Comic Reading Library: Archie's Something Else!

Time for a Spire Christian Comic!

Cliffhanger: The Vanishing Shadow, Chapter 1!

So I'm 50...

...and it began for me three hours early since I was in Ohio making a delivery. Well, my trainer made the delivery, I was sleeping until he woke me because he needed some assistance. Now I'm in Kentucky waiting to get our next load, which is bound for
Phoenix.

Obviously this isn't the ideal 50th birthday. But when you drive a truck for a living that's what you have to expect. I'm probably another two or three weeks from getting home next, have to finish my training period, then we head to the nearest Swift terminal where I'll be assigned my own truck to drive solo. I'll immediately put in for home time then, and hope I'll be routed home quickly.

The worst part of this job is being away from my wife and kids. I talk to them at least once a day, but it's frustrating knowing there's stuff happening back there I can't help with. A few weeks ago, we discovered that my father in law had cancer and that he wouldn't last long... And he passed a week later. He'd been living with us for several years, and had been a big help to us. My wife had to deal with all that by herself, and also had to figure out a plan to get the kids to school without being late to work. I know it's been stressful for her, but she's managed to do it. And all I can do is sympathize on the phone and send money every week.

I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to make this job work for me at this point. I will be trying to get home every four weeks, and we will see how often I miss stuff that happens back there.

The future of this blog is kind of up in the air at this point. Starting the first I'd the year it's low content mode and five day a week postings, and I've got that done through April, and we will see what I can figure out after that. I may need to get a laptop to be able to do posts on the road, or even just being my desktop with me!

Anyway, sorry this post has been kind of a bummer, I guess I just needed to unload.

Cover Redux!

First up this time around, we've got Daredevil #26 and Marvel Adventure #5... and the only thing I can really see (outside of the usual coloring differences) are the blurbs on the bottom being shifted over. Maybe the art was reduced slightly and added to on the left.

Give-A-Show Video Feature!

This time around, a few Care Bears... but also a few of the Super Powers from 1984! Obviously, as you can imagine, by this point Kenner was marketing the Give-A-Show Projector to the very little kids! But there were still glimpses of greatness to come)! And now, some of the Super Powers slides!

The Fleischer Popeyes: Wild Elephinks!

This Popeye opens with Popeye and Olive floating over the ocean waves riding a tiny raft, with their only sail a pair of bloomers! Popeye, of course, is singing his theme song. When a large fish jumps up to try to eat them, Popeye clobbers the fish with a Transformation Punch that turns it into a bunch of smaller fishes that shower on Olive. The same happens to the next several fish, and the last time, Olive collects them in empty sardine cans, which she closes up on them! They approach a fish traffic cop, who has them stop while a whale passes the other way.

Popeye finally gets tired of waiting, and starts blowing on the sail himself to get them going... the water helps by lifting them up with a watery hand, depositing them on the shore of an island (and shaking Popeye's hand!). Olive retrieves her bloomers, and then they start to explore the island... but when a terrible roar comes from a dense clump of trees, Olive is cowed. As the camera pans over, we see the jungle is filled with vicious, tough wild animals, including a lion, a gorilla (who eats bones), a tiger, and many large snakes, plus a wild elephant, which bursts out of the jungle and grabs Popeye in his trunk, and starts shaking him, while the gorilla grabs Olive (who faints).

The elephant puts Popeye down, and Popeye delivers a punch to the elephant's jaw that sends a lump all the way to the top of its head! Popeye then sees the gorilla's got Olive, and starts chasing them. Meanwhile, the gorilla grabs a coconut and breaks it open on Olive's head before drinking the milk.

Popeye, chasing after the gorilla, is spotted by a moose, who charges him. Popeye, in turn, holds his hands to his head like antlers and charges back! When they crash, they begin to battle it out, with Popeye the winner (and the moose, having been victim of a Transformation Punch, turned into a mounted moosehead). Meanwhile, the elephant wakes up, and since elephants never forget, he remembers it was Popeye who knocked him out! It starts after Popeye, passing the mounted moosehead on the way.

