Not Bad for 15 Years in the Freezer

In 1993, my friend John Hunter, then co-owner of Planet Comics in Oklahoma City, came back from a Comicon with not only a "undercover" video of ABC's promo for its fall series Lois & Clark -- he also brought a present *just* for me.

It's a chocolate Lois & Clark bar! As you can see by the Skybox logo, it was probably a promo for some trading cards issued by Skybox in tandem with the new series.

It's a shame it's cracked into pieces, but here it is in all its not-too-destroyed glory. It's on its way to outlasting two freezers. It's withstood at least a couple of multi-day power outages.

Not bad for a 15-year-old chocolate bar!

Nerdy enough for ya?

A Seasonal Observation

Each season has its own perfume
It carries for its own --
The Winter has his special scent --
Like taste of snow on tongue --

Or like the wind sucked through a scarf --
Chill flannel -- holly -- sleighs --
Or steaming cider -- chestnuts split --
The first thaw -- icy trees --

Sweet Spring dabs sachet at her ears --
The scent of greening hills --
Of rain-swept air -- and sun-drenched grass
And teeming daffodils --

The Summer’s scents are fireworks --
Ice cream -- mimosa too --
The nights she brings are full with scent --
Of new-cut grass and dew --

Are You a de Camp Follower Too?

L Sprague de Camp and his wife Catherine were guests at a Pseudo/PsurrealCon (I forget which) in Norman, OK, about 20 years ago. By the way, the "L" stands for Lyon, his first name.

They were very nice, elderly people, very goodnatured about being surrounded by SF nuts, and possibly thankful that they were remembered at all!

Besides SF & fantasy, de Camp wrote nonfiction, such as his bio of good ol' Eich-Pee-Ell. Also a LOT of historical speculation and research, as in

this book, cowritten with his wife, Citadels of Mystery. They cover things like Macchu Pichu, El Dorado, and such.

de Camp wrote another noteworthy book solely on Atlantis, Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme. It's also a fine read.

Be advised, de Camp is dry-witted, urbane, and restrained. He doesn't ramble on in florid prose with wild speculations.

But he's a fine researcher, and (given the time of the writing) the books are in-depth and insightful.

The Sociological Aspects

As with any obsessive interest, the UFO/alien viewpoint has attracted the attention of analyzers and categorizers.

The Gods Have Landed, edited by James Lewis, looks at the UFO-type groups that have become religionlike, like the Saucerians and George King of England, who suddenly heard a voice that announced, "Attention! You are to become the voice of the Interplanetary Parliament."

If you can't give a sociolgical analysis, you can always have a conference and transcribe the words of wisdom, as in UFOs and the Alien Presence. Of course, in many instances the "alien presence" is in the back of a turbulent mind.

It's So Scary, or Is It?

Barbara O'Brien's Operators and Things sounds like a paranoid fantasy of monsters, evil beings, and Men in Black.

And it is. However, the operative words are "paranoid fantasy." This fascinating little book is actually a first-person narrative of paranoid schizophrenia. The "operators" of the title are the unseen presences who were trying to control O'Brien.

The "things" are nothing more than the everyday contacts she encountered -- people, circumstances. In other words, the "not-me" in the duality of "Me" and "Not-me."

It's a creepy. interesting, sad, and ultimately uplifting tale of "the real-life adventure that is stranger than science fiction!"

Speaking of paranoia, there's also this. "Edited" by Kate Tuckett, Conspiracy Theories is another one of those tongue-in-foot meldings of the "everything's conspiract-related to an absurd degree" books. I describe it as "tongue-in-foot" because it's tongue-in-cheek ALL THE WAY DOWN.

If you want to read self-conscious silliness that was actually a lot of work to "tie together," this is one of those books.

Lookie Lookie, A Flying Saucer Man!

Kevin Randle, the same fellow who co-wrote UFO Crash at Roswell and a few other tomes, edited this book, Faces of the Visitors, which shows

dozens of sketches of alien critters as described by their breathless witnesses. The only thing to say is, Either there are multitudes of alien races all "happening" to drop in on li'l old Earth, or they're all a bunch of danged shapeshifters, mebbe.

