It is written (somewhere, I dunno where) that all good things come to an end.  It would seem that this includes 99 cent styrofoam antenna toppers that have topped an antenna for close to five years.

It would appear that after five years, little is left of the red paint on the mask of the Wall Crawling Antenna Topper.  Being hit by bugs, rain, rocks from uncovered dump trucks and who knows what else has finally defeated the Wall Crawling Antenna Topper where Doc Ock, The Green Goblin or a punk kid from down the street who likes to steal things never could.

So long Spider-Man Antenna Topper.  You are now no longer topping the antenna of our car.  No, you have earned your eternal rest (and I mean eternal, this stuff never breaks down) in a landfill somewhere.  Where I have no doubt you'll continue to Fight The Good Fight, whatever that is.

You've been retired and replaced.  A rubbery Missouri Tiger head now resides on that antenna you so stoutly guarded for lo, these almost five years.

Thank you, Spider-Man Antenna Topper. 

They killed Batman in the comic books recently.  He was blowed up pretty good.  Still, it didn't bother me much at all.  For a couple of reasons, actually.

1.  There was hype.  We all knew they were going to kill him off.
2.  He won't stay dead. 

Nobody stays dead in comic books anymore.  It's as bad as, or worse than, Soap Operas.  And by him, I mean Bruce Wayne.  Bruce is dead.  Batman is still alive and well, but it's now Dick Grayson, the original Robin.  Who grew up and became Nightwing, then there was another Robin who they killed off, but he wasn't really dead...and then there was a third Robin who isn't a practicing Robin at present.  Now, Robin is Bruce's son with the daughter of one of his worst enemy's.

Confused?

Yeah...so am I.

And I'm not having a problem with Bruce/Bats being dead.  Namely because, like every other significant character who has "died" in a comic book, they come back.  Every time.  Without fail.  Like clockwork.

So, while Dick is fulfilling the promise of being the Kid Sidekick, he won't stay Batman forever.  Because Bruce will come back.  And be Batman again.

I sometimes wonder why I still read these silly things.

Moo Cow has been retired.  Moo Cow, the symbol of Radio Nowhere is now lolling in the fields, carefree and happy as a cow.

Behold, the NEW symbol for Radio Nowhere:  

This was drawn and colored by Bruce Rosenberger, artist of Dutchy Digest.  Hands down my favorite small press comic book.  If you happen to order any issues of DD (and you should), tell 'em Mark sent you.  They are an absolute hoot.

Thanks, Bruce!

This weekend had the PlanetComicon in Kansas City scheduled, so off I went.  It's only a couple of hours, and Erin Grey was going to be there.
Plus, it usually works out that I get to see Eric and his family when I go, but no luck today.

No, the weather conspired against that happening.  Big time.  In fact, the weather conspired against a lot of things...

Imagine wet, heavy snow or sleet or rain or combination's of all of them falling on your car, the road and accumulating at a furious rate.  Then,
double the nasty factor and you have a pretty good approximation of the ugly I had to deal with today.

I knew the forecast had called for winter weather, but we'd been handed that story before this winter and it never happened.  Brownest winter
I can remember in this part of the country.  So, I set sail and drove through the rain to KC and hoped for the best.  Around 2 pm, I looked out a window and saw that it was slushing...and Eric texted me that I may want to consider staying in KC as the WX was hitting this skids in a hurry.  Being a stubborn cuss, I figured I'd have to figure it out for myself.  So, I stopped by a couple of places and said my goodbyes and slogged out to the van in the slush.

Driving wasn't bad until I got on I-435. Which was around 1 mile from the show.  Then it became something close to bumper cars without bumpers.  Damn fools driving too fast because their 4 Wheel Drive vehicles will let them.  Morons don't realize that they then have to STOP sometime.  *sigh*  I did see quite a collection of cars that had either gone off the side of the road in spectacular fashion or slammed into the concrete median or hit the wires that are strung betwix and between the median in grassy areas.  They keep the fools on their side of the highway. Saves lives, and teaches costly lessons in damage to cars.  I did see plenty of people walking around their messed up vehicles, talking on cell phones calling for help.  So, it appears that the only damage done was to cars and trucks.

I had planned on going a ways on I-70 when I finally made it there, got some gas and used the phone to check WX radar.  Things seemed much clearer to the East, so I elected to head for home.  I was going to call Eric and inform him of my decision, but wouldn't you know it?  His concern for my safety had him calling me first.  We should all have friends like that, shouldn't we? 

The ride home was soggy, and except for a 5-6 miles stretch of sudden sleet and more bumper cars, relatively uneventful.  I got to listen to Mizzou play a solid, albeit losing game against UConn.  And in the midst of all the snow, while looking for the basketball game,  I stumbled across Mike Shannon calling a Cardinals spring training game.  It was sort of strange to hear baseball in a serious winter weather event.

