Why People Know Superman Has a Secret Identity!

It's funny how, sometimes, you can accidentally come across the answer to a question that's been bothering you for some time.

Take the whole Superman secret identity thing. Given that the guy doesn't wear a mask, I've long wondered why anyone ever thought he had a secret identity at all! Even John Byrne questioned this, and made it the basis of one of his stories when he and Marv Wolfman reworked Superman in the 1980s.

Well, thanks to Superman: The Action Archives Vol. 1 (checked out from my local library), I finally have the answer!

In some ways, the story begins in the Superman feature in Action Comics #8, in which Superman destroys a slum area to force the government to rebuild new, modern buildings in their place (as Mark Waid points out in the intro, the early Superman stories featured a Man of Steel who behaved very different than he did later on... no Big Blue Boy Scout here!).

In Action #9, the chief of police is still hacked off at Superman'd destruction of public property, and he's brought in Detective Captain Reilly, nicknamed 100% Reilly, because he's had a 100% success rate with his convictions. Reilly brags he'll arrest Superman in two days!

Later, at the Daily Planet, Clark Kent learns that Lois Lane is in love with his alter ego, which causes him to turn into an empty office so he can laugh out loud at hte idea. Back at police HQ, Reilly calls the newspapers to announce a $5000 reward to the person causing the capture and arrest of Superman -- but he plans to collect that reward himself. Mortimer Snoop, and ameteur detective, reads the article and plans to collect himself!

At that instant, nearby, a mental patient tries to jump out a window. Clark Kent learns of this, and rushes to the scene to cover the story...




Snoop calls Reilly, and tells him what he knows...



So, with both trying to collect the reward by waiting for Superman's return... the mental patient does jump, and Superman leaps to save his life. After returning the patient to the hospital...



Later, Reilly and Snoop run into each other where the clothes were left, but Superman's already been by and collected them! However, Snoop had found a paper in the pocket of Clark's suit saying he was going to attend the Duncan reception that evening. That night, Snoop tries to get into the party, but is turned away. He calls the Planet to talk to the society editor, figuring she'd get him in, but Lois Lane is working late, and takes the call, and learns that Superman will be at the party!

Lois meets Snoop there, but when she's admitted into the party, she tells the butler she doesn't know Snoop! Snoop then calls Reilly, who heads to the party. Lois runs into Clark, and tells him someone's learned Superman will be at the party. Just then, Reilly and Snoop enter, and decide to search every man at the party, figuring the Superman costume would be worn under the suit (as Clark is, indeed, doing). However, just before Clark is searched, Snoop demands to know if he'll get the reward. Reilly tells him to beat it!



Yep, Snoop's got a mad-on, and he turns out the lights! In the darkness, Clark switches to Superman, and Reilly and Snoop both try to tackle him...



Strangely enough, the story ends there, with Reilly re-nicknamed "99% Reilly"... and so far as I know, Reilly never reappeared (at least he doesn't reappear in the remainder of the stories in this Archive!).

Even more strangely, as happy as Lois was to see Clark at the party, apparently she doesn't question that once Superman's appeared, Clark is no longer on the scene... and I'm guessing he was the only man at the party who was gone from that point!

So this, then, solves the mystery of why anyone would think Superman had a secret identity!

Jon

TV Comics Cover of the Day!

Yes, it's one of the Four Color issues of The Twilight Zone! As I've repeatedly said when posting these TV comics covers, it's been amazing to me what I've been learning... I'd associated the TZ comic with Gold Key for as long as I can remember, and here it debuted in Dell's Four Color Comics!

The things you learn when you're looking for comics cover scans...

Anyway... I think I've only read one or two issues of any TZ issue, those being Gold Key issues, naturally, and I think they basically followed a similar format to the show, save that Rod Serling acted more like a horror comics host, appearing in the first and last panels of each story from what I recall. Whether the stories were any good or not, I don't recall!

Jon

Classic Toys of the Day!

Yes, it's a third day of Corgi vehicles from the 1969 Sears Wish Book, and today's selection includes those super-cool Batman vehicles! Of course, one should also note the appearance of the Green Hornet's Black Beauty and James Bond's Astin-Martin, too!

By the way... speaking of Corgi, when I posted the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Corgi vehicle the other day, I had no idea that ABC Family Channel was going to be running the movie today! I noticed it in the listings just a minute or two after it started, and watched the whole thing through! If you haven't seen this movie in a while, check your local listings... ABC Family Channel has a tendency to run movies a few times within a few weeks, so it may come up again! It's definitely held up as well as I remembered it... although I didn't recall seeing Benny Hill in a fairly major role as a toymaker!

