The current Space Ghost book from Dynamite? Pretty good! The current Green Lantern books...um. Hmm. I know I had picked up one recently with a fun cover that wasn't as fun inside, so I'm not as sure. Today's book: back on the fun side, mostly! From 2017, Green Lantern/Space Ghost Special #1, "The Wonders of Space" Written by James Tynion IV and Christopher Sebela, art by Ariel Olivetti. Olivetti had done other Space Ghost stuff for DC and did the main cover for this one, but this is the Doug Mahnke/Christian Alamy variant.

Coming from their respective dimensions, Hal Jordan and Space Ghost land on a world in a darkened void, that believed it was alone in the universe and that there was no other life anywhere. They were becoming dicks about it, and the paid have to team up to help a scientist and his niece prove there was more to the universe (no Prime Directive for them!) although the scientist dies after getting to see the stars for the first time.

Also this issue: a deep cut from Hanna-Barbera, and a lesson in television history, from Howard Chaykin: Ruff 'n Ready! The pair had been the first color Saturday morning cartoon, Ruff the smarty cat and Reddy the dimmer dog; but they were pals instead of foes. In Chaykin's version the pair were stand-up comics, who find out their former partners were stealing their bits, which inspires them to team up themselves. It's not like the pair were Tom & Jerry, so there's probably more leeway, but there are jokes I'm surprised Chaykin got away with!

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I probably should'a bought this before, but Igoo guest-stars? Put that on the cover!

From 2017, Future Quest Presents #2, "The Buried Past" Written by Jeff Parker, art by Ariel Olivetti.

I know I read the 2005 Joe Kelly/Ariel Olivetti Space Ghost mini-series; but I slept on the 2016 Future Quest until I got it at a show. I don't know if both series share continuity, but this more resembles the 2005; as Space Ghost is trying to rebuild the galactic Space Force, starting with his two young wards Jan and Jace. This issue, with Igoo from the Herculoids, they're exploring a dangerous mine for element zeo, which was a component in the power bands.

Igoo helps fight a crystal monster, but can't go on past dangerous chasms--the others could fly. Eventually, they find what seems like an odd statue, but is actually a dead Space Force officer, and an armored figure, who knocks out and captures them all, except Blip the monkey. (That monkey saved their hash so many times!) There's a flashback, to Space Ghost rescuing the kids as their parents' cargo ship got sucked into a "quantum sinkhole," then we meet the bad guy, Metallus. I don't recollect if he had an origin in the classic show, but here he and his crew were miners, left behind when their Space Force backup got called on an emergency, which seemed to get almost the whole Force wiped out. One did eventually get back, but by that time, attacks from the assorted creatures in the mine, had exposed them to too much element zeo radiation, and they were seemingly transforming into energy, contained only by their suits... 

I think it happens a few times in the 2005 series, but it's still weird for me to see Space Ghost unmasked! Still, I'll have to keep an eye out for more of these.

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My Ideal Saturday Morning Lineup!

Over at Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation, Poe had an assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers: create your ideal Saturday morning schedule. He also says he never watched cartoons before 8 AM, which is crazy: I would get up at five if a good cartoon was on. (I also lived in the Mountain Time Zone, which meant things were on at different times than everywhere else.) By that standard, I should add another two hours here; but my runners-up are probably other people's favorites: Super Friends, classic G.I. Joe and Transformers, and the modern ThunderCats--which didn't really have an intro!

This schedule's pretty much just for me, but here goes:

7 AM: Grandizer


7:30 AM: Battle of the Planets


Otherwise known as, gateway drugs to anime.

8 AM: Space Ghost


8:15 AM: The Herculoids
Embedding disabled everywhere, for some reason...

8:30 AM: Jonny Quest


God, I love the intros for the classic Hanna-Barbera action shows. Great music+two seasons worth of explosions in a minute.

9 AM: Thundarr the Barbarian

Possibly the bleakest set-up for a Saturday morning kid's show ever!

9:30 AM: Sam and Max: Freelance Police

My only comedy pick, although I could've been persuaded for the Tick or Tiny Toon Adventures--although I'm terrified the latter may not have aged well. Still, Sam & Max deserved a longer run and more exposure.

10 AM: Legion of Super-Heroes

Another show that deserved better--I'm not sure if it's all on DVD yet.

10:30 AM: Justice League

If you like the Justice League Unlimited opening better, you are wrong. Just so you know.

11 AM: Avengers

Wait, wait, wait: not that one. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes


That's better.

11:30 AM: X-Men: Evolution

Wolverine and the X-Men might've been a better show, but Evolution wasn't as grim.

What can you tell by my list? I'm both old, and still watch cartoons. That, and I'd watch this lineup every Saturday now.

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I know I had these two issues for a reason, but...

The blog's name is Random Happenstance, but it just as well could've been Faulty Headmeat Misfiring, since I'm not positive why I was thinking of these two issues for the same post. I think, on my walk home the other day (sometime in the last three months, since who knows when this'll be posted...) and was thinking about an issue I don't have handy: Justice League International #21, a fun Giffen/DeMatteis/Templeton romp with the team on Apokolips, and the return of Mister Miracle.

I think Mister Miracle is a character I like the idea of, more than any actual issues I've read of his. And I have the Kirby trade, and I've read a bit of his solo books, and some of the Morrison/Seven Soldiers version, and I loved his guest-spot in the last issue of Orion. (That last one will end up in "The End" Week one of these years.) And I think I still have the Steve Rude Mister Miracle Special from 1987 somewhere, too. It's not bad, but Rude's art there isn't as...lush as it was in Nexus. Or as animated as it was from this other book Rude did in 1987: from Comico, Space Ghost #1!

With Mark Evanier co-writing, Willie Blyberg on inks, and painted colors by Ken Steacy (!) Rude drops a love-letter to Hanna-Barbera's cartoon hero that reads like the extra-length episode you always wanted. A mysterious figure frees some of Space Ghost's greatest foes from intergalactic prison, including Zorak, Brak, and the Lurker; and the masked hero is going to have to run the gauntlet. Straight-forward, but super-fun.

Unfortunately, it's also square-bound, so it was a bear to cram in the scanner. Oddly, though, I think I have a spare copy of this bagged up somewhere from my college days; and that just makes me wonder what the distribution and sales were like for it...!

But, since I had been thinking of Mister Miracle, I also thought of this issue, also written by Mark Evanier, as luck would have it: Superman Adventures #42, "Living (Scott) Free" (Art by Neil Voker, inks by Terry Austin.) After a quick retelling of Scott's escape from the orphanage of Granny Goodness and Apokolips itself, we catch up with Mister Miracle trying to drum up publicity with daring escapes...that keep getting interrupted by Superman saving him.

Superman can't figure out why someone would willingly risk their life for nothing, but as Scott describes it as a celebration of freedom. Of course, Granny Goodness gets in on the action, planting a bomb on Scott's rocket-sled trick that will explode if he gets off, or crashes, or if Superman picks it up. Undaunted, Scott opens a boom tube to Apokalips, to "take a faulty product back to the manufacturer!"


This ish also features Big Barda, and some Parademons who use the "Pachydermatological Ray" to cause a ruckus at the circus, and is a lot of fun. Still, that doesn't really explain how my poor brain connected these two comics together, yet here we are.




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