David Knight's book, UFOs: A Pictorial History from Antiquity to the Present, is a nifty compendium of sketches, photos, engravings (from newspaper reports of the 1897 Great airship Scare), and lots more.

Again we are left with the unbelievable conclusion that poor insignifcant Earth is on the receiving end of hundreds of differently shaped space vehicles.

Theories abound, from hogwash to complete acceptance of all comers. I myself tend to side with Jacques Vallee and John Keel, what's called "the Ultraterrestrial theory."

...Not the same as Ultra Tide.

Some Small Mysteries

Here are a few more covers to paperbacks about UFOs, Atlantis, and such.

According to this Charles Berlitz book, we've already been in the afterlife for the past nine years. Of course, Berlitz himself departed this earthly realm a few years ago, so now he knows for himself.

Of course, maybe the world won't end until it collides with another one, vide Velikovsky.

No matter what you think of Professor V's theories, it's downright boneheaded and stupid the way the "establishment" scientists bullied this book's "original" publisher into dumping the manuscript, AFTER accepting it.

William Corliss's books, unlike many "weird stuff" tomes, is just as it states, "a sourcebook."

Corliss documents truly strange occurrences, from freak weather to odd archaeological finds, and cites the original publications, NOT quoting Bob smith who quoted Joe Jones who read about it in Betty Barnes's book.

Reading books like these with an open mind can reawaken you to the wonders of God's creation, and how little we understand of most of it.

Of course, just as with the news or gossip, you should evaluate your sources.

I said an "open" mind, not a credulous one!

July 4th -- The World Turned Upside Down!

I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day, and celebrated the ideals of freedom and equality to which we aspire.

We went with some friends to Mustang's Wild Horse Park, where you can set off your own fireworks. Later on, after exhausting our resources, it was fun to sit back and watch everyone else's explosives.

Since I was worried about the overhanging trees blocking the view of the aerial celebrations, I tried to come up with a different angle, as captured in these two photos.

Talk to you again soon!

7-11 Cups (4): A Pair of Snappy Redheads

Here's the Daily Planet's "Mr. Action" taking it easy. About five seconds after this, he's going to be stumbling to his feet after being shouted out of that chair onto the floor. Jimmy will be dusting off his butt and saying, "Umm, sure thing, Chief! I mean, Sir Chief!"

Now, the la belle femme of ths twosome is the lusciously portrayed Lana Lang, now (in 1973 that is) a co-news anchor with Clark Kent on WGBS-TV news.

Such wonderful Swan art was selected for these cups!

7-11 Cupes (3): The Happy CUP-ple

Here are the 1973 versions of Clark and Lois.

Wow, how mod is Lois Lane in her mini-shorted jumpsuit! Everything about her screams LIBERATED. (Also SEX OBJECT, but don't tell her!)

And in contrast, view the traditional depiction of Clark Kent ripping apart his shirt to reveal the famous S-shield. We know it's Swan, but ... that inking style means only one thing -- the completion of the Swanderson team by Murphy Anderson, artist and inker extra-ordinaire.

Boy, doesn't our Superman look chiseled and buff!

7-11 Cups (2): The Brainiac-Luthor Team!

Well, OK, the cups are separate -- but if the title "The Brainiac-Luthor Team!" was good enough for Jim Shooter and DC, it's good enough for me!

Note the great Curt Swan source art for both cups. And especially note the flat-out evee-yill (that's how you pronounce an evil THIS EVIL) depiction of Mrs Luthor's least favorite son.

Brr!

Attendance at SoonerCon?

In response to Paul C's question/comment about SoonerCon attendance -- did we have more attendees in 2008 than 2007? -- Soonercon Chair Jerry Wall told me,

Yeah. I think it seemed like less because we didn't have that ultra crowded area near registration... so it seemed less full there. But the exhibitor's hall was fairly busy. We also had more per day (more 3 day memberships vs 1 day, so people came more often). Rocky Horror was also totally full this year, while last year we had plenty of room, and SinnerCon was packed. Since some of those folks didn't spend much time in the con during the day, that may also have made it look less crowded.

