an oddball humor book from time-to-time.

The DC's in these lots included copies of the current Jonah Hex series (#'s 35 & 36). 35 I liked, 36 I can't say I did. The issues of the current titles of Secret Six (15-17) and Suicide Squad (67) were all excellant. The issues of Justice Society (31 & 32) were only "so-so".

Thus far of the approx. 80 comics I got in I've read something like 60 of them. I still have 15 or so various Image titles and a small handful from companies such as Archaia and DDP to digest in these lots.

"Post No. 723"

2010-09-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Took my mother over to the foot doctor today and stopped by Wallyworld for her to buy a new battery pack for her telephone and myself a new pair of shoes. Unfortunately, they didn't have the battery pack she needed, and I couldn't find a pair of shoes in my size (10-1/2 "Wide") to suit me, so that was pretty much a wasted stop. I did notice that in the kids department they had a pretty neat t-shirt that reproduced the cover to Justice League (silver-age series) #52. I "think" the largest size of that might have fit me, so maybe next time I'm there and feel like spending 7 bucks on it.

We did stop of McDonald's on the way home as it was well past lunch time and we both were feeling some hunger pains. I bought the only two remaining "Batman The Brave & The Bold" Happy Meal toys they still had in stock, which was a version of the current DC "Blue Beetle" (with flapping-wing action, and a retro-looking "Green Arrow" (that's supposed to shoot either a "boxing-glove" arrow or a reg. one, but I never could get those toys to work right). Others in that set include an Aquaman that throws a "ball of water", a "Black Manta" submarine that shoots a missile, "Plastic man" whose enlarged hand and hammer-like other one swings back-and-forth, a "Batman" that throws baterangs, a "Batmobile" with pull-back action and splits in half to reveal another vehicle inside, and "The Joker" that squirts water from his laple. The last three I'd probably like to have of that set just to add them to my "Bat-Stuff" collection.

Won a couple comic book lots that have yet to arrive. One has 26 misc. issues of The Avengers (post 2000 issues), and the other's a hodgepodge of 50+ Marvel & DC's mostly from 2002-2006 which included The Avengers, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Fantastic Four, Jonah Hex and The Invincible. So, a lotta reading ahead for me.

Finished mowing my front yard yesterday which included raking up leaves as well and mulching them. Autumn is only a week away, then it'll be Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas and finally 2011. As usual, the year's flown right on by.

"Post No. 722"

2010-09-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

Always Something Dept: My wife and I started over to Glasgow, KY. today to Wal-Mart to pick me up a much needed new pair of shoes and stopped at Minit Mart along the way (about 5 miles from here), got some breakfast and ate that in the car before going on, and when we started back on our way, the brake light came on. I had just checked over the car before we started and even added a little brake fluid to it as it looked somewhat low, but upon rechecking the master cylinder, it was dry! I added some more and got under the car to look and told her to press on the brakes and it was squiring out underneath the back of the car. So, we cancelled that trip and drove it back home very slowly. Upon getting it back to our drive I got underneath it again and looked with a bright flashlight and saw that the rear right line had rusted almost in two. If we'd not stopped at MMt and went on to Glasgow, we'd never made it to Wallyworld (or had to maybe pay for a tow back home). Now I'll have to get it to a mechanic to have that fixed (another not needed expense for us these days), plus my wife will have to give me a ride to work tomorrow as I'm not off again until Tuesday and it'll be at least then when I can get it to the mechanic. On top of this, my mom has a doctor's appointment in Glasgow come this Wednesday. Always something.

Actually it "could" have gone out even earlier on me today as I took my mother to church then went by the flea markets about an hour before. So I suppose either something looks after fools like me, or ...

Anyway, I found a DVD copy of "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" today at the flea market, so now all I need having a set of the Christopher Reeve flicks is Superman 3. There were a few scenes in this flick that has always bothered be. For one thing, Superman rebuilds The Great Wall of China" w/a power he's not supposed to have, i.e., some sort of super-mental-vision ability, and another scene where he mentally levites some people back safely to the ground, and yet, another thing, was when the solar-powered villian "clawed" Supes, it harmed him. Now...isn't Supes' powers supposed to be derived from solar power? Looks like that would have strengthened him instead? (Oh well...maybe the villian was actually "draining" Suspes' energy instead.) Then there's the scenes of "dust" falling on the moon, when it'd probably have floated upward into the atmosphere and "noise" during the lunar battle, and finally the scene where the super-villian takes Mariel Hemingway into outer space and she "okay"! Oh well, even with the flaws it's a pretty decent flick. Ironically, there's a scene where the solar-powered super villian tosses the State of Liberty towards a city street right past a shot of "the twin towers".

Then one dealer had these unopened full boxes of "Desert Storm" cards from the 1990's. The boxes had gotten damp from getting caught in a down pour yesterday, but I knew all of the cards were alright as they were wax packs all sealed. He told me he'd take $1.00 a box on them, so I snatched one up, and then he told me to take two for a buck as he was trying to get rid of them, so I got an unopened full box of the "pro" DS cards as well. "2 for a Buck"! Luv dem deals!

Otherwise I got in a lot of a couple dozen comics from an auction win. Nothing "special" in the lot, but some good reading material.

There was a DC Blackhawk #219 from 1966 with "Go-Go Checks" cover. Silly ass story though about Andre's South American cousin wanting to be a BH. 'Bout half way racist, actually, or either a good case for closing the Arizona border.

Then there was a Dell issue of T.H.E. Cat #2 (1967) w/a Frank Loggia photo cover. Stiny artwork, but neat cover. A Gold Key Space Family Robinson #17 (1966) with a "painted-type" cover and Dan Spiegle art. I always enjoyed that title and bought it from issue #1 right off the racks before the "Lost In Space" t.v. show ever debuted. They had some great covers, especially.

There was a Gold Key Doctor Solar #25 (1968), which reminded me of something I'd forgotten; Ernie Colan had drawn some issues (yep! Same guy that did "Richie Rich", "Arak" and "Amethyst"). And a King Comics' Mandrake the Magician #7 (1967), with only so-so artwork and a "Brick Bradford"secondary feature, but this issue had the origin of Mandrake's side-kick, "Lothar".

My favorites from the lot were copies of Megaton Comics' Wildman #'s 1 & 2 with Richard "Grass" Green artwork, and were the only two issues Magaton published (altho' it was continued by another company up to #5). Grass Green was one of my favorite of what I considered semi-professional fan artists of the 1960's, first seeing his artwork in a fanzine called Star-Studded Comics published by a fan group called The Texas Trio. Other well-known fans from that time appearing in these issues are Ronn Foss and Howard Keltner, so this was pretty much an old school first-fan project. The back-up feature in issue #2 of WM was "Xal-Kor, The Human Cat", which is probably more remembered than Wildman ("aaannnnnddd Rubberboy!")

The rest of this lot consisted of Shi: Through the Ashes (a 9/11 Tribute comic published by Crusade Comics and with Billy Tucci artwork, shown on this blog just yesterday), a Marvel-UK issue of Warheads #3 w/a "Iron Man" app., a Marvel Doctror Strange #16 with Guise artwork and an app. of our fave odd-guy, "Brother Voodoo",a Marvel Defenders #54 w/ Giffen - Mike Golden artwork, a DC Who's Who: Impact Comics (magazine-size), and some lesser stuff I wanted to read and a few dup's or just junk to me books that ended up in my yard sale quarter boxes.

"Post No. 721"

2010-09-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

The years do not dim the memory.

"Post No. 720"

2010-08-25T10:43:00.001-07:00

Got the above print (from 1977) in today's mail. It's titled: "The Wedding of The Phantom" and it's signed by both Phantom creator Lee Falk and the artist Sy Barry (who drew the newspaper strip for over 30 years). A whoppin' 17" X 21" in size, I plan on flattening it out a bit more (as it had been badly rolled), then having someone professionally mat and frame it for me. 'Course, then I'll have to figure where to ever hang it as my walls are packed already!

Great piece, though and I've always been a fan of "the ghost who walks" having read many a newspaper strip, Gold Key, King & Charlton comics (plus other companies) issues of him, and even some of the pre-Golden Age reprints (which I think were in King Features' Ace Comics). The Phantom has been around a llloooonnnngggg time. In fact, he was a costumed hero in newspaper comic strips (and in comic books, even if they were reprints) before Superman appeared in Action Comics #1, and some even claim that the skin-tight outfit he wore inspired the costume of the man of steel.

And, speaking of newspaper strips, I traded some stuff that I hadn't sold in a yard sale for several nice trade paperback collections. Got 5 different "Calvin and Hobbes", 4 different "Doonesbury" (2 of which were hardcover collections), a copy of "The Illustrated Roger Zalazny" (with Gray Morrow artwork), some "Bloom County" collections and even a MAD paperback that I didn't have (plus got shed of some stuff I didn't want).

Lots of good reading ahead for me!

I may try to get a copy of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes "sometime" (although I probably have most of it in some other collection), and I wouldn't even mind getting a C&Hs t-shirt eventually. There's a lot of nice designs for those from which to choose.

Been reading several issues of the 1987 DC Justice League/International/America, Justice League Europe and some of the last issues of the first volume of JLA here of late. I can see "why" DC decided to cancel the original JLA after a run of 27 years as it was indeed getting pretty stale. The first 60 or so issues of the '87 series were the best after the first run (even tho' the artwork seemed to suffer after a while), but we got to meet so many great characters in the title, like "Maxwell Lord", "Flashman", and the reintro of "Fire and Ice", and "Jack O'Lantern" (the last three of which were all introduced originally with various different names in, of all titles, "Super Friends"). After the first 60 issues or so, the title had just about lost any good humor and moved on to a more serious format. But there were some great scenes of the martian manhunter with his oreo cravings and conflicts between Guy Gardner/Batman/Ice (and just about everyone else as noby seemed to get along with Guy). Fun stuff!

Looks like my wife, aunt and I are going to have a big yard sale the weekend this town hosts the "DeaFestival"(a thing they're doing for awareness of the hearing impared). My wife wanted to set up a booth downtown during this but the commitee wanted $250. a space (!) Waayyyy too much! She'd be lucky to make $75. at such, so a yard sale permit's only six bucks and we can set up free in mom's front yard. The town always re-routes everyone right past the front of our house everytime they have some festival, so we'll just set up at mom's front yard and put a big sign in our own yard showing the way to it. I'm sure we'll do just as well (if not better). And I do plan on cramming the yard with everything I possibly can and marking it all down dirt cheap just to get rid of it.

"Heath-wise", I finally got rid of the poison ivy poisoning of a few weeks back by paying a rather expensive visit to a local doctor and getting a steroid shot in my butt, but now I'm not getting much in the way of a restful night's sleep due to severe leg cramps which wake me up numberous times (or my wife as as well as my legs "jerk" from the spasms). Which leads me to think that, at my age (now 59), it is always something. Probably poor circulation problems brought on from the many years of walking on concrete floors in the retail business.

Christmas arrives only FOUR MONTHS from today.

"Post No. 719"

2010-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

I went and got mom's "Living Will" forms and Power of Attorney for myself today. We got that noterized and all that's taken care of. She's gained back most of her strength since being in the hospital with a bout of flu last week, and the swelling in her legs has decreased as well.

Used the push mower on my front yard last night. Oddly, there's only one side I ever have to rake as it just seems to always be thicker there. (May be due to the fact that's where the sewer lines run.)

We finally got a decent rain here locally both last night and today totalling over 2 inches. More in the forecast. We certainly need it since it's been so dry for so long, and it looks like mom's roof doesn't leak anymore (so I guess I actually fixed that knock-on-wood) and we can go ahead with the final repairs to her back room.

Temperatures have dropped as well. That day after day in the high 90's was really getting "old".

Stopped by the local book store today and bought 4 older comics: Spider-Woman V1 (Marvel) #'s 34 & 36, Hulk-Hercules Unleased (Marvel) #1 and The Huntress (DC) #1. The artwork in the Spider-Womans is by one of my favorites: Steve Leialoha. These, to me, was his finest work circa 1979-82 or so.

Haven't read the other two yet, but I'm sure I'll enjoy The Huntress. Been a fan of that character since the 1970's, and a Hulk-Herc' fest is always fun.

Also I won a lot of 30+ issues of the 1987 Justice League, including 10+ issues of J.L. Europe. Hope those come in shortly. It should give me close to half of the first 61 issues of the JL (which is as much as I care to collect).

One of the best things I've won this year in a 11" x 22" color print from 1977 of "The Wedding of The Phantom", signed by both Lee Falk and Sy Barry. Anxious for that to arrive so I can frame it for the pc/collection room wall.

"Post No. 718"

2010-08-10T15:35:00.001-07:00

Who th' heck is Johnny October???

Recently I was looking through around 300 or so 45 RPM's I had put aside for a yard sale (ones I'd picked up in "lots" here and there cheap over the years) and came across a 45 RPM photo sleeve for Johnny October. I thought I was pretty well up on the doo-wop-type pre-Beatles era singers, but this one I must have completely missed. I didn't have the slightest idea as to who he was/is?

So I looked through everyone of those 45's, but could never find the actual record for the sleeve, which intrigued me even more more. Next I went to Google and found a music video (a link to which is HERE), and finally to Wikapedia for some information (which did no good).

But, from what I have learned, he was from Philadelphia and was the lead singer for a group called the "Four Dates" (which I only vaguely recall) circa 1959-60 and recorded 5 singles amoung which were "Growin' Prettier" and "Young and In Love".

So there you have it. Major enuff to be a minor heart throb of the time, minor enuff not to be much remembered. Whether he's still alive or not I haven''t the slightest clue (unless someone out there can tell me more).

"Post No. 717"

2010-08-07T10:04:00.001-07:00

Well it began Tuesday evening. I had just been down to visit my mom after I got home from work about 2 hrs. earlier and she said she had a little "chill". She and I neither thought anything of it, but then a couple of hours later she called saying she was freezing to death and had no strength. When I got down there she was extremely weak and burning up with a fever and off to the emergency room we went. Her temperature was 103.

They gave her Motrine and IVs and within a couple of hours her temperature was back down but also was her blood pressure. All of that finally got back to normal and it was diagnosed as a slight case of pnumonia, but fortunately we caught it very early on and stopped it. However, she has a persistant cough and will have to stay in the hospital for observation at least until Monday. She feels otherwise fine and her appetite is good.

Work has been steady even with all of the great heat we've had of late. Today the temperature's somewhat better in the low 90's but I think we're expected another heat wave next week.

My riding lawn mower went ka-put on me again but I found someone that'll mow mom's yard pretty cheap and does a fine job. All I have to do down there is weed-eat now and, of course, mow my own yard (with a push mower), but now I'll have that extra mowing time to do so. It's been so dry here of late that that's been cut back considerably.

Got in a lot of 14 or so comic books, 7 of which were Charltons and the others Gold Key/Whitmans. The lot included a Lost In Space/Space family Robinson 49, Turok Son of Stone 120, 122, 124, Flash Gordon 22, Boris Karloff tales of Mystery 76, 92, 96, Space War 31 (2 copies, one in VG+ and the other in Fine), Space Advs. v2 #9 and a couple of Ghostly Tales.

The Space Advs. reprinted a non-edited version of the original Capt. Atom origin from Space Adventures v1 #33 (1960) as well as other stories from 1950's Sa's (all by Ditko). I had that already reprinted in Strange Suspense Stories #75, but when "the president of the USA" was shown, it had been edited to look like JFK instead of Eisenhower. This version is correct. The Space War has a cover reprint of Ditko from Strange Suspense Stories V2 #2 (an atomic bomb explosion cover)plus other 50's Ditko Charlton sf stories, and the other Charltons contained either/or both Ditko and Sutton work.

The Flash Gordon has Bolle artwork and the Turoks are original stories illustrated by Sparling (not one of my favorite artists, but acceptable work). The Lost in Space is a reprint drawn by Dan Spiegle. There was an odd book in the lot: a copy of the 1970's Kubert School Heroes World Catalog which I already had, but the contributors are interesting as it contains work by Rick Veith, Steve Bisette, Dursema, Kessel and Dorman.

Going back through my "quarter yard sale boxes" I pulled a handful to keep which included a copy of Marvel's The original Ghost Rider #8, simply because it reprints the 1973 Ghost Rider #1 (1st. app. cameo of "Son of Satan"), with a new Mike Ploog cover and a new Dick Ayes "Night Rider" (original western Ghost Rider, renamed) backup story, and the AC Comics print The Power of Strong Man #1 which contains 1950's reprints all with Bon Powell artwork and Gardner Fox scripts.

I also kept any Valiant comics from the boxes I didn't already have, just because I always liked the work from that company in the early 1990s.

At the local flea market today I found store copies of the 2008 (2nd.)Hulk flick (much beter than the first) and an unrated version of "Alien VS. Preadator". My list of store copies of various superhero flicks from the 1980's on has been reduced considerably due to flea market finds from the past year or so.

"Post No. 716"

2010-08-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

One of these days I'll learn how to count. This is actually Post No. 716 as I numbered 712 twice. Too tired to go thru the hassle of renumbering it on the posts, but anyway, that's the reason for no #715.

Anyway...

Watched two new flicks recently: "Clash of The Titans" and "Kick Ass".

"COTTS" is a remake of the one from 1980, and although it has some very impressive special effects, it lacks the personaility of the original film. The original used stop-action photography and was Ray Harryhausen's last big hoorah, and it's just a whole lot more memorable than anything I've seen in this remake (although there is a cute cameo about a half an into the film). It's worth the watch on a rental, but nothing I'd recommend spending hard earned buck over.

"Kick Ass", on the other hand, was very enjoyable and is a light-hearted attempt at a super-hero flick, but that doesn't mean I'd recommend you taking your kids to see it, merely because of the excessive violence in the film. The plot involves a nerdy type teenage boy who wonders "why" no one ever wanted to be an actual super-hero, so he tries to be just that. An accident actually leads to enhancing his abilities to do such, and he meets up with a couple of vigilante costumed "heroes" who takes vengence to the extreme. Yes, you'd want to pre-view this one as it's a heavy PG-13 type that I think perhaps is more enjoyed by the adult comic book collector than children.

In other news...

I've already gotten probably 30 good tomatoes from the four "Early Girls" plants I put out early this year , but only one so far from the eight "Jet Stars" I planted later on (in fact, I accidently cut down one of the latter while weed-eating). The EGs are really delicious, but not as large as a store-bought tomato; about the size of a tangerine. They make a good "sandwich tomato" if you use a couple of slices.

I mowed my back yard with the push mower today as my riding mower tore up (again) yesterday while I was going to mow my mother's back yard. Not sure what happened. It just started smoking and I turned it off, and then tried to restart it (which it did) and I could drive it back home with the deck disengaged, but it makes a bad chopping sound if I try to cut with it. Not sure if that dinosaur is worth even attempting to repair for a third time this year.

I believe I've found someone that will mow her yard pretty cheaply though, so perhaps all I'll have to worry about will be keeping my own yard in shape for the remainder of the year.

"Post No. 715"

2010-07-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

Been off from work both yesterday and today (and tomorrow). Sort of wish I could work tomorrow as it hurts the ol' paycheck come Friday with just 34 hours, but I occasionally get those short weeks on the schedule.

Anyway, it gave me a little time to get some things done and still get to relax a little (although I had a fitful night's sleep last night with leg cramps and soreness from just overdoing it on yard work).

Yesterday I weed-eated mom's yard and put more calking on the shingles over the area where she had a major roof leak in the hopes that'll finally stop it, plus trimmed at least four foot from the side of the neighbor's hedge row that was infringing onto mom's property so much I couldn't even mow in that area (of course, I asked her neighbor's permission first; they're elderly and have no one to do such things).

Also went by the local flea market where I found VHS copies of "Radar Men from The Moon" (the complete 12 chapter serial) and "Justice League" (the animated 1 hr. first season opener), and a Reader's Digest from 2005 with a Beatles cover and article.

Also bought a fairly large "Batmobile" for my collection of such. Has a built-in "Bat-Bike" (for Robin); think it's from the George Clooney "Batman & Robin" flick now from several years past.

My wife set up at Somersville, KY. at a craft show and did really lousey sales-wise due to the 96 degree heat I think mostly. No one wants to get out in it if they can help it and I can't say I blame them. This is one of the hotter summers we've had here in S-Central, KY. for a while and when it does rain it seems to always be thunderstorms.

I did get in a copy of Comics Monographics: The Origin of Marvelman #1 (2nd. revised printing), published by Boardman Books. I was hoping this would have more reprints of Marvelman than it did (just 6 pages), but it was excellant all the same giving a precise history of the UK character and how it was continued from L. Miller Co.'s reprints of Fawcett's "Captain Marvel", "Whiz", "Captain Marvel, Jr.", etc. from the late Golden Age and into the early 1950's and beyond.

This, of course, is the same character that Eclipse Comics later licensed and it became "Miracleman" which contained not just UK stuff but original material by both Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, and the character also appeared in at least a couple of dozen issues of Warrior magazine.

The book contained (probably) a complete listing of everything published by Len Miller, as well as a history of comic books in the UK and even touched on another UK publisher, Alan Class. I've always enjoyed these UK comics whenever I'd find one for my collection as they reprinted a variety of material (sans B&W) from DC, Atlas, Charlton and ACG (and others). In fact, I enjoy foreign comic books as a whole whenever they reprint decent material. 52 pages from Boardman Books, square-bound and it may be carried by Amazon.com (not sure), and hey! It even has a photo of Ringo Starr holding a British comic he's reading (which gives it a listing over on my "Beatles & Bizarros"> blog site (under the trade paperback section). $14.99 cover price, color cover and B&W interiors with several photos and the back cover has color repros of Marvelman covers.

"Post No. 714"

2010-07-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here on my 59th. birthday I reflect on how quickly times goes by. Seems like it wasn't so long ago I had a tenth birthday party, although that was waaayyy back in 1961, but I can recall the events of the day and the people who attended it so well. Guess I'd best enjoy this last year of my 50s as much as possible. At least I can look forward to only 3 more years before collecting my SS and perhaps cutting back the number of hours at work each week.

And, over on my Facebook page, I've created a seperate Album just for my artwork done over the past 40 or so years (the link to such is HERE). So instead of just having a link on this page to show a single piece of work occasionally, now one can see a multitude "over there". I'll be adding new pieces (and old) from time-to-time.

Business has picked up considerably at the retail store. The economy is either getting better, or people are just fed up with not spending any money. "Whatever", it assures me a steady paycheck.

"Post No. 713"

2010-07-11T09:37:00.001-07:00

A really nice snag at the local flea market today; a copy of the first issue of Life Magazine from 1936 for fifty cents. I also bought four other issues of Life from the 1940-early 50's and a small stack of comics, the best of those being Incredible Hulk 195 & 196 and Marvel Tales 57 & 61 for a total of $5.50.

This makes to second copy of Life No. 1 I've had over the years, the other found at a flea market or antique store (I forget) in Louisville, Ky. around 1968, but that one had the centerfold missing (but a better conditioned front cover).

Business has been picking up pretty good sales-wise at the retail store where I work. A lot of people traveling, and not just one shorter trips as in previous Summers. Already I've had people from Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas, and Ohio (and those are just the ones I recall). Even my wife sold better at the flea market set up this weekend with her crafts. Of course, this could just be a peak inbetween recessions.

My good friend Steve gave me a copy of the book, Ticket To Ride, written by Larry Kane and I've been reading through it. It's difficult for me to find anything new about the Beatles after reading probably 50+ books on the group, but this book is about their first 1964 (and '65) tour of the U.S. where Kane was their exclusive interviewer. Those were strange times for America. We'd just lost a beloved president a few months earlier and we were looking for something to cheer back up the nation as a whole. The Beatles accomplished this in many ways, and, even for those who didn't like them, it gave them something else to talk about and get their minds off of their sorrow.

This book shows the beginnings of John Lennon's controversies due to his many statements which you either loved or hated, and a joyful time for the band before the real beginnings of the drug culture and the hippie movements, right smack on the middle of the civil rights movement and the beginnings of feminism. Well recommended reading, and it comes with a free CD of Beatle interviews.

"Post No. 712"

2010-07-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

REVIEW OF "JONAH HEX" (Movie/2010)
Well....

"Spoiler" Alert: (Although after reading this you probably won't want to see it anyway.)

I watched the "Jonah Hex" flick today. I hated watching this movie because I knew ahead of time I'd be disapointed. And, I was, but not as much as say, last year's offering of "The Spirit".

