MUCH ADO ABOUT MONDAY

There is a lot of stuff going on in the world of Tony Isabella and, as usual, I can’t tell you about all of it yet. However, with your kind indulgence, I’ll give you some news about my new book and my upcoming garage sales.

With one of the longest titles in recorded history, July 1963: A Pivotal Month in the Comic-Book Life of Tony Isabella: Volume One by Tony Isabella [Pulp Hero Press; $17.95] will be released on July 3. It will be available through Amazon, from publisher Bob McLain, and elsewhere, including directly from me at my comics convention appearances and garage sales.

If you’re a regular reader of this bloggy thing of mine, you know that July 1963 was when Fantastic Four Annual #1 was published. It was that comic book that made the 12-year-old Tony Isabella want to make comic books himself. Because I am a retentive personality, I decided I would acquire, read and write about all of the 136 or so comic-book issues that came out in that month. This is an ongoing obsession of mine.

What Bob and I have done is collect the first twenty-two columns in the series in book form. I’ve re-edited and somewhat re-written the columns. I have written new introductory material for this volume. At Bob’s suggestion and with the assistance of my son Ed Isabella, I have added informative sidebars to every chapter. The subjects of these sidebars include Interplanetary Olympics, the cost of living in 1963, integration in South Carolina, fashion in 1963, the truth behind the “red phones” connecting the White House and Moscow, the bombing of San Francisco and much more.

The July 1963 columns will continue in this bloggy thing with the intention of publishing a new collection of those pieces whenever we have enough to fill another volume. All such volumes will also contain new material and sidebars.

Without checking my July 1963 boxes, I’m sure I have enough comics from that month to fill the second volume. However, after that, I might need some help from my readers.

I’m considering a crowd-funding campaign to pay for the July 1963 comic books I need to complete the series. The problem is I don’t have the experience and, more importantly, the time to properly run such a campaign. At this point, I’m open to your suggestions on how best to proceed. At some near future point, I’ll be looking for an experienced FOOT (Friends of Old Tony) member to run the campaign for me. Keep watching this space for further details.

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The summer’s first Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale will be held at Casa Isabella, 840 Damon Drive, Medina, Ohio on Friday and Saturday, June 16 and 17. The official hours of the garage sale are 9 am to noon. Depending on how my morning is going and whether or not there are people lining up for the sale, I might open the door a little bit early. Depending on what’s happening with the sale at noon, I might keep the sale going a little bit longer. I’m going to be as flexible with this as I can.

What will be on sale for this first garage sale? I can’t give you a definite answer to that today because, as I write today’s bloggy thing, I’m still working on getting ready for the sale. Here’s what I do know will be in the sale...

There will be 4-8 five-dollar mystery boxes. These are the standard Diamond Comic Distribution shipping boxes packed with comic books and other stuff from my garage sales. I usually start with a base of at least 25 comic books and then add books and magazines and sometimes even some other things. I like the boxes to be so full that it hurts me a little to lift them onto the table.

There will be boxes of comic books, books and magazines priced at a quarter apiece or five for a dollar. Customers often buy towering stacks of stuff from these boxes, so they must be finding some cool comics and books and magazines.

I will have over 60 collectible Monopoly games on sale at just five bucks each. Most of these are still factory-sealed. If you mention this blog, you can buy any five games for just $20. Maybe you can do some holiday shopping at my garage sale.

I will have several boxes of dollar comics. These are mostly recent comic books that have only been read once. The titles include such gems as Star Wars, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Uncle Scrooge, Mother Panic, Black Widow, Jessica Jones, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Savage Dragon, Black Panther and more. There are even some older comics in these boxes.

I will be selling Black Lightning Volume One as well as some other Isabella-written items. If you buy any of these, I will sign them at no charge. If you bring Isabella-written items you already own, I’ll sign them at no charge as well.

I’ll have hardcovers and trade paperbacks on sale at roughly 30% of their original prices. I’ll also have whatever else I can get onto the garage sale tables. When I say I have a *vast* accumulation of stuff, I ain’t kidding.

Some other stuff you should know:

Please be aware of parking signs around my house. I’d hate for one of my customers to get a ticket.

Driveway parking is strictly reserved for customers whose vehicles have handicapped stickers.

Cash only. If I know you, I’ll accept a check. Once I get a spare moment and learn how to use one of the new devices I have purchased for conventions and garage sales, I’ll get myself set up to take credit cards. But that definitely won’t be the case for this first garage sale of the summer.

This first garage sale is my “shaking out” cruise. After this first one is in the record books, I’ll be doing something special at the sales. This will include cosplay - you, not me - and special guests. I’m also planning one and maybe more than one convention-style panel in my driveway. Keep reading the bloggy thing for details.

If you are a creator who would like to set up at my garage sales and sell your own work, e-mail me and I’ll see if I can accommodate you. The idea is to set you up under a party tent in the driveway or the lawn next to the driveway. There will be no charge for your space, but I won’t have space for more than one creator per garage sales unless you bring your own table and tent.

If you are a creator who would like to make the trip to appear on a convention-style panel, e-mail me about that. A DC Comics legend from several states away has already said he’d love to make the trip to do this. Hey, Medina and the surrounding area has all sorts of cool places to go and things to see. Think about it.

Here’s the full list of my convention dates for this summer. Make plans to attend as many of them as you can because I expect I will be putting new items on sale at every one of them.

