Yes, this is another America Flag is Hung Wrong in a Funnybook Post

OK, so all’Ya’all know that as a (former) Boy Scout, I feel strongly about the way the American Flag (mostly because I’ve posted about it rather extensively in this blog), well, I don’t actually seek these things out, but they do tend to follow me around.

So here I was, catching up on my Free Comic Book Day (#FCBD) comics from last year (2017 — yeah, I just a tad behind on my funnybook reading) and I came across #KidSavage from #Image.

Towards the end of the comic the Kid Savage character stumbles into a space ship and discovers a poster of a woman he seems to remember. In that poster is a U.S. flag that is (you guessed it) hanging horizontally, and (once again) the artist has illustrated it with the blue star field in the upper right corner.

Once again, let me say that this is wrong. the blue star field is always (always) displayed in the upper left! Especially when the flag is horizontal.

Sigh.

When will artists learn to look stuff like this up? When will editors and writers also learn this and correct the image so it doesn’t appear in print backwards?

When?

Free Comicbook Day is celebrated the first Saturday in May, this year it will be on Saturday May 5, 2018.

Support the Cause

Everyone has their pet cause, even me. In comics, my cause is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) In case you don’t know, the CBLDF is the organization that protects us as comicbook readers, retailers,and professionals. They defend our right to buy, read, and sell comics.

According to its website,

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was officially incorporated as a non-profit charitable organization in January of 1990 from the money left over from donations raised to defend Friendly Frank's arrest for selling "obscene comics" in Lansing, IL in 1986. Since then, the CBLDF has helped over a dozen comic book retailers and professionals fend off the censors, some successfully, some not.

I’ve written about the CBLDF a couple of times for the comics press, and always support their causes. I bring this up now because I just purchased Liberty Comics #2 (Image), and read it this past weekend. Interestingly enough, when I saw it I momentarily confused it with The Hero Initiative’s benefit book (IDW), which I picked up a few months back (otherwise I would have purchased both Liberty issues).

Hero is another worthy comicbook cause, and yes, I also support them whenever I am able. Still and all, right now I’m talking about the CBLDF. I want to strongly urge everyone to join the this very worthy cause to ensure that the forces of censorship don’t encroach any further into our beloved playground.

To the best of my knowledge, there haven’t been any major censorship suits recently, but I could be wrong on this. I used to be a member of the CBLDF, but seemed to have let my membership lapse, so the next thing I’m going to do is renew ($25.00 a year). You get a cool membership card, and a quarterly newsletter. Plus, the cause is, you know, well worth it.

Oh yeah, in case I forgot to mention it, Liberty Comics #2 is an outstanding anthology comic, featuring work by some very cool and very talented creators, including JRJR, Mike Alkred, Jimmy Palmiotti, Dave Gibbons,and many others.

* * * * * * UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE! * * * * * *

Just thought that you all should know, that I just joined both the CBLDF and the Hero Initiative. I strongly urge that all my funnybook friends do the same.

Free Comic Book Day Is Coming

Yes, Free Comic Book Day is six months away, but today several of the participating companies announced the books that they will be giving away through retailers across the country come Saturday May 1st.

“This year’s roster of Gold Comics looks amazing,” said FCBD spokesperson, Elissa Lynch. “We’re pleased to showcase the best the comics industry has to offer—and hopeful that this year’s comics will drive new customers to see what’s great about comics and their local comic book shop.”

Gold Sponsor comics include special FCBD editions designed to attract new readers into comic shops with some of the industry’s most widely recognized characters. A complete listing of FCBD titles, including all Gold and Silver Sponsor comics will be announced on December 23rd, and can be ordered through the January issue of Diamond Comic Distributors’ PREVIEWS catalog, on sale at all comic book shops on January 6th, 2010.

The announced comics include:

Dark Horse Comics

Doctor Solar/Magnus
The dawn of a new age of superhero excitement begins as Dark Horse Comics proudly presents the return of two of the most legendary characters in the annals of comics: Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom and Magnus, Robot Fighter — re-imagined for the 21st century by comics legend, writer Jim Shooter! All new content and storylines for this free issue!

DC Comics

War Of The Supermen #0
A war is coming, and all that stands between Earth and 100,000 vengeful supermen is one Superman! Special #0 issue featuring all-new material previewing the conflicts to come!

Image Comics

Fractured Fables
This special FCBD title offers a small taste of the new hardcover anthology from Silverline Books due later in the year. An all-star cast of writers and artists have been assembled to turn familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes on their ear to make kids LAUGH!

Marvel Comics

Iron Man/Thor FCBD 2010 Edition
Two of Marvel’s heaviest hitters like you’ve never seen them before! A major new direction for the Marvel Universe kicks off HERE – on Free Comic Book Day!

Ape Entertainment

Kizoic Presents: Shrek & The Penguins Of Madagascar
Featuring four stories by the artists and writers of the upcoming Shrek and Penguins of Madagascar comic books!

Archaia Entertainment

Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock
Two amazing all-new stories in one fantastic flip-book!

