Ha, Ha, Halloween!

Flying away on a wing and a prayer

Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka
Many days of my youth were spent watching wrestling and him fly off the ropes.






I had a huge crush on The Greatest American Hero when I was little. I dug out my 45 of "Believe it or not": the theme song from the show to take to Chiller. William Katt still had blond curls under a Yankees hat, although they had some grey. He was very nice, shook all our hands, very California mellow. He signed my record "You're so great!". Isn't that how we'd love our childhood crushes to think of us? He did say "I can't believe you bought this record!". I told him I did, but probably never played the flip side. No photo because that was additional money.

Other sightings:
The big 3 from I dream of Jeannie: Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, Robert Culp. R bought an I Spy script from Culp, because he also was a writer.

K thought Kevin Sorbo- Hercules- looked really good.

Courtney Gains, Malachi from Children of the Corn, was on his cell phone. C thought he looked mad.

Linda Blair and Adrienne Barbeau looked good. Buffy's Mom was there. The wrestlers Jimmy Superfly Snuka, The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff had a lot of attention and seemed fun.

Gosh, it's Robin and Fangirl

At the Chiller con last night, I coughed up $30 for Burt Ward's autograph and this picture. He was nice, called me dear, and signed my pic "Zap, Laverne, Burt Ward "Robin" and added a smiley face. While I debated paying $40 more to have Adam West sign, he took a break for the night. I did hear him say how cold it was here.. and when he was walking in I called to Adam and said "are you cold here in the northeast" and he smiled and said something like 'oh yes'. So I had my Batman moment.

The most interesting thing is that Adam and Burt had tables in between them...and when one determined guy begged to take a photo with both of them...it was icy...Guess that book really ticked off Adam West...

More celebrity and horror details soon!


Burt Ward

Ward also wrote a controversial book called Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights, which described his life while he was playing Robin, and his and Adam West's sexual misadventures with various fans. Of the latter, West has since claimed they are untrue. In 2001, Ward began Boy Wonder Visual Effects, Inc.

Holy Batman and Robin at Chiller

This fangirl is off this afternoon to the Chiller Theatre Con! The list of guests is amazing...horror, wrestling, TV. I'll post some pictures soon.

I am most excited to see--
George Romero
Adam West and Burt Ward (Batman and Robin!)
Lee Meriweather (Catwoman
Face and Murdock from the A team
Adrienne Barbeau
William Katt ( I have my Greatest American Hero song on 451)
Malachai from Children of the Corn
Buffy's mom
Dark Shadows cast
Superfly Jimmy Snuka- The Iron Sheik- Nikolai Volkoff

Chiller Theatre

Scratching the Superfriends itch

Sometimes I hear Alex Ross backlash, like he is overrated...but his work is always breathtakingly detailed. dramatic. From the orange scales on Aquaman to the green color sheen of the Riddler...Even his take on Poison Ivy, as more of a gothic pagan type is more interesting than the campy Ivy cheesecake typically shown...

Justice 2 is Batman's story, with The Riddler and Brainiac causing villianous havoc.

And the 'cure that can mend broken bones and realign twisted membranes' -- could it cross into DC's Birds of Prey and help the Oracle?

Justice 2 interview with Alex Ross in Newsarama 'set before they started killing people willy-nilly in 1976 or so'

The world of The Gift

THE GIFT --- "The Pay is Good" --- vol. 1, March 2003. So I'm way behind on this one, but glad I picked it up.

The cover artwork (Pencils by Tyler Kirkham) drew me in and made my decision to try The Gift comic, written by Raven Gregory.

The philosophical 'voice overs' were thought provoking "Many of us go through our lives wondering what's next. The moment never satisfies us." The storyline here is that the ancient one is on a quest to receive items of incredible power.

I don't do suburbs, Jim

Steve Niles brings his spooky writing from 30 days of night and Scott Hampton brings his Life Eaters bloody artwork to Batman Gotham County Line. Book1: The Obvious One cost $5.99.

Children suffocated, mother slashed, and father's without eyes...bloodshot eyes and sharp teeth dripping blood.... are images you'll see as Batman is asked by Comm. Gordon (Uncle to beloved Babs) to investigate the four families found murdered. Batman comes across just as typical snobby Gothamite (substitute NYC) "I don't do suburbs, Jim"

I'm used to Batman stories being dark and textured, he is the Dark Knight after all. I'm not squimish generally, but this felt a little much for me. Mobiles of eyes around the room...In the last Fell, it was dead fetuses hung around the room...What ever happened to blacklight posters and beads?