The flick was dark and moody; a combination of the original DC comic title and the later Vertigo versions. The fliming was poor. His origin was changed, naturally. Like someone was afraid they'd offend all Native Americans if they'd done it true to it's original source material. They make 'someone" else responcible for his disfigurement.

A supernatural aspect was given to the character (like they couldn't leave well enough alone.)

Better things to say: The acting was for the better part "okay". The make-up on Jonah's face, pretty close. The link Here with Wikipedia will give you a good explanation of the plot as well as a list of actors.

I'd give it a rating, but I don't care to use that sort of language here.

It's a western. How hard is that to screw up? Obviously, really easy.

"Post No. 711"

2010-07-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy day, today.

My wife and I took my mother to her pacemaker doctor some 45 miles North of here. We couldn't have asked for any prettier day, with temperatures not exceeding the mid 80's and a blue sky with not a cloud in sight, and a light, gentle breeze.

We stopped along the way up there at one multi-family yard sale where we found some goodies. My wife bought some summer shoes, about 100 bobbins of tread, etc., and I bought two large plush dolls of Batman & Superman (each about 3 foot tall!) and a Robin doll (about 1/2 the size of the others) for $5. total, and the woman threw in a Justice League Unlimited tin case (for holding action figures) and a Marvel Super-heroes paper folder, plus a cloth tote for free! I also bought a package of 50 unopened floppies and a working adding machine w/paper for $2. each, so we got a lot of nice deals!

Then on to the pacemaker doctor where we stayed maybe a hour and a half, and on the way home, we stopped at an antique mall where I hurridly looked through a few hundred comics and purchased 8 of them for $6. They included: Justice league America (DC/1989) 32 (Giffen/DeMatteis issue), The Young All-Stars Annual (DC/1988) #1, Prime (Malibu) #1 (1993/1st.app.), Captain Confederacy (Epic-Marvel) #2 (1991), HULK v2 (Marvel) #11 (2000), Archer and Armstrong (Valiant) 32 (1992/"Unity" x-over/Barry Winsor-Smith artwork/2nd. Valiant app. of "Turok"), and Ultra Klutz (Onward) #2 (1986)by small press writer/artist, Jeff Nicholson , and one of the more interesting comics, Berzerker #1 (Gauntlet/1993). Berzerker was originally supposed to have been published back in the 1980's and was even advertised in Megaton #2 (Magaton pubs./1985). This issue also has a pin-up by Erik ("Savage Dragon") Larson, and 2 different pin-ups of the character by Rob ("Youngblood") Liefeld, and has a reprint of the "Knight Watchman" from Detective Comics (DC) #38 (Aug., 1940). Angel Medina does the artwork (who most are familiar with); it's some of his earliest.

Then we stopped at Wendy's Restaurant for lunch and finally on the way back home we stopped at the cemetary up there for a while where my wife's parents are buried.Finally back at home we had to stop and get some more medicine for my mom. We all had a full day and a tiring one.

"Post No. 710"

2010-06-30T16:06:00.001-07:00

Watched some of David Blaine's program recently. Like Criss Angel, Blaine I can't consider an actual magician as such, but rather, an entertainer. His programs (like Angel's) are created to entertain the viewers, but the illusions aren't really even that.

The best example of this would be the trick where he lets someone take a card and destroy it, then the card ends up as a book of matches in the man's hand that picked the card. Clearly, these people are already set up with the trick and are in on the illusion. How many people do you know these days that carry around a book of matches? Very few, but miraculously, every time he does this "trick" they have them, and if you'll look closely at the match book, it's the same type every time he does this illusion.

Then there's one where he has someone write down the name of someone that's really close to them on a piece of paper. He asks the person to stand several feet away from him so he can't see the name they wrote, and fold the paper very small. Then Blaine lights the piece of paper and blows it out and brushes the charred end to his shirt covering his chest. He then rolls up his shirt to reveal the name being the same. This is so pre set-up it's a no brainer. He knows the people of course; they're all just part of the show, much like the old carny guy with his crew or a snake oil vendor and the guy that can't walk swigging down a gulp to tell everyone that now he can dance.

The floating act? Pants split in front and a sewn on shoe as he steps on his toes onto a step (note they always show this trick from the back), and Chiss Angel's flight is done with wires suspended from a crain (which isn't shown on t.v., of course) when he does the trick. Everyone in the crowd's a part of the act.

But people just eat this stuff up. They love to watch people like Blaine and Angel do these things on t.v., and clearly they have a large following. And I'm sure that some of the illusions they perform are actually slight-of-hand which takes quite a bit of skill, so I'm not saying either of these performers shouldn't have their programs of followings, but be assured that when you do watch them (IF you do), that it's all just t.v., and there's very little on the idiot box that's real.

But then, in life sometimes, what is real.

In other news...

I see that the sales figures must be down on Wonder Woman as DC's changing her costume dramatically. Geez. Anything to sell more issues. Like we all know that this will last from now on...just like the Death of Superman or his being split into a blue and red figure, multi-colored version of The Hulk, a black costume for Spider-man, etc., etc., and I wonder how long it'll take until a story comes out where everyone forgets Spidey's Peter Parker (if that's not already happened since I'm so "out-of-the-loop" on new comics these days).

Course, we all know that these changes never stay because the companies are afraid of losing their trademark symbols. 'Would love to see them forget just one time and someone else grab one of them. In fact, the longest of any change I ever recall seeing on a superhero costume was the yellow circle put around Batman's bat symbol back in '64 which lasted until modern times. And with these companiy ploys, on down the road they'll retrun WW to her original costume and make a "big deal" out of that as well to sell even more issues. Perhaps someday those in charge of attempting to recreate some classic character in their own image will realize that it's okay to sometimes change the storyline or origin (most characters have already had this happen will no real effects) but leave the symbolism alone. Collectors eventually get tired of the crap they do.

"Post No. 709"

2010-06-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

This is the first year I've started having some decent luck with growing tomatos. We picked one ripe tomato last night and had it with our meal (Ummm-Ummm, Good!) and I picked another one today. The two plants I set early ("Early Girls") are 4 foot tall and really producing, and the eight others ("Jet Stars") are over a foot tall butr they'll be late bloomers, planted a few weeks later than the first group. Hopefully we'll have tomatos all Summer from these unless the blight gets them.

Was going to Elizabethtown today to stop by Peddler's Mall and a few other places and had my alarm set for 5:30 AM (they're an hour ahead of us) so we could get up there early and back before it got too hot, but as luck has it I had another one of those fitful nights where I didn't get to sleep until at least 2:AM. I fell back to sleep and didn't wake up until 10 o'clock.

So instead my wife and I walked down to mom's to visit a while with my Aunt Shirley who was down from Martinsville, Indiana. Stayed a couple of hours then back home where I'm contemplating going back down later on and trimming scrubs.

In other things....

I won 24 different issues of the 1988 DC series Checkmate recently so when those get in I figure I'll only need #'s 19, 21-24 (or, five issues total) having the full set of 33 issues of that title. Shouldn't be a hard one to finally complete, (although I've said the same about the 1980's Captain Atom series which I need the same number of issues now for a good four years).

I did pick up a half dozen or so misc. "modern" type comics the other day at the local book store which included a couple of those JLA Annuals Giffen wrote back in the '80's (fun stuff), and a Peter Parker Spider-man v2 #42 which had mentions of The Beatles and Yoko Ono (added to the listing over on the "Beatles & Bizarros" blog).

Read through those issues of Rocky Hartberg's Cole Black comics (published by Boardman Books) and enjoyed same. I got issues 6, 9 & 10, none of which I'd read before and it was great to read this series again after not seeing any around for 20 years or so. "Cole Black" was one of those alternate titles caught up in the great "comic book implosion" back around '88 and that's a shame as it was one of the titles that truely was worth buying and reading. I was also sent gratis a copy of The Art of Denis McLaughlin which reprints UK sci-fi hero stories from the 1950's. Excellant stuff there! All well-worth the recommendation to read.

"Post No. 708"

2010-06-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, there's a personal attitute problem I've had to work on: That of not being a smart ass.

I've always been a bit sarcastic, and my work has mostly always been satirical and full of parody, but I've found that, much to my dismay, those "attributes" have turned rather sour, especially during the past 5 or so years.

I could "blame" it on a number of things that have happened in my life, such as family problems, work-related issues, or just plain boredom, but I'll take full responcibility for my actions and the total blame, and all I can say is that I'll promise to work on my attitute and try to be a more cheerful and optimistic person. I need to always keep in mind that no matter how bad things are, things could (and a lot of times) can be worse.

With that said, on to other things.

Finished up that 3 issue mini-series I'd been working on. Haven't started back on "the-other-previously-mentioned-in-another-blog-post-series" yet.

Got in issues #'s 6, 9 & 10 of Rocky Hartberg's Cole Black indie published by Boardman Books, along with a copy of "The Art of Denis McLaughlin" (1950 UK comic reprints). Will review all when I can find the time to read them.

Went to a city-wide yard sale in a town about 45 miles from here last saturday, but only spent a total of $2.50, and that was a quarter each on a couple of modern comics and $2. (total) for 4 different MAD paperbacks I didn't have. Stopped by an antique store in another town on the way home and looked through probably a hundred latter 60's/early 70's DC and Marvel comics, but they were all so over-priced I passed.

Hotter Than Hell is the theme today, and even more so tomorrow. (Summer has arrived with a vengence!)

"Post No. 706"

2010-06-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. Al Williamson. I'll never forget how your wonderful work for King Comics' Flash Gordon influenced my young mind.

"Post No. 705"

2010-06-09T14:47:00.001-07:00

Last couple of days been pretty hot here. I was out in the sun 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours yesterday, down at my mom's, trimming hedges, weed-eating and mowing with the push mower. Earned me a bad sunburn on my neck and sholders. Surprizingly, it's not too painful, but, yes, tender to the touch. Looks like it'll cost me $40. to fix the riding mower this time as that was a drive belt that broke just as I was finishing up the main part of the mowing on her front yard a couple days back.

Haven't done much today, though, save finally finish lettering and inking that 3 issue mini-series I mentioned earlier that I wanted to complete and have ready for publication. Turned out to be 53 pages total in length, but if I decide to publish it all at one time that can be trimmed down a couple of pages.

Now I can get back on the other series I've been working on for a couple of years, which lacks just a few pages being half finished, save for all the inking and lettering (which I figure would probably take me a good three weeks or better to do since I also work a full-time job and family business).

I'll eventually have all of that done. (And, if I don't, it's no big deal 'cause it may not ever see print or publication anyway.)

Anxiously awaiting three issues of Rocky hartberg's Cole Black series I ordered, #'s V 1 #6, & 9(V2 #4) & 10(V2 #5), none of which I've ever read. After getting that one issue to finish up the first 3 issues of Volume 2 of the title it just made me "hungry' for more. That's the only comics I've purchased in some time.

After being off these two days in a row, I now have a straight six I'll have to pull, the final one being just half a day. Won't get any rest the following day off though as I have to take mom for a check up on her pacemaker the 24th. in Elizabethtown. Fortunately, my wife is off that day as well and can drive one way or the other on the trip. I swear, I hate to drive any longer distances any more, even 35-40 miles (no wonder I never go "anywhere"). I think it's because I'm always so tired from all the other things that have to be done with what little time I'm not at my job, a place where I spend more waking hours than I do at home.

"Post No. 704"

2010-06-04T13:35:00.001-07:00

Had the past couple days off from work, but nothing new really going on in my life.

I decided that I will indeed finish that 12 issue comic book series I'd been working on for nearly 2 years now, but currently I'm taking a break from it to finish up the inks on a three issue mini-series I worked on before that. Instead of 12 issues, however, I think I'll divide it into 2 books of six issue series each. (Keeps me from getting so burned out on doing one project).

On these hot sultry days here in S-Central, KY., it makes me not want to do a whole lot of outside work, but I have managed to knock down some weeds with a grubbing hoe, transplate a couple of flowers, weed by hand a little bit and cut down two small trees in my backyard that was preventing me from mowing easier with the riding mower (I've got plenty more where they came from). Otherwise it's the same-ol'-same-ol' 'round here. Keeping an eye on mom, helping my wife with her craft projects (she has a show tomorrow), my regular 9 hr. a day job at the retail store, and pittlin'.

I did get in a copy of a 1986 issue of Rocky Hartberg's Cole Black independent comic that I needed; even had a letter of comment in it from me that I'd forgotten about written o' so many years ago. This was really a decent title and there's a new issue of that available I noticed on auctions this week (#10) that I need to pick up eventually.

Dug out a "Bat Out of Hell" CD (by Meat Loaf) and listened to it today; one of my favorites from that time.

And that's really about it. Maybe something will happen (hopefully something NICE) that I can blog about more later this month.

"Post No. 694?????"

2010-05-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

"Du-uh... Department:

Someway or another, I didn't number my blog posts correctly and missed posting #694. Must have just miscalculated. When I had my 6th. Year Anniversary here, that was actually post #699. So here's #694, just to even things up.

~Mathmatically Challenged Puck'.

"Post No. 703"

2010-05-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't realise that Howie Post had died recently. Always enjoyed his work especially on the 1960's DC title, Anthro.

"Post No. 702"

2010-05-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

Been Spring house-cleaning time around th' ol' Puck' ponderosa. Carpets getting a heavy cleaning, door scrubbed, weeds trimmed, etc., etc. Always a lot of work to do maintaining one's property.

Speaking of which, after removing half of the ceiling plaster from my mother's back bedroom damaged due to water leaking from rains, I discovered said damage to be much more extensive that anticipated. Rafters are rotting as well as roofing boards and there's much more work that will have to be done than in the initial estimate. A new estimate is now being figured and I foresee this repair work going well into the Summer.

The main problem was caused from her previous repairman (if one could call him that), which replaced the shingles on her roof on the rear of the house a couple of years back from hailstorm damage. Instead of removing any damaged wood he simply cut corners, took the old shingles off, put down new velvet undercoating and shingles and told my parents (my father, still alive at that time) that the job was finished and took their money. Had it been repaired correctly the first time, we wouldn't have the problem with this now. Lesson to be learned? WATCH your repairmen and be sure they're doing their job correctly. If not, fire them and find someone that will. (Such people really like to target the elderly.)

In comic book news, artist Gene Colan is doing badly and could really use some help from all the many fans he has that have enjoyed his work over the years. To see auctions to benefit him, please click Here.

Finally finished inventory on my comic book collection. All lists are burned onto a CD, plus back-up lists for updating. Been working on this since January; glad that's completed.

Mowed for the 10th time yesterday and today for the year. Gonna go through a LOT of gasoline this Summer for certain.

Pretty disapointed with the way they finished up the "Lost" t. v. series. So many better scenerios that could have been used, but instead, it was turned into a metaphysical mess. I confess to not watching a whole lot of episodes, but friends always kept me up-to-date with the show. (Shame.)

Got in a full set of the 1985-1987 Megaton (published by Megaton Comics) that I'd won on auction, along with the 1987 Megaton Holiday Special #1 and a Wizard Ace Edition 2. Megaton Comics, to me, was the forerunner of Image Comics, in a way, as issues contained work by both Erik Larsen and Rob Leifield. Almost every issue contains strips of larsen's "Vanguard" character, but most importantly, issues 3 thru 5 have appearances (the first 3) of "The Savage Dragon" (then called only, "The Dragon"), and issue #8 has an ad for Leifield's "Youngblood" (making it also their first app. anywhere pre-1992 -Image). There's also work by jackson Guise, Gary Thomas Washington (who did an alternate comic back in the 1980's that I always enjoyed, "A Boy and His Bot", and whom is a nice guy as I met him once at a Kentucky comic book convention for alternate comic publishers) and several other pretty decent strips of various characters. The Wizard Ace edition reprints Megaton #3 (first FULL app. of "The Dragon").

"Post No. 701"

2010-05-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

And off we go again...

Well I see that there's a lot of upsets in the primary elections this time. Doesn't surprize me in the least. People are scared. they are scared about the economy. They are scared about losing their jobs. They are looking towards Washington and saying "We don't want BIG government! Put it back into the hands of the people!" Democrates are sweating. They've had their little place in the sun for a while, but they know "the end is near". And, what do they expect? It amazed me how many eyes of the people they were able to pull the wool down over with empty promises; ones that are only designed to bankrupt the working middle-class. Without the middle class, the rich no longer can get richer, and the poor no longer have anyone to support them.

But politics aren't the only thing that's scaring people. Weird weather patterns, multiple earthquakes around the world, ever-growing unrest between countries, constant involvement in wars, Wall Street and the economy... The planet IS a scary place right now and this is a pivitol point in history. No one knows which of many paths our future will take. Will it pass over all of these problems and go on to a much brighter world, or will it fall into an abyss? Time will tell.

So, let's go on from the "doom and gloom" mood to other things...

Let me curse about the rain for a while instead. Yeah, yeah....You can complain about the weather but you can't do anything about it. Wish I could! I tell it to stay DRY for a while so I don' 't have to mow so often! I've been keeping count of how many times I've mow both my own and my mother's yard this year. So far, NINE times! That's rediculous! Year before last, when we had a bit of a drought, I may not have mowed that many times all year, but last year I was still mowing into November, and my yard is thick with, not as much grass, as clover. Just like a tightly-woven shag carpet. I set my riding mower up on the next to the highest setting and it still tries to bog it down. I mowed over much of it as much as three times yesterday just to make it look half-way decent.

Other "things"...

I've been making out a new inventory list of all of my comics again. I'm doing pretty well. Finished around 50+ "long" boxes of comics. Still have one long box that I need to sort in order. Got plenty of comic book bags, but unfortunately I'm running out of any sort of backing boards and will probably have to purchase at least 200 to get these comics in order (as I don't want anything in my collection these days that doesn't have one on it). I also need to buy at least 7 comic book boxes with lids as eventually, when this is all listed, I want to reput everything back in order in such boxes and out of the various copier paper boxes in which about half of that is stored. If there ever comes a day that I sell out, I want a "hard list" of exactly what the buyer would be getting.

Got yet another chore done at my mom's. I tore down 1/2 of the plaster board on her back bedroom ceiling where she had a bad water leak so the repair man can come and see what damage has been done and can tell how exactly to repair it. Only took about 2 hours and I even finished up cleaning up the mess I'd made acouple months back when I made her a new handicap ramp.

Lots of people at the local flea markets this weekend here locally but nadda that I'd want. Mostly just the same ol', same ol'. I did get in a couple of lots I'd won on ebay auctions: Nick Fury and His Agents of SHIELD #'s 1 & 5(completed the set), and The Losers 2 thru 5 (which gives me a run of the first five issues of that title).

.

"Post No. 700"

2010-05-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

And welcome to "Post No. 700" (!), which, incidently, coincides with my 6th. Anniversary Blogging! Still amazes me that people read this stuff.

Well, my vacation was over Wednesday (actually, last Monday but my two days off per week ran consecutively following it). Got to see two new flicks I really wanted to see: Iron Man 2, and The Losers. Iron Man was a pretty decent flick, but lacked, I thought, a bit of the personality the first one had. Plus, of course, they screwed around with the origin of the villian, "Whiplash". (BTW, Am I the ONLY one that misses David Hasselhoff in the part of "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."???) and poor Stan Lee, now going on age 90, looked quite feeble and had his shortest cameo ever.

The Losers, on the other hand, was excellant! I'll admit to not being all that familiar with the source material having not read a whole lot of issues this flick is based upon (i.e., the DC-Vertigo comic book title), but even so, it stands as a great action flick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's performance was top-notch (well recommended).

I mentioned most of what I did on the days I was off work. Yesterday I finished painting the new boards I fixed the side of the shop with, and went down to mom's to talk to her insurance adjuster regarding water damage to her back bedroom ceiling. Plus I've listed some more comics on my inventory list. I figure I still have at least 2,000 more of those to list and I wouldn't doubt if my collection these days isn't between 11-12 thousand comics. That would mean that before I recently sold 3,000 of them, I'd had in the 15,000 range and that's definately the largest collection of such I can recall having since the early 1990's. Naturally, it isn't quantity but quality which makes a decent collection of such, but even so, and after selling so many, I still have an awful lot of decent books around. Give me another 10 years of off and on collecting and it'll be time to start selling again on ebay to suppliment my ("semi", hopefully) returement years.

Found an old l.p. at the local Salvation Army Store of peggy Lipton, who played "Julie Barnes" on the 1960's t.v. show, "The Mod Squad", and later played on "Twin Peaks". Didn't even realize she ever did an album and she was a pretty decent singer, even having one number on the charts back then called "Stoney End" (written by L. Nyro). Other tunes on this l.p. are also written by either Nyro or Carol King. It wouldn't surprize me to discover this is a rare l.p. I know I'VE never seen or heard it before now.

Back to work yesterday and wrote up and put out 7-1/2 pages of tools, assembled a "cherry picker", took out at least 4 different loads of trash, ran to the bank for change, etc., etc.

Then today I pulled yet another 5-1/2 pages of tools just trying to get caught up. (Gonna be a loonnnngggg time until the next vacation!)

"Post No. 699"

2010-05-10T15:50:00.001-07:00

And the great Frank Frazetta is now gone.

There will be a ton of blog sites relating how he influenced fantasy artwork and how those who loved his work, myself included, were first introduced to it. Probably some of the first Frazetta paintings I ever saw and loved were on the Ace Tarzan covers, and later, Conan. I wasn't old enough to remember seeing his EC stuff, but I do recall just loving a few back-up reprints published in the DC title Tomahawk in the latter 1960's, some short strips in various Warren magazines, and of course the material printed in Bill Pearson/Wally Wood's Witzend fanzine. I really gained a great appreciation for his work when I bought a copy of a trade paperback which reprinted his "Johnny Comet" newspaper strips.

I envied his talent. The world is less without him.

"Post No. 698"

2010-05-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

And today is Mother's Day, so I'd like to wish my own mother, Georgia Lee Puckett, only the best on this her special day! The top photo is a recent picture I took of mom, and the second photo is of her and my 2nd. cousin Thelma (who lives next door to her) to whom I'd also like to wish a Happy Mother's Day!

And...in other things...

On the second day of my vacation I went down to mom's and trimmed her hedges (which were like, a foot too tall) and weed-eated around her house.

On the 3rd. day of my vacation, Debbie and I went to Bowling Green where she wanted to stop by "The Hobby Lobby" and pick up a few craft items for projects. I thought about stopping by the comic book shop there, but due to lack of funds, or maybe these days, a whole lotta lack of interest, I didn't. In fact, all I bought was a bag of "Circus Peanuts" to munch on while she was in the store.

In fact, after we left Hobby Lobby we headed back home stopping only once at a Minit Mart to get Debbie something to eat, and by the local flea market where we picked up a few flowers to plant both here at our house and at mom's. When I got home I took a gallon of white exterier paint and painted the new plywood I'd covered the side of my old garage with, retouched it's front doors, and then had to redo one of our side windows with new calk and paint. Then I went down to mom's to haul her garabage can around front for pick up and Debbie planted some of the flowers we picked up. Later we went and picked up her van at a closeby garage where the mechanic had been working on a defective gauge.

On day 4 of my vacation I retouched the paint on the building I repaired, touched up and recalked a front window, finished work on the inside part of the entrance way window I had worked on the day before, took my mom to the insurance office, spread ant pellets on the yard, and dug through the garage trying to find an item a friend of mine was interested in (with no luck so far).

On day 5 of my vacation, I slept until about 8 AM and got myself ready and went to the local flea market. I "thought" I'd hit the jackpot on finding various DVDs I'd been looking for, but the dealer wanted $5. each for them and so I passed. Went back later on a second thought that there might be a few in the lot that interested me enough to pay that price, but he'd since packed up and left. Then went out to the garage to try to find a item a friend of mine was interested in, but obviously it's been long since either sold on auction or sold in a lot group of toys and the like to someone over the years. Listed 3 items on my own ebay auctions. May have another to list tomorrow but I need to repair a leak in mom's roof with some pitch, go see Iron Man II, etc., etc. (it's never over.

"Post No. 697"

2010-05-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

Today began my yearly vacation at work/from work. As it figured on my following week's schedule, I also have the next two days afterwards off (par usual) for the week, thus giving me nine straight days off in a row.

And so begins all of the work I wanted to do during said vacation. Here on this first day I got up on my front roof and tarred anything I thought might be causing a leak in my entrance way. I used nearly a full gallon of pitch in various places, but couldn't reach one area on the roof cap that really needed it. Perhaps I can borrow a roofing hook-ladder from someone this week to finish up that task.

Then I began work on that one bad side of my shop where the wood's about had it. I bought a 4'x8' piece of plywood and had it cut in half at Lowe's. Unfortunately, it's not enough and I'll need one more piece the same size. Then I'll put a few long boards at the top of those sheets, get a gallon of white exterior paint and finish that up.

