Reviewing Some Super Comics

This article, from the February 29, 1988 Amazing Heroes, is an opinion piece about Action #600 and the reprint volume The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told.

I agree with Andy Mangels that a lot of what Byrne "repurposed" for the post-Crisis Superman was done better the first time, in the Golden or Silver Ages.

See you on Monday.

  

High Flight

This here's a strict appeal to nostalgia.

In the Great Old Sixties, you took a lot of things for granted.

Among them was the easy availability of balsa-wood airplanes, like the one shown above.  These would've been ten cents apiece probably.  Ones with rubber-band propellors ran you about a quarter.

Nowadays you can buy ONLY FOUR for about TWENTY BUCKS on Amazon.  Sheesh!

These things were so common that on the Fourth of July, we'd tape exploding pop-bottle rockets to them.  We'd light the rocket and then THROW that sucker on high.  The rocket would ignite and that puppy would zoom around for a few seconds before exploding GLORIOUSLY into a shower of smoky splinters.  That was the life!

Well, at somewhere like a TG&Y, around 2015, I came across a handful of similar planes.  I think I got these, on clearance, for maybe 50 cents apiece.

After handing several out to the grandkids, I still have a few left.

I kinda hate to open another one!

But I'm sure I will someday.

Thanks for reminiscing, see you on Thursday.

 

Insert "Oak Connor" Joke Here

Since the 1970s when I came across John Godwin's This Baffling World in our Bartlesville library, I've been familiar with the Oak Island Mystery.

This is from the March 6, 1989 People.

While I don't know WHAT's down there, I cannot imagine how on earth someone could pad "the mystery" for over a decade of so-called reality TV.

Do you have a theory?  Let everybody know!

See you Monday.  PS remember, in less than a month, BLOG-O-WEEN is coming!

 

Another Trip to the Fortress

This survey of the Man of Steel's Fortress of Solitude is from the February 2, 2001 Comics Buyer's Guide.

As a youngster, I always wondered how secure the Fortress could be.  I mean, it looks like anybody with a rope and a grappling hook could shimmy up to the keyhole and then just waltz through that man-sized hole!

Another Super Blog post about the Fortress here.

See you on Thursday.

  

The Serial Super Sensation

This is from Comics Feature #53, cover-dated March 1987.

Have you seen this, the first live-action appearance of Superman on the silver screen?  It's boffo, despite the silly FX.  Kirk Alyn was a great Man of Steel, and a very manly Clark Kent.

See you Monday!

  

Super Clothes Number 9

Insert your own "Number Nine, Number Nine" audio as needed ....

The above set of PJs bears the JC Penney brand.

Sad to report, this set has no tag, hence no merchant info.

This is labeled "PCA."  Note that Superman is crashing through an "S" made of bricks.

Here's another set of PJs labeled PCA.

My biggest regret is that all the grandkids have outgrown these jewels!  See you Thursday.

  

Tasty Scrapings with MA-173

 

Have fun with this hotch-potch of songs from the 1980s!

01 - Roach Motel - Bound & Gagged - 1980  (3:16)

02 - Livin' in the 80s - Zero Boys - 1980  (2:18)

03 - Looking Sidewise - The Young Professionals - 1981  (3:56)

04 - Cold as the Rain - The Signals - 1984  (3:03)

05 - Napalm Springs - Vivabeat - 1982  (4:30)

06 - Advertising Girl - Phil 'n' the Blanks - 1981  (2:33)

07 - Boyfriends/Girlfriends - The Silencers - 1981  (2:06)

08 - Body Buildings - Transport - 1982  (3:51)

09 - Garden of Sin - Eyes of God - 1985  (4:26)

10 - Dream of Sand - Smog - 1986  (3:08)

11 - Hate the Girl - Marine Girls - 1981  (1:30)

12 - Trendies Everywhere - The Finishing Touch - 1981  (1:55)

13 - Sometimes Memories Return - Primary Colours - 1985  (3:29)

14 - Unable - Suburban Lawns - 1981   (1:24)

15 - The New Age Elite Corps - Home Service - 1980  (2:51)

16 - The Twin - Tru Fax and the Insomniacs - 1982  (2:51)

17 - Disposable Girl - Young Moderns - 1981  (1:41)

18 - Sunshine Anytime - These Are Houseplants - 1987  (4:03)

