Iconic is the Word

This just in, I’m part of a new graphic album of short stories featuring new/different spins on mythic, legendary, historic and/or fictional characters entitled Iconic, which is being published by the Comicbook Artists Guild.

Iconic is a 120-page, square-bound volume featuring the talent of some 30 writers, artists, and creators who developed 10 short stories revolving around such mythological characters as Prometheus, Talos and Cuchulainn; legendary literary characters as Ebeneezer Scrooge and Sherlock Holmes (each appearing in slightly altered narrations), the triumphs of heroes from folklore like Robin Hood and John Henry, and not to leave great historical figures behind, they also included Mark Twain, St. George, and Gustave Whitehead (mine).

All of the stories are tied together by the appearance of a fictional grandfather who shares the stories with his beloved grandchildren. The book was the year-long product of the membership of the Comicbook Artists Guild and is a weighty tome that is being targeted to be marketed to Book stores, libraries, schools, and to fans of historic and mythic fiction all over.

The Guild is planning to release Iconic at MoCCA Fest, being held June 6 and 7, 2009 at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. MoCCA Fest is a popular comic art festival sponsored by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art and members of the Guild will be appearing to celebrate their special release. This appearance is the Guild’s first time exhibiting at MoCCA Fest.

As stated, my story is about Gustave Whitehead, a man who lived in Bridgeport, CT, and flew before the Wright Brothers (In fact, as legend has it, Gustave actually sold the Brothers a pair of his engines). My story is beautifully illustrated by Rick Lundeen. This is the first time Rick and I have worked together, but certainly not the last, as Rick has since picked up the art chores on my Wülf Girlz property which is soon to be published by Atlas Unleashed.



On a personal note, I learned about Gustave from my High School science teacher and Judo instructor who interviewed a guy who — as a young boy — worked for Gustave, and saw him fly. My Science teacher was an avid flier and went on to not only build a replica of Gustave’s plane, but ran a Gustave Whitehead museum at Captain’s Cove Marina in Bridgeport for may years. For years, he and I talked about the possibility of producing a comic about Gustave that could be distributed in Bridgeport schools. I hope that this short story leads to a longer-form story that can fulfill that dream.

Resistance is Futile

I’m posting this here because, well, it is hysterical.

BK Trek Toys Rule!

You heard me, the film rocks, the toys rule! Here are the last four that are available this week from Burger King.







Oh yeah, and the best part, is that they talk!

What could be cooler than that?

Love and Capes

A couple of years ago I discovered Love and Capes a romance comicbook disguised as a superhero comic. The comic was one of those Free Comic Book Day comics, and, after reading it I was hooked. To be sure, it took a second FCBD and actually meeting the creator Thom Zahler at the NY Comic Con twice before I actually ponied up to acquire the missing issues. Well they just arrived the other day and I couldn't devour them fast enough.

Yep, there are 10 issues of L&C and I have all of them, and I’m thinking about acquiring some of the other items for sale on Thom’s fully stocked store.

Love and Capes is the a “Heroically Super Situation Comedy Comic Book” or at least that what the cover copy calls it. The series extrapolates a romantic relationship between the super-powered protector of a great metropolitan city and his non-powered girlfriend. Liberally sprinkled throughout the cast are other superheroes, supervillians, friends, and family. If this sounds like the random episode of Lois and Clark than you wouldn’t be far off. Still, to call it that, would be to short-change this wonderful series.

Truly, this series is a pitch-perfect balance between the superhero daring-do that us superhero-geeks want, and the Chick-Lit Romance that our girlfriends want. The series has us involved in the personal lives of Mark (“Crusader”) Spenser and his girlfriend (now his fiancee; and soon to be his wife) Abigale Tennyson. Other major players include Darkblade the dark and grim detective protector of Chronopolis (Crusader’s best friend — and Batman to Crusader’s Superman) and Charlotte, Abby's sister.

