TV Guide, March 1972 - Grokking Mr. Spock

(Pardon the Scotch Tape)

More tomorrow!

Welome to STAR TREK Month!

This May 2009 I'll be sharing scraps from multiple scrapbooks of growing up with Star Trek.

I was a few weeks away from my 10th birthday when Star Trek premiered on NBC in September, 1966.

This entry is an article from Popular Science's December, 1967 issue.

Fiction About UFOs and Other Mysteries

If you read a lot of Dean Koontz, you may have noticed that sometimes he will put a preface or an endnote to his books saying that such-and-such piece of technology, used in his story, actually exists or is under development. In other words, the story is made up, but the mind-control or the super-zap-gun or what-have-you are reality-based.

Mr Koontz doesn't say that he is using fiction to shed light on true secrets, as that Con Man Dan Brown does, but that idea of "exposing" something by calling it fiction has been around for a long time. Citizen Kane, anyone?

Similarly, there have been more than a few fictionalized layouts of various writers' take on UFOs or little green guys or cattle mutilations, etc.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/Mystery%20Paperback%20scans/DaygodsDied.jpg

Sometimes the story is so cosmic it's silly, as in Walter Ernsting's The Day the Gods Died. Of course, being based on Erich von Daniken's ideas, silly is the name of the game.

Other times, as in Deborah Deutschman's Signals, or John Dalton's The Cattle Mutilators, it's a researcher who delves too deep into Things No Man Is Meant to Know.

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Or, as in Richard Steinberg's Nobody's Safe, an innocent schmoe takes one step too far and ends up in a puddle of secrets (kind of like Dean Koontz sometimes after all). Of course, in Nobody's Safe, the "innocent" main character is actually a master thief. But he steals something and witnesses something that eventually lands him in a place where these little guys eat lots of strawberry ice cream. You dig?

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/Mystery%20Paperback%20scans/NobodysSafe.jpg

Picoverse, by Robert Metzger -- A Review

If you want to read an interesting story about alternate universes, spacetime, and physics/relativity paired with human failures and hopes, this is a good read.

This 2002 novel chronicles attempts to crunch spacetime using a supercomputer named a Sonomak, in a project at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

When something goes a little wrong -- Dr Frankenstein, I presume? -- and a miniaturized creation -- a Picoverse -- is created, then things get interesting.

In Picoverse (the story) we have the creation and visiting of different alternate worlds, created by the misfiring of plasma injectors into magnetic fields (or something). Each universe is created as an exact duplicate of ours, up until the moment of divergence.

These worlds' scale (physical and temporal) are smaller in relation to ours, so, as in Theodore Sturgeon's classic tale "Microcosmic God," whole generations might pass in a picoverse in the course of a conversation on our plane.

But it's the tales of the characters, and their passages into various worlds, and interactions with their alternate selves and with other people, that make Picoverse so much fun and moving and insightful.

Metzger shows insights into many facets of the human character, including some we don't like to acknowledge -- pettiness, jealousy, selfishness, outright self-righteous justification. But the people in Picoverse also try to help themselves and others. They have loves and selfless motives and self-sacrifice.

Sometimes these polarities of human behavior are even shown in the same character, at different times.

Picoverse is a fun book, not an easy read if you're not up on physics (as I am not), but loaded with ideas and observations and people who make you want to know what will happen next to them.

His Lordship, Clark Kent!

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/Action%20106/Action10601cover.jpg

Here we have the oldest comic I own, Action 106, cover-dated March 1947. Its cover story is "His Lordship, Clark Kent."

The cover illo (by Wayne Boring?) is a bit of a cheat. Because Superman himself doesn't become a British lord, only good ol' CK.

Check out the humorous splash page for the story. Clark and Lois stand in a drawing room with Superman sneaking in through a secret panel. Above the fireplace is a painting of the happy/tragic faces of Greek drama, along with Clark's and Superman's faces. The Superman face is winking at us.