Task #3: Mowing; what else? My neighbor mowed his yard and when I went by to check on mom, I saw that her yard needed it as well, so I went down there and got her yard first and came back home and did my own. That now makes six times I've mowed already this year, going through around 7 gallons of gas so far.

Other jobs on the venue: Redoing and straightening up/cleaning out the tool shed, working on the dirt pile again, redoing several boxes of comic books and putting them in alphabetical and company(s) order and listing same on my "collection list", and maybe listing some more items on ebay auctions this week.

Also I'd like to get to my local comic shop sometime this week; maybe tomorrow. They have extended their 25% off back issue sale from last Saturday's "Sidewalk Sale/Free Comic Book Day" (which I didn't get to attend since I had to work).

Just as well that I missed FCBD as Bowling Green, where the shop's located, had a LOT of flooding from 10" of rain which fell from last Friday thru Sunday. Many parts of Kentucky were flooded, much damage and a few related deaths. Tennessee had it even worse. I hear parts of Nashville are still under 3 foot of water.

Mother's Day is this coming Sunday so, if you're fortunate enough to still have one that's living, please remember her. I bought mom a UK (that's University of Kentucky) billfold and plan on taking her out to either lunch or dinner (and since she doesn't read this blog I feel safe in telling about it).

My wife's new part-time job seems to be doing well and she may work into a fulltime position. She's been at it for over a week now, working in a similiar type of thing (cashier at a gas/grocery place) as she did for so many years before.

Watched Art School Confidential, a nice little film based on Daniel Clowes material from his comic Eightball. Very nice flick. maybe not as good as Ghost World, but very entertaining. Sure wish I had just a fraction of that man's talent as a storyteller.

Speaking of which, I abandoned that 12 issue limited series comic book I had been working on for nearly two years now. I was re-reading some trade paperback collection here recently and realized that my work was way too derivative of what I was reading. Obviously it had subconsciously influenced my writing. Just as well. My time to make it as a famous comic book artist is well past.

"Post No. 696"

2010-04-25T09:33:00.001-07:00

I'm a little amazed that this hasn't already been done, but I read recently that Archie Comics will introduce a gay character to their comic characters.

Surprizingly...it isn't "Jughead". (Click on red link for story.)

Nice day here today although rain's predicted for later on this evening. Yesterday and last night we had 2-1/2" of much needed rain here in this region of South Central, KY. Bad part of that is the grass will be 8 inches tall again by the time I get around to mowing it again.

Saw the "Dr. Pepper" commercial for the "Iron Man 2" flick promotional and there's 89 year old Stan Lee in the background. That guy'll be 90 years old come the end of December, God willing. (Good for him!)

Went by the local flea market this morning and found a DVD of the "Daredevil" movie for $3. (yet another super-hero flick on DVD I can scratch off my want list), plus a nice conditioned set of 36 Greatest Hits of Patsy Cline. There's very little modern country music I enjoy, but I am a big fan of the rockabilly years of 1954 to 1959 or so. People like Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Conway Twitty, Jerry Lee Lewis,etc., and having this 3 disc set was definately the easiest way to go on getting everything the woman ever did that was any good.

Put a whole bunch'a listing on ebay this week of trade paperbacks and graphic novels (hey! Fred hembeck! There's "Dennis the Menace" stuff on there!) Everything's starting out pretty cheap so's...IF you're interested...just click onto the "My Auctions" link in the right column and it'll take you right there.

I finished work on that wheel barrow project. When my wife got this piece of junk the sides were rotting and all I could recover was the handles and antique iron wheel, so I literally had to rebuild the thing from scratch. But now I've got sides, braces, etc. on it and not only is it decorative, it's functional. Got most of my little wood-working projects done now except I still need to cover one side of my garage where it needs new wood or something to make that look better. Got to buy me some large pieces of plywood before I can do that however.

Still plan on starting my vacation next week.

"Post No. 695"

2010-04-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to building a bench today from left over lumber and an old bed head I had lying around that I used for a backing board. Later on I'll post another photo of it when it's finished with paint and decorations for comparison sake.

Been busy today. Finally took off my cans for recycling. Had 38 lbs. and got a whoppin' $21. for them (better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick). I put that money aside for my upcoming vacation funds as I may get to attend my local comic book shop's "thingy" on May the 1st. which is "Free Comic Book Day" this year.

Got in a large lot, well, 15 different, trade paperbacks/graphic novels today. Got them as a steal for a mere $15. plus postage, which is a fraction of what they'd cost new. Some interesting stuff in them.

There's two different Kane collections by Paul Grist: "Greetings from New Eden", and "Rabbit Hunt", and these reprint the first 8 issues of that title.

Then there's two different Mike Allred "Madman" collections: "Madman Adventures" and "Oddity Oddyssey". Big fan of his work of course.

Three different reprint TPBs of EC's Shock SuspenStories: Volumes 2, 3 & 4, which collect issues of that 1950's horror title #'s 6 thru 18 (last issue).

Then there's Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta by Warren Ellis, and the Wildstorm Summer Special which also contains work by him.

And next, The Complete Ballad of HALO JONES by Alan Moore/Ian Gibson reprinting books 1-3 of their British stuff.

Then there also Kabuki: Skin Deep by: David Mack, The Black Forrest by: Liningston/Tennell/Vokes & Schiavano, Bulletproof Monk by: Michael Avon Deming, and Six by: Oeming/Berman & Beavers. Not familiar at all with these last four but I'll decide if I want to keep them or sell them after I read 'em.

Finally there was also a copy of Mike Gilbert'sMr. Monster Vol. 1, but I already had this one so it goes on ebay auctions this week with some other TPB's and the like I'm cleaning out. The copy I got did have the original tip-sheet (so I kept that).

Lotta good reading ahead for me.

Got some more projects I need to complete around this place. I want to finally do something with an old antique wheelbarrow my wife got from my cousin. Mostly it was a piece of junk, but I think I can rebuilt that and make it look pretty neat. Then I need to replace (or cover) one side of my garage where the boards look bad. Just last week I fixed the bottom of that same shop, but it needs some more work in other places.

Got around to once again going thru box after box of comics; things I don't consider part of my personal collections and had tried to sell before as "a lot". This time I pulled anything I wanted to keep, boxed them and marked the boxes as "NL" ("not listed",i.e.on my collection lists) and put them aside, and pulled well over 1,500 misc. comics for sale at yard sales and the flea market. I also removed any good/decent backing boards and bags from those books so I had an ample supply of that for a good time to come.

Tomorrow I need to take mom for a doctor's apointment. ( Busy, bust,busy...)

"Post No. 693"

2010-04-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine passed away a couple days ago named Donnie Jolly. I'd known Donnie since I was just a kid. In fact, the first time I met him I was too young to drive. Someone had told me he traded comic books so naturally I looked him up and asked him if he was interested in swapping some comics and arranged to meet him at his house to do so. Donnie was some years older than me so to my delight I was able to trade for books from the early 1960's and latter 1950's. I remember the best comic I got way back then was the first app. of Green Lantern in a Showcase #22.

Over the years Donnie and I remained friends and trading buddies, and even after I sold my original collections in the early 1970's, we stayed in touch, since he was local, seeing him on occasion and stopping to talk a bit. I can still hear his little girl shouting, "Don't give away my Archie's!", which always gave us a big laugh.

When Debbie and I got married in 1988 we had Donnie do some portraits photos of us as he was doing photography at that time. They still remain the best shots of us as a couple we've ever had made.

But as time went by Donnie developed several health problems confining him to his home and on oxygen most of the time. I really didn't know he was in "that bad" of a shape until here recently. He will be missed.

And I'd like to let the family of fellow blogged "Johnny Bacardi" know that Theresa and her sister Nan who have just undergone surgery are in our thoughts and prayers today, and wish them both a very speedy recovery.

In other news...

I picked up several DVD's at the local flea market this past weekend, one of which is the 2004 "Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow". This elaborate flick contains a little of "Captain Midnight", "Blackhawk", "Doc Savage", "King Kong" and "Things to Come", set in a 1930's style and was an alrght adventure, but I found the acting a bit "blah" at times. Still well-worth the watch just for all of the special effects.

Finally finished work on the exterior bottom of my garage, cleaned out my tool shed, planted some flowers for my wife, mowed at least 3 times this year, got some more dirt from that pile in the back and filed in some areas, etc. I plan on starting my vacation the first week in may, and, if I'm lucky, will actually get to attend Free Comic Book day at my "local" comic shop come the 1st.

And today marks my 10th. year anniversary at work, "Pier 19". A landmark record for me at any one job I must admit.

"Post No. 692"

2010-04-01T13:19:00.001-07:00

Picked up the above shown comic this week, which is a Cheyenne Kid (Charlton) #8 (1958). Collecting older Charlton's, this is one comic I've never owned a copy of, and it's also the first issue of CK (the first seven issues being called Wild Frontier) and it's his 2nd. app.;his first beng in WF #7.

In fact, I tried to win a copy of Wild Fronteir #7 several times but always get outbidded on it. Just tried again here recently and those I was bidding against would skyrocket their bids to the point that they were twice what the comic's actually worth (according to Overstreet listings). Well, I'm one that doesn't mind paying wat a book's worth, but not twice as much even if I'd like to have it, and I'm sure another will pop up sooner or later at a more reasonable price.

Also won a couple of issues of DC's All-Star Comics (#'s 58 & 60) from the early to mid 1970's, which have a lot of things going for them that I like. Such as artwork by the great Wally Wood, plus app.'s of Golden Age DC heroes/heroines. #59 is also the first app. of "Power Girl". This was a continuation, of course, from the 1940's series which stopped being published in (I think) 1949, and the title lasted on up into the latter 70's issues, but really the best one's were te ones where Wood was involved with the title (which goes no firther than #65).
The other issues were readable and drawn just fine by Joe Staton, so's...if your a fan of his DC work...

And in other news...

Got up early today at my usual time of 5:30 AM and went down to my mom's at 7 AM to begin working on her new handicap ramp. I thought perhaps I could at least get it planked where she could use it by today. Surprizingly, I had it in that shape by 10:30 AM and all my mess cleaned up and tools put away by noon! I still need a couple of extra pieces of support, a hand rail on one side, and laying new indoor-outdoor carpet on the thing, but it looks pretty good. This time I used treated lumber which someone here locally just gave me (probably saved me a good $70.), so the only cost I was out was screws to hold it together. I'll finish that up in the next few days and one less project to contend with this year.

"Post No. 691"

2010-03-27T13:21:00.003-07:00

R.I.P. Dick Giordano (1932 - 2010)

"Post No. 690"

2010-03-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

I had some luck selling some older comics this past month and, par usual, couldn't resist picking up a couple of books I wanted around that I didn't currently have in my collection.

One of these is a Charlton Blue Beetle #1 (1964). I suppose the special memory this book holds for me was from those early teen years when I'd stay around my Great Aunt Katy Kerr's little grocery store in the town I grew up in and read the comic books she sold. As with many little groceries in this area at that time, a local wholesale distributor, Goodman Candy Company, would buy the comic book returns from Haxby News out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and then re-sell them in lots of 20 to these groceries where they then usually sold them for a nickle apiece.

I'd sit on the top of Aunt Katy's Coca-Cola cooler and read through the comics on those hot Summer days. There'd be just globs of Charlton, Super-IW Comics, Archies, Harveys and the like. In fact, my first exposure wasn't from a Charlton comic on Blue Beetle, but rather an IW-Super title called "The Human Fly" which reprinted some of the original Fox Publications issues from the 1940's.

Can't say I was overly-impressed the first time I saw the character. The artwork was crude, and then you had this 1940's style of writing that was different enough to make me remember the character, but not to make him one of my favorites. Even so, I read them, and the Charlton issues too with their similiar crude artwork, and it's because of the enthusiasm from readers of "BB" that Charlton eventually revived their best character up to that date: "Captain Atom".

Fans had remembered him from appearing in Space Adventures #'s 33-40, 42 circa 1960-61. It was a hard series to not be able to remember fondly due to Steve Ditko's great artwork and it was his first attempt at a super-hero strip.

So in 1965 the company decided to bring him back in a series of reprints in one of their fantasy titles, Srange Suspense Stories #75. Within 4 issues the title changed to "Captain Atom" and once more on board was Steve Ditko producing new artwork. So the second book I purchased was another copy to have of that issue which I can remember picking up originally at Willis's Drug Store, attacted by it's unusal cover layout of an insert of the good Captain surrounded by a tannish-colored cover; quite different from what I usually saw on the stands. I followed every Charlton super-hero from then on until their end at that company and retain a great love for the work Charlton produced to this day.

Naturally I was familiar with Steve Ditko. And I was familiar with his earlier work at Charlton as I have previously sited that I considered his best work to be at Charlton from 1957-1961, previous to any super-hero work ("Spider-man" in particular) he did at Marvel Comics.

"Post No. 689"

2010-03-09T15:02:00.001-08:00

Been pretty busy today. Started off early this morning when, after charging my lawn mower battery, I took that back down to mom's (where I had the mower), put it back in, put some gas in the thing and tried to start it up. Naturally it still wouldn't start, so I had to charge it some more, and finally got that to running. But then, I couldn't get it to move no matter what gear I tried putting it in until finally it took off perpectually in, I think, 3rd. gear. Now, even if it's in neutral, it's still in 3rd. Which I can drive it in 3rd. and mow in such once I get the pullies replaced on the deck. I eventually drove it up the street to my own house, parked it in the rear and covered it until I can get someone over to look at it.

Then I started going back through all of those 1970's to modern comics I wanted to sell 'as a lot", pulling out some that I decided to keep or re-read, combining some into better boxes and eliminating other older, torn-up boxes, which made some more space. But right in the middle of that I got a phone call from a guy that had promised me some lumber to use to replace my mom's handicap ramp. So I stop that for a while to go get the lumber (which turns out to be much more than I think I'll actually need), getting that stacked down at mom's and covering it up to protect it, then back home again where I finished with the comics.

Then I made a list of what I kept, put them on/and corrected lists on floppys and CDs, and by then it was time to go to the grocery plus pick up some medicine for mom.

My wife, Debbie, and I did that, came back home and put things away, then took mom's medicine down to her and visited for a little while, got her mail, and finally back home again.

By then it was 4 P.M., so it's been one very full day.

I only work a half a day tomorrow (12PM to 5 PM), so I probably won't get much done there. I'm off again from work Thursday, but that's the day I have to take mom to her heart doctor some 45 miles from here, and the way the weather looks I'll probably be driving up there and back in the rain. Now that it's starting to warm up I can see a very wet Spring ahead that, when one does get to mow the lawn, the grass will be 8 inches tall (just like last year).

And I've gotten around to finishing all the artwork in pencils to the 4th. issue of that comic book series I'm working on, plus I got the cover completely penciled and inked for that issue plus #5's. Going to start work on the pencils on the story for #5 in a few days.

Got those issues of The Authority I won on an auction read, plus I read quite a bit of 20 misc. 1966 - 1973 Charlton mystery titles (Ghostly Tales, Dr. Graves, Midnight Tales, etc.) that I bought at the local flea market last weekend. Lots and lots of great artwork in those by the likes of Steve Ditko, Pay Boyette, Pam, Wayne Howard and Jim Aparo. I even found a letter of comment in one of the issues of Ghostly Tales from 1969 that I'd gotten published and forgot about (neat little surprize)!

Debbie, and I set up at the local flea market this past weekend and enjoyed the 60 degree weather, sunshine and fresh air and had a good time looking around and selling things. I even sold a box of duplicate comics I took down there and she sold many crafts, bringing us an extra $100. or so bucks, so it was well-worth the effort (more so than many a yard sale we've attempted). Also it was nice to get to spend a day together on a project.

"Post No. 688"

2010-03-02T06:46:00.001-08:00

This government decision to charge radio stations such an increased amount towards the end of March appears to me the end of yet another freedom in this country. Local radio stations have already stated they would cease playing music due to this cost. Some are closing completely down. Is this the end of a golden era of enjoyable music? And how many djs and other radio employees are going to lose their jobs here now when this country needs to increase employment rather than add to it?

Well, today's my wife's birthday, born on March 2nd., 1953, she's 2 years, 4 months and 15 days younger than me. Happy Birthday, Debbie!

In other things...Business at work has picked up and we've had some good weekends. Monday's sales even beat last Friday's. People are perhaps a little less frightened about spending some extra cash they've gotten from their tax returns.

I've even won/purchased acouple of lots of modern comics from various auction sites here of late, getting a dozen or so issues of the current Supergirl title that's pretty much got me caught up to issue #50 or so, and another 2 dozen misc. issues of various The Authority (Wildstorm) series, which I've yet to read due to time.

Had to cancel all of my dental appointments for the month. The money just isn't there to take care of having the work done which involves having a lower plate made and two teeth extracted; an amount of $500. I had the extra cash put back for this work, but my wife still hasn't found a job, still hasn't received an unemployment check (which should have been here three weeks ago and with no explanation for social services), and our own tax return hasn't arrived, so this will just have to be delayed and the money used for living expensives until "better times".

Looks like Spring may finally make an appearance soon. Temperatures here in S-Central, Ky. seem to be be settling a bit and perhaps the coldest part of this Winter is past.

"Post No. 687"

2010-02-13T17:45:00.001-08:00

At times like these I wonder if another Ice Age is upon us with snow in 49 of the 50 states; even a foot of it in Dallas. All I do know is that I'm pretty damn sick of it and wish warmer weather would rear its head ASAP as I'm really tired of the freezing temperatures and constant snow every week here still a good five weeks before the official beginning of Spring.

But...I can talk about it all I want. Won't change anything. We just have to wait it out.

In the meantime, I watched both of the "Conan" flicks: Conan the Barbarian(1982), and Conan the Destroyer(1984), recently when I purchased a DVD containing both movies. I've decided that I liked the latter much better. Arnold had gotten more of a feel of the R.E. Howard character by then, the cast was better, the story was better.

In other things...

Some of the modern comic sets I'd kept when I sold the older stuff was the 1990's run of Supergirl, as well as the current one, but I'd missed several issues of the newer title due to not getting to any comic shops in so long. I did, however, win a lot of 20+ issues of that which looks like I'll get at least 10 issues I don't have for the price of what 4 or 5 would have cost me retail, so perhaps I can catch up with what's going on in that book as I always enjoyed it.

Things are picking up a lot in retail where I work, doing 4 times as much today as we did on any other day in the past week. Albeit that many sales were from those husbands that were out buying that last minute Valentine's Day gift for their wifes. (You always see that happen on Christmas Eve as well.)

Not a whole lot more new with me here of late. Just work, work, work as usual. Snow predicted tonight and tomorrow night as well which I hope doesn't result in much as I don't want it to keep me from work.

Stay warm.

"Post No. 686"

2010-02-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

I finally got those 21 "long" boxes of comics that I kept while thinning out my collections in order somewhat in the past two or three days. Seems like it boils down to 7-1/2 of DC's, 4 of Marvel (which definately tells you which I'm more of a fan of these days), and the rest misc. companies such as Charlton, Eclipse, Dark Horse, Dell, Archie, Gold key, ACG, AC, undergrounds & alternative publishers, religious, etc., etc. Even got dividers seperating the non-DC/marvel books and those companies alphabetised (in fact, each company is as such for easy finding), then seperated stuff I'm going to sell in the near future on eBay and other older more valuable books I wanted to keep seperately "locked up". I figure, counting my autographed/signed books and Beatles' app.'s, that my personal collection is around 5,000 issues these days, which is actually as large as my original collections (back in the 1960's), but of course, no way as good value-wise.

This is a managable size collection for me to keep as, honestly, it was getting quite out-of-hand size-wise since I have already sold 3,000 older books and I have yet to sell 8-9 thousand in that one lot, which means I would have originally had this time in the 15 to 16 thousand book range! (Now you can see "why" I was running out of room!) IF I can ever sell that one other large lot it'll give me a whole lot more space and I can move these 21 long boxes to the back room out of the pc room and just maybe I'll be able to get to my l.p.'s and the like again.

And, unabashed selling plug here, yes I do still have that one very large lot of comics that range from the mid-1970's to modern for sale. They are comics with a .25 cover price and upwards, 85% percent of them bagged/boarded (or both), DC, Marvel and "what-have-you", averaging in condition from VG+ to Nr. Mint for the better part, for .15 each as a lot (might dicker a little on that price), and PICK UP ONLY! (for anyone that's seriously interested in them).

"Other" books (paperbacks, hardcovers and magazines; several boxes, thrown in with the deal).

Finally got to visit the new "Fred's" department store that opened right next door to where I work. It's sort of like a Wal-Mart before they super-sized with food, pharmacy, household items, appliances, snacks, clothing, office supplies, toys, and a little bit of everything. I noticed some of their prices are a bit cheaper and some higher than say you'd find at a Dollar general or Family Dollar Store. I found a previously-viewed copy (finally) of Watchmen there for $9.99, a little higher than I really wanted to pay for it, but at least now I have one.

Been some pretty weather the past couple days I've had off. Went back to the dentist yesterday and got those stitches removed from where I had that back tooth "blasted" out of my gums (well, the roots, actually since the tooth had broken off at that), and I'm now back to eating a bit more solid food. Back to the dentist next month to have the mold mode for the lowers and at the end of March, the other teeth extracted and I get my bottom plate and I'll have a full set of choppers again. That's be nice.

"Post No. 685"

2010-01-30T14:36:00.001-08:00

Yes, I'll admit. I'm just NOT a cold weather person at all. The 6 inches of snow that fell on us here today in S-Central, KY. wasn't to my liking, and I had to call in to work due to my car being buried in 12 inches of drifts. I did try to get on in a few hours later after they scraped the roads and my street, and I was able to finally shovel me a driveway out, but the boss said he was sending the other worker home after only 3 hours and that they were going to close early as they'd only had 2 people in the store in that time. Roads look much better now however and I definately plan on not missing another much needed day of work even if I have to walk the five miles there tomorrow. Don't have to be there until 10AM (Since it's Sunday), so...no problems.

I spent quite a bit of time today out in this white, cold, wet mess just the same as I not only shoveled that drive, but my walkway out to the sidewalk, then went down to mom's and shoveled off her front porch, sidewalk and steps and her ramp, and even a path out to the drive. (Got to watch it at my age and make sure I don't over-exert.)

Since I did have a little extra time today I alphabetized 6 long boxes of comics. There was two each of Marvel and DC, and two misc. so far. Still have over twice that many to do when time permits and then I might actually make me a new inventory list and count, which would be the first time for such in better than two years.

Of course, the number of this could increase as if I can't sell the 8 to 9 thousand bronze to modern I'm trying to let go for the room, I may go back through those sometime and pull out a few others I'd really like to keep. At .15 each, there's some I'd just rather hang on to.

Took a couple of photos of this snow storm. The top one is from my front door looking across the street, and the second is a "snow angel" that my wacky wife (who's only a couple years younger than me) did early this morning in some strange attempt, I think, trying to recapture some of her lost youth. ("Silly rabbit. Snow is for KIDS!")

My gum's still sore from the tooth extraction and stitches now almost a week ago. Got to have the stitches removed Tuesday. I notice I've lost around 8 lbs. somewhere, but I expect it's due to not eating much in the way of solid food for the past week.

Hurry Spring!

"Post No. 684"

2010-01-26T15:22:00.000-08:00

Well...this has been a good day...for a change.

I sold around 3,000 older comics and now have the extra money to pay off a few bills, such as the hospital, ambulance and dentist, and still have some extra to stick back into both my checking and savings' account.

Plus Debbie has been notified that she's eligable for part-time unemployment benefits since she's only getting at her job currently around 20 hours a week. Things are looking "up" again.

Just shows you what having faith in God will do for you. If I'm sounding preachy, I am, but I discovered some time back a thing I always knew but it took a loonnnggg time to get it through this stubborn, thick head of mine. That worrying won't make you happier, solve problems, make you younger or a penny richer. That if something is going to happen, it can. The best thing to do is to decipline oneself to NOT worry about the circumstances of what "could" happen, but strive to make it not. The future is not set in stone. It can be if you just let it. And I say this because you can't just expect God to answer all of your prayers. God's a busy Creator. He's not only the fabric of this universe and any speculated parallel universes that exist, God IS the universe. He's busy keeping gravity working, maintaining the existing of electro-magnetism, and balancing a billion stars. It's all written right there in the book of Exodus when Moses asked by what name he should tell the Isrealites that send him, and the answer was: "I am." This means to simply put it, He exists, and that should be enough for anyone who can open their eyes and try to take in, not just the wonderful beauty of this planet, but the wonders of all that exists. It's mind-boggling. More than our pitiful human brains can assimilate. More than it could be understand if we lived a million life times.

