Up-to-the-Date News (from 2000 that is)

Well, I don't know all the current ins and outs of the Superman Rights battle. The last I heard, Jerry Siegel's heirs had been awarded rights to "Superboy."

This article talks about a court decision awarding rights to the Siegels & the Shusters.

No matter what else may be perceived to be true, nobody can deny that at least a few penny counters at DC were probably VERY thrilled to rake in millions of dollars in licensing fees every year, and not have to pay Supes's creators anything.

Ah well, justice on this Earth is partial at best.

Bizarro Am Terrible Guy!

Don't read this newspaper article. It am terrible feature on old book not about Bizarros. It am here so you can not admire backwards Bizarro talk.

See you last time!

So, I Guess Somebody Thought Patrick Duffy Looked Dreamy in Swim Trunks

I never watched the TV series "The Man from Atlantis" because A) Patrick Duffy never interested me, no matter what he wore, and B) everybody knows that the only 'man from Atlantis" who's a hero and talks to animals, is Aquaman!

Anyway, I found this at the same store as Operation Nuke (yesterday's post).

Do YOU think Duffy is dreamy?

I do notice that he must use waterproof hair gel. Look at that coif!

TV Tie-Ins Galore!

A month or two ago I mentioned some Get Smart tie-in paperbacks. Well, I have found a few more, courtesy of a local thrift store (no, not mine).

Now, when it came out in "1960-whenever," I read Martin Caidin's novel Cyborg, which a few years later was TV-formatted (that is, dumbed-down) to become The Six Million Dollar Man.

Believe me, the original novel wasn't 60s-pulp-TV-grade material. Of, yes, it was a fast-paced thriller, but not necessarily directly translatable to TV.

I don't remember much about it -- the bare-bones "in just $6 million bucks I can make you a man" (apologies to Rocky Horror) is there in the original book, it's just .. a little .. more intense and realistic on paper than on the TV screen.

The part of the book's plot that sticks with my memory is, I think, close to the end of the novel. Steve Austin (now remade as a cyborg -- take that, DC!) is traveling in a plane over the desert with a lovely maiden. He has rescued her, or maybe she's a reporter or maybe a scientist, I don't remember.

What I remember is that their plane crashes in the middle of the desert, and these two are the only survivors. Their travails involve trying to capture condensation on a tarp, and conserving body moisture by drinking their own urine (try that on TV).

What saves them is his bionic parts. They are described (I think) as emerging from the desert only dimly conscious. His bionic legs keep on pumping out the miles while she looks like a dried-out mummy (he's carried her in his one bionic arm) and he looks like a rusty robot with flesh flaking off.

Now that's a thriller that may be not ready for prime time!

Sometime I will read this 2nd Cyborg book, also by Caidin, and see if it was writtin in the original's style, or in TV-tie-in style.

Be seeing you!

Raising a Super Kid

Well, Melissa is a few weeks away from her 17th birthday. But almost ten yhears ago, in Mr. Richardson's 2nd grade class at Arthur Elementary in good ol' OKC, she did a "book report" on one of DC's little-kiddy-type Superman books.

As you can see from the the flight of Superbaby, this is the REAL Super-Deal, the "pre-crisis" Superman.
Here's her book report.
When she says her favorite part of the book is "when the ball ran into Clark and got knocked out," look closer!
It's "bull," not "ball." Yep, when toddler Clark had his back turned ripping up a tree stump from the ground, Pa Kent's prize bull took a run at him.
To quote the book, "The poor bull never knew what hit him." This is accompanied by the drawing of stars and moons above the goofy, cross-eyed bull's head.
"And that evening the Kent family ate the best steaks ever, thanks to little Clark's heat vision. The poor bull never knew what hit him."
NOT REALLY! I made that last part up.
But, Melissa DID get a star for her book report, as you can see.
More next time!

A Short One for Today

Here's a little panel of Herman from January 4, 1990.





Personally, I wore a towel around my neck when I used to try this ...

All You Need Is the Game!

Or, perhaps, you could call this post "I never played the game."

Nope, never had an Atari game system.

But I found the rules to this game, and check it out!

Note the state-of-the-art graphics in the "screen caps" of the various scenarios.

Also,. note the GRREAT Curt Swan art on the cover, and also in the interior.

Boy, on the front cover of the game rules, ol' Supes looks pretty darned sad, don't he?

This kind of reflects the Silver Age sensibilities, in which Lost Krypton was the forever-lost Golden Age of existence, to which the Man of Steel continually hearkened in flashbacks, time journeys, and "Imaginary Stories" which might never happen, but then again, just might!

See ya!

I Know How Sarge Feels!

OK, so I didn't win any prizes at the SoonerCon 2007 costume contest in my Bizarro No. 1 outfit. Still, it was interesting that several under-10s kept calling me "Superman." I guess we have a lot of Bizarro-education to do among the preschool set.

Anyway, here's another comic from the 1990 stash.
Wait a minute! I just realized something! If those kids acted like they DIDN'T recognize me as Bizarro #1, that meant they really DID recognize me, and were paying me a Bizarro compliment by pretending to NOT KNOW who I was supposed to be!
Yeah!
Right?

