You guessed it : It´s Man of Steel Monday !

I still haven´t seen the MAN OF STEEL movie but since I haven´t yet prepared all the material for the SERPENT CROWN two - parter or the next post about THE PHANTOM I thought I´d use some of the material I have accumulated so far about the Man of Tomorrow.

So this will not be an in depth analysis about the new movie which I wouldn´t do even if I had seen the movie. I like it when people make up their own mind and while I´m not shy to speak my mind - since I get no review copies from either DC or Marvel or any other comic company and so am not biased in any way - I also don´t like to spoil things.

What I will be talking about is how Superman has been portrayed so far and what defines Superman - at least in my humble opinion. Having read the adventures of the most famous alien for more than three decades I think I can offer a bit more insight than some people who pretend to be experts on the subject and only know the NEW 52 Robotech version.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE COSTUME OF TOMORROW ?

As you may have guessed I´m not a big fan of the recent abomination Superman wears in the comics because I don´t think it´s a good idea to put a costume that would probably look better in a movie into a comic. As I don´t think you can take a costume directly from a comic and put it into a movie without it looking awkward or silly in most cases.

There are a few exceptions like most of the original JSA costumes which would look terrific in a movie as the SMALLVILLE episode showed ( no pun intended ) but as much as the people at Warner Bros might think comics and movies can be treated the same that´s not the case. I know that those movie guys want to get rid of the pesky comic artistes because either they think they know better how to handle the franchises or they are embarrassed to work on something connected to comics.

Yes, they like to earn the big bucks with comic movies like AVENGERS or IRON MAN 3 but they really would prefer to do superhero or comic movies that are not connected to comics. And thanks to such disasters like ZOOM or ULTRAVIOLET we all know how that usually ends.

Which nevertheless doesn´t keep those Hollywood bigshot execs from interfering with the movies. I never experienced it myself but I think it must be a really pitiful existence if the only way that you can give your miserable life some kind of value is by screwing up something completely that you don´t understand at all. But back to Superman´s costume.

While it isn´t the worst costume that ever appeared in a Superman movie ( Who still remembers the dreadful Chippendale / Stripper costume from the SUPERMAN RETURNS train wreck ? ) there have been better. I mean, even the costume of the fake Superman in that SNICKERS commercial was better than that one and they couldn´t use anything remotely resembling the original costume - they couldn´t even use the same colors.



The thing I never get is why they don´t use the original costume since it´s one of the most recognizable costumes, one of the best known costumes, hell, it´s one of the most often copied costumes.

It may very well be one of the best costumes ever but they just have to do " their own version " of it or " modernize it " or " come up with one that´s more in touch with Today´s audiences ". Sorry, but that´s not what Superman stands for. He´s not at all about change for change´s sake, always following the newest fad and pandering to the masses. Superman is about certain values that have remained the same through decades because - like Alan Moore so perfectly said in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW - there is a way things ought to be.

And  it´s not like there haven´t been instances where they have used the original costume and it worked great. The first Superman movie I ever saw had the original costume and it worked really well. It had the same costume as in the comics I was reading at that time and it was brilliant.

It really made you believe a man can fly. But more than that it also pulled off the whole thing about nobody recognizing that Clark Kent is Superman because of a pair of glasses. Christopher Reeves just was that good of an actor.

Now in the comics there have been all kinds of explanations for why the whole trick with the glasses works. Of which the worst was that Superman uses some kind of unconscious hypnosis on everybody so they see him as really scrawny and meek ( like he was drawn in the NEW 52 SUPERMAN series ) and he was always vibrating so that nobody could take a picture to see how he looks like. And the most logical was that people don´t think Superman has a secret identity. Because if you can be Superman why would you pretend to be somebody else ? And how could you have a secret identity if there are dozens of fotos of you everywhere ? That Superman fella doesn´t even hide his face behind a mask like most superhero so he just can´t have a secret identity. It´s impossible.