I picked up a few books, all at half price at the convention.  I got Vol. 2 of the Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Heroes (with the BRONZE cover...) a couple of Birds of Prey TPB's, two volumes of Sherlock Holmes comic strip reprints (The Malibu books) All but volume 2 of the manga series Record of Lodoss Wars Chronicles of the Heroic Knight ($1 each) and the Girl Genius Omnibus (also for $1).  Mike Worley gave me his original of a piece he did for a book for Brian Miller.

http://www.worleytoons.com/Tommi_finalv1.jpg

I also snagged a nifty Hawkgirl wall plaque, with the design from the Justice League tv show.  They did a great job on simplifying the existing designs for that show.

Erin Grey was quite nice to talk to, and the rest of the folks I stop by and say hi to were all pleasant and chatty.

So, that's the Con report.  Glad to be home safe and sound...and dry!

For years, I've admired comics creator Tony Isabella.  He has taken stands about creators rights that have quite honestly cost him work in the comics community.  He won't back down, speaks his mind and is pretty brave about it all.  Kudos to him for that.

Tony lost a bucket of my respect recently.  On an Yahoo Group we both belonged to, somebody posted a link to a news article about Harlen Ellison suing Paramount over back pay for a Star Trek episode that aired 38 years ago.  Ellison is always suing somebody, and is a worthless fuck of a human being.  But, even worthless fucks of human beings deserve their day in court, and if Ellison enjoys litigation, more power to him and his lawyers.  (Ellison is a worthless sack of human skin because he groped Connie WIllis on stage during the 2006 Hugo awards.  What an ass-hat)

So, somebody unwisely posted something about this over on Tony's message board.  Not smart.  Why? Because they don't invite discussion on Tony's message board.  They invite agreement, they invite and promote their own agenda, they don't deal with dissent or opposing opinions well at all.  Which, to be fair, is pretty common around the internets. 

There isn't much room for intelligent discussion anymore.  Group owners, bloggers, message board managers, all want to exert some sort of control over what is said, and like that.  Outside of decorum issues, I think this is nuts.  Freedom of speech isn't the same as Freedom FROM speech.  And Tony crossed the line.

http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/tony/?read=194623

He tossed somebody who disagreed with him.  Came right out and said that pissing him off on his own board wasn't a good idea.  That disagreeing and arguing with him about this was not allowed.

He has, in short, become a censor. Big Brother.  A Nanny Message Board Owner.

The group we both belonged to?  He left.  After stating the could no longer read the venom and bile directed at Ellison and his Holy Crusade.   The sad thing here is that there wasn't any venom.  Nor bile.  Just some people asking questions.  All very civilized, as a matter of fact.  One person made a poor analogy, was called on it and he APOLOGIZED for it!  Copped to it and apologized!  Amazing for the internet...

Tony's parting shot at everyone before he hit 'send' and quit was that he was embarrassed and ashamed of us as comic fans.

Well, Tony...I am ashamed and disgusted with you.  I know you're on my Facebook Flist, and I believe that if you don't personally read this, someone from our mutual friends will point this out.  No attempt to talk nasty about you behind your back.

You don't combat ignorance with silence.  You don't combat a problem by turning your back.  You don't educate anyone with Censorship.  No matter how tired, cranky or close to the situation you are.  You were wrong in this, Tony.  100% totally wrong.

Shame on you.

(comments are open to non-LJ commentors.)

Regular readers will recall that last July, I had the pleasure of regaling you with the first, epic, TITANIC meeting between Baseball Boy (that would be me) and Dr. Botany and his loyal sidekick, The Sprout.  (If you haven't read about this Marvel-ous Event, I suggest you do so....)

Tom Lammers and his Undergraduate Intern something or other, Laura K. are in St. Louis, MO again, hanging out at the Missouri Botanical Gardens doing research, labelling, indexing, indentifying and other nefarious and scientific plant type stuff.   Given the close proximity of St. Louis and Central Missouri, Dr. Botany and The Sprout traveled here for a visit.  

We visited for a couple of hours, talking about plant stuff, travel stuff, comic stuff, painting stuff, and stuff stuff.  Turns out The Sprout has a neat part time gig being a corpse for Murder Parties.  Gets paid, fed and bumped off.  Only to rise again.  That probably explains why she loves Zombie Movies so much.  She identifies with them.

As an added bonus, Friend Eric came from Kansas City to join in the festivities.  Thus, we had three members in good standing of the oft-mentioned KirbyKomics Yahoo Group (and it's a bunch of Yahoo's in the group, lemme tell ya!).  I dunno if it counts as an official meeting or anything, but it sure as heck was fun.

After talking about all the "stuff" and making silly and funny remarks about our 17 pound cat (poor, Stoopid Polly), we loaded up in the Baseball-Mobile (or Mini-van, whatever suits you) and headed to HuHot for lunch.  Elaine went in her car as she had errands to run after lunch.  It was going on 2:00 pm (in the afternoon even!) and the place was pretty well packed.  After a short wait, we hit the line, hit it hard and enjoyed.  Mongolian Grill is so much fun, and so tasty....