Library skills rule the world

In Birds of Prey 87, The Calculator says that Oracle is a threat. That "the reason this society will triumph -- is my knowledge, my databases, my sources that are going to make us victorious". Essentially, the library and information science skills I need for my job could also help me to become ruler of all time, space and dimension...(insert daydream).. but of course, I use my powers for good!

Also, there is a They Might Be Giants reference. Canary has a mission in Istanbul (not Constantiople). Comics and TMBG, some of my favorite things together!

OpieBlue soul brother

My newest comic soul brother is at OPIEblue . He has strawberry blonde hair and we both love comics, Buffy, counting freckles, The Amazing Race. The beefcake photos of boys on his site are fine with me too!

she's not a sex offender, she's a reporter

I continue my devotion to Y the Last Man, with issue #38. BKV continues to delight me with his wordplay and characters in Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann...

Yorick's quotes on his perceived inadequacy were priceless...
"The porno freak who zapped you and took a picture of my junk"
"I didn't even have time to chump up"

355's story had some revelations that she was once engaged to her prime, 1033...female recruits have to apprentice with one.

Will Yorick get to the "place Margo runs" where Beth might be?

Zombie preparedness

Several sources lead me to believe that we need to be prepared for an all out zombie attack, tied to The Walking Dead comic, 28 days later and...

Recently I bought the book The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead , and am trying to remember these lessons in case of attack.

Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

Organize before they rise!
They feel no fear, why should you?
Use your head: cut off theirs.
Blades don't need reloading.
Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
No place is safe, only safer.
The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

Also, today's The Onion headline is Study Reveals Pittsburgh unprepared for full-scale zombie attack . "tens of thousands of Pittsburgh citizens live in close proximity to a cemetary".

Nerds in love PVP

PVP comic -- Jonathan Luna cover! With not one, but two redheads!
The summary...

Brent (the smartass, master of the inappropriate comment) and girlfriend Jade (the babe, half hot-chick, half gamer geek) deal with the arrival of little sister Miranda, the 'college girl gone wild' .

My favorite line is when Francis (the nerd, his lack of a life revolves completely around video games) meets Miranda and says "Miranda, eh? Well you have the right to remain sexy!"

PVP was amusing, kind of juvenile, but still interesting for a black and white 8 panel setup.

The roots of desire

..Maybe the reason for so many redheads in comics can be found in the book
The Roots of Desire: The myth, meaning, and sexual power of red hair. I love this book , and learned a lot about red hair in history and society.

...fiery, unstable, hot-tempered, highly sexed, evil, deceitful, beautiful, dangerous...all this and more has been said of redheads. What is true and what is myth?

Aristotle thought redheads were "emotionally unhousebroken"

4% of the world's population are redheads

The perception of the color red enhances metabolism and increases heart rate and respiration

Hitler banned the intermarriage of redheads for fear of "deviant offspring"

...more redhead fun in the future!

Brooklyn's Rocketship

A new comic book/graphic novel/cartoon art store opened in Brooklyn called ROCKETSHIP. Looks like the start of somethin' good...and great comic store tees...

3 greatest hopes cannnot work together

Quotes from Infinite Crisis. And I like it.

Ouch!
"Need to be inspired and let's face it Superman...the last time you really inspired anyone was when you were dead"

Yeah!
"This looks like a job for Superman!"

Sigh.
"Maybe love is powerless here. Maybe love is too much."

"This is what the world does to legends. It corrupts them...or destoys them."

Belgian Niklos koda

C bought me this Belgian comic- all in French- because of the redhead on the cover. The artwork is detailed, evocative..but I didn't even attempt to follow the story. Google translation shows this to be the plot...the translation for the collection is the "The third Vagueness"- that sounds, well, vague, but cool.


Niklos Koda died, assassinated in full street in Prague. It tried to wedge there Hali Mirvic thanks to the involuntary complicity of Sonia Dobrovna, distorts businesswoman charged to bleach the money of this former head of the Soviet secret service reconverted into the traffic of weapons. Russian Safety had entrusted the same task to its agent Valentina Souleva, ex-mistress at the same time of the trafficker and the diplomat-spy. Neither it nor Mirvic however financed the murder of Koda. Did another organization thus come into play, but for the account of which?