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The first page depicts a Brit appearing at the Daily Planet, and the second page sinks the hook: Clark Kent is the long-lost Bertram, hereditary Baron of Edgestream.






Dazzled by the prospects of such a story for his paper, Perry demands that Clark cross the Big Pond and report on the outcome.

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On the top of the next page, as Clark boards a cross-Atlantic plane, the narrative takes on a strange resonance for me: "Clark cannot be sure he is not a long-lost British noble - for he knows only that he was an orphan reared by a kindly couple who found him."





In other words, in 1947, Superman did not know that he came from Krypton!

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In a deathbed meeting with the dying Baron Edgestream, Clark finds he has been drawn into a family quarrel with wide implications. The old man knows that Clark isn't the heir, but he has selected the Planet reporter in place of the next in line, a scoundrel named Julian Fyffe.



Soon Clark investigates the family archives and discovers a long-hidden photo of the real Bertram as a babe, revealing a star-shaped birthmark on the boy's shoulder.

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Time passes, and Clark learns of his vast holdings, including a series of coal mines. When Clark and others take a tour of the mines to investigate their alleged unsafeness, guess what!



That scoundrel Julian, having failed in several previous attempts on the life of "His Lordship, Clark Kent," goes for broke, dynamiting the mine and burying Clark, Lois, and several miners, including Eddie Pike, the miner who's been the most active agitator for mine safety.


Who, we discover, has a certain star-shaped birthmark on his shoulder.




Yep, the baddies confess, and the real Bertie becomes Lord of the Manor, while Superman builds new, safe housing for the workers.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/Action%20106/Action10602Splash.jpg

Well, it's a typical 1940s Suprman tale, with a lot of silliness yet with some real social issues -- does rank make one man more important than another?


I think not. What do you think?

Lew Luthor or Lex?

Allen Ross was kind enough to point out what appears to be mis-typing in the previous post's title.

Didn't ANYBODY remember that for a few months DC changed Lex's name to "Lew" when editorial was going to make Lex Luthor a star of the Smallville High basketball team? The name change was to remind readers of Lou Alcinder.

Hmm. I guess nobody remembers.

Ok, I was wrong! And thanks to Allen for the raised eyebrows and nudge to the ribs!

Lew Luthor Invented the Wii -- in 1961!

Howdy Friends and Campers. Herewith presented for your bemusement is a tale from Superboy #86, cover-dated January, 1961.

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The cover (by the Swanderful Curt of course) looks pretty promising, but the tale inside is pretty insipid.

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Lex Luthor decoys Superboy to a deserted asteroid.




Using the Wii that he's invented(powered by the helmet he's wearing, NOT by a handheld controller), Luthor manipulated various things in the environment to make things *pretty dicey* for Superboy.

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When Krypto arrives to help his master, there's enough Kryptonite for all!

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The day is saved by Lightning Lad from the Legion of Super-Heroes, who happened to be viewing the past at the right time to zip back to the 20th Century and save the Boy and His Dog.

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Pretty Winathian-ex-Machina, if you ask me.




But check out the story's art by Superboy regular George Papp.




You'd have to call Luthor's gadget very Wii-ish, no?




Lex was saying "whee" until his plot was foiled, huh!?!

The Composite Superman!

Pity poor Joe Meach. He's just one of those people who seem to go around with a cloud hanging over their heads. He can't even get it right when he tries to be a high diver off a Metropolis building. He jumped before noticing that his water tank was leaking. If Superman hadn't been flying by, Joe would have been sidewalk pizza.

Joe's story is told in World's Finest #142, cover-dated June, 1964. In this story written by SF great Edmond Hamilton and drawn by the incomparable Curt Swan, we learn of "poor pitiful me" Mr Meach.

Maybe Meach's name was inspired by the words "leech" or "mooch," because that's exactly how ol' Joe features in this story.

(Is it just me, or does the interior splash page art remind you of Adolf Hitler at the Nuremburg Rally, being saluted by his minions?)