Friday, June 16: GARAGE SALE

Saturday, June 17: GARAGE SALE

Friday, June 30: GARAGE SALE

Saturday, July 1: GARAGE SALE

Friday, July 28: GARAGE SALE

Saturday, July 29: GARAGE SALE

Friday, August 11: GARAGE SALE

Saturday, August 12: GARAGE SALE

Friday, August 25: GARAGE SALE

Saturday, August 26: GARAGE SALE

Friday, September 8: GARAGE SALE

Saturday, September 9: GARAGE SALE

Friday, September 22: GARAGE SALE

Saturday, September 23: GARAGE SALE

Friday, October 6: GARAGE SALE

Saturday, October 7: GARAGE SALE

One more thing.

Friday is the anniversary of the day Sainted Wife Barb and I were wed. It’s been 33 wonderful years. If you’d like to celebrate the day with us, please consider making a donation to one of these fine organizations...

American Civil Liberties Union
Hero Initiative 

LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland  

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network

Planned Parenthood
Southern Poverty Law Center

Thanks for stopping by the bloggy today. I’ll be back tomorrow with a bunch of reviews. See you then.  

© 2017 Tony Isabella

FREE COMIC BOOK FRIDAY #2

Previously in Tony Isabella’s Bloggy Thing...

Free Comic Book Day happens but once a year. Every year, good old Bloggy Tony gets all the FCBD issues from his friends at Stormwatch Comics in West Berlin, New Jersey. Then he tries to read and review  all of them. He judges those individual issues on three criteria:

QUALITY: Is the material worthwhile?

ACCESSIBILITY: Is the material presented in such a way that someone coming to it for the first time can follow it?

SALESMANSHIP: After reading the FCBD offering, would someone want to buy more of the same?

On a scale of zero to ten, each of those criteria is worth up to three points. Tony awards the elusive tenth point when he deems a FCBD offering particularly worthy. 

 

Let the judging continue...

Captain Canuck Year One #1 [Chapterhouse] reboots a Canadian super-hero many consider a classic. The inside front cover introduction by co-writer Jay Baruchel goes on about how exciting it is to work on this character, how great something called the “Chapterverse” is going to be and how saving Canadian comics is a sacred endeavor. That’s followed by a combination “what has gone before” and credits page, which, in turn, is followed by a sixteen-page snippet of the first of three books which comprise Captain Canuck Year One.

The issue’s centerfold shows a bunch of people relaxing at what I’m guess in some sort of lodge. Across the bottom of this centerfold are the logos of what I assume are the seven titles that will make up the afore-mentioned “Chapterverse.”

After full-page ads for Captain Canuck and Die Kitty Die, we get an eight-page Kitty vignette by Dan Parent and Fernando Ruiz. The back cover is the ever-present ad for the new Pirates of the Carribean movie, just to remind us that, against all that’s holy, Johnny Depp keeps getting cast in movies. Why are we being persecuted?

QUALITY: The Captain Canuck pages are a convoluted and over-written exercise with too many characters and not enough clarity as to what is going on there. The Kitty pages don’t do justice to one of the most fun and self-referential comics series in recent memory; they come off as an exercise in how many thinly-disguised parodies the creators can stick into eight pages. The Kitty segment suffers as a result of this conceit.

ACCESSIBILITY: The Captain Canuck segment does have helpful “what has gone before” material. The introduction and centerfold simply make me go “Huh?” The Kitty segment doesn’t do a good job telling new readers who the character is and what her world is like...and I will say again that the actual Die Kitty Die series is one of my recent comics favorites.

SALESMANSHIP: If a reader does like either Captain Canuck or Kitty after reading this FCBD giveaway, said reader will be aware there’s more of them to be had. If the reader really likes them, they may want to sample the titles listed on the centerfold.

SCORE: Four out of ten points.

                                                                          

The Incal [Humanoids] presents the first 26 pages of the graphic novel by multi-talented director and writer Alejandro Jodorowsky and comics legend Jean “Mobius” Gerard. Private investigator John Difool comes into the possession of a mysterious, powerful device. Wild adventures ensue. This graphic novel is the cornerstone of the Jodoverse, a shared universe that encompasses a great many planets, characters and stories.

QUALITY: This graphic novel is legendary with good reason. It’s a complex story but it’s also a somewhat typical private eye story. It’s well written with intriguing players and eye-opening graphics. Almost every page reveals something new and incredible about its future setting.

ACCESSIBILITY: The inside front cover is a terrific lead-in to The Incal. The 26 pages grab the readers and keep them in this story. Complex as it is, it’s easier to follow than many comics from major publishers.

SALESMANSHIP: There is a plethora of information about the graphic novels that make up the Jodoverse. If a reader likes what they saw here, they’ll have no trouble finding other books in the universe.

SCORE: Ten out of ten points.

                                                                                 

Scott Westerfield’s Spill Night [First Second] is a prequel to the  New York Times bestselling author’s graphic novel Spill Zone. His prose novels include the Uglies series and the Leviathan series. This prequel and the graphic novel are drawn by Alex Puvilland, who works for Dreamworks Animation.

As explained in Westerfield’s foreword, the graphic novel is set in the aftermath of an unexplained event that destroyed a small city in upstate New York. Older sister Addison cares for her little sis, providing for them by taking photos of the strange phenomena in the off limits city. The kid sister has a doll that is something more than a doll.

QUALITY: This is fairly solid storytelling. The transition between the night of the event and the now is a little shaky, but that was my only problem with this issue.

ACCESSIBILITY: “Unexplained” means the reader isn’t getting all the answers to what’s going on in this story. Given that, I think this prequel is very accessible to a new reader.

