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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.

  

Yup?

Here's a little essay from the June 1, 1986 Amazing Heroes.

OUCH!  Was this satire, or prognostication?

In case you youngsters don't know, "Yuppie" was a derisive acronym coined in the 1980s, based on "Young Urban Professional."

What say you?  Is Clark Kent so conformist that he qualifies as such?  Of course, you gotta know WHICH Kent you're talking about.

  

See you Thursday, Yuppers and Yuppettes!

  

You Too Can Be Bizarro!

This article is from the September 15, 2000 Oklahoman.

You can tell the writer had fun with the concept.

Of course I have this tome.  One thing about the whole Bizarro thing that I thought too much about was the whole do-the-opposite thing.  I mean, if you EXPECT a Bizarro to say "Good is Bad,"  wouldn't he say the OPPOSITE of that, that "Good is Good"?

If you expect a Bizarro to do everything wrong, wouldn't they get it right just to be opposite?  But then, if you EXPECT them to do that, then they'd have to do it wrong because you expect them to do it right, to spite your expectation that they would do it wrong ...

Do you have a headache yet?

  

Who Says Fantasy Isn't Ideal?

That's what Merle Fifield says in the opening paragraph, denigrating young people's thirst for a taste of otherworldliness.

Herewith is an article from the October 1966 English Journal, dug up in my 1970s college years from the OCU library.

Next we have the hobbits confronted with the military-industrial complex of Sauron.

When Fiefield says that the hobbits return home to find the Shire converted to a communist society, I also must disagree.  The terribly debased Shire is run by Sharkey (Saruman) in a similar manner as the bully-boy USSR, with all the goodies clasped by the bosses.  OK, I will concede that the USSR called their system "communism" or "communist socialism," so from the vantage of the mid-60s Fifield might have a point.

Fifield ends up deciding that Lord of the Rings is just a bit of harmless fantasy for the kiddies.  Some of must needs differ.  Tolkien's work is modern literature imbued with the age-old elements of myth:  heroes, failed leaders, small and important folk allied against a great evil ... What do YOU think of Fifield's comments?

It seems to me that as of 1966, Fifield had not yet learned that reality is a crutch for people who can't handle fantasy!

  

Puttin' on the Berlitz

Charles Berlitz (1914-2003), among other things, was a breathless presented of capital-M Mysteries.  Here are a few of his tomes from my shelves.

Ya got a lot of speculation and recounting of it-really-happened anecdotes, which I don't recall because it's been decades since I cracked any of these covers.

Nevertheless, I can tell you with assurance that if you leave your BS detector at the door, you WILL be entertained by Mr B.

See you Monday, fellow Mysterians!

  

Five Years of Wedded Bliss!

You can call me a crummy Superman fan, but I have no idea whether in the current Superman comics Superman and Lois are married, with or without kids, or even if they are printing any Superman comics.

As far as I'm concerned, the 1986 reboot failed because of John Byrne's carved jaws, demolition-derby writing, and DC's decree that the "old" Supes was a liability.  

Still, I stayed on for a decade or more after that, buying and reading because I was (and still am) emotionally invested in Big Blue.  It's a sign of being an old fart that I'd rather read a comic from 1973 or 1965 or 1954 than anything in the last twenty years or so.

Anyway ... This here is from the Comics Buyer's Guide of October 12, 2001.

I got a big thrill from the wedding because me, myself, and I got a big thrill from OUR wedding.  Still do, 48+ years later!

I hope YOU too can find your heart's desire, fellow Valentines!

  

Record Your Own Official SUPERBOY Promos!

Here's more of the Promo Packet for Superboy's Season Two, courtesy of Mister Wonderful, aka Mark Barragar, aka KOKH-25's Ranger Roger.

The above folder is the size of a legal manila folder.

These pages are letter size.

You have plenty of time to read 'em all before rejoining the blog parade right here, on Monday!