“I hate when the fans try to break into the race.”
Sonic The Hedgehog #207
Archie Comics Publications (February, 2010)
WRITER: Ian Flynn
INKER: Terry Austin
COLORIST: Matt Herms
COVER ART: Pat “Spaz” Spaziante
LETTERER: John Workman
EDITOR: Mike Pellerito
“Blackout”
PENCILER: James Fry
“The Iron Queen
PENCILER: Renae De Liz
Some songs just make you feel good, relaxed, because of the music, but it’s nice when the lyrics also take hold. Sometimes, getting that hit requires a bit of luck.
Take for example “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)”. Coming from the debut, self-titled album by the band Looking Glass, it was the B-Side of a single they were trying to promote from the 1972 album. A DJ was encouraged to check out the B-Side, a story heard quite often in the days of vinyl records and disk jockeys who had to manually change records at the end of each song. He liked it, but more importantly the audience liked it, and the rest is history.
There’s not just good music attached to the album. While the music is relaxing and feel-good, you have to feel sorry for the title protagonist. It would be easier if the man she loved were happily married already because it would be a good reason. This isn’t one of the cheating songs. Unfortunately, our barmaid has a far larger problem: the man is married to his work, or rather where he works.
Plastic Man is good at finding keys. He just becomes one.
Police Comics #5
Comic Magazines Inc (December, 1941)
Here’s a fun game for you. Count how many times the enemy is a Nazi or part of the Axis versus a regular crook. We have our first costumed villain, though proper supervillains are still a ways off in this series. And of course the cops are still not the main heroes of the story, but at least they show up in the story.
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Note that we’re still getting season 2, this doesn’t necessarily mean Kurtzman is gone since I don’t know how strong his contract is as put together by the Trek-hating guy who left ViacomCBS as it remerged with Paramount, IDW is supposed to be making the tie-in comics last I heard, and they’re going to have to prove to me they’ve learned their lesson with future projects.
For those of you who missed last week’s reveal, you may find it odd that I’m using a graphic novel. Usually this article series features fictional prose rather than a autobiographical comic. Well, it’s a bit long for me to sit down and read all at once. The size of a usual omnibus trade collection, this was something I ended up with at Free Comic Book Day, a “misprint” edition of an account of the band Pocket Vinyl as they try to break a record by doing 50 concerts in 50 days across all 50 states. Personally I want to see how they got to Hawaii and Alaska and made the deadline.
I’ve been to their website and their music is not to my taste, though the idea that the band performs while the pianist’s wife paints live on stage sound interesting. There’s also a webcomic in the same art style (Elisabeth Jancewicz is the artist and Eric Stevenson the co-writer of the book) but you need to be on Instagram to read it, and it’s just another service I’d do little to nothing with. Scanning these pages is a bit difficult seeing that it’s bound the normal way books are, so unlike a Scanning My Collection article I probably won’t have images. I don’t want to damage the book whether I keep it post-review or not. I got it free and I wouldn’t sell it (unless the misprint edition is somehow worth a ton of money now, it just wouldn’t feel right and even that’s only because I need money right now), but either way having it in good readable condition is important. Maybe I’ll steal a scan from someone else if I have a text wall. Speaking of which, let’s break this one and review chapter 1 of 11.
The Strangers #13/Ultraverse Premiere #4 flipbook
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (June, 1994)
The Strangers: “Battle With Boneyard”
WRITER: Mike W. Barr (plot) & Steve Englehart (plot & script)
PENCILER: Mike Gustovich
INKER: Thomas Florimonte
COLORING: Moose Baumann & Violent Hues
LETTERER: Susan Dome
EDITOR: Roland Mann
Ultraverse Premiere
LETTERER: Patrick Owsley
EDITOR: Roland Mann
Prime: “Anatomy Of A Hero” part 2
WRITER: Len Strazewski
PENCILER: Frank Gomez (also UP cover)
INKER: Troy Hubbs
COLORING: Keith Conroy, GCOX3 (also UP cover), and Foodhammer!
Credits come from the Grand Comic Database, because they don’t seem to be listed in the comic, at least not in the scans I’m using.
Ladykiller: “Market Realities” part 1
WRITER: Kurt Busiek
PENCILER: Kris Renkewitz
INKER: Jeff Albrecht
COLORING: Mickey Rose, Tim Duvar, & Violent Hues
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
BW Media Spotlight 