(Don't worry, LOL! I'm not going to pass a collection plate around now.)

Yeah, well, I sort of hated to sell all of those old comic books as a lot, especially since this will definately be the lasttime I ever attempt any collection of a large size. But it was good having them, and I did get to have them for a while and enjoy them, and now they'll be passed on to a whole new generation that will keep this media alive. I envy them. I envy the first time they read an early Marvel comic with a Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Fantastic Four story, or enjoy a Ditko Spider-man, or thrill to an adventure written by Gardner Fox all for the very first time. And, as long as one remembers them, they're never gone. Especially since I've kept all of my trade paperback reprint collections of them in case I ever wish to wax nostalgic on the stories that set in stone any creativeness that I try to imitate in my own work.

Looks like we have Winter moving back in here in the next couple of days. In fact, we had a light dusting locally this morning which stayed around a few hours and was gone. But the weather forecast looks like it could be a lot worse by the weekend. No worries. No one can control the weather; no use bitchin' about it. Just remember that Spring is now less than two months away.

"Post No. 683"

2010-01-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

Wayyy back in 1962, I was just getting into any superhero titles produced by Marvel, which wasn't very many. About all they had to offer at first was The Fantastic Four and Tales to Astonish w/"Ant-Man", but I knew already that I was hooked on that company during the 1960's.

I'd seen various other titles they'd produced, mostly under the Atlas banner for a couple of years by then, all of which contained either fantasy, sci-fi and/or monster tales. Of those there was one title that stood out from all others: Amazing Adult Fantasy. Each issue in its short run of eight issues (the first six being titled Amazing Adventures) was chocked full of the work of my favorite of the Marvel bullpen, being, of course, Steve Ditko.

Right at the end of this run with issue #14 (the next, and last, issue, being retitled again to simply Amazing Fantasy which introduced some minor character called "Spider-man"), they ran a short tale called "The Man In The Sky", which was all about a mutant named Tad Carter with great mental powers. According to one interview with Stan Lee that I read in Marvel Age, he'd probably intended this to be an ongoing series, but ... well... sort'a forgot about it when Spidey was introduced and became popular.

Instead the basis for "TMITS" went on to be incorporated into "The X-Men", as in that tale there had a being contacting Carter to join in with other like mutants.

I always thought that would have been a great storyline that could have run through practically every Marvel title, especially back in the early 1990's when they were known for doing such things. A story something like, Prof. X found Carter to be way too powerful a mutant and put him into some sort of suspended status, only to have him break free and now be quite insane and rage havok throughout the Marvel Universe. I always thought they missed their opportunity with that storyline with "Phoenix" when she went bad, keeping it all within the X-Men title. In fact, I wrote the then Marvel editor (I think maybe it was Bill Mantlo) suggesting such. But, as usual, I got one of those typical BS replies that Marvel didn't lend to accepting unsolicited story ideas from "their fans".

Oddly enough, it wasn't too long after that, that both "Man In The Sky" story was miraculously "rediscovered" and reprinted in an issue of Marvel Age, and then a story a little something like it ran through the pages of their x-titles called "Legion". Not that I suggest anyone got the idea from me, but I still wonder "why' they just didn't use the Tad Carter character instead of creating something new?

If they thought it too old for their current readers to relate to, just re-introduce him as a NEW one. But...anyhoo as Stan would say. I still think it's a great tale that someone at Marvel should expand on today.

"Post No. 682"

2010-01-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

Found the above photo on Facebook and thought I'd post it. There's a lot of memories for me associated with the now gone "Twin City Drive-In".

Built in the late 1940's-early 1950's, it was one of the few completely concrete screens of such I can remember seeing. In fact, the hollow interior housed a few people from time to time, with a door on the top where maintenance could get out and change the floodlights they kept on before and after shows and during intermission.

It closed sometime in the 1980's, I think. I forget exactly when. A lot of us were sad to see it go, but the management had changed hands and all they'd show was x-rated material. Long gone were the days of B-flicks and decent films, and the introduction of cable t.v. and HBO all but destroyed the drive-in theatres. Shortly thereafter the Star Drive-In (located on HWY 31-E near Glasgow, KY.) closed as well and was finally torn down circa 1987-88 . It was the end of a golden era of such things.

Well, I'm off work today, but I knew that i wouldn't be able to just sit around this house and relax. No way can that happen, it seems as "someone/somewhere" always seems to find something to keep me from that. I slept in this morning until 8:30 AM and hadn't been up a good hour when my mom called and said she'd been up all night with a persistant cough and had made an apointment with her doctor at 10:15, so I had to hurry around and get myself together enough to take her to that.

In the meantime, my wife decided she wanted to go over to see my Aunt Mary, and couldn't get her van into reverse so she tried to drive it around through the back yard and out the other driveway. This works when the ground is either dry or hard as a rock from the cold, but an extremely bad idea when the ground is like a sponge from our rains here today and, naturally, she got stuck. So I made her just wait for me to get mom back from the doctor, who wanted her to go to the hospital for a chest x-ray, and when we got through there I came back by a Family Dollar Store and purchased 5 bags of dirt-cheap cat litter to put under her tires. One of the tires looked low, but it was just from where she'd spun it into a rut, so I didn't have to get out the air compressor. And, I gave my wife the keys to my car and had her take mom for her x-ray while I decided how to get her van out of the yard. At the same time, the neighbors from the duplex next door came over to see if they could help, as well as my Aunt Mary and Uncle Jimmy. I had Jimmy get behind the wheel and put it in reverse while the other four of us "rocked" the van enough to get it out of the ruts and he drove it in reverse back through the opening at the very back of our yard that connects to the Family Dollar drive, and, mission accomplished. Then I drove it back around to our street and backed it into the drive (since the reverse started working now that the vehicle had warmed up some). As it was, it only took ONE bag of cat litter (so "Bobcat" now has enough of that to last six months!)

After everyone left I went out to that big dirt pile in the back and inbetween the rain loaded up a couple of wheelbarrows full of dirt and filled back in the yard where there was now holes.

The doctor had called in some cough medicine and antibiotics for mom, plus she had a refill on her potasium and I went and picked that up, and my wife drove on over to my aunts.

Then I called my server because I could receive my e-mail but couldn't send any. I figured I'd screwed up something simple from putting the info for such back into my pc after reloading my XP recently, and sure enough, I had; very something simple that took a few seconds to fix, and now everything on my computer's back up to norm.

Watched the new "Human Target" series on FOX which I found pretty decent. A new episode shows tonight and I suspect I'll watch this on a regular basis IF they maintaine the quality of the episodes. It's based on the DC Comics' character, of course, and I figure we'll see a lot more such adaptations of comic book material what w/DC being owned by Warner Bros. and now Marvel Comics owned by Disney.

Haven't heard anything definate from that buyer on the comic yet. It all depends on whether he can float the loan. IF he can't come up with it I'm at least prepared to start taking photos and listing them myself on eBay. I'll be grabbing the higher priced stuff first for listing.

Temperatures here in S-Central, KY. aren't bad for this time of the year, even with this rain we're at 50 something degrees which everyone needs to enjoy as next week they'll drop back down to those resembling Winter weather. This month's already nearly over so March will be here soon, I hope. And, I'm officially on Facebook now in case anyone wants to look me up under the user name of Dave Puck.

"Post No. 681"

2010-01-17T15:10:00.001-08:00

Finally today I've got my pc back up and running after about 3 weeks or so awaiting my computer-guy to come by and zero it out and reload my Windows XP.

I worked on it personally for a good 3 hours or better reloading the XP Service Pack 2, my printer and camera, re-entering all of my e-mail addresses, getting back my favorites and the like. Everything seems fine now except that I can't seem to get Will Goble's email to go thru so, Will, if you're reading this, drop me a line, please.

And, as well, this weekend I finally got through all of the boxes of comics around here, seperating them out into older stuff (25 cent or below cover price) to modern, to what I was still keeping as either what I'll consider my current collection and/or books I want to personally sell in some future date on eBay.

So's...I've been pretty busy.

Didn't get to sleep in much either day. Was up at 5:30 AM as usual yesterday. Just woke up and got up since mom wanted to be taken for a haircut early, which I did, then got one myself, and today she needed a ride to church, so...

Haven't seen any new movies lately, however, I did actually get to watch one older film I've always wanted to see at least a little of, which was the life story of the late comedian, Andy Kaufman, titled: "Man in the Moon". Usually, I really don't like Jim Carey flicks, but I'll have to admit that I was VERY impressed with his performance, making it my favorite of anything I've had the stomach to actually sit down and watch. (Previously, the only flick he'd done that I cared any for at all was "The Mask".)

Back to work tomorrow, of course, for two days then off Wednesday and just perhaps I'll get a little rest IF everyone will just let me.

"Post No. 680"

2010-01-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, January 15th., had my late brother Harold Herbert Puckett (1945-1965) lived, he would have been 65 years old. February 5th. will mark the 45th. year of his passing.

At work this week we've been busy rearranging the retail store, eliminating some shelves and moving others making the aisles widers to give customers more room to push the carts througout the store. This requires a LOT of time due to having to move everything from each of the two-sides racks of shelves, moving the racks and then putting the items back into place, plus having to find room somewhere within the store to put the items that were removed from the eliminated shelving. I worked on just my own tool section for a good two days and the store's still just about half finished with this "new look".

Turned my water back on at the meter a few days back after our freezing spell here in S-Central, KY. passed. In fact, today it's supposed to be a bawmy 50 degrees.

Finally got a much needed haircut and took my mom to get the same. Neither of us had had a chance for one since back last Thanksgiving! Also took her around to the grocery and the like for some shopping.

Stopped by the local flea market for the first time this year and walked through it a bit, but found nothing I really wanted. Was looking for some DVD's but it seems that people are just trying to get rid of the ones the don't want rather than bring anything of interest to me.

Still don't have my own pc back up from that virus infection I received through an e-mail attachment (from a friend back Christmas Eve, and am still having to do this posting from my mom's computer, as well as check my e-mails there. If my "pc-fixer-guy" doesn't come clean out that system soon, I guess I'll be forced to load up the hard drive and take it elsewhere for repair as I'd really like to get back to selling again on eBay.

Going to start sorting comic books this weekend, the older (20 cent or lower cover price) from the newer stuff for a couple of dealers to inspect. May end up keeping a few of the more modern runs as it'd be shame top just let them go as complete as they are for little of nothing, when if I decide to sell them they'll go much better as a full run.

I've decided to keep my run of the Wrightson "Swamp Things", ALL of my "Doom Patrols", plus my "Jonah Hex" titles.

I'm thinking I'll probably take my vacation this year once again the first week of may as my comic shop always has a sale going on that week and it'll correspond, I believe, with "Free Comic Book Day" as well. Also thinking about getting back on Facebook after getting my pc fixed.

Just got a call while I was typing this that my pc guy's coming by tonight. Will be good to have my own computer again.

"Post No. 679"

2010-01-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

I swear I saw Wooly Mammoths walking around outside. Well...okay, maybe I didn't, but I'm really tired on this frigid weather here in South-Central, Kentucky which has been going on for the past week, and the worst may be yet to come with a snow storm scheduled to move into this area Thursday night adding to our misery. Perhaps it's not as bad as it is in New England and other areas North, but these people expect it to be bad like that every winter. Here we usually have a kinder season with slight amounts of snow, but every 20 years or so we go through this cycle which brings the ice and snow.

Last January we had this terrible ice storm that knocked out power for some residents of the state for more than a month, bringing down power lines and trees and in general disrupting the entire state to the point that it was declared an emmergency situation. The snow itself held off for the better part then, but I expect another falling of the white crap similiar to the one we had in the early 1980's when blizzard-like conditions pretty much kept everyone inside for over a week.

Sorry I haven't been around posting in a while now (over a month) but I got an unexpected "Christmas present" on Christmas Eve; a computer virus that's infected my whole pc. It was obviously from someone that I trusted and opened up an attachment on a email from him. The guy may not have even known it was infected, but it's a trogan and one that is trying to steal my passwords, so until I can get that system cleaned out and my XP reloaded, I'll have to blog from my mom's pc.

Christmas went okay this year. My wife and I went down to mom's and made a Christmas dinner for her and my cousin and aunt and we had a good Christmas gathering with family. Debbie made me a "throw" this year that had illustrations of the Beatles from their 1960's cartoon show, which is pretty neat. ("Bobcat" gave me a new pair of house slippers.) A late "present" of sorts was from my good old friend Steve who brought me a set of the original 1986-87 DC Comics Watchmen series, as well as a hardcover reprint of the 1950's St. John Tor comics, both of which I quite enjoyed. It was nice to re-read those issues of Tor which reprinted the first issue of 1,000,000 B.C. as well as the two 3-D issues that were produced. At one time or another I've had a couple of these, plus the DC reprint set produced in the 1970's. Joe Kubert, like Steve Ditko, had a great influence on my own artwork, and at times I find their very early artwork hard to distinguish from each other (although both artists styles changed later on to be quite unique, with Kubert in his more sketchy style, and Ditko using the more fluid, round-body building techniques).

Steve, when he visted, offered to give me a ride to the comic book shop which was still having their 25% off sale on all store stock, but I sadly declined this time due to lack of funds and when I don't have any extra cash, I sort of find going to such a sale as a mute point. This past year has hit me so hard financially that I rarely have extra cash for anything save the bills, groceries and gas these days, and my "Christmas bonus" this time was more like a "Christmas insult" with it being about half of what I got in 2008, that I just put it all in the bank just to live on.

And...that's it at the moment. Please excuse any typoes as I'm doing this pretty fast. Just wanted to touch base with everyone and wish a Happy New Year to all, and I'll try to post a little more often in 2010.

"Post No. 678"

2009-12-08T06:22:00.001-08:00

"Remember, remember,

The 8th. of December..."

John Lennon

October 1st., 1940 - December 8th., 1980

"Post No. 677"

2009-12-06T11:47:00.001-08:00

After several days at work I finally got Tuesday off, and, par usual, we had many either nice days or at least dry ones until Tuesday when it rained all day long. However, I was still determined to get several chores done around here that required being outside. One of which was breaking out the old air compressor and checking our tires, putting plastic up on the bedroom window, etc. and working on the dirt pile.

The air compressor was no problem; had that done in 20 minutes or so, but as I inspected the bedroom window frame which I was going to remove and place plastic under, then reattach, it appeared to be just much more of apain than I wanted to handle that day, and instead decided to put the plastic on the interior instead.

Not that it was any less a hassle to accomplish, but at least I was inside where it was dry and warm. The biggest problem with this is always having to get everything else out of my way, which means moving the bed, removing the curtains, etc., but eventually I was able to attach the plastic tightly, then cover the same with a blanket, then the curtains, and finally get the bed back in place. A little over an hour and a half's work, and now finished.

We (my wife and I) went to the grocery for my mom, then I came back and decided to work a bit on the dirt pile since the rain had all but stopped. It was muddy, naturally, but I used a rake with a long handle and got all of the obvious surface trash (small twigs and the like) from the top of the pile. I noticed that "someone" had come and sawed up and hauled off some of the logs and took the one pile we'd split, so that's gone now too. All that's left is a large pile of debris, a pile of logs, and a pile of treated boards. The dirt still has a few "humps" in it that I plan on breaking down, and the raking was mostly intended this time so that the rain would help me with my job by washing off the small twigs of which I wish to dispose. Not a whole lot left of this project, finally, after many months of hard work. I must say that I'd pretty proud of what I have already accomplished.

I've decided to ("Gasp!") sell about 95% of my comic book collection and have already gone through around 25 boxes full of those here in the pc room, keeping what I want in one long box, but I'd dare say there's less than a hundred I've pulled thus far, some of which I plan to use in a future sale. By the time I finish going through everything there's going to be something like 14-15 thousand regular-type comics for sell in this lot, dating from the early 1940's on up. I've decided to just grit my teeth and pull stuff. I need the room. I need the extra cash (my wife is still just working a part-time job of 20 hrs. a week.). And this will definately be the last time I ever collect comic books. I'm keeping anything friends have given me, my autographed stuff, a few special comics, any books I think may have been in my original collections in the 1960's (and that's the same comic and not another I've bought to replace it condition or nostalgia-wise), and maybe my Charlton super-hero stuff, & Beatles app.'s ("maybe" 500 comics total). Everything else from Golden Age super-hero to individual comics with a book value of over $100. goes and it will go in one big lot (no "cherry picking"). 45+ years of collecting comic books is just enuff, and I don't think I'll miss them again as I'm keeping all of my trade paperbacks (or most of them; some will go), so I'll still have plenty of reading stock if I want to relive some great old story (and I might actually buy a few things I really enjoy in other TPB collections IF I find them cheap enuff).

I figure my current collection is worth $30K+ and I'm asking one third of that. If I can't get it, they'll just stay in their boxes gathering dust; doesn't matter. Or they'll stay here until I retire (IF that day ever comes) and be sold individually/in "lots" on line. I've stopped buying comics now and haven't bought a new comic in probably a year or better. (Thus ends a great era in my personal life.)

Not sure if I mentioned that I found all of my pc drivers and, as usual, they weren't even in this room but another and in plain sight (just as I figured they'd be). Got my camera hooked back up, but wouldn't you know it? Neither the web site for UMAX, or the version of Windows (XP) I'm currently running supports the scanner, so now that's junk to me (although it'd still work on a system using Windows 98). It's about time I bought a new scanner anyway as this is one I paid $15. for about 5 years ago and I've more than gotten my money's worth from it.

The above depicted is from one of my favorite funky silver age DC Comics, Strange Adventures #79, published in the 1950's. If you'll click HERE it'll bring up a page where you can read the story behind the cover (just click onto any image and it'll bring it up larger sized).

"Post No. 676"

2009-11-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

I sincerely hope all had a nice Thanksgiving. Here at the ol' "Elmo Plantation", we certainly did even with my mom still recovering from her pacemaker operation about a week back.

My aunt fixed dinner for us with most all the trandition dishes, including turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, yams, black-eyed peas, cornbread, corn, and a banana pudding. A great old fashion country-type meal. Honestly, it was all I could do to finish a single serving on my plate.

We ate at mom's this time (rather than our usual trip out in the country to eat at my cousin's place), and besides my mother and wife, we had my Aunt Sally and my cousin (Sally's daughter) Leslie. Good times by all, and, most importantly, with the family.

Today I watched a little of The Macy's Parade before finishing up both yards of left-over leaves. Now with the yards done for the year I can go back on concentrating on that dirt pile in the back which I've had to neglect for a while.

I also watched a little of the Cowboys/Raiders game. Dallas was pretty much walking away with that, which sort'a pleased me as I like Dallas even though I'm not much of a football fan.

I've actually won something new here today in the way of comic books; 15+ religious comics, mostly J.T. Chick "Crusaders" series, nearly a full set of the 17 different issues, but of course those won't be arriving for some time. If I ever want to complete that set it may be difficult as the final issue (#17) had a low print run. I may just have to settle for what issues I'll get (and I already have around 4 issues of that particular title, but they are all the .59 printings, so maybe these will all be 1st.printings which all had the .39 price).

The above comic book cover is to Giggle #60, from 1948 (wow...that's 51 years ago!) with a Thanksgiving theme. Everyone be careful tomorrow on "Black Friday" while you're out shopping around for those bargains. I actually have purchased ONE Christmas gift thus far, so I'm really behind for the year. I know everyone will be looking for the best bargains they can find with the current economy.

I foresee being VERY busy at work tomorrow in retail, what with all of the shoppers, and just two of us working the shift, and BOTH of us needing to order items for our sections (Lord, I haven't had a chance to order anything for a week now due to having to make a new display last Monday plus the rest of the day spent putting out Christmas decorations, and I still have a large item that needs to be assembled! I'll never get caught up!)

"Post No. 675!" (dang!)

2009-11-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

The above is the theatrical release poster from the 1993 flick, "Wilder Napalm" starring Dennis Quaid, Debra Winger and Arliss Howard. If you'll click the link in red it'll tell you a better summery than I could be brief about, but it's a great movie that I've been wanting to see for a good 16 years since a friend told me it was about two guys that had powers like "The Human Torch". I wasn't disapointed from that long wait. Very enjoyable, and highly recommended.

In more important things, my mother was released from the hospital today after having a pacemaker installed. Last Wednesday she had me to take her to the doctor, compaining about some pain in her left arm. Naturally her doctor was concerned about her heart and sent her to the hospital for a EKG and blood work. Seems her heart rate was way too irregular, dropping then rising too high, so Friday night she was transported from our local hospital to Elizabethtown Hardin Memorial where she got the pacemaker.

The procedure was brief (about an hour and a half at the most; some of that of which was "prep"), she got just a local so she was fully awake during the operation, and was even given a chicken sandwich and a Diet Coke to eat before she got completely off the operating table (she hadn't had anything to eat or drink since midnight before), and was back in her room before 10 A.M.!

The pacemaker is so small these days you can't even tell someone has one. Amazing how much medicine has progressed.

Got to thinking about this being the 47th. Anniversary of the assassination/death of President Kennedy. As it happened, my late brother came home that very night from his first leave from The Marine Corps. Strange how things change. Had that happened today, the country would have most likely been put on "lock down' such as it was on 9/11, anyone in the military would have had to stay on base, and it would have been treated like a suspected terrorist attack. Back then, nearly 50 years ago, it was treated as a police matter.

And... just to catch up a bit with my current sporatic blogging...

You'll notice that there's a new link in white-colored font over at the top of the column to the right. It's to one of my other, pretty much, non-working blogs, called "A Puck's Tale". I had been using this just for some personal information about me, but I decided that would be the perfect place for me to have as much of a complete resume' on line of my published work from over the past 40+ years that I could round up and list, so's...there 'tis.

It's still a "work in progress" as ifever/whenever I finally find my scanner/camera driver discs I do plan on posting a current photo of myself along with some cover reproductions and artwork.

"Post No. 674"

2009-11-15T12:10:00.001-08:00

Got the bill in from Debbie's emergency room visit; $725.00. Simply outrageous. The attending physician looked at her hand, put some antiseptic on it and a piece of gauze and tape, gave her a tetanus shot and sent her home. For all that was done by the attendents in the ambulance, and the hospital doctor, we could have done for next to nothing right here at home save for the shot. For that little trip in the ambulance (for two miles) and the ER visit? Over $1,200. (And people wonder why health insurance is so high.) Very sad.

Finished raking my leaves again. This time it took around 4 hours since I had to neglect them due to my job for the past 5 days. Got the gutters cleaned out as well, plus I bagged up 6 good size bags of the trash-type wood and the like from the brush pile, and brought up yet another load of sticks and limbs. There's something like 13 bags of debris awaiting pick up by the city this time, plus a pile of limbs and sticks. The yard, two hours later, looked like it needed raking again. My front yard trees are about finished falling, but there's still a pretty full tree at the rear of the house. Maybe it'll all finish faling this week and I'll only have to do this one more time. I need to remulch the leaves on mom's again too, plus, I'm sure, her gutters need cleaning out.

Stopped by both local flea markets Saturday as well as three yard sales. Bought nada at the flea markets, although one dealer did have a copy of the "Beatles Songbook Vol.2" l.p. in nice shape. Wanted $5. for it, and I did consider buying it, but finally passed as it'd only been something I'd listened to a single time before stashing it into my collection of such.

Paid $1. for a large Superman figure from the animated series (from "Justice League", I believe). Put batteries in it and it worked just fine. Has flashing heat vision (i.e., the eyes "light up"), when you move the arms down it makes a "crashing" noise, plus a sound like he's flying. Stuck him up on the shelf with some other Superman memorabilia.

One woman at the flea market had a whole basket full of "Transformers" but wanted $1-$2 each on those which would have been too much just to buy and attempt to resell on my eBay auctions (which would have been the only reason they would have interested me). Nice, however, for anyone that collected them.

Sunday I found the above pictured classic flea market find for a mere fifty cents (alright; not that one exactly as my camera's still not hooked up so I had to swipe that pic off a eBay listing, but an identical one like it). A prime early 1970's "Smiley Face" coffee mug, and, even rarer, marked made in the good ol' "U.S.A.". Funny thinking back some nearly forty years ago circa 1970 visiting a now long gone head shoppe located in Bowling Green, KY.. I was looking at some of the pin-backs they had and there was a whole basket full of Smiley face buttons for, oh, maybe 25 or 50 cents each. When I asked the clerk what they were exactly (as that was the first time I'd seen one), he told me that they were "Happy Faces", and that they were going to replace the Peace Symbol! I admit to actually buying and wearing one for a couple of years lo' dem many years ago (LOL!).

