Catch more from Comic Drake and Panels to Pixels on YouTube
You wonder he finds time to read them all.
If you didn’t see the X-Twitter reviews my haul this Free Comic Book Day was…not the best. UDON delivered as usual but knowing what I know now I would have chosen differently. One of the two comic stores in my area was almost out by the time I got there while the other had a three comic limit, and that’s where I should have made some other choices. Should of, could of, would of, I guess. More on that in a moment.
First, the usual Clutter Report article. With Free Comic Book/Comic Giveaway Day going on I just reposted an old Scanning My Collection review, the first of the Devil’s Due G.I. Joe Vs The Transformers comics.
So…”Yesterday’s” Comic is going to take a bit of a break. Don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere. Instead the next two weeks will be the temporary return of Today’s Comic. Monday through Thursday will be Free Comic Book Day or Comic Giveaway Day offerings while on Friday we’ll look at one of the two comics I actually bought. Like I stress every year, the comic store has to pay for those even though customers don’t. So even with my funds I practiced what I preached and bought a comic in each location. It just felt like the right thing to do. I’m hoping that the comics I missed get an online option before I’m done and if enough show up we’ll figure out what to do the next few weeks. The old stuff will return eventually.
Meanwhile we have the next Chapter By Chapter installment of How To Completely Lose Your Mind and whatever else shows up this week. Also, as much as I don’t want to end on a sad note, we had three notable passings I feel the urge to bring up. Gerry Conway, creator of Firestorm and other characters passed away at the start of the week. He was followed by Len Strazewski, co-creator of Prime from the Ultraverse, and He-Man’s creator Roger Sweet. Sad to have three important passings, especially Sweet just as a new He-Man movie is coming out. Prime never got a chance to make a splash, while Conway also created the Punisher and regretting it in the current political climate due to the side he ended up on. I hope this isn’t the start of another series of geekdom favorites passing on. May they rest in peace and the next week be better.
Have a great week, everyone!
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Batman: Year One is not my favorite version of Bruce Wayne’s origin. There are two major sticking points with me and they’re both personal. This was BEFORE Frank Miller lost his mind, after all. I can appreciate the quality of the story and how well it’s told. Still, I didn’t need Jim Gordon having an affair that for the most part has little impact on events and there’s no reason for Selina to have started out as a prostitute except Frank Miller. For the most part, I’d still call it good. I just have my preferences and I will not apologize for them.
Since this is Free Comic Book Day, or Comics Giveaway Day depending on which distributor your local comic store went with, in the US (I don’t know about other countries…maybe Canada?), I wanted to use YouTube doing free with ads postings of Warner Animation’s DC movies by doing a comic adaptation, not just a story with the characters. Year One just happened to win the lottery. It’s still not my favorite adaptation. There’s some great acting, but Alex Rocco as Falcone is the only real standout. Brian Cranston’s Jim Gordon is okay but he won’t replace the late Bob Hastings in my head. Ben McKenzie isn’t a bad Batman and we see little of his Bruce Wayne, but he’s competing with Adam West, Kevin Conroy, and Diedrich Bader, though the best currently alive Batman might be Troy Baker. He’s also a good Joker. I’d throw Rino Romano but he’s my favorite Spider-Man, so if I had a choice, Baker would be Batman and Romano would be Spider-Man if they ever adapted my favorite crossover of the two.
Again, I’m not saying it’s terrible. It’s just not the origin I would go with. It’s still a good Showcase for the occasion. Enjoy.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
So where do we stand here? The DC Cinnamon Mini-Buns comics are still two reviews short because I can’t find “Superman Vs. Metallo” or “Justice League Vs. Amazo”. Trying to find more Legions Of Power not only failed but one of the links just goes to BW Media Spotlight and the one comic I found while Google AI just found my list of wanted comic scans. I should do an updated version of that someday now that I’ve found websites with some of the ones off of that list.
However, I did accidentally find a NEW comic we can discuss, or rather series of comics so short that a compilation file on the Internet Archive went to about 34 pages, including a stand-in cover. All I can find out about Batman’s team-up with Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts is that isn’t Kellogg’s but Good Humor. If the research is accurate, this is a series of Good Humor bars licensing the Pop-Tarts name and using their flavors as ice cream flavors. Sounds interesting, but I think it’s only available in the United Kingdom, or was. I don’t know for sure.
In 1966 a promotional tie-in with National Comics (future DC Comics) did a series of minicomics recreating old issue of Batman and Detective Comics. They are not reprints in comic strip form. I used the internet to check. Half of them are actually original tales, while the other half are essentially abridge versions of already short Silver Age Batman stories. They’re new art and even some new character designs for guest characters. The DC Fandom wiki says they’re “Earth One” versions of the “Earth Two” stories, where the Golden and early Silver Age still happened. And DC wonders why they’re continuity is always a mess. You can read along with me. This is why I do this series, folks. To find the weird stuff.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
“Rocket Riley”. That’s cheating, Rocket Comics, and you know it. We want actual rockets!
Rocket Comics #1
Hillman-Curl (February, 1940)
Let’s see. Planet Comics had planets. Fight Comics had fights. Jungle Comics had jungles. If this has rockets, and it looks like a sci-fi comic, explain Police Comics having so few police officers! I just want what it says on the box.
Yep, no superheroes in this one from what I can tell. Meanwhile it’s still the usual 60+ page count but according to Comic Book Plus we’re talking seven stories instead of almost ten. So maybe they’ll have the page count to tell some good stories. Now all they need is the talent.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
This exhibit was long over when I found it. It does give you a good idea about how they colored comics before computers came into use.
Catch more from KPBS Public Media on YouTube
BW Media Spotlight 
BW’s Saturday Article Link> How Comics Train Their Customers
He’s not very good at dodgeball.
Marketing is a manipulative business, especially if you’re trying to get customers to add your product, service, or production to their regular routines. One of the long term downsides of the 2020 lockdowns is how they rewrote habits that broke people out of old ones and now businesses have to figure out how to get back into being habit. That’s not necessarily malicious or a bad thing. It’s just how we operate versus how businesses operate, in both cases using instincts needed to survive.
Rob Salkowitz of ICv2 goes over how comics convince people to get into their stuff and the stupid things they’ve done recently that hurt them for breaking those habits.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on May 2, 2026 in Comic Spotlight and tagged comics, commentary.
Leave a comment