There is a Liberty League (JLA — complete with an orbiting satellite), and numerous other characters that passingly resemble other well-known heroes (Amazonia, Yellow Flashlight, and — just in case you think that Zahler only reads DC comics — he has also included Steel Worker and (my personal favorite) Arachnerd). To be sure, this book is not one of those awful, highly disposable spoof comics that simply mocks what goes on in regular comics, it is not. Admittedly it starts in a funnybook world that is familiar to us, but the stories it tells are wholly original, using what we know about superheroes to springboard into building an on-going richly-woven tapestry that keeps us coming back for more.

If you are not currently reading Love and Capes, you should be reading it. It is the easily the best comicbook that is being published. The art is clean, dynamic, and pops off the page, the dialogue is witty and sparkling, the storylines are straightforward and don’t require a metric ton of continuity to follow, and (perhaps best of all) each and every issue is a solid story. You never get the feeling that the writer is padding out 10-page short into a 12-issue maxi-series just to get the graphic album kick on the back end over at the bookstore.

This is a wonderful story, go out now and buy the entire set. You'll agree with me, I’m sure

BKST

Just grabbed this up, and thought I’d share it with you if you were lookign to score all of the Burger King Star Trek toys.

Presenting Captain America?

Is this for real, or is it a hoax? You be the judge.

Silly, silly Spidey-Man

Normally, I let this stuff sail by me, but this one was so funny that I just had to post it here. Hope you all don’t mind.

Catching up on Spidey.

I may have said this before (once or twice), but I love Spider-Man. Yep, the comicbook character. I’ve been something of a huge fan since I first met him back in 1962 (yes i AM that old!). Over the years I’ve managed to collect all but a handful, a handful-and-a-half of his comics (I’m missing something like 30 of the nearly 600 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, and not from the early episodes, but from the ones that happened around the turn of the century.

The other day I just read Vol 2 #38, the issue where Peter’s beloved Aunt May finally confronted him about the truth that she just learned. Apparently she learned in the issue or two prior that he is Spider-Man (no, I don’t have that issue, but I’m hunting for it). Anyway, the story was written by J. Michael Straczynski and illustrated by John Romita, Jr.

What makes the story especially powerful is that, for all intents and purposes, there is no villain, and there is no violence (other than Peter recapping his oprigin and talking about the death off his Uncle Ben at the hands of a bugler), the story is told entirely as an encounter between Peter and his Aunt after years of him keeping the secret of his dual life from her. (To be sure, while it has been better than four decades for us, in the “Marvel Universe” only about 10 years have passed. Still that is a long time to keep a secret.

It was also one of the best and most poignant Spider-Man stories I have ever read. If you haven’t ever read the story, and you are a fan of either Spidey or comicbooks in general, I strongly urge you to seek this story out and read it for yourself.

It is really THAT good.

Give it all you’ve got!

If there is one perfect Scotsman in all the world, it is Scotty from the USS Enterprise, but you knew I was going to say that. He keeps those engines purring like kittens, and the ship on course.

Still we know that the lad has a great affinity for the quantum mechanics of Star Fleet. So it is only fair that he get his own fast food figure with the issuance of the this round of BK/Trek toys.

So, without any further adieu, I present to you all, the incomparable Mr. Scott!

Now come on, Scotty, give us all you’ve got!

Free comics and other stuff worth reading.

So, I’m working my way through some of the Free comics I picked up on FCBD and I got to The Green Lantern comic (In Blackest Night) which I’ve already discussed. There have been some others, but what I want to talk about now is The Savage Dragon #148.

Now, I don’t normally read Savage Dragon, and this issue was very cool, in that it gave a four-page recap of the first 147 issues which was quite interesting. I have to say, after reading Spider-man for some 45 years, I honestly think that more things have happened to Savage Dragon in 148 issues than have happened to Spidey in close to 600 (of just him main title).

