---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Dukeshire and Mike Imboden Present: THE COMIC BOOK NET ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE ISSUE NUMBER 214 5/14/99 Edited by: David LeBlanc - ComicBkNet@aol.com FREE VIA EMAIL SINCE FEBRUARY 1995 ______________________________________________________________________ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] On the Net ............................ David LeBlanc [2] Letters to the Editor ................. Your Page! [3] TRIVIA CONTEST ........................ Win *real* prizes! [4] Network Buzz .......................... News, gossip & rumors [5] Ramblings `99 ......................... Rich Johnston [6] Tony Isabella's Journal ............... Tony Isabella [7] Comics Reality #12 .................... Robert L. Beerbohm [8] Too Old For Comic Books?!? ............ Johnny Gonzales [9] Can't See The Forest .................. Alan J. Porter [10] Stranger in a Strange Land ............ Jennifer Contino [11] Venting My Spleen ..................... David Groenewegen [12] Random Thoughts In a Less Than Random World ......... Gary Sassaman [13] M.O.E. Reviews ........................ Paul Dale Roberts [14] My View:PARA TROOP #6 ................. David LeBlanc [15] Top 10 Black & White Comics ........... Comic Shop News [16] New Comic Book Releases List .......... Charles LePage [17] HYPE! Section ......................... Various [A] Submission, Subscriptions, Back Issues, Copyrights, BBS Info ______________________________________________________________________ World Wide Web Home Page-->> http://members.aol.com/ComicBkNet HTML WEB EDITION at -->> http://www.digitalwebbing.com/cbem featuring the exclusive comic strip: HEROES RERUN by Johnny Gonzales & a week's worth of the strip: Steve Conley's ASTOUNDING SPACE THRILLS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- o \o/ _ o _| \ / |_ o_ \o/ o /|\ | /\ _\o \o | o/ O/_ /\ | /|\ / \ / \ |\ /) | ( \ /o\ / ) | (\ / | / \ / \ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The ComicBook Network was founded by Ed Dukeshire and Mike Imboden ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to receive each issue automatically through your Email account, please address a message to: ComicBkNet@aol.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the SUBJECT to be placed on the FREE subscription list. To drop it use UNSUBSCRIBE as a SUBJECT. See section [A] for the address to mail material to be reviewed. ______________________________________________________________________ All text contained within is copyrighted to the originating author(s). Except where elsewhere noted, The Comic Book Net Electronic Magazine is Copyright 1999 by The ComicBook Network. You may freely distribute or retransmit this file intact without alteration for noncommercial purposes only. Except for personal archiving, permission must be obtained from the individual authors to reproduce, retransmit, or publish any part of this magazine. ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] On the Net David LeBlanc Just after one problem is solved - every part of the "6 Part" monster issue last week actually made it to our Aol readers on the first try last week - another appears. Monday as I begin the week with the usual check of mail at the Netcom site, where I mail the Emag from and get all direct REPLY mail to, I got this note: **** Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 23:44:56 -0700 (PDT) From: support@ix.netcom.com Subject: NETCOM OPERATIONS: Mail temporarily unavailable Dear NETCOM Customer, This message is to inform you of the temporary unavailability of one of our NETCOMplete e-mail file servers. We are currently repairing problems on the system that holds your mailbox. We do not have an estimated time that this problem will be at this moment. This message will be updated when we do. Please feel free to attempt to retrieve your e-mail at any time during this period, just in case the service to the e-mail file servers is restored sooner than anticipated. This will not affect your ability to login to your NETCOM account, access the Web, telnet to other sites or send e-mail. However, in the interim, you will be unable to access or read your e-mail through your primary, or any secondary, mailboxes. Please be advised that your account will continue to receive mail, but you will not be able to retrieve or read it until service has been fully restored. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for choosing NETCOM. We value your business and look forward to meeting your on-going Internet needs. The NETCOM Team ***** Note the date & time - Monday AM (EDT) 2:45, as of Monday PM the service went down completely, Email never was restored, and I was denied access along with anyone else whose account name begins with "D" - No FOOLIN! I ain't making this up! So if you are reading this in your Email as normal then my service is back again and this issue made it out finally from the Netcom account I use for that purpose. For technical reasons I cannot send it out from AOL without some major adjustments and in light of what recently happened to ZEN and WIZEmailer I don't want to try. I am obviously writing this ahead of time since I have a little time to spare without the email to wade through. And likewise I will be able to read a few more comics than normal from these on the racks this week; ABSTRACT STUDIOS Strangers In Paradise Vol III #23, 2.75 CLUB 408 GRAPHICS Timespell #3 (Of 12), 2.95 <-------Pick of the Week! DARK HORSE COMICS Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace #2 (Of 4), 2.95 DC COMICS A Bizarro #1 (Of 4), 2.50 Dv8 #27, 2.50 Hourman #4, 2.50 Impulse #50, 2.25 Legionnaires #73, 2.50 Resurrection Man #26, 2.50 Stars And Stripe #0, 2.95 Tom Strong #2, 2.95 GUN DOG COMICS Astronauts In Trouble Live From The Moon #3 (Of 5), 2.95 IMAGE COMICS Adventures Of Barry Ween Boy Genius #3 (Of 3), 2.95 MARVEL COMICS Avengers 1999, 3.50 Avengers Forever #7 (Of 12), 2.99 Iron Man #18, 1.99 Speaking of Email strangeness I ran across one recently - Email paging. One of my readers - not even a subscriber, but one who gets it as a pass-along message from [SUPER HERO NEWS] - has this thing hooked up to his incoming Email so that EVERY time he gets a message it automatically sends him a PAGE on his beeper letting him know that he has mail (cue the AOL voice - "You've Got Mail!"). Ok, that in itself is a bit much, to me anyway. BUT, it also sends a message back to the sender to let them know that the mail was received and the receiver has been paged. I don't know about you but I don't WANT return messages EVERY time I send one. Can you imagine if you ALL had this service? Last week alone I would have gotten over 7200 acknowledgement messages (1200+ times 6 sections of the emag). And who the hell cares if you are so into Email that you have to be paged every time one hits your inbox? That part strikes me as showing off what you "think" is a special privilege or toy very few have. Please think of the other guy before you send AUTOMATED mail - you can even lose your access over something like this if you do it to the wrong people! Well, at least there is real good news in the lead item of this week's Network Buzz! Here's a hint - do you remember the "world's worst super hero team?" This really made my otherwise stressful week! David LeBlanc - ComicBkNet@aol.com Editor The Comic Book Net Electronic Magazine ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [2] Letters to the Editor If you want to comment on this or any previous issue, want to offer something for us to publish, or just want to shamelessly suck up to the editor to try and get your name in print send Email to: ComicBkNet@aol.com Note: Letters of comment may be used in future issues of CBEM unless you specifically request us NOT to use them. Your Email address and/or name will be withheld upon request. +++++ Subj: Of Cat-People And Widow-Makers From: schung1968@juno.com (Steve Chung) "Of Cat-People and Widow-Makers" I couldn't help but notice that someone reviewed Black Widow #1 last week, and I felt that I should put in my own two cents. It was a couple of weeks ago that Black Widow #1 came out, however by the time I got to my local comics shop, there were only two copies left, a fact indicative of the interest of others in the title or the fact that the comics shop got so few copies. Of the two covers offered, I got the one with The "New Black Widow", of whom the book featured. Why did I purchase this $2.99 book? Why did I find it worth the price? Well, lemme tellya! Devin Grayson really made an impression on me with her stint on Catwoman, a character from Batman's Rogue's Gallery, who's book started out so splendidly under the pen of Jo Duffy, and was changed by her departure, plus the arrival of Miraweb to Catwoman, among other D.C. Comics. What do I think of Miraweb? Well, I know that "mira" means "look" in Spanish and that to me, the art seemed caught in the adhesive grip of the Miraweb technology. Jim Balent's fine pencils were weighted down by the bright colors which one would expect in a bowl of Lucky Charms, as rendered by Peter Maxx. But, once Ms. Grayson began her stint on Catwoman, her stories focused on the character of Catwoman/Selina Kyle, pondering the question of how would such a character go through life in such an identity, while dodging the other Rogues and the inevitable crossover. My fears of the Catwoman title becoming nothing more than a pit-stop for the latest Bat-Event were groundless, as I found myself paying more attention to this title than to (shudder) the Bat-Books, themselves. To me, the mark of a Devin Grayson story is that the characters will be faced with some situation which will have consequences to them and those close to them. Unlike a certain crossover (which shall remain nameless) where the various DC characters had their powers messed with and subsequently forgotten (Gee, wonder why?), this is so much easier to relate to! So, armed with the knowledge of the type of stories that Devin Grayson has done thus far, I succumbed to the temptation of picking up a "Shudder" Marvel Knights book. I'll explain my apprehension with The Marvel Knights, soon enow... What did I like about Black Widow? 1. The story thus far emphasizes on Natasha's past as a spy, as opposed to playing her up as a heroic villainess, as she was during the time of The Champions and The Defenders. While Ms. Romanoff is worthy of standing alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes, it's kinda nice that someone remembered her roots as a spy, as well as bringing back that long-missed genre of The Spy Novel! 2. The fact that there aren't any mutants, aliens, pseudo-metals, technology, and spandex-clad heroes bashing villains while citing their last fight in last year's forgettable get-together in last year's annual. Thanks to Devin Grayson for pulling off the seemingly impossible in a Marvel book!!! And for those folk who can't get along with the aforementioned mutants, aliens, special metals, tech, and colorfully-clad characters, there's always Monday Night Wrestling on TNT. 3. The coloring by Dave Kemp. It actually served to establish the mood of the story and helped to enhance the art, without having the blinding effect of a prism while you're trying to make out what you're reading! Well done! 4. The lettering by Richard Starkings and Comicraft! The best looking logo that Marvel's had in a long time, as well as an excellent story title design. My previous experience with a Marvel Knights title was brief, due to the fact that it looked like the main character's radar-sense didn't cue him into the fact that he was swinging into his own first issue story title, which had the very properties of a Venusian Fly-Trap. Alas, poor Horn-Head, I knew him well. 5. On the third page of the book, The Black Widow's past is cleverly summed up without going into expository dialogue and let's the reader draw their conclusions! 6. The art by J.G. Jones looked swell! Keep this guy around, Marvel! To me, Catwoman and Black Widow are similar in that they seem more at home in their costumed identities, rather than their civilian ones. It could be argued that like Batman, their nom de guerre define their personalities and their other identities are nothing more than an intermission before the next issue. Steve Chung contributes letters of comment to CBG, DC, Marvel, and has submitted the most Red K Awards in Comic Shop News for three years in a row. The Red K Awards sum up the year in comics by having readers submit their nominations for the past year in comics. For example, "The Amazing Grayson" Award was for Devin Grayson's work on Catwoman, JLA/Titans (with Phil Jiminez), Superman Adventures, Titans, and Batman Chronicles. The Award also mentioned the upcoming Black Widow mini-series for Marvel and how it would definitely be worth waiting for in '99. Little did he know how true this would be and hopes that upcoming projects such as "User" for Vertigo and "The Weinburgs" will arrive in a more timely fashion. +++++ From: Larry.Underwood@Nashville.com (Larry W. Underwood) To: ComicBkNet@aol.com Dave! Hey bud, how are you? Just wanted to mention to you thanks for forwarding the mag to my new address. Also, thanks for mentioning for people to look up my old columns. I'm gonna go back and get them all together myself and post them on my website. I may also start the column back up again, since we've begun production of a new book now. (I'm also toying with the idea of doing a strip for the online mag) I just needed to take some time off after my last son was born. anyway, as always great job on the emag take care Larry [I hope we see new columns from Larry real soon - DL] +++++ Subj: retailers From: pjhay@clara.net (p hayward) David, Retailers have been coming in for a bit of stick here recently. I would like to add a couple of things in their defence. 1. If a book is missing from an order it isn't *always* the retailers' fault. For example my copy of Timespell #3 didn't come in & I was pretty fed up because #2 & 0 didn't come in either. My retailer then showed my his order sheets with the offending book on. He'd ordered it & Diamond hadn't sent it. Even worse (for him) all his Star Wars stuff for this week was sent to another store in error & a second shipment of books was lost somewhere. This could all be Diamond U.K.'s fault & certainly wasn't his. 2. If I shop at a large supermarket chain with plenty of stock & spend about $90 equivalent a week how much discount am I likely to get? Are comics any different to baked beans or any other product when it comes to making a living? And if I shop at a smaller store with higher prices & less choice which is struggling to make a living competing with the majors- is he likely to give me a discount? Can he afford to? 3. My retailer has to order a couple on months in advance. Let's say he makes a 20% mark up on each book. That means that each book costs him 80% of sale price. That means that if he orders 5 of a book & only sells 4 he just breaks even & has to eat the other book. Is it any wonder we are seeing continually reduced shelf stocks? What's more if a customer stiffs him he quite often has to eat 3 or 4 months of the customer's orders. If he's got Wolverine or Spawn there *might* be a chance of a sale- but what about indies? We can argue all we like about their relative merits but a look at the sales charts shows their comparative popularity. Is it any wonder retailers are reluctant to take a chance? 