SALESMANSHIP: High marks. Besides a full-page ad for Spill Zone, we get a page showing the covers of eight other First Second comics. If a reader liked this free comic, they might consider checking out the Spill Zone graphic novel and these other books. That’s how it worked for me. Best of all, there’s no back cover ad for Pirates of the Caribbean: Make It Stop.

SCORE: Nine out of ten points.

                                                                             

Hilda’s Back [Nobrow Press] contains a 10-page segment of a Hilda story by Luke Pearson and a 12-page segment of Garbage Night by Jen Lee.

Hilda is an adventurous girl who’s appeared in five books and will be appearing on Netflix next year. This issue’s segment tells of a previous adventure and introduces a new story in which Hilda’s been changed into a troll and switched with a troll-baby who now looks human. There’s a two-page map of the Stone Forest where this tale takes place.

Garbage Night is set a post-apocalyptic wasteland where a group of young animals try to survive by scavenging supermarkets left from before. If there were humans in their lives - and that seems to be the case - those humans are no longer around.

QUALITY: Some scenes drag, but the writing and art fits these two series and is consistently good.

ACCESSIBILITY: Hilda is a bit easier to follow than Garbage Night - mostly because we don’t get any real details on life before that feature’s apocalypse - but both strips are very accessible to new readers.

SALESMANSHIP: Decent. While the issue isn’t clear on when or where Hilda’s story will continue, the back cover shows five Hilda books and also has an announcement that Garbage Night is coming in June. The centerspread shows fifteen other books from the publisher. I’m going to check some of them out.

SCORE: Seven out of ten.

                                                                              

 
The Loud House [Papercutz] is the comics version of the Nickelodeon show. Lincoln Loud is the middle child and only boy in a family of eleven children. The series debuted in May, 2016, and has been one of the top rated animated series on TV since that debut. The show’s creator Chris Sovino drew the cover and wrote two of the stories in this free comic book. I reviewed the first Loud House graphic album last month and you can read my comments here.

Full disclosure: Papercutz is one of my clients. For their graphic albums adapting The Garfield Show, I do the script restorations and write sometimes considerable additional dialogue. That relationship doesn’t have any bearing on my reviews, but I always like to tell my readers about such things.

QUALITY: The Loud House is a show I wish I had time to watch on a regular basis. It’s funny and well-done. The comics stories in this FCBD issue are much shorter than those on the series - some of them are basically gag strips - but they are also funny and well-done.

ACCESSIBILITY: The first interior page shows all eleven Loud kids. When the stories in this issue require it, their personalities are delineated. Even if a reader has never seen the TV series, they’ll be able to follow the comics book just fine.

SALESMANSHIP: The issue has seven pages of house ads showing well over a dozen different Papercutz books. The ads can serve as a list of Papercutz books a reader might want to check out.

SCORE: Ten out of ten points.

I’ll be back next Friday with another installment of my Free Comic Book Day round-up reviews.

I’ll be back on Monday with updates on my first Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale of the summer. It’s scheduled for June 16-17 from 9 am to noon.

In the meantime, have a happy and safe weekend.

© 2017 Tony Isabella

THREE MOVIE THURSDAY

Today’s three movies are proof positive that Bloggy Tony is willing to cut cheesy films like these a possibly illegal amount of slack. I’ve tried to explain my mania before, but here’s yet another look inside my thought processes...

I’m harder on comic books than I am on movies and TV shows. Because I know how to write good comic books and, as a result, know that’s not exactly brain surgery. I don’t know how to make good movies or TV shows. I’m like unto a caveman wondering how that “fire” stuff keeps me warm and cooks my food and helps me dispose of people like Rachel from Cardholder Services.

I can and do appreciate truly great movies and TV shows. But I do not demand greatness from them. In the case of movies like today’s offerings, if they keep me entertained for an hour-and-a-half, I’m good with that. I set the bar low. Honest.

First up today is Attack of the Killer Shrews [2016]. According to the Internet Movie Database, this film by Ken Cosentino was made on a budget of $2,000...and, no, I haven’t left out even one zero in reporting that budget. Here’s the IMDb summary:

Parody of the 1959 cult classic "The Killer Shrews." Hilarity ensues as small town Sheriff Martin Blake, movie starlet Fiona Rae and others defend the world from an onslaught of giant killer shrews.

The hilarity is usually forced, such as when virtually every actor or actress mugs for the camera while intoning the words “killer shrews.” The killer shrews are portrayed by not remotely believable puppets. The carnage and costumes - one character turns into this  half-human and half-shrew thing - aren’t any more convincing than the shrew puppets. But, despite all of the above, I kept laughing out loud over and over again during the movie’s 86-minute running time. In short, I had fun watching this film.

Written by Cosentino, who also plays a minor character, the movie is brilliantly and intentionally bad. Bill Kennedy is earnest when he plays the sheriff. Elizabeth Houlihan is delightful as the aging starlet trying to hold onto her career while taking up arms against the - picture me mugging for the camera here - killer shrews. The wondrous Lloyd Kaufman, himself no stranger to delicious cinematic cheese, introduces the movie. If I ever get to produce a late-night program featuring films like the ones that inspired my love of such movies, I would want Kaufman as the host.

The bottom line? Attack of the Killer Shrews is all about the fun. On my scale of one to five stars, I give this movie that recognizes its limitations and embraces them, four out of five stars. This one is a keeper.