Still, I have some observations of what is going on in this book. I understand the need for action, but in every single panel, everyone seems to be moving, jumping, and swinging through the city frantically on the lookout for the bad guys. I truly understand the need for action, but it was a bit disconcerting that everything was constantly posed. I liked the introduction of the Golden Age Daredevil, although I wonder how Eric Larson was able to acquire the rights.

Plus all the actions and motivations seemed to lie on the surface of the characters. I honestly don’t feel that I got below the introduction phase of the characters. I’m not saying that I didn’t like it, I’m saying that the issue looked like a retro-fitted Golden Age tale drawn by Jack Kirby himself.

This is why I love FCBD, because I get to see stuff that I wouldn’t ordinarillary read. More as I get to them.

On another front, I also picked up some back issues of Amazing Spider-Man that I’ve been missing. Now, I’m missing only three of issues of Vol. #1 (all in the high 400s), and 17 from the second volume (all below #34). I’m throwing a party when I finally close the gap!

Deadpool and the Watchmen

Watch this all the way to the end. It goes exactly where you think it is going to go!



It doesn’t get any better than this.

More BK Trek Toys

Before I get started today, I wanted to upload a few of the new BK Trek toys that I acquired yesterday. Plus I wanted to add this video clip from this past Saturday’s SNL show that...well, watch it and you’ll see.

First up, the toys.







Now for the fun stuff. This one is for all those über-geek fanboys who still live in the basement of their parent’s house and have never grown up (I swear, if some of these overweight, myopic continuity-addled yabos had lived in the time of the Sparetans they would have been left out on the mountain side.)

What a Difference a Decade (or more) Makes

When I was in my 20s I wanted to write an article which I had then intended to call Earth One, Earth Two, Earth Red, Earth Blue. Not so much because I had anything truly informative or functionally relative to say about the idiosyncrasies of the multiple Earth syndrome over at DC, but simply because I wanted to use (what I thought was the) the wicked-cool (and incredibly clever) Dr. Suss alliteration in the title of the article.

Needless to say, I never wrote it. And I still think it is wicked-cool, and incredibly clever.

I bring this all up because just this past month I read not only the Marvel giveaway comic, The Wolverine Saga but the DC Free Comic Book Day handout, Blackest Night. in both cases I learned new stuff about both characters that I had simply not known prior to reading either comic.

It’s true. In the case of Wolverine I learned that he is like 150 years old (I knew that he had fought in WWII, but I had no idea that he was far older than that). In the case of Green Lantern, I discovered that there was an entire rainbow of lanterns (thus the Earth Red, Earth Blue reference from above). I knew about the Sinistro corps, and had heard something about Red Lanterns, but Blue, Black, Yellow, Saphire, Indigo, and well, like I said, there is a whole rainbow of Lanterns these days. Now, I’m sure that there is a really nifty-cool reason behind all of them, but I can’t help to think that it all seems just a tad silly.

Part of the reason that I didn’t know any of this is that I had stopped reading X-Men around 1995, and most DC comics a few years earlier. These days I mostly (only) read Spider-Man comics. The reason for this is that I really like Spidey, and as everything is so expensive (and I’m one of the Sr. Reviewers for SpiderFan, I determined to limit my reading to a character I truly enjoy.

Oh yeah, I also spend a considerable amount of time reading the Indie comics of friends and acquaintances, (new talent needs to be encouraged, and friends should support each other). Additionally, I do sample other comics (whenever any company offers a reduced or entry price to a title (or a giveaway — like FCBD), I’ll check out the book. (This is how I discovered the very Delightful Love and Capes), and the equally interesting The 99.

Anyway, it appears that a bunch of stuff has been happening in comics. So much for “the illusion of change.”

Have a happy (Spider) Mother’s Day

OK, OK, so I’m running a tad late with this particular post, but Hey, I still got it up here (and I did spend the day with my actuall family, my mom, and the mother of my kids), so give me a little slack!.



HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, LADIES!

