But What Was He LIKE!?!?!

For all the emotional vampires who love the Sixties vibe, here's your chance to sneak into the Kennedy circus.

The November 1983 Ladies Home Journal clues us in.

If it doesn't say that he was a family man who insulted his family and God with multiple sexual liaisons with not-his-wife; if it doesn't say that this was a vainglorious man who allowed Khrushchev to take credit for ending the Cuban Missile Crisis; if it doesn't say that this apparently young and vigorous man suffered horrible physical pain every day ... Then you didn't learn what he was REALLY like here, either.

See you Thursday on a more lighthearted note with the commencement of 2026's APRIL FOOLISHNESS!

  

It's Art, Man!

This is a 1987 parody of Watchmen by a guy named Dan Burke.

So, misspellings and overcrowded panels aside, you have to admit that Burke did a pretty impressive job of squishing a simulacrum of the whole Watchmen story into 23 pages!

We can only assume, from the names, that some of the characters are satirizing folks who were hangin' about in the comic-book industry around then.

Once again, the evil profiteering corporations have it in for the creatives.  What else is new?  See you Monday.

  

Please Rate Our Service!

This qualifies as "found in a book."

Are you old enough to remember department stores?  Some of them had "auto centers," where you could get tires, an oil change, tune-ups, and other car services.  And put it on your revolving credit card!

Some of these were JC Penney, Sears, and Montgomery Ward.  

Back then, such retailers cared about their customers in a way not seen today.  Some of this is due to the fact that human employees worked daily in actual businesses which carried in-stock items.  Employees would help you find clothes and shoes which fit.  Believe it or not!  And if you bought a men's suit, for an additional charge they would measure it on you and have alterations made!

Do YOU remember such things?  Cogitate on that, and I'll see you back here on Thursday.

 

Maybe a Dream! -- Imaginary Stories, Part 2

Here is the second half of Valentino's summary of DC Comics' imaginary stories.  Part 1 is here.  It's from Amazing Heroes #29, cover-dated August 15, 1983.

The author "infers" that the tale of Super-Menace, in Superman #137, is imaginary.  However, there's a chart of "Superman's Journey to Earth" which also mentions the creation of Super-Menace.  I don't remember if that's in the same issue, or a different one.  And being at work, I can't go check in the Comics Closet.  You guys tell ME, OK?

BTW, I am probably a heretic, but I never thought the imaginary tale of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue was anything but a subpar concept.  Even though most fans seem to love it, I don't.

"Clark Kent's Brother," from Superman #175, is a work of genius in the category of imaginary stories.  If you check out this 2007 Super Blog post , you can learn much more about that great Edmond Hamilton story.

The longing for more-more-MORE imaginary tales in the above sidebar is similar to what led to the DC Elseworlds concept.

I must admit that I don't remember all of these tales, although anything in an issue of Superman, Superboy, Jimmy Olsen, Action, Lois Lane, or World's Finest is doubtless in the Comics Closet somewhere.

See you Monday, fellow imaginary readers!

  

Aren't They All? -- Imaginary Stories, Part 1

Imaginary stories, that is!

Read more!

This article is from the August 15, 1983 issue of Amazing Heroes.  It exemplifies the kind of fun comics scholarship that I love!

The other half of this article on Thursday, fellow imagineers!

  

How Do YOU Rank 'em?

Here's a poll from the July 6, 2025 Tulsa World.

I would rank Superman II as second best ONLY if considering the Donner Cut.  Then I'd put Superman and the Mole Men in for Number Three.

IMO, all the others are dubious.  But Man of Steel and the Dawn of Justice are atrocities, because they claimed to be "Superman" movies, but did not contain anything like the "real" Superman.

The 2025 film would probably come in at Number Four for me because I haven't seen it enough times to really evaluate it.

See you on Monday, Super Friends!

  

Can You Hear It?

This is from the June 1983 issue of OMNI.

There's been a lot of back and forth since then.  One guy claimed to hear words among the "shots" referring to "homicide," indicating these sounds came from AFTER the assassination.

Another survey showed that these words were pasted from elsewhere, and that the shots COULD have been from about the time of the murder.

Either way, ya can't argue with the fact that ONLY people with government access could have muddied the medical, physical, and photographic evidence.  SHAME.

  

I Had a Dream in 1990

I worked for Coastal Mart from 1985-1995, mostly on overnights. Back then, the price of gas was shown on a big physical sign with each digit on its own pane. And I had to climb a ladder to change those numbers!

Grooves at top and bottom held the digits in. These numeral panes were about 30 inches high and just over a foot wide. They were made of a mylar-type of plastic, slightly flexible but easily shattered.

The gas sign was two-legged, like the one shown above.

Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990. Before then, gas prices were around 75 cents a gallon. In my dream, I was climbing the ladder and raising the price-per-gallon to a ridiculous $1.83 (yes, I remember the amount).

Boy, aren’t we glad that gas prices don’t go up when there’s a conflict in the Middle East? See you Monday.