As featured on the cover and the story's splash page, suddenly our World's Finest heroes are confronted by somebody who is virtually a one-man Legion (of Super-Heroes). The Composite Superman demands that Superman and Batman take him on as partner, or he'll reveal their Secret Identities.

As the CS zips around "saving" things, through narration we learn of his origin as Joe Meach. After being rescued by Superman, he gets a job through Superman's influence, as the custodian of the Superman Museum. But does Joe get down to his work, thankful to be alive and to have a job? No, he grumbles about how "the Man" is keeping him down.

In his introductory tour of the Museum, Joe notices some statues of the 30th Century's Legion of Super-Heroes, and Superman is glad to oblige by satisfying Meach's curiosity. The statues were made by successfully duplicating every particle of the Legion members' bodies, only smaller.

So it should come as no surprise that, when lightning zaps into the Museum and strikes the statues next to Joe, then the previously-unknown DUPLICATED POWERS of the Legionaires flow into Joe's body on a current of electricity. After all, quantitavely, there's no different between a live body and a dead one. Each has the same amount of particles.

OK. Let's assume that YOU have received the accumulated powers of the entire Legion of Super-Heroes. What do you do? Do you become a hero and help, save, and redeem?

Not if you're Joe Meach. Like a lot of folks that you or I know, who blame their misfortunes on others, he simply wastes his great opportunity on showing up the true heroes, our World's Finest team. Motivated by resentment and a sense of entitlement, Meach works to squash the careers of "our two favorites heroes."

He uses all the powers of the Legion to stymie Superman and Batman at every turn. Eventually he demands that Superman, Batman, and Robin give up their roles as costumed heroes so that the Composite Superman can have all the world's adulation.

But our heroes decide not to take that dictate lying down. They sneak away and discover a strange castle constructed by their foe, a castle made of mixed metals (kind of like his abilities). Inside is a disturbing wish-fulfilment statue of the Composite Superman grappling with the whole world. Uggh, creepy, huh?

Batman and Superman are discovered by their enemy, who quickly cobbles together a deathtrap which is only thwarted by Batman's quick thinking. But as they escape, the Composite Superman is nowhere to be found.

Why? because Meach's powers, and memories, have worn off.

And that's how the story ends, with the uneasy realization on our part that Superman, Batman, and Robin did not defeat their opponent. No, he simply forgot about them!

Check Out Some Old Time Radio!

Have you heard any of the original Superman radio shows from the 1940s? You can enter a world of imagination where Bud Collyer simply has to drop his voice an octave to go from Clark Kent to Superman.

It was on the Superman radio show that Jimmy Olsen got his name; where Superman first met Batman; and where Kryptonite was first introduced to the Man of Steel.

Anyway, if you want a chance to listen to some of those thrilling days of yesteryear, hop on over to visit my friend Jon at the Old Time Radio Catalog, http://www.otrcat.com:80/

You can find suspense tales, westerns, soap operas, and -- oh yeah -- superheroics! You can order shows on CD in either CDA or MP3 format.

Jon features great specials and daily free downloads. Plus, he also is nice enough to read this blog!

I'm Better Now, and I Would Like a Big Mac Please

Howdy, and believe me you do NOT want to have the excuse I am going to provide for going over a week without saying HELLO.

Can you say "stomach flu"? I thought you could. Better say it than HAVE it. By Wednesday I thought I was getting better, but it's a nuisance when the only way to not "have to go" is to not eat. Yup, the ol' express train to the colonary exit had slipped its brakes again.

Thanks to the passing of time, a nice doctor, and a little something we call Diphenoxylate-Atropine, the floodgates are holding.

So to celebrate a return towards dietary health(!), let's remember when every good ol' Big Mac came in its own non-styrofoam carrying case. In fact the thing was recyclable and caused less environmental damage than making it out of cardboard.

But, there were some people worried that CFCs (which Big Mac boxes were not made of) were ozone-harming when produced. So, basically to honor a media scare story and the public's beliefs that Big Mac clamshells were made of the evil styrofoam, they did away with the tough little waterproof critters.