And You Thought He Was Only Interested in Bats!

Here we have a cute little blurb about Robert Wuhl, the obnoxious reporter with designs on Vicki Vale in the first Batman movie, looking all Super-Mensch-ish.

Oh. He had an HBO special, he MUST be funny.

See you next time!

Those Allman Brothers, Always Getting into Trouble!

At first I thought this was from Video Review magazine, but I would bet about ten Gold Kryptonite pieces that Video Review magazine, in 1990, was NOT on its "Volume 34."

Anyway, since only the first season of Superboy: the Series has come out on DVD, it'll be awhile before we can watch the episode in question.

More Super-Ephemera next time, campers!

Broom Hilda Meets ... Superman's Mama?!?

In this strip from Sunday, May 27, 1990, Broom Hilda finds out who has to clean up all those phone booths ...

More funnies next time!

Super Effort

The year 1990, besides -- or perhaps BECAUSE OF -- Superman's narriage to Lois, saw lots of re-appearances of Super-Stuff in the public eye.

Back in 1990, I seem to have either noticed more of it than today, or it really WAS all over the place. These items are just the ones I HAPPENED TO NOTICE.

Here is an appearance of DC and Marvel folks for a United Way fundraising campaign.

More fun stuff soon!

Erma Bombeck Didn't Think the Super-Marriage Would Last

Well, I came across my stash of Super-Ephemera.

When Lois Lane and Clark Kent announced their wedding plans, there were all kinds of reactions from media types of all kinds. Here is Erma Bombeck's humorous/satirical column from 1990.

Lemme know what you think!

Something Else from SoonerCon -- What Is It?

That's kind of a rhetorical question. I know that this is a copy of Issue #1 of the newest JLA comic, cover-dated June 2007. It's a "sketch variation" cover, or some such.

My question is, is it worth a million bucks or something? Let me know, if any of you guys are big JLA folks. I mean, I read and buy the new JLA, but differing cover art don't matter much to me.

See ya soon!

Super Postage from SoonerCon

Another nifty thing I bought at SoonerCon was, according to the sticker on the back, a "DC Comics Super Hero Superman Stamp Art-WILL HA".

The top part is a bit 9x12 repro of one of the Superman stamps, with art drawn by a young Curt Swan.

The lower part of the thing is a first-date-issued envelope and canceled stamp.

The only way it could be better is if the canceled stamp were of Kal or Kara!

Anyway, the best part was, it was "cover price"! That is, I bought this from a USPS booth in the Exhibitor's Hall at SoonerCon, at "list price," that is $19.99. And not even any sales tax! Spiffy, huh?

By the way, a month or so ago I set aside a bunch of stuff to scan and/or comment about here on the ol' Super Blog. As soon as I can once again FIND THE STUFF, we'll have a lot more posts to share.

In Honor of SoonerCon 2008 ...

SoonerCon 2008's theme is "Pirates." So in honor of that, here's an ad from Superboy #69, featuring ...

... a Pirate!

I Missed the First Three, Darn It

Thanks to SoonerCon, I have a fistful of comics in exchange for several fistsful of dollars.

One of the cheaper investments was World's Finest 230, dated May 1975. The cover story was one of those tales of Superman Jr. & Batman Jr., which were averred editorially to be *actual* stories, not Imaginary Tales or might-have-beens. Pretty silly in its attempts to be with-it, real-live-jive hepcats.

Anyway, one of the fillers was this maze. Print it out and solve it yourself!

Isn't It Amazing?

SoonerCon 2007 is now over (yea!)

I found lots of cool stuff to share (yea!).

Here is a copy one of DC's own behind-the-scenes mag, The Amazing World of DC Comics. Issue 7, dated July 1975, concerns a fictional guy near and dear to our hearts ... Well, let's just let the Swonderful Curt Swan announce it ...

There's an interview with Mort Weisinger, a reprint of a story published in a mini-comic and therefore never reprinted before, and other features, including an interesting article about the Superman Serials, which -- in 1975 -- had never been seen since their original showings, soon after their production in 1948 and 1950.

Of course, they've were released this year on DVD and before that, they were available on videotape since at least 1988, Superman's 50th.

Inside the front and back covers are one-page features by Allen Asherman, as seen below.

More next time!

What's Missing from the Byline! (answer below)

This article by Elliott Maggin is from the April 1984 issue of On Cable magazine.

When the article shifts gears and starts to talk about Superman III in particular instead of the Super-Mythos in general, I begain wondering if this part of the article wasn't writtn by Maggin, but by a magazine staffer, until I came across the line at the bottom of page 20 (the second page of this scan) about right and wrong in the universe.

Maggin is only one of thousands (millions?) of us whose lives have been enriched by knowing "uncle" Superman. After all, it's hard to beat Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

PS as to the riddle posed by the title of this post -- notice how Maggin is credited on the first page of the article. They didn't replace the period after the "S" with an exclamation point, only a period. "We all know" that his official tag is "Elliott S! Maggin." If you'll note, I gave you a clue by putting an exclamation point at the end of the post title!

Video Review magazine, 1988

1988 was Superman's 50th Anniversary year, and Video Review magazine presented a feature article, shown below.