Heroes World #1: Pages 10 & 11!

Yes, I'm hitting everything (just about) that I hadn't done this week!



So, we're on page 10 of the Heroes World catalog... and the Marvel Super Heroes finger puppets!



These are some pretty freaky finger puppets, if you ask me. How much playability could you have with just a head and upper torso? they should've at least put some arms on 'em, don't you agree?

No photos to be had of the Hulk-up muscles or the Liquiforms (which appear to be make-it-yourself Colorforms) so far!



And on to Page 11! I'm going to kind of bounce around the page here... those cups and mugs don't appear to have been offered on eBay since I've been collecting photos, so this is the closest I've found to one of those so far:



The pens have been, but I have yet to find an auction listing for them with a decent enough photograph to save (you might, for example, be able to tell that the pen has a Spider-Man picture on it, but you can't make out even the slightest detail... it's mostly just the coloring giving it away).



Well, OK, I did save one photo of the pens... I'm not really happy with the quality of the photos, but unless I decide to buy these myself and take a new picture, I guess I'm stuck with it!



This Spider-Man watch at least uses the same artwork as the one pictured in the ad, but I'm not sure if it's the same one!



Here's that Spider-Man model kit!



There was also a Hulk snap-togeter kit!

I thought I had a photo of the bubble gun or the stationery, but I can't seem to find them now!

Jon

Give-A-Show Fridays: Saturday Edition!

You didn't think I'd let the weekend go by without your Give-A-Show Double Feature, did you?



First, up, a pretty surreal Mighty Mouse adventure!









Putting the astronaut afraid of heights aside, I don't recall humans being part of the Mighty Mouse universe!



And now, Peter Pan!









What's interesting about this one is that, in the UK, the company who had the license to do Give-A-Show Projectors and slides had the Disney license, too, so they could do slides based on the Disney Peter Pan, something Kenner couldn't do!

Jon

Found on eBay: More Marvel Slurpee Cups!

I know, I'd already posted the Black Knight cup before, but since my photo files aren't quite as organized as I thought, I hadn't deleted the first picture when I caught this one, which shows what the back of the cups were like!



Ditto this Crystal cup... plus, both of these photos were sharper than the ones I posted before!



And yes, even the stuff that Marvel was licensing got on the Slurpee cups! You probably would've expected Conan or Red Sonja, but who'd have thought there'd be a Doc Savage Slurpee cup?



The Howard the Duck cup on the left and the Spider-Man cup on the right came from two separate years... you'll see more of the wrap-around style in a later posting!

(Yes, that's right, I'm not even guessing at artists now... I'm still sick, y'know, but I feel the need to make up for the lack of posts today!)



One of these days, I should really look at my Hulk photo files to see which piece of artwork was used more than any other one for Hulk merchandise... because I suspect this one will at least be in the top three!

And now, some group shots:





It's entirely possible that this style of Slurpee cup was issued two years in a row, because I've seen listings for them claiming they're from '74 and '75... since I'm no expert on 'em, I could only name my files according to what the sellers claimed!

Hence, the wrap-around cups seem to have come from 1977...



The worst thing about the cups with the wraparound pictures is that sellers have an even harder time taking decent photos of them! Take this photo of the Avengers cup... believe it or not, on this cup, the Avengers are battling the Stranger. But you can't tell, because the seller of this cup didn't take a photo of more than one side! It was my frustration with this kind of picture-taking that led me to give up on trying to get a complete set of Slurpee cup pictures some time ago (but there should still be plenty coming up in future posts, I just have a backlog!).



Here's another example of bad photography... it's a Captain America Vs. the Red Skull cup... no sign of Cap on this photo at all, plus it's extremely blurry!

I think these first several photos must've come from the same seller, by the way. Also, you've probably guessed by now that all-new artwork was done for these cups!



That's the Champions above, not just the Black Widow and Iceman!



And final cup for this installment, it's Doctor Doom Vs. Sub-Mariner!

Jon

Why no post, Jon?

Well... I have Influenza Type B, and Jessi has Pneumonia.

Fortunately, Tristan is healthy (unfortunately, he's not old enough to be of assistance to us).

But that's why there've been no acts of geekery here for a while. When I feel up to being in front of the computer for a bit, I'll try to make up for it!

Jon

Castle of Frankenstein #12: Pages

We start off this section of Castle of Frankenstein #12 with a two-page spread from War-Gods of the Deep:



I've never seen this movie in my entire life, but I should really change that some day. This was pages 34 and 35.