After we bid Elaine adieu (sniff), we again piled into the Battle Wagon and headed to the Capital of the State of Missouri (Jefferson City) to The Antiquarium.  It's a comic shop and used book store that is one of those really neat, offbeat whacky places everyone should visit if given the chance.  Everybody except Eric bought something to read.  Tom went in looking for comics that he was looking for and found old Science books and such.  We spent close to an hour just looking around and talking with the owner.

After that, we headed to another landmark in Jeff City and that's Central Dairy.  It's an old ice cream parlor.  Green porcelain covered cinder blocks, wooden booths and more ice cream flavors than you can shake a dipper at.  The beauty of the place is that Central Dairy doesn't run this place to turn a huge profit.  A pint container of handipped ice cream is around $3 or so.  It's like 4 scoops of whatever you want.  Me?  I get strawberry cheesecake on the bottom and top it off with chocolate.  Woo Hoo! 

As it is never really too cold for ice cream, this seemed like the thing to do.  Even with the time that Eric had spent in Columbia, he'd never been to Central Dairy, so that was a treat for him as well.  Tom and Laura enjoyed it, and I always do.

Silliness aside, it was a terrific afternoon spent yakking about silly things that we all enjoy.  I look forward to more such fun adventures!

Evil, Inc. is hands down my favorite web comic.  That's most likely because it takes the storytelling conventions of Super-Hero comics and turns them on their ears.  It's funny, punny, and Brad Guigar the creator is one of the friendliest blokes you'd ever want to meet.

Word play abounds, good/bad gags are par for the course and the story keeps moving.  Add this to your Daily RSS feed (if you have one) and see what I mean.  It's hysterical, insightful and skewers the super-hero genre where it needs it most.

8:48 A.M. found me on the Gold Wing, zipping along I-70, somewhere between Columbia and Concordia, MO, the Brian Setzer Orchestra is a gonna "Rock This Town" and they are blaring their intentions out of the speakers as I was heading to Kansas City to go to the MoKan Comics Conspiracy (which is about the dumbest name for a convention I've every heard in all my born days...).   The black-eyed susans littered the side of the highway scenery, combined with a few smaller trees with leaves turning red, made for some pleasant visuals down the road.  The lack of rain, and bountiful sunshine also contirbuted.

Besides the funny book show, I was also going to see friend Eric, meet his friend Matt, and also be able to see Eric's charming and long suffering wife, Sarah and their two little boys.  I wheeled into Eric's driveway, stowed my motorcycle stuff, changed shoes, and away we went.  I learned from last year that engineer boots on conrete for several hours can be wearisome on my feet.  I started throwing money at dealers almost immediately upon  arrival, using my handy-dandy nerdy checklist to fill holes in my collection.  Very quickly, I filled one of the reusable grocery sacks I brought from home.  So, I felt the need to empty it out in Eric's car, and go back in to refill it.  Which I did, thank you.

In between bargain hunting, I spent some time being a geek and hanging around the comics creators (writers and artists).  Sergio Aragones and the entire Groo Crew were there.  I've never read any Groo.  It just never appealed to me.   But I have read some other stuff that Aragones wrote, so I stopped by to tell him how much I enjoyed the recent Bat Lash series, and his work on The Spirit.  Since the Spirit is something of a sacred cow of mine, comics wise, he had to be doing a good job.  I even had my picture taken with Sergio!  (click here...then come back!)

I have to admit that going through long boxes of comics, or digging through bargain bins, sort of makes me feel like a bit of a dumpster diver.  Especially in a Convention setting.  But, with all the nifty bargains I picked  up, I shouldn't complain.  Eric found some things he was looking for, including a small ton of comics for his not quite 2 year old son.  The little guy sits there and lets you read the whole darn comic book to him.  Apparently, he's riveted to them.  Which is a good thing.  Should help him learn to read on his own and appreciate the beauty of sequential art as a medium for telling stories.

Meeting Matt and his family was a real treat.  Matt is a friend of Eric's from Eric's Karate Club, and both are members of the KirbyKomics Group of Yahoo's, I mean Yahoo Group that I belong to, so that made for an interesting and fun get together.  My only regret is that Matt and family couldn't join us for dinner at this nifty German place in Independence.  A place called the Rheinland Restaurant and you know what?  I TRIED THE VEAL!!!

That's right!  I wasn't there all week, I did tip the waitress, and I tried the Veal!  Jagerschnitzel, to be exact.  Und it vas gutt! (Comic book German for ya, right there).  It was served with a side of Spatzle, and the whole thing was great.  Had I not been looking at a 120 mile ride home, I would've had some yummy dark German beer in a bucket big enough to dive in.  Alas, keeping what few wits about me whilst piloting the Gold Wing home won out, so I had Apple Cider instead.

