Hibou

Probably my favorite movie.

I think I'm obsessed with Time. The passing of and the connecting points across. I ran an exercise with myself a year or two ago and it was kind of interesting... or at least I thought so. I wanted to see just exactly how far back I could go to 'touch' time. I'll try to explain. I took the current year (let's just say it was 2020 and went back from there as in increments of 25 years to see if I could touch that year and by touch, I mean in the sense of having a connection. My direct relatives and their lives were my vehicle or catalyst. And so I started in 2020 and took away 25 years. Ok, it's 1975 and I'm alive. I took another 25 years off and now it's 1950 and my parents are alive. Another 25 years in the past we go and it's 1925 and my grandparents on my father's side (his mother and father) just immigrated from Poland to France. Twenty five years before that, in 1900, my great grandmother (on my mother's side, who I knew for over half of my life) was now 8 years old... So this was the game I sort of played with my wandering mind and was able to directly touch the Civil War where my 2nd great grandfather lost an arm around 1863. I just recently found some new information which will allow me to somewhat do the same on my father's side but this timeline goes through Eastern Europe.

Most likely I'll visit this place again soon. I'm thinking in about a month or so. I'll be doing a bit of time travel through that area of Pennsylvania when we go to pick up my daughter. These next couple of months are going to be exciting for many reasons!

Now I'm fully aware that this journal has veered waaaaaaay off course and I do apologize for that but there is good reason... well, in my mind at least. You see, I'm trying, desperately at that, to reconstruct the events that preceded the birth of the Golden Age of comics. A glimpse behind the decisions to launch Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27. In my opinion, this is an axiom but I seriously need to find that precise moment and for some reason, some 'gut' instinct... I'm convinced that 1936 was that moment in time! Hm... Didn't Jesse Owens do something 'superhuman' in that year that even caught the appraisal and eye of an evil dictator?! That's a part of why I believe that 1936 could've been our 'Event Horizon'. And just to remind you, it was featured in this series introduction if you look closely. Yes, it's a complete story of the supernatural! So what happened in 1936? Geez... well before I get into that, let me at least try to light this one time dampening stick. (This is just another way of saying that I've decided to turn my mind off for the night instead of continuing on the writing 😉 ) The 1935 Montecristo...

I posted the X-Files theme last weekend (with good reason ) but now I'm thinking that this actually makes more sense right about now...

Freedom. Finally... The Blue Coal time damper is working splendidly as is the hacked Blue Coal FOB. This will allow me to shift timelines at will with no worry or threat of trans-dimensional 'monitors' or Time, for that matter. Where I'm at right now, within this 1936 construct that I've built, I feel it's a pivotal point in time in terms of finding some proof to this theory of many (and ultimately mine), that without the success of the Shadow... Batman would not exist.

***** TARGET LOST. SECONDARY TARGET LOST. ALL UNITS SCAN : 43.0481° N, 76.1474° W ***** ***** NEGATIVE READINGS ***** ***** ALL UNITS PROCEED TO E-838. TARGETS HAVE ABANDONED E-616.*****

Four beers and a delicious pizza... a tour around Rob's apartment. A private viewing of his incredible collection of art prints ranging from Universal Monsters to Pop Culture movies as well as artistic renderings. And then... the 3 books. Yes, those books! Like I said, that evening I gave Rob a fist bump as I departed his apartment with a can of beer, a bag of chocolate Twizzlers and a pack of candy cigarettes. But the evening didn't end there. I quickly noticed that there was no direct access to the basement of this apartment building even as I bid 'hello' to a female resident upon exiting. Once outside, I ran into Emily and (the busboy?) and exchanged a few words and complements before heading to my vehicle which was parked just a lot away. Once I reached my vehicle, I removed the device which I had been saving for such an opportunity and headed back over to Rob's apartment building. I found the outside access to the basement and was able to install this in about 15 minutes. The Blue Coal Time Damper (c. 1937) courtesy of Glen Alden (Scranton, PA.). This allows that building to exist in the current time-stream while hiding the contents of everything within the building to the TVA. So yeah, the building exists in 2023 but the interior is regulated to 1936 standards... as far as the TVA scanning devices are concerned, this building now will exist outside of time and space! It wasn't all that difficult to orchestrate as I had planned this moment but never knew when it would arrive! So yes, in the span of 15 minutes, Rob's entire building was protected and cloaked from the TVA. It worked like a charm however there was but one small adjustment I needed to make. I had to fabricate a type of Key FOB in order to allow me to shift from timeline to timeline without being detected. I managed to find just the right device and was able to program a transistor to adhere to the proper instrument in order to operate this mobile cloaking device! ...

Was this my latest trick or was this some smokey, Houdini influenced idea, realized in real time?

