An early Christmas gift

Just got the word from “Grim” Jim Main that my Christmas tale of mirth and mayhem (Santa and the Angels) will be appearing in his Santa-Themed issue of *PPFSZT! #34. How cool is that?

My story Slabbed, just showed up in *PPFSZT! #33, which Jim is telling us is literally flying off the shelves (no really it is a vampire, bat thing with actual wings I’m told, so you’'d best have some cloves of garlic on hand).

That issue has been written up over at examiner.com, so we are hoping that the additional exposure of the comic is helping launch Jim’s funnybooks into the stratosphere.

Well, as we’ve been telling folks, Jim has been publishing quite a number of our stories lately including Regret (The Attic #1), Too Much Coffee, Man! (*PPFSZT! #28), and Tea Party (*PPFSZT! #30).

Rest assured folks, that there are a whole bunch more stories of mine waiting in the wings, over at Main Enterprises, so keep knock, knock, knocin’ on Grim Jim’s door.

Avengers gone bad

We saw this the other day when a friend posted it, and well, it is so wrong that; Stan help us; we just had to post it.

Yeah, we felt the same way after watching it as well.

Occupy the DC Universe

Territorialism, superhero style

Super heroes for Breakfast

General Mills is currently offering custom edition DC comicbooks in specially-marked boxes of several of their cereals; including Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Golden Grahams, Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Trix. The DC comics all star the company’s mainstay, the Justice League. The comicbooks are packed inside the cereal boxes. There are four comics in the series, and each comic is a 24-page mini comic.

Currently we have two of the four, and will be searching for the others throughout the rest of the promotion.

Online versions of the comics can be seen here.

A distraction of sorts

A friend just emailed me a link to this interesting Spidey cartoon, so I thought I’d share it with you.

Pretty cute, eh?

This Just in!

I just heard that my cousin David Gere is going to play a terrorist in Batman 3.

Seriously, how cool is that?

David has appeared in a number of small roles in a number of fig films, and is currently producing some very cool Indie films in the wilds of Central CT.

I have to say that I’m very proud of my cousin, and I wish him all the best in all of his endeavors.

Way to go, Dave!

Agent Coulson of SHIELD

This is why we think that Agent Coulson is so cool:



And this is is why we we totally love him (but in a man-crush kind of way):



Apparently, both of these clips are going to appear on the Thor Blu-Ray disc. Ain’t it cool?

The Avengers are coming

I saw an Avengers preview as a tag at the end of Captain America, but here is the official trailer:




Yeah, pretty cool, eh?

...And a Happy Bar Mitzvah to you!

OK, quick quiz, what do you think the coolest Bar Mitzvah gift ever would be? Well, you’re wrong, it is this:

This 1988 custom comic is considered among the rarest Superman comics ever produced -- so much so that many fans mistakenly believe it’s an urban legend. But it does exist -- a comic book commissioned by a British billionaire as a gift for his Superman fan son, in which the boy and some of his friends were written and drawn into a Superman adventure! It is believed that this book had a print run of LESS THAN 150 COPIES, because it was produced as a BAR MITZVAH PARTY FAVOR (and far fewer than that number are believed to remain in existence)!

According to the ebay posting about this recently sold comic ($1,677.00 U.S.).

Much about this book is unusual and unique. It was the first, and one of the few, comics writing jobs by DAVID LEVIN, who went on to a distinguished career in television, and both cover and interior pages feature one of the last Superman pencil jobs by the legendary CURT SWAN -- this one done three years after leaving the feature to John Byrne. It marks the only time Swan was inked by MAD magazine caricaturist ANGELO TORRES, hired by editor Joe Orlando to “plus” the likeness of the Bradman boy. You can find more details about the content and provenance -- AS WELL AS IMAGES OF INTERIOR PAGES -- since I’ve elected not to scan the interiors because I didn’t want to remove the book from the bag -- at David Levin’s blog, here.

Yep, this is a very cool comic!

Superheroes go better with Baseball

...or perhaps that's the other way around. No matter Just recently I came across a pair of Marvel specialty comics that were produced in association with Major League Baseball.

Now, before I go too far, let me digress for just a moment. Marvel Comics — on occasion — will license out its characters to different corporations and companies for “Specialty Comics.” These comics will promote either a product (Peter Pan Peanut Butter, Pizza Hut) or a pro-social idea or agenda (American Cancer Society, literacy, stopping abuse against children). Over the years, the company has produced quite a number of them, making them among the coolest of collectibles for funnybook fans like your’s truly.

Anyways, as I started to say, I recently came across a bunch of comics that Marvel produced in association with Major League Baseball in both 2007 & 2008. These comics were apparently distributed in the 29 Triple-A ball clubs around the U.S. (and one in Canada). Many (if not all) of the ball clubs had variant covers produced for their own club, making well, some 60 comics produced over the two-year period. (Rumor has it that there might have been additional comics produced in subsequent years, but we’ve, as yet, been able to discover them.)

In both years, the stories revolve around several of the Marvel Superheroes attending a Triple-A ball game in their civilian identities, and then having to stop some sort of incident as their Superhero self. Naturally enough the heroes include the usual suspects (The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Hulk, and others).

In the first year (2007) Sandman started an incident that set off Bruce “The Hulk” Banner, causing to become his green angry self, necessitating Tony “Iron Man” Stark, Peter “Spider-Man” Parker and others to stop Hulk from ruining everyone’s game. Issue #2 (2008), it is The Mole Man who is angry that MLB rejected his bid for an expansion team on Monster Island that would be staffed by his mole-creatures. Thankfully the FF, Spidey, and Iron Man are able to convince him that attending a Triple-A game is much more fun than destroying the fields (which is what he was planning on doing).

Needless to say, the comics are light, breezy, and well, just plain fun. Something that kids of all ages, baseball fans, and funnybook aficionados alike would enjoy. So, if you were to camp out in the online auction sites, you’ll more than likely find them, and hopefully score some of your own.

Fair warning, they can get to be a bit pricey, so unless you are a total completest-geek, we’re going to suggest that you simply purchase one of each year (certainly try to get your favorite team), but know that, all 30 variants from each year, while the do sport different covers, the insides are the same for each respective year.