Visiting with Eric and Sarah and getting a little caught up with them, in between paying attention to the kids was lots of fun.  I always enjoy seeing them and spending time with them.  I have got to get Elaine to go with me to the Rheinland.  She won't try the veal, but they have plenty of other stuff I believe she'd like.

The ride home was uneventful, which is a good thing.  I did realize that I had conflicted perspectives, often at the same moment.  Or so it seemed...I would look at the odomter, and marvel at how much ground I covered in what I thought was a short time.  I was going to get home so much sooner than I had originally thought.  Yay me!  Then again, I'd immediatley think, I've still got so far to go!  I'll never get home!  WAUGH!

I made it home in good time, hugged Elaine mightily (because I missed her) and pretty well collapsed in a tired puddle on the floor.  I'm getting too old for this sort of stuff.  :-)

A terrific song by Harry Chapin, BTW...

I am in the process of cleaning out the comic collection, getting rid of the stuff that doesn't fit in my collection perameters.  So far, I've had pretty good luck selling off a good chunk of my goal.  Yesterday, for example, I hauled the contents of this shopping cart to the local grocery store.  They are a post office substation, and do media mail shipping.  The  total weight of the comics I sent to one guy was over 120 pounds.  That, my friends, is a lot of comic books/magazines/comic related stuff.

This particular series is so hit and miss these days, that I'm never quite sure what to expect.  This issue had me chuckling at the cover, but that never means anything more in the DCU.  Covers these days don't always give you a serious indication of what is going on inside.  Sometimes, it's just Artists Wankarama making with pretty pictures that have nothing to do with the contents.  But..I wander off topic!

Superman is often described as The Big Blue Boy Scout.  Right or wrong, whatever it is that makes Big Blue the role model for other heroes, that's the perception.  Teaming him up with Catwoman, who can be a hero or a thief, depending on what time it is or what her mood is, sounds like a recipe for disaster.  However, that's not the case in this funny book.\

Selina Kyle is an interesting character, and seldom moreso than in this issue.  Most female characters in the DCU are too awestuck to react to Supes the way Kyle does.  Pure, unadulterated, primal lust.  She likes what she sees, and Clark being Clark, he doesn't know how to react to it.  He doesn't trust her (with reason) and he has his hands full.  The best bit is when they decide to crash an underworld auction in disguise.  Catwoman dresses Superman up like Clark, who is damn near beside himself with panic as a result.  Too funny.

In the end, Clark goes with his instincts.  Not about Catwoman, but regarding Batman.  Bruce trusts Selina and in the end, that's enough for Clark.  If you want to read a comical comic book, this would be the issue to grab.

Talk about psyched!  There was some material from this on the Batman: Gotham Knight DVD I reviewed recently.  it was quite rough, yet very entertaining...I'm stoked about this release.  Probably as much as I was about Justice League: The New Frontier

EDIT:  Changed to YouTube version....

Well, the beginning phases of the soon to be legendary Comic Reduction of Accumulation Project (C.R.A.P.) has begun!  I unloaded some 300 comics recently in a deal that netted me some nice cash plus the equally valuable benefit of more space.  Of course, there are so many comics yet, that it is hard to tell.  However, Rome not having been built (or even falling) in a day, I figure a good first step is worth noting.

In fact, it was the bulk of a group of comics I figured I'd have to give away.  They were all a part of the Clone Saga from the Spider-Man books of over a decade ago.  So, I got good coin, the purchaser got good value and I also got some more room....

So, if you're interested in funny books, take a look here http://web.missouri.edu/~strattonm/comic/ and contact me with your interest...

With the new Batman movie set to debut this weekend, we are in store for another round of Bat-mania, which is only right, I suppose.

DC Direct releases this direct to video Batman film to allow us a glimpse to what happens to him in his early days.  There are a series of 6 vignettes, each by different art teams, with different character designs and different approaches to Batman. 

It's done in a gritty Anime style, and while I like a lot of anime, it's not the best way to sell Batman to kids.  I realize that anime is huge with kids today, and that's great.  However, you probably won't win many converts to your character just by dressing him up in anime clothes if the stories stink.  Solid stories cover up a multitude of sins and this one isn't the best in that department.

For example, the first story ("Have I Got a Story For You") is a riff on a 30 year old Batman story where kids all talk about how they have seen Batman and how each kid sees him differently.  Except for the kid who was waiting on his buds to show at the skate park.  He didn't see Batman until he came crashing through to window, looking nothing like his friends descriptions.  The animated series did a better job of telling this story, so why it was done again is a mystery.

The story "Crossfire" didn't focus on Batman, but he was the 500 lb. gorilla in the corner just the same.  It was a solid story, but again, it's been told before.