Oh, here's a bonus listing from at 1969 Wish Book:



Since some of these vehicles are in the first image, I figure, why wait until tomorrow night to post 'em? So instead, tomorrow will feature the 1969 GI Joe items!

Jon

Promotion: Olympic Cards & Comics' "A May to Remember!"

Gabi, the owner and manager of Olympic Cards and Comics, located here in glorious Lacey, Washington at 4129 Pacific Avenue (across from Fred Meyer, near Sleater-Kinney), and who can be called at 360-459-7721, has asked me to promote some of her upcoming events for "A May to Remember!"

May 5th, naturally, is Free Comic Book Day with special guests Greg Rucka, Jen Van Meter, Brandon Jerwa, and Spider-Man!

But just one week later, on May 12th, is a special DC's "52" signing and Q&A with writers Mark Waid, Geoff Johns, and Greg Rucka!

Two weeks after that, on May 26th, is a Q&A and signing with Kurt Busiek!

I'm planning on going to all three of these events, and may even bring Krypto along with me to the May 12th and May 26th events, as Waid and Busiek both heard about Krypto at the trivia contest at Emerald City Comic-Con, and I'm thinking maybe they might be intrested in meeting him in person!

Jon

So the Posts are Late Tonight...

...and why is this? Because after getting home from work, I had to shampoo the carpets downstairs, as part of this weekend's cleaning in preparation for meeting with the adoption licensing person next week.

But I hope to post more tomorrow!

Jon

Cool Classic Toy of the Day!

You know, this 1969 Corgi vehicle of the Beatles Yellow Submarine is probably the only Corgi that I'd like to possess more than a classic Corgi Batmobile.

If I'm not mistaken, this was re-released a number of years back, but I didn't buy it then...

Jon

TV Comic Cover of the Day!

Yes, it's Top Cat, the most respectable leader of the gang! Of course, if you've seen Top Cat and the Phil Silvers shows, you've undoubtedly noticed that both shows share a number of similarities. It was, after all, Hanna-Barbera's fashion to create a new character by loosely basing it (or not so loosely, in some cases). Even the voices would be similar to the voices of the actors who played the characters which inspired the H-B characters.

I say similar, becuase if you do really compare the H-B character voice with the original actor, you'll notice it's not a 100% imitation.

Mark Evanier has pointed this out numerous times, naturally.

Jon

A Few More Mego Videos!

Enjoy!






Jon

Convention Photos? Well, photos of Feedback...

Yeesh, the pics from the costume contest didn't come out at all, and I forgot to take any other pictures (I really should've taken more pictures), but here's some photos of Feedback, mostly with me!









Yes, he's always on, and pretty much always smiling! And he's a great guy, too!

Jon

Our Child's Room!

I was downloading photos from the camera tonight, and I realized that I'd taken pictures of our child's room and never shared them!



As you can see here, we start with a view of a small bookshelf, which is stuffed full of little stuffed fruit and vegetable figures, which Jessi and I have taken to refer to as "Veggie Buddies." They're kind of like Beanie Babies. On top of the shelf, there's a lighted "aquarium," which we figured could be used as a nightlight. You can also kind of make out the lightswitch plate, which is part of the sealife set we got at Kids R Us.



Moving to the left, here's some of the toddler furniture my parents had in their garage, plus two more bookshelves, but these have books on 'em! Yes, we don't even have the child here, and we've got bunches of books for him or her!



Continuing left, another view of the bookshelves, plus the changing table, stroller, highchair, and carseat!



Left again, and there's the bed, plus a little foam rubber "couch" for sitting on while watching tv or whatever, which can convert to a little sleeping cot of sorts... since it has Winnie the Pooh on it, we nicknamed it the Pooh-ton. And yes, that giant penguin stuffed toy is Mumble from Happy Feet, sitting next to a few monkeys.



And finally, another view of the bed... note that it's got built-in drawers to use in place of a separate dresser!

Yeah, we're probably going to spoil this child, given what we've already got. At least, we'll be spoiling them as much as we can!

Jon

Back to Normal (or what passes for normal)...

As I expected, last night I finished the third interview transcript for the Isis DVDs, and so things are back to normal here. There is one more that I'll be doing on Tuesday, so it'll be minimal posts then.

