Month: April 2018

What’s A Superman To Do?

When he can’t get hold of his favourite DC Comics titles?

He just heads over to see Carol Fein at DC, who tells him to subscribe to save himself the disappointment of his “favorite newsstand” selling out.

Reading this, I had to wonder – why don’t DC just give him the titles? He’s the most iconic character they have, the one that all other super-heroes spring from, and yet they force him to buy – potentially – the same titles that he’s actually appearing in! And sure, getting 38% off the price is a much better deal than a five minute pre-paid phone card, but come on, DC, this is Superman. Are you really going to make him pay for those comics?

Man . . . and Alan Moore thought he was treated poorly.

By the way, in the very next issue of Justice League of America after the one I’d found the above ad in, contained a similar ad with Batman which I was going to feature . . . and then found that snell over at Slay, Monstrobot had beaten me to it . . . by about six years . . .

100 Issues Ago December 2009

I came across this “100 Issues Ago” panel in an old Justice League of America and thought I’d tidy it up and re-purpose it. If one month = one issue, what was I reading 100 Issues Ago?

Gail Simone’s Secret Six run was always a delight, whether as part of the Villains United run-up to Infinite Crisis, the mini-series that followed that or the well deserved ongoing series it had later. She took a bunch of misfit criminals, weirdos and anti-heroes and made them into a bizarre, messed up family that you couldn’t help but care about, without shying away from the fact that most of them were killers.

Sadly, the New 52 version by Simone didn’t catch on so well, possibly because the new team (even with a few old favourites) just didn’t seem to work together so well, even with the re-introduction of Elongated Man and Sue Dibny, an event which should have attracted more attention given the uproar caused by Ralph and Sue’s deaths in previous years.

Still, the first few volumes of Secret Six are well worth picking up if you’ve never read them.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Back in 1996, you could call anyone as long as you’ve subscribed to two DC Comics titles:

And as long as you didn’t want to talk for more than five minutes, that is.

Seriously? A five minute pre-paid phonecard is something worth touting as an incentive to subscribing to two titles?

Any of my American visitors want to try ringing (516) 756-0350 and letting me know what happens . . . ?

But look – Conner, Wally and Kyle! The 90s weren’t all bad.

Go West!

Looking for somewhere to go on holiday this summer? Why not choose lovely Markovia?

As the caption (written by Mike Barr) from Batman and The Outsiders says, it’s a small country but it has plenty of things to do. The only draw back in today’s political climate is that it’s in

along with those other famous Eastern European countries France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany.

Wait a second . . .

Let’s take a quick look at where Markovia really is in Europe:

Now I know there’s no definitive line of where East and West Europe begin and end, but that’s pretty far from Eastern Europe by anyone’s standards. France, Spain and Portugal are the only other mainland European countries further West than Markovia! Hell, even Switzerland becomes Eastern European by Mike Barr’s definition!

Enjoy your Eastern European holiday in Western Europe, everyone!