                                                                              

Shark Killer (2015) is more action than monster movie. There is a big shark, but it’s only being hunted because it ate a diamond. I’m pretty sure another movie used this same bit and that I reviewed it in some previous bloggy thing, but if I start doing a bloggy thing search on “shark,” today’s bloggy would never get written. That’s what I get for being fixated on shark movies.

The Internet Movie Database offers this summary:

The services of shark killer Chase Walker have been engaged by his brother Jake, the head of a West Coast crime ring. The gig: kill the black-finned shark that swallowed a valuable diamond during a gang transaction. Enlisted to keep an eye on Ace is Jake's girlfriend, Jasmine. But Chase and Jasmine's relationship deepens with the threats from a rival crime boss: bring the diamond to him or die. Soon, loyalties will shift, and Chase will learn trusting in blood is for suckers. Now, it's crime boss against crime boss, brother against brother, and man against nature, as Chase strives to rescue Jasmine, save his own life, and track down the great black-finned shark that will be the greatest challenge of his career.  

Derek Theler is fun as Walker. Writers Richard Beattie and Sheldon Wilson - Wilson also directed - give him some amusing quirks, such as him not really liking the ocean from which he derives a living. The history between him and brother Jake [Paul du Toit] is complex, but also kind of fun. The best performance is from Erica Cerra as Jasmine. The worst is from Arnold Vosloo as rival crime boss Nix.

Shark Killer is a watchable 88 minutes long. It’s pleasant, but not a keeper. Though the movie was allegedly released on DVD in 2015, I could only find it from a dealer in Thailand. It probably wasn’t worth that extra effort and expense.

Shark Killer gets two out of five stars.

                                                                               

Produced by Roger Corman, Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader [2012] is a kind of sort of update of Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold [1995], which was also produced by Corman. Here’s the summary from the IMDb:

Aspiring college cheerleader, Cassie Stratford consumes an experimental drug that grants her beauty and enough athletic ability to make the cheer squad. The drug has an unforeseen side effect - Cassie starts to grow and grow and grow.

Though not without its moments of mirth, this movie just isn’t very good. It seemed much longer than its 84-minute running time. Jena Sims is likeable as Cassie while Sean Young is frankly hideous as her mother. Treat Williams is functional as the corporate villain who is financing the experiments. Sasha Jackson and Ted Raimi are fun as Cassie’s best friend and the scientist swayed to the profit motive by Williams. Olivia Alexander is unimpressive as mean girl Brittany and Mary Woronov, playing the scary sorority housemother, is typical Woronov. I don’t see that as a good thing.

Since some of you will ask, yes, there is some nudity and yes, it is quite nice. Not nice enough to save this movie, but nice. This one isn’t a keeper. Not remotely.

Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader gets one out of five stars...and that’s due to Jackson and Raimi. I really like Raimi and would love to see him as the hero of a cheesy monster movie. I think he could pull it off.

That’s all for today, my bloggy darlings. I’ll be back tomorrow to bring you another installment of “Free Comic Book Friday.” See you then.

© 2017 Tony Isabella

RAWHIDE KID WEDNESDAY 112

The Rawhide Kid is my favorite western comics character and one of my favorite comics characters period.  Something about the short of stature - but big on courage, honor and fighting skills - Johnny Clay speaks to me.  After rereading the Kid’s earliest adventures when Marvel reprinted them in a pair of Marvel Masterworks and an Essential Rawhide Kid volume, I wanted to reacquire every Rawhide Kid comic, reread them and write about them in this bloggy thing of mine. We’re currently in the extended twilight of the title. We’ve seen the last new Rawhide Kid story that will appear in the title, which is now a bimonthly reprint. This is the 112th installment in my “Rawhide Kid Wednesday” series.

We’re looking at The Rawhide Kid #124 [January 1975], but the cover you see at the top of today’s bloggy thing is the Joe Maneely-drawn cover of Rawhide Kid #14 [May 1957]. What you need to know here is that Johnny Bart aka Johnny Clay was not the original Rawhide Kid. The original Rawhide Kid was blonde, older and carried a whip. I’ve a vague memory that he was also a rancher, but that could just be my aging brain playing tricks on me.

The original appeared in Rawhide Kid #1-16 [March 1955-September 1957]. The title was changed to The Rawhide Kid when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a new western hero with the same name. That was in The Rawhide Kid #17 [August 1960].
                                                                             

Years later, for The Rawhide Kid #42 [October 1964], the Maneely cover was reprinted with the face of the main character redrawn so it looked like Johnny Bart. The character’s hat was moved from his front to his back as well. The GCD opines the redrawing was done by Kirby and I can see why someone would think that. I’m not so sure. However, for me, the bigger mystery is why this Maneely cover was pressed into service for this issue.

Publisher Martin Goodman and editor-in-chief/art director Stan Lee knew the importance of a comic book’s cover. Did a new cover fail to win their approval? Was it a deadline issue? Was a reprint used to save a few bucks? Was it some combination of all three? We may never know for certain.
                                                                                 

Time passes. Issue #42's “Gunfight with Yerby's Yahoos!” (18 pages) is being reprinted in issue #124. The Maneely cover has once again been altered. This time, one of the gunmen shooting at the hero has been redrawn, most likely by John Romita. This newer version of the  owlhoot is larger, sharper and has more personality. Combined with the restored white background of the earliest version of the cover, it makes for a much more striking image. If the GCD identification of Kirby as the artist who redrew the Kid’s face is accurate, this cover was a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between three of the company’s finest artists: Maneely, Kirby and Romita.

“Gunfight with Yerby’s Yahoos!” was reprinted without any cuts. The story was plotted by Stan Lee and scripted, pencilled and inked by Larry Lieber. I wrote about this story on October 31, 2012, and you can read my remarks here.