Anyway... a few things to mention here, nothing that really needs a post by itself:

• ITEM! The Random Thoughts got a plug in Thursday's edition of This is Pop Culture (check the link on the right), thanks to the GI Joe Sears Wish Book posts. Unfortunately, John there provided the link on the last day of the current batch of Joe posts! But there will be more, trust me!

• ITEM! Made another run to the library today, and got some additional books and DVDs... It's amazing, I keep thinking that I'll catch up reading and watching the stuff I've checked out before more stuff becomes avaialable... but I currently have from the library the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1 plus Bullwinkle Vol. 1, and the Behind the Planet of the Apes. On top of that, there's four videotapes of Jack Benny TV shows (which I'm about halfway watching as I type this). I tell you, if you haven't checked out what your local library has available to check out, you should!

• ITEM! As I've mentioned before, I've also been checking out CDs of Old Time Radio Shows from the library, and it's been a real treat listening to them. I have a lot left to listen to... including a few episodes of the Superman radio show!

• ITEM! Later tonight, I'll be downloading the photos from my digital camera from Emerald City Comic Con... so if they haven't been posted as you read this, check back in another hour or so.

• ITEM! A book I checked out, but kind of wish I hadn't now, is the Nitpicker's Guide to Star Trek: TNG... and wow, are these guys nitpickers! This was volume 2 I checked out, and to be honest, I think instead of checking it out, I'd have been better off buying it, to refer to after watching each episode... except that I haven't been watching many TNGs lately. I am, however, still watching Enterprise episodes. I do plan on reading in its entirety Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series.

That's it for right now!

Jon

Classic Toy of the Day!

We're moving on to 1969, and this year's Sears Wish Book featured some cool stuff, beginning with this, the Corgi die-cast Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, naturally based on the movie, which starred Dick Van Dyke.

The crafsmanship of this toy, like all the Corgis, is amazing. The car absolutely had all the fold-out wings and stuff you see here! Not that I ever had one of these myself... I just remember seeing one, somewhere in my childhood. I think Corgi still made these into the 1970s.

Are you aware that the novel of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was written by Ian Fleming? Yes, the creator of James Bond created this tale! I know I was surprised when I found out about it.

I haven't seen this movie for years and years... but I do recall it fondly. I'd bet that many people (probably not any of you faithful readers) think that it was a Disney movie, but it wasn't! I forget which studio produced it, though.

Jon

TV Comics Cover of the Day!

Today's TV comic cover features the Three Stooges... and I'd imagine some of you are surprised that I'm featuring this as a TV comic, given that the Stooges are best known for their movies and short subjects... but around the time this comic was being published, there was a Three Stooges TV show, which featured cartoon versions of the Stooges pictured here (Larry, Moe and Curly Joe, who I believe was the last of the replacements for the original Curly). Each cartoon had a wraparound filmed segment of the real Stooges.

If you're interested in checking out any of the animated Stooges cartoons, you can probably find them at your local dollar stores on DVD. Honestly, though, it doesn't take many of them to reach your limit... At least, I started getting tired of them after about three or four of 'em (I still don't think I've watched all of the Stooges cartoon DVDs I bought).

Jon

Briefly...

I may expand on some of these later... but for now...

• The latest group of transcriptions are done, so things should be back to normal on this blog!

• I still haven't downloaded the few photos I took at ECCC to the computer... maybe tomorrow.

• The washer and dryer finally arrived today! However, they weren't delivered until about an hour and a half after the latest we were told they would be here. We've already run two loads through them, and we're satisfied with them (hell, we're thrilled with them!).

• Been listening to a lot of Old Time Radio, in the car as well as at work (at least, in the evenings). I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed listening to these shows!

• Started watching this week's House, but I won't be able to finish it until the morning. Kind of a disappointing episode so far, honestly.

Jon

TV Comic Cover of the Day!

Yes, it's Gold Key's (in)famous Star Trek comic!

All things considered, given the lengthy run this had, it must've been amazingly popular, despite how many liberties they took with their new stories, especially with characterization and the like! I can only guess it was mostly because for the longest time, this was the only new Star Trek anyone could get once the original series ended.

Jon

Classic Toy of the Day!

Yep, it's that same Jeep for GI Joe that I posted from the 1966 Sears Wish Book... so if you're looking for me to say much of anything about this, I invite you to re-read the other post!

Jon

Quick Update!