I feel like I haven't been honest here... I need to go back a few weeks. As I mentioned earlier, I met up with Rob for an impromptu beer get together and it was ultimately a weird experience being in that town again. Well... I didn't tell the entire story there and so here's - Paul Harvery. The Rest of the Story. Rob had just shown his Russian apartment and within about 30 minutes, he proceeded to showed me that he actually had 3... yes, THREE copies of THE BOOK! This was bad- very bad, indeed! Once he had shown me these copies, I knew that I had to work fast. Rob is my dearest friend and there's no way that I could expose him to the terrors of the TVA! And so... once I left his apartment, once I evaluated what he potentially could be exposed to, I guess I kind of sprang into action! I had just the right thing but I needed to reconfigure it a little... It needed to be timeproof!

Just watched your video... this is such a great book and congratulations on getting such a prime example!

June 6th and June 7th, 1944. D-Day. I just listened to this last night and it's definitely worth sharing. Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater presents this gripping dramatization of D-Day from the perspective of those on the home front. This special broadcast from 1944, features Agnes Moorehead (Margo Lane - The Shadow, among other roles from Citizen Kane to Bewitched)...

Working my way back...

I've officially declared this out of the TVA's monitors. If you're a Pink Floyd fan... you'll appreciate this! Hats off to Roy Harper!

Same 😕

Decoration Day - 1936 Memorial Day - 2023 The start to a relaxing evening...

Damn... Carnivale reminded me that I just put myself in the middle of the Dust Bowl. Fair enough. As I've stated numerous times, this is the greatest intro to a series in my lifetime. Next day and second thought edit... for me this ties The Six Million Dollar Man based on nostalgia! So, yeah... 1936. The second wave of the Dust Bowl. I'll work through this one too.

A dream within a dream... If only that was the case. The TVA is determined to get a hold of these books but it's never going to happen. I know they're constantly monitoring this thread and my movements but for some reason, dipping into the 30's has proven to be successful as an evasive maneuver, yet I'm still not sure why. Whatever it is, dear TVA, here's one for you. "I'm so outta here..." And with that, it's time to go. The TARDIS is charged up and 1936 is locked in... ... ... ... Back here again. Back home again. Feels good, looks good and even smells good... if that makes any sense. It's 1936 here and this weekend marks Decoration Day where we remember those who passed while serving this country with the last conflict being The Great War. If only I could tell everyone of the horrors that sit just around the corner and how this next world war will reshape this country like never before. Well, that's not why I'm here and if I were to share that information, it would most likely shred the timeline and could even alert the TVA to my location. I think what I'll do here is continue with the pulps from the time but there's also another branch that I'm following which is just as intriguing to me and that revolves around employment. I just recently picked up this patch which was sewn onto the back of jackets belonging to their truck drivers. This one has seen some wear but regardless, it's Blue Coal and boy, do they have a say in what's about to be unleashed across the radio waves!

Just received a copy of Spider-Man 7 from Aaron who very generously donated a bunch of these to the Thomas Drew @djpinkpanther67 fundraiser for his family. I couldn't be happier with the transaction and Aaron's packing was superb! Thanks again Aaron and that was so thoughtful and generous of you!

Wait, what's going on here? Orson? No, Lamont?! ... ... TVA : **REDACTED**

What the hell? Dammit, Rob. I knew if you showed me those, it would ping on their scanners! Wait, you have 3 copies of that?! Oh shi... ***** TARGET LOCATED. MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS. ALL UNITS *****

Edit - I just had to go in and clean up that last Sandman post. I added some pictures and details as I think I rushed through some of it.

