Friday, December 29, 2006

An Addendum to Christmas

In my household, it is said that it is never really Christmas unless someone forgets to give a gift. This is because there have been numerous Christmases where in there was a gift that was so well hidden prior to the Holiday, that the giver completely forgot to wrap it.

Well, that happened this past Christmas, only this time it was my wife who forgot to give me a gift, rather than me forgetting to give her one (actually I did forget to giver he one, but that’s another story, altogether). Anyway, She also acquired for me another Spidey-present. A Spider-Man toothbrush (hey, shouldn’t it be called a “Teethbrush” or is that just me?)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

It has been a Spidey Little Christmas!

I just learned that the NY Post temporarily suspended the Spidey Comic for the holidays. The comic will re-appear on Sunday, Jan 14th.

Meanwhile, I got some cool Spidey-Stuff for Christmas, Some Spidey Band-Aids.

A Spider-foam chair (built for a little kid, actually, my daughter’s idea of a gag, I’m guessing).

And a very cool collectible Spidey-Watch from my pal Walt



That’s it for now (it is late and I’m going to bed).

Happy Spider-New Year!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

It is a Spider-Man Day in the Neighborhood!

And yes, it is once again brought to us by Mr. Steve Ditko, courtesy of the NY Post whic is continuning to include 16-page reprints of The Amazing Spider-Man in their Sunday papers.

So, even as Spidey switches sides in the current on-going Civil War over in the current Marvel Universe (going from siding with Iron Man’s “Government” team to Captain America’s “Underground” team. While the switch didn’t come as any real surprise, it does mark the turning point in the Civil War.

I used this event to craft a webisode for SpiderFan which our nefarious leader, Jon Couper is choosing not to use (he hinted that he might use a version of this strip as re-scripted by him). Still, I enjoyed this version so much, that I’ve chosen to post it here. The art was clipped from the original web-strip (and then re-jiggered through Photoshop by me). The “South Park” images are from Chris Buchner.



Chris is also a member of CAG. and is something of a Scarlet Spider fan. (That’s him off to the right.) He’s actually an OK guy (for a Spider-Geek), but Hell, it takes one to know one, and I know ‘em all!

Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I still have to put up the tree, so I’m going to wrap this episode up. Catch you all in a couple of days!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

It’s Sunday again (Naturally)

Yeah, here it is Sunday again, and I get to read the latest installment of The Amazing Spider-Man via the most generous contributions of The New York Post . Yeah, yeah, I actually have to purchase the paper (for a whopping .75¢ each, no less!) but yeah, I get to read the latest Spidey-Installment in their collectible reprint.

Interestingly enough, while this issue is continued from last week, it is also continued into next week, making it the very first three-parter. I’m not entirely sure how this happened, as the original comic is the same length as the other comics in the series. Near as I can figure, it is because there is a back-up tale with Spidey, and the Human Torch (as rendered by Stan, Jack, and Steve), so I’m figuring that The Post simply chose to split the story up in such a way as to spotlight the back-up story all on its own.

In other news, I was appearing yesterday at A Timeless Journey , in downtown Stamford, CT to sign copies of Psychosis! #1 I think that I did OK, I sold all four copies of the mag that the store had stocked (and added one more for Paul’s rack so he could still have a copy), and a set of three of Agent Unknown, the Renegade Press comic I created and wrote back in the late ’80s. Not a bad day, eh?

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Here’s what I love about Sundays

Every Sunday, The NY Post includes another “Collectible Reprint” of an early issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. Each week, the paper issues half an issue reprint of thee classic issues. The story is by Stan “The Man” Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko (interestingly enough both Stan and Jack “King” Kirby have nicknames that have stuck with them until this day, but poor ol’ Steve never did, I wonder why). Ah well, no matter, each and every Sunday I get to read one of these old stories and recall with delight why I began my life-long love-affair with comics back in 1962 or there-abouts.

On Sundays, I run out to grab two copies of The Post (one is for me and one is for my 12-year-old nephew Tony-o, who is also a fan of both comics and Spidey), and then I sit and read the comic. Like I said, I already have the stories (in a couple or three different formats), but it still doesn't stop me form acquiring them in this way-cool new format. That’s it for now, except to say check out this link, it is a wicked-cool co-mingling of Our guy Spidey and the other Marvel heroes and villains, and Charlie Brown (to whom Peter Parker has often been compared) and the rest of the Peanuts gang.

Enjoy!

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Psychosis #1 Favorably reviewed!

Hey, hey, hey! I just learned that Psychosis #1 was reviewed over at Broken Frontier, and the reviewer apparently liked it. How cool is that? I mean I know that it is a way-cool book and everyone of my friends that has read it has told me the same thing, but to have someone who doesn’t owe you a “nice job” comment to say that it reads well is always a very cool thing.

Hopefully as the word spreads, more and more folks will be saying cool stuff about it and we’ll be off and running.

Non “Funny” Funnybooks on the Rise

We’ve been reading comics since around 1961. It is — as we’ve often said — our preferred form of entertainment. In fact, the guy we’ve been ...