The Shoveler

It had some interesting ideas & visuals.  But a lot of stuff that was boring, stupid and/or just didn't make sense.  I was ready for the credits about an hour before this thing ended.  If you're going to do a 2.5 hour movie centered around a slow-speed, nearly-stationary spaceship chase, then you need to pay some extra attention to pacing.

Here's a few comments that hopefully aren't too repetitious with what others have already said:

• If you decide to kill your sister and best friend's Force-child in his sleep, you'd better be sure.  Especially if you previously were willing to die to defend your mass-murderer father, who capstoned his blood-soaked career by blowing-up an entire inhabited planet, because you thought he could be redeemed.  And if you're going to get indecisive while standing above the child with your loaded weapon (or crackling laser sword), at least stick around to help the parents deal with the considerable emotional fallout that is likely to ensue.  To do any less would be somewhat irresponsible.  Especially if your behavior contributes to the child following in the footsteps of grandpa.  Someone who had previously risked his life on multiple occasions on behalf of others would know that.
• If you're in the line of succession for a major military operation, you really should've already been visible within the unit so that key subordinate officers know who you are.  Also, you should dress appropriately for the position of leading a military campaign.  You shouldn't look like you just walked in from the set of a completely different movie.  Lastly, your subordinates should know enough about the strategy and implementation plans so that they understand how their sacrifices contribute to the overall objective.  Communicate, communicate, communicate!  Vice Admiral Eveningown should've spent less time celebrating the Hunger Games and more time being visible before assuming command.  Dameron was taking orders from and interacting VFR-direct with General Leia, so Vice Admiral Eveningown should've at least been present at a few of those mission briefs, de-briefs and staff meetings.  Speaking of Dameron...
• We know just about as much about Dameron's background as we do about Snokenwolf (Steppensnoke?).  At this point, the First Order's most effective military leader against the rebellion is Dameron who has efficiently wiped out mucho rebel fighters, space gravity-bombers* and also initiated a (seemingly justifiable) mutiny within the rebellion.  Between him & Vice Admiral Eveningown, who needs General Huxleberry?

* I bet they got a good deal when they bought all those space gravity-bombs.  Seemed like they would have got more bang for their buck by spending that money on space missiles and laser cannons instead.

• A Star Wars subplot about a grieving Rebel maintenance worker and a defector Imperial janitor sabotaging the Empire's plans against the rebels should've been amazing.  Instead, every scene with Rose & Finn just fell flat.  Maybe because it was all so disconnected from the main plot.  If their quest had more of a human connection, maybe it would have resonated with more immediacy and relevance.  Instead of rescuing space horses, they could have rescued child laborers from sweatshops where they made licensed theme-park merchandise.  It's hard to believe that Finn used to be promoted as a co-lead for this latest series...
• As many have already mentioned, Finn's superfluous sidebar quest for a MacGuffin-person is one big area where they could tighten the overall pacing of the film.  Chewie is so underutilized and could have just been left out entirely.  Or, why not have the casually tossed lightsaber activate while it tumbles down the mountain and inadvertently zap Chewie?  More slapstick hysterics!
• The Red Room.  Too much red.  Flat red walls, red costumes and red weapons.  The screen was so over-saturated with flat blood red that these scenes were nearly unwatchable for me.  This set needs some scaffolding, utility pipes, paneling, machinery topped with IG-88 craniums, and a smokey mist to add some depth.  I kept expecting a crew of Imperial troops to rush into the frame with end tables, a potted plant, an easel to display big charts with the quarterly metrics, install a dry-erase board to a wall, etc.  "Welcome, Kylo!  They haven't finished decorating my new office, but I just couldn't wait to move in.  Don't mind the workers.  And sorry about all the smokey mist...the evaporator is malfunctioning.  I just contacted a new troop in Maintenance...She'll be here shortly with a janitor and a plucky service droid.  Now, on to business..."
• The CGI generally looked good to great, but with some glaring stumbles:  CGI Snokenwolf had some typical flatness.  The crystal wolves were very artificial, seemed like they were an afterthought.  Unconvincing CGI in the Monte Carlo horse chase too.
• Infinity Rey in the dark-side dream sequence could've made for a nice Busby Berkeley-style dance number.
• The tone of the original trilogy's Empire Strikes Back was dark, with the rebels on the run while fighting a losing retreat and suffering tragic losses.  But there was also grand adventure, charming romance and moments of effective humor, personal growth, and discovery.  And the rebel leadership weren't portrayed as a horde of unlikable incompetents.