Ah, but sometimes the foresightful few (geeks) can rescue the perishing. That's what I did, and now, you can see it too!

Tieing One On for Watchmen!

Well, we saw Watchmen Saturday afternoon.

I think the film does a great job of giving you an experience similar to what you get from the comic.

As an old guy, I was pleased to recognize the characters Mick Jagger, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, Pat Buchanan, and others. I did miss "Dick Cavett," and I also didn't notice Janis Joplin singing "Me and Bobby McGee" in the background -- but both were listed in the credits.

Ozzy's endgame scheme in the movie makes at least as much sense as the comic's version -- although we DID get a SQUID, if you noticed.

Anyway, this was just a chance to share my latest piece of suggested merchandising: The Smiley WatchTie.

What do you think?

Attack of the Robot

From 1996, it's Attack of the Robot, written by Joe Edkin and illoed by Erik Doescher and Tim Harkins.

You see, this robot attacks. And Superman, Green (Kyle Rayner) Lantern, Captain Marvel, and Wonder Woman fight it. They help people who are almost hurt by the robot's attack.

And they catch the bad guy, Lex Luthor, who was behind the attack of the robot.

"You may have stopped me this time," he said, "but someday I'll get my revenge."

Note Supes's long, flowing locks post-Return but pre-Haircut.

Also herewith presented are images of the tattoos included in the center staple. For your consideration I have flipped the images so they're readable.

The Holy Grail Mystery Solved

The author is Frank C Tribbe.





The copy I bought through Amazon was sgned and dedicated by Tribbe to a pastor who'd previously interviewed him. Also inside were two letters from the author to the pastor.





This quotation from one of the letters pretty much sums up the book's stance:





"Several of the Turin Shroud scientific researchers are now convinced, as I am, that the Face on the Turin Shroud is the true source of the Holy Grail stories. For the first millenium the Shroud was folded in a casket with only the Face showing, surrounded by a cloth-of-gold with lattice pattern -- early French greile, or grill, then grail. Legends, pilgom stories and bits of history, plus writers' and troubadours' imagination did the rest."

Photobucket link: http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/TribbeGrailShroud.jpg

Well -- isn't that an interesting theory! There's probably no reason why it could not be true.





However --





This little book is subtitled, "A Fully Illustrated Research Odyssey." Illustrated it is. Research? How can I tell?

This book has a bibliography. It has photo credits for the many photos. The author is obviously well educated and insightful. But how can it be a "research odyssey" when there is NOT A SINGLE FREAKIN' footnote or reference given for anything? A bibliography IS NOT ENOUGH.

So, if you want to read more about this interesting little idea, this is the book for you. I had a hard time deciding whether to shelve it with my "Arthur" books or my "Shroud" books -- although the Shroud won out.

The Silver Bridge, by Gray Barker

This book was originally published in 1970 by Barker's own Saucerian Press, and is here reissued by Metadisc books -- it looks like from the same plates, misspellings and all.





This is a fascinating mythic account of the Mothman furor of the late 1960s in the area around Mount pleasant, West Virginia.





It's not just "documentary style." No, Barker imputes an ultra-terrestrial impart to Indrid Cold and his fellow alternate-dimensional companions. He features a character, The Narrator, whom I suspect to be an aspect of Barker's own personality.




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"A keen observer of the human condition," as they say, Barker drily describes the educated and uneducated, the sophisticated and the less-than-adequate, as they are confronted with Twilight-Zone-type things: human shapes with wings that can pace a 85-mph car; little guys in black suits with droning voices and hypnotic eyes; a high-tech flying saucer that lands in the middle of the road on antique-airplane-looking rubber tires; and other such weird things.



It's a fascinating book, and more of a "meditation containing fact" than a strictly investigatory report. It's aeons more worth your time than the silly Mothman's Photographer II.

Bootleg Toy Bonanza

For Valentine's Day, Joyce and I drove down to (what's left of) the Outlet Mall in Gainesville, TX. All the important (to us) stuff was still there: Burke's, 75% Off Books, the kitchenware store, a few clothing & shoe outlets, plus ... a toy liquidator store!