Outside of the extreme violence, there wasn't much original here.  Nothing groundbreaking as the original Animated Series, or nothing that makes this must see Batman cartoons.  Which is a shame.

Actually, the one bit that was worth seeing is the preview piece for the Wonder Woman animated movie to be released next spring.  That looked loads better than this tired Batman movie.

At what point does a collection become an accumulation?  When the purpose isn't so much to be complete but to simply have? 

I think that bridge was crossed some time ago in my life.  I now have over 30 long boxes of comics in my home.  Plus, there are at least 5-6 long boxes of trade paperbacks, hardbacks and Archive Editions/Marvel Masterworks type books.  It has gotten out of hand.  It's like Lex Luthor has take over my comic collecting mind and made me lose the notion of focus...AUGH!

I almost dread going to the comic shop on Wednesday's because I don't quite enjoy the comics as much as I used to.  They aren't as fun to read as they used to be for me.  What other people think of them is irrelevant to me.  I am buying comics with characters in them that aren't fun to read.  I buy them out of some misguided sense of loyalty, or hope they will get better.

Feh!

Enough of this, I say.  When the current Phantom story ends (gotta see how it ends, don't ya know...) I drop it.  Zorro gets the axe as well, and sadly so does the Angel and Buffy books.  Whedon may be involved, but they aren't nearly as good as the TV shows were, and they are as confusing as hell, to be honest.  There are some other books that will be dropped as well.  I may just bail on all the Batman books as well.  The idea of bringing Bruce back to what he was like before the Crisis is a good one.  Sadly, DC Editorial can't seem to decide what Bat they want.  It's all so frustrating.  In fact, Final Crisis may just be my DC swan song. 

Except for the Legion of Super-Heroes.  A book I never cared much about, I've managed to pull together almost a complete collection from the early 70's until now without a tremendous outlay of cold, hard, rock 'n roll cash.  Which is a good thing.  (well, except for the Treasury edition with the wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad that I dropped a chunk for...in stellar condition) 

So, what is the point of all of this?  Mainly that I will be unloading boxes of comics in the coming months.  eBay may well become my friend.  There will be lots of old Spider-Man stuff going away.  Lots and lots of Tradepaperbacks at great prices...and I'll benefit with the increase in space and lightening of my load.  The money will be nice, but it's not really the main reason for doing this.  It's mainly to make this stuff go away and go to places that will appreciate it.

Anyone want Astro Boy from Dark Horse books 1-10?  I'll make you a deal!  ;-)

A two volume box set reprinting the original manga series as created and drawn by Tatsuo Yoshisa.  The packaging is very nice, two hardcover books printed from left to right, in a slip covered box.  The art work was restored, or most of it was.  There are places where the digital reconstruction wasn't done very well.  I'm guessing that was in places that were colored at one point.  Most manga is printed in B&W, with only a few pages of color at the beginning of a story, or two tone printing.  The first story has some color, then is B&W for the rest of the series.  The Japanese covers are included from the 2000 collections as they were originally issued in their native country.

The series itself is a bit different from the TV show as the focus is much more on Speed Racer than the Racer family like the TV show.  Their is also more violence than the US viewers remember, as Speed is quite the fighter.  Racer X turns out to be working with the police,  We see very little of Spritle or Chim-Chim as well.  The Americanized names we are all familiar with were retained in this edition.   Even though they have little to do with the Japanese version of the same characters.  (for more information about that, click here...)  So, while we get the stories as they originally appeared, they have the nostalgic Americanized names.  I'd bet it's to capitalize on the Adults who watched the series more than kids today who read manga.

Ah...the stories.  What can I say about them?  They were created to generate interest in the TV series, and they are middling at best.  The art is servicable, and even recycled in one instance.  Seven pages, dialogue and all to be exact!  Continuity is not apparent, as the stories just sort of leap about.  Racer X comes and goes, get introduced in the same way both times (the recycled pages) and the quality of the stories never rises about adequate.  Truly disposable entertainment.  Without the phenomenon that is Speed Racer, this series would be forgettable and forgotten.  And it's just that phenomenon that makes this collection worth buying and reading, or at least reading.  Fun, but not great.  Seeing a B level manga from that era alone is worth the cost of admission as most manga that comes over here is the cream of the crop.  There is so much that we just don't see, and that's probably a good thing.

As I mentioned near the close of the last record,   Sorry, channeling The Tubes from The Completion Backwards Principle for a moment...

I mentioned in my previous Planet Comicon post that I spent some time talking with creators of indie or small press material.  The artist who made the deepest impression on me was Kristen McCabe.  Mostly because I found her artwork to be totally different from what everyone else was doing at the Con.  What grabbed my attention was this particular piece she had done.  It's a commission she had done of Vampirella, not one of my favorite comic characters to be honest, but I love the way she did this piece.  (Click the image for a larger view)  She also was one of the artists who added to my sketchbook.  I don't scan and post that stuff, so you're outta luck.  Needless to say, I really like it.  One of the few sketches in that book to have color so it really stands out.