It's interesting that after the director & producer made deliberately provocative decisions about much-beloved characters, that now they're blaming the fans' understandably negative reaction on bots.  Anything but themselves.    I accepted TFA as a tolerable, functional first chapter of a new trilogy.  I genuinely liked Rogue One.  But the escalating messaging of "just shut up, give us your money, and vigorously like whatever we give you" is getting ridiculous.  If your ideas are good, then you can win me over.  But don't be the Empire and think that I owe you my allegiance and servitude.  I'm very quickly losing interest in any of the upcoming SW and MCU flicks or any other hollywood production.  There's plenty of other things I can do with my time while they Wienstein each other.

On 12/8/2017 at 10:19 AM, jjonahjameson11 said:

The driving factor for me was that Sabretooth was a top tier villain back when I was collecting comics.  His current stature in the Marvel Universe has absolutely no bearing on what I was willing to pay for the cover.

Congrats!  Great cover pairing of Sabretooth with Spidey from my favorite period of PPTSS. 

9 hours ago, MrCookieMonster said:

I like that Nightcrawler gives a confession in a confession booth for being born a mutant, and the old priest then gives Nightcrawler his confession for being human. Priceless! I also like the last page sequence of the old priest saying "We all have our crosses to bear", and there's a depiciton of Nightcrawler holding his handkerchief in a way to show the X-men symbol as crosses.

I never knew of this story, but I'm glad to learn about it from you right now, MrCookieMonster.  Visually and narratively distinctive.  Tim Sale is such a master of the black/white contrast.  It's great that you were able to keep the entire story together.  Thank you for sharing this wonderful story! 

Kinda makes me ponder the more existential questions in life...which is always dangerous for me to do when I'm hungry!

Belated Happy Birthday!  Congrats on a year full of informative articles and profiles.  The STGCC coverage was tops!

1 minute ago, O. said:

Great explanation @The Shoveler

Thank you, Mr O!  Glad to assist where I can.  We're all in this crazy hobby together!

On 12/7/2017 at 12:48 AM, RB3 said:

Original art inked over blue line.

Be aware that some artists back in the day would do their pencils/layouts in blue pencil instead of graphite.  For example, if you are looking at art by Sal Buscema from a 70's comic, Sal's original pencil work may have been accomplished completely with a blue pencil.  So, not every blue mark means that it wasn't physically placed there by the penciler.

I've got the Kirby FF books, the Romita Spideys, and the Miller DD's.  All good stuff.  I'd like to get the Simonson Thor volumes and the Steranko.  My fave so far is the Mark Schultz Xenozoic Tales...the art looks amazing at 14x20".

2 hours ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

Buckler PPTSS #119 cover = $12.5K.  This was a very memorable cover for me and represents the tail end of my fanatic Spider-Man zombie years when I purchased anything and everything with Spider-Man on the cover.  I was a player around $8K and a bit surprised to see it end at $12.5K.  Then again, the less interesting PPTSS #113, also by Buckler, sold recently for $9K.

 

Geiger Hulk 337 cover = $15.3K.  Steve Geiger wasn't a household name, but did turn out some decent covers over a few years at Marvel.  Some of his Web of Spidey covers were nice (Web 29 with Wolverine & Web 30 featuring the Origin of the Rose come to mind), and he also illustrated several of the Incredible Hulk covers during McFarlane's run on the title.  So, if a McFarlane Hulk cover sells for $40K, is a Geiger cover substantiated at $15K?  Are there other factors (non-X kind) at play?  I mean, this cover *IS* 30 years old and in that timeframe that appeals to folks my age.

Hulk #337:  Not many covers out there with Hulk and the X-Men.  So if that appeals to you, then there's not many other options.  Geiger is solid...doesn't necessarily bowl me over but he doesn't turn me off to the piece either. Nice inks by McLeod, and yes, it is aging into a nice vintage item .  Looks clean and in fairly good shape.  I was hoping this one would've slipped a little further under the radar where I could've had a realistic shot at it. 

PPTSS #119:  This is a memorable cover.  But I preferred that PPTSS #113 cover with black-suited Spidey crashing through the window, which also exceeded my available budget at that time (the art page, not the broken window).  Back to #119, is Sabretooth still considered a top-tier character?  I'm sure he surpasses the grungy guy in a halter top on #113, but is he still an A-list rogue?

11 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

You nailed the actress (in a manner of speaking).

On 12/3/2017 at 5:29 PM, Rick2you2 said:

...she modelled the design after a famous 1920's film actress (note the bangs in the hair style).

 

Gah!  I logged-in too slow.