So the whole glasses as an effective disguise can work or not depending on the quality of the writer and how he handles it.

Now coming back to the costume in movie and tv adaptations, there was another series which I really liked that used the original costume.

Of course it didn´t hurt that Teri Hatcher played the part of Lois, making it possible for me for the first time since reading Superman comics to believe that Superman would be interested in somebody like Lois Lane.

Instead of trying to get it on with somebody like Wonder Woman which I always found more logical. I mean, the Lois in the comics was not really the best girlfriend to have as she was always trying to either trick Superman into revealing that he was Clark Kent or - even worse - to marry him. In the 80s when John Byrne revamped the Superman franchise they got rid of that but that doesn´t mean the new Lois was any better. The new version showed clear signs of alpha male syndrome, being more interested in Superman than mild mannered " Smallville " which makes it logical that she never found out they were the same. For that she would have had to look at Clark twice. And for those who don´t believe that the new Lois always went for the alpha male let me remind you that she was together with Lex Luthor before Superman became top dog in Metropolis.

Anyway, THE ADVENTURES OF LOIS AND CLARK is a really great series to watch not only for Superman fans and Teri is just brilliant in it. Although she didn´t do much after it until she moved to the Wisteria Lane as a desperate housewife where she showed that she still got it. Massita !

  
The hot Teri in action :


So far all we have been talking about is the costume but I don´t want you to think I´m the only one who goes of in that direction. Here is a great strip by Karl Heitmueller ( courtesy of tencentticker ) that he did for the excellent BACK ISSUE magazine about the various costumes of Superman. I think he really distills the essence of the question here.

WHAT`S RIGHT ABOUT TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY

Another comic artist who talked about what Superman is all about is Chris Sprouse who did this wonderful Superman splash ( or rather smash ) which I found on a link provided by fellow comicblog MAN OF BRONZE .

Of course a few people wanted to be clever because of the phrase " an alien, who in my mind, couldn’t conceive of why anyone would want to hurt anyone else " and opinionated that basically Superman was like a child because he doesn´t understand that there are people who want to hurt others. Which clearly is not the case. Superman knows that. He just can´t understand why they would do that. And apparently some people have problems understanding this. So here it is in my own words :

There are hundreds of people out there that buy comics drawn by Rob Liefeld although I - for the life of me - can´t conceive there really is anyone willing to spend money on that. Which doesn´t mean that I don´t understand that there are people out there who buy Rob Liefeld comics. I know for a fact that there must be people out there who do it. And lots of them because otherwise he would not get one job offer after another. I know that there are people out there who buy his stuff. I used to buy his stuff myself. But intellectually I really can´t understand why all these people spend their hard earned money on a comic artist who hasn´t improved in the last 20 years and who can´t draw knees. I can´t wrap my head around that. Or that Deadpool has five or four series at the same time while other much better books like THOR THE MIGHTY AVENGER by Roger Langride and Chris Samnee is canceled. Which I just had to mention because amazon.de is offering the new 25 bucks trade that collects the complete series for a measly 12 bucks. I recommend it.

FOR THE FANBOY WHO HAS EVERYTHING

Last but not least I wanted to post a link to a cosplayer that I came across on facebook ( Terry Hooper shared one of her pictures as Ivy, thanks mate ! ) who goes by the name of BelleChere. She was one of the unknown cosplayers on my Top Ten list of Power Girl cosplayers although she also does other costumes like Lady Death, Ms Marvel or Hepzibah.

There is an interview with her as Cosplay Babe of the Month February 2012 on THE COMICS NINJA and you can also visit her blog .

Here is the link to her facebook page where you can find dozens of pics of her in mindblowing costumes from which the following 5 ( and it was really hard to narrow it down to 5 ) are only a small selection :

HOW SUBZERO WOULD END THE POST

And sadly that´s all I have time for Today as it´s already half past three - after midnight. Once again I got a bit sidetracked so I will have to continue this discussion Tomorrow when we - gods of the internet willing - come to all the weird costumes Superman has worn in the comics.