The Thing of it all

Yesterday I acquired yet another of the Marvel “Bubble gum” toy characters. This one was The Thing, from the Fantastic Four. Again, it was at the movies (this time when I went to see the wicked-cool Star Trek with a bunch of buddies of mine), only it was at a different theater. However, when I got home and looked through the pile of toys that I recently cleared off my desk shelf, I realized that I had actually acquired this toys some time back, and not only had I forgotten that I already had it, but I had forgotten to post it when I got it.

OK, so here it is now. More on Trek tomorrow when I wake up and can coherently write about it. (Perhaps I’ll be able to acquire some new Trek toys as well from Burger King).

Oh, yeah when I was posting Thing, I realized that the image I had put up previously of the Spidey toy was taken with my old cell phone’s camera, and well, was a tad blurry, so, I decided that Spidey deserved a better image, so I snapped off another shot,and am posting it here. Hope you all appreciate the lengths I go to for you folks. So now I have (ahem) two Things.

Well, that’s about it for now kids. Time to rack out. Catch you in the funnypapers!

Mini Marvel figures

So I’m at the movies the other day, and I wander by the those bubble gum machines that no longer dispense bubble gum, but toys, and I discovered one that contained Marvel characters.

The last few times I’ve attempted to acquire toys from these type machines, I keep pulling the same Spidey figure. Still I thought that I’d try again, and I’m glad that I did, as this time I managed to snag Ghost Rider and captain America.

These little guys are very cool, they cost a buck, and come disassembled (in like three parts, plus a base). So now I’ve got three of ‘em. There are about half a dozen figures in the mix.



The next time I’m at that theater (probably next week) I’ll try again, to see what I get.

Time to Trek

This weekend the Star Trek reboot happens. As you all know (or can probably tell from the trailer that has been burning up the Net, this is a major departure from the type of Trek film that we’ve seen in the past. The new film is directed by J.J. Abrams, the fellow who brought us Cloverfield, Alias, and Fringe.

This film promises to inject a load of action and drama into the franchise that has been sorely lacking for the past couple of films, and hopefully set up the next 35 or so years. Still, as can be expected, there is a small bit of controversy amongst the hard core elitist Trekkies.

If you haven’t already seen the following video, you are in for a treat. If you have seen it, watch it again, you’ll still be laughing.


Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Now that you have a proper perspective on the whole event, here are some of the toys you will find at Burger King relating to this wicked-cool flick:



There is a set of four glasses, which, historically speaking, hold their value better than the toys.



There are also 16 Trek figures that are going to be released three at a clip over tthe next four or so weeks.

It’s time to Price your comics!

I’m the features editor and one of the "unnamed" authors of Comics Values Annual, our 2009 edition just hit the stands and I received my copies the other day. I’ve been doing this for some 15 or 17 years and I (as you can imagine) enjoy it very much.

Needless to say as we were putting the issue to bed in the closing moments of 2008 and the prior to the newness of 2009 was upon us we paused to look around at the world outside the “All in color for a dime” world of superheroes, Sci-Fi adventures, ghouls, vampires, zombies and other monsters that go bump in the night, to see what was happening in the real world around us. Even as our new President–Elect was gathering together his new cabinet about him and before we knew the fullness of the betrayal of the consumer trust by the the corporate robber-barons who inhabited Wall St. and the Fortune 500 boardrooms prepared to down-size us working-class poor into a state of destitution resembling Jack “King” Kirby’s beloved Kamandi’s post-apocalyptic America we couldn’t help but to wonder aloud, what was to become of collecting.

For truly, how can one look at the headlines of the past several months of 2008 and wonder how a person can possibly spin that they are out of work, their hedge fund has collapsed, their 401K is gone, and their sub-prime mortgage is past due even consider buying old comics? Well, the truth of the matter is that often times in the past, whenever the stock market goes down significantly, much of the available investment money goes to collectibles. Still, those of us working diligently at CVA, we still saw a sharp advance in prices on the top comic collectibles. Still, the question of the day was really “Do the owners choose to sell at this time?” Personally, we do think that the new comics in the marketplace will be soft in value for the foreseeable future.