Jerry

7-11 Cups (1)

Welcome back after SoonerCon 2008!

I don't know if we cracked a thousand people, but the place was more abuzz than any previous year!

And in the Exhibitor's Hall, I found some more nifty Super-Stuff that I never even knew about before!

Seems in 1973, DC put out a whole line of cups through the 7-11 convenience store chain. One SoonerCon vendor had about twenty different ones. And just like somebody who keeps coming back for another handful of peanuts, I kept drifting on back by, until he finally made me a package deal on all of 'em!

Here are a few of them. Let's call these the Smallville Run.

Note that these characters and descriptions are firmly Silver Age.

In a later batch of cups, you'll see a few concessions to the '70s.

I'd say that the Superboy is from Curt Swan art, and the Kents are from George Papp's work.

Yes, It's a Wham-O!

Well, here's a Super Frisbee my boss gave me today.

It's so big it overshot the edges of my scanner, as you can see.

Sorry about not being "springtime fresh" with more new stuff, but we've been in the countdown to Soonercon (www.soonercon.com) -- which is this weekend! -- and I've been trying to organize a new 100,000-plus address list at work, so I've been preoccupied.

Right in front of me I have Lois Lane 51, "The Three Wives of Superman!", but it'll have to wait until next week.

See you after Soonercon!

At Least I Can Copy ...

Well, I've had this hanging on the wall for a while, and decided to pull it down and scan it for you hep cats.

I was in 11th-grade art class when I produced this gem. If I recall, I copied it (minus the word balloons) from a panel on the 80-page giant which reproduced the story where Bats revealed his identity to Joe Chill. A page from that tale was on the cover, with Batman reminding Robin that this changed his life forever, or some such.

The caption was somthing like, "It's risky, and it might end my career! But I've got to do it!" -- referring to unshucking his face before the murderer of his parents.

Well, if you had a black light, and shew it onto the original piece (which earned an A, thank you), you'd find out that although Batman's flesh tones were done with colored pencil, his blue cowl is ZAP! POW! BAM! black-light paint.

See ya next time!

The Mystery of Sorcery Boy

Here we have the cover of Superboy 108, cover-dated October 1963. Typically wonderful Curt Swan art shows Superboy's suspicions about the Kents' glassy-eyed denials of "Mighto" the super-kid.

Turns out Mighto was a mean motor-scooter and a bad go-getter, to quote the lyrics of "Alley Oop."

But the main memory of this issue is the back-up story, whose splash is presented below. "The Mystery of Sorcery Boy" is one of those time-travel stories exemplified a LOT more often in the Supergirl stories in Action : A relic from the past provides a super-mystery, so the hero travels back in time to investigate it, thereby involving themselves in the creation of the mystery.


Superman did it in the Action with the caveman skeleton in the Super-outfit. Supergirl did it in the Action tale where she investigated a rock carving depicting her fighting a dragon.

And, in "The Mystery of Sorcery Boy," the McGuffin is a couple of silver coins dated 1680 found among the Kent family heirlooms. They bear an inscribed portrait of the Boy of Steel, S-shield and all!

Hmmm ...



So Superboy flies back into time and meets some foster-ancestors, Jonas and Maria Kent. They take him into their hearts. He helps them out, raising the ire of a pompous judge, who (unwigged) is revealed to be the highwayman Bald Pate, and who bears a striking resemblance to a certain modern follically-challenged baddie whose initials are LL.

But before he gets caught, Bald-Pate -- I mean, Justice Grimm -- accuses Superboy of being a magician, and sets up an execution. He "personalizes" the bullets by having a smith inscribe a portrat of "Sorcery Boy" (Superboy in his heroic duds) onto each of the "silver bullets."

So the "silver coins" were actually the flattened bullets bouncing off Superboy's chest before he streaked back to the present. They were found by the Kents, and passed down over the years.

I must've liked this tale a lot as a kid. Because, at the ripe old age of seven, I wrote my first fan letter to DC, about that story.