Now with all the stuff about Superman some readers keep asking me about the better one of his two cousins - which is Power Girl. It has been some time since I mentioned her at all and the way the stuff I find about her keeps piling up when I finally catch up it will be a complete and very long post about Power Girl, more Power Girl and nothing but Power Girl. And you can be sure there will be magical cleavage windows everywhere.

Until then here is another sweet picture by Franchesco borrowing a famous cover from Janet Jackson. I really don´t know why he´s not involved in some way with the WORLD´S FINEST comic at the moment since the art on that book is sorely lacking.

 
And speaking of covers, sadly there is no time Today for the new IT`S THAT STRANGE FEELING OF DEJA VUE AGAIN section but there will be definitely one - with Superman covers - in my next post. I promise.

Now, with the videos at the end of the post I´m continuing with full movies, this time it´s a kind of pulpy sci fi flick based on a story by Harlan Ellison that was also adapted as a comic by Richard Corben.

It´s the 1975 movie A BOY AND HIS DOG starring a very young Don Johnson in the lead role.


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Old Jungle Saying : It´s Phantom Friday !

Boy, latelyI seem to do a lot of these theme day posts. So, Yesterday I got all caught up in pulp comic covers and it´s all because of some beautiful THE PHANTOM covers by Sal Velluto I found online.

Now since I am a big fan of Sal Velluto ( just check out his spectacular work on Christopher Priest´s BLACK PANTHER run ) and The Phantom I wondered why I have never seen these before. And as you might have noticed the language on the cover is not english.

I did a little research and apparently Sal Velluto did these covers - as well as some interior art - for the swedish edition of the Phantom comic called FANTOMEN. The publisher of these comics is Eggmont, a publisher who is also active in Germany and other parts of Europe so it might be possible that I can get a hold of these myself.

I will be posting more pictures by Sal Velluto in the near future but as I have to sift through a lot of material for these posts I can only do a short post Today. But don´t be sad, with luck there will be more stuff of this iconic pulp hero coming up and who knows ? Maybe, this month will be PHANTOM MONTH if I manage to do more posts than last month.

THE PHANTOM HAS INSPIRED MANY MEN

One of my new sections is the IT`S THAT OLD FEELING OF DEJA VUE AGAIN section where I post covers that pay homage to iconic comic covers. I always add to that section and try to find interesting examples.

Like with most of the stuff I write I´m only that knowledgeable and I also can make mistakes. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that what I thought of as original iconic covers may have been just paying homage to covers of THE PHANTOM. Like this one below.

The famous panel from AMAZING SPIDER - MAN issue 50 has inspired many covers itself but it seems John Romita incorporated some elements of this cover below of the Ghost Who Walks. Away that is.

 
Or the cover to CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS 7 of which I already did a first installment and which still has a few to go. It is kind of hard to qualify because some covers may be similar but different in the composition

Like this one where there are certain similarities which one may view as coinicidences. And I´m not one to believe in coincidences.

Now you may say that it´s clearly an homage or may be influenced by this cover for BATMAN 156.

But this one was clearly done after this iconic Phantom cover which even has the red shirt on the boy and the beach in the background.

It´s a cover Sal Velluto also came back to.

And that´s not the only famous Robin cover that was derived in some form from The Phantom. Take for instance this rather harmless cover.

There can be no doubt that it was later on used by Jim Aparo - not for any of the actual covers which were done by Mike Mignola but rather - for the collected edition of the famous A DEATH IN THE FAMILY storyline ( if anybody might want to look for it online ) that ran in BATMAN 426 to 429.

This was also later on re - used as a cover for the Phantom series, this time by Paul Ryan who is currently doing the daily Phantom newspaper strip which can be seen here . And here is a link to Paul Ryan´s art website .