This is why we continue to produce this price guide (well, that and the money we are paid to do so...
mostly for the money
). Anyway that’s the mental state I was in at that time, and now I can see the issue in print. It contains an interview with Marvel Assistant Editor, John Barber (who works on Wolverine’s titles), and we have a beautifully-rendered cover by Mark Sparacio

You can see the cover off to the right, and attached to this post. I strongly urge you to go out and purchase one for yourself. I know I would, but I get mine for free.

Wolverine grabs a Slurpee!

Yesterday (or was it very early this morning? Who can remember). I posted a number of images of the 7-eleven Terminator Slurpee cups and figure straws. Then, while I was doing it, I recalled that I had completely forgotten to post the images of the 7-eleven Wolverine: X-Men Origins cups and straws, even though that film had come out last weekend (and I had acquired the items in question fully a week earlier).

As stated, I was unable to snag the Papa John’s Wolverine X-Treme Pizza, as the only Papa John’s that was close enough to me to realistically patronize, closed a couple of months back. I can’t tell you how glad I am that it was open when they issued their Spidey-pizza.

Well, I’m going to rectify that egregious error right now, by posting them here.



There were three cups in this set.



There were also three “figure” straws.



That is to say, each Slurpee straw had a detachable figure attached to it that could be removed from the straw itself, attached to a base, and then posed for display. I’m glad that they chose to do this, as the Iron Man figures from last year had a little trouble standing.

While I’m not entirely sure what other movie-related items will wind up at your local fast food eatery (other than the already announced Transformers and G.I. Joe), I know that I will — in all probability — spend the rest of these next couple of months scanning the web, and prowling my local fast food franchises to see what I can score.

Right now, I’m now looking for Star Trek / BK toys, which are currently available.

Fanboys & girls, start your engines!

He’s come Back

He said he’d be back, and he finally made it, only not so much. In about a week Terminator will return to the big screen but without Arnold Schwarzenegger helming the flick. This fourth incarnation of the futuristic fatalistic franchise has Christian Bale playing the role of John Connor as the future he has long been avoiding comes crashing down around his ears.



Only we’re not so much interested in that right now. We’re here to talk about the toys. Yesterday I acquired three of the four Terminator cups, and all four of the straws.



I’m betting that there won’t be another fast food (burger joint) tie-in just because of the degree of über-violence that I fully expect to be in this film, so I’m really glad that these straw-toys have detachable figures, so I can pose them on my desk, with my other wicked-cool fast food toys.

As I’m posting this, I just realized that I didn’t post the Wolverine Slurpee straw toy figures. I guess that I’ll just have to do that later on today or something.

It's May of Belkis, 2009!

Ah, it is my favorite time of the month, to announce to you all what talented artist got their chance to illustrate the lovely form of the wow-she’s-so-incredibly-good-looking-that-I-can’t-believe-she’s-actually-talking-to-me-hot-hot-hottie Belkis!

Yep! this is not only the Month that contains the birthday of my son Dylan, and Free Comic Book Day, but it is the Belkis Month of May. With special illustration by Ray Felix.

The focal point of Ray’s art combines his childhood superhero fantasies with a powerful erotic twist that is liberally flavored with American politics and religious dogma. At 17, he (like many of us) wanted to become a comicbook character. As a young artist he was living a detached existence from the real world. In a sense it was a survival mechanism from growing up in the Bronx and a reaction to being raised in a religious cult.

Having given up on ever becoming an actual carton, his current goal as an artist is to transport the viewer to a fictional comic world of his creation. Since becoming a freelance teaching artist in various prisons in the New York area, Ray attempts to convey his interpretation through his comics and paintings as to how he reconfigure the details of this so-called reality and brings his viewers to contemplate his personal view of the world according to him.

Since the events of 9/11 and the vast conspiracies surrounding the event have come to flourish, his work has grown to pantomime the political circus that consumes mainstream media here in America.