My mom even addressed an envelope for me -- but never mailed it. She doesn't remember WHY she didn't mail it.

I CAN tell you, though, that my handwriting in this note is better than the handwriting I use now!


Anyway ... see you next Super-Time!

The Return of the Kryptonite Kid

A year later, in Superboy #99, The Great Green Lummox returned. As shown in this Swanderful cover, the Kid and hos mutt aren't just Dreams of Doom, they're here and now!

Check out the interior art by George Papp. The splash page shows the Kid "Kryptonizing" the trap door into the Kent home.






But our story begins at a beach party at Lana Lang's beach home. And -- get this -- the beach home is "near Smallville." Umm, OK -- in the Silver Age, Smallville wasn't even given a home state -- the Kansas thing began with Byrne -- but, still -- a beach home?






Maybe it's just a big lake.






Anyways, all of a sudden, Clark is confronted by the terrible teen, who promptly turns a globe green. You see, his term in Zrrff's 5th dimensional jail was over, and he was simply booted out into the cold. Booted, my dear Baron! (as Dr Pretorious says in Bride of Frankenstein)





Then -- it's Pete Ross to the rescue!




Yes, this is the original Pete Ross, who discovered Clark/Superboy's secret on that campout in the thunderstorm. He's never let on to Superboy that he knows the secret. So Pete bumbles in with a hastily donned blindfold, and "accidentally" kicks the Green-K globe out of the open door.




Even though Pete is blindfolded, the K Kid says, "Oh-oh someone's approaching! Must flee! My Kryptonite power can't harm him!" Yeah, Pete should just kick this pink-dressing guy's butt!
Note how in the last panel of the "globe rescue" sequence, each boy is congratulating himself on fooling the other.
The story is resolved after a comedy of errors involving super-robots of both Superboy and of Krypto, each tangling with the Kryptonite Kid and the Green Growler.

Eventually, the Kid's space capsule is lured into a Red Kryptonite cloud, which (of course) turns the bad guys good, because Superboy remembered how a previous baddie was changed good by the same cloud.
So our reformed bad guys fly off into the sunset, with "no hard feelings" between the deadly foes.
Yeah, right!

The Kryptonite Kid!

Does anybody remember station wagons? If you can imagine this car as baby blue, then this is the car that I grew up riding around in, a 1962 Chevrolet.

And, in those more carefree days, my best friend Tommy Hefner and I loved going with Mom to the grocery store or driving downtown to pay the bills. Why?

Because we could ride "in the back," the four-square-foot rear of the station wagon, where we entertained ourselves by sitting on one side and sliding to the other side when Mom turned a corner.

We also read a lot of comics back there.

One of the comics whose first memory links it to the back of the station wagon is Superboy 83, which introduced The Krytonite Kid.

Now here was a one-trick guy. He and his dog, which was a lab aninal never given a name in the story, were shot into space by their planet Blor and then mysteriously passed through a Green Kryptonite cloud before being deflected to Earth.

Now he and his pet can radiate Kryptonite Rays! Meanwhile, being telepathic, they boy and his dog send dreams to Superboy & Krypto to flee Earth or get their butts kicked.

Just for fun, compare the beautiful Curt Swan art on the cover with the corresponding panel in the story, drawn by the fine (but not-as-good) George Papp.

On their arrival, the Kid and his mutt torment the Boy of Steel and the Heroic Hound (I made "Heroic Hound" up -- sounds pretty cool!) by using their Midas-like transmutatory powers to turn Smallville High into a Green-K building, and other mean-type things.

When Kal & Krypto flee to an abandoned trailer park, they're hunted down and tortured. Imitating his dream life as Broderick Crawford in Highway Patrol, the Kryptonite Kid throws the book at Superboy! A phone book, that is.

Then, when all seems lost, a very literal Deus ex Machina arrives ... "Master" Mxyzptlk, who has peeked in from Zrrff and doesn't want this rank amateur to take away his super-plaything.

So, he uses his 5th-Dimensional magic to zap the Kryptonite Kid and his Green Growler (I made "Green Growler" up too!) into the 5th Dimension. Also, Mxy reverts all the Kryptonite artifacts to their original states.