When I first saw this "MAVEL TEAM UP," my first thought was, "Superman and Spider-Man in the same package? Impossible." My second thought was, "They spelled MARVEL wrong." My third thought was, "BOOTLEG!"

Sure enough, here we have another lead-painted (*probably*) Bootleg Bonanza!

As you can see, they got the costumes about right, and these little guys are pretty well done. Superman, having the same cape as Batman (only red), has a scalloped edge to his cape instead of a straight-across edge, but that's about my only quibble.

Man, you have to admire the brazenness of this MAVEL TEAM UP.

Counting Down the Watchmen Time!

Here are the latest offerings in the do-it-yourself Watchmen toys contest.

Pretty silly, I know, but with Valentine's Day only a couple of days away, I'm too juiced-up with love to think clearly.

Talk to you next week!

Book Review of The Mothman's Photographer II

This is a very silly book and a perfect example of why most run-of-the-mill types (the "normal" people) dismiss paranormal investigation as the province of goofs and whackos.

Here is what I mean. I'll use the author's stream-of-consciousness and "synchronicity" "investigations" -- as if applied to Amazon, the company from whom I bought this book:

AMAZON -- right off, I get a feeling of strife and anger. The Amazons were a mythological race of women warriors. That reminds me of militant feminism, a bunch of man-haters.

Also, the legendary Amazons sliced off a breast so as to more easily draw back their bows in battle. So that means that any company named after them must be in favor of elective plastic surgery.

And the word AMAZON starts with the letter A -- which looks like an upside-down oxen yoke. That means that Amazon seeks to enslave us by hitching us to its bank account.

Oh, and don't forget that the word AMAZON sounds like the word AMAZED, so the company must be trying to "baffle us with BS."

Oh, yeah! The last part of the word AMAZON is also in the word ZONE, so that must mean that they want me to be Zoned Out on their products.

Also, AMAZON contains the name of the evil DC Comics abdroid AMAZON, so that must mean that Amazon is being paid by DC Comics to use this name.

And most "meaningful" of all, when I started typing this review, my 25-disc CD changer, set on RANDOM, played the Beatles' "Something."

So that means there is SOMETHING to what I am saying!

Seriously folks, that example is about as deep and meaningful as this book is. It has transcriptions from radio shows where the author rambles about things that deserve true investigation, but he treats it in such a silly fashion that anybody who doesn't belong to the gosh-wow school of gullibility will, like me, cringe.

However, there are several chapters which are made up of transcribed talks by veteran investigator John Keel. Unlike the author of this book, Mr Keel is an investigator who lines up cold, hard facts, and shows them to you, BEFORE proposing a theory.

Really, folks, this book ranks right up there with the JFK people who think the Zapruder film shows JFK's driver shooting him, or the people who believe that aliens built the pyramids.

I have 1900+ books in my home library, half of which concern mysteries and unknown things. I believe that many sightings of UFOs, cryptid animals, and other anomalies were really things seen by people who reported what they saw. But books like this are not worth a serious reader's time and money, unless you have lots of time for unsubstantiated gobbledygook which appears to be mostly based on feelingsv scary stories and psychic impressions.

They're Just Animals, say these guys

Not every invesigator of Fortean critters thinks they beasts are hobgoblin manifestations of Earth energy or such.

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Some just think they're real-life animals that are *really good* at hiding.







For example, Peter Costello's fascinating chronicle, In Search of Lake Monsters, is an exhaustive listing of sighting from all over, with investigations into familiar water-horses such as Nessie or Champ, as well as some Norwegian animals seen in (temporary) pools of water!

But nowhere does Costello suggest that they aren't flesh-and-blood types.

Similarly, John Napier is happy to tell us that Bigfoot is "another form of life on Earth." And he means a form that leaves feces, footprints, and a bad stink.