If you like Ray’s work, you want to support Indie creators, or just like looking at pretty girls (Belkis especially), go to NovaStar Studios and order one from James Rodriguez.

Trek Toys at BK

Arrrrggggghhhhhh! I just learned that there are Star Trek Toys at Burger King, and while that really is a very cool thing (there are not many sets of Fast food Trek toys), not only are there four glasses, but there are (apparently) 16 figures that get packed in the kid’s meals!



I’m going to go broke collecting these damn things (there are also going to be some fast food (7-eleven) Slurpee cups on the horizon as well.



Yep, I’ve got my collecting cut out for me.

Avengers/Invaders the endless war

I don’t know about you folks, but I’ve been reading this whole Avengers/Invaders year-long crossover that has been going on since it seems forever, but I am having a hard time following (or, well, carrying) about it. I mean no disrespect to either Alex Ross of Jim Krueger, both of whose work I really like, I’m just not connecting to the story, the characters, or, well, pretty much the reasoning behind what is going on in this series.

Truth to tell, it all seems like a warm-up for the Dynamite Superpowers series, which may be unfair, but well, that series seems to be covering the same ground in a lot of ways, especially when this series seems to wrapping up, then keeps sliding off in another direction. Now I’ve read a couple of these Avengers/Invaders mash-ups in the past and they have been dismissed in the course of a single (over-sized) issue or annual. I honestly don’t understand why this story had to be stretched out (and yes, it does seem as if Krueger is padding the story to force it to 12 issues when it probably could have been (should have been) taken care of in half the space.

I’m sure that there are some fans out there enjoying this, I’m just not one of them. Plus, as a friend of mine has pointed out a couple of times, the payoff for this series is (in all probability) a way to bring Steve Rogers back into the present and put him back into the Captain America red white and blues. Obviously there has been no confirmation or denial of this from Marvel, but, well, it totally makes sense.

Taco Bell Comics

As you all know, and as I’ve indicated a number of times, I’m a big fan of a) freebie/giveaway comics (who isn’t) and b) fast food tie-ins (especially when they are comicbook related) So you know that I’m going to be a big fan of the new set of Marvel giveaway comics that are currently being issued by Taco Bell. Well you are right. the set consists of The Fantastic Four (co-staring the Hulk), The (original) Avengers (vs. Ultron), Thor (& the Thing against the Wrecker), and Captain America (and Nick Fury & SHIELD) going up against Hydra.

In fact, my biggest complaint is that there is no Spider-Man comic, or appearance in this set. Still, that is just a personal bias, so I’m going to let it slide for now. All four of the comics are new stories, and only 11 pages long with a Chris Giarrusso one-page Mini Marvels back-up.

First up is Cap’s tale, and yes, this is Steve Rogers working alongside Nick Fury who is the head of SHIELD, and they are going up against Hydra, so it is about as old school as you can get. The story is short and to the point (not much subtlety you can get in 11 pages). A mobster who is using his mob activities to subsidize his Hydra cell is kicked loose due to lack of evidence. This angers Cap, who is told to calm down by Fury. Needless to say, the crook shows his hand and captures Cap, and plans to unmask him on TV. Cap breaks loose, turns the tables on his attackers and does his Sentinel of Liberty thing.

The next comic still has Don Blake as Thor and doing his Dr. thing in disaster areas along with The Thing who is there for his celebrity appeal. They are alerted to the appearance of the Wrecker and as the Thing heads off to stop the super-powered thug from wrecking numerous tourist attractions throughout the U.S. Black taps his cane turning himself into the Thunder God and the pair set out to confront the villain, which they do in short order. (Turns out Wrecker is PO'ed over being “ripped off” at these sites when he doesn’t get what he thinks he paid for at each site.

