“Exact change, my foot!”
Crimebuster Free Comic Book Day Edition
Comic House (May, 2023)
COVER ART: Guy Perez
LETTERER: Andrew Thomas
EDITOR: Keith WTS Morris
“The Jaws Of Destruction”
STORY: Keith WTS Morris & Adrien Benson
SCRIPT: Sam Macdonald
ARTIST: Giulia Gualazzi
COLORIST: Mario Lucas Morales
“The Crimebuster”
WRITER/ARTIST/CREATOR: Charles Biro
I’m kind of curious how this will play into the “cause of death” report.
Hey, this one didn’t take weeks to finish. I’ll take that victory.
Over at The Clutter Reports this week I priced comics for sale. It’s the first step in this round of the Comic Organizing Mega-Project, namely to reduce the collection.
Well sometime mid week the WordPress/Twitter split finally happened and now I have to manually update Twitter with the latest post. That’s already really annoying. The best way to keep up with the latest post is through RSS and email. (Link to the latter in the sidebar.) This week we finish part one of Batman: Knightfall so you’ll want to be there for all the back-breaking action. I should rephrase. Plus whatever else I think up this week and have time to put together.
Have a great week, everyone!
Tsuburaya Productions has been doing a great job with their official Ultraman YouTube channel. In a previous Saturday Night Showcase we looked at their posting of Ultraman Z (pronouncing the Z “Zee”, which is how we Americans do it, as “Zet”). If you want subtitles use the close captions and you can read what everybody is saying. However, not everybody likes using subtitles, and Tsuburaya thought of that.
So tonight I’m bringing you the same first episode, only now it’s been dubbed into English, like the YouTube series Ultra Galaxy Fight. They didn’t use the same voice actors for Z and Zero (I’d have to watch to confirm Z’s new VA but I know Zero wasn’t played by Sean Schimmel in Ultra Galaxy Fight and the change was both noticeable and disappointing for me for continuity sake.) The theme songs and credits aren’t translated into English, even with subtitles, something the Godzilla YouTube channel has actually been doing–adding credits in the captions. Still, for those who don’t want to read while they’re trying to follow the action, the voice acting is quite good and the show itself still worth catching. If you’d rather hear Japanese and read subtitles the whole series is already up, but for those who prefer English or just want to rewatch the series, now’s the time to start as they re-upload the series with new voices.
It’s going to be one of those comics, folks.
The Blue Beetle #12
Fox Features Publications Holyoke Publishing Company (June, 1942)
Okay, from what I’ve gathered, Victor Fox was in a lot of financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy. Holyoke was the printer I think of the Fox comics and they got the rights to Blue Beetle in the interim. Fox would be back in charge by issue 31 but this was a Holyoke production from #12 to #30. My guess, seeing as they just took the Fox name off the cover, that this was an issue ready to publish and they just printed it before eventually doing their own. This should be interesting, though it will still be an anthology, at least for a while. You can follow along here.
On the plus side I’m done with Davy The Wish Master and his messed up world. On the down side, of all the Wonderworld Comics characters that could have been put here, who do we get? The Flame? Patty O’Day, Maybe even Dr. Fung? No, it’s Spark Stevens and his fellow girl-chasing moron! I’d have accepted Yarko because it’s at least fun to make fun of, but Dumb And Jerky? Here’s hoping it’s outgrown the formula of the previous comics I’ve reviewed.
Okay, if I’m STARTING a feature article with a Just Some Guy commentary (contains swearing), you know I must have things to say.
Note that was from a gay black liberal who just happens to believe in storytelling over gimmicks. Essentially that’s what Kamala Khan is…a gimmick disguised as a character. Whatever you think about her skin color or her religion that’s basically how she’s been approached. The concept is actually solid. Kamala Khan (and isn’t it strange that modern heroes aren’t known to the audience by their superhero identities but their real names, making me wonder why they bother if they care so little) is a superhero fangirl who also struggles with her more orthodox Muslim family. One day a whiff of the Inhumans’ “Terrigen Mist” does a world tour and traps people in eggs. The ones that survive or something get turned into Inhumans. This was DisneyMarvel trying to distance themselves from mutants because they didn’t have the rights to the X-Men franchise as 20th Century Fox had those rights before Disney absorbed Marvel. Now that they’ve also absorbed Fox the mutants are back and the Inhumans are back to near-obscurity after their post-comic productions bombed like the town drunk carrying high explosives and upset at his failed stand-up comedy career. Yes, that was overkill. From what I hear it may not be overkill enough.
Anyway, Kamala Khan was really created to teach readers (I almost wrote kids but when’s the last time any of the mainstream writers cared about kids–IDW puts out more kids-related Marvel comics and they just lost the licence) about Muslim life after the alleged hate after the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and failed attack on the White House. Ignore the fact that the terrorists were extremists, there are people who don’t know the difference between culture and religion but now I’m getting off topic. The point is Kamala was never created to be just a superhero character. She’s a promotional tool for understanding Muslims first and that’s where the problem started.
And now apparently she’s about to be dead, thanks to events in Amazing Spider-Man, and there’s the usual response. Like her, or just like the idea of the second if you count Dusk totally first ever Muslim girl hero but don’t actually buy the comics, or if you actually like her comic, the response has been loud and obvious. However, I come not to praise nor bury Kamala Khan because she does have some merit…and death is like the flu in superhero comics.
Cover rabbit is judging you.
Tron 2.0 #3
SLG Publishing (January, 2007)
WRITERS: Landry Walker & Eric Jones
ARTIST: Michael Shoyket (with Guru-eFX)
LETTERER/SFX: Eleanor Lawson
EDITOR: Dan Vado
Yeah, it’s a cheap promo for the Honor Among Thieves movie but questionable impersonations aside it’s nice to see the 80s Saturday morning kids show get acknowledged and NOT trashed. Still not as good as this.
It’s an old car ad but I’m sure someone would have mentioned it eventually.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
BW Media Spotlight 