                                                                             

The “Marvel Bullpen Bulletins” page and house ads in this issue are the same as those in Giant-Size Kid Colt #1 [January 1975], which I wrote about in a special three-part “Rawhide Kid Wednesday” last month. In addition, this issue reprints a Rawhide pin-up by Kirby (pencils) and Paul Reinman (inks) that first appeared in issue #43 [December 1964]. This pin-up would also be reprinted in issue #137 [January 1977] and #138 [March 1977].

                                                                                  

The Rawhide Kid #125 [March 1974] reprinted the multi-paneled Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers from issue #35 [August 1963] as well as two of the three stories from that issue. “The Raven Strikes!” (13 pages) was written by Stan Lee with art by Jack Davis while “The Sheriff's Star” (5 pages), a non-series story was by Lee with Gene Colan on the art. I wrote about the cover and these tales in October, 2012, and you can read those comments here.

Comics dealers continued to advertise in the cluttered ad pages of this and other Marvel titles. This time around, those advertisers included: Passaic Book Center, Serra Comics, Comic Sales Company, David Belmont, Grand Book Inc, Richard Alf, Robert Bell, Howard M. Rogofsky, Ken Mieno, Seeley, Ken Pierce and R.M. Crestohl. If any of my readers were customers of these sellers, or if any of these sellers are around, I’d love to hear from you.

The most notable of the “classified” ads was from a young man name  of Alan L. Light. He was advertising The Comicollector’s Guide, “a newspaper just for comic book collectors.” A year’s subscription of 23 twice-a-month issues was just three dollars.

Launched in 1971, the paper was actually called The Buyer's Guide to Comics Fandom. When Krause Publications purchased the newspaper in 1983, they changed it to Comics Buyer's Guide and hired Don and Maggie Thompson to edit it. Switching from a weekly newspaper to a magazine in 2004, CBG would run until March 2013. For most of its forty-plus years, it was considered the newspaper of the comics industry. It was a great publication.

Unusually, Marvel had a half-page ad in this “classified” section. It proclaimed “Be a Mighty Marvel Salesperson! Or Maybe Just a Thrifty True Believer!” You could buy 12 comic books for the price of 8 for only two dollars. If you order ten bucks worth of comics, you got a poster drawn by John Buscema and featuring the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk.

There were two groups available. Group 1:

Daredevil
Hulk
Kid Colt
Spider-Man
Dracula
Capt. America
Frankenstein/Dr. Strange
Marvel Super-Heroes/War is Hell
Marvel Spectacular/Marvel Tales
Marvel’s Greatest Comics/Weird Wonder Tales
Marvel Triple Action/Monsters on the Prowl
Where Monsters Dwell/Two-Gun Kid

Group 2:

Avengers
Thor
Man-Thing
Conan
Marvel Team-Up
Werewolf by Night
Fantastic Four
Defenders
Master of Kung Fu
Jungle Action/Powerman
Marvel Two-In-One/Ghost Rider
Kazar/Astonishing Tales

The absence of The Rawhide Kid from either group makes me wonder if the title was being considered for cancellation. As with the comics dealers, I would love to hear from any of my readers who signed up to be a salesperson or thrifty true believer.

In the issue, Marvel also had a full-page ad pushing “Marvel Poster  Masterpieces” and “Mighty Marvel Belt Buckles.”

There were six 24" by 36" posters priced at two bucks each. If you bought five of the posters, you got the sixth one free. Here’s the line-up:

Spider-Man (probably by Steve Ditko)
The Incredible Hulk (Herb Trimpe)
Captain America (maybe Kirby and Romita)

The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 (Bruce Lee by Neal Adams)
Dracula Lives #3 (Neal Adams)
The Savage Sword of Conan #1 (Neal Adams)

The obvious question is...did the artists get compensated for the additional use of their work? My friend and sometimes mentor Neal was pretty consistent with sticking up for creator rights. I’ll ask him about this the next time I see him.

There were three belt buckles priced at $4.95 and you could order leather belts for $4 each. The belt buckles featured your choice of Spider-Man, Thor and the Hulk, though the Hulk image shown includes Sub-Mariner and Doc Strange, making it more of a Defenders buckle.

The “Marvel Bullpen Bulletins” page led off with Stan Lee using his “Stan Lee’s Soapbox” to extend holiday greetings to all...slipping in plugs for Spidey Super Stories, the new Marvel Calendar and the Origins of Marvel Comics book from Simon & Shuster.

Stan also wrote the first item of the page, announcing Len Wein as the new Executive Editor of Marvel’s color comics, Marv Wolfman as Executive Editor of Marvel’s black-and-white magazines, managing editors Chris Claremont and Don McGregor and Roy Thomas becoming Editor Emeritus to devote himself full-time to writing and editing his own projects.

Len’s first item announced that Scott Edelman was moving from the British weeklies to become an assistant editor on the color comics and Dave Kraft was assuming the title of Articles Editor for the black-and-white magazines. There was a lot of talent in the Bullpen in those days.

Len’s second item was all about Bullpen folks moving from here to there in the New York City areas. The further exceptions were Rich Buckler, said to be moving back to his native Detroit (though Rich was again living in NYC by 1976) and Dan Adkins moving from Ohio to Arizona.

Len’s third and final item was about those damnable Marvel Value Stamps, best known for decreasing the value of thousands of comic books. If I were writing a book of Marvel’s biggest mistakes, those stamps were surely make the top ten.

