Status Report!

Yeah, I know I said the Random Acts of Geekery is on hiatus, but just in case any of you check in to see if there's any news...

...well, we're moved in to the house! We had an exhausting day yesterday... we borrowed a friend's Jeep, and my brother Jeff came down with his wife's pick-up truck, and we made two trips over with my Subaru Outback (one load had the dogs, so it didn't have much that second load), three loads in the Jeep, and four or five loads in the pick-up, plus we had movers get most of what was left in their 24' truck.

Challenges included getting our couch into the house -- it was going downstairs in the family room, and we had to not only take the legs off it, but we also had to take the handle off the slider going into my office (which is off the family room) and move some bookshelves, plus take the door off my office to get it in!

Most of what we own is still in boxes. I haven't unpacked a thing for the office yet (the computer was brought over on Thursday so Comcast could get the cable, internet and phone up and running), and have just started on the kitchen stuff. Our new kitchen doesn't have nearly as much storage as the old kitchen did, so it's a challenge figuring out where everything's going to go!

Tristan loves the new house... and so do the dogs, who are even now outside playing in our huge fenced backyard!

Once we're all settled in, we'll get some photos taken and probably provide a link to a slide show on Flickr so you can check it out if you're interested.

Jon

We're Back on Schedule...

Yes, this will be the last post for a few days... well, at least until Sunday, I'm guessing! We actually closed on the house today, and tomorrow morning, we're supposed to get the keys.

I'm taking Thursday and Friday off, and while waiting for the keys to become available (we have to wait until the property transfer is filed with the county, or something like that), I'm going to go to Home Depot and get a few things we need for the house, as well as some groceries. By noon, I'll be at the new house, waiting for Comcast to come over and install our cable, internet and phone service, as well as deliveries of a refrigerator and delivery and installation of our dishwasher!

While that's going on, I'll be putting up a mailbox (there's not one now), putting on shower heads, and doing a few other things here and there.

Friday, we'll be doing the main moving... we have a few friends and family members who've promised to help, but I don't know how many of them will actually show; plus there's movers we've hired. Hopefully, we'll be all done by about 3-4 pm on Friday, and can take some time to unpack and set up the house!

Saturday night, we've got tickets for Bill Engvall ("Here's Your Sign"), who's performing at the Little Creek Casino, and during the day Saturday, we'll be wrapping things up at this rental house!

See you guys on Sunday!

Jon

Found on eBay: Original Comic Art!

Figured I'd do something a bit different for this posting... originally, I wasn't going to get to these for probably months, but since you're going to be seeing nothing new from me for a few days (see note above), I figured you guys deserved this!

Some of this art may be available on eBay now; other pieces are probably long sold. In most cases, clicking on the photo should give you an enlarged view!



And hey, why not start off the first installment of Found on eBay: Original Comic Art with some Kirby? Above you see the inked and lettered artwork for DC Comics' 1st Issue Special #5, page 8, featuring Manhunter! Nice Kirby Krackle, eh?



Next up, this Al Plastino splash page from Action Comics #332! I remember reading this issue... Luthor pretends to have reformed, foiling attempts on Superman's life to lure him into a false sense of security!



Hey, here's page 2 of that story! I could've sworn that the Legion of Super-Villains were in the future, along with the Legion of Super-Heroes, but maybe I'm remembering wrong...



70 issues later in the run, here's the splash page for Action Comics #402, with art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson! The Swanderson team is rightly hailed for their work on the Man of Steel. I believe this was the splash for the concluding half of this two-issue tale.



More Swan here, this time it's page 25 of Action Comics #479! The page looks vaguely familiar, but I can't place the story.



Next up, we move to Adventure Comics #174, page 32, from the Green Arrow and Speedy story, with art by George Papp! That book in panel #1 makes me laugh when I see it.



This page is from Adventure Comics #447, page 7 of the Aquaman story, art by Jim Aparo. I love Aparo's work, and even if this page doesn't have a lot of action, it's still a really nice page, with all sorts of moody shadows and the like!