Sandman conclusion... During the early 1990's, pretty much from 1992 to 1994, my wife, my stepson and I did a lot of comic purchasing and comic chasing. Like I described in the previous post, she was into Sandman comics but that soon expanded to a lot of other books... a lot of DC Vertigo titles which was started in 1993. It was a fun time... as she was interested in those books, my stepson was all about the X-Men and related titles while I was basically re-starting my collection. As I detailed in Rusty Staples and Sunken Treasure, I believe the highlights of this time for me was purchasing a copy of Journey into Mystery #83. As a side note, my wife still has her short box of comics and opening that box is like unearthing a time capsule when life was a lot easier and fun for us. Anyways, in 1994, DC Vertigo came out with a set of Neil Gaiman's Sandman cards and if anyone remembers, the early 90's seemed like the Golden Age of non-sports collectible cards. Well, my wife attacked this set and I would buy her card packs as well whenever we would hit a comic store. She put together a binder of cards and eventually she had assembled the entire set. Now there was this one chase card that all of those that were breaking these packs open at that time, were chasing after. That card was the Death hologram card. Back then, I believe it was selling for around $60 which was very high for a modern collectible card. Now don't get me wrong, the card was very cool as it reflected the highest evolution of hologram technology for the time as was being utilized on comic covers as a sales pumping gimmick from time to time. The holographic Death card from 1994... Ok. So here's where I'm looking for support... In 1994, we weren't married yet. We were boyfriend and girlfriend and so when your dearest is searching for that elusive treasure or chase card, in this case, what is one to do? Well... I'll tell you what you do. You go down to a comic store that has pulled that card and is now selling it outright. You spend a lot of (1994) money on it and then you also buy a couple of packs of cards as well. You go home and you so carefully open one of the packs, just so precisely as to leave most of the integrity of the cellophane intact. You insert the most sought after chase card into the pack while removing a common card. You then use every and any device at your disposal to attempt to 'reseal' the pack in such a way that it looks convincing all the while hoping that she chooses to open this tampered pack from the opposite end. You then make sure to hand these two packs in such a way to ensure that the likelihood of her opening them in the desired fashion, is now in your favor. You then sit back and enjoy the moment as she opens the two packs in just the manner that you had hoped and discovers that she had 'pulled' that one hard to find card! A year later... we were married. Ok, look... yes, I took a little creative license with the retelling of this tale, as it was greatly abbreviated, but it is entirely true. But now here is the moral of this story. Don't ever deceive your better half. Ever! Whether or not you have the best intentions... don't do it. It's not a magic trick and Harry Houdini would not be impressed. Just let life play out the way it was meant to be... for better or for worse. Many years later, I ended up telling my wife what I did with those cards and it didn't go over too well. She was disappointed that it wasn't 'real'... it was basically an illusion and I totally got her point. It's like that moment when you end up telling your kids that Santa Claus is n... TOTALLY REAL! I'm sure you get the point though. Yeah, even tough my intentions were solidly good, I probably should've just bought the card and given it to her outright in the top loader it was sold in. Yes.. that's the Sandman story. Almost. I didn't mention that my wife had assembled a near complete run of the Sandman by the mid to late 1990's but there was a time when finances got tough and she offered to sell her first 10 issues of the series which would of course feature two of the biggest books... obviously, number one and number eight - the first appearance of Death and yes, that's still such a great book! I also had bought her the Bowen Arabian Nights statue that came out in 1994. That we still have and even though it could use a dusting, it's held up pretty well over the past 29 years! So now we jump ahead... ahead about 27 years and the Sandman series is about to debut on Netflix. In anticipation of this series, I remembered that I had never attempted to reacquire those books that my wife asked me to sell all of those years ago. She still had a good amount of them in her collection but they were all in the 40's and up into the 70's, I believe. Still some good books in there but none of the earlier issues. Well... That was going to change. Before the series was about to start, I was able to secure this first issue in a grade that I felt was comparable to what my wife originally had. And from that, I was able to add a few more raw books from the first 10 issues (I think I only need a couple of issues now) along with these two graded copies... I was very happy to get this one and paired up to go along with issue #1. So this is basically the end of the Sandman post except for this one last part. While we were watching this on Netflix, I absolutely loved the introduction of the House of Secrets and the House of Mystery. Two iconic titles from DC... add in the first introduction of Cain and yes, I needed to get a copy of House of Mystery #175 for myself. As we went through the Netflix series, it absolutely cemented us back into the realm of the Dream King but I think it was episode #5 that was the most difficult to watch. Just twisted stuff... We loved the series as a whole and I can't wait to see the cast of characters again... from Morpheus to Death... and from Merv to Lucifer. The Corinthian is just insane. It was many months after the series ended and I was going through some of my short boxes of comics and was thrilled (and kind of shocked too) to pull this one out... I actually had a raw copy of House of Mystery #175 with that awesome Neal Adams cover! I just couldn't remember where or when I had got this book but that wasn't important. It's not a bad looking book - it actually looks better in hand. For some reason, my scanner absolutely hates this book and was wanting to completely change the colors. I had to go in and adjust the image but even with that, it's not accurate. Months later and as I ... ... And so here we are. The end of house cleaning. I do believe that I have most of everything documented and the foundation has been laid for the next part of this adventure. This afternoon I took my wife and grandson to see Guardians of the Galaxy 3... Rob and I were just talking about that last evening and now that I've seen it for a second time, I have to say that I feel like this is my favorite of the trilogy. And so with that, I'll end this evening with this...