I see more than a little Kyle Baker in her art, but also some 60's influences as well.  I don't really know how to describe it, but I do like it.  I think her style would work well in non-long underwear comic settings or even better in single panel gag strips.  And there are some of those with all sorts of character designs and sketches on her blog http://kristens-sketchblog.blogspot.com/ which I've added to my Bloglines...

Friday dawned glumpy, overcast and colder than expected. It goe little better through the morning. Friday was a vacation day for me, as I had planned on going to Kansas City by way of Jefferson City to visit my friend Eric and his family, and go to the annual Planet Comicon in Overland Park, KS. I was going by way of Jefferson City to get the Gold Wing inspected to satisfy the requirements of government to make sure that my motorcycle was safe enough to endanger my life on for the purposes of obtaining a new sticker on my licesnse plate. That done, I was planning on heading to the Kansas City area on US Highway 50.

So, after riding the 35 miles from our door to Larry's Motor Sport (listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the way), I did indeed get the Gold Wing (injected), inspected, (detected, infected, neglected and selected) and it passed. Never really a concern as I just had some work done on it. I also got a vent for the Tulsa Windshield that I recently purchased used. Come to find out that Tulsa Enterprises no long makes vents for the windshield they sell with a hole in it for a vent. I love capitalism...most of the time.

The nice folks at Larry's found a suitable vent in a new shield that had been sitting around for some time. Long enough that they didn't feel like they should sell it as new, so they pulled the vent out and sold me that one, and installed it for and everything. I was ready to roll.

I don't think I'd mentioned that the temperature when I left home was 48 degrees. It was still 48 degrees several hours later. Which meant that the blue jeans and two pair of socks I had on under my boots was going to get it. Since a Gold Wing is essentially a Lazy Boy lounger with a huge fairing on the front end, I wasn't terribly concerned. Until I started down Hiway 50 and realized that I had 120 miles to go. This meant when I stopped in California (MO) than I not only needed gas, but to put on my rain pants. This I did, and it's sort of funny to watch people watching you put on pants over your pants in a parking lot. It really must be a sight because people were watching me dress. In public, whilst I already had clothes on. Sort of surreal, I would imagine. Especially in the Mid West where that abnormal sticks out like a sore thumb.

I was set, I was ready and I rolled. West on Highway 50, through towns like Tipton, Sedalia, Warrensburg all the while getting closer to the Kansas City area and the end of my trip. Did I mention that the temperature hadn't changed much? This remained so until I passed Warrensburg. From then on, the clouds parted, the sun came out and the temperature started to climb. To around 57 degrees by the time I reached Lee's Summit. It wasn't a heat wave, but it was warmer than it had been. I hadn't seen many hardy (or dumb) souls out on bikes until I reached the KC area, then there were more and more of them. Amazing what a few degrees does in bringing out the bikes.

My destination reached, I got off the bike, and took my rain pants off in Eric's driveway. The neighbors there, having nothing better to do, watched. People are weird. Unloaded the bike (not much to unload, so it didn't take long) and headed inside. Sat and talked for a spell, went out for dinner to a great German place in Independence (near Truman's home). Eric and I stayed up after his wife and son went to bed to watch "Superman: Doomsday" but were both so tired we fell asleep while it was on.

Saturday morning arrived and we hit the local Waffle House for breakfast. I was wearing a Mizzou Tigers hoodie and some Kansas Jayhawks fans came in, so we annoyed them, which was fun. Boo Hoo KU! The meal and hijinks concluded, we went back to the house and Eric got ready for his Karate class. He's actually quite accomplished in this and teaches a group of students where he is an instructor at a local college. While he was doing that, I was at the Planet Comicon (or the Con as Eric's wife jokingly and somewhat condescendingly (with tongue planted firmly in cheek) calls it. Eric joined me after taking a few too many shots to the head at Karate.

While there, I spent most of my time in Artist's Alley as the people who create comics are generally speaking lots of fun to talk to and watch work. I had my little sketch book and collected a few additions from some of the local creators who were in attendance. I like them because their are in it for love at this point and haven't become jaded. Also, a couple of the artists have interesting and different artistic visions which are great to see.

I took some time and commissioned 3 sketches suitable for framing (and they will be) to hang in the office (which they will be). The first is by Jeff Moy, former artist on Legionnaires. He asked me what I wanted, and told him to pick a Legionnaire and have some fun. This is what he came up with.   Live Wire is has a nice costume and I like what he did with the picture.  It's quite cool.  The scan is "almost" complete because the paper he used is just a smidge larger than the scanner's bed. I didn't do anything about it. You can get the idea.