Another Batman related cover that drew inspiration from Lee Falk´s jungle hero is the cover for SON OF THE DEMON, a story later picked up on by Grant Morrison for his brilliant BATMAN & ROBIN series.

Here is the corresponding Phantom cover :

And that´s just the tip of the iceberg. There are literally whole generations of artists influenced by The Phantom like Frank Miller

and even Todd McFarlane. They all drew inspiration from the pulp hero.

But that´s not all. In my research I have discovered that a lot of things in comics and pop culture stem directly from the Phantom series like Dick Tracy´s look or Dr. Doom who may have had his first appearance in a Phantom comic.

Sadly I can´t go into all that right now ( yep, once again it´s time to wrap things up ) but there will be more Phantom - centric stuff in the future like more covers, influences on modern pop culture in general or the many women who have crossed the Phantom´s way like Marylin Monroe ( for real ) as well as some totally freaky outfits that can - and WILL - compete with some of the most garish costumes The Bat - Man has worn.

Now, since this post has been all about The Phantom, the video at the end of the post is of course also about The Ghost Who Walks. Since I guess that everybody has seen the movie with Billy Zane which is really better than people say here is a black and white movie from 1943. Enjoy !



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It´s Wonder Woman Wednesday !

Today Lynda Carter, the one true ( and as far as live action adaptions the only ) Wonder Woman of tv celebrates her 62nd birthday so I thought it´s about time to put the spotlight on DC´s amazon princess.

I already did a post about the Wonder Woman tv show and one about Lynda Carter´s other tv and movie appearances on her 60th birthday and since there´s nothing I could add to it let´s talk about the comic instead.

Right now the new incarnation of Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang ( occasionally ) is one of the few good books of the NEW 52 and I´m eagerly awaiting the third hardcover which comes out in September so there´s really nothing I could say about that which I haven´t already said. But, as coincidence would have it - and I really don´t believe in coincidences - just Yesterday I started re - reading John Byrne´s WONDER WOMAN issues upon which I stumbled ( and I really almost stumbled over them the way the comic boxes were piled ) while putting my brother´s comics in order. I know, I probably shouldn´t do that but since he´s in Spain at the moment that´s a rare occasion I just had to use - think of it as an additional birthday gift if you will. Now, as with most comics my brother collects they are kept in several places so there still are some missing issues of John Byrne´s run. One of the main reasons I wanted to give it another go was that I wasn´t sure what exactly happened in those issues but I also wanted to see if they would hold up after all this time.Or rather if the reading experience would be different with a bit of distance.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES AND THE WORST OF TIMES

John Byrne came onto the book after a phenomenal run by William Messner - Loebs and Mike Deodato that was really all about fan service and booty. Not that there´s something inherently wrong with that. I mean, FINALLY somebody who could draw hot women was working on a book with a female lead character. And it was selling like cupcakes.

Who would have thought ? Here the two big comic companies were fighting against babe artists drawing books with female leads for decades as if their life depended on it and suddenly if happened.

And the ground didn´t break open and swallow all life on the planet, the earth didn´t stop spinning and the sky didn´t fall and no other apocalyptic scenario was played out. I guess it all was just superstition on part of the publishers. Well, it still is when you look at most of the output Today but while there didn´t happen too much storywise ( at least in the single issues ) there was enough eye candy in the issues to keep the readers happy. And I´m not excluding myself in the least bit. Heck, I have the original issues AND the german translations and I really didn´t need them to read again or compare both versions. It was just printed on better paper. But we all were enthralled. Even the german publishers - which at that time was DINO - started with those issues and closed the collection before reaching the Byrne issues because " they could not hold up to the high standard of the previous run " or something along those lines.

And that was what a lot of people thought about the John Byrne issues. For those not familiar with the storyline by William Messner - Loebs, the story started in THE CONTEST where Diana lost the title of Wonder Woman to Artemis in a contest. Artemis went out into " man´s world " to enforce peace by any means necessary while Diana donned a new black costume ( why have all new costumes to be black ? ) and did her own thing. After issues of Diana wondering if she really helped to promote the idea of peace between the sexes in man´s world the grand scheme behind all was revealed. Diana´s mom Hippolyta, queen of the amazons, rigged the contest because she had a vision that something would happen to Wonder Woman. It was also implied that Herakles was her father.