This issue is definitely up for sale on eBay right now... it's the cover of All New Comics #13, art by Al Avison, featuring the Green Hornet! I believe that this piece and the next are being sold by eBay seller "Romitaman" (who's also selling lots and lots of other great pieces of art!).



Here's the cover of All-New #15, also by Avison! I'm not sure who the characters are.



OK, so this cover is much more recent than I usually feature here (heck, I rarely show anything from the 1980s and beyond here!), but it's the cover for All-Star Squadron #48, art by Mike Harris, and All-Star Squad was one of my favorite DC titles of all time!



OK, back to the Bronze Age for this Amazing Adventures #25 cover, with art by Gil Kane! It's always tempting when I come across cover art on eBay where the copy has fallen off (or been taken off) to try to "restore" those items on the scan.



I'm sure you recognize this cover, Amazing Spider-Man #74, art by John Romita, Sr.! Even if you don't recognize it from is appearance, you should remember the Marvel Tales reprint, anyway. It's classic Romita, although it could've used a Romita babe, eh?



Next up, it's the cover for Astonishing Tales #4, art by John Buscema, and featuring Ka-Zar and Dr. Doom! In black and white, you can't really tell that's Doom in the bed, eh?



Here's one for my buddy Tony Isabella... it's the splash page of Astonishing Tales #22, featuring It! The Living Colossus!



And this is for Roy Thomas, who I wished read this blog... it's a half-page of unused Golden Age Atom art by Gallagher (I'm afraid I've forgotten the artist's first name).



This one you definitely see larger when clicking... it's page 9 from Avengers #100, art by Barry Smith!



And here's page 26 from Avengers 181, art by John Byrne... featuring Henry Peter Gyrich, cutting the Avengers roster down!



Going back a ways, here's a Don Heck page from Avengers 19 (and you won't get a larger view by clicking on this one, either).



Next up, it's John Buscema's cover for Avengers 41, with Diablo and Dragon Man!



More Buscema Avengers stuff here... it's page 8 from Avengers #50, featuring Hercules and Typhon!



Still more Avengers... this page is by Bob Brown, and is page 7 from Avengers 117, part of the Avengers-Defenders War! Personally, I wish it had been a page with more Valkyrie on it...



And here's a page from Avengers 127, art by Sal Buscema!



This Hawkeye-centric page is from Avengers 43, art by John Buscema... now, you'd think I'd have these sorted in order or something, but that wouldn't make this a Random Act of Geekery, would it? As it is, I do have the pages grouped together...

When "Found on eBay: Original Comic Art" returns, there'll be some more Avengers, but then we'll get into other stuff, too!

Jon

Hiatus on Hiatus?

So, we got an email from our realtor last night saying that our closing may be delayed for 5 days on the new house... but there was another one this morning saying it might not be that long after all...

It's very confusing and frustrating... we're going to talk to our finance broker today to see if we can't get a straight answer as far as what's happening.

The upshot of it is that the blog hiatus I figured would start tomorrow and last at least until Sunday may be delayed. I guess if you check here, and there's been no update for over 24 hours, you'll know the blog's on the moving hiatus!

Jon

Panels of Golden Age Comic Weirdness!

Here's some panels from Golden Age comics I just had to share, because they're so completely weird! All these came from books that are available to download for free from Wowio.

From "Adventures Into the Unknown #3"...



One of the wonderfully wacky and weird things about ACG's Adventures Into the Unknown is how they just make up completely random stuff in the stories! Take the above panel, for instance... mirrors can trap ghosts, and then all you need to do is paint over them? I can only imagine that the writer needed some way for the good guys to win, and that's what they came up with.

Which would be all well and good, if there was some kind of consistency in the stories appearing in Adventures Into the Unknown. If mirrors are what is needed to deal with ghosts, great!

Except for this from "Adventures Into the Unknown #2"...



...in which FIRE is the nemesis of the ghostly world!

It's true... fire is also the nemesis of black magic, too!



And that's even in the same issue! So at least that issue's stories were consistent with each other.

But I still find myself wondering... where did these people find the information they're utilizing? What publication has these facts in them?