Archie Comics

Archie’s Summer Splash! #1
“Whose BEACH is it Anyway?”: Sun, sand, swimsuits and cool rockin’ tunes — no, it’s not a cinematic “beach party” blast from the past, but a whole new summer splash from Archie and his friends!



BOOM! Studios

Toy Story
With Toy Story 3 hitting theaters this summer, don’t miss this opportunity to get a FREE issue from the ongoing Toy Story series from BOOM Kids!

Drawn & Quarterly

Yow! The John Stanley Library
D+Q delivers another wholly original and boisterous FCBD issue that will entertain readers of all ages—from the world's greatest all-ages cartoonist, John Stanley, in a beautiful package designed by Seth.

IDW Publishing

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #155½
This is what you really want! Larry Hama continues his original and ground-breaking G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero saga with the very next issue (but, you know, 15 years later).

Let’s hear it for G-Man!

Yesterday (or was it Wednesday?) I acquired my copy of issue #3 of G-Man: The Cape Crisis, and I want to say that it is still consistently the best comic on the market today. It is fun, entertaining, not predictable, and easily accessible to a younger audience while not insulting the intelligence of older readers.

What more could you ask for in a comic?

I mean, seriously? the art is wonderful the story is exciting, and I’m enjoying the heck out of this comic. It really is one of only a couple of comics that I eagerly await each month.

In this episode, we have Great Man selfishly selling pieces of the magic cloth that give Great Man and G-Man their powers (thus disrupting the power source), while G-Man and his friends are working with the Wizard, Glendolf, attempting to recover the pieces before there is a magical power inversion which could cause untold harm to both boys as well as to the many people who were tapping into the mystical power.

There is even a chilling cliff-hanger at the conclusion of this issue, which just goes to show how you can have a thrilling story without going all “gritty” on the readership.

As with previous issues, Chris has some of his cartoonist buddies pen a couple of back-up stories to help round out the issue. Oh yeah, there is also a cameo with Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon (G-Man ran as a back-up feature in Savage Dragon for several issues).

If you haven’t yet picked up G-Man, then you need to do so. If your shop doesn’t carry the comic, you need to tell them to do so, seriously. You’ll be glad you did.

G-Man Rules!

That’s right, you heard me! G-Man is simply put the coolest comic currently being published!

Chris Giarrusso the writer/artist of the series, is perhaps best known as the very talented cartoonist who brings us Mini Marvels, which (as you already all know) is the long-running series appearing irregularly over the past several years in numerous Marvel Comics. The strip very successfully re-imagines the Marvel characters as superheroes, but as young kids (usually delivering Newspapers).

Always funny and extremely entertaining the strip usually plays off whatever current story lines are occurring in the comics. He also has had a long-running series (similar in nature) which has been appearing over at Image. the G-Man comic (featuring Chris’s original characters), is an outgrowth of those stories.

I’ve been picking up the series (slated to run five issues) and it is very entertaining. I highly recommend it.

The G-Man comic explores the origins of magical cloth that give both G-Man and his older brother Great Man their super-human powers. Cute, funny, insightful, and wonderfully illustrated, the series is everything that a comicbook should be.

If you have a youngster who you want to get into comics, put one of these comics in his or her hands. They will love it, and thank you for turning them onto this extremely entertaining series.

Oh yeah, there are a couple of back-up strips that are contributed by friends of Chris’s and fellow cartoonists. They are also entertaining; and if you go to Chris’s site, you’ll get Chris’s upcoming convention schedule.

A horse of a different color

Well, the Spider-Man/Obama comicbook is out now,and, well, I didn’t get one.

That’s right. I didn’t get on. You see, one of the comic shops at which I usually shop, was supposed to get 40 or 50 of them, and put most of them out at cover price, only they were (apparently) shorted by their distributor. To be sure, they will be getting copies of the second printing in next Wednesday (there is already a third printing, I understand). The second printing is supposed to have a yellow cover (rather than the blue of the first printing — no word on what the third printing will look like).

The cover you see here is the “Standard” cover. It is the version that I purchased, because, well, I am not about to pay exorbitant price-gouging prices for a brand-new comic, I don’t care who is on the cover. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ll pick up a copy of the second printing next week, because, well, it is kind of a cool thing to own, but only at cover price.

On the day of issue, neither of the two shops near me, nor the guy I purchase my books from has the Obama cover. a shop three towns away was selling them for $40.00, and my brother picked one up two towns further out for $15.00 (he’s thinking of selling it, and I’ll replace it with a 2nd printing edition).

Personally, I don’t see this comic holding its value over the long haul. I mean it will be like this for three, maybe six months, but a year into Obama’s term, or after he is no longer in office (eight or 10 years from now) it simply will not exponentially increase in value.

Near as I can determine (through my own inquiries, and by chatting with other collectors), the folks scrambling to buy this issue at any cost are — by-and-large — not comicbook collectors. They are (first and foremost) speculators, Democrats who voted for Obama, and, well, African Americans. I can’t help but to think that anyone who is buying this comic with the intention of selling it in a few years and putting their children through collage are going to be seriously disappointed.

