I’d say that a funny thing happened on my way back from a long-overdue visit to
family in California, but it involves the Transportation Security Administration and wasn’t really funny — except insofar as it was Batman’s fault.
At the Bay Area fixture Cost Plus World Market, I picked up a figure like the one
shown here.
I was in line at a store earlier, barely moving, with a full interior wall on the left and half-wall division to the right.
When I arrived the woman in front of me was slumped against the left wall; as people shuffled forward she slumped against the right, then against the left wall as we shuffled forward again, back to the right, etc., repeat, all the way to the front.
It was the slowest homage to the video for “Take On Me” I have ever seen.
Related: 23 Skidoo • Oh Hell No • Coin Drop
This one’s been percolating for a while.
And there’s no time like the present. Not only have we reached the once-far-off date
to which Marty and the Professor traveled in the second Back to the Future film, but this year saw the 30th anniversary of the first movie in that trilogy as well as the (somewhat less heralded) 40th anniversary of Welcome Back, Kotter’s premiere. Thus, in the grand tradition of my poster for Captain America and the Maltese Falcon and DVD case for Tarzan of the Planet of the Apes, here’s a Golden Books tie-in to that hit TV show from another dimension, Welcome Back to the Future, Kotter.
Teddy Sears as Jay Garrick in The Flash Ep. 2.01 “Flash of Two Worlds” © 2015
CW Network. Photo: Cate Cameron. Character TM/® DC Comics.
I didn’t see Tuesday’s Flash episode until after midnight — so it ended up a birthday present. And it was a gift to all the fans who’ve loved DC’s multiverse for decades. I’m honestly not able to put my reaction into words, because it basically involved giving
the astral projection of my 6-year-old self a high-five.
My contributor copy of Michael Allred: Conversations, edited by Christopher Irving for University Press of Mississippi, arrived yesterday. The longest of its 13 interviews — some Q&A, some article-style — is the wide-ranging talk that Stefan Blitz and I had with Mike for Comicology in 2000. It’s a smart little hardcover sure to be a fascinating read.
When I saw the robes during the Pope’s mass in Philadelphia this morning,
Hydra’s classic outfits immediately came to mind. The juxtaposition of this panel
from Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s introduction of SHIELD in Strange Tales #135 with this crop of a photo taken by Jack Gruber for USA Today is just eerie. Like yesterday, I’m only pointing out what’s already there.
Related: Ozy Ozy Ozy • Which Doctor? • Fourth-World Problems
Photo © 1967 ABC / 20th Century / Greenway.
TV’s Batgirl, Yvonne Craig, left us last month at 78. She was more than just that description — to fans of Star Trek, in which she appeared as the green-skinned Orion woman Marta; to Elvis aficionados, having co-starred in two of his films; and of course to her loved ones, as wife, sister, mentor, and philanthropist.
Heidi MacDonald, a longtime journalist and editor who runs comics site The Beat, coined a great phrase several years ago: “satisfying chunk”. More than ever that’s what I’m after when reading new material, with issues costing 3 to 4 bucks
a pop — not just a steep price on the face of it but one that suffers in comparison to copious collections of recent material that easily best the per-chapter price of single issues and usually throw in extras to boot. There’s also a wealth of archival material now available nearly impossible to even imagine a couple of decades ago.
I greatly appreciate series that compel me to reread often, too, and reward my doing
so in different ways:
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We got a new trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice last month to coincide with the sprawling media crush of San Diego’s Comic-Con International.
I’ll admit that the movie looks impressive on its own terms. While Man of Steel had potential as a riff on the superhero genre with a heavy sci-fi bent, however, it was a terribly misguided Superman film. Based on the footage and conversations regarding its sequel, Zack Snyder continues to be at least as far off target in translating DC’s oldest, greatest icons from page to screen as he was in adapting Watchmen a half-dozen years back. (Read my non-spoiler post or my longer review of Man of Steel, and my detailed review of Watchmen, for more.)
One tiny spoiler for Ant-Man coming up after this odd image…
According to a time.com headline on Monday, “The Supreme Court Just Quoted Spider-Man”.
