Coming Distractions...

Do I have to remind you that Sunday will bring a new edition of Cover Stories over at World Famous Comics, and that you can click the link on the linklist to find it? I didn't think so.

Sunday's posting may be iffy at best... Jessi, our soon-to-be-adopted son (who will be referred to by name once he is adopted) and I are going to Seattle to catch a boat and do some whale-watching, and will be leaving VERY early and coming back pretty late. It may well be Monday before I post again!

Given that I posted the last of the classic collectibles the other day, I figured I needed to come up with something to replace them in the rotation... and I think I found it! "Found on eBay" will be the replacement, and it will feature photos I've been swiping from eBay auctions of stuff that I thought was cool or interesting. Unfortunately, some of the auctions will already be closed before I post any of the photos, and I also didn't keep track of the auctions for each of the photos, so there won't be any linking to the auctions themselves... but if you see something you think is insanely cool and you have to have it, you'll know it was at least listed recently! The first of these posts will likely happen on Monday, since I still have to upload the pictures I've collected so far and get 'em organized.

Jon

Foreign Comics Covers (Again)!

So, I didn't point out last time around (like you guys didn't notice yourselves) that these "Gigant" covers feature newly-drawn artwork by local talent, as opposed to reprinting the original covers... and here's more of 'em!



This cover art's pretty good, if you ask me! Could be a bit more dynamic, but very nice.



Obviously some Green Lantern/Green Arrow reprint in here... plus the Metal Men and more? This must've been one cool foreign comic book!



Aside from messing up the insignia on Superman's cape, this isn't too bad... must've reprinted a JLA issue with the Weaponers of Qward, eh?



This one almost looks like it's an enlargement of a Dick Dillin JLA panel, with Adam Strange as the mystery character.



It does appear like the earlier issues did reprint US covers, eh? These last two were from 1977, while the others were 78 and later.



This cover features the JLA story with the apparent death of Aquaman, with Batman saying that nobody knew his real name, or something like that.



I believe this cover was originally from a 100-Page Super-Spectacular JLA issue.

And now, some foreign Shazam! covers...







Jon

Classic Batman Toys!

So, here's what'll probably be the last of the classic collectibles posts for a while... I wonder if I should've alerted the Bat-Blog that I'd be posting these?



Here's a color photo of that Batcave playset that was later reissued as the Captain Action playset, which I'm sure I featured in some of the Montgomery Ward's catalog posts!



These are some pretty cool-looking 1960s Batman buttons, aren't they?



A nice Batman lunchbox here, but I've seen cooler-looking Batman ones!



These are, of course, the classic Aurora model kits... I know that Batman and Robin were reissued in the 1970s and the 1990s, and the Batmobile and Batplane were reissued by Polar Lights about six or seven years ago... but I don't know if the Batboat or Batcycle were ever reissued! I don't think the Penguin was ever reissued, either.



And this is, of course, the classic Corgi Batmobile in the original box!

Jon

DC December, 1974 Ads of Interest!

The 70s was definitely a good era to be into model kits. True, most of the classic Aurora models were no longer in production by that point, but between Aurora, Revell (pictured above) AMT and others, there were still quite a few cool kits out there for those of us not interested in building cars, planes, or boats!

Although I think only Aurora, Monogram and Revell did snap-together kits.



It was also a good, if occasionally goofy, era for action figures. I ask you, what other poseable dog action figures were there between Duke (above) and the all-too-short-lived Krypto the Superdog series from Fisher-Price?

One other thing about Duke... I always had the impression he might've been created for a different purpose... not an action figure line of his own, but to go with something else!

(yes, that's right, I only found two ads of interest to scan and share from the month in question!)

Jon

Oh, Wow, it's Wowio!

I learned about Wowio on one of the pop culture blogs I check daily (probably the USA "Pop Candy" one). It's a pretty nifty site.

What is Wowio? Well, it's free books for download, but the creators of the books get paid for each download anyway!

There's quite a bit of good stuff available, including a LOT of comics (especially Hero Publishing books, but there's other stuff, too). The way it works is, you sign up for a FREE account, and then you can add books to your queue. Each day, you can download three books from your queue, and then you've got those PDFs on your computer!

It's a pretty cool idea, and one that, with some minor changes, I'd like to see implemented at DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and other publishers for downloading legal comics online.

Jon

Thanking Bedazzled and Blockade Boy!

I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but I have a regular Google search set up to alert me whenever this blog is referenced elsewhere on the net.... and thanks to that alert, I know to thank the Blockade Boy and Bedazzled blogs for providing a link back to here (as you can see, I've got links to both of those on the sidebar). Bedazzled has not only linked back to me, but there's been a few references to things I've posted here (although I think maybe This Is Pop Culture! has pointed more people here to specific posts).

Jon

More Foreign Edition Comics!