4. Yep, lots of retailers are selling more toys these days. Selling being the key word. Something like a Star Wars toy has a longer shelf life & a higher potential profit margin. Not only that but the public are far more likely to buy a Beanie Baby than they are a comic. A retailer who doesn't adapt to today's market is not going to be around very long. Yes, I've had plenty of bad service in my 30 years collecting. But you know what? When I get home the comic is just as good as it is from a good shop. I'll take a bad shop which fulfills my comic habit over a good shop who disappears after 6 months due to too much stock any day. Thanks for your time. Paul Hayward +++++ Subj: Words & Picture Museum and Ramapo Comic Con 13 From: ALLLAL@aol.com I'm writing about two subjects dear to my heart the Words and Picture Museum and the Ramapo Comic Con. I was shocked and saddened but not altogether surprised by the upcoming closing of the Museum. Between the Museum's well known pleas for support and Eastman's slow but steady withdrawal of funding we knew W & P was struggling. But to hear of it's upcoming closing is very disheartening. It is a wonderful place where much of the visual history of comic books and strips could be studied up close. The permanent collection has a range of classic strips from Krazy Kat to Pogo; EC Masters Williamson, Wood and Davis; gorgeous Kirby two page spreads from Kamandi; and Modern Greats like Kaluta, Wrightson and Barry Windsor-Smith. My two favorite shows were the recent Richard Corben exhibit and last years wide ranging Fantagraphics show. Visit the museum often enough and you would be exposed to just about every top artist in the field past and present. Since the museum has not yet announced a closing date, hopefully it will not be closing before the fall. I urge everyone to visit W & P at least once before it's closing. It is a wonderland of the comic book arts. (Since writing this paragraph I have been informed by the museum's Phil Straub that W & P will be closing 7/16. So hurry!) I would also like to invite every comic fan to attend what will probably be the last Ramapo Comic Con. This small convention run by faculty advisors Jay Horowitz and myself, and the students past and present of Ramapo and Spring Valley High Schools has been one of the best comic conventions in the country for the past 13 years. We pride ourselves on running just about the most fan friendly convention around. $1 admission and the best access to comic creators you'll ever find. We feature between 75 and 100 creators and by looking at our guest list you'll see we have a wonderful cross section of some of the best talent in the comics field. If we may brag for a moment here is the list of our comic book guests for this year: David Spurlock, Sam Glanzman, David Roman, John Green, Jim Sherman, Heidi McDonald, Jim Salicrup, Steve Ellis, Brian Buniak, Julie Schwartz, Louis Small Jr., Neil Volkes, Irv Novick, Tim Adams, Jim Califiore, Rudy Nebres, Ramona Fradon, Mercy Van Vlack, Ken Gale, Dan Parent, Howard Simpson, Angelo Torres(t), Lida Fite, Herb Trimpe, Sara Dyer, Evan Dorkin, Dennis O'Neill, Stephen Blue, Jim Workman, Lee Weeks(t), Tom Grindberg, Dave Hunt, Kim DeMulder, Murphy Anderson, Al Williamson, Mark Schultz, Comic Book Profile, Words & Picture Museum, Comic Book Legel Defense Fund, Friends of Lulu, Louise Simonson(t), Walt Simonson(t), Jack C. Harris, Mike James, Luke McDonnell, Kurt Schaffenberger, Howard Bender, Joe Staton, Charles Barnett III, Joe Giella, Jamal Igle, Dan Reed, Scott Roberts, Dick Ayers, Jay Disbrow, Paty Cockrum, Dave Cockrum, Leah Adizio, Don McGregor, Mark McKenna, Tom Smith, Bob Smith, Grey Morrow, Bruce Canwell, Bob Almond, and Fred Hembeck. And hopefully more to come. We were paid the highest compliment several years ago when Phil Seuling's daughter Gwen called the Ramapo Con the closest thing to a Seuling convention in many years. If you live in the New York-New Jersey area I urge you to attend. You can email me at ALL LAL@aol.com and if I can figure out how to do it, I will email you directions. The date of the show is Sat. 5/22/99, 10am - 4pm. The Ramapo Comic Con 13 will be held at Ramapo High School, 400 Viola Road, Spring Valley, NY 10977. Please attend. Allan Rosenberg, Co Advisor, Ramapo Comic Book Club +++++ Subj: Alley Cat preview From: mjhawkins@earthlink.net (Matt Hawkins) Greetings, On the attached URL is a special preview of the first eight lettered pages of my new series Alley Cat coming in July from Image Comics. http://www.wizardworld.com/news/image/alleypre/alleypre.html Best, Matt Hawkins +++++ Subj: Fanboy and CBLDF From: JimmyKirk Hello, David: Hope your week is going well. A little snip from racm: Subject: Re: GROO / FANBOY From: me@evanier.com (Mark Evanier) Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 00:12:25 GMT On 10 May 1999 20:28:09 GMT, jimmykirk@aol.com (JimmyKirk) posted: >I have been enjoying the FANBOY series, and hope it will be expanded in the >future. ME: So do I, so do I. >I would like to ask why there was no reference to the Comic Book Legal Defense >Fund (CBLDF) in the "Our Fanboy Goes to War" issue? ME: I thought it would turn the whole issue into more of an infomercial than it already was. In hindsight, I wish I'd slipped something in about it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Evanier's e-mail address is: me@evanier.com OFFICE: 363 S. Fairfax Ave., #303 - Los Angeles, CA 90036 +++++ Dear Paul: I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful review. I was both surprised and excited when I read it. It also came at the perfect time because it is such a battle for independents just to get noticed out there. I have had fans tell me, even though they have requested the book, their store is only going to order a few. Man, this business is rough but boy am I having fun and your review rates right up their with the best of the best. Sincerely, Eric Dean Seaton President for Arcane Comics +++++ Subj: 'Nuff Said! may be netcast this week From: menje@interport.net (menje) 'Nuff Said!, the comic book interview/talk show, May be NETCAST from 10PM-12AM on Tuesday May 18th We're still in the planning stages, but we'll be commemorating the 50th anniversary of Pacifica by talking about the comic books and comic strips of 1949, which turns out to be a pivotal year. Adventure strips were fading in the newspapers and super-heroes were fading in the comic books, being replaced by teen strips, "funny animals," and romance. Several companies went out of business and a new one started up: EC. 'Nuff Said! To see if we will indeed be streaming Real Audio, go to http://www.2600.com and click on their Live Audio feed button. And why not tune in for their Membership drive special preceding 'Nuff Said! from 7-10PM It's one of MY favorite shows on 'BAI (Ed) Soon, though, WBAI will go to streaming Real Audio 24/7 Stay tuned for that info when it happens and when our website finally goes up we'll include a link to the streaming audio. WBAI-FM, 99.5, is a 50,000 watt station broadcast from the Empire State Building. Our signal usually gets out to New Haven, CT; Westhampton, L.I.; the Poconos of Pennsylvania, Orange County, NY and Trenton & Princeton, NJ. The show covers the entire world of comics: golden age, silver age, contemporary, mainstream, independent, underground, foreign, strips and fandom. Hosted by Ken Gale (interviewer) and Ed Menje (Engineer). WBAI is a Pacifica Network station (if your local station carries any Pacifica programming (such as "Democracy Now" and Gary Null), they might be able to get 'Nuff Said! as well). WBAI is now at 120 Wall St., 10th flr, New York, NY 10005. --Ken Gale, interviewer and co-host ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [3] [TRIVIA CONTEST] **THE FIRST PLACE TO FIND THE EMAG EACH WEEK IS ON OUR HOME PAGE!** IF YOU ARE DESPERATE TO WIN THE TRIVIA, GO THERE FIRST ON FRIDAY NIGHT http://members.aol.com/ComicBkNet/emag.htm QUESTION OF THE WEEK (Prizes donated by THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT - Worcester, MA) (DC COMICS & DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS, INC.) +Submit your own trivia and win the CHEEZY PRIZE(tm) if you can stump+ +the readers! You MUST submit the correct answer with your question.+ LAST ISSUE'S QUESTION OF THE WEEK: How did Angelo Furlan's "BRUISER" gain his powers? Well, you know, it is called "trivia". I was sure at least one fan of BRUISER might bother to write in to tell us that he got his powers from "SHINE", which is toothpaste. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THIS WEEK'S TRIVIA QUESTION: What is Lois Lane's middle name? IMPORTANT RULES NOTICE The first correct answer to reach the editor wins the CHEEZY PRIZE(tm). The editor will be the sole judge as to which guess arrived first! Messages with more than one guess will be disqualified. LIMIT: ONE PRIZE PER MONTH PER PERSON! ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [4] Network Buzz News, gossip and rumors from around the industry From: omar1971@aol.com (OMAR1971) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Date: 13 May 1999 20:42:34 GMT QUANTUM & WOODY RETURN IN SEPTEMBER WITH ISSUE #32?!? Acclaim Comics is proud to announce that the world's worst super hero team "QUANTUM & WOODY" returns to monthly status this September with issue #32. But why jump to #32 and not pick up where they left off with #18? Editor Omar Banmally refuses to believe that the title had ever been cancelled. "Issue #32 is the number we'd be publishing for September 99," said Banmally, "and that's where we're picking up. So what if we're leaving out 14 issues worth of story?!" But Acclaim executives thought differently and are forcing Banmally back to regular numbering in October with issue #18. "Well, at the very least #32 will give readers a quick glimpse into Quantum & Woody's future … but, damn! Now I have to go back and get Priest and Bright to fill in the rest of those stories!" QUANTUM & WOODY's regular creative team returns to the helm with Christopher Priest as writer, M.D. Bright as penciler and Greg Adams as inker. QUANTUM & WOODY #32 is the third issue of a four-part story arc entitled Eclipse. With time running out, Quantum & Woody race to find a way to destroy Dr. Eclipse's ultimate weapon while knowing that if they succeed, destroying the weapon could also kill Eclipse – Quantum's oldest friend! QUANTUM & WOODY #32 is 32 pages and is priced at $2.50. Acclaim Comics will be appearing at both the WizardWorld Chicago show and the San Diego Comicon, and will be making announcements on other new projects in the near future. For more details or high-resolution graphics contact: Omar Banmally, Editor 516-656-2506 or Obanmally@acclaim.net Or go to http://www.acclaim.net +++++ Here is an announcement from the National Cartoonists Society web page at www.reuben.org on the Annual RUEBEN Awards: Note: Reuben Awards are given each year for cartoon work created in the previous year On Saturday, May 8, 1999 the Reuben Winners were announced. Milt Caniff - Lifetime Achievement Award Bill Gallo - Sports Cartooning Newspaper Panel Cartoons Wiley Miller Advertising and Illustrations Jack Pittman Comic Books Alex Ross Newspaper Illustration Grey Blackwell Magazine and Book Illustration Guy Gilchrist Television Animation Danny Antonucci Feature Animation Chen Yi Chang Greeting Cards Rick Stromoski Gag Cartooning Charles Barsotti Editorial Cartoons Etta Hulme Newspaper Comic Strips Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott 1998 Cartoonist Of The Year Will Eisner +++++ Warner Bros. and DC Comics Awarded $3.6 Million Judgement Against Toy Counterfeiters BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 1999--Warner Bros. and DC Comics won another big victory in their ongoing battle against merchandise counterfeiters May 6 when a U.S. Federal District Judge granted a $3.6 million judgement against CBB Group Inc. of Los Angeles. Judge Manuel Real held CBB Group and its principals, Raymond Hung and Hank Tsan, in contempt of court, after they were found to have violated two previous orders prohibiting them from engaging in the sale of counterfeit products. In a strongly worded order, Judge Real permanently enjoined CBB Group, Hung and Tsan from conducting any importation or sale of consumer retail products until it could be demonstrated to the court that they have ceased their counterfeiting activities. The defendants were also subject to a fine of $10,000 per day should they fail to comply with Judge Real's order. "We want to ensure that our consumers receive good value and quality products and are not subject to the potentially hazardous goods sold in underground markets," said Gary Simon, vice president, Legal Affairs, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. "This action demonstrates that we will not hesitate to pursue counterfeiters until they are out of the counterfeiting business, even if that means bringing them before the courts two or three times." The court found that CBB Group was operating a sophisticated, large-scale counterfeit operation in a 70,000-square-foot warehouse in downtown Los Angeles. Warner Bros. and DC Comics had previously sued the defendants in 1996, and as part of a settlement, a permanent injunction was entered. In the recent injunction, the court found that CBB violated the earlier permanent injunction and settlement agreement. Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P., is one of the leading and most-diversified licensing and retail merchandising organizations that includes a vast library of intellectual properties and the Warner Bros. Studio Stores, including wbstore.com, the company's e-commerce Web site. With more than 3,700 licensees, Warner Bros. Consumer Products licenses the rights to names, likenesses and logos for a variety of entertainment properties, categories and Warner Bros. name icons that include Looney Tunes, Batman, Superman, Scooby-Doo, Wizard of Oz, and its many films and television series. Warner Bros. Consumer Products includes Warner Bros. Studio Stores, Warner Bros. Worldwide Licensing, Worldwide Publishing, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Kids' WB! Music and WB Toys. +++++ Marvel Bankruptcy Trustee Who Sought $4.3 Mln Gets $352,000 Wilmington, Delaware, May 12 (Bloomberg) -- A retired appeals court judge who helped guide Marvel Entertainment Group through a bankruptcy reorganization greatly overvalued his services to the world's largest comic book publisher, a federal judge ruled. Trustee John J. Gibbons, the former chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is entitled to $352,000 -- not the $4.3 million in legal fees he sought for his work on the Marvel case, said U.S. District Judge Roderick McKelvie. Gibbons' bill for overseeing the struggling entertainment company's operations for nine months as part of its Chapter 11 case was unreasonable, McKelvie said. Gibbons sought the equivalent of $4,928 per hour for his time and the judge slashed that to less than one-tenth that rate -- awarding $352,000 in fees plus $16,938 in expenses. ``Gibbons has shown poor judgment in applying for compensation,'' McKelvie wrote in a 49-page decision. ``To the extent he provided services that are similar to the work he has done as a judge and now a lawyer, the market rate is $400 an hour.'' Marvel, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in 1996 amid sliding sales of its comic-book, sticker and trading-card lines, emerged from bankruptcy in October as a unit of Toy Biz Inc. Gibbons said he helped knit together the company's $238 million reorganization plan. Gibbons wasn't available for comment on whether he'd appeal McKelvie's ruling to the 3rd Circuit, the same appeals court in Philadelphia where he served. Butting Heads It's not the first time McKelvie and Gibbons have butted heads in the Marvel case. McKelvie appointed Gibbons to run Marvel in December after company officials, led by corporate raider Carl Icahn, couldn't get lenders and other creditors to agree to a reorganization plan. Icahn wrested control of Marvel away from fellow financier Ronald Perelman in 1997. McKelvie, though, refused to allow Gibbons to hire his own law firm, Newark, New Jersey's Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, as Marvel's bankruptcy lawyers because the firm had represented one of Marvel's lenders in the past. Gibbons then threatened to quit as trustee, but the 3rd Circuit overturned the judge's decision on the trustee's choice of lawyers. To justify his fee request, Gibbons argued he was an integral part of Marvel's final reorganization effort. Gibbons claimed he negotiated the sale of some of its units, brought creditors and investors together to settle pending litigation and oversaw Toy Biz's bid to buy Marvel and bring it out of bankruptcy, McKelvie noted in his opinion. The judge said Gibbons did a good job as trustee, using ``sound judgment and the energy that was necessary to protect the value of the company until the parties were able to resolve their disputes.'' But Gibbons ``got knocked around'' trying to mediate a settlement in the tangled bankruptcy case and wasn't much of a factor in the final outcome, McKelvie said. ``After six months of delays, the lawyers, principals and a finance professor were able to work it out pretty much without him and, in some ways, despite him,'' the judge said. Marvel, which owns the rights to comic book favorites like Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, has focused on creating tie- ins for its characters on TV, the Internet and in amusement parks as part of its new business strategy. Universal's new Islands of Adventures theme part in Florida has a much-touted ride based on Spider-Man, for example. Shares of New York-based Marvel rose 1/16 to 9 1/16. May/12/ 99 20:20 +++++ ''Superman'' Reeve denies reports he can walk LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - ``Superman'' star Christopher Reeve, paralyzed from the neck down after a riding accident four years ago, Thursday denied reports that he could walk again unaided. Film footage of the 46-year-old movie actor broadcast on U.S. television this week showed Reeve standing on a treadmill apparently moving his legs -- but with the help of assistants. The actor, famed for his movie role as the comic book hero, said in a statement that the film showed him taking part in cutting-edge therapy in California and New York and created a false impression that he had taken his first steps. ``Recent reports in the media have either stated or created the impression that I am now able to walk. Unfortunately this is not the case. I am completely paralyzed from the rib cage down,'' Reeve said in a statement. When the video, shot by a local cable television station in southern California, was distributed nationally and edited, the brief clips apparently cast a mistaken impression that Reeve was ambulatory again. Reeve, who has vowed to walk again, said he was taking part in a research program aimed at paving the way for the regeneration of nerve functions in paralyzed people. ``Wearing a parachute harness and suspended by overhead cables, I stand on a treadmill. When it is put into motion, energy and memory which remain in the spinal cord allow me to walk at speeds of up to four miles per hour,'' he said. A spokeswoman for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation said the therapy was part of a year-old research project aimed at testing information stored in the brain and spinal cords of paralyzed patients. Reeve has taken part in two sessions at the University of California Los Angeles and had undergone similar therapy in New York, she said. The program is not yet publicly available. Since being confined to a wheelchair, Reeve has written his autobiography, directed a film for cable television and starred in a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller ``Rear Window.'' +++++ Kyoto college plans to open 'manga' department Kyodo News Service TOKYO, May 14 (Kyodo) -- Kyoto Seika University has applied to the Education Ministry for permission to open Japan's first college department specializing in the study of Japanese illustrated comics, known as ''manga,'' in the 2000 academic year beginning in April 2000, the ministry said Friday. The private institution in Kyoto plans to open a manga department in its school of art and offer a broad study program on comics, animation and their history, ministry officials said. A total of 52 colleges and universities have submitted applications to start new departments in April 2000. The ministry also received applications to launch six new colleges, all public, in April 2000. The ministry referred the applications Friday to an advisory body for advice. The council is expected to present its recommendations to the education minister by December. The officials said many of the applications for new departments were those for training care workers and nurses, reflecting Japan's quickly graying society. +++++ Ultimate Sports Entertainment Secures Unique Licensing Agreement From Major League Baseball Players Association LOS ANGELES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 14, 1999--Ultimate Sports Entertainment Inc. (OTC BB:ULSP) announced Friday it has secured a "unique" licensing agreement from the Major League Baseball Players Association to market a series of comic books turning Baseball superstars into superheroes. "This unique licensing agreement presents a great opportunity for us and the MLBPA," said Rick Licht, President of Ultimate Sports Entertainment, Inc. "We feel our comic books starring the likes of Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr. and so many other great baseball players will not only be great for comic book fans but will appeal to sports fans of all ages." Terms of the deal call for a one-year licensing agreement with an option for two more years. Licht calls the deal unique since Ultimate Sports is the only company to have this license specifically for comic book publishing. Currently, four titles are set for release starring some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball; Cosmic Slam, The Shortstop Squad, Super Sluggers and The Fastball Express. Each title will include artwork and story lines from some of the biggest names in the Comic Book Industry like Bernard Chang, known for his work with DC Comic's Superman. The athletes will be given super powers like x-ray vision, super human strength and blazing speed. According to the MLB Players Association official web site, www.bigleaguers.com, the MLB Players Association is the strongest, most successful labor organization in sports. Since 1968, the association has not only determined the contractual terms and conditions of more than 700 big league ball players but they have charitable causes as well. Through the Players Trust for Children, the association supplements the wide range of charitable causes to which nearly every player individually contributes time, money and effort. Ultimate Sports Entertainment Inc., based in Los Angeles, is an entertainment company with operations in licensing and comic book publishing. The company is also in the process of developing ancillary marketing opportunities, including the merchandising of action figures, video games, Internet ventures and film and television projects. Forward Looking Statements: Statements contained in this press release, which are not historical facts, are froward looking statements. Such forward looking statements are necessary estimates reflecting the best judgement of the party making such statements based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release or in light of those factors can guarantee no accuracy of such forward-looking statements. CONTACT: Noble House of Boston, Casselberry, Fla. Rob Karbowsky, 888/217-2553 www.noblehouseofboston.com +++++ From Newsarama; http://www.AnotherUniverse.com/newsarama WINNER OF THE 1997 & 1998 INTERNET "SQUIDDY" FOR BEST WEB SITE Oni will release the sequel to the WHITEOUT series in September. WHITEOUT: MELT is a 4 issue mini from Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber. Oni also revealed that Lily Sharpe, the British intelligence agent from the first series, will return in her own series early next year. Dark Horse is negotiating for the comics book rights to the 30th Anniversary re-release of the Beatles film YELLOW SUBMARINE. - Your Weekly Wildstorm/Cliffhanger shippingg schedule update: Battle Chasers #6 has been pushed back to 6/9, Crimson #11 to 6/16, Crimson #12 to 7/14 and Divine Right #10 to 6/16. This week Marvel's official online column YourMan@Marvel briefly mentioned an upcoming crossover storyline called "The Eighth Day," Readers looking forward to Batman: Dark Victory, the much anticipated 13-part follow up to Jeph Loeb's and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween, will get an early extra "Halloween Treat" this summer. A full four months before the series officially kicks off in October, a special Batman: Dark Victory #0 issue, featuring a brand new original story by Loeb and Sale bridging the 2 maxi-series, will be offered polybagged with the June issue of Wizard Magazine (#95). According to this week's Marvel email newsletter, editor Ruben Diaz is currently exploring the possibility of a new "magic" or "supernatural" line of titles for premiere this fall. +++++ From Zentertainment; HTTP://WWW.ZENTERTAINMENT.COM To sign a friend up or begin receiving ZEN yourself, e-mail SeanJordan@aol.com and say SUBSCRIBE. COMIC SHOP NEWS reports WILDSTORM has acquired the comic book rights to the USA Network's LA FEMME NIKITA series. http://www.csnsider.com http://www.wildstorm.com COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE reports Alan Moore will write a 3-issue mini-series for WILDSTORM introducing a new, female Deathblow. The series will premiere in September, with Jim Baikie on pencils. The article also confirmed Moore will be writing a sequel to THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, and that talks are already underway for him to extend his contract with AMERICA'S BEST COMICS beyond the first 12 issues of each of each series that he's committed to. ACCLAIM have announced they'll release TUROK: RAGE WARS for the N64 in the fall, and ARMORINES: PROJECT S.W.A.R.M. for the NINTENDO 64 and SONY PLAYSTATION soon after. RAGE WARS is a souped-up update on the TUROK 2 engine, with an emphasis on multiplayer gaming for up to four people, and an all-new mission-based adventure. The sequel also features smarter AI, weapons with secondary fire functions, a training mode, and a number of new characters, including Adon, the Oblivion Deathguard, the Campaigner, and Lord of the Dead. ARMORINES is a first-person shooter based on the original ACCLAIM Comics series, where players take charge of an elite Marine brigade to save the Earth from an invading swarm of alien insects. "ARMORINES is the next generation of first-person action games," says ACCLAIM Vice President of Marketing Steve Lux, "An intense mixture of exciting new characters, more enemies to battle than ever before, frenetic action and challenging missions sets the stage for the launch of a new ACCLAIM franchise." ARMORINES will allow up to four players to team-up in a cooperative multiplayer mode, and it will support both the RAM Expansion Pak and RUMBLE Pak. Additionally, ACCLAIM has updated their website with story and character information on the game, screenshots, QUICKTIME videos, comic art, and news updates for the game, and a 4-issue comic miniseries is scheduled to coincide with the release. http://www.acclaim.net Sir Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters, Richard III) has officially signed on to play Magneto in FOX's feature film based on MARVEL Comics' X-MEN. McKellen will reunite with APT PUPIL director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) for the summer 2000 release. http://www.foxmovies.com http://www.marvel.com According to The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's THR E-MAIL column, UNIVERSAL has brought on screenwriter Michael France (GoldenEye, Fantastic Four) to re-write a feature film that would be based on MARVEL Comics' HULK. INFINITE VENTURES has premiered its RAVEN comic at the SHADOWGATE website, starring the red-headed heroine of the upcoming computer and video game SHADOWGATE RISING, along with other characters from the SHADOWGATE video game franchise. "Comics have always been a major influence on video games, many successful games have been based on comic characters," said INFINITE VENTURES' Eugene Evans. "Comics are the perfect media to get video game fans interested in SHADOWGATE and the web is proving to be the perfect medium for the launch of the new comic and look for SHADOWGATE. We will go to print and traditional distribution later this year. The web gives us an efficient means of generating buzz and a following for the comic." http://www.shadowgate.com +++++ From the DCOnline newsletter; http://www.dccomics.com/newsletter.html To subscribe, or for questions or comments about the DC newsletter, please email DCWebSite@aol.com. THE ORIGINAL SUPER-HERO TEAM IS REBORN IN JSA #1 With appearances in "The Justice Society Returns!" and a recent teaming with the JLA, readers have became reacquainted with the Original Super-Hero Team -- the Justice Society of America. Now a new team rises up to continue one of comics' greatest legacies in the long-hoped-for ongoing JSA series. The adventures of this decidedly modern super-team come from writers James Robinson and David S. Goyer (STARMAN, "The Justice Society Returns!"), with art by the team of Stephen Sadowski and Michael Bair (SMASH COMICS) and exciting covers from the fan-favorite team of Alan Davis and Mark Farmer (JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: THE NAIL). The new JSA is a surprising group made up of the modern versions of Starman and Hourman, the new Star Spangled Kid (introduced in STARS AND S.T.R.I.P.E. #0), BIRDS OF PREY's Black Canary, ATOM SMASHER (the former Nuklon), and two all-new characters: the new Hawkgirl -- whose connection to the Hawkman legacy will surprise even her -- and Sand, whose link to the Golden Age Sandman is not what you'd expect. With JSA veterans Wildcat, Sentinel and Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick there to advise them, the new team seamlessly blends the best of comics past and present to set a heroic standard for the future. In JSA #1, Part 1 of the 4-part "Vengeful Incarnations," the team gathers at the funeral of a member of the original Justice Society and quickly discovers that the champion being buried was murdered -- murdered because he uncovered crucial knowledge concerning the impending birth of a new Dr. Fate. There are dark forces at work, forces that have plans of their own for Fate's sorcerous powers. One hero has already died because of their insidious plot, but will there be more JSA deaths before the first adventure is over? Who is the mysterious Dark Lord? And who will become Dr. Fate? In the coming months, the new JSA will witness the new Dr. Fate's birth