Interestingly enough, I recently learned that this is not the first time that Obama’s visage has appeared on the cover of a comic (and, no, I’m not counting the pair of comics that came out before the election). Two companies published comics staring him and Senator McClain. One comic was a flip book (one side Obama and the other McCain) while the other company (IDW) produced individual comics for each candidate.

No, I'm talking about Obama appearing on the cover of Savage Dragon #137. In fact, the way I hear it, Obama has become something of a regular in Savage Dragon. I really don’t follow that title, so I was totally unaware of this, but still, I find it hard to believe that Erik Larsen put Obama on the cover and I, as both a Democrat and funnybook fan missed the announcement entirely.

To me, that simply smacks of bad marketing.

Anyway That’s what I have today (truthfully, I have more, but I’ll leave the rest for tomorrow, now I’m going to bed). In the mean time, go back and look at the Spidey cover again, as it is this cover that will be the topic of our next conversation.

More heroes from my closet

Over the past couple of days I’ve been posting images of some of my wearable heroes. Well, here’s something interesting, Most of you folks think that — as a certified Marvel Zombie — I’m all about Marvel wear, well, what that is essentially is true, it is not entirely so (as the Superman hat to the left can attest). hence, I will now present some of my non-Marvel wear:

First up is my Calvin & Hobbes shirt. Now I know what you are thinking, Bill Watterson never authorized any Calvin & Hobbes merchandising. For him, it was all about the comic itself. Well, when I purchased the shirt, I didn’t realize that, so I bought the shirt. It was only later that I realized that it was a bootleg. Needless to say, as I love the characters so much, I can’t get rid of the shirt, only as you can imagine, I no longer wear it out of the house. All-in-all a fair compromise (And Bill, if you are reading this, I’m sorry, but if it helps, I’ve purchased all of your books about Calvin & Hobbes).



Next up are a pair of Image shirts that I scored back in ‘95 at the San Diego Comic Con. That was perhaps the most fun I ever had at a convention. I was at the height of my professional career and knew or was known by most of the Pros at the event. (Oh yeah, the image off to the left is the back of the Wetworks T.)






While I was at this convention, I also donated blood at the Robert A. Heinlein blood bank, and received this free T-Shirt: I’m also including the small logo on the front as well as the back image. Technically not a comic-T but as I got it in San Diego, at a Con, I think it should count.



Next up are a couple more shirts that I scored at that ‘95 San Diego Con. One from Tekno Comics (a company that no longer Publishes) and a Dark Horse Star Wars shirt:





Hey, remember the Warren Beatty Dick Tracy movie? Don’t worry, I do, and this was the T-Shirt that people who saw it on opening night got. In fact, it was “technically” our entrance. Everyone was supposed to wear the shirt into the film. Several did, but many did not.



This next shirt I got at last year’s MoCCA convention. I have no idea what the comic it is promoting is about, but it was free, and it is kinda cool. Still, it is mostly a shirt I wear around the house, rather than out and about.



These last two shirts I got several years ago from not a comic book company but some Tech company (OKI Semiconductor) that had commissioned the creation of these two characters to promote their product lines and/or services. I tried at the time to convince them that I could create actual comics with these characters, but I never really got anywhere with them.





OK, that’s it for now. See you again tomorrow.

Join the ComicMix!

Why does the world need a new site talking about comics? Well, if you have to ask, then you must have wandered into this space by accident because we are all about comics here at Is Nothing Sacred?.



Some personal friends of ours have hooked up with AOL and formed ComicMix. According to the site, ComicMix.com is...

...the new site for readers who enjoy all types of fantastic media, from comic books television and movies to video games and more. Every day, visitors find news, facts, reviews, commentary, columns and a community environment that reaches across the globe, across decades and into the future.

For the rest of that description, you can go here:

A couple of the principals involved in this endeavor are Mike Gold and Mike Raub (both long-time friends). The President and Editor-in-Chief is none other than Mike Gold who is a 30-year veteran of the comic book industry, among his many roles in the industry, Mike has been a group editor and director of editorial development for DC Comics, founder and editorial director of First Comics Inc., and publisher of Classics Illustrated, he was also editorial director for ArrogantMGMS, creating intellectual properties and overseeing media and ancillary rights and packaging comic books published by numerous comic book imprints, including Image, Acclaim, and IDW.

Mike Raub, is the on-line presence of ComicMix, delivering three-times-a-week podcasts that report on comics and all things Pop Culture. I’ve known Mike for probably 30+ years, frist meeting him as a fan when he hooked me up with the guys over at The Comics Journal — who published my first article. Later on, when Mike opened up his first store, I started to buy my comics from him. Mike (like myself) has a radio background, which serves him well in this incarnation of his career.

I checked out a podcast, and found it entertaining, and, well, fun. I urge you al to bookmark his site and check him out as often as you possibly can.