Oh, of course... the Daily Bugle, your source for all the news and knowledge of the spirit world! (that panel from Adventures Into the Unknown #1, by the way).

Jon

Heroes World #1, Pages 12-15!

OK, we're up to page 12 of the Heroes World Catalog #1...



As you can see, pages 12 and 13 cover Kenner's Star Wars action figure line... and since I'm pretty sure there's plenty of Star Wars collector sites out there (plus there's just too many figures in that line to save pix of), I'll just let you know you can click the images to see each page in more detail!



A bit larger image for page 14, which starts the Battlestar Galactica coverage... and here's some photos of the Mattel action figure line!



You'll note that the Viper and other vehicles are a completely different scale than the figures are... in fact, those came with their own mini-figures!



And there were larger figures, too! So, you had tiny figures (about two inches or so tall) that had vehicles, larger figures (about the size of the Star Wars line) with no figures at all, and then the two larger figures (that had nothing else to go with them).



While the line is highly collectible today, I can't help but think it would've been more popular originally if there were Vipers to scale with the figure line!





It would've helped, too, if the vehicles (other than the Viper and Cylon Raider) in this line were actually vehicles from the show, eh?





This was a better look at the Imperius Leader than I think we ever got on the show itself!





Just to break up the pictures, here's page 15, which has some of the worst art I've ever seen!









Oh, I didn't even realize I had the Galactica bubbles!



Oh, here's another Mattel Galactica item that's not to scale with the rest of the line!

I wouldn't be at all surprised if all the current Galactica items are more successful than the original line was... although there were a lot of licensees aside from Mattel!

Next time, the Heroes' World catalog starts out with... The Micronauts!

Jon

Found on eBay: Star Trek Goodies!

Space: The Final Frontier... at least, it certainly seemed like the final frontier for manufacturers of toys and other memorabilia based on a show that had already been cancelled by the time most of this stuff was produced!

Pretty amazing, isn't it?



Take, for example, the various Mego Star Trek items, like the Phaser 2 Target Game above... this was produced well after the original series was off the air (although it was a huge success in syndication at this point)! Using an early version of Laser Tag technology, I thought this was very cool as a kid, and really wanted one, even though the Phasers in the set were almost Super-Deformed!



And here's another Mego item... the Tricorder! Well, it's really just a cassette tape recorder/player that's vaguely shaped like a Tricorder, even if the colors are completely off! The much later Playmates Tricorder was much, much more authentic-looking. But still, yes, back in the 1970s, I wanted one of these!



But even closed up, it only vaugely resembles a Phaser.



Oddly, I think Remco's phaser toy, seen above, came out around the same time as the Mego toys! This Phaser seems to pop upon eBay fairly often, too... but never cheap enough for my budget! Remco's Phaser was more proportionate than Mego's, too... but still off! Again, Playmates did an excellent job in the 1990s.



This Phaser was, I believe, an AHI item... it's the kind of toy where you'd put those propellors on it, and pull the trigger to launch it.



On the other hand, Remco's Star Trek items that were (from what I can tell) concurrent with the series original airings had nothing to do with Star Trek at all! See the Astro Train above? I'm convinced that it was something Remco already had developed, it was just marketed as a Star Trek item (and probably later produced with no Trek references at all). It's a cool toy, it's just not a proper Star Trek toy.



Same thing goes for the Remco Star Trek helmet... I'm pretty certain I've seen this same helmet produced as just a space helmet, with no Trek reference at all!



Here's three different Remco Phasers... I think the one on the left was a squirt gun, while the ones on the right were basically flashlights. I think!



AHI definitely produced this off-model blue Phaser squirt gun!



This Star Trek tracer gun may have been the first iteration of the tracer gun, and once the Trek license ended, it continued to be sold as a Tracer gun, with no Trek reference! There was also a Space: 1999 version of the tracer gun, but I don't know if that gun resembled the lasers there any more than this resembled a phaser!!



I really like this Star Trek puzzle... the characters are on-model, they look like the actors... none of that bizarre Gold Key Star Trek stuff going on here!

And that's it for the Star Trek stuff this time! Next on "Found on eBay," it's some Superhero items and more!

Jon