"Swallow."

OK, it feels like I haven't done one of this style strip in a while, although I probably have: where we visit a bunch of characters briefly and see if by random chance anybody moves the plot forward or if they're all part of the same problem. It's a good excuse to dig up a ton of figures, which I maybe have to organize now. 

Moon Knight's sword is from real current continuity in his book, and it's great! Well worth grabbing. Gwenpool has obviously seen the second season of X-Men '97: I have not yet! But I know what happens and am okay with it. I'm kind of hoping in a season or two they speed-run Amazing X-Men. Also, pink fills! Ah, I didn't miss those.

I feel like there's a better MCU Valkyrie figure, and I have the MCU Sif as well but really prefer this Simonson-style look. Although, I seem to associate it with just before Simonson's run, where Sif seems to slowly realize her extremely long-term boyfriend loves stupid Midgard and its stupid people, maybe more than he loves her.  Also, I like the Sylvie figure from the Loki show, except for her coat-cape thing: it makes her look hunched over, doesn't it? Sadly, I also think hers was not a well-selling figure; you might be able to find her on discount pegs still. 

Gorr's cloak maybe does him less favors than Sylvie's: her articulation was perhaps hindered a bit, but Gorr's is buried. But I like the idea of Gorr more than the execution: Thor: Love and Thunder is kind of a mess tonally? The scene of Gorr scaring children and seemingly having a ball doing it, kind of undermines any sympathy for the plight that drove him to kill gods. Anyway, finding Gorr was strictly an accident, but a good-enough excuse to use him, largely for ridicule. Couple weeks back, the great Poe Ghostal showed off a new Elric figure; that I completely missed the bus on; the aftermarket is not gonna be forgiving on that one. But it reminded me that Gorr, Knull, Dagon Gera from some Star Wars; there's a lot of Elric-lookalikes out there. (Generally they're pale with an evil sword: the bad guy in Hellboy II: the Golden Army is very based on him.)

Read more!

Humble Bundles and all are fine, but time to get back to random, actual comics! Today we have, um, part 9 of 12, and we're going in cold! From 2019, Adventures of the Super-Sons #9, "The Good, the Bad, and the Sons" Written by Peter J. Tomasi, art by Scott Godlewski. Cover by Dan Mora.

Damian Wayne and Jon Kent had been lost in space for most of their mini-series here, trying to get back to earth and warn the heroes about an upcoming invasion, from the "Injustice Army," which was seemingly a bunch of alien kids cosplaying as super-villains. This issue, Robin, Superboy, and Green Lantern trainee AI-X crash on a western-themed prison planet, and meet a robot Jonah Hex. Robo-Hex agrees to take them to try and steal a ship, but no further: he had been a soldier for some time, and was currently allowed to roam around until he was needed again, which he wasn't real excited about. Still, the robot didn't have free will, and kind of didn't want it: the idea of that responsibility seemed to weigh on him.

As Superboy and Robin fight security robots, AI-X clouts Hex from behind with a pipe; then reprograms him to release him from control and give him freedom. Hex joins the heroes, as they steal a very train-shaped transport to escape...to be continued.

I'm not sure they all ran the same time, but I see issues of this and Wonder Twins in the quarter bins every so often, but not yet a full run of 'em: the orders for the later issues might have been cut back, so they probably don't end up there. Huh, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen was yet another 12-issue mini from the same time; I never see that in the cheap bins! Read more!

If I was more on the ball, I'd have mentioned this when it was still available.

Although, they might still be floating around in the real world, which is honestly still tempting?

(From Walt Disney's Scrooge McDuck: The Dragon of Glasgow, written by Joris Chamblain, art by Fabrizio Petrossi.)

You've probably noticed I've been on an Uncle Scrooge kick lately, so yeah, I had to get the latest Disney Masters bundle, even though it was a bit more Mickey Mouse heavy than I'd prefer. But that said, Zombie Coffee was pretty good!  
 

(From Disney Masters #26--Walt Disney Donald Duck: Tales of Andold Wild Duck, by Marco Rota.)