Page 36 has the Frankenstein TV Guide... and since I've got this issue already packed for our impending move, it'd be rather a pain to list the movies, and whether or not they liked them! This is basically a list of genre movies that might be shown on TV, with brief descriptions... so the movies run the range here from The Killer Shrews to King Kong!

Page 37's "Frankenstein Chamber of Horrors" appears to all be products that would typically be found in a Johnson-Smith ad.

More next week!

Jon

By the 10's: Action Comics 410-500!

This will be the last installment of Action Comics... by the 10's! Next week, I'll start up a new title!

Why end this by the 10's with 500? Well, it's a nice round number, and it ends this run with a nice Bronze Age issue!



Here's issue #410, and like issue 400, it's a "Son of Superman" cover! This time around, it's an imaginary story! In this tale, Superman marries a witch who dies in childbirth, and in the future era it takes place in, it seems that his son not only has inherited his mother's powers, but he's also causing catastrophe! But things aren't always as they seem!

Great Nick Cardy cover, eh?



Issue 420's cover is pretty bizarre... it's Nick Cardy again, and I only vaguely remember the story. But it was either the sequel to a previous one, or a sequel would be forthcoming!



I know I've read issue 430, possibly recently, and for some reason, I'm thinking this has some connection to issue 420's story! But I could well be mistaken.

Yes, it's Nick Cardy again. He did a LOT of covers for DC during this time!



A great moody cover on Action 440, again by Cardy. I'm pretty sure this was all a scam committed on Superman (which I guess serves him right for all the times he pulled scams on others in the 1960s).



Cardy again... and I'm pretty sure I never read this issue before! Around this time, there were some really, really strange Superman covers...



The villain on Action 460's cover looks familiar, but I can't place him right now. I'm thinking Ernie Chan/Chua did this one.



Action 470's cover is for an issue I've never, ever read... and it's by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, one of the best artists to come out of the 70s at DC!



Nice concept for the cover of Action 480... could've been really good, but the execution is somewhat lacking, in my opinion. Maybe it was the inking, but I would expect more.



Much nicer-looking cover for Action 490! Notice the price has gone up to 40 cents. At the time, we all thought it was a ridiculous price hike, but these days? Cheap!



And finally, Action 500! If you want to get a good primer on the origin of Superman and be introduced to his supporting cast and villains (pre-Crisis, of course), this would be the issue to get!

Next time, on "By the 10's"... well, I haven't decided yet!

Jon

Not that anybody asked...

...but here's a recent photo of Krypto, taken with my cell phone camera!

Jon

Found on eBay: More Marvel Slurpee Cups!

Continuing with the 1974 Marvel Slurpee cups...



Obviously, this is a Kirby Mr. Fantastic... can't think off the top of my head which issue of the Fantastic Four it came from, but I'm pretty sure it's one of those covers where it's split into four sections, one for each FF'er...



This much-sharper-photo-than-usual looks like another Kirby piece, this one of Odin (from one of those pin-ups, perhaps?).



Probably a Kane or Buscema Quicksilver here... I could be wrong!



Definitely a Buscema Scarlet Witch... I'm guessing Sal, not John, but I could be mistaken!



Yes, even Stan Lee got a Slurpee cup... for some reason, I seem to recall hearing that Marie Severin did the art for this... or maybe she just drew Stan's face?



Definitely Jim Steranko on the Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD cup!



Despite the blurry photo, I'm prepared to say this is a John Buscema Silver Surfer, from the Surfer's own series!



This Kirby Thing illo got a LOT of mileage... most often on the corner logo of Marvel Two-In-One, but I recall it also being used on a "It's Clobberin' Time" t-shirt!



Lousy photo, but I recognize the picture of Triton as being by Neal Adams, from an issue of The Avengers during the Kree-Skrull war!



This Vision illustration is from a different Avengers issue... and I'll bet it's a John Buscema cover here!



While Jim Starlin's most often connected to Warlock, I'm thinking this was a Gil Kane drawing here!



Definitely a Kirby Watcher here!



And I believe this Yellowjacket picture was by John Buscema, from the first appearance of Henry Pym in that identity!



Completely screwing up the alphabetical presentation, we start back towards the beginning with this Gil Kane Beast cup... which I suspect was colored differently for this cup, as the original had Hank McCoy's fur looking rather gray!

I could be mistaken, though.



John Buscema Black Knight...



Just for the heck of it, here's a whole bunch of Marvel Slurpee cups, stacked up neat and offered as a single lot! I think I put in a starting big on it, and was outbid before I left the computer!

Jon