Photobucket link: http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/Mystery%20Paperback%20scans/BigfootNapier.jpg

Does This Cape Make Me Look Fat?: Pop Psychology for Superheroes

Now available at your local Big Lots!, this is a fun little tome that's silly all the way.

It's a semi-serious take on a self-image-boosting book for any superhero stupid enough to believe something they'd read in a self-help book.

Covered are topics such as that addressed in the title/cover image, what sidekick choices reveal about your parent/child issues, how to select a costume or superhero name that's impressive yet not trashy, and so on.

It's a fun little read, peopled by variations on ten or so figures in varying versions of a few outfits, giving you the literary impression afforded on the TV screen by Filmation's DC superheroes cartoons.

Smart yet silly, flashy yet trashy, this is a really fun book.

More Ultraterrestrial Observations: Enter Jacques Vallee

Jacques Vallee was hired in the 1960s by the French government to collate and do data-entry computer surveys of UFO reports in France and Europe. Like John Keel in the USA, the more he analyzed, the more he noticed that there were PATTERNS in the data of reports.

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These patterns -- the physical appearance of "aliens," their times of day or location of appearance, and other things -- suggested that these critters were somehow conforming to stereotypes that were familiar to Earthlings, but that wouldn't be apparent to little green guys from the planet Kwatloo.

How would an extra-terrestrial know to appear and reappear in the location of a fairy ring mentioned for centuries in local, word-of-mouth folklore? How would he know to repeat certain familiar phrases spoken hundreds of years ago by local gypsies?





Maybe these appearances had more to do with "Inner Space" than "Outer Space."

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Then, in more recent cases, a human element seemed to appear. Could human intelligence agencies be mimicking the alien experience for their own ends?

Read the books and study on the idea yourself.

By the way, the character of the French scientist in Close Encounters of the Third Kind was based entirely on Vallee and his research.

What a Super Deal!

Last night, at Target, I was browsing through the DVD section. I saw Christopher Reed / Superman's image on a case that I didn't recognize. I grabbed it just for fun and looked it over.

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Big deal -- all 4 Reeve Superman movies. But I already had them in the gazillion-dollar Ultimate Superman 14-disc extravaganza.

Then I turned the DVD case over to see that the films in this set had commentaries. Well, so did the Multi-Extravaganza! Except ...

History Time: When the big block Extravaganza was first released, I bought it. Then I found that, due to a screw-up on Warner Bros' part, the disc for Superman III did not have the DVD "extras" promised as advertised. The disc only has the movie, a trailer, and "Cast Bios." Now, Warber provided a phone number to call to get the disc replaced or whatever. I called the number many times, only to get a recording and no way to interact with said recording. So, I was stuck.

Until ... last night I was at Target (this is where we came in) ...

The Superman III disc in this Target set is the "Bonus" version left out of my Mega-Extravaganza set! It's got a commentary, a making-of featurette, and deleted scenes.

So, friends, if you want ONE version of all four Reeves Superman films with some extras, but don't want to pay 60 bucks or however much used copies of the 14-disc set cost nowadays ...

Go to Target. The four movies, on two double-sided discs, are $9.99.

Contemplations on the Ultraterrestrial Theory

In another instalment of paperback scans on mysterious topics, let's look at the topic of UFOs from the "Ultraterrestrial" view.

In short, the ultraterrestrial view was, early on, popularized by John Keel, taking up the torch from Charles Fort, who once wrote, "I think we're property." Basically, the source of the UFO phenomenon isn't STAR TREK-type aliens jaunting around in their (physically real) space ships.

Keel sifted through thousands of reports of weird encounters and noticed patterns and spikes in UFO sightings on certain days, or times of days. Now, he wondered, how would aliens from the planet Kwatloo know to keep showing up at 9PM on Thursdays? They don't have a copy of the Farmer's Almanac.

No, to Keel it seemed apparent that these weirdos were weirder than that. The fact that the ships could vanish from radar or make impossible 90-degree high-speed turns was evidence that perhaps the things weren't strictly physical.