Man. If there was ever a song to sum it all up for me, this just might be it! You see, let me explain. It goes something like this... "Come sit down, we're lamenting about yesterday's sad ending 'Bout the water in me whiskey The brass passed off as gold Another round, we're descending into old tyme mem'ry Of a day when wood was wooden, silver-silver, gold was gold Sweet home was home" Intermission and House Cleaning... Epilogue XI So it appears that the ending of the Sandman post will have to wait another night as I just got home from a great meet up with my friend Rob at his new digs in Russia... that was one helluva trip this afternoon / early evening. Well worth it however, even if the exchange rate was ridiculous! Tonight I was introduced to that song above and yes, it hits home like a ton of bricks. That's me... my thoughts... slowly dissolving, like these ice cubes into this glass of Scotch, each representing a function and each serving as a memory of what once was. The ice melts, turning a solid into this liquid that dilutes the Scotch. Or does it? Maybe it just changes it, allows a metamorphosis to occur, yet letting it retain its base function- to dilute memories. Okay, Rob might get worried at that last entry so I'll have to lighten it up a little... I met him at this new bar that's been newly relocated and renovated and the place was just fantastic! It was quite the upgrade from the last time I went to this establishment, some years ago. This evening also served as a nice segue into this new direction I've taken with my collections and such but that's something I'll get to a later time. I only had a few beers this evening but they were all very good but the best was yet to come as I had probably the most amazing pizza ever. Basically it's Balsamic and Goat Cheese with Arugula... absolutely incredible! Afterwards, I got to see Rob's new place and it looks great. He has a ton of prints, some of which he's now able to hang and display on the walls. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this, but these are so cool. These woodcuts look so sweet in person... I just never realized just how expensive they are. All that being said, he has an excellent start on what looks like it'll be the ultimate (pop culture inspired) man cave, when it's all said and done! I certainly have more to share of this night but like I stated before, that'll come later. It's funny though, I have mixed feelings about the town that I was in tonight... I just call it Russia for fun, by the way. I have memories from there that absolutely run the gamut. From good memories to employment and to stories that I'll never tell. It's kind of like a weird convergence point but I do believe that my friend Rob is here at the right point in time. He'll do well there. One memory I have, I brought up with him tonight as I told him about the last time I was out there. A friend of mine, who Rob knows, had a house just around the corner from where we were this night and the last time I was out there, this friend of mine (Dan) and I spent a night drinking Absinthe and Whiskey, while listening to Tom Waits on this cold autumn night. That seems like it was a life time ago for me... as it actually was. Thinking back, that was around 20 years ago! Anyways, the topic came up this evening regarding how long I've known and been friends with Rob... as it turns out, we figured it's been around 27 years! It really only seems like yesterday when Rob and I would agree to a time and log in, to play Dreamcast NFL 2K online. Now just to wrap up this entire day, it was a good one from start to finish. I got done with work this morning around 8am and normally I would go to sleep when I would get home but this morning, my wife and I had made plans to go out to the trunk sale that was being held by a local radio station. We had debated whether or not to set up there and try to make some sales but it's a good thing we didn't. There was very little turn out and not many vendors. I did find a nice treasure though in the form of signed movie memorabilia. I found a nice stack of signed flats for under $20... some signatures included in the lot were those of Robert Wagner, Tony Randall and this alluring actress... Yes, finding a signed movie promotional ad by Brigitte Bardot was certainly worth staying up for but the good fortune didn't end there. After the truck sale, I wanted to stop at my favorite LCS and I'm glad I did. Once I got inside, the owner showed me this huge collection of books that he had just bought but hadn't priced yet. He told me that I should look through the boxes, which I did. I found a few Miller Daredevil books that I wanted but I also found this. I didn't expect to go home today with a 1966 Mexican edition of Daredevil #1, but I'm thrilled to have this! Mike (the owner) sold it to me at an extremely fair price and this was yet another win in terms of foregoing sleep this morning! So as a whole, this was a pretty incredible day... it began right and it ended right. I got some wins in the collection hunt and I had a great evening with one of my oldest friends. I had some great beers, amazing food... met some VERY nice people (Emily and Brenden) and ultimately left Rob's place with a beer, a hard seltzer, a pack of bubble gum cigarettes along with a bag of chocolate Twizzlers along with this awesome piece... A laser cut Mekon from Dan Dare (which, by the way, I have not forgotten)! So I guess in closing, to end this evening... "Come sit down, we're lamenting about yesterday's sad ending 'Bout the water in me whiskey The brass passed off as gold..." Tonight, I was reminded of the past and of the future. The memories full and of those diluted. Life is life that I suppose... kind of like this river of time as described by Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco in this favorite 'tune' of mine. No, the past didn't go anywhere and so, I raise my glass of Scotch tonight. To my friends of the past, Dan... and to my present. Thank you Rob for being that friend who has always been there, through my achievements and through my failures. Hell... This actually sounds like one of my old Saturday Night posts. Cheers.