Which made more sense than her father being Zeus like it is in the NEW 52 since there already was an established history with Herakles and the amazons. What I always found a bit hard to swallow was the different approach to this part of Herakles´ or Hercules´ story by DC and Marvel.

I mean after Dan Slott defamed Starfox as a rapist in one of the most ridiculous stories in a long line of ridiculous stories in the She Hulk series I halfway expected him to tarnish Hercules next. Although because there was no equivalent to Wonder Woman in the Marvel universe I don´t know who would have sued Hercules. But they mostly keep quiet about it and I think the only time it was really addressed was in issue 2 of AVENGERS / JLA by Kurt Busiek and George Perez ( which is really required reading for any fan of the Avengers, the Justice League or comics in general ) when Wonder Woman is all gun ho about opening a can of whupass on Herc and he´s all : " Hey, what´s the big deal here ? I didn´t do nothing wrong. "

I mean the way Hercules is always written in the Marvel universe I doubt he would even realize it if he had treated the amazons badly. Or if he had he would just downplay the whole bit as just a minor jest.

Anyway, back to Wonder Woman and John Byrne I have to say I really didn´t like it when I first read it. Because when John Byrne takes over a book he´s not gonna do the same thing the guys before him did. John Byrne´s doing his thing when he´s doing his thing. And in the case of Wonder Woman it meant using all the shiny Jack Kirby toys like Darkseid and the New Gods and Metron ( who is neither of Apokalips nor of New Genesis as the Byrnster himself never gets tired of reminding readers in later runs ) and Etrigan and dozens of other guest stars.

And I was really not that impressed by the whole storyline. Although I have to say that even upon the second reading and now with me having much more appreciation of the whole Jack Kirby stuff and John Byrne as a creator the first five to six issues are still kind of a hard sell. Byrne needs a few issues before he really starts to get a feeling for the characters and he has a direction for the whole thing.

PARADISE ISLAND LOST ( OR RATHER BYRNED TO THE GROUND )

The whole exodus from Paradise Island seems more of a statement than really story relevant and I think it could have been achieved without destroying Paradise Island and such a high body count for the amazons. You can just realize that it´s not your thing at the moment and just walk away to search for your place in the grand scheme. It doesn´t always have to be life and death and doom and gloom even if it´s comic books.

Another thing I didn´t like was the new costume John Byrne gave Wonder Woman. I had expected a more traditional costume after the flashdance outfit she got from Deodato but this new costume was just - well, lazy. Just two stars on each side of the pants, a tiara that´s much to big to be anything than a distraction during fights and the new size of her bracelets was just ridiculous. Now I know that drawing all those stars on the pants really takes a lot of time and John just wanted to do his own thing but back then it just looked lazy to me. What I DID like very much was the way John Byrne drew Wonder Woman in her civilian threads when she goes " undercover " in the first issue. For all I cared she could have worn jeans, a t - shirt and the ponytail for the whole issue. It really is strange how the biggest differences in her looks has to do with her hair.

  
Deodato´s black costume aside, the only other time her look changed drastically was when later on they cut her hair. It sounds sexist and ever since India Arie we all know " I am not my hair " but it´s also true. 

But as I look on the clock it´s once again time to wrap things up. I wanted to write a bit more but for some strange reason my security program had to do a full scan which slowed things down a bit.

