Oh boy! Honey, we need more paper towels! And some Drano. And better get the radar equipment down from the attic.
§ Dick turns his laser light into upon himself as he investigates his own past in the first part of a look at the most dangerous decade of all…THE NINETIES!
I was now an active collector of comics. I was never one to throw away comics after I was done reading them, but I was never overly concerned with how they were stored either (I threw them all in an old trunk, with no attempt to place them in any particular order). I had never been very interested in buying every issue of any given series; I determined which comics to buy based on cover art, the characters involved (especially the villains), and financial considerations. But in 1987, I started buying every issue of two series: the Englehart/Rogers Silver Surfer and the Michelinie/McFarlane Amazing Spider-Man.
§ Speaking of looks back, retailer Lee Hester completes his very entertaining history of his store — and through it comics — with a colorful narrative full of photos. In part two, he looks at the years from 1987-2000, including memories of the con man known as Ross Rujek (is he still in jail?):
Soon that store burnt down under mysterious circumstances. When I heard that Comics and Comix had burned down I drove right over. I saw Ross, who up until that time, I had only seen in jeans and a t-shirt, standing in front of the store dressed in a fancy suit. He was well groomed with jell in his hair, and was wearing plenty of cologne. He was talking on his cell phone. I parked my car and walked over. Ross showed me around the ruins of the store. He treated me like on old friend. He told me that he had been woken up at his Sacramento home at 6 am in the morning by the fire department that told him his store had burned down. I asked him why he was wearing the suit. He said that he had some kind of business meeting later on. I found it very curious. I have been awaken by several emergency calls over the years, and have had to travel to my store on several occasions. When this happens, I put on overalls, a work shirt, and steel toed boots. I don’t think I would style my hair, and put on my best suit if my store burned down. Very curious. The fire was ruled an accident, and Ross collected a sum of money from the insurance company.
In part three, he talks about his acquisition of a “pedigree collection” and subsequent real estate trauma:
In 1999 a former soldier came in to my store with several boxes of high-grade comics that he sold to me. There were 449 comics in this collection. All of them were from the years 1950 to 1954. He had purchased them from another soldier in the 1970s. He had sealed them up in boxes and plastic bags. The original owner had purchased them new off the stands, and had not read many of them, instead deciding to seal them away in his footlocker.
§ Dorian finds the gayest statue in Previews, has fun with Photoshop and issues grim warnings about the return of Gor.
§ One last Zuda link as Fleen finally weighs in with a lengthy and thoughful post about IP:
So DC is going to get absolutely flooded with people that have vastly inflated senses of their own talent. Editors are going to comb through looking for, not the best on any technical or aesthetic grounds, but whatever seems to be most farmable that can be handed to actual writers & artists already in their employ.
What they’re looking for is that one mofo of a new, fresh archetype that will last for the next half-century. Want precedent? Do another search through Zappa’s book, read the section about how every music label in existence has an entire stable of artists across genres, but makes their money off that one monster hit record of the year. Every single song I heard on the radio in high school was recorded, released, and promoted with the goal of finding — somewhere in that mass — the behemoths known as Thriller and Born in the USA.
§ Via Johanna, an old post fron Shaenon Garrity that explains why everyone is up in arms about the current For Better or Worse storyline:
I hate Anthony. I hate him more than I’ve ever hated a cartoon character, and, yes, I’m including both Scrappy-Doo and Ted Rall. I’m far from the only one; Anthony supporters appear to be a tiny minority among FBOFW readers, and most of them can’t muster much more enthusiasm than, “Hey, he’s not that bad.” Josh Fruhlinger, of the popular comic-strip blog The Comics Curmudgeon, rips into Anthony every time he appears. Venerable comics journalist Tom Spurgeon describes himself as “anti-Anthony, pro-anybody else, up to and including Snuffy Smith.” A woman on LiveJournal with the username ellcee writes elaborate anti-Anthony fanfics in which he appears as a murderer or the mustache-twirling villain of a Victorian romance.
Mark Evanier goes to a furry con and lives to tell about it
I’ve received a few e-mails asking if I could explain why these folks like to dress up like animals or adopt animal nicknames or write tales of anthropomorphic animals. No, I can’t. Just as I can’t explain why people in this world do a lot of things that don’t coincide with my tastes or interests. I don’t understand why people get tattoos or pierce body parts or eat cole slaw or ride roller coasters or vote for George Bush or sleep with some of the people they sleep with…or do any of a thousand other things I could name that I cannot conceive of myself ever doing. I am, however, capable of appreciating that some who find joy in such activities are fine, good people and I would be doing myself a disservice to erect any sort of needless barrier between them and me. With the exception of the ones who vote for Bush, they do me no harm…and maybe, when they’re not doing whatever it is I don’t “get,” they’re doing something I can learn from or even want to emulate. The folks I’ve met here at Anthrocon — with fewer exceptions than you’d imagine — have been decent, bright, creative and charming people. Does dressing up occasionally in a furry suit make you that way? Maybe not. If it does, I can think of a lot of people who ought to be in chipmunk costumes this very minute.
First reaction when i saw the before and after: awesome.