At the bottom of the bulletins page, there was an ad for The Mighty Marvel Comicon. Run by Phil Seuling, it was scheduled for March 21-24. No location was given.
                                                                    

The last editorial page in the issue was a full-page advertisement for the Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag treasury edition. It was “a riotous 100 pages of full-color features” with “no ads” and said to feature “14 of Marvel’s Most Magnificent Super-Stars drawn by eight of Marvel’s most talented titans.” Naturally, the company was doing this “all for you!”

Kidding aside, this was pretty sweet reprint collection. Here’s a list of the stories:

Spider-Man and the Human Torch in “Have Yourself a Sandman Little Christmas!” by Roy Thomas and Ross Andru. This tale is considered to be the first Misty Knight appearance by fucking idiots. It’s not and it’s an insult to Arvell Jones and myself to claim it is. That claim is likewise insulting to Misty herself and, for good measure, arguably racist. Just because two black women had Afros, they must be the same person? The story itself is terrific. The bogus claim? Not remotely terrific or acceptable.

Daredevil “In Mortal Combat With... Sub-Mariner!” by Stan Lee and Wally Wood. The best of the early Daredevil issues.

Black Widow in “...And To All a Good Night” by Thomas, Gene Colan and Bill Everett. The best of the Widow shorts.

The Fantastic Four in “The Hulk Vs. The Thing” & “The Avengers Take Over” by Lee and Jack Kirby. Still the very best of the Thing/Hulk battles.

Whoever picked these reprints did a great job. These stories remain among Marvel’s best.

That’s all for today, my friends. “Rawhide Kid Wednesday” will be back next week. Coming up tomorrow with be more movie reviews and, on Friday, the second installment of our new Free Comic Book Friday feature. See you then! 

© 2017 Tony Isabella

THREE MOVIE TUESDAY

I’ve been pounding the keyboard for such long hours lately that I sometimes have to stop to give my aching hands a bit of rest. I’ve been digging into the many unwatched movies I’ve accumulated. None of the three films I’ll be writing about today are classics. All of them did what I wanted them to do: give me a break for an hour and a half or so. We’ll start with the best of the bunch.

Red Billabong [2016] is an Australian thriller with two estranged brothers dealing with a legendary monster, a shady land developer and a sinister figure from their past. Written and directed by Luke Sparke, the film runs 113 minutes.

Having left the family home in the Australian bush years ago, Nick [Dan Ewing] returns following the death of his cryptozoologist grandfather. Tristen [Tim Pocock] never left and is involved with drug dealers. Though their grandfather wanted the land to go to the local Aboriginal tribe, his will leaves the decision to the easily tempted Tristen. Before long, we have Nick, Tristen, some friends (including Nick’s former girlfriend), the tribe and assorted evil  guys dealing with a creature most of them never knew existed. Oh, yeah, the creature has his own plans.

I read several negative reviews of this film, but I was entertained by it. The acting ran from decent to very good. The conflicts were believable. The CGI monster wasn’t outstanding, but it worked well enough. Though the movie is a little long at almost two full hours, there was sufficient suspense to keep me watching...and some actual surprises along the way. My only real objection was to the tacked-on scene during the end credits. Like so many such scenes, it was tacky and unnecessary.

Red Billabong was worth the effort it took me to get a copy - it’s not been released in the U.S. - and it might even be worth another viewing down the line. On a scale of zero to five stars, I give it a solid three stellar objects.   

                                                                             

Back in the day - the “day” being when I was working in the offices of Marvel Comics on the company’s British weeklies, comic books and  magazines, I reviewed Black Belt Jones [1974] for The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Don McGregor did the same. I praised the movie and Don panned it. More on that in a bit.

Black Belt Jones was a “blaxploitation” martial arts film starring Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, Scatman Crothers and Eric Laneuville. It was directed by Robert Clouse, whose impressive pedigree included Enter the Dragon. I saw the movie with Arvell Jones and some other young Marvel artists.

Here’s the Internet Movie Database summary:

A Mafia buy out of Papa Byrd's karate school downtown ends in his death. Byrd's daughter, Sydney, refuses to sell, and wants revenge. Byrd's students call the Black Belt Jones for help. Jones reluctantly teams with Sydney in many battles.

That’s not entirely accurate, but it’s close enough for government work. Which, coincidentally, is what the title hero does, albeit on a freelance basis. I watched the movie again over the weekend and it’s not very good. Don was right.

You’ve got your stereotypical Italian gangsters, your stereotypical black gangsters, slow-motion martial arts battles that get really silly outside a suds-spewing car wash and, of course, the hero as a sex machine. It was a long 85 minutes.

That’s not to say Black Belt Jones is without merit. Crothers plays a combination of hustler and martial arts teacher and it’s a very interesting performance. Hendry is a little too cute to be totally convincing as a kick-ass martial artist, but she brings some grit and spice to her role.

The most notable thing about Black Belt Jones is...it inspired me to create Misty Knight with my Iron Fist collaborator Arvell. Our memories of this creation differ somewhat, but Hendry does figure in both our versions. When I plotted Misty’s first appearance, my model was the tougher and sexier Pam Grier, but Hendry deserves to be cited as my original inspiration.

Why did I like the movie so much when I first saw it? Hendry gets some of the credit for that, but I think it was also because I saw it with Arvell and other friends. Sometimes good company can make a movie better. I’ll go with that explanation.