So, let´s get to the meat and potatoes right away. I really did enjoy the whole run much more so far which could have something to do with the fact that I was explicitly reading because of John Byrne and was ready for all the usual tropes he uses. In fact I was strongly expecting it. I relished appearances by characters like Cave Carson and hisspelunking crew going to the center of the earth or the Phantom Stranger and Etrigan although I have to say I liked him much more in the BLOOD OF THE DEMON series John Byrne did a few years later. Initially I even thought new Wonder Woman supporting character officer Mike Schorr appeared in that series but it was just another guy who looked like him. Mike gets a lot of play in John Byrne´s run ( even knowing that his main purpose is providing exposition for the readers ) and he´s just fun to read.

Another delight is reading the letters pages especially with the hindsight of knowing what will come in a few decades down the road. So, sorry, partner but you will have to suffer the new Wonder Girl for quite a few decades. She will be in Young Justice and eventually even become a full fledged member - and for a time even leader - of the Teen Titans.

Or, like a great philosopher once said : Sorry about your damn luck !

  
Wonder Girl says : " This is just the beginning. Suffer, dude ! "

Last but not least I have to mention the covers. During the run by Mike Deodato - and at least 30 issues before that - Brian Bolland was just churning out one brilliant cover after another.

He really doesn´t do much interior work anymore so losing this parade of instant masterpieces in favor of John Byrne made the transition just more painful for me. As big a fan as I am of John Byrne, give me a Brian Bolland cover any day. But this is a bit eased once Jose Luis Garcia Lopez takes over as regular cover artist. Like Brian Bolland he really should do more stuff and that man can´t draw a subpar picture - ever. I mean, just look at this cover below. My god, what a master of perspective and composition. He even makes Kyle´s threads and the Zapp - Superman costume look good which is really no small feat in itself.

So maybe I can read more Wonder Woman issues Tomorrow. I´m slowly coming to the part with the missing issues which is right in the middle of Hippolyta´s new / oldadventures as Wonder Woman with the Justice Society and the whole re - re - re - writing of Donna Troy´s origin.

Why do they always have to do that ? It´s like a scab and the writers just keep poking at it and poking at it until it pops. And it gets worse and more convoluted each time. I know that it´s probably a tradition or a rite of passage for writers to write one WHO IS DONNA TROY ? story but that´s one part of John Byrne´s run I´m really not looking forward to. I just wonder into how big of a trainwreck DC is going to turn this storyline into in the NEW 52 continuity now that they seem to have run out of new ideas and started to milk old stories like the death of Robin.

IT`S THAT WONDERFUL FEELING OF DEJA VUE AGAIN

No post is complete without some covers from my DEJA VUE section and since I mentioned the whole " Who is Donna Troy / Wonder Girl ? " thing I wanted thise covers but then I remembered that I already did that. So instead here´s Donna Troy making a splash with her new costume.

 
Anyway, I wanted to put this on the blog Today since while it was a really exhausting day with sudden bouts of rain during work - and at the last minute - and all Tomorrow ( or better Today since it´s already past three o´clock ) is my special day and I want to just chill. I just hope I have bought everything I need and that the only time I have to leave the house is to go to the ice cream parlor for an extra big ice cream bowl. I hope you have a great Wonder Woman Day, you all.

In my last post I put a video of a Roger Corman video at the end and since it will probably take a while longer than planned before I can do that post here is another one that is really worth watching. It´s an adaption of Edgar Allen Poe´s THE PREMATURE BURIAL in which a few changes have been made that don´t distract from the enjoyment of the movie.
 


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It´s that old feeling of deja vue again

There will be no new post Today because I´m preparing my next posts. Although what I should be doing is resting - it´s my free day after all. But once again I´m sitting in front of my laptop and looking for new pics, in this case for the new cover homage section on this blog.

So I will not be doing a post Today, sorry. Nope, I just won´t so don´t even try it. I´m going to deactivate my laptop right now and then I´m going to get some potato chips and some coke, lie on my bed and watch an episode of BONES or GREEN LANTERN ANIMATED or some old episode with David Tennant as DOCTOR WHO.

