Originally published September 26, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1245
People keep sending me jokes.
I’m not entirely sure why. But literally every day now, whenever I log on AOL, I find funny lists, jokes (some of them unprintable in a family publication) etc., in my mailbox.
So I figured I’d share some of them with you.
Knowing comics fans, I’m figuring that everyone who’s inclined to see “Dark Knight Rises” (henceforth DKR) in the theaters will have done so already. So let’s delve into it for the dancing and dining pleasure of the folks hereabouts. Spoilers, regrettable but necessary, abound, since I can’t discuss the things that bothered me without blowing key moments of the film. So: you are warned.
Originally published September 19, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1244
Monsters. I’m told the theme for this issue is monsters. I have some small familiarity with the subject, having lived with one in my head for over a decade.
Originally published September 5, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1242
Assorted thoughts and incidents picked up from this summer’s convention trail, during which I set an all time personal best (or most exhausted) with a series of conventions including Chicago Comic Con, Orlando MegaCon, San Diego, Shore Leave (Maryland), Stellar Occasion (Texas), RebelCon (Massachusetts), Heroes Con (North Carolina). Or, to put it succinctly, this is how I spent my summer vacation…
Since Peter is in Peru and Caroline is in Jacksonville, I thought I would do another edition of ask the wife.
Usual rules apply and if I say I can’t answer something please don’t badger me over it.
So whatcha wanna know?
Originally published August 29, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1241
I really, really, really wanted to like the Spawn movie.
Originally published August 22, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1240
So… we were talking about myths.
At this point, Star Trek has reached nearly mythic status. One of the tests for that (and I may have discussed this in an earlier column; if so please forgive me, but I’ve been doing this gig for a lot of years and I’m bound to repeat sooner or later) is that discussions of key elements can be held without qualifiers.
For instance, if one were to ask, say, “Who was Napoleon Solo?” (to pick a contemporaneous program) the answer one would get (if one were rewarded with something other than a blank stare or a half-hearted guess such as “Han Solo’s brother?”) would be something along the lines of, “He was a character on a TV series called The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. There’s possible variants, sure, but that’s the most likely answer, I’d think.
But if you were to ask, “Who was James T. Kirk?” the reply you’d likely get would be, “Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise.” There would be no qualifier, no further clarification, and no acknowledgement that one is discussing a television show. To rank as myth, a concept, characters or stories must take on a life of its own, its origins either lost in antiquity or simply irrelevant.
• 
Recent Comments