The FF are at home (yes, in the Baxter Building) and Thing and Torch are up to their usual shenanigans of torturing each other as Reid and Sue are about to go out to dinner for their anniversary. Needless to say, just prior to them walking out the door, a news report indicates that The Hulk in in NYC trashing the place. So the team puts personal issues aside, and goes to the rescue. Each attempts to bring the emerald brute down by themselves, but is unable to do that solo. True to the nature of the team, they are only able to stop the raging beast’s rampage when they combine their powers into a single, concerted effort.

Finally, is the Avengers, which unites the initial, classic line-up of Cap, Iron Man, Thor, and Ant Man who are confronted by a seemingly-reformed Ultron who wants to become an Avenger. As insane as it may sound, they actually allow him (it) to try out. As can be expected it is all a (not so) elaborate trick to get them to drop their guard so that he can destroy them. Of the four stories, this one is the weakest as it simply doesn’t hang together in any logical fashion. In fact, I honestly couldn’t believe that this story was even approved, as it is so unbelievably badly done.

Still as a set they are fun to have, and whatever shortcomings that the main story may or may not have, the single-page Chris Giarrusso, Mini Marvel story at the end makes the addition of these comics well worth the addition to your collection. I highly recommend them all (yes, even the Avenger one, only not so highly as the rest). When talking to one of the managers of my local Taco Bell she informed me that they were having a tough time giving them to the kids as they didn’t seem to wan them, which I found incredulous.

So if there is a Taco Bell near you, I suggest that you hustle out and acquire a set (and make arrangements to buy up all the remaining copies at the end of the promotion).

The Day after the Night Before!

So, yesterday was Free Comic Book Day, and I visited two comic shops (on opposite sides of the state, next year I think I'm going to add one in the middle as well), and in addition to scoring 31 FCBD comics (plus three more “regular” comics that one shop adds in as special extras), I scored a set of four special Marvel comics from Taco Bell, a set of six comics from Teshkeel Publishers who produced the wonderful Islamic-themed superhero comic The 99, A pair of comics (Celtic Knights) from my Facebook Buddy from Ireland (Stephen Paul Coffey, and a comp copy of Beyond the Kuieper Belt (Free Lunch Comics) as I had contributed a fake “letter of comment” to the premiere issue. Plus I picked up a pair of comics from one of the indie comic creators/publishers who was displaying at Sarge’s.

Plus, a bunch of us went to see Wolverine (my second time). While at this second viewing I learned that there are apparently multiple codas attached to the end of the film (stick around ‘til after all of the credits roll).

Forty-nine comics, not a bad haul for a single day. In fact that I somehow missed out on snagging a copy of Love & Capes is a tad irritating, but I’m sure that one will turn up.

Now I have to get back to writing my entries for the Official Index to Marvel Comics.

Once I get past this deadline, I'll start posting reviews of the comics I scored this weekend.

Today Is Free Comic Book Day

Go out and support your neighborhood comicbook shop.

I’m going to be at A Timeless Journey (Stamford CT) in the morning, then I’m heading over to Sarge’s in New London CT. I’ll be traveling with my good friends John A. Wilcox and Rusty Haller, as well as my nephew Tony-o.

See you in the funnypapers!

Slice and Dice

So, yeah, I went out last night with my son (who, while he didn’t turn 18 at midnight (10:43 a.m. if I recall correctly) will — in all probability — will be 18 by the time you read this). For comicbook fans, it will be a good deal of fun, seeing Wolvie back up on the big screen, but I’m not sure that a back-story flick of “not quite the X-Men” will completely fly with the general populace.

Still it was good, and should do at least as well as Watchmen, though I don’t expect it to be the blockbuster that was any of the X-Men films. I did a quick, first-impression review of the film, and will certainly do a longer form review which will show up at my column.

In the mean time I do want to wonder if the combination of a bad economy, the early on-line posting of the film, the lack of the other X-Folk, and prequel/back story nature of the film will keep people away; and this odd confluence of events does, will it spell the beginning of the end of superhero/funnybook films. I, for one, hope not.