which returns the character to its roots with a surprise twist. Then, after hunting down the villainous Extant for the murder of several original JSAers at the end of ZERO HOUR, a former hero becomes one of the new team's deadliest foes in a battle that can only be won with the help of the new Doctor Mid-Nite. Other hints of the team's tumultuous future can be found in JSA Secret Files #1, a one- shot revealing many of the new team's secrets one week before JSA #1 hits the shelves. JSA is an ongoing series edited by Peter Tomasi. Issue #1 arrives in comic-book stores June 23 with a cover price of $2.50. JSA Secret Files #1 is a 64-page one-shot (with ads) co-edited by Tony Bedard and Maureen McTigue. It arrives in comic-book stores June 16 with a cover price of $4.95. ALEX ROSS WINS REUBEN AWARD FOR SUPERMAN: PEACE ON EARTH The prestigious Reuben Awards, issued by the National Cartoonists Society, were given out this past Saturday, May 8th, at the Alamo Plaza Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, and artist Alex Ross took home the award for Best in the Comic Book Division for his much-lauded collaboration with writer Paul Dini, SUPERMAN: PEACE ON EARTH. Charles Kochman, NCS associate member and editor of SUPERMAN: PEACE ON EARTH, accepted the award on behalf of Ross, which was presented by comics legends Will Eisner. DC RECEIVES THREE 1998 STOKER AWARD NOMINATIONS The nominations for the annual Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, presented by the Horror Writers of America, have been announced, and in the category of Comic Book/Graphic Novel/Illustrated Narrative, DC Comics-published work took three out of the four nominations: PREACHER (written by Garth Ennis), HELLBLAZER #129-133 ("The Son of Man", written by Garth Ennis), and THE DREAMING: TRIAL AND ERROR (written by Len Wein). The winners of the Stokers will be announced at the HWA's Stoker Weekend in Los Angeles in June. SUPERMAN: PEACE ON EARTH LITHOGRAPH DEBUT CORRECTION The phone number to RSVP for the Alex Ross and Paul Dini appearance at the Warner Bros. Studio Store at 1 East 57th Street in New York City on June 10 marking the debut of the limited edition lithograph for SUPERMAN PEACE ON EARTH is 212-754-0300, ext. 3050, not the previously reported 1-877- BUGS-BUNNY. ANIMATION EPISODE SCHEDULE THE NEW BATMAN/SUPERMAN ADVENTURES airs weekdays and Saturdays on the WB Network, and BATMAN BEYOND airs Saturdays. Times given are Eastern and Pacific. This schedule is subject to change. 5/17/99 (4:00 pm) -- "Warrior Queen" (Superman) 5/17/99 (4:30 pm) -- "Girls' Nite Out" (Batman) 5/18/98 (4:00 pm) -- "Time Out of Joint" (Batman) 5/18/99 (4:30 pm) -- "Prototype" (Superman) 5/19/99 (4:00 pm) -- "A Little Peace of Home" (Superman) 5/19/99 (4:30 pm) -- "Harley's Holiday" (Batman) 5/20/99 (4:00 pm) -- "Showdown" (Batman) 5/20/99 (4:30 pm) -- "Brave New Metropolis" (Superman) 5/21/99 (4:00 pm) -- "Mxyzpixilated" (Superman) 5/21/99 (4:30 pm) -- "The Lion & The Unicorn" (Batman) 5/22/99 (8:00 am) -- "Little Big Head Man" (Superman) 5/22/99 (8:30 am) -- "Beware the Creeper" (Batman) 5/22/99 (9:30 am) -- "Ascension" (Batman Beyond -- NEW) ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [5] Ramblings 99 Rich Johnston twisting@hotmail.com [Renamed for the new year, Ramblings 99 continues to spread confirmed and unconfirmed news and rumours. It welcomes comment, especially comment that clarifies, refutes and corrects information already disseminated. Rich Johnston is an advertising copywriter, co-self publisher of Twist And Shout Comics, BBC comedy writer and comics columnist. He currently lives in South London, England. His column can be found online at: http://www.twistandshoutcomics.com All Ramblings e-mail received will be considered public domain and may be quoted.] This column is RUMOUR. Do not take anything here seriously. These RUMOURS are presented here as GOSSIP for their ENTERTAINMENT value. Dateline: 12 May 1999 Do Your Bit. A Kosovo Crisis Appeal comic book is being published a small British publisher and comic shop, Blue Silver. Best known for their 'Tales Of Midnight' book, this special edition will be used exclusively to raise funds for the Kosovo Refugee fund. Organiser Francis Lee, is preparing an anthology of short stories and pin ups by a number of great comic book writers and artists. Names like Garth Ennis, Roger Dean Chris Acheilleos, and Bryan Talbot have been confirmed and even I've been asked to do a story. Other high-profile British and American creators have expressed interest, but many more people will be needed. The publication will be printing pieces that deal with the concept of being a refugee rather than dealing with the Kosovo situation directly, intending to show just what being a refugee can mean in differing circumstances. Blue Silver's characters from Tales From Midnight will appear in the publication no doubt, but hopefully this won't be another Heroes For Hope, Against Hunger, or generally people in spandex mixing it up in Kosovo. Lee is going for a big media push with this one and the articles have started to appear across the national press. The book will be launched at Galaxion 99, set to be Europe's biggest sci-fi convention, in London Olympia. Now, I know that a number of comics pros read this column, some for entertainment, some to see if I'm saying anything about them. Well, consider this payback time. If you are involved in the comics industry, are a high level creator, work with such creators, sell comics, distribute comics, whatever, and can offer help, contact Francis Lee on info@bluesilver.com or call on 0181 840 9446 in the UK and 011441818409446 from the USA. Do it now. Ramblings will continue to update this story as it progresses. More Bludgeoning. Have you asked your comic shop owner to order you a copy of Petra Et cetera 1 from Gratuitous Bunny Comix yet? It's in the latest Previews, given a Cool Cat, but horribly hidden in a bunch of old reprint comic covers so it's hard to find. You owe it to yourself to order this comic. It's a sensation. Probably the best British comic currently being published. So order it. ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [6] Tony's Isabella's Journal Tony Isabella tonyisa@ohio.net Tony Isabella is a featured weekly columnist in the nation's largest comic book collector's publication, Comics Buyer's Guide. His satiric "Tony's Tips!" is a favorite among fans and industry professionals alike. A life long comic book fan, Tony began his career in 1972 as a comics professional as assistant to Stan Lee! He has worked in nearly every aspect of the business, from retailing, to distribution to writing. Among his credits is the creation of DC's first black super-hero, Black Lightning. Tony's latest project, the daily "Tony's Isabella's Journal" made its debut in June of 1997 on the world wide web exclusively through World Famous Comics, at http://www.wfcomics.com/tony The following is one of those daily columns . . . Tony Isabella's Journal #679 It's Sunday and that means it's time for another recent "Tony's Tips!" reprint from COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, the newspaper of the comics industry. Today's column comes from CBG #1326 [April 16]. It's followed by a new "Tony's Mailbox" feature. ****** TONY'S TIPS! "The first battle in the invasion of Earth will be fought in the shadows." --THE SHADOW WAR OF HAWKMAN #1 (May, 1985) CBG's "March of Comics" concludes this week with a look at the 1980s. For me, though I also worked on titles like JUSTICE MACHINE and STAR TREK during that decade, I've always thought of the 1980s as my Hawkman decade. From 1985 through 1987, I worked on fifteen issues of one Hawkman series or another. Only my combined runs on BLACK LIGHTNING beat that with nineteen stories, twenty if I count the one that was never published. I lucked into working on Hawkman. Dick Giordano, who was then DC's "Big Man in Editorial," and I were talking about my doing some writing for the company once again. I'm recall us talking briefly about Black Lightning and the Creeper, but the former was appearing in BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS and the latter was being developed by another writer. Dick suggested either Hawkman or the Red Tornado. I had ideas for both, but my Red Tornado concept (single super-hero with child) seemed a little quiet to us. Guess which writer hadn't yet discovered LONE WOLF AND CUB? We agreed on a Hawkman mini-series, contingent, of course, on my actually coming up with a good concept for one. I dived into my research, which was as much pleasure as it was work. Comics didn't come much better than those "Silver Age" Hawkman stories by writer Gardner Fox, artists Joe Kubert and Murphy Anderson, editor Julius Schwartz, and some other talents along the way. Two things drove THE SHADOW WAR OF HAWKMAN mini-series. The first was my realization that the Absorbascon, that amazing device which Hawkman and Hawkwoman used to learn all earthly knowledge, was, in the wrong hands, a weapon. It allowed Thanagarians to read electronic impulses from human and other minds. There could be no secrets from a Thanagarian using the device...and no earthly army could ever defeat an enemy that knew its every thought. The second driving force was the darkening of Thanagar itself in more recent stories by Elliot S! Maggin, Jack C. Harris, and Bob Rozakis. An "equalizing plague" had reduced the people of Thanagar to nigh-identical drones. Worse, the Thanagarians had surrendered what little will they still had to the dictator Hyathis. The Hawks had escaped this sad fate, but were outcasts from their home world. In effect, they were exiles on Earth. I had my concept. Thanagar would invade Earth--secretly--and the Hawks would be only heroes who would--or could--know about it. Since the Absorbascon could read the minds of any allies they might enlist--save those of other Thanagarians--they would have no choice but to battle them in secret. In fact, my original title for this mini-series was THE SECRET WAR OF HAWKMAN. Unfortunately, Marvel Comics got there first. I also had an artist. Richard Howell, who had done a terrific job on a short Moon Knight story I'd written, sent me a few pages of Hawkman samples. I sent the pages on to DC with my request that Howell be hired to pencil the mini-series. It was one of the best suggestions I ever made. Howell excelled at drawing faces. No matter what the emotion, he could give it to me in the artwork. He could also draw action and suspense. Those were the three keys to what I wanted to do in the Hawkman series...write exciting and suspenseful stories about characters as real as we could make them. And, just to make my Hawkman experience even better, I lucked out again...this time with Alan Gold, one of the finest and most supportive editors of my career. Gold came to DC--twice--from book publishing. If the company didn't appreciate him, the freelancers who worked with him certainly did. If he had stayed around longer the first time, I would have written more issues of HAWKMAN. If he had stayed around longer the second time, I would have written more STAR TREK stories for him. If he ever gives DC a third chance, I'd jump at the chance to work with him again. By the time I sat down to plot THE SHADOW WAR OF HAWKMAN #1, I had already figured out who Katar Hol and Shayera Thal were, how they felt about things, and how they spoke. The latter was pretty simple; they had the slightly tweaked speech patterns of myself and my Sainted Wife Barbara. I gave Hawkman my own fear of what would happen if Thanagarian science were misused; he was starting to have grave doubts about his own use of the Absorbascon. The younger Hawkwoman embraced its use. Such differences, coupled with their love and respect for one another, allowed the Hawks to achieve a more complete response to the perils they would be facing. In deciding who the Hawks were, I did have to make a couple of adjustments. Reviewing my stories in CBG, the kindly Don Thompson wrote: "The mini-series will make some big changes in the Hawks, but all the changes and everything that happens are built on things already established in previous Hawkman stories." While that was mostly true, I did toss a handful of previous Hawkman stories out of continuity. There was a brief run of issues not edited by Schwartz that made no sense when held up to earlier and later issues. There were three stories in non-Hawkman titles that directly or indirectly contradicted facts established in the Schwartz-edited issues. And there was some Teen Titans hanger-on named the Golden Eagle whom I hated and ignored completely. As I wrote in a letters column, "if he [the Eagle] ever really had any Thanagarian gear, he doesn't have it now and he'll never have it again." I confess I was inordinately proud of something I added to the Hawkman mythos, though it was based on evidence from the Schwartz issues. It also explained why Shayera was called Hawkgirl for way to many years. In the same letters column, I wrote: "Here's how we figure it...Thanagarians have a life span at least three times as long as us Earth-types. Think about it. Katar Hol is a young man when (as shown in the flashback sequences of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #43) his father first develops the anti- gravity system Hawkman uses to this day. At the time of this sequence, Thanagar has no police force, planetary government, or spaceships. They have ALL these things when a still-young Katar and Shayera leave for Earth. Katar himself has become his world's most-honored police officer. Since it's unlikely such incredible progress could come about in just a few years, we concluded that our hero is something close to one hundred Earth-years old. That's about thirty in Thanagarian years. He married Shayera when she was still in her teens, again in Thanagarian years. So that's why Hawkwoman was called "Hawkgirl" all those years. That's also why we at DC weren't really the male chauvinists you thought we were back then. Are we slick or what?" Howell added some visual adjustments as well. Pointing out that Joe Tracy, a formerly minor supporting character who would be playing a larger role in our stories, looked very much like Tubby Watts, Johnny Quick's Golden Age sidekick, Howell sent Tracy to a fat farm and slimmed him down by seventy pounds or so. If my pal Richard ever tires of editing, writing, and drawing such wonderful Claypool Comics titles as DEADBEATS, ELVIRA, and SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY, he could be the next Jenny Craig. When I first decided to write about Hawkman this week, I had intended to present all sorts of hopefully interesting trivia about my stories and let you know what I had intended for the characters had I continued to chronicle their adventures. I abandoned that plan when I realized that such a column would leave approximately half-a-page for CBG's other contributors. As much as Peter, Mark, and Fred could probably use the rest, that just didn't seem fair to their fans. Heart as big as a planet, that's me. Not to fret. You have only to express your interest and we can revisit my Hawkman tenure in future issues of CBG. If you own those comics already, you can reread them and play along with us. If you don't own those comics, you can track them down--they were woefully underpriced the last time I checked--read them and then play along with us. Your call, my friends. In the meantime, let me tip you off to an extra bit of fun I had with most of the Thanagarian names I