Still transcribing for BCI/Eclipse's forthcoming Isis DVDs... tonight I'm working on Joanna Pang's interview (she was the first season sidekick), which I hope to finish before going to bed tonight. The second season sidekick's turn is tomorrow night, and then things should start getting back to normal around here.

Wednesday morning, I have a doctor's appointment - nothing to fear, just a physical, which is required for the adoption process. That's at 9 am (which is, of course, an hour before I usually get up, so I'll be short on sleep all day). As soon as that's finished, I'll be jetting to work early, since I have to leave for my lunch break early (and for an extended break), because the washer and dryer are finally going to be delivered! YAY! After spending nearly $20 at the laundromat last week getting laundry caught up, it'll be great to be able to wash and dry clothes at home again!

Anyway, that's about all for now... I do hope to do a follow-up post on Emerald City on Thursday night... and by the way, welcome any new readers of this blog who've come across it thanks to the Comics Reporter's link!

Jon

Classic Toys of the Day!

And we continue our look at 1967's Sears Wish Book with GI Joe and the wanna-be Sgt. Stony... Stony, as I mentioned a few days ago, was Marx's entry into the soldier action figure market, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the final year Stony was produced.

The real surprise here was the fire truck for GI Joe! Heck, I didn't even know there was a Joe fireman outfit (so far as I knew, there weren't any 12" firemen figures until the late 90s, and even those I only saw at Big Lots... although there was a 12" one there for a buck that I bought for my boss (when she was only the assistant boss), because she used to always talk about how she wanted a fireman (for a boyfriend, mind you... but she did appreciate the cheap action figure gag!).

Jon

TV Comic Cover of the Day!

So here's Speed Buggy... I wonder who did the voice for Speedy, as he was referred to? It always sounded to me like Mel Blanc doing a variation on his Maxwell voice and effects for Jack Benny's show.

Jon

Quick Note...

I'm in the midst of a new round of transcriptions (for the upcoming Isis DVD release), so postings will probably be on the short side for a few days, at least!

Jon

Classic Toys of the Day!

Still 1967, and still more Joe... although you have seen these items before in the 1966 postings! I still don't know if the vehicles were made by Hasbro or not!

Jon

TV Comic of the Day!

I have to admit I wasn't a fan of Space: 1999... but I have enjoyed reading the comics, probably in no small part due to the artwork by the likes of Joe Staton and John Byrne!

Jon

Video Time! Megos!

Since I feel like I owe my faithful readers something extra to make up for last night's lack of a post, here's a few Mego-related videos!







Jon

Emerald City Comic-Con Report (part 1)

Well, another ECCC has come and gone...

And really, I only have two major complaints. The first is that I didn't have enough money budgeted to spend! There were bargains galore to be had at this show, and with the limited fundage I had available, I decided to only buy comics that were 50 cents or less each.

Fortunately, Lady Jayne's was there, and they were the first booth I bought from, picking up not only 50 cent stuff, but a few quarter box items, too!

The Comics Dungeon's both got the bulk of my cash, however... their 50 cent boxes also had 50 comics for $15, or a full long box for $80!

I know I ended up buying well over 300 books this weekend, and that included some pretty impressive runs of stuff... like a whopping load of 1970s Superman, Detective, Thor, Brave and the Bold, and a few other items... heck, when I found the Dungeon's B&B's, I could've picked up three or four copies of some issues! If I'd only had enough money, I would've happily filled up a few long boxes, and become a real mercenary of sorts, buying stuff partly for my rebuilding collection, and partly for reselling later!

And you know that, as I read these books, I'll be doing some scanning from 'em for future blog fodder... it has been a while since I've posted any comic book advertising, hasn't it?

The trivia contest was a lot of fun, and the props were a big hit! Unfortunately, and I'm being real honest here, the three out of four fan teams who lost against Mark Waid, Tom Peyer, and Kurt Busiek probably lost mostly because they'd take a LOT of time trying to come up with the answer to a question... and then still not get it right. Really, the best strategy there would be if you don't know the answer right away, pass and get a chance to answer questions you might know. With two five-minute rounds per game, spending two minutes trying to answer one question doesn't help you out that much!

