Incredibles 2 @ McDonald’s!

So, a week or so back I watched Incredibles 2 and I want to report that it is every bit an entertaining film as was Incredibles. Quite literally picking up immediately at the end of the original film. it was a huge treat to watch this film and know that Director Brad Bird did an amazing job on maintaining the quality of the first film.

According to reports, Stan Lee remarked that the original film was the best Fantastic Four film that he never wrote; which is pretty high praise considering that there have been four live action films (including the first one in ‘94 that was never released theatrically) as well as two animated films (plus an animation TV show or two).

Further (and you may not know this part), there was a “stealth” cameo by “Mr. Excelsior” himself in the new film (seen below):

This scene appears like two-thirds through the film (I spotted it immediately, others didn’t, so I totally win here 😊).Oh, but to the point of this post. For the past few weeks, there have been Incredibles 2 toys at McDonald’s, and I’ve managed to acquire nine of the ten toys (I’m currently missing Mr. Incredible, but I hope to snag him in the next couple of days).

As regular readers of this blog know, I have something of an affinity towards fast food superheroes which wound up being a seed for an article I wrote about them that  — while it never wound up in print — ended up spring-boarding my book, Kiddie Meal Collectibles (Antique Trader Books March 2001).

Currently I have dozens of superhero fast food toys from numerous restaurant chains. Perhaps someday I’ll compile articles and images into a book specifically designed to delve into this very entertaining (to me at least) sub-set of fast food toys.

Meanwhile, my hunt for Mr. Incredible continues.

Update!Update!Update!Update!Update!Update!Update!

So, my delightfully lovely friend, Martha stopped at a MickyD’s in the great nutmeg state of CT and acquired for me a Mr. Incredible, thus completing my set. 

I’m so happy I could carry a book!

Martha is so sweet to not only put up with my excessive silliness, but to indulge me as well.

She’s the bestest! 

Owlgirls on Grawlix Podcast

Yeah, yeah, I know its been a while and all, but for those of you (both of you) who rather enjoyed Red Anvil Comics' Owlgirls, there is (apparently) still some interest in them. As evidenced by this recent Grawlix Podcast. The hosts talk about the book's two issues, and discuss what they liked and disliked about the book. Needless to say, they seemed to (mostly) enjoy it, and hoped that there were more issues coming.

As the writer of the series, I too hope that we can get back to this title and finish the (proposed) five-issue run of the initial story arc.

If you are interested in reading the first issue, it can be found on Amazon.

The Death of Captain Mar-Vell

So, we have just recently learned that Marvel’s film Captain Marvel — staring Brie Larson — is duethe seventh Captain Marvel (she was previously known as Ms. Marvel) in the comics, the film ignores all of that and puts Larson/Danvers as the first and only Captain.
to drop March 19, 2019.

This film deals with Captain Carol Danvers becomes Captain Marvel. Well, as we in the funnybook world know, while Carol Danvers was actually

Yes, yes, we totally understand that there are differences between the Marvel Comicbook Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe are different (oh Hell, we’ve been reading Marvel Comics for most of our life, and understand that there are differences in the comicbooks themselves.) Thing is, we know the original Captain Marvel, and we remember when he died.

In fact, we wrote about it at the time in the landmark issue of Comics Collector, at the time, and still to this day, feel that it was one of the most emotional and well-written graphic novels we ever read.

Here is the article that I wrote at that time. (the article was reprinted on Bleeding Cool back on November 17, 2013)

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.

Steve Bissette's Taboo!

Back in 1988, I went to a comic convention in New Hampshire. There I met Steve Bissette. Steve had recently announced that he was launching a horror anthology entitled Taboo. As I was regularly contributing to Amazing Heroes (AH) at the time, I asked if I could interview him, and secured his contact info. After the con, I contacted my editor, Kim Thompson, at AH to pitch the article.

I was given the go-ahead and then reached out to Steve. Only, Steve told me that he wasn't quite ready to launch the series. So I got back to Kim, who told me to continue to pursue Steve, and when Steve was ready, and I got the interview, to let Kim know, and he would schedule the article.

Well, I wound up calling Steve once a month for a year, while he gathered material for the book in preparation for the launch. Well, when he was finally ready, I got to chat with him. Steve, if you didn’t already know, was a extraordinarily talented horror artist and writer. When I began the interview I confessed to him that I really wasn’t a big fan of horror.

We then spent the next four hours talking about all kinds of horror, from comics, to books, to TV to film, and of course about Taboo itself. As it turns out I — quite literally — knew of every horror reference he made. Which really surprised me as (as I told Steve)  I really didn’t like horror, mostly as it truly scared the living crap out of me.

Needless to say, I got the interview, wrote the article and had it published in issue #153 of AH.

Then, for some 10 years after it’s publication, whenever I would run into Steve at a con, he would be very nice to me, saying hello, introducing me to others around him, and chatting with me. I never really understood why Steve was always so nice. Then one time he said to the folks with him. “Bob was the first person who wrote about Taboo.”

It was then that it suddenly occurred to me that what to me was simply me chasing a story (calling him once a month for a year), was to him the tenacity of a reporter intent on promoting something that was something of a life passion for him.

I have since caught up with and frended Steve on Facebook as well as reviewed his book Teen Angels & New Mutants, which details Rick Veitch’s groundbreaking work on the series Brat Pack. Anyway, today I happened to come across AH #153, and thought I’d post the interview in its entirety here.

I honestly think that it is one of the best articles I’ve ever written,

A (Writing) Blast from the Past

So, I was going through some old (file, not music) CDs of mine, and I came across one where I had archived an article I wrote back in 2006 for the premier issue of a magazine called Norwalkplus. As that particular article never quite made it to being posted online, I figured that I’d post those pages here now.

This turned out to be a pretty cool gig for me for a while, I even got to have a number of articles appear in not only Norwalkplus, but the mag’s sister publication Stamfordplus. While I don't have scans of those articles, I do have links to those online pages.

Super 7: Two sides of the same highway — this was an article for Norwalkplus about the proposed extension to Route 7

Artists in Residence — An article about The Silvermine Artists-in-Residence program. (Norwalkplus)

Engineering the 21st Century — A profile of the then newly-opened engineering high school AITE (Stamfordplus)

Stamford Today — about the Stamford Art Association (Stamfordplus)

A question of Suns

OK, so I was just watching the most recent episode of Supergirl on the CW (1/22/18 — Fort Rozz). In this episode she needs to travel to the Kryptonian prison, Fort Rozz, which is currently orbiting a blue sun.

Now, while I totally understand the concept of different colored suns (as well as the comicbook legacy that Kryptonians gain powers under yellow suns) it has always bothered me as to how Supergirl (man) is able to maintain her/his powers when out in space.

I'm sure that this must have been addressed in the comics over the years, only I don't actually recall.

I mean, is it that all Kryptonians actually have power, only the rays of a red sun somehow negate them? Do they only have powers under a yellow sun? (Do they have additional or alternate powers and/or abilities under different colored suns?)

What?

Anyone want to weigh in on this?

I mean, it’s not like this is keeping me up at night, but I really do kinda want to know.

Thanks