F For Fake

Was at a good friend's house last night, playing music together for the first time in many years, and then talking about helping him sell off his collection of stuff. Mostly music and some toys, but also a couple of boxes of comics. Brought up some great memories of all of the terrific 80's funny animal books that Fantagraphics used to do. Some of them probably verged on "furry book" territory a bit more than I'd like to admit, but no question that I loved these titles in particular. Dog Boy was a singularly odd experience, loved it.

I had a ton of these, mostly Disney shorts, but also some Sesame Street and Looney Tunes. Lost the viewer, but found the carts a year or so ago while cleaning out a room in my folks' basement. Sold the carts in a lot, but wondering now if I shouldn't have kept them and gotten a new viewer! I had that Lonesome Ghosts cart for sure!

Beautiful design! Wow. The palette on the DJ is eye-popping. I am way behind on my Omni's. I just ordered the Batman & Robin by Tomasi Omni as it looks like it has gone out of print. May have to move this one up my priority list!

Any love for Marder's Beanworld? I've been a fan since I picked an issue out of the 25 cent bin when I was a kid. Nothing else quite like it.

That issue is SOOOO good. I bought it way back when, I picked up the whole run of Moore Wildcats books for 50 cents each, as well as this one, and some odds and ends. Had no idea how much I'd love all of it! His entire WildCATS run is a lot of fun, but yes, this Majestic story is one of his best ever, no question about it. A terrific single issue comic story.

Great/perverted minds think alike?

I also had the Spider-Man game, and the Captain America/Spider-Man vs Dr. Doom game. I LOVED those enormous, thick cardboard boxes with the colorful art, and for Commodore 64, the games were a lot of fun too. At that point superheroes weren't incredibly well represented in media outside of comics, so there was still something novel and neat about playing a game with Wolverine or whatever. I don't remember getting comics with those other games, but I could be wrong. If memory serves they also did a second X-men game and a Punisher game as well. Does anyone know if those included comics?

Wasn't so sure, had to double check "Ahn's Brush With Fame".

Burden, Allred, great 80's indie horror and fantasy goodness...I'm feeling the wave you're on right now. My kinda stuff!

You're probably right about the repaint, but I've never gone that route. If the manufacturer can't get it right, I just don't have the inclination to have someone else take a crack at it. Shipping, waiting, throwing good money after bad, it's just not something I'm interested in. If I don't like the piece when I get it, I sell it. I don't have much going on with reward points right now, but I enjoyed the little catalog box they sent out with the gift cards, thought that was pretty sweet!

That's cool, I never would have thought of them accepting a return without there being damage or a specific damage. Glad they took care of you!

Absolutely adore the X-Men Madness in Murderworld book. I vividly recall getting this game one Christmas, for my Commodore 64. It came in a huge cardboard box, and the comic was rolled up inside with a rubber band around it. This copy looks nice and flat! IIRC, it was Mark Bagley's first work at Marvel. Would love to find a nice copy of this book again, takes me directly back to my childhood.

On the serious side, our niece is 10, and I've been giving her comix on and off since she started reading. She has a real love of the Archie books, and since the Wonder Woman movie came out, is now interested in WW and some of the DC animated books. We took her to the comic shop I grew up frequenting, and she was so excited by all of the Archies, she made a BIIIG stack. She hasn't asked to go back yet, but when she does, I'll be happy to take her!

If I can just manage to outlive all of you codgers by a few months, long enough to swindle your clueless offspring, buying your beloved collections for pennies on the dollar, then I can die happy.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE It!

Still one of my all time fav threads.

And for the record, I'm not a big Dark Knight fan, so the only reason I was surprised that it didn't get a nom that year was because it had been so massively successful. For what it's worth, I guess I like it better than the winner that year (Slumdog Millionaire) and I didn't really care for the other noms either (Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, The Reader, Frost/Nixon). So, in that instance, i guess I would have personally given TDK a nod if for no reason other than capturing that zeitgeist. I may not personally care for it, but it has certainly been a more enduring picture than the rest in that lot. My recollection is that there was such a stink over TDK not getting a BP nom that many think the expansion of the BP category was directly due to its having been left out. Anyway, back to this year, I still think you'll see BP worm its way into contention. If it were still a 5 film race, no, I don't think it'd stand a chance. But things being what they are, I think it has a shot. "Awards season" hasn't begun yet, but there haven't been many standout films this year, at least for me. Hoping the fall shapes up to be more interesting. So far the only sort of nomination lock I foresee is a Best Actress nod for Toni Collette in "Hereditary", which is a picture I enjoyed, but didn't quite love.

It's true that it's usually not a factor in getting a nomination, but it certainly can be a factor in pushing a movie into consideration when it may have gone completely unnoticed otherwise. Had Avatar not been the enormous success that it was, it likely would have received all of the same technical awards and noms, but not muscled its way into the Best Picture race. Not that I really have a dog in that particular race, as I thought Avatar was pretty terrible. As for my tastes, I tend to find the Academy's picks to be fairly pedestrian, by which I mean I'm firmly in the film snob camp, rather than the popcorn crowd. edit to add PS: I'm making myself sound like a bigger snob than I am. I am perfectly fine with "entertainment for entertainment's sake" films too. I love all kinds of movies. But I tend to think the Academy tends to be fairly predictable with its tastes.

This movie looks terrible. Can't wait to see it!

Hmm, I maybe thinking of another size then, but there is definitely a USPS box that comfortably holds the Region A sandwich of 11x17 art. But again, this is for the cheap stuff that I'm moving quickly. And I've never had a single piece of art damaged shipping flat in over 20 years. In fact, the only art I've ever shipped that got damaged was in a poster tube. So, as with most things, ymmv.

Most of the movies nominated for Best Picture are pretty mediocre. Black Panther was 'good enough" by the Academy's metric, and had the enormous box office success and cultural relevance, to get a nod. I'm not saying it does or doesn't deserve it, just saying that the financial and cultural impact were so significant that it would be difficult to ignore. Likely has zero chance to win, but with the expanded 10 slots, I'd say a nomination is very likely. If it doesn't get a nod, no superhero movie ever will, most likely. (And that's fine. Most superhero movies aren't very good.)

Our AMC blows. It has been passed around between chains at least three or four times now (National Amusements, Rave, Carmike) and it still has the old seats, it's like sitting on an airplane. Theaters haven't been updated in forever. Cinemark and XScape (West World Media) are kicking their butts around here.

I may have been tempted by Rogue, but I never liked that costume and I just don't like the face that much. What is up with Sideshow and their portraits these days? Not really feeling them. Nah, I sold the Mondo statue and I won't miss it. If I'd kept it, every time I looked at it I would have thought "Ugh, I don't really like it." It would have bugged me. Rather not have one at all than have one I don't like.