Tom, Kurt and Mark gave me some great feedback on how to keep improving things for the next one. I think for starters, we'll only have three games altogether (considering how tough it was to get a fourth team signed up, that should work well), so we can have three 15 minute games. I'm only going to have one round per game, with five categories with five questions each, like I had for each of the two rounds per game this time. I'll still have the props available, but I may let each team pick two props instead of just one (depends on how many more I can add between now and then). I'll probably throw out the Barry Allen Flash ring, because that didn't work that well... but the Cosmic Cube, Wonder Woman's Magic Lasso, and the Red Kryptonite worked great (although the fan team used the Red K against the pros, and the effect ended up being to double the point value!).

Kurt also suggested we get a bicycle horn for Mark... so when a question is asked that he knows the answer for, he'd honk the horn, and that would limit how long the fan team will have to answer. I may just try to come up with some kind of countdown clock that they can see -- not only for the time remaining in the game, but maybe even a second one for how long they can take to answer.

If I can speed up the time taken for each question, then there'd be more room for banter and stuff by the pros.

Still, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and I'm hoping to come up with some very cool stuff for next year to supplement the prizes that are provided. I had some dollar store DVDs to give out as consolation prizes, but I didn't have enough of them! So, between now and the next ECCC, I'll be setting aside all duplicate copies of books I buy, and those will go into the consolation prize pot.

I do want to talk to Jim Demonakos about having a ramp for the stage, to make it wheelchair-accessible, too... my buddy Kurt Mitchell, who is confined to a wheelchair, knows an amazing amount of comics trivia, but since he couldn't get into the stage, he had to sit out both this one and the one two years previous (although this year I did use him as a lifeline). I think he'd definitely give the Terrible Trio of Mark, Kurt and Tom a run for their money, too!

Sometimes... ah, sometimes I think it would be great if I could put together a group of three guys who really, really know their stuff, and make the trivia contest just them versus the Trio... Kurt M. would be on that team for certain!

Anyway... I did get to meet Feedback at this show, and got my picture taken with him. Matthew Atherton is a great guy, and he could have used his fame to really make some money at this show, but all the money he made at his table goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a worthy cause! I'll be sharing those photos later in the week, as well as the few photos I took at the costume contest.

I also enjoyed chatting with Jayne and Conrad of Lady Jayne's, John Munn of Comic Book Ink, John Lustig from Last Kiss, Michael Eury from Back Issue, and Andy Mangels' assistant, whose name I've regrettably forgotten!

I was hoping to meet up with some of my fellow Puget Sound Area bloggers, but I guess I didn't do a good job of spotting them! Maybe next year, I can talk Jim into having some kind of comics blogger thing where we could get together and meet each other!

More as the week goes on!

Jon

Cool Classic Toys of the Day - Delayed Saturday and On-Time Sunday Edition!

Yep, I'm still looking at the 1966 Sears Wish Book here, and the first feature is Stony, which was the Marx company's answer to G.I. Joe. Like their Knights and Johnny West figures, Stony was molded with his clothes (like one of our modern 4" or so figures, just blown up to 12" size) on, with some accessories that could be put on him (but more often than not got lost quickly, making it difficult to find a complete figure).

At least you could stow his gear in the front of his Jeep (even if that meant it was nearly impossible to pretend it had an engine).

Moving on to 1967 now...



And here's the first of the 1967 GI Joe releases! Now, you'll note that the figures and accessories here are definitely not military-based, but are more adventure-based. I've read in the past (and will no doubt read again in the two Joe books I've checked out from the libary) that the Joe line was in danger as anti-war sentiment from Viet Nam reared its head, and this was why the GI Joe Adventure Team concept was introduced in the 1970s... but you know, this seems clear evidence to me that Hasbro was ahead of the game in some respects here. If you were a parent against war toys, then just get your boy the GI Joe astronaut, or the deep sea diver set!

Of course, you can see the line-up here wasn't entirely away from military stuff yet (and you'll see more tomorrow).

Jon

TV Comics Covers of the Day - Delayed Saturday & On-Time Sunday Editions!

Well, I didn't post a thing on Saturday night, so to make up for it, it's double-posting time!



First up on the TV comics covers is this Gold Key Scooby cover... that logo on the cover is interesting, for it was also used on the Charlton Scooby books, yet I don't recall ever seeing it used on any of the Scooby shows!

Like pretty much all the Scooby comics of the 70s, it's lacking proper display of Daphne, my favorite of the Scooby gang.

It's also quite a bit off-model, too!



Next up is the Six Million Dollar Man Charlton color comic, painted cover by Joe Staton! I've read a few of these books here and there, and they weren't too bad (although the black-and-white magazine stories, if I recall correctly, were more fun to read).

Jon