The next one is by Rick Stasi, who is one of the nicest guys in comics and one of the nicer guys I've met. He lit up like a Christmas Tree when asked him if he would do a sketch of The Shadow. His pleasure at the request can be seen in the finished product. He really outdid himself.  The line going from left to right is where I stitched the top and bottom halves of the scan together.  I'm so not good at that...but you get the idea of who utterly cool this is and how much fun he had doing it.

Finally, my old buddy Mike Worley, who has worked for Bongo Comics and Archie and some creator owned stuff did a sketch for me. I've known Mike for several years and we already have a great Betty Cooper from the Archie cast hanging on the wall of our living room (A gift for my wife). I've enjoyed asking Mike to draw little sketches in my book of characters as they might appear in the Simpson's universe. When people look through my book, his work always generates chuckles. And admiration, because that clean style looks easy and isn't. So, just for the helluvit, I asked him to do a full sized sketch of The Shadow as he'd appear in the The Simpsons. I love what he did with the scarf around his face. This is a great job, and will be hanging on the wall soon. (check out Mike's Blog.  He gave me one of the sketches he posted on 3/24)

I grabbed a few comic collections. I snagged two large collections of The Cartoon History of the Universe which is a classic in the field. I remember this stuff from my days as a teen collector. To have it on large collected editions is great. I picked up a Wonder Woman TPB, Capote in Kansas, which is a graphic novel written by Ande Parks. He wrote it about Truman Capote and his time in Kansas doing the work for "In Cold Blood" (which is a fantastic book). He signed it, and got the artist to do the same. I spent some time jawing with B. Clay Moore who writes "Hawaiian Dick" (grapefruit noir) detective stories which make great comics. I bought a collection of one of his other books, and I'm looking forward to reading that as well.

The jewel find was "Mickey Mouse in Color" which is a 20 year old collection of Sunday and Daily strips from the 1930's. All are in color and are considered classic adventure stories. I don't read a lot of Disney, but what I have read, I generally enjoy. Especially the older material. Well written, plotted and drawn, these are just great fun. And this book is nicely put together. And I didn't have to pay full price.

After The Con, we met Eric's wife and son at an Indian place and I had my first go round with Indian cuisine. It was good, but rich. Of course, I like lamb, so that wasn't a big deal. After that, I headed for home. At almost 80 mph, because for all the fun I had been having, I missed my wife. Traffic was light and it was a bit of a different ride home than there because there are no stops on I-70 like there are on US highways that are still 2 lane roads. So, my legs got a bit sore from lack of stretching and the sun was going down on my way home. I had that in my rearview mirrors for a while. Not something I'm used to.

All in all, it was a nice ride, and a good Con (nyah, nyah Sarah). I enjoyed my visit with Eric (and his family, they are all great people). I am quite blessed in that I not only have a great wife, but I really do have marvelous friends.

Of course, I always say that I'm not sure if I'm going to go to The Con next year, but I always do...

The 75,000 Miles?  Somewhere between The Con and home, the Wing hit and passed 75,000 miles.  I missed it...

I have never written down how I got into comics. What caused me to become a fan of 4 color fiction. The wonderful escapist and surreal world of long underwear, wish fulfillment, and Archie's terminal problem of Betty or Veronica.

Like most adult comic fans, my own personal "Golden Age" was the mid 1970's. When I was between 10 and 14 years old. Or thereabouts, the memory is a bit foggy at this point. I know I kept them until I was 18 or so, and that for years I sort of regretted getting rid of them. A lot of those old comics have been replaced but they aren't the ones I had, read a few dozen times and loved as only a kid can love.

When my sister and I were little, we lived in Charlotte, NC (with our parents, of course!). There were only a half dozen TV shows that we watched with any regularity. Mother was pretty good about monitoring what we watched, so we watched "Sesame Street", "The Electric Company", "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood", "The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite", "Speed Racer" and "Spider-Man"

That's right, the one with the awful animation and the catchy theme song. That's the one. The show I loved as a small boy. I couldn't have been any older than 5 or 6 when that show came on. And the idea of a guy who could climb walls and swing between building was really keen to me. I was so taken with that part that I tried to build my own web shooters. I did it with a plastic cup with a lid, that I poked a hole in the side, managed to get some sort of stick/spindle inside, wind some string on it and there I was. A kid with a cup full of string thinking he was Spider-Man.

We moved at some point when I was 8 or so, and went to Minneapolis. No Spider-Man on TV there that I could find. No Speed Racer for that matter. Did watch some of the old Batman TV show. And to a kid, it was great stuff. Now? I can't watch it. But what these shows did was expose me to the characters. To the concept of Men and Women wearing their underwear on the outside of their long johns and sticking a bath towel in their shirts for a cape and having a lot of fun beating up stupid bad guys. Which is all it was to my young mind at the time.