Just think about it. The only thing the Kryptonite Kid and friend have going for them is their threat to Kryptonians. If they use their powers to drive Superboy and Krypto from Earth -- or kill them -- then in what way are they a danger or threat to the rest of Earth?

Think about it. Sure, in the story, the Kid says that after chasing Superboy away he will build a giant ray gun and rule the Earth. But have you priced Giant Ray Gun components lately? Sheesh!

Imagine. The Kid and his mutt have killed Superboy in that trailer park. He walks into Smallville Square and announces his deed.

Then Lana Lang grabs a two-by-four and brains the Kid, killing him instatly, and Pete Ross and Chief Parker stomp the dog to death.

Problem solved!

About that Zod Guy...

A question from an old friend, Myron Moody:

Hi Mark, I've a question for you as a Superman expert. In both the television show Smallville and the second Superman movie with Chris Reeves they have a character named General Zod. I don't remember a General Zod in the comics but I could be wrong. Could you clarify this for me? Myron

Well, Myron, up until this morning-- when I took the time to look Zod up -- I would have said that Zod was invented for the Superman movies. But I'd have been wrong because my memory was on the fritz.

The Silver Age had a General Dru-Zod, from the 1960s, who tried to take over Krypton (before it exploded) with an army of robot guys that were drawn to look like Bizarros. I had forgotten about him!

It's also interesting that while Zod, played by Terence Stamp, appeared in Superman: the Movie and in Superman II looking like --well -- Terence Stamp, the General Zod re-introduced into DC comics still looked a lot like the Silver Age Zod.

Compare the 1961 comics panel with this 1983 jigsaw puzzle and you'll see that the Zod-clones are wearing a green version of the same uniform Zod wears in lavender in the puzzle.

Yes, the uniformed guy in the puzzle is Zod.. The guy in the puzzle who LOOKS LIKE Terence Stamp is another Phantom Zone baddie.

So, the producers of the 1978 Superman movie picked Zod from the comics and made him a big-big Superman villain instead of a minor one. Thus the minor Silver Age character Dru-Zod has now become the Adolf Hitler of the DC universe. Who'da thunk it?

Go Meet Arlen! (if you're in New York)

Artist friend Arlen Schumer will be speaking on comics at the New York Public Library this Saturday!

Here's what his email told me:

Saturday, May 10th @ 2PM

The Silver Age of Comic Book Art

A Lecture by Comic Art Historian Arlen Schumer

Many of the industry’s most important artists--Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Gene Colan, Jim Steranko, and Neal Adams among them--created their greatest works during The Silver Age of Comics (circa 1956-1972). They not only drew definitive versions of the medium's iconic characters--Spider-Man, Batman, The X-Men, The Hulk, Iron Man--but also set trends in the art of comic book storytelling.

The New York Public Library invites you to join comics historian and illustrator Arlen Schumer, whose Silver Age of Comic Book Art won the Independent Book Publishers Award for Best Popular Culture book of 2003, as he explores the superhero tradition and its changing portrayal of American ideals and values from the Eisenhower years through the turbulent decade of the 1960s. You'll see where Hollywood's current love affair with superhero movies comes from--and you'll see comics like you've never seen them before!
Enthusiasts of all ages welcome!!

Seward Park Branch
192 East Broadway
New York, New York 10002-5597
(212) 477-6770

Arlen Schumer is one of the foremost historians of comic book art, named by Comic Book Artist magazine in 1998 as "one of the more articulate and enthusiastic advocates of comic book art in America." He’s written articles appearing in Print magazine, including "The New Graphics of Comic Book Art" in 1988; presented multimedia shows for the New York Art Directors Club, 1992's Superhero to Antihero: Comic Book Art in the 1960's, and ComiCulture in '95; and created exhibit designs for the Words and Pictures Museum in Northampton, Massachusetts, The Graphic History of Batman in 1997 and The Art History of Superman in '98.
In the Fall of 2002 he presented a 4-session lecture series, Superheroes in the ‘60s: Comics & Counterculture, at The CUNY Graduate Center in New York City; he reprised the lecture series in the Fall of 2003 for CUNY, this time titled, The Silver Age of Comic Book Art, to tie-in with his coffeetable art book of the same name, released in December 2003 from Collectors Press (www.amazon.com/Silver-Age-Comic-Book Art/dp/1888054867/ref=dp_return_2/102-3932749-3481757?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books), and winner of the Independent Book Publishers Award for Best Popular Culture Book of 2003. He continues to lecture on The Silver Age (www.wolfmanproductions.com/comics.htm) at colleges.

