News for the Week of December 17, 2008
Rick’s Writin’s
I put up my Christmas lights about ten days ago. I have a light blue house
so I picked blue icicles for the house and small multicolor bulbs for
the lamp I have in my front yard, so blue with multicolor highlights.
I think it looks very nice. I come home last night and see that my neighbor
across the street from me has copied my color scheme. Blue lights on his
mustard yellow house, and multicolor bulb strands on the posts of his
stoop. The only difference is I have icicles and his are regular bulbs
on the house. An “homage" to my great sense of taste, you say.
I doubt it. Maybe that's all he had, you say. Christmas lights are cheap.
Go buy different colors. I claim LAME!! Besides, blue lights on a mustard
yellow house??? What's he thinking anyway? It ends up making his house
look baby turd green. And no, I was here first and used the same colors
last year. The neighbors moved in this last summer. Petty gripping?? I
don't think so... his house is baby turd green!! Case closed. On to the
next item: Our informal poll based on my last weeks Fred Meyer excursion
was pretty much unanimous. No, you can't comment to a total female stranger
that they have a body attribute you find particularly appealing or perfect,
no matter how gentlemanly you put it. One poor schmo thought that you
could pull it off but we have to consider the source of that vote (Sorry
J). There's a part of me that still thinks perchance with the right amount
of charm and the right girl to take the comment as it is meant, it could
be done, but the odds are very much against it. A couple of the girls
voiced the possibility of physically harming the poor guy that was stupid
enough to comment to them about their "assets" (That'd be you
again J.). Oh, and no cell phone cameras either. Mentioning cameras brings
up a sad note for me: My pin-up favorite model girl Bettie Page passed
away this last Thursday at age 85. Most of you probably know what a big
fan of hers I am. There's been some photo or poster of Bettie on the wall
or in the window of Spy Comics since I opened. Many times more than just
one, as well as always having Bettie stuff to sell. Since I bring it up
whenever I have the chance, many of you know I'm lucky enough to have
a letter from Bettie as well. It's a full page and a half Thank You card
letter that she sent me back when I sent a birthday card to her and a
Dave Stevens Bettie Page comic to have her sign. That was about ten years
ago and it's one of my prized possessions. I pulled the letter out and
read it again. I never expected a letter back from her, I was just wishing
for an autograph. Bettie was really sweet to write back. She was supposed
to be a really nice girl, and that she wrote me back proves it to me.
For those of you that don't know who Bettie is, Google her. Her story
is pretty fascinating and she was a chameleon in front of the camera.
She could do anything from being the girl next door to naughty vampy bondage
girl, bikini girl romping on the beach to hot secretary to sweet leopard
clad jungle girl playing with animals and any and all in between. I say
she's Marilyn Monroe's equal for iconically representing the sexy 1950's
and I think Bettie has had more impact on women, fashion wise, with her
distinct Bettie Page look, than Marilyn ever did or probably ever will.
Salute to you Bettie, and Thank You!
Comic offerings this week are very X title heavy on the Marvel side, though that's not all, and DC has some middle range items, but nothing super spectacular. Buffy fans have been pacing the floor waiting as the normally on time Buffy (#20) has been running a bit late. Dark Horse has noted the lateness and they've fixed it. This week's Buffy story, a stand alone one-shot, is written by Jeph Loeb, formerly of the TV show "Heroes" and originally tapped by Joss Whedon to produce a proposed Buffy animated series that never happened. Until now. Get your peek at the animated Buffy show that never was, with art by regular Buffy variant cover artist Georges Jeanty and animator Eric Wight. Also, as a nice double we have the new Angel: After the Fall (#15).
Aside from the weekly Trinity (#29 already!!), DC has got my girl Cassie's last issue of her Batgirl mini (#6 of 6). What will she do when or even if she's finally confronts her father, assassin David Cain? She's sworn to kill him, but also promised Bruce/Batman that she wouldn't ever kill again. Decisions, Decisions. What to do? Cassie's team the Outsiders is also in flux due to the happenings in the Batman RIP story, so who knows what's up for Batman and the Outsiders (#14) this week. I'm very curious to know. Supergirl (#36) carries the Superman New Krypton story this time, and the Birds of Prey (#125) deal with the aftermath of the Joker's visit and his confrontation/fight with Barbara/Batgirl/Oracle last issue. I don't want to give anything away, but Good One Babs!!
As I said this week's Marvel books are X heavy, but there's also some of the new Dark Reign story, including the main one-shot Dark Reign New Nation. As I forgot the secret solicitation Previews that we've been handing out at the store, I can't tell you what it's about, but look in your bag if you've been in this past week and you can read the blurb. Other books this week that link to the Dark Reign story are Mighty Avengers (#20) and Invincible Iron Man (#9). The other main off shoot of the Secret Invasion story, besides Dark Reign, is the War of Kings, and the first of those books arrives with the X-Men mini Kingbreaker (#1 of 4). The other X-books this week are the two main X-books, Uncanny X-Men (#505) which still has the Manifest Destiny story and X-Men Legacy (#219) the story of which I have no clue. There's also X-Factor (#38) and New Exiles (#16). How do you X readers keep this stuff straight? Spidey fans get two as well: Amazing Spider-Man (#581) is leading up to the next big story starting in issue #584, and there's also Spider-Man Noir (#1 of 4) a story set in the 1940's and companion to the X-Men Noir mini that came out last week. "til next time...
Paula’s Picks
I hope everyone is enjoying the snow. I thought at the start of the day
that it was going to be absolutely dead in here because of it. Boy, was
I wrong! It’s been non-stop for 2 and a half hours. Wait. Make that
3. It’s nice to know that even snow will not stop the fans from
getting their comics!
As for comics, I just heard
that Fables (#79 ships this week) could be a TV show next year. I’m
a little worried as I’ve never seen any of the previous work of
the people slated to work on it. It’s also on ABC, which means they’ll
have to tone it down quite a bit. It would be a great series for TV, if
it were done right. That’s what needs to be done with more comics:
make them TV shows. They would translate better than movies since both
TV shows and comics are serialized anyway.
I better wrap this up quick. It’s starting to snow and I’ve
got a lot more work to do before I can go home.
From Marvel, we’re getting Deadpool #5 which is the last part of the “Horror Bizness” storyline where Deadpool fights some zombies. In Thor God Sized #1 (too big for Giant Sized, I guess) we learn about Skurge written by Matt Fraction and art by Dou Braithwaite, Marko Djurdjevic and more. Avengers Initiative #19 is a Secret Invasion tie-in and see Bullseye and Venom unleashed in Thunderbolts #127.
Also, since it looks like the weather is going to be very…wintery this week, please check out our website for hours, delays and closures updates.