"Post No. 673"

2009-11-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I got my printer back to working, but not before having to go to the Lexmark home page site and downloading it from there. I've yet to find a small 4"x4" plastic case with the driver discs to my printer, camera and scanner. I've tried to download the scanner and camera drivers from their company sites, but Umax doesn't support my particular scanner any more, and I can't seem to find one for the Sanyo.

Been rearranging my pc/collection room as it was getting just a bit too cluttered with various collectibles: action figures, toys, etc., etc. Packing up several large boxes to put away in storage and just changing it around a bit as every blue moon I get tired of seeing it looking the same way. Getting all of my "Beatles stuff" in one specific area of the room. It'll probably take me a good week just to do this, a little at a time, every night after work. Along the way I've found several items I've decided to stick in my next yard sale. Not sure what to do with all of the extra books I have in the room as they're getting stacked now on top of one another instead of neatly in cases, so I may be forced to store some of that as well.

My mom turned 85 years young this past Monday (the 9th.) and remains in reasonably good health. I'm amazed, quite frankly, at how well she is doing and am very thankful for that. I try to keep a pretty close eye on her and visit, at least for a few minutes, every day and call to check up on her daily. She had a very nice birthday receiving many cards and some gifts. My wife and I try to get her out of the house as often as we can as she gets bored with nothing to do besides reading and watching television (and puttering around her place).

On another note...for those who wonder why health insurance is so high? We got a bill for the ambulance ride my wife took about two weeks ago (which was basically not even needed). 2 miles to the hospital = $514.00. We don't need a government run health plan; we need health insurance that we can afford. (No one can tell me it cost on the average of $257.00 to drive any ambulance per mile.)

As this year starts coming to a close, I think back about how bad finacially we've been hit by it. It began with the television going out ($200.), then the microwave (another $100.), the riding lawn mower getting fixed ($75.), buying a used push mower ($60.), replacing gas lines ($300., and it would have been probably 3 times that much had I not done all of the manual labor laying the lines, digging the ditches, etc., plus the line was given to me free), trimming the trees ($300.), Debbie losing her job, then having to repay all of the unemployment money ($1,256.00), ambulance bill ($500.), starter for my car ($170.), cleaning out the fence row in the back yard ($75.), and we still have yet to get the ER bill (at least $500.). Along with many other misc. expensives it puts the figure at around 5 Grand, which we certainly didn't have extra, nor could afford to pay. I'm just thankful that Debbie still has at least a parttime job, and I'm still working fulltime. Otherwise, it'd been bankruptcy a long time ago.

Off this weekend. I'm sure I'll spend at least half of Saturday on the leaves and gutters.

"Post No. 672"

2009-11-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

Today is Debbie and my 21st. wedding anniversary. We recall the day well. It was raining and chilly. Came just a flood that night when we were staying at a motel in Bowling Green, KY. (about 35 miles from here). We ate dinner at the next door Executive Inn and stayed there fairly late dancing to their house band. The next day on the way home, I actually stopped at a comic book show that was at the old BG Mall. We've had our "ups and downs", but still together for 21 years (remarkable).

I got her a new purse, some makeup she'd been wanting and some solar-powered lights for around the sidewalk. One of the things she gave me was one of the DC "Crisis The Spectre",action figures. Pretty neat! There's some others in that series I wouldn't mind having as well such as "Dr. Fate", "The Flash", "The Black Canary" and "The Question".

Raked up and mulchd the leaves for...oh...I guess the third time this Autumn, and re-emptied the back gutters which were over-flowing (again). Later on today I really need to go down to my mom's house and do her yard as well. Thought that perhaps from us trimming our large trees last Spring I wouldn't have as many leaves, but there still seems an over-abundance of the things.

Work's still steady with our weekends in the retail still quite busy. People are buying for Christmas now. I'll actually have three days off in a row (the first time that's happened since my vacation this year back the first week in May) all around Thanksgiving. Our plans aren't definate for Thanksgiving yet, but we'll probably go up to my cousin's place in the country as usual for dinner.

I had a pc crash last week and lost ALL of my old files. It was so bad in fact that this pc had to be "zeroed out" and reloaded. But this time I've put in Windows XP. I've got everything back going pretty good save that I can't find those blamed discs for my scanner/camera/printer drivers.

"Post No. 671"

2009-10-20T19:18:00.001-07:00

This hasn't been the most enjoyable few days I've ever had in my life. It all started with Friday morning.

I went to the bank to get extra change for the weekend in the retail store, and when I got back out to my car, it wouldn't start. I called work and someone came down and tried to jump start that, and it still wouldn't start and I finally had to get a ride back to work with him and call a mechanic to come with a flatbed to take my car back to his shop. I finally got that back on Monday. Total costs: $170.00 counting tow bill, labor, and, the cause of the problem, a new starter.

Then this Sunday while I was off, my aunt and uncle came over to get her stuff out of my wife's van where they'd sat up together at a craft show the day before. My wife went towards our front door to enter the house and get something for my aunt, tripped over a brick, and went through the grass on the storm door, left hand first. This scared the holy crap out of all of us of course, and the first thing I did was rush over to her and immobilize her arm as I was afraid she'd jerk it back suddenly and cut herself even worse. We called an ambulance and took her to the E.R. Forunately all of the cuts were to her palm, which is already getting better and she was able to rerurn to work the following night.

Always something..., but I'm very thankful as Debbie's accident could have been much worse.

Finally got all of my mowing done (hopefully) for this year, as well as finishing up all of my mom's yard yard and Winterizing around her house. The leaves are starting to fall and I've already cleaned out one back gutter. need to check the others as if one's full, the rest probably are as well.

And in other things...
"I didn't know THAT..... Department".: Funny how with all of the (literally) hundreds of thousands of comics I've either looked at or through long boxes of in comic shops and on line and in "photo guides", and price guides, and had in several various larger collections over the years that I still occasionally see some title that I didn't know existed. I even make a point of looking up titles on The Grand Comic Book Data Base or on eBay if it's something that doesn't sound familiar. I mean, I know there's a LOT of modern titles (mostly in the past 10 years) that I've not seen. But, "older" books? And especially older super-hero comics? Naaawwwww. Well, that happened when I saw copies of the 1985 Charlton title, Charlton Action, Featuring Static (a later Ditko super-hero, the Charlton issues of which are shown above, and as usual can be enlargened by clicking onto the photo). I'd seen Static in Eclipse Monthly (published, of course, by Eclipse Comics) but never realized that he'd been the central character in two previously published comics, CA #'s 11 & 12. As usual, Charlton gave him his first issue with an odd numbering on it, and I'm sure it was a continuation of some other discontinued title so they could retain certain mailing rights. What that title could have possibly been, I don't know (maybe Charlton Classics, Featuring "Hercules"???) But you'll notice Ditko's cover designs are pretty similiar to that which he was using on such independnet books of his such as "Wha--?!" and "Avenging World" (as well as his even later work).

"Post No. 670"

2009-10-18T12:44:00.001-07:00

After reading through my copy of The Marvel Vault: A Museum In A Book, I noticed there was certain pieces of memorabilia that weren't reproduced (or I merely looked over them?), so, anyhoo, I thought it might be interesting to dig out some of my own knick-knacks I've saved over the years as some are almost as old as Marvel Comics itself (well, the Silver-Age Marvel, at least), and many younger collectors probably have never seen them.

(Just click on to any of the following pics and they "should" show a larger image.)

Now...if I've just downloaded these photos in the correct order...The first on at the top should be the instruction sheet for the mid-1960's "Incredible Hulk" plastic model, produced by Aurora. I thought this one from the three produced at that time was the most interesting as I definately know it's Neal Adams artwork. The other two models that were produced were "The Amazing Spider-man", and "Captain America". Cap's artwork could may not have been by Jack Kirby. It looks like Kirby, but I'm not sure. I'll reproduce it in some future blog post for you to see for yourself (as I plan on this not being the only such post where I'll show memorabilia from time-to-time).

The second photo down should be of the lable that adorned gum ball machines in the mid-60's advertising that the contents of said machine contained "Marvel Mini-Comics". These small, thick booklets with various colored covers and B&W pages, had stories of different Marvel characters: Spider-man, The Hulk, Captain America, Sgt. Fury, Thor & Millie the Model. I think one time I noticed that you'd either have to have 24 or 36 of them to have all of the color cover variations. One may have seen some of these "sometime", but the lable for the machine is pretty rare.

Next up (or, "down" I should say), are Marvel "No Prizes", which were the gag award they gave out for those who could pull their a$$ out of a pinch by explaining away some mistake they made in a sensible way. The joke being, it was "NO" prize, but just an empty envelope. Their fans treasured them just the same and considered it an honor to receive one. Here we have two variations; the one with The Hulk is the original from the 1960's, and the one with "Spider-man" a later version printed in the 1980's.

Next, the wrapper for the "Marvel Gum Cards" from the latter 60's. Each pack of these had five cards and a sticker and, of course, a piece of gum. I actually had one of the boxes they all came in complete one time; sure wish I did now as it's scarcer than even the wrapper.

And on to variations of Marvel Comics company envelopes. Here we see some different versions with the original "Hulk" logo, then one with "Spider-man" in his original costume, and finally one in the "black-Venon" version. The stationary had matching or similiar designs as well.

"Marvel Reply Post Cards" such as these were usually in blue and signed "Stan & Co.", "The Marvel Gang", or some such and usually (probably) done by the secretary, although you'll see that one later one here pictured was signed by Bill Mantlo(which pretty well dates it as 1980's). The others are mostly 1960's. Marvel also sent out a typed post card which told you what number and title of one of their comics your letter would appear in (if if was printed). The one I have of this is in "canary yellow".

Next is a "Marvel Subscription Copy Backing Board", which they would stick behind your comic in a clear envelope when it was mailed. There's another variation of this with, I believe, "Wolverine".

And finally, here's a couple of the 1988 "Marvel Mini Comics" which were in full color. The one of Spider-man reprints the stories from "Amazing Spider-man #1", and the X-Men one reprints #53 (first published Barry Smith art by Marvel). The back covers had a coupon for a dollar off a subscription to a Marvel comic of your choice.

Hope everyone enjoys seeing these. I have a lot more crap I've saved over the years in folders and the like and occasionally I'll start showing it off here at "Elmo's Junction".

"Post No. 669"

2009-10-17T17:09:00.001-07:00

Watched the 2007 flick, Zoom: Academy for Superheroes starring Tim Allen, Rip Torn, Chevy Chase, Courteney Cox. Falls into catagory such as Sky High where young people with extraordinary powers are trained into superhero status. Typical rip-offs, of course, of such ideas as "The X-men" or "The New Mutants". Although I usually enjoy Tim Allen flicks (my favorite being Galaxy Quest), this is strickly child's fare with the typical gross moments designed and aimed towards the pre-teen set.

Plot involves an aging super hero called "Zoom" (played by Allen) who is called upon to train a new team of super-powered beings to fight his brother, once thought dead, but returning with a terrible vengence and power. Rip Torn plays his usual role (ala "Zed"-type from The Men In Black) as head of the training fascility called "Area 52".

The special effects are fine and, like I said, it's entertaining enough for younger people but a far cry from any memorable super hero movie. Perfect for its intentions I'm sure, but just a passing one time view ever for the serious mature comic book fan.

Well, we've lost yet another two fine people this past week; George Tuka, artist, and Joe Rosen, letterer. Both have worked for numberous comic book companies and are part of the old "Marvel Bullpen". The older we get, sadly the fewer of those names we grew up with and recognize are still around.

In other things...

I finally got around to defraging this pc, which I hadn't done since I acquired it now well over a year ago. Took a good 3-1/2 hours to accomplish this task. I really need to do such a thing about once a month, but...you know how that goes...

My wife has set up at a craft show about 40 miles from here in Glendale, KY., where they have a huge festival every year. Sometimes I'll go with her, but it's pretty cold today (in the 40's) with some drizzling rain, plus I don't have any extra cash to spend, plus I'd had to have gotten up at 3 AM (as they're an hour ahead of us) to get ready to go, plus my aunt's setting up with her and my wife's van only has front seats (which would mean sitting on the floor in the back), so....

Actually, I'm stuck here at home today as my car went ka-put on me yesterday. I went to the bank for change for the retail store and to deposit my paycheck around 11 AM and it wouldn't start again when I started to go back. Had to call work and have someone come down who attempted to jump-start my car, but it wouldn't do it and had to get a ride back with him to work, then call a local mechanic I know to come pick up my vehicle. Haven't heard anything from that mechanic yet here a good 24 hours later. Can't say I have any complaints much as it's been a good car, even if it is a Ford.

Got in copies of the 1970 Marvel Comics' Our Love Story #5 and the 1981 Charlton Comics' Ghost Manor #55 in yesterday's mail. The former has a 7 page story by Jim Steranko, and the latter is all "Tales of the Mysterious Traveler" reprints from the late 1950's. Looked up credit information from its original source (TOTMT #'s 12 & 13) and it stated that this has a Ditko cover reprinted from Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #13, and that the lead story has Matt Baker artwork. The Steranko artwork in OLS, I think, is perhaps the final strip he ever did before he wrote his two History of Comics books, or started his magazine, Media Scene.

Also in (before I forget) is The Marvel Vault. What a wonderous hardcover this is with tons of photos, artwork reprints, cover reprints, repros of memorabilia and stories! Well recommeneded for anyone who wants a good history of Marvel Comics from its beginning to the modern age.

"Post No. 668"

2009-10-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

"Hunna-Hubba!"

"Post No. 667"

2009-10-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

"COMIC BOOK REVIEWS":

Justice League America Annual (DC) #6 (1992) is one of those "Eclipso-The Darkness Within" x-overs. Over the years DC took a somewhat minor character and elevated him into major villian. And, I admit, I really liked the old Eclipso stories that ran in House of Secrets, especially when they had Alex Toth artwork. And in this JLA adventure the villian is raising his usual brand of havok possessing myriad heroes and heroines alike, while in the meantime, Superman and Wonder Woman contemplate whether or not they even want to be a part of that version of the League which contains other members such as The Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, etc. The whole story boils down to Blue Beetle in mortal combat with Eclipso, attempting to get the villian from the JLA headquarters and wrecking BB's flying "Bug". Overall, not a bad tale from 17 years ago (Geez; has it been THAT long??). A decent Jurgens script and always a delight to see the artwork of Dave Cockrum.

Gross Point (DC) #1 (08/97) deals with a normal family moving into a bizarre town that looks like the origin point of "The Addams Family". It was better than I figured, written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, accompanied with some quirky artwork by S.M.Taggart & Roger Langridge. ("Gross Point" being that name of the town, of course.) For some reason I feel like this would have been a better alternative-type title or even a small press publication than something released by the big two.

Daredevil: Flashback (Marvel) Minus 1 (07/97), writen by Joe Kelly and artwork by the wonderful Gene Colan was a pure delight, giving us a tale of Matt Murdock's days pre-Daredevil as he began to attend college and over-coming any hardships of such. We get to see his first meeting with "Foggy" Nelson, and read of his father's concern fearing his son's handicap will hold him back from achieving his education. Honestly, it's always so nice to see Colan on this title after he did so many silver-age issues. Of the "Flashback's" Marvel produced in this series, this issue is definitely the best and I recommend you looking for a copy of it in the back issue bins at your comic shop if you don't already have one. Even the cover illustration is enough to send one's mind back to 1968.

Fantastic Four (Marvel) #507 by Waid (again), Porter and Rapmund, continues the multi-part "Authoritive Action" storyline where "Dr. Doom" has been sent to Hell, and the FF take over control of Latveria, much to the dismay of the U.S. government who sends in Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. to remove them. Reed does this "sacrafice myself" routine and extracts Doom to an alternate space where only he and Richards exist, and various scenes from their past conflicts constantly replay themselves (so we get to see some reprinted Kirby artwork adorn "the walls"). Fury's plans go array when the citizens of Latveria tell them they want the FF as their rulers since they're so much better than Doom, and the rest of the FF go off to hunt for Reed, finally entering this alternate space, and Richards tells them to quickly leave as Doom would escape. The scene chages to where they are out of that area, back in Latvaria with the soldiers of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Susan Storm uses her force shield to literally make a hole through several of the soldiers! That's right. Doom had exchanged his mind with Sue! Naturally this leaves us with a clifthanger ending. Not a bad storyline.

The Incredible Hulk V2 (Marvel) #62 (12/2003) written by Bruce Jones with Mike Deodato, Jr. artwork. Always nice to read a story by Bruce Jones. I've always considered him to be one of the more under-rated talents around in comics. And Deodato's artwork is always good. This issue has Part 3 (of 5) called "Split Decisions" which deals with these partial-bionic-part-vampire-for-The-Hulk's-blood critters attacking everyone (they remind me of the "Alien" right after it eats its way out of one's stomach). Since I hadn't read any of the story before, or much after, I can't really give a good opinion of this comic one way or the other, save that what I read, I liked.

Superman/Batman (DC) #35 (07/2007) has Supes trying to rid Metallo of some sort of virus which is, in fact, an "infection" of Braniac who's moved on to nano-technology these days, and in the meantime, Doc Magnus has recreated The Metal Men and they are involved in this as a subplot. My main complaint about this issue (by Verheiden, Huhhenheim, Lee & Young) is that it's way too over-ploted. It's always nice to get one's money-worth in any story, but a single theme per issue, dealing with such and letting that come to a conclussion is much more satisfying to me personally than cramming it full of a half-dozen subplots with which to keep up.

Batman (DC) #'s 655 thru 658 (09-12/2006) is by Grant Morrison with nice artwork by Andy Kubert. This tale is all about a kid that's supposingly Batman's son by the daughter (Talia) of Ra's Al Ghul . Her goal is to either get Bats to join her as a team, or become his mortal enemy forever, using "their kid" as a ploy in this, and along the way she gets hold of the Man-Bat formula to create a force of such half-human soldiers. The kid, by the way, is a trained ninja who just about kills Robin (something I find a little hard to swallow) because he wants to be the only one in Bats' life "as a son". At the end of this tale it appears that Talia has blown both her and the kid up, but....ya know how dat stuff goes. Not too bad a story by Morrison, and Kubert's artwork goes a long way in making it enjoyable, but it seems like this story's been told before one way or the other.

Now, in Detective Comics (DC) #842 (05/2008), Bats is dealing with a suit of armor that's from the middle-ages, perhaps cursed due to its original owner losing control and killing a bunch'a folks. Peter Milliagan's "okay" writing Batman, but not one of my favorite writers on Dark Knight tales.

"Post No. 666!"

2009-10-06T12:52:00.001-07:00

"The Devil, You Say!" Yes, it's Post #666 here at "Elmo's Junction". An ominous number, indeed. Which means absolutely nothing to me. No, I put such superstitions in the catagory of black cats, walking under a ladder and breaking mirrors. None of these do I allow to happen purposely, but they don't bother me either if they do occure.

The number 666 is related to predictions from the book of Revelation in "The Holy Bible". It is a number which is supposed to signify "the beast", and in this prediction one is supposed to not be able to purchase anything without said mark either on one's forehead or hand.

It all depends on whether you believe Revelation to be a predicition, or instead, writings by "John" (no, not John the Baptist, or even John the Apostle; no one's sure "which" John wrote this) relating to one of the emperors of Rome at that time when Christians were being prosecuted and many put to death.

To many Christians of John's time, the Roman emperor was indeed the devil, as well as the enemy of the teachings of Jesus Christ. And the impending Armaggon wasn't relating to some far future event where the forces of Satan fought again Jesus and His Angels, but a real battle against The Roman Empire causing its destruction. Oddly enough, this eventually did happen as Christianity conquered over the worship of pagen gods, and Rome itself became the center for Catholicism.

But...enuff o' dat.

Today I worked more on listings for the "Beatles and Bizarros" blog site (link to the right column) when my good Italian (speak of the devil) friend, Fabio, sent me some additional listings to add to this. There's several that I need the publishers for, however, so if any of you out there can recognize any of the following companies which produced there titles, please let me know so I can correct/add to the listings. The titles I need publishing companies for are:

Big George and His Friends

Tetragrammatron Fragments (this may be a fanzine)

Motorbooty

Blackmail Material

Things From Nowhere

Slam-Bang (NOT the Golden-Age title, but a modern publication)

Undrground Surrealistic magazine

I appreciate it!

Picked up some fairly recent comics and will be reviewing some of these as they are read, which include:

Batman (DC) 655, 657, 658/ Daredevil (Marvel) Flashback -1/Detective (DC) 842/Fantastic Four (Marvel) 507/Gross Point (DC)1/Hulk V2 (Marvel) 62/Justice League America Annual (DC/1992) 6/Superman-Batman (DC) 35

And, before I forget it, yesterday marked the anniversary of both the 47th. year since the release of the first Beatles' song, "Love Me Do", plus it was also the 40th. Anniversary of the first episode of "Monte Python's Flying Circus". (Good memories from both!)

"Post No. 665"

2009-09-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

"The GREAT COVER HUNT PART 2"

Going back through my inventory lists of my comic book collections I've found the following to be added to the previous post of comics for which I'm searching for the covers (ONLY). As before, I have nice photocopy cover on some of these, but prefer originals, so please go through those "junk" comics you have lying around and check them for me please. And, as before, I don't expect to get them for free; I'll pay a reasonable price for any I need (Thanks!)

Batman (DC) #142, September, 1961

Detective Comics (DC) #285, November, 1960

Detective Comics (DC) #305, July, 1962

The Flash (DC) #135, March, 1962

Mystery in Space (DC) #57, February, 1960

Mystery in Space (DC) #81, February, 1963

Metal Men (DC)#2, June-July, 1963

My Greatest Adventure (DC)#72, October, 1962

Nancy and Sluggo (Dell) #184, Sept.-Oct., 1961

Rip Hunter… Time Master #4 (DC), Sept.-Oct., 1963

Challengers of the Unknown (DC)#19, April-May, 1961

Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories (Dell) Vol. 20, No. 7, April, 1960

Getting right along now to other things...

I just realized that my next post will be the ominous #666! (brrrr!) So I guess I outta have some sort of approproiate "theme" for that one. Shame it's not closer to Halloween (since that'd worked out well).

I've had the past two days off from work and have been attempting to get things caught up around here again. Finished mowing my yard and my mom's yards yesterday, cleaned up the yard where the city had picked up and mulched yet another huge pile of brush I'd extracted from that large mound of such from the back yard, and I worked on that as well a while yesterday. Got some comics listed on eBay for sale (click onto the "My Auctions" link to the right if you're some inclined to check those out), got a much needed haircut, and actually slept in both days so I got a little extra rest.

Monday I was pretty sick with something like the flu or a virus and liked to never made it through the entire day at work, but the work I did around here helped sweat that out and, I wouldn't say I'm back in the "pink" of health now, but certainly feeling a whole lot better. My neighbor had it as well, and our local schools are let out from so many students missing from the flu that they won't go back into session until after Fall Break next week.

Re-watched the "Iron Man" flick yesterday. Personally I think that's the best Marvel movie that's been made so far. Everything in it just seems to mesh together well, the IM suit looks good, the actors were well chosen, and the story and special effects were top-notch. Would love to see a follow-up, but I hope next time they don't have IM fighting an armored villian. Myself, I'd like to see one where he battles "The Mandrian", but I think the whole thing is supposed to link into the upcoming "The Avengers" flick" (which I've heard now has been pushed on into either 2011 or 2012). Marvel's linking these flicks together decently with the Stark app. in "Incredible Hulk", and his mentioning he was putting together a team, so we'll just have to all wait to see where that leads.

As usual, I'm broke this week, which figures as my local (I say "local", but it's actually a good 35+ miles from here) comic book shop is having a 50% off back issue sale until Oct. 4th., alas. Haven't been there in over a year now. This year has hit us a little rough what with my wife getting laid off from her job, then those bastards at the employment services maing us pay back over $1,200. which should never have happened. Slowly though, we're recovering from that mess with debbie getting the part-time (25+ hours a week) job and us getting our gas line problems fixed.

Post No. 664"

2009-09-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

"THE GREAT, WILD COVER HUNT!"
I'm on a quest for a number of original covers I need to complete various comic books in my collections. Some of these I already have nice photocopies for, but I'd really prefer to find the originals (there's also a few centerfolds I've listed as well). I don't expect to get them for free; I'll pay any reasonable price for these as long as they're complete and in at least "Good" shape. So look through your junk comics and just maybe you'll be able to help me out. (Thanks!)