That´s right. So, before I get to that I wanted to mention that the picture above is - of course - not the cover of an actual comic but something somebody made up. Because, sadly, the X - Men and the Legion have never met within the pages of a comicbook. Part of the picture is from the DARK PHOENIX SAGA, as you´re probably aware of ( I already posted that cover ) and the rest is from LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES 296.

Another Legion - related cover is issue 18 of the shortlived VALOR series.

The book started good with Mark Bright on the art but then the artists got worse and worse and the whole reason for doing the series in the first place - namely replacing Superboy in DC continuity with Mon El because after CRISIS there never was a Superboy who could have inspired the kids to build the Legion - got too confusing.

What I can´t believe is that I did not put the following one in the first batch of CRISIS covers. I did read MAN OF STEEL when it came out and PANIC IN THE SKY was one of my favorite storylines from that time.

Well, the whole Draaga storyline basically. I just love that storyline and from time to time I go back and re - read it. Boy, I was so thrilled when they put Draaga in the WARWORLD two parter of the animated series. I still get goose bumps when I watch it.

Here´s another cover with Supergirl taking the position of Superman in a nice role reversal. It´s the penultimate issue of the Peter David run and since I didn´t read most of it - or if I did I blocked it - so it is understandable that I blanked on it.

The book could have been really great if Peter David wasn´t always so preoccupied with building stuff up that he doesn´t notice when he´s boring his readers to death. If he would have just done it another way - skip a few years to the future and get right to the fun stuff of Supergirl and Power Girl and a few alternate Supergirls partying and having fun - I bet he would be still writing this book. Anyway, the new book with Supergirl seems to be pretty solid and since my brother´s birthday is coming up I will finally be able to read the second trade.

Now this one is for the 50th annual edition of the CRISIS, I think.

It´s another zombie variant cover by Arthur Suydam and while I´m glad that the comic industry still gives work to the old veterans I was already bored with the first MARVEL ZOMBIE series. So for me the second, third and so on were totally unnecessary. But there seems to be a market out there for that kind of stuff, otherwise Marvel wouldn´t be making so much dough with it. The old saying that the market only supports the best books is just a saying and really doesn´t have any truth to it.

Case in point : MAJOR BUMMER. A really funny, action - packed thrillride of a series with mindblowing art by Dough Mahnke who draws the best aliens ever and that was canceled with issue 15 while crap like DEADPOOL has five different titles at the same time. But I guess we get the comics we pay for. Anyway, if you haven´t read it that´s almost a crime.

Get out, look for the issues, it´s a great read. Sadly you can probably find the complete series ceaply in bargain bins.

Now one CRISIS homage cover where I never made the connection is the cover for COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS 80 PAGE SPECIAL by Jim Lee and Alex Ross. That´s because we see it from the other side.

See what a difference a small change of perspective can do ? Man, I get all misty - eyed just thinking about the fact that back then they wrote a sequel to CRISIS that was so brilliant because they had started planting the seeds three years in advance. Three years. Now it seems they don´t plan three months in advance.

Anyway, I remember that the comic was really pretty good with a shocker ending and a really low price of 1 dollar. Good times.

And speaking of INFINITE CRISIS, Todays last CRISIS homage cover is a tie - in issue for that, FIRESTORM 21 with lots of Firestorms on the cover.

I have to say I never read the restarted series because for me Firestorm was Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein. I really wasn´t interested in anybody else playing the part so I just skipped it.

Once again it´s time to wrap things up on this post I´m not writing Today. Because I´m not working, you see ?  As always here is a video for your further enjoyment and this time it´s a real treat.

A few days ago I saw a documentary about pop culture icon Roger Corman that prompted me to write a post about him. Which I will probably do next. But in the meantime I want to put THE INTRUDER on the blog. It´s also known under the titles SHAME or I HATE YOUR GUTS.  It was William Shatner´s first lead role and he plays a white supremacist who comes into a small community to stir trouble in a southern town that is about to integrate its high school.

Roger Corman mortgaged his house to make it and he claims it is the only film of the over 300 he's produced to lose money.



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