Of Was and When
I’m plodding through a marshland canal in a Colonial Era village at dusk. Muddy and wet, I stop in a cabin to warm up, strip my clothes off, and grab some new ones that had been left there to dry by the fire. After stealing into the night once more, I enter another house by the back door with hopes of making it out the front unseen — only to discover a youthful fortysomething David Bowie, in appropriate period dress and with his sandy blond hair rakishly tousled, cooking over a stove.
“Are you leaving us, then?” he asks.
“Yes,” I tell him, or perhaps I simply nod, and I exit. I pause with second thoughts, however, then head in again. Extending my hand, I say, “I’ve been a tremendous admirer since I was a kid. I just wanted to thank you.” He is gracious. I wake up.
Amped Up
Tony Isabella noted on his blog earlier tonight that DC is finally soliciting a trade paperback collecting the original ’70s run of Black Lightning in the current Diamond Previews catalog for April release.
I’m thrilled to hear this. Like so many who’ve met him and so many others who only know him through his writing or interactions online, I adore Tony — in part because of how he wears his considerably sized heart on his sleeve, yeah, but also because he’s made some excellent comics.
Tony was the first comics pro I ever interviewed, nearly 25 years ago now, followed
in very short order (at the same Mid-Ohio convention) by his good friend Bob Ingersoll and his new collaborator Eddy Newell. Eddy was the artist on a fresh, long-awaited Black Lightning series written by Tony, his creator, that wouldn’t debut for more than
a year. It proved to be a powerful take on humanity within the superhero genre that ended unhappily (to way understate the case) both for readers and for Jefferson Pierce’s real-world dad.
The Case of the Chemicals Indicated
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.
A-Ha Moment
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 • Hell No • Coin Drop
Up Your Nose with
a Rubber Flux Capacitor
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.