Schumer’s first book, Visions From The Twilight Zone, published by Chronicle Books in 1991 (www.amazon.com/Visions-Twilight-Zone-Arlen-Schumer/dp/0877017255), was based on the classic TV series, treating its images like art photography and its words like poetry. He based a multimedia presentation on the book, which he still tours around the country (www.wolfmanproductions.com/twilight.html).
As founder of The Dynamic Duo Studio (www.dynamicduostudio.com), Schumer is one of comic book art’s most idiosyncratic practitioners, creating award-winning illustrations for the advertising and editorial markets the past two decades. He currently writes a comics and pop culture blog, ComiColumn, at www.nycomiccon.com. Other books and projects include:

The Flintstones: Anatomy of a Pop Culture Classic (Hanna-Barbera, 1994)
Neal Adams: The Sketch Book (Vanguard Productions, 1999)
Streetwise (TwoMorrows Publications, 2000)
The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino (Vanguard, 2000)
Curt Swan: A Life in Comics (Vanguard, 2002)

More Covers of Mystery

In 1953, Frank Scully's Behind the Flying Saucers was published. It told the tale of a flying saucer crash in the American desert, a tale that many debunker types assume was the origin of the Roswell crash "myth."





At another end of the saucerian rainbow, we have the breathless tales reported by Timothy Green Beckley, such as this pasteurization of saucer rumors, MJ-12 and the Riddle of Hangar 18.

After a certain point, the saucer books begin to reinforce each other with a strange resonance. Well, Joe Blow said this and that, so Moe Schmoe quotes it. Then Joe Blow quotes Mo Schmoe in HIS next book!

To quote Mr Vonnegut, and so it goes ...

The Mystery of the Lizard Men!

In conjunction with the premiere episode of Jonny Quest on TV in 1964, Gold Key Comics published a comic-book adaptation.

The comic is NOT labeled as monthly in the indicia. It's simply Jonny Quest No. 1.

Here's the front and the back of the comic.


See that little box in the lower right hand of the comic cover? That's a cool little JQ logo, labeled "File-037." It could almost be a model sheet from the show.


Notice that Hadji and Jezebel Jade, both absent from the "Lizard Men" episode, are shown in the "File-037" logo.

He Is Iron Man!

Well, last night Matthew and I became the last two people in OKC admitted to the sneak preview of Iron Man.

Well, it's pretty darned good.

It was amusing seeing Jeff Bridges, the long-haired ranter against corporate greed in the 1977 King Kong remake, epitomizing corporate greed in this film.

Robert Downey, Jr did a fine job as a slovenly, rich jerk who is suddenly confronted with the effects that his selfish actions have on others. He was also pretty good as tony Stark, aka Iron Man.

Gwyneth Paltrow was so good I didn't know who she was for a while. She would be gorgeous if she had some meat on her bones.

Overall, a fine film for the would-be hero in us all. The special effects were "believable" over all, if over the top.

So, go see Iron Man!

Fisher Price's Super Car -- Who Is that Cute Kid?

Here, fresh from my wife's shopping bag, is a new Fisher Price toy for "DC Super Friends."

You shake the car to "energize" it and it runs for a while, all the while chirping heroic phrases.

While the car is cute, check out the back side of the packaging. Jazra looked at it and said, "That's Calvin!"

The boy, indeed, resembles Jazra's bestest play buddy, Calvin Hodge. See a picture from a couple of years ago to compare.

Now, if only we can get Jazra a modeling job too ...