Adventure Comics (DC) 88, 221, 229

Adventures of Bob Hope, The (DC) 1

Amazing Adult Fantasy (Marvel) 12, 14

Amazing Spider-man V1 (Marvel) 65

Atom V1, The (DC) 18

Avengers V1, The (Marvel) 7

Batman (DC) 121 (Also need first fold)

Beatles Life Story, The (Dell) 1

Blackhawk (DC) 167

Blue Beetle V1 (Charlton/1964) 1

Brave & the Bold, The (DC) 34

Bunny (Harvey) 4, 10

Captain America (Marvel) 107

Captain America Comics (Timely) 46 (Also need centerfold)

Classics Illustrated (Gilberton) 46 (1st.Print. ONLY)

Daredevil (Marvel) 39, 76

Doctor Solar Man of the Atom (Gold Key) 1, 3

Fantastic Four V1, The (marvel) 26

Fawcett Movie Comics (Fawcett) V3 #15 (also need centerfold)

Flash V1, The (DC) 145

Green Hornet (Harvey) 33 (Also need centerfold)

Harvey Hits (Harvey) 60

Haunted (Charlton) 1

House of Secrets (DC) 67

Jet Dream (Gold Key) 1

Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Pal (DC) 47

Journey Into Mystery (Marvel) 83, 85 (also need first fold)

Justice League of America V1 (DC) 9

Marvel Family, The (Fawcett) 16

Our Fighting Forces (DC) 76

Rip Hunter...Time Master (DC) 1

Roy Rogers Comics (Dell) 5

Sgt. Fury & His Howling Commandoes (Marvel) 19

Shock Suspenstories (E.C.) 16 (Need centerfold ONLY)

Silver Surfer V1, The (Marvel) 1

Spirit, The (Quality/1st. Series "nn"/"Wanted Dead or Alive")

Strange Tales Annual (Marvel) 1 (also need last page)

Sugar & Spike (DC) 75, 83

Superboy V1 (DC) 37

Supergirl V1 (DC) 1

Supergoof (Gold Key) 52

Tales of Suspense (Marvel) 46 (Need centerfold ONLY)

Tales to Astonish (Marvel/Need BACK covers ONLY for #'s 35, 36, 38)

Thor (Marvel) 170, 171

Walt Disney's Comics & Stories (Dell) 11

World's Finest (DC) 143

X-Men V1, the Uncanny (Marvel/1963 Series) 87

"Post No. 663"

2009-09-23T13:39:00.001-07:00

The above photo was posted with my good old friend, Johnny Bacardi (aka: David Jones) in mind as he does a segment on his blog posts from time-to-time called "Confessions of a Spinner Rack Junkie" and uses a "Hey Kids! Comics!"" photo from an old comic book spinner rack.

The above tins from such should prove nostalgic to him as they are the actual ones from the racks from the old Ben Franklin 5 & Dime Store we used to have in our home town that, not only Johnny and I bought many a comic off of, but I'm sure a lot more kids and adults.

The top tins are the complete set off of the one that sat in that store in the early to late1970's, and the bottom one is one of two sections which covered the sides of top of the Gold Key rack. I'm not sure what the date is of the top one, but the GK one first appeared in the store in late 1962 when that company began. (The "regular" rack contained D.C.Comics).

And today is the second of two days I had off in a row this week. Got a few things accomplished such as mowing both mine and my mother's yard again (Ghod, will the grass EVER stop growing this year???), weed-eating around her sidewalks and trimming her hedges, repairing her sidewalks with Quik-Crete as well as some bricks I had to loosen on mine last week when we ran the new gas line, hauling yet another large stack of brush up to the street for the city to mulch up, taking mom to the doctor today and around for a few chores she needed, and...myriad other things.

Seems like I missed at least one Charlton Comic that has a "Tales of the Mysterious Traveler" reprint and have since added it to my Want List, which is Ghost Manor #55. Looks like that issue is nearly ALL such Ditko reprints from that 1950's title.

Was digging around in some "stuff" I had recently and came across the 10 issue small press editions of The Mundane Adventures of DISHMAN, written/drawn/published by Canadian writer/artist John MacLoud from 1985-1990. Thought I still had a copy of the 1988 Eclipse Comics Dishman #1 as well, but that's "disapeared" over the years (so, if anyone has a copy they wanna sell me "cheap", let me know). Always really enjoyed that title. The Eclipse issue reprints the cover of the first one plus the interiors to (I think) issues 1 thru 3. (And if anyone knows what John's been doing since then, let me know as I'd be really interested.)

Not sure if I mentioned that I was recently able to pick up the first eight Archive editions of Will Eisner's "The Spirit" for a song (like, 25% of the cover price). The Volumes 5 thru 8, in fact, still had their shrink-wrap on them. Lotta good reading there. The last time I checked there was something like 26 volumes of those archives, the last one reprinting the two1960's Harvey Comics. Don't know if I'll ever attempt to complete such a set, but these give me the Sunday sections of the character from 1940-1944, or something like approx. the first 200 Sundays. Some, of course, are Lou Fine (since Eisner served in the Armed Forces in WWII).

Getting back to small press publications for a moment here, you may recall that back in 1985-1987 I published an annual porfolio of small press artists called Upperground. Over a three year period those issues contained the work of over 50 different SP artists (as well as a few pros). Well, oddly enough, it seems that they've become a little collectable now that they're in the 20+ age and I've ended up selling individual issues from my file copies several times. So much so, in fact, that I've made more off of those in the past couple of years than it cost to publish the first issue! Few people know that I hand-collated and hand-stapled and individually signed and numbered every copy of that (a 500 print run), just to save money back then. (As a matter of fact, I've got one of them up on my current auctions if you care to click on the link in the column to the right.) No extra copies of No.'s 2 or 3, though, as they weren't photo-offset or magazine-size, but photocopy and digest sized editions (which had smaller print runs are are much scarcer. I only have one of two each of those in my own files.) The cover to the second issue got me a little publicity when the cover of it was printed in Renegade Press's Ms.Tree's Rock N Roll Special (back in the 1980's), as it has an illustration of "Ms. Tree" by Gary Kato on its front cover.

"Post No. 662"

2009-09-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

DITKO - The Evolution of A Man With A Hat

Artist Steve Ditko was a child of the 1930s and '40's. It was an era of well-dressed people, especially in city locations as I presume it was in such an enviroment where he grew up.

In those days, men wouldn't be caught dead without a hat of some sort. Mostly worn were fedoras, with fairly wide brims, and, into the 1950s and '60's, a narrower type brim. Men wore nice suits, and ties, and the average man attempted to try to appear nice and neatly dressed. It was the same type of attitude women of the time had, who wouldn't leave the house without makeup, & earrings. For one to wear something like jeans indicated they were poor. Women almost never wore such items of clothing save for some of the teenage hipster crowd.

And thus, such clothing styles highly influnced the way Steve Ditko always drew his people. When he first started drawing male type starring characters in comic books, it reflected these clothing styles, and I would say that also, he was probably influnced as well by various newspaper heroes. One that comes to mind in particular would be Will Eisner's "The Spirit", with his own wide-brimmed fedora, red tie and suit.

So probably Ditko's earliest such characters to look as this were "The Mysterious Traveler" (who appeared in his own title) and "The Green Man" (who appeared in a title called This Magazine Is Haunted.

Both characters were well-dressed with their brimmed hats, dressy-type coats and the like. Their attire set the stage for other Ditko male characters to come.

And circa 1964-1965 we ran into several characters dressed in similiar attire in the pages of The Amazing Spider-man, such as "The Big Man" and "The Crime-Master".

In fact, The Crime-Master most resembles such characters as "Mr. A" and "The Question" (although he was a villian) in the style of suit, mask and gloves.

Who was the next to appear is sort of fuzzy, as BOTH "Mr. A" AND "The Question" first appeared in 1967.

Mr. A first showed in in Bill Pearson/Wally Wood's art/fanzine, Witzend (No.3), and The Question in the first issue of the revamped Blue Beetle title (published by Charlton).

Opinion has it that Mr. A is/was Steve Ditko wanted The Question to "be", but it just wouldn't fit into that time's Comics Code Authority guidelines. Probably, Mr. A was created first, and The Question was his answer to mainstream comics.

Both characters looked very similiar in the way of suit, shorter-brimmed hats, masks covering their faces, gloves, ties, and both had "calling cards" they'd give to their foes. With Mr. A it was the half black/half white one, and with The Question it was a blank cards on which a question mark would magically appear (something to do with a chemical reaction to oxygen, I'm sure).

This suited-man appearance continued with the secret I.D. of Ditko's "The Creeper", as well as many other characters appearing in the various Charlton horror stories Ditko produced in the late 1960s and into the early 1980's, and eventually be the template for Rorschach in the Watchmen series..

"Post No. 661"

2009-09-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

Things may be finally looking on the "UP" side for us now.

Yesterday we got our new gas lines laid and the water heater hooked up. In fact, ALL of the new gas lines are now inside of the house, just awaiting next week or so when the plumber will be reattaching the heaters.

I also got the lines recovered with soil and that mess looking a lot better, the lines primed and painted with rust-proof white paint and braces for those attached, and the man from the local gas company came by this morning and inspected same and turned back on the gas, so now, no more heating up water on the electric stove for bathwater. Tonight I'll finally get my first good, hot bath without a all of that hassle in two months.

In other good news, my wife has found a part-time job (25+ hours a week) and begins this coming Sunday. It's min. wage, of course, but every penny will help. The past couple of months have been rough on us, but it appears that just maybe we've gone around the bad karma loop and back in a better direction for a while.

I'm still working on that large brush pile and have gotten it in my head now to make a path right through the middle of it to undermine some of the items that are too stuck for me to manually remove. I've been able to chop up all of the treated wood and such into very small pieces and bag those up for removal in the garbage pickup, as well as cut a couple of large sections of old carpet that was in this mess into strips, roll those up and bag them and get shed of those the same way. I've seperated out still four piles: large logs that need to be cut up, treated lumber, bricks and concrete blocks, and metal. There's a couple of pieces of large metal roofing that, IF I can flatten them out, I plan to recycle by attaching them with nails and/or screws to the bottom side section of my old garage where it needs repair, then repainting those.

The neighbor is taking any bricks and plans to build a BBQ from them, and I confiscated the concrete blocks since I'm always needing them for something. I was also able to get a few pieces of items from that I can actually re-use, and I've contacted someone that heats with wood in the Winter to come cut up what wood he can get from the logs to burn. The rest of the metal and treated lumber we'll probably just have to haul off to the dump, or, as I considered, I may just dig a large hole in the far back of the lot and bury that in the area in which I want to redistribute all of the extra dirt.

Coming Next: "DITKO - The Evolution of A Man With A Hat".

"Post No. 660"

2009-09-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a little closer all the time to finally having full sets of anything DC & Marvel published in the Silver-Age as 25 cent Giants. A copy of The Silver Surfer V1 (Marvel) #2 (1968) has come in, leaving me with only a number 4 & 6 having those. The only others I still need are Millie Annual (Marvel) 1 (1962), Strange Tales Annual (Marvel) #2 (1963) and Rudolph Annual (DC) "no number" (1962), so that's just 5 total. Considering there was something like 200 of these total from both companies, I think I've done pretty well.

A friend of mine (that could really use the cash) is selling his entire set of the Kirby 4th. World stuff from DC (early 1970's). I already have all of these, but for those who would like a full set at one time, Here is a link to his auction. The guy doesn't have a digital camera to post a photo, but I've personally seen these books and can vouch for them to all be there and in the conditions he lists, and he even has a copy of The Hunger Dogs graphic novel in the lot.

I'm down now to just two of those 6 issues I was looking for with Charlton 1950's Ditko reprints of either "The Green Man" or "Tales of The Mysterious Traveler". Still needed are copies of Scary Tales 39, and Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #15.

That huge pile of brush, junk, logs, treated scrap wood, dirt, (etc.) is starting to look much smaller these days since I've drug out two huge piles to the edge of the street for them to pick up, plus seperated a couple of piles of usuable firewood, and a pile of garbage from it. My neighbor and I have been working on it a little at a time so we can get down to just the soil there and spread that out over the back yards. Of course, we'll either have to haul off the garbage from it to the dump, or, perhaps (as I considered), digging a large hole ourselves and burying it back there.

I've currently been trying to just seperate the vines from the wood that the city will haul off, which is a considerable pile in itself. I'm thinking about stacking that at the sidewalk in a seperate pile and seeing if the city will haul/mulch that up as well as trimmings (which is allowed). A LOT of stuff in this pile is small enough that I can cram it into garbage bags and put it in the trash pickup. I may be able to chop some of the treated wood into small enough pieces to get rid of that, that way, too.

The "pile" started out at least 12 foot tall, and 25 foot around, and that's down now to maybe 4 or 5 foot tall and 18-20 foot around, and there's probably a ton (literally) of just dirt in that which can be spread across the backyard, or perhaps I can use in some of the low spots on my own yard as filler.
.
Another project I have for cooler weather is to get into my side shed where I store all my tools and clean that thing out again. It's getting where I can't get around in it again. Always...so much to do.

Closing Thoughts... read today that Warner's changing DC Comics to DC Entertainment. Hoo-boy. First Marvel's bought out by Disney and now the change at DC. Whatever happened to comic companies that had "fan" appeal??

"Post No. 659"

2009-09-02T14:41:00.001-07:00

Life can be just filled with all sorts of "things" to make it interesting.

As I've stated before. my wife lost her job back in May when the place suddenly went out of business, giving her about 5 minutes warning that she was going to be unemployed. She'd worked there for six years.

She filed for unemployment benefits and received them for several weeks, then found a job (for less pay) at a local gas/grocery place. After a week of continuous sexual harrassment, her boss spying on her from his home pc, and other harrassment, etc., she had enough of that and quit. The next time she had to call in about her benefits she stated she had done so. The "head office" got a report that she left because of lack of work due to a blundering imbecile at the employment office. Never the less, the fault was all laid on her instead and she got a letter stating that she'd quit for "no good cause" and had to pay back benefits totalling $1,056.00. She appealed; the guy at the gas/grocery store lied out-the-a$$ (of course), and the decision went against her. She could re-appeal, but what good does it do? The Dept. for Social Services sides 99% with the employers. It'd just be a waste of time.

That same department never checked to see "why" a half a dozen employees before her had also quit. They never do. They never look at the history of the employer. They always think the employer's word is the Word of God. In the meantime, my taxes are paying to keep that government employee in their cushy job, sitting behind some desk making life altering decisions while taking their 400th. coffee break of the day and thinking of the people who come to them in distress only as a number, rather than someone who's been treated unfairly. They're some of the most over-paid for what they do people in the world.

If this sounds like a vendetta against those employees, you're right. I've seen this happen to people who were laid off without any reason being turned down for their paid in benefits in these counties many a time. The employees at said offices act as if it's their money, and not taken from the pay checks each week by hard working, honest individuals. In the meantime, over a hundred dollars is taken out of my check every week for taxes to support these lunes, as well as the hundreds of thousands of able-bodied people who don't want to work, but sponge off "the system" claiming false disabilities and popping out children like machine gun bullets to get free food, health care and housing.

If Obama wants to "change" something, let him change that.

"Post No. 658"

2009-09-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

With this being the 20th. Anniversary of the first serious Batman movie, I've decided to continue with my opinions of the four films prior to those starring Christian Bale.

This time I want to discuss Batman Returns, the second with Michael Keaton in the role (and his last as "Batman"), released in 1992 three years after the first.

One of my objections to the way Batman was protrayed in this flick (produced again by Tim Burton) was that the thing we've always been preached to in DC Comics;The Batman does not kill! In this film he kills at least two villians. One time he even burns a villian to death with the exhaust flames from the batmobile.

Secondly, although this movie was only 126 minutes in length, there was several draggy parts making it seem like four hours. Batman's a dark character, natch, but this is more than just "dark"; it borders on grossness. Blackish blood flowing from The Penquin's mouth, Danny DeVito in a "fat suit" (not that he's the thinnest actor around as it is) and him walking around in his underwear for half of this movie. I didn't put down an admission fee to the film to see DeVito's butt cheeks for 45 minutes of it, Mr. Burton, and this isn't one of your corpse flicks. It's a comic book hero, so please no more tries at such. Just stick with your animated films in which you excell. Had you learned a lesson from your excellant effort producing the previous Batman movie, this would have ended up being a much better production.

Which brings us around to Mr. DeVito's performance. Well...he had a script and followed it and acted like some sort of deranged mutant. It's not his fault. It's the fault of the one who wrote The Penquin "this way' in the script. Obviously they had never read a story in a Batman comic book title which featured "the bumbershoot villian".

The Penquin, if nothing else, always had class. He dressed very well (as did all of the villians created by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson) with a cut-away jacket, spats, dress pants and polished shoes and a topper. It was The Penquin's trademark appearance. Here he looks very sloppy...nasty, even. He may have liked sardines but he wouldn't be mesmerized by a raw fish and devour it like some beast. And The Penquin always kept his hair neat and short, combed back and not that straggly long mess. Someone needs to fire anyone remotely connected to the make-up department on him in this movie that created such a look. No. I didn't care for this version or "alternated vision" of The Penquin at all.

So let's move on to "The Catwoman". She's NOT a blonde. Movies such as these try to rely on "big name stars" to carry the film. Instead they need to rely on accurate use of original source material and at least try to remain true to basic concepts. On the other hand, I thought Michelle Pfiffer's acting was "okay". A bit overdone at times perhaps, but she portrayed The Catwoman much better than DeVito did as The Penquin.

And...some of the things I DID like.

Keaton did a satisfying job as The Batman again; shame he didn't do a third one in the series. I was pretty surprized when he pulled off a believable "Bruce Wayne" as I was very disapointed when I first heard back in '89 that he had the role. I mean, this was the same guy that portrayed "Beetlejuice", which was a fun film, but as The Dark Knight??? Common! Frankly he surprized the crap outta me to my delight.

Something else that I liked was that he showed me one thing in the film that The Batman is, foremost, a detective. His being a detective is part of his original history and I do applaude that being shown.

Another thing---"the batmobile", which looked much better in this film that that stretch limo version used previously that looked impossible to even turn around. This time it was smaller with those neat twin fins, and over-all, just looked much better.

The only other thing I DIDN'T like about this flick was that everyone always seems to find out Batman's secret I.D.. In the first flick it's Vicki Vale, in this one it's The Catwoman and Chris Walken's villian character, and later on in other films it's Dick Grayson, The Riddler, Two-Face, etc., etc. (enuff, already).

I actually went to see this movie when it first came to the theatre some odd 17 years ago because I had really liked the first one, but this one let me down.

However-----

It was world's better than the next two made after it.

In closing comments regarding The Batman movies, I feel that no one has yet made a decent adaptation of "the caped crusader"; not even the two most recent efforts. DC/Warner/"whoever", needs to start from scratch with actors that really look their parts and have taken a good, long study of the material on hand before they do another one.

And, finally.... I want to comment on the news that Disney productions has purchased Marvel Entertainment.

Personally I feel that Disney purchasing Marvel will turn out to be one of the very worst things that could have happened to their fan following. It will limit the freedom of their artists and writers causing their publications to lose any quality they have left and the films will certainly suffer from an ever pounding of political correctness that any true inspiration will disapear. To me, Disney has become a dictatorship over the years and just another huge corporation attempting monopolies by acquiring as much of the media as possible to sway The American Public and the world at large into "their way of thinking".

The late Walt Disney, himself, probably has turned over so many times in his grave that he's burrowed through the bottom of his casket and currently resides in China due to what's happened to his dream since he died.

"Post No. 657"

2009-08-29T18:48:00.001-07:00

Had today off and was extremely busy. My wife and aunt went to set up at a craft show some 40 miles away, so I filled my day with just, a lotta stuff.

It was doing anything to keep myself going after a fitful night trying to sleep. I have this problem with leg cramps and have tried every remedy I can think of, and last night was one of the worst. I finally got up out of bed and tried sleeping on the couch just to keep from waking my wife from my legs jerking constantly, and the last time I looked at a clock it was around 3AM.

Then her alarm went off at 5:30AM, waking me as well, and I was up for the day.

Trying to get awake the first thing I did as I ate a bit of breakfast and drank my coffee, was to watch a DVD I'd acquired of "Batman and Robin", the last of the four Batman movies made before the Christian Bale ones. This one, of course, starred George Clooney as "the caped crusader", Chris O'Donnell as "Robin", Alicia Silverstone as "Batgirl", Uma Thurman as "Poison Ivy" and Arnold Schwarzennegger as "Mr. Freeze".You would think with such an all-star cast as this that the movie would really be good, but I'd seen it before; at the theatre actually I believe, and always thought it a bit too campish, but so much better than the over-acted "Batman Forever" with Val Kilmer, Jim Carey and Tommy Lee Jones.

The problem with the older Batman flicks was that they started out very well. In fact, when I first viewed the 1989 version, I thought it to be the best adaptation of a comic book character to the screen. Although I still enjoy that flick, I don't feel that way in the over-all picture of more sophisticated super-flicks produced since that time, but it was probably the best up until then.

The flick wasn't too bad. Not quite as campy as I remembered, but still, pretty bad. I can see why there wasn't another made for several years of the character until someone came along and tried to produce a more darker, intelligent version of Bats.

After the flick ended, I went down to the local flea markets and looked for some deals. Found a few, such as 4 different DVDs for $10 which included the Val Kilmer/Michael Douglas film, "The Ghost in the Darkness" (a fair remake of the old "Bwana Devil" flick), the 2003 version of "The Hulk", the original version of "The Punisher", and the third "X-men" movie. The seller also had a copy of "Blade: Trinity" of which I passed on as I've never been much of a fan of that Marvel hero and always considered him as just a secondary plot of Tomb of Dracula, but it seems he must had had some fan following as there was three films made of him.

At the second flea market I ran into my old friend, Mala Shaw, doing one of two set ups a year at that market. Mala had several comics but the only one I saw that was in my price range and really interested me as a copy of the 1967 Charlton Judomaster #97. Really, the secondary feature in that title interested me more, which is "Sarge Steel".

Another set up had a stack of nine comics that the seller wanted .50 each for so I took them all. The best of the lot was a Marvel Spotlight #7, the third bronze age app. of "The Ghost Rider" w/Mike Ploog artwork. Others included Whitman versions of Superman 330 & 333, a Whitman UFO & Outer Space 16, a Captain Carrot 1, a D.C. Special 23 (with Russ Heath and Lee Elias reprints), a Luke Cage Hero for Hire 4 (with Graham art), and two issues of DC's Mystery In Space title (when they revivied it for a short time in the 1980's), #'s 114 & 116. The MIS had some nice artwork. Both had Ditko, Von Eeden, and Craig. The 114 had a Joe Kubert cover, and the 116 has, (I think), a Jim Starlin one.

Back to the house I started trying to catch up on housework. Cleaning the litter box, washing dishes, laundry, emptying garbage, etc., etc. Even vacuuming the carpet in 5 different room, plus making the bed, etc., etc. (Such druggery.)

I had a couple of "fix-it" jobs such as repairing the dryer exhast hose and replacing an outside bulb, then I went and got perscriptions for mom, went to the grocery and got something for my lunches at work. Came home to be there when a friend came by to borrow a price guide. Later I went out to the brush pile and brought another big load of limbs down to the sidewalk for the city to pick up and mulch. The day was been extremely full for me. Perhaps I'll sleep better tonight.

"Post No. 656"

2009-08-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

You know, I clean forgot about last Friday the 20th.

I knew there was 'something" about that date, but it just struck me today that it marked the 10th. year anniversary of when I registered on eBay, so that was my "eBirth-Day", so to speak.

Things haven't always been rosey for me as a seller on this site. In fact, before I ever registered, I had others selling for me on it, and back then business was really booming, even with the guys selling for me charging me listing fees and commissions, I was bringing in roughly twice what I drew per week at a regular job, pay-wise.

Then, 9-11 happened, and the bottom fell out of a lot of things; eBay especially.

So when I decided to start selling on my own, I began by selling items such as toys and comics and old pulp magazines. The first item I can ever recall selling was a Mego Spider-man doll from the 1970's, probably for around four bucks. I've made good money on ebay, and lost money as well on items that went waaayyyy too cheap; much less than what I had "in" them, but I suppose, it all evens out.

Sometimes as a seller I've had hassles, and still do. In fact, I sold some action figures just recently and the bidder didn't read my description stating that I mailed ONLY to U.S.A. addresses, i.e., the lower 48 continental states.