The way I (probably mis-)understand it: while Disney comics haven't been produced regularly stateside in probably decades; other, frankly better countries, still make them. Inspired by Carl Barks, Don Rosa, and a host of others; foreign artists and writers have been cranking out new adventures for Donald, Scrooge, and the rest for years: they've not only gotten really good at it, but they've also built up quite the backstock, the cream of which is now released in America by Fantagraphics, for the cultured sophisticates amongst you. Or randos like me!

(From Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge: World of the Dragonlords, written by Byron Erickson, pencils by Giorgio Cavazzano, inks by Sandro Zemolin.)

Again, Humble Bundle and digital is a great way to get to read a ton of those...except, I've seen some of those books for sale--Dragon of Glasgow is still tempting, even though I just read it! They're just quality work, presented really well; and I say that as someone who usually buys a ton of cheap stuff rather than one high-end piece. They'd look great on the shelf and would be worth re-reading again. I'm probably not going to run out and buy the collections...but I'll keep my eyes open. 

I haven't made it all the way through that bundle, either! But, that's why I have the library, there. 

Read more!

Excellent, but one minor caveat:

(From Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons, written by Frank Tieri, art by Inaki Miranda. Pretty darn good: it might not have been planned as one from the start, but the first of a trilogy.) 

 The other day on BlueSky, Gail Simone pointed out that an almost sure-fire indicator of quality comics nowadays, surprisingly enough, was Godzilla. Probably unrelated, unless they saw an opportunity and hopped on it, seemingly about 20 minutes later Humble Bundle put out a big ol' bundle of IDW Godzilla comics.

(From Godzilla: Heist, written by Van Jensen, art by Kelsey Ramsay. Not bad, although I think Aftershock had Kaiju Score maybe a couple years prior.) 

 And it is a big ol' bundle, with some of their recent "Kei-Sei Era" titles and the books pictured here, six big volumes of the Godzilla Library Collection, four volumes of Godzilla: Rivals that seemingly check in on every kaiju you can think of, and some Godzilla: Monsterpiece Theatre and more! Now how much would you pay?...well, I think $18 gets you the lot. 

(From Godzilla: Skate or Die!, story and art by Louie Joyce. Stylish and fun.) 

 The only downside on this one, is that instead of directly through Humble Bundle, you have to get the books from Kobo.com; which I suspect is a licensing issue. It's mildly annoying to have this chunk separate from my other library; and I worry that these might eventually go away, like Sony did to all those Playstation movies. My Humble library goes back to 2014, and to the best of my knowledge, I've never had anything ganked from it. Moreover, the Humble stuff I can download and keep. Still, $18 for charity, and to read a bunch of Godzilla? I could hardly sleep on that. It's still available now if that grabs you! 

One more thing: this does not include the recent Godzilla books Marvel and DC have been doing...and honestly, I feel like they aren't the only ones, he's been all over the place of late! DC's were based on the recent, American version with Kong; while Marvel is currently in the middle a multiverse thing (of course) featuring Knull (I hope you have someone in your life that pushes you like Marvel pushes Knull...) and has largely become Dr. Doom's show--again, of course.

Read more!

I'm positive "Thirsty Thursday" has a different connotation now; maybe don't search that at work.

But, we'll keep things PG here! Probably. From 1975, Superman #293, "The Miracle of Thirsty Thursday!" Written by Elliot S! Maggin, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Bob Oksner; with a classic 'Super-Dickery' cover by Oksner.

This tied into a theme Maggin would use a few times, up to the Miracle Monday novel: historians from the future would visit the present every so often, and of course get tangled up in Superman events. Historian Joann Jaime was going back from 3475 to August 21, 1975...which isn't a Thursday this year, but close! Joann wants to see if she can verify the "miracle of Thirsty Thursday," which she didn't think had anything to do with Superman; her superior is like yeah, sure it doesn't.