I discovered comic books quite by accident. I was looking at a magazine rack in a grocery store. I had to be about 9, maybe 10 years old. I didn't really "get" what I was looking at. Until I saw Spider-Man getting pummeled by some guy who was melting. This was happening on top of a subway car, and damned if it didn't look exciting. I'd not forgotten Spider-Man, but I didn't know there was a comic book about him. I was in heaven! I was so excited I bought a Captain America comic book as well! He looked really neat with the shield and wear a flag looking costume. Not as cool as Spidey, but hey! 50 cents later and I was out the door and headed for home. I was a happy kid.

I can hardly believe that 2 comics set me back 50 cents. That just boggles my mind now. I get excited about the Dollar Box at comic shops these days. But, I meander...

The Spider-Man comic that grabbed my attention so dramatically was Amazing Spider-Man 133 (click for a synopsis) and the Molten Man was trying to kill My Hero!  Of course, I had no idea who The Molten Man was, but I was going to find out.  I read, re-read and read that comic book over and over again.  I almost memorized it, I read it so much.  I read all the ads, the letter column, Stan's Soapbox, the printing information and couldn't wait for the next issue to come out.   I didn't really get that this was the 2nd part of a 2 part story because the writer kindly mentioned what had gone before so I knew all I needed to know to enjoy the comic.  That doesn't always happen these days.  Then, by studying carefully the editor's notes, I figured out that they were referencing previous issues.  So, in this issue, I learned that Spidey had lost Gwen Stacy less than a year before, his best friends father was a nut, and that poor Spidey was wanted by the police.  All in 22 pages of amped storytelling.  I was in heaven.

The Captain America comic was the concluding chapter of a then huge story line featuring the Secret Empire.  I didn't get all the implications at the time, but from my vantage point now, I know that the bad guy was President Nixon and that he was being portrayed as betraying the country in his lust for power.  Considering the Watergate scandals going on at the time, this made some sense.  Especially when you consider that the writers were young, idealistic kids.

So, this was my introduction to comic books.  I quickly found Batman comic books, and since he was depicted as being much more down to earth (no "OId Chum" crap with Robin) and a more serious hero than on the silly TV show, I latched onto him as another favorite.  Sadly, to this day, I can't recall what comic I was first exposed to Batman in.  Or, The Flash either.  I also have to admit that I became interested in characters based on their costumes more than any other reason.  I just thought there was something cool about a guy in red long johns with a yellow lightning bolt belt and wings on his head.  And he could run fast.  What kid didn't dream of doing that?

I collected rabidly until I discovered girls, slid the comics to the back of the closet and then traded them later with some kid for some record albums, I think.  I came back to comics when I was at a large shopping mall in St. Louis.  I'd gone there with my daughter (she was quite young, around 3 or so) to see her Aunt Katie (my sister) who was working her way through school at one of the restaurants in the mall.  We ate there, waited for her to get off work by wandering around the mall for awhile.  Tony place, this mall.  Had an F.A.O. Schwartz toy store, and a Warner Brothers Studio Store.  While there, I picked up a trade paperback of Robin: A Hero Reborn and that created more questions than it answered (Jason who?).  So, I went to a local comic shop later and started buying the odd trade paperback, and it spiraled from there.  Now, I have prints and Convention sketches, comic strip reprint collections, and more comic books than my wife thinks any grown man should have (she's got a point there...) and hours and hours of reading fun over the years.

So, there's a bit of my comic book collection history.  I eventually did reacquire that Spider-Man comic and actually read the first part of that story.  But, that's for another day.

I seldom blow my own horn, but this is one time I feel I need to.

Part of my work involves working on web sites.  I get enjoyment out of putting them together and making them more than just functional.  My online buddy Sarge had need of a web site and asked me to help him out.  So I did.  And it is finally ready for business.  Sarge is the fine fellow who put color to Doodles the Cat (yay Sarge!) and many other fine projects.   I mentioned him yesterday, so I won't go on at length about him today...but I could. 

http://randysargent.net/

Tell 'im Mark sent you.

Dave who?



Dave Stevens.  Creator of The Rocketeer, and the person most responsible for bring Bettie Page to the attention of more than just girlie magazine collectors.  Also, one hell of an artist.  Mainly of the female form as the pictures will attest.  If you click the cover at right, you'll notice that Cliff's girlfriend has more than a passing resemblance to Bettie Page.

He was mainly a cover artist and did pin ups.  He was one of the best modern Good Girl Artists.   By all accounts, he was also one hell of a nice guy.  Which isn't always true in comic books.  There are creators who are walking Ego's.  Total asses.  Many with far less talent, to be honest.

Stevens created a hero for the ages in The Rocketeer and the movie that was made based on his comic book was great, sloppy, adventure fun.  It was a great popcorn movie.  One of my favorites from the adventure genre and worth watching just to see Alan Arkin and Jennifer Connelly before she was a huge star.

    I seldom buy two copies of any comic.  One is enough.  However, in this instance, I made an exception.  Shouldn't be hard to figure out why.  It's hanging on the wall.

R.I.P. Dave Stevens.  Thanks...