The phone books are in! The phone books are in!”

Actually, the truth of the matter is that not only were they in quite a while back, but I’m not really talking about phone books as much as I was quoting Steve Martin’s character from his film The Jerk. What I am talking about is the 2006 Comics Values Annual.

This is a comicbook price guide that has been coming out now for so 13 or 14 years now (I’ve been associated with it since the second or third year as first a writer and then as a contributing editor).

Well the current edition is out and even though my name doesn’t appear on the cover, I can assure you that I’m a contributor (in fact, much of the interior copy is written my me, and has been for the last 10 years).

At any rate, here it is, and I had a helping hand in it. What could be cooler than that?

Oh My God, they drowned Aquaman!!!

(You bastards!)

“Aquaman is a dead man, miss him, miss him.”

That’s right bouys and gulls, the recent merger of UPN and The WB has already claimed its first victim, the never actually titled Smallville spin-off that was to have featured a young Aquaman. The proposed series is now deader in the water than yesterday’s fish.

So now, I suppose you could say that Aquaman sleeps with Luca Brasi* — not that there is anything wrong with that.

The full story is here.

*Oh get over yourselves, this is a Godfather reference.

The S#it-Storm is about to begin!

Ok there boys and girls, I’m going to present this without comment, except to say the press for Superman Returns is already starting, only I’m not entirely certain that we in the rank and file of comicbook fandom really want. Here is the cover for The Advocate.

Yeah, that’s sort of how I feel about this magazine’s cover as well. No, I haven’t actual read the article; a friend of mine sent me the on-line image, which is all I’ve seen at this point. According to the on-line blurb, “Advocate arts and entertainment editor and lifelong comics fan Alonso Duralde looks at superheroes and their appeal to gays and lesbians.” Personally, I never knew that they did. Ah well, perhaps it is just me then, eh?

All I can say is “Hold onto you capes and cowls kids!”

The Countdown to Civil War!

This is supposed to be a bigdeal event in the World of the Marvel Universe. I heartily suggest everyone check it out:

Yeah I’m a Spider-Geek and a Marvel Zombie. Like I care what you all think.

John Wilcox is Famous!

By Robert J. Sodaro
Have you ever wanted to be famous? Yeah, me too. Only, how to go about it has always been a question. Well, if you are a fan of the comicstrip Moose and Molly, you might have noticed a trend that been occurring over the past several months. There has been a name (more than one, even), which keeps cropping up in the strip.

Well, according to strip creator, Bob Weber, Sr. there are certain names that due to their unique alliteration sound funny (to Mr. Weber, anyway, and since it is his strip, who’s to argue?) so he keeps using them. One of these names is John Wilcox.

Well, the name John Wilcox isn’t a made-up name, it is the name of a real-life individual who is also a good friend of Weber’s. More than that, John Wilcox is a writer, photographer, comicbook colorist, musician, and cartoonist himself. (He has colored The Amazing Spider-Man, Excalibur, and Rom Spaceknight for Marvel, and has written and colored for several other major publishers, including Elvira, Little Archie, & Felix the Cat.

To date, John (or rather his name) has appeared five or six times in the strip. Some of those appearances have been here, here, and here. Evey indication is that he will appear again. For more about John, you can visit his Web site, or just keep reading Moose and Molly.

Bring on the Bat Pooch!

By Robert J. Sodaro
OK Kids, Everyone has pets, right? Superman has Krypto, so doesn’t Batman deserve his own pooch? Apparently someone thinks he does...

Graphically Designed.

I just read the following in GD USA, one of the Graphic Design trade publications that I receive. DC Comics received the cover for the February issue (hey, I was on vacation, and just noticed it in my stack of “to read” stuff.) In the publication’s Seen and Noted section was this blurb:

Heroic Challenge

To keep the iconic hero fresh, DC Comics and Warner Brothers asked Little & Company to re-energize the Superman brand and keep it relevant to modern audiences. The resulting brand book helps Warner Bros. business units, licensees and mass merchandisers understand the essence and value of the brand, as captured through vintage and modern imagery and stylized language. The project dovetails with upcoming plans for the release of the movie, “Superman Returns.”

Personally, I was hoping for more, but that’s really all that there was. Anyway, an image of the cover can be found here" Needless to say, from some of the interior graphics (seen here in this post), it appears as if Little & Company have actually developed some sort of internal "branding" book that defines the new look.

Now wouldn’t that make for a cool collectible, eh?