Told today, he probably would've ended up on her Crocs, which might not be a dealbreaker.

 

I was mildly surprised that McDonald's was having a Happy Meal Crocs toy, since Deadpool ruined those for me. The Youngest had a pair, with some of those little Jibbitz shoe charms; click that link and wreck your targeted ads for this month! But, we're going to look at some older-school charms, in today's book! From 1976, the Twilight Zone #73, featuring "A Charmed Life!" Art by Jack Sparling. Cover by George Wilson.

I really want to go to another YouTube link already, the William S. Burroughs/Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy number "Words of Advice for Young People." Namely, because even the GCD summary is like "has a deal with the devil ever worked?" A mobster makes a deal with a dame of a devil, noticing her charm bracelet of famous sellouts--er, celebrities, including a judge. He does lead the proverbial charmed life for a bit, as his enemies can't even kill him when he's right there; but the devil calls in her marker, and asks him to take a fall, to give a boost to an ambitious lawyer who could be governor or better someday. The mobster refuses, although he tries to change his tune after he shrinks down, becoming another charm in the devil's bracelet.

"Premonition" maybe feels closer to a classic episode: returning home on a hot and humid night, a professor is shocked to see himself leaving his house! He gives chase, but then realizes no one else seems to see him. Panicked, he makes his way to a friend's house, and is relieved to be seen there. He stays the night, and after a massive thunderstorm, the professor and his friend return to his house, to find his bedroom destroyed by lightning!

Rod Serling seems thrilled to intro the next one, "The Missing Link," wherein an anthropologist claims to have found evidence of the missing link, but then gets caught in a storm and lost without supplies. He manages to survive, but seemingly becomes his "missing link," and comes to a bit of a non sequitur ending. Finally, in "The Last Voyage" a couple of pirates direct from central casting sabotage their vessel before they jump ship, but get lost in a fog before they can make land. Yeah, that's not gonna go well.

Bonus: another Hulk Hostess ad! A magician turns into a giant frog and terrorizes the city, which is somehow the Hulk's problem. Still, it features a better mayor than Eric Adams!

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The other day on BlueSky, somebody was looking for a comic I knew I had seen recently, which turned out to be Jordi Bernet's Solo #6. Which took me for damn ever to find on the blog, because I didn't have it tagged under "horror comics," presumably because it wasn't all horror. This one probably isn't either, but let's see! From 2006, Solo #8, by Teddy Kristiansen.

I'm trying to recall where else I've seen Kristiansen's art, since while he's from Denmark, it always feels like it's from somewhere colder, where the locals have to rub walrus blubber on themselves to keep from freezing to death. Or, I may just be meandering, because the lead story features Deadman but is written by Gaiman, so we're skipping that. "The Good Book" is written by Steven Seagle, and tells of some English missionaries in Papua, New Guinea. One comes to a bad end, while another is saved; not by the Bible, but by another good book.

The rest are written by Kristiansen himself: in "Love Story" an artist left sleepless in a heat wave walks the city in the cooler night, and becomes infatuated with a woman also awake. Next, "Ruins," where another artist is commissioned to paint the works of an aged architect, but as ruins. That one seems like it could go in a Lovecraft direction, but doesn't; it just feels sad. Finally, "Ice" follows a doomed Antarctic expedition, to its seemingly inevitable end. 

Not my favorite issue of Solo, but Kristiansen's got an interesting style. Oh, I used to read the Vertigo House of Secrets, that's where I'd seen him before.

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"Fall Day."

No commentary yet today; I had trouble posting this one for some reason: I've never had any trouble from Blogger's community guidelines before. Read more!

Pretty sure I had a copy of this, but you find something like this in the quarter bin, you kind of have to, right? From 1989, Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe #1, story and pencils by Fred Hembeck, inks by Vince Colletta and Joe Staton.

A down-and-out Hembeck doesn't think things could possibly get worse, when he's faced with the Punisher, who wants to know if he's the guy that destroyed the Marvel Universe. Or, at least, all the heroes and villains, anyway. Well, yeah, but in his defense, he was tricked into doing it by his evil twin, and the pages were never published...until now! Which explains some of the minor continuity issues; like the Hulk was grey by the time this hit stands. Hijinks, of course, ensue.

Some of the jokes are hit-and-miss, like an extended riff on Doctor Doom's true identity as Reed's dad? And Reed's long-lost sister? I think I liked J.Jonah Jameson's reaction to incoming news of assorted heroes dying, which swerves from legit grieving to champagne popping off about when you'd expect. There was another book a year later, Fred Hembeck Sells the Marvel Universe, which was mostly reprints of his Marvel Age strips. There was also a 2016 the Marvel Universe According to Hembeck trade, but it's been a few since I've seen new stuff from him. Read more!

Is it spooky season? EEEK!

September 30? Ah, close enough. Some might consider October spooky season, but I saw a lot of Christmas stuff over the weekend. Way too much. But, I did find this from a clearance rack, too: from 2010, EEEK! #1, stories and art by Jason Paulos. Cover by Aly Fell. 