Black Belt Jones gets two out of five stars because, you know, it led to the creation of Misty Knight who has thrilled Marvel Comics readers for decades and who was an outstanding supporting character in the Netflix Luke Cage series. That makes up for a multitude of sins in my book.

                                                                                  

The White Buffalo [1977] is one of several movies that came out in the wake of Jaws [1975] and tried to deliver a slightly different take on the movie’s nigh-invincible predator. I have written about Grizzly [1976] previously, but, in this movie, the murderous title star is doing his murderous thing in the Old West. Here’s the basic plot:

In 1874, a haunted, dying  Wild Bill Hickok teams with a grieving Crazy Horse to hunt a murderous albino buffalo. Hickok has seen the creature in his dreams. Crazy Horse is seeking to kill and skin the buffalo. It killed his daughter and her spirit can only move on if her body is wrapped in the buffalo’s hide.

There are a lot of familiar faces in this movie. Charles Bronson is Hickok and Will Sampson is Crazy Horse. Other cast members include Jack Warden, Kim Novak, Slim Pickens, Clint Walker, John Carradine, Stuart Whitman, Martin Kove and Ed Lautier as an especially dickish General Custer. The acting is fine throughout with both Bronson and Sampson shining as reluctant allies and friends.

The movie - directed by J. Lee Thompson and written by Richard Sale from his novel - doesn’t give us as much of the title monster as I would have liked. When the buffalo goes on the rampage early on in the movie, it makes for a scary several moments. More of that would have raised my opinion of the film.

This movie was produced by Dino De Laurentiis who produced several “wild beasts on the loose” films in the mid-1970s. His attempt to duplicate the success of Jaws also led to King Kong (1976) and Orca (1977). I should probably watch both of those again.

The White Buffalo runs 97 minutes. It gets a lot of the historical stuff correct. If I watch it again, it’ll be for the actors. They outshine the monster. The White Buffalo gets three out of five stars. Which is a perfectly acceptable score.

I’ll have three more movies to discuss on Thursday. But come back tomorrow for a new installment of “Rawhide Kid Wednesday!” See you then, amigos.

© 2017 Tony Isabella

TONY'S TIPS #212

This week in TONY'S TIPS at Tales of Wonder: Ms. Marvel, Captain America Sam Wilson and Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat!

MONDAY IN MORDOR, U.S.A.

Today is World Environment Day. Thanks to Dumpster President Trump, the United States is the cretin who let loose a smelly fart in the middle of the celebration.

World Environment Day is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide protection of our environment. It seeks to raise awareness on environmental issues from marine pollution and global warming, to sustainable consumption and wildlife crime. It’s become a platform for public outreach with participation from over 143 countries annually. Each year, the day has a host country and a theme which major corporations, non-governmental organizations, communities, governments and celebrities all around the world adopt to advocate for environmental causes.

This year, Canada, the new leader of the North American continent, is the host nation. The theme is “Connecting People to Nature” and, in support of that worthy theme, Canada will offer free passes to its national parks throughout the year.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Dumpster Prez and his Republican goons are supporting drilling in our national parks and dangerous pipelines running through sacred burial grounds and other hallowed settings. Making America third rate again. Sigh.

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I’m in Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale mode for most of the summer. What this means is the bloggy thing is taking weekends off the summer and putting most of our regular features on hiatus this month. I’ll still be doing “Rawhide Kid Wednesday” and “Free Comic Book Day Friday,” but the others won’t return until July or later. 

I will be doing a lot of garage sales this year, but only four more conventions: G-Fest in July, NEO Comic-Con in August, Grand Rapids Comic-Con in October and Akron Comicon in November. The Akron event will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Black Lightning with myself, original series artist Trevor Von Eeden, original series editor Jack C. Harris, second series artist Eddy Newell and Batman and the Outsiders writer Mike W. Barr. It will be the first time all five of us will be at the same convention.

I’m already planning my 2018 convention schedule. If you’re hoping to get me as a guest for your event, you should contact me sooner rather than later. With the coming of the Black Lightning TV show that year, I expect I will be asked to attend a lot of conventions around the country. It’s not going to be a first come first served situation, but I will consider every invitation.

I started working on the garage sales this weekend - the first is scheduled for June 16 and 17 - and will have updates on them here and on my Facebook pages. In my effort to reduce what I’m calling my “comics footprint” in my home, I’m becoming fairly ruthless in what I’m deciding I can live without. As a result, there are gonna be some terrific comic books and books on sale at incredibly sweet prices. The money from the garage sales will be used to finance my extravagant lifestyle of paying for my dental implants and various home improvements. Your patronage is appreciated.

                                                                            

Let’s see if I can squeeze some news, views and reviews into this bloggy thing. My local Medina library continues to be a source for great books and comic books...and even no-so-great comic books that I masochistically believe I should read.

Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man [Marvel; $15.99] collects all four issues of that spin-off series with two earlier issues of Amazing Spider-Man. My regular readers know I’m not a fan of Civil War II. I thought it was a wrongheaded notion that twisted characters into either fascist or clueless parodies of themselves.

In this spin-off series, now global science mogul Peter Parker lets the Inhuman Ulysses’ questionable precognitive abilities push him  into making a reformed super-villain feel untrusted and unwelcome at Parker Industries. Without Ulysses’ visions, the villain might have made some mistakes that could have been handled in a way that did not destroy his chance at redemption. With them, the situation went completely and utterly south.

Parker used to have a much better grasp of the great responsibility thing. Joining the top tenth of the top 1% seems to have dulled his spider-sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. Before we know it, we’ll probably see him acting out on Twitter.