While Mirvic endeavours to identify its new adversaries and to save its skin, Valentina concludes a strange market with a close friend from the Koda family: in exchange of the banking code of Mirvic that Niklos had obtained from Sonia Dobrovna, it reveals the address to him which it held secret of the institution where since eight years the girl born of its connection with the diplomat-spy lives.

Was the love which linked them true? Didn't the design of this child rather form part of a plan machiavelic warped by Hali Mirvic at time when it directed the secret service of the USSR and where Valentina worked under its orders?

It's like that

I was looking at Wizard Magazines November 2005 Top 10, and decided I wanted to make my own lists of who I'm diggin' on right now. Dissent is encouraged! "It's like that, and that's the way it is" - Run DMC

RedFan Top Writers:
Brian K. Vaughan (Y the Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways)
Gail Simone (BOP) Yea, a woman!
Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invinicible)
Scott Beatty
Kurt Busiek (Astro City: The Dark Age)
Joshua Luna (Girls)
Warren Ellis (Fell, Desolation Jones)
Dan Slott (She-Hulk)
Sean McKeever (Mary Jane)
Ed Brubaker (Sleeper)

RedFan Top Artists:
JonathanLuna (Girls)
Pia Guerra(Y the Last Man)
Cory Walker (Invincible)
John Cassaday- Serenity cover of Wash
Colleen Coover (Banana Sunday)
David Hahn
Alex Ross (Justice)
Kirk/Clarke(Aquaman)
Jim Lee (All Star Batman and Robin)
Rags Morales and Ethan Van Sciver for being great artists and decent guys when you meet them!

O'ctober

October comics I'm anticipating...
Book of Lost Souls (Straczynski and Doran) "human interest gothic fantasy" A suicide attempt leads a man to a life in a world a century removed from his own, where he must help those whose destinies are as of yet unwritten.

Infinite Crisis (Johns, Jimenez, Lanning)
All Star Batman and Robin 3 (Miller, Lee)
Justice 2 (Ross)

She-Hulk 2 (Dan Slott, Bobillo)
"Dan Slott's tongue-in-cheek look at the world of superheroes and the law, critically acclaimed for its blend of adventure and sophisticated humor, is the best part of this irreverent, unpredictable series"

Different Bat times....

This is my Batman alarm clock. The funniest part is that I can project the time (along with a bat signal) on the ceiling. The further the projection- like on the opposite wall-- the bigger the time is. I wonder what someone would think if they saw a 2 foot projection on my bedroom wall -- it's a deep shade of red. Crazed.

Storm with red winds, fire and blades

Picked up today...Batman Gotham County Line (5.99!), Aquaman 35, Fell 2, and 2 horror comics in honor of this Ha, Ha, Halloween month...Escape of the Living Dead, and Night Mary 2 (but waiting to get NM 1).

And Red Sonja, for only 25 cents...so worth it for a redhead she-devil with a sword! "She was white and red, like sand on fire"

still Pre-IC

By Wed we begin Post-IC journeys...Even as an overhyped marketing event for DC...It's exciting just to have an event in comicland.

October 12....Infinite Crisis #1....
DC's icons — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman — are joined by Nightwing, Supergirl, Donna Troy, Superboy, Robin, Wonder Girl, Green Lantern, the Flash and more as they face their most dire hour. What happens next will destroy friendships and lives, dictating the direction of the universe for the next generation!

http://www.dccomics.com/comics/?cm=4336

Nanobots and Mockingbirds

Currently I am juggling 3 books - The Sound and Fury (book discussion), Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs (pop culture analysis) and The Glass Castle (childhood memoir of a wacked family)...but always squeeze some comics in...

1 month until Infinite Crisis! DC is banking on this series...let's hope it brings the same debate and interest as Identity Crisis.

