I got myself an early Christmas Present

That’s right, the other day while I was rooting around in my garage looking for something else, when I located a short box of comics that I had misplaced some two years ago. I thought that I had lent the box to an associate of mine so he could scan in the covers for use in the database he maintains for producing the Comics Values Annual, only he said he couldn't find them.

I had even been to his house and we both looked through his boxes (and boxes) of comics, toys, SF novels, and magazines. Nutthin. (Although we did manage to locate not only a box of my toys of mine that he still had, but a box of comics of his that he gave to me, which was cool and all, but not really what I was looking for at the time (even though it contained a comic that I wanted that I had spotted online selling for $100).

Anyways, I found the box sitting in my garage after all this time. How cool is that? The box, you see, was chock-a-block full of freebies, sponsored, specialty, ashcan and giveaway comics. Specifically a bunch staring my pal and yours, Spidey! Yea, I was looking for this ever since I hooked up with SpiderFan, because while they knew about these comics, many of them didn’t have reviews. Now that I have found the comics, You can bet that I’m going to be uploading the reviews as fast as I can re-read the comics and type em up.

Yep, I love these type of comics. they are fun, and often carry a pro-social message. (anti-smoking, health issues, child abuse prevention, reading, etc.) Sometimes they are just hawking a particular product or service (Aim Toothpaste, Dingo Boots, All detergent). Sometimes they tie into a movie (Lionsgate re-issued Amazing Spider-Man #129 — the first appearance of the Punisher — with the 2004 Punisher film staring John Travolta and Tomas Jane). Like that. These are very cool comics

I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl.

Seriously.

Wave the Flag part duce

Hey,anyone out there remember when I got up on my high horse about how the U.S. flag was hung wrong back in The Ultimates 2 #13? Well, it looks like they’ve done it again. That is to say, hung the flag backwards!

To recap, in the first instance, the two wrongly-hung flags were strung up on the White House during a Russian invasion of the U.S. — so an argument can be made that it was done by the invading forces as a sign of disrespect. However in this new instance (Avengers, the Initiative #6) there is no excuse.

This time, the “flag” is actually an apron worn by the wife of Sgt. Joseph (“Gauntlet”) Green. (Needless to say, why the wife of a military man would wear a flag apron, that ostensibly is going to get food and stains on it while cooking is the subject for another discussion.) Gauntlet, as we all know is the drill Sergeant over at Camp Hammond, in Stamford, CT where the new Initiative recruits are being trained. As you can see by the image, the flag is being hung backwards (vertically with the blue field in the upper right — rather than in the upper left position).

Now again, you could (possibly) argue that the Sarge’s wife knows the proper way to hang a flag, and that’s why she is wearing this flag replica as an apron. I’m telling you that while I’m not in the military, I am a Boy Scout leader (and I’ve watched a couple seasons of The Unit) so I’m telling you that the Sarge simply wouldn’t allow that wrongly-hung flag replica in his house.

What I’m saying is that the artists (Steve Uy in this case and Bryan Hitch and inked by Paul Neary — a couple of Brits in the case of The Ultimates), as well as their editors (Tom Bervoort and Ralph Macchio) are simply unaware that there are rules for hanging flags, and never bothered to check out to see if the flags were hung correctly.

By contrast, a buddy of mine, John Wilcox, spent quite a bit of his time working as a colorist for numerous comicbook publishers over the years. Once, when a specific restaurant in NYC was cited in a comic he was coloring, he called up the restaurant to find out what color the awning outside the resturant was, simply because he wanted to get it right. But then again, not everyone is as professional as John.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before!

Paul S. A SpiderFan buddy of mine turned me on to this on-line cartoon that takes a slam against the current One More Day storyline going on in the Spider-Man titles. Us fans all know where Joe Quesada is going with his badly-conceived storyline to retcon the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson-Parker.

Those of us who care (i.e.; everyone who reads or has read any Spider-Man title, ever!) think that he has his head stuck up his...well,you get the idea. Anyway, the cartoon in question is called Casstoons, and, well, here is what Paul told us in an email.

Not sure if anyone's familiar with “Casstoons” but they're a series of crude mouse-drawn comic strips a guy going by the handle of "Drink" started doing on several comic message boards about a year ago in response to DC’s mishandling of Batgirl. Since then though he's been doing parodies of other comic story lines though.

It is very funny, and deserves to be read.

Chappy Chanukah!

I have been meaning to post this for a couple of days, but I’ve been working like a dog, and simply haven’t found the time. I know that it is a bit off topic, but I think that with the image it fits.

Who is the New Captain America, (and why should we care?)

My good buddy Walt sent me this link about Captain America’s New Costume.

I think that it speaks for itself.

Legion of Superheroes is in the Fast Food House

A few weeks back I talked about the fact that the Legion of Superheroes had a set of toys that were given away with Happy Meals at McDonald’s. Well, I was a touch upset then as I found out after the promotion was over. Thankfully we have ebay, so I went online to acquire a set.

As luck would have it, I found a set that was reasonably priced (I’m sure my wife would disagree, but since she thinks all the toys look the same, and never reads my blog, what she doesn’t. know won’t hurt me). Anyway. The set came and I was happy, that is until I opened it up and found out how lame they were.

I mean, seriously, the toys don’t come with bases, and can’t stand up on their own, which makes playing with them and/or displaying them all but impossible. Ah well, you can’t always get quality toys I suppose. Well, if you missed them too,here is what they look like.





Oh, yeah, writing about all of this stuff reminds me that I need to update the fast food information on SpiderFan. So I’m going to sign off now and get to that. see you later (Perhaps I’ll go look for the 12" Justice League of America toys that came with the kid meal from a European fast food food chain.)