If you had the trifecta of this, upholding the first African-American President’s expansive health-insurance plan, and ruling that marriage is a right inclusive of same-sex couples under the Constitution in your latest United States Supreme Court Actions Your Ten-Year-Old Self Would Never Believe office pool, I really gotta hand it to you.
I didn’t have the exact 21¢ in change in my pocket earlier tonight that I’ll usually make sure is on me when I go to Chipotle, where I know my sofritas bowl is $7.21 with tax, but I did at least have a penny. The cashier apparently thought the penny was too in-significant to ring up, however, because I still got $12.79 in change for my twenty-dollar bill (and single penny). So not only wasn’t I rewarded with the “How did you do that? You-- You’re a warlock!” look of wide-eyed wonder I’m used to in today’s world when the register displays round change, I’m now out a fricking penny.
Related: 23 Skidoo • A-Ha Moment • Cold Beans
I can’t say enough about Tomorrowland — but I’m wary of saying too much, so delightful are the surprises within.
The film’s charming. It champions optimism and creativity. My heart swelled; my
eyes moistened. If there are flaws, and of course there are, they’re easily reconciled with the larger piece. It’s an inspiring thrill ride full of wonder with just enough schmaltz and grown-up danger, made for the whole family.
And it’s not what I expected. I didn’t read a single review before going, which I’m glad about because most of them overshare. I’m also confounded in disagreeing with them and by seeing how they disagree with one another on its merits and faults.
Me, I was transported.
Welcome to one among thousands of posts about David Letterman’s last day in
late night.
I had a typically punnish title ready to go before realizing that the survey of my
favorite things begun here for my 40th birthday hadn’t been updated in over a year.
A click on Dave’s name in the labels below will show that his brand of television, unsurprisingly, merits the designation.
At this week’s TV “upfronts” we got trailers for CBS’ new Supergirl, to air Mondays at
8 p.m. ET come November, and the CW Arrow/Flash spinoff DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which bows at midseason. [bad links]
Ra's al Ghul is practically a millennial next to the immortal Vandal Savage, who’s mentioned in the latter.
DC and Warner Bros. announced the Fall 2015 launch of DC Super-Hero Girls yesterday — a line of media content and merchandising in partnership with Mattel targeted at girls aged 6 to 12.
Why am I so conflicted about this?
Here’s our first look at Melissa Benoist in costume for CBS’s upcoming Supergirl.
Photos: Bonnie Osborne / Warner Bros. Entertainment © 2015.
A friend was decrying the dark blue on Facebook and he’s not alone there. I don’t
mind it myself. Bruce Timm & Co. opted to go in that direction for the WB Superman animated series in 1996, harkening back to the earliest depictions in the comics as well as the 1940s Fleischer cartoon shorts, and I think darker colors in general tend to work better in live-action portrayals. The Flash has done all right with a mostly lighter superhero — in tone — wearing a darker red than we get on the page. (Of course, Man of Steel went dark too…)
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I expect that cyberspace is full of goofs on Benedict Cumberbatch’s name. The other day, however, I awoke from a dream right as I was putting together a list of just such a thing. I felt compelled to write down as many as I could before it all faded, and a few more that I brainstormed in the process, which brings us to my utterly unnecessary but hopefully amusing enough...
Top Twenty-One Things That Are Not Exactly Benedict Cumberbatch
21. Barleycorn Cabbage-Patch
20. Gryffindor Hufflepuff
19. Orthodox Crucifix
18. Ambient Temperature
17. Budapest Architect
16. Marzipan Coffee Cake
15. Broken-Tooth Crackerjack
14. Basketball Pick-Up Game
13. Batmobile Catapult
12. Baggy-Pants Hammer Time
11. Booster-Seat Kiddie Chair
10. Baltimore Quarterback
9. Brenda Starr Comic Strip
8. Boycotting Chick-Fil-A
7. Boner-Pill Side Effect
6. Born to Run Concert Tour
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I’m happy to help spread the word that Jon B. Cooke, a familiar name to folks who enjoy reading about the stories behind the comics, is helming a new magazine called ACE — All Comics Evaluated set to launch in March. The moniker is meant to indicate both that each issue will include a price guide and that stuff from across the incredibly wide spectrum of today's comics scene will be covered. I wrote a retro-spective on Robin the Boy Wonder for the first issue, as his 75th anniversary is nigh.