19 - Don't Reduce My Heart (to Beating Meat) - Bikini Atoll - 1981   (2:49)

20 - There's Something in the Air - Susan Rhee and the Orientals - 1983  (4:33)

21 - Cool World - Karla Devito - 1981  (2:57)

22 - Is There Life After Breakfast? - Los Microwaves - 1981   (3:42)

23 - Run with You Tonight - Defectors - 1984  (3:33)

24 - Born to Be Sold - Transvision Vamp - 1989  (3:44)

25 - I Can't Find You - Prodigy - 1985  (3:18)

THIS LINK GOOD FOR THREE DAYS.

https://www.filefactory.com/file/330ksu6rbnxs/MA-173.rar

These may have been left on the cutting-room floor of pop-music history.  But they’re definitely NOT the bottom of the barrel!

See you Monday!
  

Why Wait?

Last week I wrapped up my latest fun compilation of songs from all over.

And I figured, why save things up?  Let's have some auditory fun NOW.

01 - Don't Push Me - Flirt - 1978  (3:13)

02 - Record Burnin' Party - Eighth Route Army - 1985  (2:42)

03 - One in Ten Words - The Spoons - 1982  (4:09)

04 - Any Old Time - Artie Shaw (vocal Helen Forrest) - 1939  (3:06)

05 - Condition Red - The Goodees - 1968  (2:52)

06 - Kill Kill Kill (live) - Painters and Dockers - 1985  (4:02)

07 - Three Chord City - The Cold - 1980  (2:12)

08 - The Damned Don't Cry (In Hollywood) - PVC - 1984  (4:07)

09 - Shame - The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black - 1993  (2:37)

10 - Fuchsia Rayon - Westside Lockers - 1980    (2:04)

11 - Raggedy Ann - Finders Keepers - 1966  (2:59)

12 - Patience - Mannequin Pussy - 2019  (2:14)

13 - Dream of the West - Yip Yip Coyote - 1984  (3:05)

14 - Middle Age Hippie Blues - Moe Averick - 1987  (3:21)

15 - Captain Kangaroo - Suburban 9 to 5 - 1967  (1:57)

16 - Shoot for the Heart - Karen Lawrence - 1986  (4:03)

17 - Is She Your Girlfriend Now? - Rosie Future - 1980  (3:04)

18 - Space Invaders - Player (1) - 1979  (3:32)

19 - It's Been a Long, Long Time - Keely Smith - 1959  (2:04)

20 - Abbey Road Medley (edit) - The Beatles - BRG - Mark A - 2024  (16:10)

This Silver Anniversary Anthology (number 25, doncha know) has a super-broad spectrum of songs I love.  Comments on a few tracks:

Track 5:  When “Condition Red” talks about the girl’s parents not liking that scraggly long hair, that’s probably the way my own parents (and Joyce’s) felt about me!

Track 6:  “Kill Kill Kill” is a song from a 1968 Get Smart episode, recorded in 1985 by Painters & Dockers.  Don’t try it at home, or anywhere else!

Track 7:  I been to Three Chord City, but I can’t live there forever!

Track 11:  A real-life “Raggedy Ann” was the one for me, too!  Though she was much spiffier than me, kind of opposite from the gal in this song.

Track 13:  “The Dream of the West” tickles me as only a wannabe Western song can!  (Yip Yip Coyote’s from the UK.)

Track 15:  Why can’t we all be like Captain Kangaroo? Always kind, never too hurried!

Track 17:  Man, I love the insouciance of Rosie Future’s singing!

Track 19:  Even if the swaggering orchestra is a little too too, Keely Smith’s strong, sultry voice can make me wait as long as she wants!

Track 20:  I edited the last track from several resources, including from the Beatles Remixers Group.  I always wondered what the medley would sound like with “Her Majesty” in its intended place, between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam."  I mean, When Mean Mr Mustard shouts at the Queen, he must be yelling “Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl,” right?

THIS LINK GOOD FOR THREE DAYS.

https://www.filefactory.com/file/6nkl8h794r3c/MA-213.rar

Hope you find a little ear candy!  Let me know if the medley is crunchy enough.

See you Thursday, fellow pop fans!

   

Prepare to Be Re-Invaded!

Yup, that's what was in store for us in 1995, when the Beatles Anthology discs were first released!