Meanwhile, Popeye's resumed the chase, using a convenient giraffe to span a chasm. The gorilla, spotting Popeye, starts to climb up a tree, and Popeye Transformation Punches the tree, turning it into a wooden cart, filled with the bananas from the tree -- the gorilla, cowed by Popeye's stunt, pushes the cart away as fast as he can.

In the trees, a pair of monkeys see this, and one grabs the other's tail and cranks it, the other acting like a siren. This gets all the animals of the jungle out and surrounding Popeye! Popeye bellows, "I'll take ya all on, one at a time!" First, it's the lion, who boasts, "I'm King!" So Popeye crowns him with a sock to the head, leaving a crown-shaped lump! Next, a snake  coils around Popeye, and squeezes tight! Popeye gives it a shot of smoke from his pipe, however, and it's knocked out. Olive reaches into her sock for a can of spinach, as Popeye's literally bent out of shape by this!

Popeye eats the spinach Olive feeds him (with a slow version of the fanfare playing) and gets back into shape! Then, the elephant, once again remembering Popeye, attacks! As "Hold That Tiger" plays, Popeye grabs the elephant's trunk and starts swinging it around in circles, faster and faster, before throwing it away from the island, landing it on another, smaller island, which is instantly sunk by the impact.

Back at the island, all of the remaining animals attack Popeye, who's hitting them all over the place, with Transformation Punches galore, turning them all into fur coats! Some of them even land on Olive, who dons them at once, including the gorilla skin -- but Popeye mistakes the skin for the actual gorilla, and knocks Olive down by accident! Then, he sings his theme song as Olive gets him back by popping him one with her fist!

Wow, a nearly perfect Popeye cartoon, even if it's a bit heavy on the Transformation Punches! If only we'd had the traditional fanfare (which we have yet to hear) when Popeye eats his spinach, it'd be perfect! Plus, the title of the cartoon had something to do with the plot! So, we're looking at... Four cans of Spinach!

Comic Book Ads!

The first ad this time around is for this harmonica instruction course, with the "new sliding note finder" -- I wonder if they still make such a thing these days? I've kind of dipped my toe into the harmonica pool once or twice, and never had any success with it, but maybe this would work?

Toy Spotlight: Jay Ward Bendys!

The Toy Spotlight this time around starts shining on Bendys - those rubber toys with wires inside that allow you to pose them - and these are some extremely cool ones that were manufactured by Wham-O! I mean, just check these out! The likenesses are about as perfect as you can ask for (at least for the era they were made in), the only real issue is the scale -- Rocky should be much shorter than Bullwinkle, for example. But they're still very, very cool, and I would love to have both of these sets!

One cool thing about them that may not be immediately apparent is that the packaging for these is intended to resemble a television set! We're so accustomed to modern TVs with no knobs it's easy to forget what TVs looked like. You can also kind of see from the side of the packages that they came with backdrops for playing with your bendys in!

Puzzle Time!

You know the drill by now... solutions after the jump!

Famous Monsters #38!

Kirby Kovers!

Time for some Kirby Kovers, and this time around, it's Eternals #4! You know, one of the things I love about Kirby's 1970s work at Marvel was how... well... "batshit crazy" seems the most accurate phrase to use. It's like Kirby figured what the hell, get these ideas and concepts out there, and don't worry about whether or not the comics readers get them now; in many ways, it seems like more modern readers have a better grasp and appreciation of the King's 1970s Marvel work than it did back then!

Comic Reading Library: The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis #16!

Character Collectible Spotlight: Super Friends!

When I first started saving pictures for what ended being called "Cool Stuff," I had no idea just how much Super Friends merchandise there had been... here's a look at stuff that was labeled as Super Friends, as well as stuff that was clearly designed to make you think "Super Friendds"! Batman Super Friends Glowplate -- I don't know if that really means it glowed, I can't read the print on this photo! I'm guessing this is an item that had originally been issued prior to Super Friends, given the Silver Age vibe on Batman!

Cliffhanger: The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Chapter 12!

Cool Stuff!

Well, with my 50th birthday coming up in five days, let's see if there's anything in this edition of Cool Stuff I'd like to receive! OK probably not these Superman Super Friends gloves, neat as they are -- it's bizarre that they chose a 1960s iconic Superman picture for the very 1970s Super Friends item, eh?