Keel's books are filled with insights and observations and analyses. Perhaps the space critters weren't from Out There, but from a place like e e cumming's "universe next door" or Another Dimension, Beyond That Which Is Known To Man (to quote Rod Serling).

Read Keel's UFOs: Project Trojan Horse for an insight into his discoveries. Heck, read ALL his books! (The paperback title for UFOs: Project Trojan Horse was Why UFOs .)

Thus the term Ultra-Terrestrial. Not a physical reality, but perhaps a metaphysical world whose inhabitants could appear and de-materialize, or take various physical forms. They could slip next-door into our world, stir us up like a kid with a stick plays with an anthill, and then slip sideways back to LuluLand.

The sad ending of Keel's writings was the hard-to-find The Eighth Tower, published by Signet in 1977. My used paperback copy cost upwards of $50. The cover blurb above the cover illustration sums it up: "Are we all biological robots ruled by a cosmic force that exists beyond space and time?"

Keel's gloomy conclusion is yep, we are. It's as if the history of man is dictated by telepathic broadcasts that run in a great cycle, spurring receptive humans to great thoughts arising in great cultures or civilizations, and then sowing dissident images and thoughts to tear it down and start again.

But, to Keel, it seems that the record being broadcast is stuck in the same cycle. Perhaps if the record didn't skip, we might be spurred to greater things, and perhaps transcend our "Radio America" origins.

But no, Keel feels, either the radio station is abandoned, or the DJ is locked out of the control booth. We're all stuck in an endless cycle of civilization and madness and decay, and being mere biological robots, all culture, all human history, even Keel's observations, are meaningless.

Wow, how cheerful!

Book Review: Vampires: Encounters with the Undead

This book, "edited and with comentary by David J Skal," is pretty good. Here's my "official" review...

You can't fault Mr Skal for his selection of stuff -- fiction, nonfiction, excerpts from longer works. All that material is on-target and really a wonderful portmanteau of Vampirian lore.

But, despite the tagline on the cover, "edited and with commentary," the commentary is, at times, rather thin gruel.

I would have hoped for commentary specific to the selections, more like annotations, or explanations of this or that thing that appears in the story or article. Instead, in the sidebars, we often have excerpts of other stories that were published at the same time as Story X, or interminable lists of decades of vampire movies or lists of vampire books, etc.

The amount of actual commentary, compared to this "padding," is a small percentage.

It's also ironic that, in the acknowledgements, Mr Skal thanks his copy editor. Now, nobody's perfect, but in this book I came across a few dozens of simple misspellings, letters dropped from words, etc; paragraph indents at the tops of pages when we were continuing a sentence started the previous page; and so on.

And what's with the sudden change in type size for just one word, or one line? This happens more in the sidebars than in the main text, but for some of us it's kind of jarring.

These little irritants keep this book from being A-Number-One, for me at least. If these things don't bug you, then run -- do not walk -- to dive into this anthology.

Latest Book with Many Pictures and Little Text

Howdy, folks, and check out this book.

It's called DC Comics Covergirls, with text by Louise Simonson.

Just like it says ... It's fun because of the big reproductions of many covers. The author being female, she does make the obvious observation about how hyper-exaggerated and pneumatic many of the female forms are drawn.

Since I'm a white-bread kind of guy, it is a little disturbing to see a few of the images from the chapter on the Vertigo and Wild Horse-type books. For that matter, Brian Bolland's cover with Batman body-pressing Catwoman while her whip is wrapped around his neck ... admire the craftsmanship; shudder at the image.

Anyway, this book is a lot of fun, and ONLY $14.98 cover price( at Borders anyway). Wow!

Make Your Own Watchmen Collectibles!

Assuming you like Watchmen, keep an eye out for the good ol' Smiley Face as you shop your neighborhood thrift stores. With a little luck and some judiciously applied red model paint, you can amaze your friends with your exclusive Watchmen merchandise, not available in any store!











How about a Watchmen tissue box?


Or a Watchmen coffee mug? (The phone jack was necessary to balance the mug on the scanner.)

Let me know what YOU can invent?