Paulos delivers 16 (!) short stories here, in the vein of classic Creepy or Eerie. Highlights include "Thrill Killer," in which a creep decides to try his hand at murdering strangers, but soon finds he's hardly the only one; and "Six Digit Disaster," where a spacefaring crook makes a fatal counting error. I think Paulos may still be crunching out horror tales for Asylum Press; good for him. 

As usual, I don't have a plan in my head, but do I have enough horror comics within arm's reach for the next month...? Mmm, tomorrow's book probably doesn't qualify as horror; but I guess it depends who you ask.

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See if you can go halfsies on this one!

On my spinner rack, I have a couple issues of his original 1992 series and his 2017; but I haven't made a lot of progress completing either. Ghost Rider appears on the cover of 1993's #4, which might be tougher to find; and the 2017 is probably like his Mercs for Money teammate Solo, in that the latter issues of this one are going to be more scarce. Still, this one's here now, so...from 2017, Slapstick #2, "Saturday Morning Massacre!" Written by Reilly Brown and Fred Van Lente, storyboards by Reilly Brown, art by Diego Olortegui.

I think I've seen him guest a few times--like maybe a really bad Marvel Comics Presents serial--and then with the Mercs for Money, but this might be the first Slapstick I've read? Huh. Short origin, he entered a portal to another dimension, while dressed as a clown? Now he's made of "electroplasm" and is basically an indestructible cartoon character. Still, he'd like to be human again, and has started working with the computer Quasimodo; who also had body issues. This issue, Slapstick gets dragged to a football with his niece, nephew, and best friend; which is interrupted by the arrival of Bro-Man! Slappy doesn't exactly leap into action, since he learned to hold out for a cash offer from Deadpool; and the cartoon barbarian hacks the cops up, since he appeared to be indestructible like Slapstick.

The fight doesn't go great for Slapstick, when he finally gets in there, and there's also a Spider-Man pinned-by-something-heavy riff. Eventually, he halves Bro-Man, and takes half the body back to Quasimodo; but the remaining half manages to get a message to S.H.I--no, a division of that, A.R.M.O.R. Who follow him home, to his parents' basement, and Slapstick and Quasimodo are taken into custody. Slapstick puts up a brave front, then caves hard; and the government probably would throw the book at him for trying to open a portal to another dimension. Except, another threat has appeared in Westfield, the Smurf/My Little Pony hybrid Taurs. Will A.R.M.O.R. be forced to work with Slapstick? You can tell, they really don't want to, but... Read more!

So the story goes, when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were working on Amazing Spider-Man, when it came time to unmask the Green Goblin, that Ditko didn't think it should be someone they had seen before, but Lee thought it if was Harry Osborn's dad Norman, that would be more dramatic. That story may or may not be true, but you shouldn't assume every masked character is someone you actually know. Like today's book! From 2001, Universe X #8, story by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger, pencils by Doug (Dougie) Braithwaite, inks by Bill Reinhold. 

I've mentioned before, I haven't done a big re-read of the Earth X/Universe X/Paradise X epic for some time; but I keep picking up random issues out of the cheap bins. Could I put together another run of it? Doubtful, that'd be like 40-some books total (if you stick to the original!) and includes #0's, #1/2's, specials...This issue, the Earth X narrator Aaron Stack joins up with this title's narrator, Kyle Richmond--Machine Man and Nighthawk, although neither are near their classic looks! They go after Isaac, the Gargoyle, who had betrayed Kyle to Mephisto in exchange for getting to feel again; but Mephisto tells him, "you could always 'feel' guilt, Isaac."

The current Daredevil was an unkillable, um, daredevil; a circus performer who may or may not have been anyone we actually knew. (At this point, anyway; someone might sub in later!) New York City was basically a colossal riot today, but DD is lamenting the lack of his audience; when he's approached by Ransak the Reject, who was looking for Reed Richards, since he could cure the mutations that had been caused by the Terrigen Mists. Which I don't think would help Ransak; who, like Harvey Dent in Dark Knight Returns, was convinced he was hideous. Ransak doesn't have his usual pal Karkas here, to keep him level. The NYPD, which included Peter Parker and Luke Cage, was all that stood between a colossal mob of mutates bent on destroying the "Human Torch" built by Richards, that was designed to cure humanity. A paunchy, accountant-looking Iceman maintains ice walls around it, while wondering when his old pal Warren became so gloomy...and unstylish. Daredevil confronts "Mr. Church," actually Mephisto, and his Church of Immortus. DD refuses to join, because he wants them to kill him; Warren sees the crowd tear him apart but is unable to help.

There's a brief aside to Wakanda, where Mar-Vell's group asks the Black Panther for the Cosmic Cube: the Panther's Earth X mutation is a rare miss from Ross, since it's just T'Challa with a realistic panther head. Back in Latveria, the reunited Reed and Sue Richards may not have much time left together, as the mob of mutated humanity attacks, and the Tong of Creel is there as well, intent on reassembling the Absorbing Man. The Thing's cheerful kids, Buzz and Chuck, try to defend them; but Creel's head and Doom's time machine are both gone. Ransak the Reject arrives in time, with the "Monster Generation," mutated humans who wanted to be un-mutated. 

Re-checking the reading order, the Beasts special was next: it's a dark one!

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