At first I didn't want to fool with sending the item at all and emailed him stating such; that he hadn't read where I mailed merchandise and that we should just cancel the transaction. But, he insisted he wanted them, so I did make a trip to the local post office to inquire as to how much that would cost.

The postal clerk looked up a generalized sum for the location (Brazil, South America) and told me $13.00, and that I wouldn't be able to put either insurance or tracking on the item since it was going out-of-the-country (so once mailed, the merchandise would be entirely out-of-my-hands) and I emailed the bidder back that information.

So...he pays me and I take it to the post office to mail and go through a good half an hour of filling out custom forms and the like, and then the clerk says the cost would be $23.00! Naturally, I cancel the mailing and go back and email the guy again.

I tell him about the additional cost and that it simply wasn't worth sending the items, especially since they were only three little action figures I'd picked up at the local flea market for no more that fifty cents total. That's when all the hassle began.

I was acussed of not wanting to mail them because I thought they went for less than they should. I try to explain to him that it'd be $10.00 out of my own pocket and that I didn't mind breaking even on a sell, but I certainly didn't want to get in a hole on the costs. I refunded his amount back through Paypal and told him the deal was over and that we should just let it go. But....noooooooo.

Then he says he'll willing to actually pay me $23.00 to mail the items. By this time I'm pretty worn out over this whole mess. Frankly, IF he wants to send me the postage costs alone I might mail them on to him when I have the time to fool with postal paperwork again and not even charge him the winning bid amount. But, you can see that not every sale goes well.

Not like today when someone bought an item I had listed at a "Buy-It-Now" price of $9.99; something I'd gotten free, and the buyer paid $6. postage for it, and when I mailed it even with complimentary confirmation, it cost just $4. on THAT, I made a few bucks. It evens out.

"Post No. 655"

2009-08-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Well I decided that I'd try to locate and collect the various reprint appearances of the two 1950's Charlton characters, "The Mysterious Traveler", and "The Green Man". I looked through a couple of sites and thought I had them all listed, but wasn't sure so I finally just went to the GCD and looked up the individual issues that contained the characters as I only wanted reprints drawn by Ditko. I discovered there's 6 different comics as such: "Mysterious Traveler" = Tales of the Mysterious Traveler (1980's series) #'s 14, 15, Haunted #'s 49, & 70, and on "The Green Man", Scary Tales #39, and Ghostly tales #163. I already have two of the before-mentioned so the other four can't be too difficult to locate. (Of course, if you want the most complete TOTMT reprint collection, there's a TPB just of that (which I have) if you don't mind them being in B&W.)

Other reprints of TOTMT can also be found in issues of Pure Imagination, as well as The Ditko Collector, but I don't believe any of those are in color either.

One Charlton comic I just got in is a copy of the 1967 Charlton premiere V1 #19, which features "Marine War Heroes", and since I have V2 #'s 1-4, this now completes my set of the title. (How can I have them all if I only have 5 books? 'Cause the first 18 issues of CP were titled Marine War Heroes and in the typical Charlton fashion, they changed the title for a single issue.)

Well I'm off work tomorrow but my day's already pretty much shot. Got to take my mom to the doctor at 9AM, then to a nearby town to clear up some matters on her social security, then back to where I work to get my paycheck and deposit that, then mail off a package from something I sold on eBay. After that I'll have yet another four days in a row to work straight again until my next day off.

"Post No. 654"

2009-08-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

"R.I.P. Les Paul"

...

In brighter news....

Got in three different Charlton Comics I'd bought on line: Thunderbolt 58, Special War series 4, and Judomaster 90. The Thunderbolt completed my set of the 1960's Charlton issues, plus the Judomaster had a 2 page app. of the character in it as well, which now, as far as I know, completely fills out a set of any app.'s of T-Bolt from that company back then.

The Judomaster gives me now his first app., plus an extra issue, and I definately want the others as they all have "Sarge Steel" app.'s in them save for issue 89 (which may as well get too since it'd complete the set). That title will probably be next on my re-completion of the 60's Charlton hero stuff. Thus far, I've completed sets of Fightin' Five, Sarge Steel/Secret Agent, Charlton Premiere (save for that odd issue from V1 with "Marine War Heroes"), the "Wander" app.'s by Jim Aparo in issues of Cheyenne Kid, Go-Go, Retilicus, Mysterious Suspense, almost all of the Ditko Blue Beetle (in his own title) including his first app. in Captain Atom, the first few issues of Ghost manor and Ghostly Tales, Jungle Tales of Tarzan 1-4, several early issues of Dr. Graves (including #1), & most all of The Beatles app.'s by that company in the 1960's. Titles I still need to work on would by the first series of Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Peacemaker, the two app.'s of "Mercury Man" in Space Adventures (and, IF I could ever afford it, the Capt. Atom app.'s in that title), and maybe some more issues of such titles as Gorgo, Konga, Space War, Mysterious of Unexplored Worlds, Army War Heroes (with "The Iron Corporal"), Abbott & Costello, plus a few others I fondly remember from now 45+ years ago.

I wouldn't mind having those Blue Beetle app.'s from Charlton from the early 50's, too, but they've gotten fairly expensive now.

On my day off this week I did a lot of work down at mom's. I replaced a large section of her handicap ramp that had gotton humps or soft spots and made that safer, then lopped off large sections of three different huge bushes she has in her back yard that were just getting out of hand. They'd gotten so over-grown that I was having difficulty even mowing under then. And I trimmed her hedges again, so her yard's in fairly decent shape again for a while.

Although I got that trench dug for the new gas line, the guy that's laying it has yet to show up. Was hoping he'd come by and at least reconnect the hot water heater today, but, no such luck.

My wife filed an appeal on her unemployment case and she'll have a tele-conference with that in September. She may have a part-time job coming up, however.

"Post No. 653"

2009-08-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

(Where to start??)

I just finished a 10 day straight stretch at work, and finally finished digging that 85' X 12" trench for my new gas line as well as getting all the mowing done for both my mom and myself this week, when my wife gets bad news.

After she was laid off from work from her job of six years, she signed up for unemployment and received a few checks. She finally found a job at a little convenient-type gas/grocery mart, but quit after a week due to the owners constant sexual harrassment and spying on her from his house via the pc (one of the reasons multiple other emplyees quit before her I'm sure). She told them at the Employment Office that she'd quit and the reasons "why". Then she gets a phone call from the main office saying that she can't draw any further checks because that dumb a$$ at the local office put down that she left because of lack of work. Also, she has to pay back ALL of the checks; a total of $1,056.00.

She could file for an appeal, but everytime I've gotten just legally laid off from a job, the Employment Center here has always sided with the former employer and rejected my application.

(It's always sumthin.)

Anyway...That's the prime reason I haven't posted here on the blog for a little while. Not that I don't have a LOT of comments and reviews. In recent days I've received multiple lots of comics, most of which I've read. Runs of the current Wonder Woman title, Jim Lee issues of Batman, The Stormwatch TPB which reprints Warren Ellis's best run on the title, another TPB which reprints Ultimate X-men 1-3, Lobo Unbound 1-4, a big buncha bronze-age comics, etc., etc., all of which I just haven't had the enthusiasm to comment upon due to my every waking moment filled up with sumthin else.
Plus it's been hotter than hell the last few days. This sort of heat just drains me of any real energy. (I preserve much better in cooler weather.)

I did use the "Buy-It-Now" feature on eBay to purchase a copy of the late 1960's Charlton Comics' Thunderbolt #58, which was the only issue I needed to complete a set. I'm thinking about trying to get a full run of Judomaster as well as they contain back-up stories of one of my favorites from that company: "Sarge Steel"(who appeared in issues 91-98 of the title).

Found a few items at the local flea market in the past couple of weeks which included copies of Spider-man II (the only "store copy" I needed of those flicks), & the regular wide-screen edition of 300 both on DVD, plus the 2002 Paul McCartney 2-CD live Set.

Lastly, my best wishes to an old friend, Donny Jolly, who is in the local hospital with a bad lung infection. I've known Donny since I was 15 or so, which now makes around...ummmmm...43 years. Traded comics with him as a teenager. I recall the first time we traded I got a copy of Showcase 22 (1st. S-Age Green Lantern) from him (sure wish I stillhad it!). Hope he gets better and back outta there soon!

"Post No. 652"

2009-07-29T08:55:00.001-07:00

Here lately I've been just too tired to either read much, work on any reviews, or even try to post, but I'll attempt to do this one today just to catch up a bit.

As I probably stated before, July 20th. when the gas meter man came by to do a monthly bill reading, he discovered a leak. According to him the gas amount under our house was a whoppin' 12%, thus he turned it off and sealed it until we could make repairs. And in that is the problem.

Our house is pretty old; about 100 years in age in fact, and houses built back in those times around here were almost sat right down on the ground. There's only about 2' of clearance for anyone to work under there, and that's the taller spots as it angels upward on the east side. This was a reason "why" we couldn't fix a hot water line one time to the kitchen in that area, and had to crawl as far under as possible, use a hole saw to cut it to the edge of the kitchen wall and "t" PVC pipes up to the ceiling and across, then down to the sink to fix that problem.

These gas lines under the house are probably the original ones, and if one area is pitted enough for a leak, then others may be as well. Instead we needed to not lay new ones under the house at all, but either on the outside or around the interior baseboards.

Plan "A", was to have the gas company (Atmos Gas) relocate the meter to the opposite side of the house in a area between the heater in the living room and the dining room, tie into both of these and then eliminate the gas water heater altogether and replace it with an electric one. The gas company quoted over $600. just to relocate the meter.

Plan "B", was to run black pipe along the side of the house from the meter, "t" off through the wall to the old water heater, then "t" off again to the front of the house and run the line under the door frame and over to the next corner and around to the same location between the two heaters using elbow-connection, of course, and reconnect. Black line is NOT a cheap method, and our plumber (who's also an old friend), suggested a Plan "C".

He had plastic gas line that could be connected the same way. It was cheaper, but we'd have to have it earth-bound; that is, it had to be buried 6 to 8 inches under the soil. We'd start at the meter, "t" off at the water heater, then up to the corner. When we get to the sidewalk he had a long auger bit to bore a hole, then we'd go in the house on the corner, connect that heater, run the line down the baseboard, bore through that wall and connect to the other heater.

So. For the past two days while I've been off from my regular full-time job I've been digging, by hand of course, a 50 foot trench, 8 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches deep to lay that line. Thus far I've got about 30 foot or more of that completed. In the meantime, I've either been heating up water on the electric stove to take a bath, or walking down to mom's house to use her shower. Presently we don't have to worry about heat in the house, but Winter's not that far away, so we've got to get this finished ASAP.

I haven't watched any new movies lately, but I have read many comic books that have come in from various deals.

A single book called "Bugs Bunny Comics-Go-Round" (published by Golden Press in 1979) was fairly interesting as it contained over 200 pages of Looney Tune character reprints from 1950 to 1961; probably the better period after the 40's for any of such as by the time Dell stopped handling the characters and Gold Key took over, stories got pretty bland.

There was a set of No.'s 1-4 of the DC-Vertigo title, "Terminal City", which I thought would be more interesting than it was, but quite frankly I couldn't really keep any interest in it after reading through just the first two issues.

There was a dozen of so issues of the current DC Wonder Woman title, but I've yet to get to read these. I'm sure they'll be enjoyable as I've liked what they've done with it thus far.

There was a big bunch of various 1980's Archie titles, many with Bob Bolling and/or Dan DeCarlo art, and several issues of the Marvel "Dennis the Menace" (by Wiseman), all of which were the typical stuff, but worth a laugh or two.

Several issues of the 1980's DC title, "Arion Lord of Atlantis", of which I'm working on a set and always liked that book.

The first 3 issues of DC's "Amazons Attack" limited series, that weren't too bad.

The first 2 issues of Marvel's 2009 She-Hulk limited series with the "Dark Reign" storyline involving Lyra, who is the daughter of The Hulk and Thundra that were decent and I wouldn't mind reading the rest of that 4 issue series.

Four of the six issues of Dark Horse Comics' Apocalpse Nerd by Peter Bagge, which involves Bagge's usual bizarre take on characters in more than just a humorous way, the story taking place supposingly after a someone nukes Seattle. Definately want to find the other two issues of that one.

The first issue of the new DC Power Girl, which as usual they continue to confuse everyone with her origin. (It was okay.)

Some issues of DC's Outsiders and Marvel's West Coast Avengers from some years back that were a fair read.

I suppose the most interesting of all of these comics was a full set of Eternal Publication's Archangels the Saga (#'s 1-9) published just a few year back by Patric Scott (writer/editor), Andy Orjuela (artist/inker) and John Leger (co-writer/colorist). This is a religious-based publishing company and the book is produced by Christian creators, but don't expect something like a "J.T.Chick tract" if you read one. It's a tale involving angels battling demons for the possession of the prime human characters souls. It's a 9 issue series with the storyline complete in such, full color, and resembles a comic published more by a company such as Image. I'd been wanting to read this for some time but was put off by the high cover price of $4.50 per issue, but found a full set "on line" for less than $10. on an auction. Since some issues of this went through as many as four printings one might find a set of later printings even cheaper. The cover to issue No. 1 shown above; recommended series.

I did get to watch two episodes of the SyFy series, "Hanger 13", which wasn't too bad for recyled ideas. This series is loosely based on the final scene of the first Indiana Jones flick where a huge warehouse is shown filled to infinity with strange and mystic artifacts. Other ideas thrown in are those from the series "Friday the 13th." and "X-Files". The ones I watched were entertaining enuff and I'll probably try to catch some more of them as they play.

"Post No. 651"

2009-07-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

Two (of several) lots I've recently won came in. I must say that I was very pleased with both.

The first lot was a binder filled with the first nine issues of Eternal's Archangels, the Saga; a religious-based company title which has always interested me to want to read, but I always deemed a bit too expensive to purchase due to its $4.50 (Ouch!) cover price. But I was able to win this set for less than $10.

The second lot contained 49 various modern comics plus 3 trade paperbacks. There was several issues of the current Wonder Woman title, DC's Amazons Attack L.S. 1, 2,, the new Power Girl #1, Dark Horse's Peter Bagge's Apocalypse Nerd 1, 2, 4 & 5,, the first two issues of Marvel's new Savage She-Hulk L.S., and even an issue of America's Best Tom Strong's Terrific Tales that I needed. Also in the lot was a large number of Antartic Press "Gold Digger" titles (which I'll decided to either keep or re-sell after I read them), and lastly, three trade paperbacks: DC's Power Girl(collecting various stories), Marvel's Shanna the She-Devil (collecting the limited series by Frank Cho), and Spider-man and the Black Cat: "The Evil Men Do".

So....I got a WHOLE LOTTA good reading ahead of me I'm sure.

From good news, to bad news.

Yesterday while at work the man who reads the gas meter came by and turned off our gas! No. We'd paid our bill. What it was, was that he found a leak! So currently we are without heat (not needed at the moment) or hot water (which IS needed, but just an inconvenience not having). I had someone I could trust come by to see about repairs and it looks like that due to the lack of crawl space, and to save money, we're going to have to have the local gas company relocate our gas meter on the opposite side of the house and run a new line to connect to "the main". This will save us a lot of repair costs if we can get it done as then a line can be run straight through the wall and connect up to the heaters. The water heater we'll replace with an electric one. It's something we've needed to do anyway since we moved in here. It's about past its warrenty date anyway, and an electric one will save us some fuel costs. (I'll update you on this situation as it unfolds.)

In even sadder news..."R.I.P.: Gidget" (No. Not Sally Fields.) Gidget, the famous symbol for Taco Bell, has died at age 15. Her doctor said it was from a massage stroke. (An autopsy will be performed, however, just to make sure she wasn't doing any illegal drugs.)

"Post No. 650!"

2009-07-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

"A Happy Moon Landing 40th. Anniversary Day!" (July 20th., 1969 - July 20th., 2009)

"Post No. 649"

2009-07-14T12:47:00.001-07:00

That copy of Funny Folks (DC) #6 (2/3-47) finally came in, and the neatest part about an otherwise obscure humor comic from DC in the late 1940's, was a wonderful inside back cover in house advertisement (in B&W) of other titles with a Feb. (or Feb.-March), 1947 cover date, and ALL superhero titles! Click on the above image to bring this up to size where you can see them better. Clockwise, starting with the right corner, are: Star-Spangled Comics #65 ("Robin"), All-American Comics #82 ("Green Lantern"), Green Lantern #24, All-Flash ("The Flash") #27, Detective Comics ("Batman & Robin", and a PENQUIN cover, yet!) #147, Adventure Comics #113 ("Superboy"), Comic Calvacade ("Green Lantern, The Flash & Wonder Woman") #19, and Sensation Comics ("Wonder Woman") #62.

With this comic were three others the seller sent; sort of an "early birthday present", which included a lower grade copy of the Harvey The Spirit #1(1966) (which I already had a copy of but he sent so I could keep one in my regular collections and stick this copy in my collection of "Beatles mentions"), and a couple of early Classic Illustrateds in very nice shape. One, a #61 ("The Woman in White") from 1949, and the other #87 ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") from 1951, both of which were first printings! The odd thing to me about the latter is that "AMSN'sD" has a cover date of September, 1951, which means it was on the newstands probably in July of 1951, the month and year I was born, and the central character in this tale is "Puck". Did comic books herald my arrival? (*heh*)

Okay, in other things, my old push mower finally went ka-put. The mount that held the bolt from the gas tank to the motor broke and I couldn't get it reattached where it'd stay. I tried a little of everything from duct tape to bailing wire to "fix" the thing, but to no avail. Finally I got some strong wire to hold it in place but when I pulled the cord, THAT broke and went up into the head of the mower. That was the last straw, and the end of this Frankenstein lawn mower I've literally put together from other old mowers trying to keep it running for yet another Summer (it's at least 10-12 years old). I found a good used one with a 3.5 Murray motor for $60. and even if I get no more than the rest of this mowing season out of it, it's worth it.

Also today fairly early I went over to my mom's and trimmed her hedge. My late father ("bless his heart") was even worse than me at trying a quick-fix on something or another. The cord attached to the electric trimmers had been cut at least a half a dozen times and he kept taping it up with black electric tape. Today while trimming the hedges, it kept cutting out, and even sparking from shorts in the wire. I finally had my fill and removed all of the tape to try to fix the wiring and discovered that this cord wasn't even needed. He'd stuck a short, 3 ft. cord onto it, whereas all one had to do was plug a regular extension into the end. I took the cord off, threw it away, plugged a regular cord back in, and it was fixed like new. The hedge looks pretty damn good even if I say so myself.

Hoping something else might make it in today's mail.

P.S.: Almost forgot this. I'm looking to BUY issues of the first Moon Knight (Marvel) series. The one from 1980. I've only got a couple of these so any issues I'd be interested in if anyone out there has some for sale. (Thanks!)

"Post No. 648"

2009-07-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MR. RINGO STARR today!

Not a whole lot new to report this week. My wife, who got laid off from her job some weeks past, finally got at least one unemployment check. She got a job here locally and worked around 5 days until she got tired of the boss's constant flirting and spying on her via his computer (at home), then calling her a half a dozen times at night to tell her to do things she'd already done, so..."that was that". Now it might mess up her getting future checks. I feel like I'm to blame for her even getting that job as I told her she should put in an application since it was within (literally) walking distance from our house. I'd forgotten that this store couldn't keep help over a week at a time, and now we know "why". But we have faith that all will work out in the long run.

Where I work at stays steady. 'Can't tell the economy's in much of a slump there as we seem to have just as many tourists (and locals alike) in the store every day, and I still work at least 5 days a week and usually with a little O.T. at the end of the week even with the part-time extra help they hired, although I still occasionally have days where I have to work by myself.

Our yard sale went okay this past Fri-Sat, but we closed it up early on Saturday due to lack of people out because of the 4th. (I imagine). I'm off work this coming Saturday the 11th. and plan on having it again and this time working it myself.

Picked up well over 200 comics cheap at the local flea market; kept about half of those and the rest assigned to the next yard sale's quarter box which are either duplicates and just stuff I don't want in my collections. I did find several issues of DC's Jemm Son of Saturn, a Captain Atom (1987) #1(which, BTW, is a "Beatles mention" of John Lennon, page 14, panel 7, and thus listed over on the "B&B" blog), and issues 2-4 of Shazam: A New Beginning limited series (all of which I'd been looking for). It brings my CA set down to just four issues now to complete a set.

Won a set of Archangels: The Saga, which you may or may not be familiar with since it's a religious comic book with a superhero theme published a few years back. And, of course, it's about angels battling demons, drawn in sort of a "Michael Turner"-type style (in color). They always looked pretty slick and I wanted to buy them, but they had what I considered too high a cover price ($4.50-4.99). So I won a whole set of 1 thru 9 for less than $10. After I get the set in a read them, I'll review them here (naturally).

And my neighbor and I have been discussing what we were going to do about this big pile of stuff we cleaned out of the pile of leaves and the like we cleaned out from the back of our yards. Everyone here locally wanted $300.-$400. just to bury the mess. The Fire Marshall we talked to about doing a controlled burn on it told us we'd still have to remove any treated lumber or metal, then mostly all we'd have is weeds and dirt, so it wasn't worth doing that either. So now I think we're going to wait until colder weather and let the weeds die down and drag out anything we can't get rid of, spread out the dirt on the back yards, mulch up the weeds, cut up the trees into sizes the city will haul off and the rest cut up into wood and give that away to people who burn that for heat, and then maybe just haul off anything else to the dump. I hate to have to do all of that work, but it'd be worth it to save us some bucks.

"Post No. 647"

2009-07-01T13:33:00.001-07:00

Snitched the above cover of Doom 2099 #30 (Marvel) from a chat site. There was a comment about how they were amazed any of that "Marvel project" lasted as long as it did, and I agree. Those 2099 titles went on for at least 4 years (1992-96) and there was actually 44 issues (I think) of that particular comic (the Spider-man 2099 lasted the longest with 46 issues + an annual). Just has an unual look to it I thought. The 2099 books were only mildly interesting to me, but I think I've read a few issues of most of them. "S-M 2099" was probably the best one (in my opinion). But, in general, I'd say their "New Universe" venture was much better.

And here we are beginning the second half of the year 2009. The weather today in S-Central, KY. is absolutely perfect at about 80 degrees with a light, cool wind and the past few nights have produced perfect sleeping temperatures and no need for the A/C. Wish the whole Summer could be as nice.

Won a couple more silver-age Marvel 25 cent square-bounds, being copies of Millie the Model Queen-Size Special (Annual) #8, and Mighty Marvel Western #6. Both of these are the last issues published in the 1960's, and it brings the number of SA Marvel Giants I need now to have all of them down to five: Millie Annual 1, Strange Tales Annual 2, Silver Surfer V1 #'s 2, 4 & 6 (although I really do need a replacement for SS #1). Needing only that '62 "Rudolph" Giant from DC having all of those and that makes a total of just a half a dozen having all of those now from both of those companies from the S-Age era.

Also won some other small to medium lots of titles such as early 70's DC Weird Mystery Tales, Unexpected, House of Secrets and some modern stuff inclduing some issues of the current Wonder Woman title.
And today and tomorrow makes the first two days off from work in a row I've had in two months. "Maybe" I can get a little rest. The last time I had a day off I really over-did it working on mine and my mom's yards. I trimmed up a large bush in her back yard, then weed-eated, mowed, trimmed her hedge, etc., then used the push mower on my own back yard the same night. Ended up getting too much sun and got sick and had to lie down for a couple of hours, then liked to never got to sleep that night, so the next day I was just a walking zombie all day at work (plus that leg I injured some time back was killing me).

I've gotten back to work on my main project of doing that 12 issue limited series comic book of which I've shown some samples occasionally here. About finished 50 pages + 3 covers now, but of course, that's a total to be at least 240 pages and another 9 covers to go. I'm sure it'll take me at least a couple of years (if not more) to complete especially just working on the thing off-and-on as time allows.

We've had our first Big expense since my wife lost her job a couple weeks back. Two days ago while I was at work I got a call from her saying that her van was stuck in the parking lot of a grocery store across the highway from the store and wouldn't start. I took a few moments to drive across there and use the jumper cables on it and got it running enough for her to drive it home. Then when I was off work and got home that night, I tried jumping it again since it'd died as she pulled into the driveway, but we couldn't keep it running. I put the battery charger on it for an hour or more and got it started and running again then drove it to the mechanic we always use. I knew it couldn't be the starter since (duh!) it wouldn't start at all if it'd been that problem, and the battery wasn't all that old, so I figured it had to be the alternator. Sure enough, that was the problem. The mechanic said a new one would be $140., but he'd try to re-build the old one, and told me the belts were shot as well, so we had them replaced. Total: $193.00 (Ouch!)