Don't really feel like writing much tonight... enjoy these covers!













Jon

Vintage Corgi Toys!

Here's some of the last classic collectibles I have to share with you, until I gather up more pics!



These are "Corgi Junior" Batman vehicles... which I guess means they're either smaller than regular Corgis... or maybe they're a little bigger, for smaller kids?



This, of course, is the classic Corgi Batmobile, probably the most popular Corgi toy of all time!



But I must say that their Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a definite contender for the title... there are a lot of avid collectors out there still hankering for one of these on their toy shelves!



Certainly a lesser-known Corgi (well, it was a surprise to me) was this Hardy Boys car... which was based on the Filmation animated series of the 1960s!



Recognize this Corgi toy? It's a starfighter from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and I had no idea until I found this pic that Corgi made one of those!

As I think I've mentioned before, Corgi also did some other very cool toys... I'd love to get their Yellow Submarine, for example, or their Monkeemobile. I used to have the some of their newest Batmobiles, but sold them a while back when money was tight.

Corgi also did a U.S.S. Enterprise... or was that Dinky? I always have a hard time remembering which did that one. I know they make several Enterprises these days.

A Corgi set I used to have was their Thunderbirds vehicles, based on the Gerry Anderson show. I'm not sure what happened to those!

Jon

Blogger's got a Scheduled Outage...

...so not much at length from me tonight!

I had a day off, and I spent most of it with our foster (soon to be adopted) son. We ran a few errands, made it to the comic book shop, and then met my wife at a friend's house so we could "raid" her garden for some corn, peppers, and tomatoes, then it was home for dinner. Not the most eventful day, eh?

Over the weekend, I wrote two or three "Cover Stories" columns... and no, I still haven't done much more than subconscious thinking about a possible SBC column... although I do note that Silver Bullet Comicbooks does have a new All The Rage column up today! So, welcome back!

My eBay record auctions ended earlier tonight... only one item sold, and at the starting price of 99 cents... I won't be relisting any of the rest of the records, just donating them to Goodwill or Value Village, which is what I should've done in the first place, obviously!

Jon

Star Trek: The New Voyages - "Come What May" - Brief Review!

OK, so I've watched much all of "Come What May," the pilot for the fan-made series "Star Trek: The New Voyages."

What did I think? Overall, I liked it, quite a bit.

Oh, I have a few very minor nitpicks. For example, there was a bit with Kirk, Spock and McCoy involving a 3-D chess game that was pretty much lifted verbatim from one of TOS episodes, except with Kirk taking McCoy's lines and vice versa in a few instances.

And where's the pointed sideburns on all the male crew? Why is Chekov wearing a red shirt? What position does Rand have on the bridge crew?

But overall, I liked it. It had a lot of the feel of the original series, the sets were extremely well done, the SFX were also very good indeed (although I think bird's-eye view from the top of the turbolift shaft would've been enough).

I'll definitely be watching the other episodes that've been done so far!

Jon

A Response to The Comic Treadmill...

I had to share this latest post from The Comic Treadmill..

Most pertinently, "Animal costumes return in this catalog, with Batdog and Spider-dog. But no Krypto. Those tears you hear are being shed over at the Random Acts of Geekery."

Hey, Krypto!



"What do you want, Jon?"

We've been mentioned on The Comic Treadmill again!



"Really?"

Yes, pointing out there's nothing remotely resembling a Krypto costume for your fellow canines out there.



"Well, not just any dog can pull this look off, you know."

(sadly, that's about the best pic I have of Krypto in his costume by himself... I'll have to take a few new ones one of these days, maybe even try to get an action shot in)

Seriously, though... don't you think that DC Direct would be smart to produce Krypto collars, capes and tag sets for all us aging fanboys who named our dog Krypto (yes, even the dogs that aren't white?)?

Jon

DC December, 1976 Ads!

Here's an ad I fondly remember, because I actually responded to it... although it may have been a good year or two after seeing it! And all I did was request a catalog from Lincoln Enterprises, which was Gene Roddenberry's company formed to sell Star Trek merchandise.

Never did order anything from it, though!



This ad is one that's also fondly remembered, and I actually had the Batman volume for quite some time (unfortunately, I sold my copy a while back... fortunately, it's been reprinted, soon to be followed by the other volumes!). I've also read the Superman one that came out around the same time, but don't recall if I've even seen the Wonder Woman volume!



This ad shows you just how important DC and its licensors considered the original Captain Marvel during this time! One of the blogs I check out semi-regularly, Every Day is Like Wednesday, posted yesterday that he doesn't buy DC's calling Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman their big three (or top three) characters. Well, if someone was looking at merchandising alone to determine who were the top three DC characters in 1976, I think that it would be Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel (although the Lynda Carter TV series would put a challenge on Captain Marvel's stance there).

Intresting clothing items and accessories being offered in this ad, isn't it?

Jon