Paint Superman Yourself!

I found this somewhere at (where else) a thrift store. Evidently you can buy these little figurines or statues and paint them yourself. This isn't one of those big ol' "figure collector" type things, it's only about four inches tall.

As you can partly see by the lettering on the back, this little guy is "TM and © DC Comics Inc. 1978".

The lettering is very un-level, as you can see. But what would you expect? I'm just amazed they were able to get the thing into a typewriter!

Non-Spoiler Review: Superman - Doomsday

Well, I just finished watching the first time through. The guys were *pretty darned* creative, I'll say. In this storyline, there ain't nobody else, superhero-wise, on the planet. At least not mentioned at all in this story!

Superman keeps his moral code intact in the end, except the part about keeping his pants zipped before marriage. Of course, we have Superman: The Movie as a precedent!

Actually, several incidents and "camera angles" are deliberate homages to that film.

I did notice, on the very first viewing, ONE BLOOPER.

During the big fight between Doomsday and Superman in Metropolis, after a while they take it underground, as in onto the subway tracks. At about 23:40 into the film, Doomsday knocks Superman up from the subway, through the street, and into the side of a building. Superman hits the building horizontally and rolls toward us. The blooper is, the“S”-shield on his chest is mirror-reversed as he rolls toward the viewer.

This is a quick faked-up shot to show you what I mean.

Anyway, it's pretty good overall. However, I wonder why Perry White can talk about Superman being there to save Lois's "ass," while LuthorCorp can only stick up probe up Satan's "rectum."

Anyway, it's pretty creative and pretty darned good. You can see in advance what "has to happen" storyline-wise in a place or two, but that's just the way it is with serial fiction, folks!

More (Sincere) Imitations

"Ida Freeman" is the name of an elementary school in Edmond, OK. I bet that's where this plastic mug came from.

Of course, in my opinion, that kid looks A LOT like Alfred E. Neumann.

Now you can compare the previous few days' pants-up-holders with a very intentional but-not-quite-infringing design, copyright-wise, shown below.

Note how the buckle even says, "FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET."

Just to the right of the buckle is a striped image that is a freight train being outrun by Mr. Anonymous. You can see a bit of him between the belt cinch and the buckle assembly.

Next (to the right) we see Mr. You-Know-Who breaking a rod in half at waist-height.

Next you will see a Metropolitan skyline (wink, wink).

The last image you see to the right is a telephone booth. Hmm, I wonder. Who might need to use a phone booth?

As you can see, the firm that produced this belt was willing to go to almost any length to produce a kids' Superman belt -- except get the licensing rights!

See you next time, and don't forget to write!

Remember STAR TREK V?

Bill Shatner, as Jim Kirk, had at least one great line in STAR TREK V.

Even if you think the film was silly, you'd have to agree with him when he asked, "What does God need with a starship?"

Similarly, you might ask, "What does Superman need with a parachute?"

Why, to enter Kandor, of course!

This non-authorized Superman parachute guy from the 1970s is actually kind of a foreshadowing of all those "variant" action figures for sale nowadays. For example, you don't just have a STAR TREK "Captain Kirk" action figure, you have a "Captain Kirk as a Romulan" action figure, or "Captain Kirk sitting on a Tribble" action figure, or whatever.

Similarly, you can buy a "Kingdom Come" Superman, or a "Superman forgot to shave with his heat vision" Superman, or what-have-you.

In the Swanderful Superman tale containing these comics panels, Superman takes Jimmy Olsen into Kandor to find out why super-powered Kryptonians are ripping off high-tech equipment on Earth. Since these super-powered Kryptonians are obviously Kandorians, Supes and his pal go right to the source, via Brainiac's shrinking ray.

Of course, this "great three-part novel" is from Superman 158, cover-dated January 1963.

It's also the comic that I'm holding up in my Blogger Profile photo. Of course, I was a lot younger then.

How about you?