OMAC 6 of 6 Animus Automous
The race to stop the OMAC's from causing 'the single greatest mass slaughter of heroes and villians that has ever been seen'. Other than destroying the nanobots, the only other cause is a EMP explosion...and Batman decides to draw the nanobots in, a deathtrap, but only if he "doesn't do my part"

Villians United 5 of 6
The society, the secret six, 314 bad guys, the fearsome five (but only4), Scandal the redhead, Catman, Ragdoll, Luthor, and Who is Mockingbird?....Whew! Everytime I read this series I feel overwhelmed with the sheer number of characters. Now that it's nearing the last episode (6) I have started to make some sense of it...just in time to wipe it from my brain!

for I am the wizard Shazam

I've had Superman Shazam 1 for about a month, but it took until now to read it. I kept putting it off thinking it wasn't going to thrill me. I'm not bowled over, but am interested enough in the storyline to give it a try for #2 (was out this week).

Captain Marvel and Superman join forces at the end of #1. One set of villians are from the fossil fuel industry, very timely these days. Judd Winicks writing could be dramatic "Fate is an emotionless beast, as well as an inexhaustible foe" or silly, with both 'crud' and 'iron butt' thrown in. Joshua Middleton has that retro superhero stylizing to the art.

No surprise to me

from http://www.bat-hound.com/batgirl/collectibles.html

Salmon Doubts

I loved Salmon Doubts by Adam Sacks - it's going on my top 20 list! Deceptively simple in appearance- but complex in thought- graphic novel.

Geoff, Henry, Louis, Samantha... the life cycle of these salmon imposed with existential questions! Want to think about concepts of conformity, individualism, sex, relationships? The artwork reminds me of James Kolchaka (Monkey vs. Robot), printed with those purplish unusual inks-- a graphic artist could explain much more eloquently!

"Why are we swimming upstream? Because everyone else is? What's the point?"
"Tradition, I guess."

Comic Jam War this April

Thanks to Comicbookscoop for listing this...

Comics Jam War brings comic book creation into comic shops!

On April 1st, 2006, teams of comic book creators will gather in comic book stores across the U.S. and Canada. At noon Eastern time, 9 AM Pacific time, they will all be given a topic for the comic book, and then each team will start work on an all-ages 8 page black-and-white comic book story. Twelve hours later, the drawing stops.

A panel of comics industry professionals will then judge the stories, with cash prizes and publications in a special anthology.

comicsjamwar.com

3rd gen Joss

Did you know that Joss Whedon (Buffy, Serenity, X-men, more) is a 3rd generation television writer?

Joss Whedon, writer, director, producer, composer and sometimes actor, is perhaps the world's first third-generation television writer. His grandfather, John Whedon, was a successful sitcom writer in the 50s and 60s on The Donna Reed Show (1958) and Leave It to Beaver (1957), and his father, Tom Whedon, wrote for The Dick Cavett Show (1969), Alice (1976) and Benson (1979).


You really have to know somewhere to get anywhere in the creative industry...I just learned that CNN's Anderson Cooper is Gloria Vanderbilts son! It's a week of relative revelations for me.

Regret street

FELL by Warren Ellis is a great new comic. Sad, scared and messed up people of Snowton, and the new detective in town. It resonated with me- the girl scout in me is still surprised by language, but the hip part of me realizes the power and authenticity of the language. Looking forward to Fell 2 this week.

"I have exactly 3 1/2 detectives to cover the entire precinct" "3 and a half?" "Owlsley has no legs..."

"Of course she's crazy- why would I think that any girl I met wouldn't be crazy?"

Hush, Mera, It's all right

I've always liked Aquaman. From my childhood days of watching Superfriends. I guess since I loved going to the beach and the ocean, that went along with watching Aquaman.

In Aquaman 34, he is with his dying (redhead) wife Mera. She is only being kept alive in Atlantis by a spell, but it's pretty noble/romantic how Aquaman wants to take her. And fights for her. But she is the Queen of Atlantis...and a big 'ol fight ensues. "Because I'm taking Mera with me-- unless you kill me-- if you can"

I do feel for Esther, Aquaman's girlfriend waiting for him. There is a funny exchange with her friend who says he won't show up "Not if he's like most men, he won't. And this one, he's even got a great excuse for not showing up. He's Aquaman! Out there saving the world and whatnot. That's what you get for dating a 'super hero'."

This makes me think that besides the boy chooses between brunette or blond (a la Betty and Veronica)...sometimes it's boy chooses between blonde or redhead (a la Mary Jane and Gwen in Spidey, and here). The redhead always seems to be the more interesting choice....