created for those stories. If you shuffle the letters of the name of Thanagarian soldier RAB MEKIR, you can spell...Mike Barr. Barr, of course, is one of the very best writers to ever grace DC's comics--let's mention BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON and CAMELOT 3000, to name but two of his many past triumphs--and a good friend of mine. So, naturally, I had him come to a bad end in one of my stories. Friendship is friendship, but jealousy must be served. Fiddle with other Thanagarian names and you'll find other Isabella chums therein. This ends my "March of Comics" columns. I'll return next week with some amusing odds and ends for you. ****** TONY'S MAILBOX I sent RICHARD HOWELL an advance copy of the above column and he responded with this: Very nostalgic to revisit those days of HAWKMAN. Thanks for the nice words about my contributions. A few notes: I remember Mark Evanier having something to do with one or both of us getting into the competition for this assignment; I don't recall exactly what he had to do with it, but I'm sure he remembers. Second: just about the only refinements I did on either of the Hawks' visuals (that weren't "Kubert did it this way; Kubert had their leggings solid blacks; Kubert shod them in floppy sock-boots) were hair-related; both Carter and Shiera got luxurious, curly perms and Kirby-style "alien" eyebrows. Mark Evanier has something to do with everything. I figured that was common knowledge. I'll be back tomorrow with more stuff. Tony Isabella April 17, 1999 ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [7] COMICS REALITY, Part 12, May 1999 Robert L. Beerbohm beerbohm@teknetwork.com [Editor's Note: Robert Beerbohm has been selling comic books for over 30 years. He has been a student of the art form since 1956. In 1972, along with Bud Plant and John Barrett, he helped found the first comic book store chain operation in the country. He not only lived through the development of the Direct Sales Market, he helped shape it. More recently, he has devoted thousands of hours to primary research in preparation for his soon-to-be-published book, COMIC BOOK STORE WARS, a 600-page history of 100 years of the comics business. He welcomes feedback and is happy to learn of any errors or omissions.] "UNDERSTANDING COMICS" A few questions were recently posed to me recently by well intentioned comics readers to which I would like to respond as "spring boards" to this new installment of CR after a longish hiatus. I will try to venture into CBEM more frequently, time permitting. I invite YOUR questions and comments on the thoughts contained herein: }QUESTION: With CBG weekly for years now, WIZARD garnering a certain segment, e-zines like CBEM weekly with "news" a couple weeks ahead of CBG, Pavlovian gratification on a list like this one, where is the room left for CJ to maintain itself like it used to? }ONE FAN OPINED: The Comics Journal is especially good in two things: interviews and background articles. While things like Marvel buying Heroes World or DC taking over Wildstorm may have been reported online first, the Journal reported more in depth about them. That's the niche in which the journal thrives. RB: Thanks for seeing one of my points re parts of background energy leading up to how to maybe regrow comics fandom as a more viable force. CJ has published many wonderful issues - even recently. I should mention that Eric Reynolds at FBI as PR guy was a right move. Tom Spurgeon's recent run on the zine brought a certain, oh, I hesitate to ponder what would be the right word to describe what I read as it would have to be the correct word of praise because of the two basic political foo-pahs Gary decided to run with years ago now concerning Carol Kalish and Will Eisner which tended to erode the good will generated from the Fleischer affair's outcome, Siegel & Shuster's little war with DC, the fight to regain Jack Kirby his artwork [a paltry 2,000 pages recovered or so out of 22,000 done for Marvel and some other high profile] up in your face fights. I was buying Kirby at shows for $5 a page beginning in 1969. Good stuff too. A lot of us were, there were many legends created that all that artwork was all thrown away because no body cared. We didn't really know what the deal was till Joe Brancatelli in INSIDE COMICS, then COMICS JOURNAL with Gary as the most public of FBI's spokes people for a long time cast the light onto the inequities, showed us the way thereby created a lot of enemies in the process. Course, nobody listened to the other side of the coin or knew who they were who were keeping a lot of creators down under their thumbs for so long until the first comicons sprang up in first in Detroit (1964) , New York (1964) , Houston (1966) , Chicago (1966) , Dallas (1967) , Oklahoma City (1970), Phoenix (1970), others I forget off the top of my head now. By 1972 a nine show weekly circuit had built itself up for us travelling (hoo boy, we were so young back then) comic book dealers [pushing old comics and San Francisco based "underground comix", or UGs, as we all called them then] which saw the first San Diego convention at the El Cortez Hotel. I was at all of them. Richard Kyle of Graphic Fantasy Bookshop showed us all the way of the future with his Graphic Story Magazine he issued for many issues with the able help of Fred Patten and Tony Riola of the Pacific Comics Club, Futuroplis of Paris and Real Free Press supplied us with lots of incredible Euro-albums like those Swarte covered Krazy Kats, BUF, Skippy, etc, Moebious & Drulliet hardcovers and then Metal Hurlant beginning with #1. But we read about them first in GSW. Along with Malcom Willits and Leonard Brown's Collector's Bookstore in Hollywood, we patterned our merchandise mix at Comics & Comix after Kyle's Long Beach based Graphic Story Bookshop. A few weeks after that El Cortez San Diego finale' in 1972 and watching comic book fans even getting insulted by purist SF fans a couple weeks after that at the Los Angeles World Science Fiction Convention, I threw my lot in with Bud Plant and John Barrett to open the first of quite a few comic book stores throughout the Bay Area boundaries of San Jose, Sacramento, Santa Rosa and San Francisco. Each one opened up "new" territory as we slowly swung the pendulum back from where it had been. As long as Ron Turner would reprint it, for a long time I voiced the virtues of Binky Brown by the incredible Justin Greene as the best comic book on the market as well as Frank Stack's Jesus "funny" books, and that's just that: Foolbert Sturgeon's books were funny. Sheridan & Schier were "deep" riding the Overland Vegetable Stage Coach; the Air Pirates of O'Neill, Hallgren, London, Flenniken, Richards, and Gary King (the last,almost forgotten AP) wandered in representing Sterrett, Segar, Herriman, Frank King, Disney (ah, Disney...), Fleischer Brothers, Hamlin, Tuthill, and other past greats. In the mix were also the likes of Crumb, Griffin, Wilson,Moscoso, Spain, Shelton, Williams, Deitch brothers, Metzger, Bode, Pekar, etc etc etc and the legendary Gary Arlington. From afar Corben began appearing as early 1969 in Weirdom & Voice of Comicdom plus his own self published Fantagor right when Denis Kitchen formed Krupp Comic Worlds with Jim Mitchell who spent time in a Mexico hoose-gow "on vacation" in a prison cell in Mexico City's infamous "El Palacio Negro" prison from October of 1973 until December of 1976." As the comics market shrunk thru the early 70s, in April of 1973 we planted the first UG comix show on the Berkeley campus as a teaching tool to create customers. We figured "smart" people would make great comics reading people. We were right. Half a block away from People's Park, two blocks from the BofA burned to the ground a few years earlier. I got to be good friends on Telegraph to long time book seller Moe Moskowitz who funded the initial ZAP COMICS printings from both Don Donahue and Print Mint - all the printings thru into 1970. He made all his investment back. Print Mint went on to sell 5 million comic books by 1972 when the Supreme Court local ordinance laws came down the pike. There was much for CJ to sink its teeth into as the direct sales market was birthing as the comic book industry began extricating itself from the "affidavit returns fraud" ID distributors. The fraud was rampant and DC & Marvel plugged themselves into that what had been born by the UGs and took over the system with Phil Seuling showing them how. Krause, with its acquisition of Light's weekly comics venue on the other hand, went after the corporate dollar and that policy governed by its advertising revenue dictated what ultimately was allowed into it pages. That is the difference in a nut shell. }FAN ONE: I went to a comic book store recently and bought a small (very small) pile of comic books to check things out and the sticker shock of $65 took out all the enjoyment I thought I was going to have to the point all I remember reading is Aragones, Evanier, & crew's FANBOY. }FAN TWO: Maybe i'm more used to paying higher prices for my weekly fix, but i really don't think prices are all that high, especially now that i have a regular income. RB: Oh, I've spent more on that on comics in one shot before. The most in one single shot was $18K for 80,000 books but that was when I headed a company with a million comic books in a warehouse in Emeryville Calif plus other scads of other related stuff - all wiped out by flooding in 1986. Best of Two Worlds was one of the major forces in the Bay Area, controlling the "faucet" of any given comic book by shear virtue of every shop was buying wholesale from the wholesale division I dubbed "Common Ground." Prices were kept low on good stuff, only rising when "regional scarcity" was a comics reality and they had to be imported from another part of the country. The wholesale store/convention seller and then the retail customer paid the incoming freight and prices would rise. I even imported Hindu comic books from India; had an exclusive on WARRIOR for the first 8 issues cuz the competition took themselves that long to pick up on its performance; got into Manga in the 70s. Asterix & Tin Tin (even Latin numbers on occasion) we were always upping the orders and running out, Akira & Lone Wolf & Cub in the original Japanese long before First or Marvel picked up on their respective Manga lines. The late 80s saw a near total abandonment of "new, younger" blood by the short term carpet baggers. Some got quite wealthy due to the hype which saw the numbers of a few books rise dramatically, which in turn further fueled the flames. It's 1957 again, its 1968 again, its 1972 again, its 1978 again, its 1986 again, now we are in a slump which has been the longest the industry has ever seen. The jury is still out. I was just talking with Neal Adams again recently doing further research for my comics business history book and we discussed distribution and how it works. Highlights of that conversation with Mr Adams and others who were "there" are going into a 22,000 word essay on "affidavit return fraud" leading up to the mid 70s. This essay on "affidavit returns fraud" will be in the next Comic Book Artist #5, supposed to be out in June. Lots of UG history as well. More origin of the direct sales market. Quotes from Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Paul Levitz, Mike Gold, Jay Lynch, Steve Gerber, others. It all ties in together. From the same publisher as The Jack Kirby Collector, TwoMorrow Press, who is also providing the platform for Roy Thomas to revive ALTER EGO as a separate venue for discussions of comics history. This essay in CBA #5 explains some things to Carmine Infantino. It ultimately traces the concept from the 1930s up, how it grew, why the NYC code comics publishers were helpless against it, the concept that that system is still actually in place today, just with a very low profile. I urge very one of you to order a copy of COMIC BOOK ARTIST #5 through your friendly neighborhood comic book store. The comic book sales system is not going to rebuild anything by relying on the DM stores. It had a chance, several, it blew it, humpty dumpty. }I rarely pickup an issue now and when I do its read in less than 10 minutes. Page count last issue I looked at was less than 60 pages. }QUESTION: You're right. 60 pages with cover is the size of the one I have handy. It seems to me that a large part of the "problem" with a thinner CBG (in all sense of the word) is the same as with TCJ. Do we blame this just on bad editorial staff, or on a shrunken comics market? RB: Both, I would say, speaking as someone who got #1 in the mail circa 1970 and began to place steady ads with #3 too many moons ago. It was monthly then. The Buyer's Guide for Comics Fandom (TBG) began specifically as a tool to bring sellers & buyers together for exchanging old comics & elated material via cash or trade transactions. It wasn't for at least a decade after its inception that "new" comics publishers began placing ads. That has taken it over as the main reason of its existence now. Kind of like the Star Trek conventions who hustled all the comic book dealers to buy tables at their shows back in the late 70s and early 80s. Oil & water don't mix either. I have a lot of customers who no longer even look inside CBG these days. No reason to. There is almost zero content for them, though CBG has ben trying desperately to lure people like me back recently. I did pick up a couple recent issues just to get the John Broome SD Comicon panel transcriptions. I doubt CBG has ever mentioned Hugo Pratt, or Manara, or a host of other great comics which should get coverage considering CBG's advertising staff told me on good authority that the average readership age is around 35 years old. CBG has a page flow formula which makes it read like MAD magazine back in the 80s. You almost know exactly which page to turn to blindfolded to certain things. TCJ long ago took another tack, converted to a magazine with longer features, as the "ad wars" of the 70s burned out Gary Groth, Mike Catron and later Kim Thompson. Sure the comics market has shrunk. Most print media continues to shrink. All this formal comics theory approach to trying to maintain an adult comics market wiped out a generation. Very few paper addicts can afford it anymore. Which makes me want to mention here I print up 3,000 40 page catalogs for 14.3 cents apiece for my old comic book sales I have been conducting since 1966. Seems to me enterprising self publishers could put out a decent affordable product at that rate by going to their local news paper which is where I get my printing down for a very good price. }QUESTION: "But my point was more or less this: Whatever happened to the days when Journal actually seemed like a forum for discussion and debate about comics? Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else feel that the sense that the magazine was central to a way of thinking about comics seem diminished?" }FANTAGRAPHIC'S ERIC REYNOLDS OPINED: I think it has diminished, for a few reasons. One, the industry is literally about 1/3 the size that it was six years ago. Up to that point, the direct market was still very young and very much a community. }The Journal was a magazine read by professionals at all levels. Over time, the Journal rarefied its taste and alienated a lot of the "pros". With the exception of the news, the magazine's editorial content slowly focused almost exclusively on the "alternative/underground/classic newspaper strip" audience, and mainstreamers either got bored or alienated. RB: I would say internet discussion groups are "guilty" of diminishing a perceived need for TCJ. I have been a reader of it since DALLASCON BULLETIN #1 way back when, an advertiser back then & on & off thru the years, a retailer of it since NOSTALGIA JOURNAL days & then with the Groth/Catron takeover with #28, a distributor of it (Common Ground, Berkeley, listed in a few CJ's dist lists) till I sold my distribution biz to Capital City in 1982, etc. Currently, I helped out Gary Groth with some visual aid for his upcoming John Severin interview he is compiling as we think. I'm looking forward to this interview as Severin is one of my favorite comics creators. Eric is right on. TCJ's circ fell commensurate with the collapse of the American Direct Sales Market. Humpty Dumpty and all the king's men....... As many of you may remember, the distributors and retailers got all hung up on super duper antics as a driving force they could jack up cover prices on by controlling the faucet of comics distribution, ie "make them rare". There was little movement that got listened to to build readers as a long term base. Back in the 80s, kids were chased out of many of the comic book stores. No casual looking was allowed. With CBG weekly for years now, WIZARD garnering a certain segment, e-zines like CBEM weekly with "news" a couple weeks ahead of CBG, Pavlovian gratification on a list like this one, where is the room left for CJ to maintain itself like it used to? With the DM system of PREVIEWS, comic book stores barely hanging on, no store I know of orders an "extra" CJ to stick on the shelf with the hopes of attracting a new customer for it. Eric mentions folks at Marvel not knowing CJ even exists, hell, most comic book store sellers are dimly aware of CJ, or for that matter, Comic Book Artist, Comic Book Marketplace, much less lamented & missed zines like INKS!. }ONE FAN'S OPINION: "According to Matt High over on rac.misc, the market is recovering and even growing btw." RB: Speaking from a 33+ year perspective in the comics business, that translates into less stores went out of business this year than last year. Back in the early 70s some 500 of us created a rebirth in an art form getting into the faces of the general public. It was called a direct market distribution system. Except all the distributor wars beginning in the 80s and all the political bull shit bickering over petty feuds left us with only one still standing and most of the retailers shell shocked. Where is the "Next Generation" of people to do what we did in the 70s? They must come forward. Oh, they can't, cuz they mostly got chased away except for a narrow stratified market base. I can point it back to the collapse of Harvey, Gold Key, Marvel's Star line, the comic book store people were too busy pushing the gritty TDKR and the light hearted TMNT , jacking up X-men to ungodly amounts, going Batshit over the Bathyped craziness and then lying en masse how Superman was killed forever so they could sell over 7 million 75s. Everything else got forgotten in the shuffle, hustle & bustle. Educate publishers, distributors, retailers? We have to first reeducate the customers to drink the water again. Those horses aren't even at the tough any more. It's a shame Gary Groth got bitter for a long time which translated into some editorials which didn't have to be done as an aftergrowth stemming from a seemingly in-different marketplace at times. War sells media, to be sure, and I still think the good outweighs the not so good CJ generated over the past couple decades. You should check out the excited energy of Gary's face in a group photo of the banquet at Phil's Seuling's 1969 New York Comic Art Convention with its Guests of Honor clearly visible as Harvey Kurtzman and Hal Foster in Bill Schelly's newly revised THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS FANDOM. I think that is where he met Gil Kane, if I remember correctly. Seeing that photo with a host of comics fans was one of the huge draws which brought me to my first Seulingcon the following year in 1970. There was a different sense of comics energy in the shows from that time span. Maybe its because I've been to over 500 of them now. I do remember that most early comics shows were held on a campus - to teach & create new comics fans. It was a lot of work, but it was also fun. Has to be done over again from scratch. I just do not know if another opportunity will present itself. I'm just glad those trench coat dudes from Colorado played "doom" and it hasn;t been announced (yet) they also read comic books. That would be......the end. "Perception is reality" is a favorite line of mine as is Kelly's immortal "We have met the enemy and he is us!" Me, they are going to have to pry my last comic book from my cold dead fingers. May comics live forever. Robert Beerbohm Comic Art PO Box 507 Fremont Nebraska 68026 beerbohm@teknetwork.com (402) 727 4071 serving comics collectors since 1966 New 40 page catalog now available Grand Comics Database Member: www.comics.org/ ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [8] TOO OLD FOR COMIC BOOKS?!? Johnny Gonzales gonzalesj@ltsgate1.lts.aetc.af.mil [When Johnny Gonzales graduated high school, he took off to follow his dream. When the adult film industry turned him away, he decided to enlist in the Air Force and pursue cartooning on the side. He's sold cartoons to AJA Blue magazine and draws caricatures at local events and parties. He has been reading and buying comics ever since grade school. Johnny use to live in Texas until a misunderstanding with local law enforcement forced him to relocate to parts unknown.] How come more people aren't trading their comics? Sure, it's nice to make a nice chunk of change when you sell your comics that you bought at cover price to some sucker, er.ah, I mean, another comic enthusiast for double (or more) of what you paid. But what about those comics that you either have outgrown or were disappointed with the story afterwards and can't seem to find anyone to buy them, regardless if you put their testicles in a vice and offer to sell them at cover price or even a quarter a piece. Rather than feel that your only resolve is to be stuck with these books, you could attempt to see if anyone would like to trade something from their stash of comics in exchange for these books? For example, let's say that you had purchased John Byrne's three year run on Wonder Woman because you're a Byrne fan. Don't laugh.it could happen! Later on, you've finally read all of them but found that they were just not up to par with stuff you've seen from Mr. Byrne in the past. Now, let's say that because of budget constraints you didn't pick up the recent Arsenal mini-series from DC. You decide to post to several of the comic newsgroups saying that you are willing to trade all 36 Wonder Woman issues by Byrne for those four issues of Arsenal. Chances are, there is someone else out there that either has that series and feels the same way about the Arsenal mini-series as you did about the Wonder Woman books; or decides that spending the ten bucks to get that mini-series is worth it because he would be getting over $70 in comics for their reading pleasure. Sure, the person getting the Wonder Woman comics might feel like they making out like a bandit, but to the person who is trading them away, they may feel relieved that these books which might have been heading to the recycling bin helped them get some other comics that they really wanted. Case in point, recently, I saw a post in the rec.arts.comics. marketplace newsgroup from an individual who was looking to trade some of his comic sets. I looked through his list and noticed that one of the sets he was looking for was "Girl Crazy" #1-3 by Dark Horse Comics. Well, it just so happened that I had this set and had been unimpressed by it so I looked over what he had to trade and noticed that he had "Batman: The Lost Years" #1-4 as one of the sets he was trading. I e- mailed the individual and we worked out the arrangements so now he has a comic set he had been looking for and I have a comic set that I wanted and all it cost us was postage (less than two bucks at book rate). Another example was an individual who was looking for the recent Black Canary/Batgirl #1 issue from DC Comics. I traded that comic for an issue of Vampirella Strikes (postage was $1.10 at book rate). One thing to remember when you are trading comics is to forget that it's a "hot" book according to Wizard Magazine. If you can't get someone to pay ten bucks for your copy of Witchblade #1, don't expect someone to trade you several "hot" comics for that issue (although it can happen). It's normally a one-to-one swap. For example, Danger Girl #1 should be worth no more or less than Spider-Man #419 when it comes to trading. Sure the Wonder Woman trade above may be the exception but it all may depend on the person trading. There may be times when someone may be wanting to fill in holes in a comic set and they're willing to trade big for it. For example, someone may be looking for issues #3 and #5 of From Hell and they've got issues #0-46 of the recent Aquaman comic to trade for it. It may sound ridiculous, but what's the saying about one man's trash is another man's treasure? Many traders are probably people looking to free up space in their closet where they keep their comics, or probably feel that they've outgrown those old McFarlane Spider-Man and Hulk books. Right now I've got John Byrne's Namor run 1-26 and Next Men run, 0-26 which is just taking up space in my bedroom. I'd love to trade either set for any ONE of these mini-series: Geisha #1-4, Adventures Of Barry Ween Boy Genius #1-3, or Nobody #1-4 by Oni Press. What a bargain! Any takers? E-mail me at gonzalesj@ltsgate1.lts.aetc.af.mil ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [9] can't see the forest Alan J. Porter ajporter@compuserve.com After a few month's absence I'm back with views and reviews of various comics from my reading pile. Looking through the stack of comics sat on the end of my desk, I noticed that a larger proportion than usual featured female lead characters. So this month's review column is a "ladies only" affair. On with the reviews_ and as always comments are welcome. Alan J. Porter (ajporter@compuserve.com) Titles covered this month include: ----------------------------------------- ARIA BLACK WIDOW DAWN: RETURN OF THE GODDESS FORTY WINKS TV PARTY HEART OF THE EMPIRE LADY PENDRAGON ====================== ARIA #2 (Image / Avalon) By Brian Holguin & Jay Anacleto This book is receiving a lot of notice and hype. Mainly due to the stunning art style of Jay Anacelto. His black & white line art in the Preview issue was stunning enough, but with color added it approaches a level of photo-realism rarely seen in any medium. This is a book I keep opening and flicking through just to gaze at the art work. It's worth reading and rereading to pick up the many subtleties that you may miss first time round. So he artwork's wonderful, but what about the story ? At the moment there's sufficient sub-plots building that hint to an intricately woven story to come, but the plot needs to start developing soon otherwise the artwork alone wont be sufficient to maintain a long term interest. BLACK WIDOW # 1 (Marvel Knights) By Devin Grayson & J.G. Jones I've always liked the Widow as a supporting character and picked up the occasional one-shot featuring here. But she's not the reason I picked this book up - the reason was Devin Grayson. Since she arrived on the scene at DC her work has been almost uniformly excellent. Her characterization has been spot on and she has a gift for taking supporting charters and giving them depths that no previous writer has managed. So what of the Black Widow? The first couple of pages were a shocker - a great opening. Then a few pages of Natasha at home, summing up her life in 4 silent panels - a wonderful contrast to the usual pages of exposition we get whenever anyone tries to detail the Widow's past. The visit from and verbal sparring with Matt Murdock was Grayson at her best. It's these interpersonal scenes where she really shines as a writer. Which gets us a afar as Page 5 - after that it becomes like any other action / spy/ shoot em up story. To be honest I got bored by it and lost track of who was meant to be doing what to who and why. I fervently hope that the rest of the series focuses more on the personal challenge Natasha now faces for the right to bear the "Black Widow" name than the big explosions. DAWN: RETURN OF THE GODDESS #1 (Sirus) By Joseph Michael Linsner In the text section at the back, JML says he spent 5 months working on this book. And it shows - well to be honest it shows on the cover and on the 5 painted double page spreads. The rest of the 18 story pages look rushed and half finished in comparison. The plot line is thin and the characterization shallow. I get the impression that the book is published as a promotional vehicle for Lisner's paintings. And I'm sure the originals and prints of those double page spreads will sell well. FORTY WINKS TV PARTY (Peregrine Entertainment) By Neal Patterson, Heang Kho, Vincent Sneed, Aron Bordner & Reggie Byers This is a neat concept that somehow doesn't quite work. The creators of the Forty Winks take their characters and spin them into homages of their favorite TV shows from the camp Batman series to The Prisoner. The strength of the previous "Forty Winks" books have been their young heroine, Pandora Spocks. But here she just loses the characterization that makes her strong - she could be anybody when placed into these TV show homage stories. The idea of doing the intro and credit pages in TV guide style was amusing and worked well. But I'd say this one is for existing "Forty Winks" fans only. I wouldn't want a new reader to judge the rest of the series by this offering. Wait for the resumption of the regular title in August. HEART OF THE EMPIRE (Dark Horse) By Bryan Talbot It's a real shame that this book hit the stores about a month after Alan Moore's "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen." As the concept and packaging at first glance appear to be very similar. However once you actually read this book, you realize just how different they are. While Moore'' work is clever --this is brilliant work. Talbot picks up the story threads from his classic Luther Arkwright series by concentrating on Luther's daughter - The Princess Royal. But you don't need to have read the previous story to truly appreciate the work here. Talbot's artwork is rich and detailed. His storytelling technique rarely unrivalled. Having heard him lecture at UKCAC a few years back I have a great admiration for the man and the effort he goes through to produce this quality of work. Sure the story line contains some gruesome and adult scenes - it doesn't pull any punches with its use of fictional and contemporary British characters, but it's got me hooked. LADY PENDRAGON: DRAGON BLADE #1 (Image) By Matt Hawkins & John Stinsman I'm a sucker for most Arthurian tales and have been with this one since it's beginning. This series marks the third major story-arc of the Lady Pendragon saga and does a good job of introducing the characters, history and premise behind the series; while at the same time progressing the story enough to keep long time readers interested. Stinsman's artwork is a bit too close to an Image "house style" for my taste ( the women are all legs and chest ). But Matt Hawkin's is growing as a writer. He has obviously done a vast amount of research