I sat in my car in the parking lot of the Best Buy near Crossroads Mall in OKC, waiting for them to open at midnight so I could buy Beatles Anthology 1 just after the stroke of the clock!

And I think it very interesting that on the release of the OTHER two volumes, nobody seemed to care.  Stores didn't open early or ANYTHING.  At least, the stores I enquired with, like the aforementioned Best Buy.  They just shrugged as if further releases of Beatles music wasn't a big deal.  Shame on them!

See you Monday!

I’ve Got a Super Secret!

            Yes, that’s what we kids loved, after reading this story from Superboy #90, cover-dated July 1961.  We knew that Pete Ross knew Superboy’s secret identity.  But Pete, like the best friend we wished we could be to the Boy of Steel, vowed never to reveal the accidentally learned knowledge.  It was written by Otto Binder (yes, the sci-fi Otto Binder) and penciled by George Papp.

            It was the third of three stories in this issue.  Yes, youngsters of the modern age of ever-running serial tales, in the Sixties nearly every comic-book story was SELF-CONTAINED in ten or less pages, unless it was a “three-part-NOVEL,” which filled an entire issue. 

            This implications of this tale, cranked out (I assume) as one of dozens to fill the publication schedule, were more far-reaching than any of us pre-teens could have imagined when we gulped the story down.  The twist of Pete Ross’ Super Secret came when later tales showed him protecting Superboy’s identity by creating a diversion for Clark’s quick-change act, or whatever further angle could be wrung from the idea.

            Much later, we learned that Pete had a son named Jon. A storyline in Superman #457, cover-dated March 1976, showed Superman revealing his identity to Jon Ross, only to be scorned as a liar. 

            And in 1986, knowledge of that secret cost Ross his life.

            Yes, as part of Alan Moore’s deaths-travaganza, the two-part conclusion to the life of the Silver Age Superman, we find that Toyman and Prankster teamed up to learn Superman’s SI.  So they tortured and killed Pete in learning it. 

The preceding is just a prologue to these pages from the original comic.  Now you too can learn “Pete Ross’ Super-Secret!”

            You can learn about Bertillon and his identifying system at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Bertillon

            Growing up, I had a best friend, and we were this loyal, but his family moved to California due to work before we reached the teen ages of Superboy and Pete.

            Jazz on the radio!?!  Here’s a reminder for us kids that Superboy’s adventures occurred in the long-ago time BEFORE we came along to terrorize the radio airwaves with rock ’n’ roll.

            Before we get to the big revelation, note in Panel Two that Pete and Clark are wearing the same dang clothes for hiking and camping as in school or at the roller rink.

            We have to give credit to Pete for being able to lie still after THAT lightning flash.  Could he believe his eyes? Dare he?

            You can’t blame Pete for thinking he might have dreamed up the image of Clark switching to the dynamic Boy of Steel.  Still, the ensuing stalking and home invasion is a lot more worrying to a grownup than an eight-year-old.  I mean, kids are USED to sneaking around, especially spying on siblings to catch them doing something Mom and Dad have proscribed.

            And the whole let’s sew-a-costume schtick is super transgressive!  But the silly “I’m temporarily blinded” trick is something us young readers accepted as totally plausible.  Whether it makes sense to build an observatory next to a cliff is a different argument.

            This part of the tale reminds me of a story in 1983’s Superman Annual #9, in which Curt Swan (greatest Superman penciler of ALL TIME) gets to fly with the Caped Wonder.  It was all a dream … or WAS it? https://comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2008/06/the-highlight-reel-i-flew-with-superman.html

            What a STRANGE TWIST OF FATE it was that Pete had entered the exact correct branch of these very certainly deadly-unsafe mine tunnels as the bank robbers!  But, wait!  Should Superboy be … clanking?

            And the bit about Pete’s switch to Superboy cosplay is the hardest thing to swallow.  Nobody could switch clothes and rub in hair dye and all that jazz before the bank robbers got hungry and left, or passed out from boredom. 

            But, that’s the way it was in the Silver Age, kiddies!  Come to think of it, maybe the problem with us was that we grew up thinking behavior like Pete’s was perfectly fine! 

            See you next time, friends.  But before then I might be peeking into your windows or snagging some of your clothes to steal your identity!