Or – “Proof That Not Every Licensed Property Is A License To Print Money… It’s the 4th of July, American Independence Day, and here at Stately Spoilers Manor East, I’m preparing for a campout, purchasing sparklers for young Molly, and wondering if the 231st Anniversary is celebrated with Adamantium or Prometheum. 25 years ago this month, give or take a few days, I was on a boy scout campout, and my ever-awesome cousin Elwood had brought with him a comic book he picked up at the local Duckwalls. G.I. Joe had recently been a HUGE hit for Marvel, followed quickly…
Browsing: Retro Review
Or – “Where it all began…” This week Major Spoilers celebrates its first birthday! Woohoo! While Major Spoilers may be one year old this week, my love of comics began way back 1981. We were on a family vacation – you know the kind of vacation where you pack everyone into a camper and travel the highways and byways of this great country seeing the sites. I believe it was the summer we did the old west tour of Deadwood, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, and of course Frontier Days in Cheyenne. It was on one of the many…
Or – “Trying To Separate The Art From The Artist…” When I read a comic (or, honestly, watch a movie, television program, play, or read a book,) I find myself not only enjoying the stories of the characters within the fiction, but the stories of the people behind them. I am fascinated by the thought that while James Kirk is a stalwart hero, Bill Shatner become known as an ass. I’m fascinated by Cerebus, but disturbed and a little bit offended by some of the thoughts espoused by his creator. And then we come to Alex Ross… Regular Spoilermaniacs will…
Or – “Ya Say Ya Likes The Horror Comics? I GOT Your Horror Comics…” Last Monday was a legal holiday… What this meant for those of us who follow comics was the delay ’til Thursday from the regular Wednesday comic shipment. What it means to you, loyal Spoilermaniacs, is that Matthew’s grab bag of recappy goodness has done run dry, and the new comics won’t be out until this afternoon. I considered reviewing the preview copy of New Warriors #1 from the store, (Gatekeeper Hobbies, Huntoon & Gage, Topeka! Ask ’em about our Vampirella variant covers!) but wasn’t sure of the ethics of…
Or – “As The Creative Team Called It, ‘That Damn Legion Tabloid’…” This is it, Spoileroholics… The Holy Grail of my Legion collection. The first Legion of Super-Heroes issue I ever read, the one that started a lifelong obsession with Legion and with continuity. Miraculously, I got it on an internet auction site for COVER PRICE (plus shipping, of course) and it’s actually one of those rare experiences that is still as entertaining now as it was then. In 1978, the Legion was in the midst of a renaissance, with new members, a new title (taking over ‘Superboy’ and eventually…
Or – “Fruity IS One Way To Describe It. Bananas Will Also Suffice…” Of all the comic books I’ve owned, this one proved among the most difficult to track down. (I know, you’re probably amazed that I went looking for the thing at all, but I have a penchant for collecting the weird and obscure heroes of small publishers.) First, it’s easy to get a complete run of a one-issue series, and second, part of the fun of buying old comics is the thrill of the hunt, looking through third-hand bookstores and creepy shops in off-kilter neighborhoods to find that…
Or – “He Wasn’t Always A Huge Tool. Once, He Was A Huge Tool With A Tom Selleck Haircut.” With all the verbal beatings heaped upon Senor Antonio Stark in recent weeks, I decided it was well past time to look at something that predates his characterization as a “futurist” (which seems to be synonymous with the characterization of Batman in the Morrison and Waid eras of JLA: the man paranoid enough to act in a manner completely contrary to heroism in the name of preparation), as well as a time when comics in general were simpler. The occasional would-be…
Or – “The Secret of 52 Is… Gardner Fox Was A Frickin’ Genius.” There are those who find the Silver Age of comics ridiculous, and the situations laughable. They cite simpler art, weird stories, and a general lack of realism as sticking points, whereas I cite them as the main selling points. In those days, the language of comics was still in it’s formative years (after all, the time difference between the debut of Superman and the debut of Barry Allen as the new Flash was a mere 15 years), and every story essentially came from whole cloth. And nowhere is this…
Or – “Who He Is, And How He Came To Be…” This was originally supposed to be last night’s recap, but a series of unfortunate events that ended with a visit to the emergency room pretty much put the kibosh on that. (Pinched nerve in the neck causing tremendous pain in the arm and shoulder, but I’m okay, thanks.) So, for the sake of argument, pretend it’s Sunday. You’ve just watched Grey’s Anatomy, or Battlestar Galactica, or whatever it is that NBC puts up, and you’re dreading the hateful Monday morning to come. That’s when you click on Major Spoilers.com…
Or – “This Is The Dawning Of The Age Of Aquarius! Aquaaaariuuuuuuus!” Eel O’ Brien is a character who has seen a lot of incarnations, even as comic book characters go. Originated by Quality Comics back in Dubya Dubya Two, O’Brien became one of the most visually memorable characters of the Golden Age, not merely able to stretch, but change his shape completely, even create complex machinery or be cut into pieces without losing his cohesiveness. The Eelster disappeared in 1956, when a foundering Quality Comics finally went under, but he certainly wasn’t forgotten. At some point, DC Comics acquired…
Or – “The Thin Line Between High Concept and Dumb Idea.” Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month, what we at Gatekeeper Hobbies (Gage & Huntoon, Topeka, KS, tell ’em Matthew sent ya!) call “Buying Day.” Padding out the bottom of a box of comics we MEANT to buy was a very dog-eared copy of Master Of Kung Fu, circa 1980, that was bound for one of two places: The Quarter Bin, or my collection. Since the two are generally synonymous (and since I remember this book from my youth), I thought we might all enjoy it together, and…