The only Civil War II spin-offs worth a damn are those in which the heroes realize how stupid and wrong they’ve been (Ms. Marvel) or in which they figure out how to game the stupidity of Ulysses zealots to get what they need (Power Man and Iron Fist).

Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man gets no recommendation here.

ISBN 978-1-302-90250-6

                                                                           

Also via my local library and much more entertaining, Pix Vol. 1: One Weirdest Weekend by Gregg Schigiel [Image; $12.99] features the adventures of teenage superhero who thinks she’s a fairy princess. She might be right about that.

Schigiel has a nice clean drawing and storytelling style. The art is as lively as the writing. The writing involves stuff like going on a talk show, being attacked by TV equipment, getting shrunk to the size of a mouse, going on a date with a pop star who has made a deal with a demon, meeting a talking frog who says he is really a prince, getting turned into a rabbit, battling an monkey who has kidnapped a child who can talk to animals, and, you know, strange but wonderful stuff like that.

Pix is listed as juvenile fiction, but, like the best comics aimed at that demographic, it’s so well done that older readers will also enjoy it. There are two books in the series to date. I do recommend this first one and I’m sure I’ll be recommending the second one as soon as I get and read it. Pix is terrific!

PIX: One Weirdest Weekend

ISBN 978-1-5343-0140-5

Pix: Too Super for School

ISBN 978-1-5343-0156-6

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Smart thing I posted on my Facebook page in reaction to the dissing of the James Olsen character on the CW’s Supergirl:

If you want Bowtie Jimmy who drinks strange chemicals and potions and gets cuckolded by Lucy Lane every other issue, you can re-read the 1960s comics. They're great fun. But it's 2017 and this Jimmy Olsen, with his desire to step away from a sidekick role and to find outlets for his courage and skills, is just right for our times.                                                                               

Let’s finish for today with some quick comments on several comics titles from DC and Marvel...

Aquaman by Dan Abnett [DC] continues to be a well-done series, but certain aspects of it are wearing thin for me. I love the Aquaman-Mera relationship. I love Aquaman thinking of Amnesty Bay as home. I like Atlantis as a global player. What’s not working as well for me is the fate of the world hinging on Aquaman in seemingly *every*  story arc of late.

When that starts getting to me, my mind drifts back to some of the Bob Haney-written issues from the 1960s. Remember Aquaman and Mera in Nick Cardy-drawn street clothes playing secret agents to defeat the evil organization O.G.R.E.? Couldn’t we get some light-hearted stuff like that for variety’s sake?
                                                                                 

I’m still not enamored of too many Green Lanterns in too many Green Lantern titles, but the two Green Lanterns who interest me at all are partners Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz. Writer Sam Humphries has done a good job developing their uneasy partnership; I applaud the character growth of their relationship.

The title itself, like so many super-hero titles, goes from story arc to story arc, but it did have briefer tales in Green Lanterns #15-17. Issue #15 was a solid “day in the life” episode, something I think all super-hero titles should do from time to time. Issues #16-17 was a decent team-up with the Batman with one element that bugged me.

SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD

Simon carries a gun as a back-up. Or did. I think carrying a gun as a back-up to alien/mystical technology that can run out of power or be corrupted is a reasonable precaution. The Batman disagrees and shames Baz into getting rid of it. Even though I like the Batman of Rebirth a whole lot better than any other recent incarnation of the classic character, he still has as many issues as a comics store. I might respect the heck out of the Batman, but I wouldn’t act as if his pronouncements are carved on stone tablets.

 

SPOILERS OVER

SPOILERS OVER

SPOILERS OVER
                                                                               

There’s too much Harley Quinn in the comic-book world for me. She is a great character, but I can’t keep track of or rationalize her appearances in her own titles and in Suicide Squad and its various spin-offs. So I tend to skim most of those appearances.

That wasn’t the case with Harley’s Little Black Book #5 [$4.99] by Amanda Connor, Jimmy Palmiotti, Neal Adams and Paul Mounts. A done-in-one issue, it was basically a retelling of the classic Superman Vs.  Muhammad Ali special of the 1970s ala Harley. The story itself was fun and the Adams art was astonishing. I could look at Neal’s double-page spread of a day at the beach for hours.
                                                                               

Infamous Iron Man [Marvel} has Doctor Doom taking up Tony Stark’s mantle as he seeks redemption. The heroes who once fought against him are skeptical, but I’m hoping for the best. I’m a sucker for a redemption story and have enjoyed the six issues of the title that I have read to date.

                                                                               

I don’t think I will ever warm up to DC’s Lobo, but that character aside, I am basically enjoying the new Rebirth-created Batman and the Justice League of Outsiders title. Oh, wait, I just checked and it’s actually called Justice League of America. Who knew?

I also liked the specials starring the Atom, Killer Frost, the Ray and Vixen. I wish they had done one for Black Canary because I have no clue who she is supposed to be these days. 

                                                                                 

Over at Marvel, the X-Men are undergoing “Resurrxion,” a word that strikes me as the “covfefe” of comics. This new push for the morose mutants translates into three or more new configurations of teams, two of them color-coded, and a bunch of new solo titles.

I have read some of these new titles. They have all been readable, but none has been outstanding. With the Inhumans eating the X-Men’s lunch, perhaps the franchise needs some rethinking and an overhaul by talent from outside the current Marvel talent pool. The X-Men titles are no longer essential reading and that makes me sad.

That’s all for today, my friends. I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff. I am leaning towards movie reviews, but who knows where my merry muse will take me. See you soon. 

© 2017 Tony Isabella