I told my wife "it could have been worse!" And, it could have. She could have gotten stuck 10 miles from here in the nearby town where she had to go to the employment office. It could have been something more than the alternator. Things can always be worse, folks, so we need to make sure to are thankful for the "little" blessings.

And this coming Fri-Sat we're finally having that "Big Yard Sale" that I wanted to have way back the first week of May (when I was on vacation) and got rained out. It'll be a LOT of work for me even though I personally won't be running it (that'll be my wife, & mom) since I have to work those days. Thursday night or evening helping them get things in the yard ready for it, putting out signs and maybe a few bulletins here and there advertising it, then Friday morning before I leave for work helping them set it up early (like, 5:30AM), then helping them take part of it down or covering it real good for the night when I get off Friday, then repeating this all Saturday morning and evening. I hope it's worth it!

In other things...

Not too many people collect comic strips these days. Good reason. Most of them suck. And the grand ol' multi-page Sunday Funnies have all but disapeared over the years or been reduced to next-to-nothing, filled with medicore material. ( In fact, the last time I personally collected such things was a few years ago when Gary Gianni started doing the artwork on "Prince Valiant". I collected the Sunday's for a couple of years until I grew tired of it; thinking about all that cash I spend on solitary newspapers which contained little or nothing else of interest save that one third page size strip and realizing if I had the money I spent on them I couldn't have invested it into a few nice comic BOOKS. ) But, USA Today may prove interesting starting next Wednesday July 8th. with their full page "Superman" strips. I'll buy at least the first couple; maybe all of them if they look real good since it's not something planned for years to come. And one can subscribe to a multi-paged section starring other DC characters as well "on line".

"Post No. 646"

2009-06-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

Wack-O, Jack-O, Dead-O, 5-0. I'll admit to never being a big fan of Michael Jackson. In fact, I liked his early stuff with The Jackson 5 better than anything he did as a solo performer. His music was geared "somewhere" out there away from my tastes, but I always considered him a decent show man and second to none in obtaining publicity when he wanted it. Still, I hate to hear of the passing of the weird one, especially so young. Jackson always wanted as much fame as Elvis, which he sometimes achieved even to the point of marrying Presley's daughter, and it appears that he went out out this mortal life much in the same way. Now maybe Paul can buy back his songs.

Farrah Fawcett; always such a pretty thing. Iconic, and perhaps not the best actress that's ever lived, but in some memorable roles. A less than sterling perfermance in "Logan's Run". A more brilliant one in "The Burning Bed". Lots of fans cheering her on from remembering her as one of the original Charlie's Angels. Cancer doesn't avoid the famous.

Ed McMann was the true star of "The Tonight Show" at times, being the perfect side man for Johnny Carson. Like many, he didn't have the best judgement when it came to his lovelife, but that only added to the more human side we all knew just oozed from the guy.

And along to other things...

Read some more of those comics I got in a recent lot. One I was particurly impressed with was a copy of DC's Outsiders #3 (2003) where The Joker breaks into lex Luthor's secure house, kills all of his guards and secret service people, then tortures lex trying to get him to tell where some items he'd purchased were located. Seems LexCorp bought the company The joker had been dealing with for some of his gadgets. Takes Nightwing and the current Outsiders to rescue Lex. Wasn't really impressed with later issues #'s 26 & 27 as much as this early one.

Also read the first five issues of the 2001 DC Green Arrow series written by Kevin Smith. Not a bad book. GA is treated with some dignity and handled fairly well.

As yet I haven't read Young Avengers #1 (Marvel), Wanted #5 (Top Cow), or some other issues I have around of such things as Peter Parker Spider-man, or Spider-Woman Origin, but shall within the next couple of nights.

"Post No. 645"

2009-06-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well...ya never know just what you'll find in ones' garden. While I was pulling up weeds from around one plant close to the edge of the house (where the rain had washed away some of the soil) I found THIS pretty little "bird point" arrowhead. Hard to say what tribe it could have come from since there were so very many which both hunted and battled here in Kentucky. In fact, this point may never have even been used as you'll notice a bottom left piece is gone which could have been done by the person who made it and then discarded it as flawed. Let's just hope that my house doesn't sit on top of Indian burials as there's hard evidence of early settler's burials in my backyard as well and I have enough problems with poltergeist here as it is.

And, remember those two older humor comics I won back at the end of last month? One of them finally arrived, the Harvey Hits #7 (Harvey Comics/1959/1st.solo comic devoted to "Wendy the Good Little Witch") and I scanned it and downloaded it to the Comic Data Base. So that particular issue (which you can see HERE is my personal comic from my collection (Neat!)

And this is one of my rare day's off from work. At least now we do have some extra part-time help so just maybe I can finally have TWO days off in a row for a change. I've already been busy trying to play "catch up" with everything needed doing since I had my last day off, such as grocery shopping for my mom, weeding her flower bed, fixing a leak in her roof, trimming back some tree branches, and trying to straighten up all of the stuff my wife and I crammed into her basement in anticipation for an upcoming yard sale. (While I was moving boxes around in the basement I pulled a short box of comics from those I have for sale in the yard sale that I decided to keep, but probably won't even add them back to my inventory list or bother to bag/board them.)

My good friend Steve brought me a full set of the 1960's Charlton title, The Fightin' 5 which I've been reading back through for the first time in probably 40 years. I bought that title regularly off the stands back there and recall trading with fellow collectors for issues, as well as buying some of them for a nickle each at my Aunt Katy's old grocery in this town. Charlton was always the #3 group after Marvel and DC for me, and I bought a lot of their stuff; not just the super-hero titles, but their monster and humor and fantasy/sf comics, and some of the war and westerns, too. Hercules was always one of my favorite Charlton titles, and not really anything that would fit into any of the above catagories (same holds true for another fave, Jungle Tales of Tarzan). The company certainly had a lot of variety. Most collectors probably remember the F5 due to "The Peacemaker" being in a couple of issues, but one thing that distinguished it a bit from others was, as far as I can recall, the only TEAM title they produced.

Read some of the stack of modern type comics I've gotten in of late. Most impressive was the storyline in DC's The Flash V2 #'s 198-200, where a new version of his old enemy the reverse Flash (aka: "Zoom") almost kills Wally's wife and it takes both the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick, Impulse, and the current version of "Johnny Quick" to help bring down this villian. In the meantime, the Silver-Age Flash, Barry Allen, appears to Wally via his time traveling treadmill and brings along the Hal Jordon/Green Lantern version of "The Spectre", which grants Wally's wish to make everyone forget who The Flash's secret I.D. had been, giving him back some sort of safer more normal life.

Also now read were issues of DC's All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder #'s 2 & 3 where Frank Miller tries to rewrite the Bats' history. Miller disapoints me these days with little over-played scenereos but no real meat to his stories, and even the artwork of Jim Lee (who at times I can appreciate), doesn't do much to help this book.

Eternals #1 of the 6 issue L.S. from 2006 was well-written by Neil Gaiman, and John Rominta Jr.'s artwork was very good. It finally fell back into the hands of someone who was familiar with Jack Kirby's themes (even if The Eternals was just a second-hand version of his "New Gods").

DC's Day of Vengence L.S. 1-3 played very well with some second-stringer-type heroes such as Detective Chimp, The Enchantress, Nightmaster, Blue Devil and Ragman trying to halt The Spectre's current rampage of wanting to destroy all the magic in the world. Spectre was without a human host to ground him, and let a version of Eclipso curb his thinking a bit too much and "The Hand of God" kills many of those with magical powers, leading this team on the quest.

Several issues of V1 of Wildstorm's The Authority were also read, and it's hard to give any issue of this first series anything but good reviews. The Authority , to me, is one of those near perfect team titles.

Read an issue of the Marvel Boy L.S. from Marvel and was not in the least impressed, but was very impressed with the copy of Marvel's Moon Knight #1 (from 2006) with an excellant line up of people working on it such as Huston & Finch.

Sorry there's no deep in depth reviews about any of that; just my personal yeas & nays. (Just too tired this time.)

"Post No. 644"

2009-06-20T09:59:00.001-07:00

"Bob" Cat might look like he's soaking up the heat and sunlight today, but this has certainly been the year of the storms and tornados here in S-Central, Kentucky. The evening of the 15th. of this month I was at work, looking out the large front windows when I noticed something peculiar. The area in front of me to the left was as clear as day, but the area to the left seemed extremely dark and windy. Stepping outside between customers onto the porch, I saw what appeared to be a funnel-shaped cloud coming towards the business from the East; it was quite distinct. There was much rotation on the ground with dust and such and it had that unmistakable look of a funnel.

Needless to say, I got back inside pretty quick and watched it from there as it veared off to the left and behind the buildings across the street. I would estimate it to have been perhaps a half a mile from me at that time.

Later, according to the weather radio, it had indeed been a twister and had already knocked out the power to 12,000 people in a close-by town and torn the roof off a couple of warehouses, plus downed power lines and several trees.

When it was finally time for me to go home, I had been previously told that the power was also off there. When I got there, the traffic lights were on as well as much of the downtown section, but the wind had knocked down a utility pole on Main Street leaving my section of town without electricity. It was off for 5 solid hours.

In the lightness of such things, many children were outside playing, rather than having their noses stuck in a pc game or computer, and older folks were sitting on the porches talking with their neighbors and some even cooking out on grills due to not having working stoves (as well as any air conditioning).

My wife and I walked down the street to my mom's and we sat outside in the coolness of the evening for a while, and then I did some yard work since I still had plenty of daylight. After that my wife and I took a walk up to the town square and around and window shopped a little, completing the day. By the time we got back home the power had come back on for a good 25 minutes.

And, speaking of my wife, she was laid off from her job of six years the day before that, and the owners are selling the business. She had worked there, as I said, 6 years, and a good 12 years in a business that was located just across from it that finally also went out. So she went out and put in multiple applications for work. We weren't too worried as something always seems to come up and she has a good work record, (but that just shows that even a small community such as this can be affected by the current economy and not just the large corporations), and sure enough she found a similiar job just a few days later and even within walking distance from the house.

And...

I finally emailed the seller of the Funny Folks 6 and Harvey Hits 7(which I mistakenly noted as a No. 6 in a previous post) since they've yet to arrive, but haven't gotten any reply. Hopefully they'll eventually arrive. A lot of modern comics will perhaps make it in before those two older ones (and I just paid for them last week).

I also won copies of DC's Strange Adventures #'s 144 & 156, from the 1962-63 era. Both have "Atomic Knights" app.'s, and the 144 was the only Silver-Age AKs' cover. Actually, I already have a 156, but this one was in the lot and looks like maybe it was a bus station copy, i.e., it looks like it at some time it had a circular sticker over the twelve cent price on the cover. This is pretty much a dead giveaway that it was either sold at a bus station in the 1960's (which sold comic books for fifteen cents each, rather than twelve cents), or came from a vending machine back then (yes; there actually was such a thing as a "comic book vending machine", usually found at "glass houses", which used to be businesses located between the mediums of the interstate highways at various places which also had restaurants and gas stations). Obviously, the seller (or someone) removed it before listing it for sell. I may just keep it as well in my collection of SAs.

"Post No. 643"

2009-06-16T03:46:00.001-07:00

50 years ago today we lost George Reeves.

"Post No. 642"

2009-06-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

Well...whenever they get here.... I've won a couple of older comics off of eBay auctions this past month. Both are humor titles.

One of them is a copy of DC's Funny Folks #6 (1947), and the other is Harvey's Harvey Hits #6 (1960, I believe).

The FFs features the first "Nutsy Squirrel" cover, and the HHs is the first solo "Wendy the Good Little Witch" comic. (which after a length run as a feature in "Casper", Harvey decided to give her a tryout in her own title).

I'll admit being not even born when the FFs came out; not for another 4 years yet in 1951. DC did many a post WWII/"Roswell" era humor titles back then, even dropping the declining popular super-heroes created during the war and replacing them with uplifting themes (such as "funny animals"). "Nutsy Squirrel" was one of their better features.

And, "Wendy", well...I read a LOT of Harvey Comics' humor stuff back in the days before super-heroes became my main type of diet in the 1960's, what with both Marvel and DC pouring them out. "Stumbo the Giant", "Hot Stuff", "Casper", "Wendy", "Sad Sack", "Little Dot", "Richie Rich", "Baby Huey", "Little Lotta", etcetera, etcetera. Harvey pretty much used a "template" for the designs of these characters making them all part of that company's house style.

I've also ordered a big bunch'a more modern stuff which will be reviewed as it arrives and is read and, as usual, when time allows. It includes:

Flash v2 (DC)198-200, 207, 214-216

Outsiders (DC) 3, 26, 27

Amazing Spider-man (Marvel) 555

Day of Vengence 1-3

Peter Parker Spider-man v2 (Marvel)#'s 31, 32, 44

Legion of Super Heroes (DC)# 274

All-Star Batman (DC)3, 4

The Authority (Image)17,20,22 + annual

The Sentry (Marvel)2, 3

Marvel Boy (Marvel)3

Avengers (Marvel)72, 73

Wanted 5

Spider-Woman origins (Marvel)1, 2

Green Arrow (DC/ 2001 series) 1-5

Moon Knight (2006/Marvel) 1

Daredevil V2 (Marvel)2,5,8,49

Eternals V2(Marvel)#1 - (Gaiman)

Young Avengers(Marvel) # 1

In other things..."

The boss has yet to hire anyone else to help us out in the retail section of the store for the Summer. Instead, they put themselves down on the schedule to work, but, also as usual, find some excuse to ask one of only two workers there (myself as one of those) to work in their place. Therefore I haven't had two days off from work in a row for the entire month. In fact, I'm scheduled for 8 full days I'll have to work that section by myself in June. I was supposed to be off Saturday, but the boss hurt her back and asked me to work that as well, so it's another one of those six day in a row stints where I can never get anything caught up at home. I end up having to do the mowing et all after I work my 8 -1/2 hr. day, leaving me pretty exhasted by the time I DO get a day off. And, of course, by then someone else seems to always have something "planned" for me to do then. (This being the prime reason "why' my blog posts seem to be getting further and further apart.)

"In Memory"

2009-06-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

"R. I. P. David Carradine"

...

"Post No. 640"

2009-06-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

"COMIC BOOK REVIEWS":

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (DC) #494 (09/92), by Ordway, Grummet & Hazelwood, finds Supes stuck in outer space confronting an entity called "Kismet" which questions him on various decisions he's made during his career as "the man of steel".

Kismet presents several different scenerios to his actions had he not done certain things over the years, such as saving Lois Lane in his pre-Superman days when she was about to die in a plane crash, the time when Kryptonian villians tried to kill him and become rulers, and an accident which left a fellow schoolmate in a coma when he was a teenager in Smallville. More so, it questions his judgement and ethics due to those given him by his foster parents, Ma and Pa Kent. For a filler issue between various storylines in this title, it was excellant.

JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE (DC) #1 (04/89) was a spin-off title, of course, from the then current humorous type version of the JLA, written by Gruffen & Dematteis and art by Sears & Marcos, and it starred the line up of Captain Atom (as chairman), Powergirl, Animal Man, The Flash (Wally West version), Elongated Man, Wonder Woman, Metamorpho and Rocket Red. This title continued in the (then) tradition of tongue-in-cheek JLA titles, with a cover drawn very similiar to the Justice League America #1 of a group shot and someone making a silly remark.

This group of heroes find themselves located in Paris with Captain Atom trying to decide if he's really capable of being their leader. One of the nicer scenes is of the more pleasant times when Ralph Digby (ala, "The Elongated Man") and his wife, Sue, were still together and happy before she was killed off down the line in more modern DC titles. They confront such hazzards as trying to get their transporter on line (which burns up Animal Man's costume), to a crowd striken with some sort of madness, to finding a dead nazi at their front door. As I recall, this title wasn't "as good" as the regular JLA one of the time (now 20 years past), but acceptable.

MARVEL ADVENTURES (Marvel) #5 (11/2007) by Van Lente, Sandoval, Bonet & Gracia begins with a very eye-catching cover of "Iron Man" by Rafa Sandoval & Roger Bonet. Fred Van Lente's script isn't half bad for this "for all ages" type Marvel title, dealing with Iron Man trying to take down a bunch of pirates in a suit of armor designed for deep water use, and then having these "techno-pirates" actually capture him and steal said armor. They unceremoniously bind Tony Stark and shoot him out one of their torpedo tubes after blowing up a ship, and he gets a case of the bends, which forces him to go back and recapture his armor to keep from dying. I've read a handful of other issues of this title and even though they aren't up to the more adult versions of their super heroes, none of them have been badly done. This issue also contains a nice full page tribute to the late Mike Weiringo (1963-2007).

SALVATION RUN limited series (DC) #2(of 7 - 02/2008) by Willingham, Chen and Wong, continued being a fine series about the DC villians being exiled to a hostile planet, being used as their prison. In this issue, "Hellhound" gets badly wounded and "The Body Doubles", Bonny and Carmen, insist that they take him along rather than leaving him to die. There was an alternative motive for this kindness, however, as they knew eventually the planet's predators would appear, to whom they threw Hellhound to a fate of being devoured by "Lion-Lizards" (nice girls). Then, "The Joker" decides he's had enough of the super-intelligent mouthing of "Psimon", and beats his skull in with a rock (the norm' for The Joker, of course) and takes over that group of villians as their leader. In the meantime, the third grouping of Earth's greatest villians gets transported to this world via the "Boom Tube" which includes Lex Luthor and "Catwoman". Naturally, Luthor has his own agenda as to "who's boss" around there. Next time I'd at a comic book ship where I can pick up back issues I definately plan on completing this run to read.

CODE OF HONOR limited series (Marvel) Book 1 (01/97) by Chuck Dixon with painted artwork by Tristan Shane & Brad Parker is about a black cop working the slum areas of N.Y.C., always being over-shadowed by the heroics of the city's various Marvel superheroes. This follows his beginnings on the police force and various calls, at times confronting super-powered villians and a array of such heroes as Spider-man, the Punisher, The Hulk, Sub-mariner, and others, but the real tale is about the officer himself and the terms he comes to deal with to remain honest to both the city and himself. Very nice piece of work by Dixon of which I wouldn't mind reading following issues. The painted-type artwork isn't quite in the same league as, say, Alex Ross, but darn close.

FOREVER MAELSTORM limited series (DC) #1 (of 6 - 01/2003) by Chaykin & Tishman, Lucas & Barreto. Quirky type of artwork that almost set me off from reading it, but sort'a grew on me as I got into the story, which is about a time traveler named "Forever Maelstorm" and his companion, a talking timber wolf. He gallops around time visiting all sorts of historic people, such as Ben Franklin and the early Revolutionary War crowd (and the like), only to finally end up in one alternate current reality where most of life had ceased in 1964. Not one of Howard Chaykin's best creations and probably nothing I'd care to finish reading unless I just happen to run across other issues at a very cheap price. This first issue contained a preview of the Superman: Metropolis comic, but DC, at that time, published such previews so reduced in size (2 pages to one) that they're difficult to read and enjoy and get a true idea to the product. This comics' one really redeeming point to me is that it had a "Beatles mention" (pg. 8, panel 3), and that's been listed on my "Beatles & Bizarros" blog (unabashed plug w/link in the top right column).
DOCTOR STRANGE SORCERER SUPREME (Marvel) #'s 88 & 89 (04 & 05/1996). In this two issue storyline right before the last issue of the series, Dr. Strange's friend, Wong, blames Stephen for the death of his true love. Thus Strange takes Wong on a journey into the neather area between life and death, where spirits of the departed linger and rest for their final destination, and ponder the events of this corporal life and lives that are to come. Wong is reunited with his lost love and fully understands her departure and finds peace with Strange, only to discover that he's now alone in this dimension. In the following issue, Strange reappears after Wong is nearly drug on into the existence of "things that no longer are alive on Earth", and they return to their corporate building, "The Tempo". But things aren't always as they seem.

Wong is not with Dr. Strange, but an entity called "Afterlife" which feeds on souls and it has taken over Strange's body. Fortunately, Dr. Strange is powerful enough to free himself and Afterlife escapes to continue feeding, but in the end. he, with his friendship bond with Wong, are able to not defeat this entity, but release it from its false persona, revealing an angel that was trapped in the form. This was a pretty good tale from J. M. Dematteis and Mark Buckingham's artwork suited the story very well.

NIGHT FORCE (DC) #1 (2nd. DC series - 12/96) is the continuing tale of "Baron Winters" and his companions battling the occult, and once again, written by Marv Wolfman. This time we have Brent Anderson & Will Blyberg doing the artwork in a very purposely-drawn Gene Colan style. And the tale begins in a mid-eastern country where an execution is about to take place. Those who wish to stop this are too late to do so, and the story continues here in the U.S. where children are being possessed by something murderous, all chanting in Arabic, and all born with a strange symbol on their necks.

I'll have to admit, that even though I've always been a Marv Wolfman fan, I was never much for this series even in its original concept. I'm sure there's probably a huge fan following of these characters, therefore I feel I have no right to give an unbiased opinion. But it was interesting enough that I wouldn't mind reading other issues.

THE BATTLE FOR BLUDHAVEN limited series (DC) 1-6 (06-08/2006). To quote "Wikipedia":

"Following the Chemo disaster, the President declares a state of emergency and erects a wall around the city, as it is a threat to public health. Since Chemo was only chemically toxic, the nuclear fallout present in the city is a mystery. A new government-sanctioned super team codenamed "Freedom's Ring" (an apparent spin-off of the Force of July ) takes charge of Blüdhaven, and orders the Teen Titans and all other metahumans to leave the city. One year later, "The Wall" has become a permanent structure, and displaced citizens compare the immediate area to the Gaza Strip . Many live in refugee camps that have sprung up around the wall while the superhero Monolith helps to keep the peace.
Within the city, Father Time the supervillain commands American forces, ordering his men to shoot and kill any heroes (referred to as insurgents ) who enter the city. His forces also erect internment camps in which experiments are conducted upon American citizens. Also active in the city are the Atomic Knights , who run an 'underground railroad ' in an attempt to smuggle citizens out of the city. The Society dispatch the Nuclear Legion (Geiger, Professor Radium , Reactron , Mister Nitro, Neutron ) to discover the nature of the radioactive leak inside the city, but in a conflict with Freedom's Ring and the Atomic Knights, one member of the Legion is killed. The Society sends the Nuclear Family to assist, and they locate the leak, but engage the Atomic Knights under the city in a struggle that merges into a larger battle between the Titans and SHADE agents.
Increasingly concerned by the developments, Robin leads the Titans back into the city. The Black Baron, once a drug lord who was mutated by the blast, now styles himself as the leader and ruler of the inner part of the city. In a fight with the Titans, Monolith and Firebrand , the Baron is punched into the next state by Monolith. SHADE agents engage the Titans and Lady Liberty is killed by Ravager, who then defeats the SHADE officers sent to retrieve the Titans. The Green Lantern Hal Jordan arrives to square off against Major Force , and Major Victory tells Force to stand down. Force refuses and beats Victory to death using Victory's own arm, after which Force's subordinates and some of the SHADE agents refuse to stand by him. Monolith is shattered in the fight and Firebrand escapes, following a voice that urges him to come to the Mississippi River .
The Atomic Knights place Captain Atom in a containment suit designed to limit his radiation output, similar to the armor worn by Monarch . Atom kills Major Force by draining all of the radioactive energy out of him and delivers a warning, telling anyone who wants to live to evacuate the city. After the evacuation, Captain Atom unleashes a nuclear explosion, destroying what is left of Blüdhaven and leaving a radioactive crater in its place. Meanwhile, the Atomic Knights retreat to an underground bunker known as Command-D. Later Brother Eye , in pursuit of Karate Kid , Una and his creator, the scientist Buddy Blank , claims Blüdhaven for himself, activating a new OMAC Army."

'Can't say that I was a "big" fan of this series, probably because of the way DC now portrays various characters originally created in The Golden Age Quality Comics' hero line. Nor do I feel that DC has ever really given a decent treatment to any of the Charlton Comics heros (especially "Captain Atom"). It was interesting enough, and "The Teen Titans" played well into this series, but overall it was just another dark and gritty DC series of which sometimes I grow bored. However, it was really nice to see "The Atomic Knights" back into action again as they have always been one of my favorite Silver-Age teams from this company having read many of their stories back years ago in Strange Adventures.