around the topics he introduces into the series - and if he has a major fault, it's that he tries to introduce too much too quickly. Having said that the pages of annotations at the back are a mine of information for those wanting to read more on the subjects used in the story. =========================== Don't forget that you can also find "can't see the forest" reviews at the Empyre Comics (http://members.aol.com/empyre) web site. "..can't see the forest" also appears on the CompuServe Comics Forum and as part of The Super-Hero News mailing. Past "..can't see the forest" reviews can be found on the web at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ajporter/cstf.htm ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [10] Stranger in a Strange Land Jennifer M. Contino Jencomx3@aol.com [Jennifer M. Contino is 26 and a life-long lover of comics books and super heroes! While most girls were playing with Barbies and watching cute little shows, she was playing with Mego's and watching the Superfriends and any other super hero show she could find on the television! NOW almost 19 years later she owns over 26000 comics, has written some interviews for SEQUENTIAL TART--the online e-zine, is a frequently published letter of comment writer and is the official HOST of the DC COMICS chats on AOL! She is pursuing work in the comics field at DC and is trying to start her own independent comics company!] WHY I HATE BARBIES by JENNIFER M. CONTINO When I was very little the first toys I can remember owning were baby dolls or plastic blocks. When I was four, Christmas of 1976, the first toys I can remember wanting were SUPERHEROES! I loved SUPERFRIENDS, SPIDERMAN, BATMAN and ROBIN, SUPERMAN, WONDER WOMAN, ISIS, SHAZAM, and every other superhero whom I had the pleasure of watching from the Galaxy Trio to the Fantastic Four---nothing made me smile more than a good old hero slugfest! I wanted to be a superhero! Super Jen or Wonder Jen or Spider Jen---Heh you get the idea! All those months before Christmas, I carefully circled (WELL as carefully as a four year old with crayons can) each hero in the toy catalogue that I wanted. EVERY time someone would ask me what I wanted for Christmas I pulled out the book and showed them each hero. Each time we went shopping at the local FIVE AND DIME store, I would point to each hero and say, "That's who Santa is going to bring me this year!" My mom would walk on ahead and stop by the baby dolls and point, "This is nice!" she stated, pointing to Barbie. "Nice?" I examined this strange creature. No superhero costume, no mask, a purse instead of a gun or rope accessory, no catchy name--what was this?? IT was so....."girlie" and cute! I HATED GIRLIE AND CUTE! (Well, let's face it, in my neighborhood all there were were OLDER boys I had an older brother I WAS the only little girl around!) "Don't you think she is pretty?" My mom asked, extending it towards me. I took a few steps back with a panicked look on my face I grabbed the MEGO box with BATGIRL in it and extended it towards my mom. "She's pretty!" I lifted up my Wonder Woman T-shirt to reveal my BATGIRL UNDEROOS. "Like me!" I said smiling broadly. I left that little store thinking nothing more about Barbie! When Christmas morning finally came a few months later, I was so excited. I saw many boxes that appeared to be the same size as the heroes that I wanted! My brother, Jeff, and I were supposed to take turns opening presents. DO YOU know how hard it is for a FOUR YEAR OLD to have to sit patiently surrounded by boxes and boxes of presents?? Anyway this is what we always did till the presents were all gone! The first present my brother opened was MY Captain America doll! With a mean grin he ripped the hero from the box and held him in front of my face. I gulped and opened one of the bigger boxes with my name on it. No superhero...just a LITE BRIGHT. He opened another present-my heart sank-it was the BATMOBILE! THE ONE I "D CIRCLED FIVE TIMES IN BRIGHT RED CRAYON! THE one that I had on the top of my list to Santa! "Hold it! Wait a second," I cried, grabbing the large box and yanking it out of my brother's hands. "Santa must have gotten our lists mixed up!" I figured that was the only logical reason for my brother to be getting all of my goodies! I frantically reached for one of the boxes near me and waved it at Jeff. I tore off the wrapping paper-expecting to see a train, electric car, or something else that my brother collected-instead there SHE was, that nice doll that my mother had admired so much! Panic stricken I looked at my parents. Both were smiling and commenting on how nice and cute the Barbie was. I held the box towards them, shaking it and biting my bottom lip. "Look, dear," my father said. " she wants us to open the Barbie for her to play with!" My little heart sank lower and lower as present after present my brother got what I had asked for, and I got more of the "Barbie brigade!" How could Santa make such a mistake? How could this happen? The only good thing was that I did get my WONDER WOMAN doll and Batgirl and a few other female mego's! Heh, and I did get most of my brother's presents---it's amazing what you can get for a candy bar when you have a hyperactive brother! That Christmas was the beginning of the end for me. Every birthday and Christmas from 1976 on, no matter how hard I wished for something, I got that bleached blonde bimbo as one of my gifts-her or that Barbie wannabe Midge! NO matter how many times I asked not to get any more of the "sunshine cult," some aunt would always give me one! NO matter how many violent deaths Barbie suffered--drowning, buried alive, melting with a magnifying glass, getting torn apart by the Hulk, drawn and quartered by remote control cars, etc.--HEY I lived in a neighborhood full of boys...some of them were very creative! However, Barbie always managed to return in some form or another! She had more lives than my Aunt Bert's five cats! "Little girls should play with Barbies and Baby Dolls, NOT nasty super heroes or boy toys!" Various members of my family would quip and comment. Well, to me, Barbie was the ultimate BOY TOY! I can't explain it exactly, but I just ABHORRED Barbie, and the more I said this....the more Barbies that I seemed to receive as presents! (Heh like they were trying to assimilate me or something!) My family claimed that it was just wrong for a little girl like me to hate Barbie! WHY?? Why was it wrong to play with heroes instead of Barbies, to read comics instead of Cheerleader books, to watch WONDER WOMAN instead of NEW ZOO REVIEW! Why was it so wrong for an overweight, glasses wearing, brown haired, little girl to HATE a skinny blue-eyed, blonde, object of perfection? Things have improved since that Christmas of 1976! Now we see more "open minded" parents allowing their children to play with dolls or action figures or anything their little hearts desire! (JR. PUT DOWN DADDY"S UZI THIS INSTANT! Heh) I hope this Christmas of 1999 that all of you circling things with your little red crayons will be able to get what you want! I hope some of you read this and were thinking..WOW I can remember my mom and dad buying me stuff and saying like it was what I was SUPPOSED to have...not what I wanted....or something like that! I hope some women are reading this and are thinking...YAH MOM threw away all my GOOD TOYS! Hehe! AND I Hope some of you are just reading this and enjoying my memories! Peace out all! Be well and be safe! ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [11] VENTING MY SPLEEN David Groenewegen david.groenewegen@lib.monash.edu.au [David Groenewegen is 30, a librarian and sadly addicted to comics. He has been reading them since before he could read, and plans to keep on doing so. His first trip out of the house with his infant son was to a comic shop. Can't start 'em too young. ] Call me slow if you will, but I finally bought THE MAXIMORTAL by Rick Veitch on the weekend, and I finished reading it last night. If you haven't read it, get off your ass and go buy a copy, it's terrific. It's a little difficult to describe what its about without giving away the story, but it can be seen as an alternative history of Superman, crossed with a history of his creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. While there are certainly bits of the book I don't understand (the whole El Guano business is totally bewildering, and if anyone can tell me what that's supposed to be about, drop me an email), the savage indictment of the comic book industry came across pretty loud and clear. While I would not for one second like to suggest that Siegel and Shuster were not shafted by DC (considering how much money Superman has produced) I found myself questioning the over-riding viciousness of the attack (their publisher is known as "Ball-less Wallace", because he is missing a couple of pieces of his anatomy, and because it's a not very complimentary thing to say). Is there not an argument to be made that DC (or National Publications as they were at the time), who took the financial risk of printing a comic that, in the conventional wisdom, seemed totally unsaleable, deserve a considerable share of the profits? Publishers do, after all, publish many things every year that were created with the same passion as Superman, but which die a horrible financial death. If publishers don't make money from their successes, how can they afford to publish at all? Where does the line between the creator's right to exploit his creation and the publisher's right to maximize his return from an investment fall? Is there such a line? While the creator has given birth to the work, and has often made sacrifices to do so, their financial exposure is far less than that of a publisher. Perhaps it would have been fairer had Siegel and Shuster retained the copyright on their creation (for those who don't know, they signed it away for $140). But without ownership of the copyright would DC have protected Superman so, ahem, vigorously? Could the character have survived without corporate backing? Would the Golden Age have happened at all if the publishers couldn't rip so many people off? In those days comics needed to be cheap to sell (I think they still do), and the failure rate of companies was astounding. And without the Golden Age, would the American comics industry have continued? Or would it have been a better, richer and more popular industry had it been built on fairness from the start? Perhaps if the industry had been composed only of people with a real passion for their work, and the attachment to it that only a creator can have, there might have been better comics. And maybe comics would have moved beyond kids stuff faster. A lot of questions, I know, but that's what a good piece of art does I guess. It makes you think. If you want a copy you can order it direct from Rick Veitch's King Hell Press via Comicon.com. And if you want to discuss this whole issue further, I've started up a thread on their message boards. That's www.comicon.com, a site which every fan of fine comics should be familiar with anyway. David Groenewegen davidhar@lib.monash.edu.au ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [12] RANDOM THOUGHTS IN A LESS THAN RANDOM WORLD Gary Sassaman GSassaman@AOL.COM [Gary Sassaman is the Writer/Artist of INNOCENT BYSTANDER, you know...the "nice little comic (now titled "GEEKSVILLE") you can take home to mom."] Long before the days of Oprah and Sally and Jenny and Jerry, and, in the bigger cities, newscasts from 4 til 7pm each night, TV stations filled their late-afternoon timeslots with different fare. Some stations capitulated and gave it over to the kids, with shows like The Three Stooges and Popeye cartoons, or The Little Rascals. But some enterprising TV programming managers tried movies, albeit movies aimed at a younger audience. WCAU in Philadelphia ran a movie program each weekday, after it's CBS afternoon of soap operas ("The Secret Storm," "The Edge of Night") titled "The Early Show." It was there that I first ran across a chap named Tarzan. A couple times a year, WCAU would devote a week to Tarzan movies, usually the later ones with Johnny Weissmuller and Lex Barker (and maybe a Gordon Scott one or two thrown in). It didn't bother me that they sometimes looked different. It was still the half- naked guy with the funny yell. It seems like Tarzan has always been a part of my life. My grandfather had a bookshelf of Edgar Rice Burroughs hardcovers (all, sadly, missing the dust jackets). And in 1962 or so, my brother brought home a curious Ballantine paperback with a reddish, stylistic cover, titled "Tarzan Of The Apes." It was the first of many paperbacks by Mr. Burroughs that crossed our threshold. And he was in the comics, too. Dell had just become Gold Key and the Tarzan books, first by Jesse Marsh (who didn't appeal to me as a child, but who I can now look at and appreciate) and then by Russ Manning were staples in our comics buying. In 1965, Manning, along with writer Gaylord DuBois started adapting the Burroughs stories to comics. They remain some of the best book to comics adaptations ever (along with Joe Kubert's fine work on Tarzan at DC in the 70s). If you're lucky, lurking at your comic shop this week is an almost digest-sized book by Dark Horse, titled Tarzan of the Apes. Under a great Mark Schultz cover (that screams Frazetta!), it reprints the first four adaptations by Manning and DuBois: Tarzan, Return of Tarzan, Beasts of Tarzan, and Son of Tarzan. This is the first time these books have been seen in almost 35 years (except for a reprinting here and there by Gold Key, and, if I recall correctly, DC). And it's still incredible stuff. It's been recolored, and for once, the new coloring is an asset and not a detriment. (You know how colorists are these days...sigh...) How do I describe Russ Manning to an audience that may not have ever even heard of the guy? His clean, graphic style and dynamic figures are slightly reminiscent of Steve Rude and Dave Stevens (the latter having worked as Manning's assistant at one point in time). But nothing gets in the way of Manning's storytelling abilities. And it's not a fluke that each year at Comic-Con International: San Diego there's a special Russ Manning Award for the most talented newcomer in comics art. Manning was big on discovering new talent and it continues to be so, years after his death, with an award presented annually by his son, Roger. Lost beneath the avalanche of Star Wars mania (ironically, Manning was the first artist on the syndicated Star Wars comic strip), a very quiet little Tarzan resurgence is brewing. The Disney movie ("Disney's Tarzan") is coming out June 18, and the previews are stunning. (Although I must admit I cringed when I heard Phil Collins wrote the music...however, the music is like it was in "Toy Story," it's not sung by the characters, so Tarzan will NOT be singing...I also cringed when I heard the director had a "revelation" while watching his son skateboard one weekend, and decided Tarzan would not swing from vine to vine, but rather, "skate"-slide, actually-from vine to vine in the movie. Oh, well.) I just finished reading "Tarzan Forever" by John Taliaferro, a fascinating new hardbound book on the life of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. Dark Horse is mining the Tarzan vein almost as diligently as the Star Wars one...with new books by Mike Grell and a Disney adaptation and reprints of their own series and older ones. (One can only hope that Burroughs owns the rights to all the comics published over the years...like Lucas owns the rights to all the Marvel Star Wars stories. I'd love to see Dark Horse reprint the Kubert adaptations, too). Next up is Volume Two of the "Tarzan Comics Library" with Russ Manning's Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar adaptation. Ultimately, it was Neal Adams who got me to actually read the Burroughs Tarzan novels. In the mid 70s, Ballantine reissued the Tarzan books with striking new watercolor covers by Adams. The first 5 books, through Jewels of Opar, are rip-roaring pulp-style jungle adventures. Book six, "Jungle Tales of Tarzan," lags a bit but books seven and eight, The Terrible" and "The Untamed," are great reads. The books slide downhill after that, with everything after "Tarzan And The Ant Men" being disappointing. Sadly, Adams painted only about ten of the 24 covers, with Boris Vallejo doing the rest. It wasn't the same, though...Adams was one of "us," a comics person. Most of the books are out-of-print these days. Burroughs had a distinctive, near turn-of-the-century style of writing, and it's a little ponderous at times. No one has ever faithfully adapted the books to the movies (although Hugh Hudson's "Greystoke" comes closest), but the Disney version is supposed to be relatively faithful. Two years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting a friend who worked for Disney on the Tarzan film and we walked through the Tarzan "pod" where I got to see the beautiful, large format pre-production paintings done to create the style of the movie. If the finished film is anything like those paintings, both Burroughs fanatics and the rank and file, "me Tarzan, you Jane" crowd will be satisfied. And I'll continue to be more than satisfied if Dark Horse keeps the Manning (and other older Tarzan comics) coming on a regular basis. ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [13] Multiverse Observer and Explorer Reviews Paul Dale Roberts silhouet9@aol.com [Paul promotes amateur and professional comic book artwork, scripts, storylines, and unpublished comic books with a newsletter called the Peoples' Comic Book Newsletter. Its website is at Jazma Comic Book Newsletter Productions at http://www.twmgrafix.com/jazma He is also a prominent letter hack, as anyone who reads comic letter pages would know. He is in production of his own self-published comic book called The Legendary Dark Silhouette and has copyrighted over 600 characters for his Jazma Universe.] Name: Mojo Mechanics #1 Publisher: Syndicate Publishing Price: $2.95 Written by: Tait Bergstrom Art by: Matt Pasteris Comments: This comic book is completely hilarious! Black and white artwork done with a cartoon type of style, with crisp clarity. Meet Ajax and Bippo the Hippo who are the team called Mojo Mechanics. You get two zany stories in one comic book and the first story you find Ajax and Bippo going after gigantic roaches that kill humans. In fact when they investigate this one dwelling where these huge roaches are, the roach answers the door by holding up a dead human that has his eye hanging out! When Ajax and Bippo check for roaches, they also go over their check list that includes exo-skeletons, pyrethrum bombs, plasma cannons and tac-nukes. Except on this outing they forget the tac-nukes....oops! The Thing from Fantastic Four had his battlecry and it was.."it's clobberin' time!" Bippo has a couple of battle cries himself, like "prepare to fry vermin!" or "eat hippo fist!" Bippo makes the perfect sidekick to Ajax and you will get attached to these characters real quick as you move into the story. As Ajax and Bippo go after the roaches, you will be reminded of the "Ghostbusters" as they get slimed by roach scum! The next story is called "Desert Blanket Bingo" in which our heroes are looking for some action at a beach party and Bippo is pretty excited about it! They encounter what they think are pirates, but discover that they have met a race of reptilians called Thithianth - Merchants of the Land. With this meeting, things just get crazy from here on out. Ajax and Bippo talk to some dreaded real estate agents and look over the Triumphant Condominium. A collection of living breathing homes inside a bubble and these condos turn out to be Sperm whales of all things! This comic book will have you busting up in stitches! The last time I laughed this hard was with the movie "Something About Mary". Mojo Mechanics is great fun and the whole family can pass this comic around! For more information email the publishers at: glert@hotmail.com Name: The Savage Dragon #60 Publisher: Image Price: $2.50 Written and Drawn by: Erik Larsen Comments: I have to say that The Savage Dragon #60 had to be one of the most explosive issues to date! The reason being is that Savage Dragon had to deal with one of his greatest adversaries, that being Simon Kane. This monster that has the power of controlling the minds of thousands of people. Being able to control a populace and have them kill for him, or kill each other. A power that is utmost dangerous. When She-Dragon said that he was loose again, I was surprised that Savage Dragon didn't break a nervous sweat. This monster is tee totally dangerous. Another thing that was explosive is that Savage Dragon proposes marriage to Jennifer and she ACCEPTS! Yowza! A big wedding in the future? Can't wait to see how this progresses. With all the problems that Savage Dragon had in this issue, he gets more. When it rains it pours. That being Stephenson telling Savage Dragon that he is trying to undermine Sgt. Marvel's authority. Stephenson was plenty upset and again Savage Dragon remained calm, cool and collective in this situation. It takes plenty to stress Savage Dragon out. Hey, was that Thing & Thor in line at Washington DC's Special Operations Strikeforce recruitment rally? Killcat is obsessed with the recruitment and competes as if he had the 'eye of the tiger'. Things can never be simple or easy as Simon Kane is waiting for Savage Dragon in Washington DC. Simon Kane isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer as he could have had the 100 superpowered beings beat up Savage Dragon and that would have ended the threat of Savage Dragon. But, he had to beckon to his machismo attitude and try to take Savage Dragon on by himself. If I had 100 superpowered beings lined up against the wall, do you think I would have done the dirty work by myself? I don't think so. Savage Dragon seemed a little stress (I was much surprised) as Widow started having contractions in the heat of Savage Dragon's battle. With this adrenaline charged action, I gave some hooplas and hoorays as Savage Dragon finally fells Simon Kane! Did I tell you I highly enjoyed the pin up by Andy Smith? I didn't? Well, I actually do! All in all this was a kick-in-the-rear issue again! Name: Red Planet Pioneer #1 Publisher: Inesco LLC Price: $2.95 Written by: Jason Elias & Richard Tibbetts Drawn by: Frank Hansen/pencils Ryan Alonzo/finish pencils/inks Comments: Moving action as terrorists argue and fight amongst themselves. Two of the terrorists Jason and Alec get into a very heated situation and everything goes ballistic when Alec does things his way. His way is gunning down all the other terrorists. Yes, Alec goes beserk. The heated argument between Alec and Jason started because Alec didn't want innocents to die. But, with the actions that Alec takes, he can easily take out the non-innocents! In this reality, everything takes place on Mars and the important agenda is to liberate Mars! A major war is going on between humans and androids and biospheres are separated for humans and androids. Just like in the 50s and 60s where segregation between African Americans and Caucasians was a big issue, it's this way on Mars with humans and androids. You will come to know the Five Point Alliance, the Red Planet Pioneer Corporation that will not tolerate terrorism in any form. The Red Planet Pioneer Corporation hires out bounty hunters to do their dirty work. Outside of the Corporation a crowd gathers. This crowd is the Council of Human-Android Relations. The androids want the same rights as humans. There are restricted areas with blaring warnings, that say..."humans only - all androids will be terminated!" A scary unpredictable world on the fringe of chaos! This comic book has gorgeous colored artwork and a spectacular cover! Sci-fi action done to the extreme! If your anxious for Star Wars: Phantom Menace to open up at a theatre near you and need a pacifier before then, then check out Red Planet Pioneer! This is all the pacifier you will need! I highly recommend this comic book to the sci-fi aficionados out there! I had a affaire d'aour with this comic book!! For more information check out their website at: http://www.redplanetpioneer.com or email them at: redphobos@aol.com Also, ask them about their Red Planet Pioneer official t-shirt, cap, care card and identification badge - clearance level...umm..huh...I must say I am a proud owner of all the above mentioned items and proud to sport my cap, t-shirt and identification badge! Name: Timespell #3 Publisher: Club 408 Graphics Price: $2.95 Written by: Rich Henn & Russ Colchamiro Drawn by: Rich Henn/pencils Gerry Coffey/inks Comments: Knock out killer cover of dead man coming out of a wall, done in reddish tint! Timespell has the best covers out on the racks today and if you don't believe me, check out their website at: http://www.TimeSpell.com I kid you not! Tough times for super cop McMurphy. After the serial killer Gillespie escaped, McMurphy was blamed for unloading a full clip into Gillespie, execution style. Internal Affairs (IA) is all over him and interrogating him without mercy. IA has their own worries, as the press is all over this incident and answers need to be found and someone has to be the scapegoat. McMurphy makes a fine scapegoat and now McMurphy has this weighing heavy on his shoulders. McMurphy's partner Steve tries to give him some needed support and holds a listening ear for McMurphy. McMurphy knows that someone let Gillespie out of his cell and his suspicions are towards a man named Steele. McMurphy gets an invite to a banquet and guess who its from? Yep, you got it, Steele. When McMurphy pulls up to his house, his brother is outside with his friend discussing everything from Styx, Ted Nugent and Super Tramp and the interactions between these two is comical. Sidebar comic relief is placed just right in a story that has high intensity drama, and also has suspense building up around every corner. McMurphy's brother's friend looks at the invite and sees the wording..."your soul is mine". From this point on, the story gets real creepy as the trio head out in McMurphy's vehicle and stop at a gothic looking home and see trapped souls in this house, ghostly bodies hanging from the tree and bodies coming out of a cave wall. Ghostly chatter that echo.."plague upon the world" and "brother against brother". Yes, big things are coming up in Timespell, very big things! Now, when you think you have all the answers, McMurphy discovers that the blood on Gillespie's cell is hundreds of years old! As the mystery heightens, then bring out Eddie Cipriani and Eddie listens to the words...."join us Eddie, as we become one, one voice in the darkness". When I read Timespell I ask myself, is Rich Henn the reincarnation of Alfred Hitchcock? Where in Hades does he come up with this scary stuff? The stories that come out of Timespell will give hardcore writers like Stephen King and Anne Rice goosebumps!! With this issue you get an added treat called "The Politics of Meat", a very unusual story bit, that you will have to check out yourself! For more information on Timespell, email Rich Henn at: rasmus@timespell.com MOE Sidenote: Right now (5/12/99) on the racks at Broadway Comics & Cards are the following new independent titles: The Adventures of Barry Ween - Boy Genius #3 by Image, Mega Dragon & Tiger #2, Jay Juch's Iron Wings #1, Masakazu Katsura's Shadow Lady 1 of 5 by Dark Horse, Silky Whip Extreme and a whole lot more! For more information contact Wilson Lew of Broadway Comics & Cards at: wilsonlew@sprintmail.com Multiverse Observer and Explorer signing off until next time..... ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [14] My View David LeBlanc ComicBkNet@aol.com [David LeBlanc is the Editor of the Comic Book Net Electronic Magazine. He is a long time fan of comics and the electronic media - having been the moderator of the comics forums on WME, FIDONET and the Comic Book Network. He and his wife are attempting to raise two teenage sons in a suburb of Worcester, Massachusetts. David supports his comic book habit by working as the Manager of Marketing and Sales for a privately owned manufacturer of electro-mechanical components.] PARA TROOP #6 32 pages, black & white, color cover, $2.95 Comics Conspiracy 115-A E. Fremont Avenue Sunnyvale, Ca 94087 www.comicsconspiracy.com back issues - $2.95 each plus $1 S&H, #0 advanced copy - $5 Story - Doug Miers Pencils - Sam Fonseca Inks - Rob Lean & Tie Cover colors - Ben Prenevost This appears to be a final issue, at least for the current story arc, but there is also a #0 issue that will be out soon. You can send away for the advanced copy at the above address. There is mention of the success of all-color projects being the key to future success so if you like PARA TROOP you should support OPERATOR 99 when it comes out. As this issue opens the Troop is at a remote base in Arizona. By now we know that the Men in Black who have been chasing the group are working for the Man in White, professor Everett Crandall. For years they have been abducting para-normals, and sending them to Mars where they are syphoned of ELEMENT 115, the secret energy source of their powers. Now the Troop, with the help of the alien Quim has not only stolen all the stockpile of element 115 but also have helped the Martians as well. This issue, our heroes show up in their flying saucer and land in the neutral zone of the same base as Crandall and his men. Crandall decides to parlay with the team, and hopes by individual meetings with them to find a weak link so he can divide and conquer them, since he cannot create hostilities in this hostility free area. One by one he tries to ply the members with money, promises of power, and life dreams, even a horse, if only they will turn on the others. Needless to say these efforts are futile, and even comical in their outcome. That is, except for the final one with Max Vasquez, the burning man. He has changed since last issue and his appetite for combustible material is growing - a fact Everett exploits with disastrous results. And the second story seems to confirm that the Troop is breaking up after all. Time will tell The six issue story has been one that really held my interest from issue to issue. It is a story of a very dysfunctional group of people thrown together and guided by an alien for reasons of his own. They find they do things because of the circumstances they are put in and the consequences of their actions are not always pleasant. It is a different take on people with powers and it has enough humor to perk it up and keep things light as needed. The art is competent and polished - nothing amateurish about any of it. The covers are also compelling - drawing you into the characters depicted. This title is better than most independents and worth you time to try. ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [15] Top 10 Black & White Comics APRIL Comic Shop News CSN's Top Seller charts are based on orders reported by Diamond Distribution and sale