In the present, Superman stops a fire, saving a small child; then heads back to WGBS, where Joann had already managed to get inside, pretending to let Steve Lombard pick her up. She refuses to let Steve prank Clark by tying his shoes together: Joann knew he was Superman, and uses a hidden device to swap Clark and Steve's shoes, which feels like would that would be confusing to explain away. Still, on a live feed, as the firefighters are putting out the remains of the apartment fire, they suddenly become afraid of their hoses, dropping them and leaving the fire to surge again. Could this be the result of a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist's accident, that had turned him into a wild man? While he was roaming the streets, others, including Lois, are also repulsed by water; and the city's hotels are fuller than hell, of time-travellers stopping by to catch this!

After putting the fire out for good, Superman stops to talk to Lois, but is immediately attacked by the scientist, whom he recognizes. Listening in back at the lab, Superman hears that the scientist had accidentally released an airborne serum that caused aquaphobia, and then drove himself crazy with the wrong cure: the only cure was for the victim to either be kept hyperactive, or completely rested, for an entire day. Meanwhile, Joann has to stop a fellow historian, from trying to force water down a kid's throat to save them: no changing history, no exceptions. Superman uses heat vision, to puncture cannisters of sleeping gas stored beneath the city...stored beneath the city for why? Well, all the citizens are knocked out, except the scientist, who Superman has to tussle with for a full day.

The next day, everyone wakes up, none the worse for wear, except thirsty. The scientist is cured, but Superman tells both him and his boss (who had the sleeping gas? Like a lot of it?) what had happened but swears them to secrecy. The assorted historians who had visited had also been knocked out, so both they and Joann still have no explanation for what had happened, except a miracle. She still doesn't think it was Superman-related, but does consider him the greatest miracle of the era. Read more!

"Vague."

For some reason, whenever I glance at that Blade figure, the red markings on the chest armor seem like they should be a COBRA symbol. I lucked into him on sale last week, so here he is; following up on Kurt, who had been ducking him. Yeesh, we set that up like seven years back! 

And I don't think we've had this Man-Wolf in here yet! He's such a fun figure, of a look that has not really been in a ton of comics. Although, since he's part of Hasbro's Magic tie-in, the figure is more expensive because he comes with cards, which don't do much for you if you don't play. (Actually, I don't know enough to say if he comes with decently playable cards, either.) Man-Wolf is maybe a smidge cheaper now if you shop it around; but I'll get soaked again later for Doom 2099 and his cards.

Read more!

This one I've barely made a dent into.

Well, maybe I'll make some more headway during scary-season: the complete Warren Comics Creepy.

(From Creepy #1, "Werewolf!" Written by Larry Ivie, art by Frank Frazetta.) Dark Horse reprinted the entire classic horror magazine, which had run for 145 issues. I'm on, um, issue 4? Back in 2023, Humble Bundle offered the whole shebang, and maybe the week before had done likewise with Eerie, for another 139 issues! Ooh, better get started.

(From Creepy #1, "The Success Story" Written by Archie Goodwin, art by Al Williamson. Perhaps not intentionally, it reads like a middle finger to Bob Kane.) The introduction of the first volume describes Warren's attempt to re-create the EC Comics they loved, with as much of the original staff as they could get, but in magazine form to get out from under the eye of the Comics Code. A lot of credit goes to editor/writer/maybe sometimes artist? Archie Goodwin, for shepherding the whole thing and generally being just cool as hell to work for. (Among a million other things, Goodwin also wrote a couple years of Marvel's Star Wars, some of my earliest comics!)

(From Creepy #3, "Tell-Tale Heart!" Written by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted by Archie Goodwin, art by Reed Crandall.) The Humble Bundle is a great way to get these on the cheap--the first Archive alone is six bucks digital now, maybe sixteen for the paperback, in the fifties for the hardback: I paid like twenty for the Bundle. But the absolute best way to read Creepy (or Eerie!) is a random issue you find somewhere: even now they feel mysterious and forbidden somehow. That said, I don't know if I've ever seen this particular Bundle offered again.

(From Creepy #4, "Moon City!" Written by Larry Englehart, art by Al McWilliams.) So far there's been more sci-fi horror than I'd expected; I wonder if that holds true for the whole run? Read more!