On 11/13/2017 at 4:40 PM, furthur said:

Sure there are books and stories I remember fondly and things I would like to own, but my triggers are mostly seeing something cool and wanting it because I like it-not thinking about something I loved back in the day and pining for it now. I realize that isn't particularly typical in this hobby, but that is how it is with me these days-which is why I am often just as happy with something for my collection that came out this year or 25 years before I was born as I am about something that I grew up reading-and often I don't know I want it until I see it.   

x2.  I can just as easily get lost in a page from a book that I never read, or a brand-new commission, as I can with a page from the good 'ole days.

Ever since I started collecting art, I've passed on several memorable pages from my childhood.  Sometimes the price was out of my range.  Or I just didn't consider the page the best value overall in comparison with other available art (or other wants and needs).  Other times the image just didn't age well from my point of view.

There is no "one-size fits-most" approach.  It all depends on your preferences and what you value.  And it's perfectly acceptable for your artistic preferences to grow, evolve and change (or not) over time.  I like to believe that there's room out there for almost anybody's budget and aesthetic tastes.

I've built my collection almost strictly from public auctions and dealers' public websites.  Over the past couple decades, only a few pieces were picked up at cons and that just happened in the past two years.  It takes a little patience, but it is possible to build a collection this way.

I stumbled into this long-held, "open secret" wormhole within the past year or two when I was perusing Shooter's posts and the associated comments.  I ended up at that post at rsmwriters, and on another site (which I can no longer find) which provided the name of the EIC before Shooter who had observed this alleged activity and intervened to recover a portion of what was allegedly taken.  That in-turn led me to chromiumcomics' photobucket entry, the third link below (yes, this is such a well-known secret that there is a cartoon about it):

http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/rooting-out-corruption-at-marvel-part_20.html/

http://jimshooter.com/2011/12/surprising-sinnott-and-items-of.html/

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/chromiumcomics/media/bWVkaWFJZDoxMjk0NzQxNTk=/?ref=

Taken as a whole, the context of the time seems to generally regard the alleged actions as theft.  By one artist against several other artists (or against one company that had ownership/custodianship of the art).  These reports seem consistent in framing that it wasn't about a) rescuing pages that were about to be thrown into a shredder or dumpster, b) being offered pages from employees of the firm, or c) taking home some reference work and then forgetting to return it.  It was taking someone else's property and then selling that stolen property for personal gain.

It appears that nobody was ever formally charged, so there's no conviction or exoneration to enter into the record.  However, as Shooter states in the first link, Marvel's Financial V.P. said that he would never allow the company to cut the guy a check again.  That says a lot about the context of the alleged actions in the context of the contextual period.

On 11/6/2017 at 7:51 PM, westform said:

Does this count as Archie art?

 

 

Superman kicks the bucket!

The Legion of Super Heroes, by Grell and based on Cockrum's designs, was the Playboy Mansion of 70's comics.  My oldest brother got the '78 treasury edition off the stands and it caught my attention as an eight or nine year-old:  Saturn Girl, Dream Girl, Dawnstar, Triplicate Girl and Shrinking Violet.  If someone opens a LoSH-themed hot wings & beer joint right now, Hooters will go out of business before the end of the year.  Also in '78, I got dragged to see Grease with my parents.

On 11/1/2017 at 9:32 AM, DocHoppus182 said:

I agree!  Baroness for me! I always had a thing for the bad girls.  Kinda like the ones that got detention in school. 

Baroness ranks right up there with Steranko's Madame Hydra!

26 minutes ago, NoMan said:

Thanks for the research! Much appreciated. It was 161. New costume and when she's nude getting her brain transferred by ultron to sexy robot. I like that. 

You're welcome, NoMan!

I've always been partial to the Perez-designed white & blue costume.  Again leveraging from fnord's valuable work (http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/avengers_194.shtml):

On 10/30/2017 at 10:10 PM, NoMan said:

Exactly. I feel something now and I'm 51.  Where is that from? Is that 161? Damn that burnt into my brain

That's not Pablo Marcos' inks, so that's not from Avengers #161 by Perez & Marcos.  There's some #161 goodness at fnord's site --- Do ya see anything there that rings a bell (so to speak)?: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/avengers_161162.shtml .

Inks for that image look like Dave Hunt's.  So, that panel would be from Marvel Team-Up #59 (flips thru long box to confirm & posts a snap from the book).  That panel is not depicted at fnord's entry for #59-62, but it's a nice summary of the story line: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/marvel_teamup_5962.shtml.

12 hours ago, comix4fun said:

Catalogs just arrived......

20 minutes ago, drdroom said:

Huh. Is that even a US Spidey page? Kinda looks like a South American version or something.

If it's a South American version, it must be from French Guiana.

Another amateur here, but I concur with grebal.  I don't recommend slabbing this one.  Appears to be a lot of surface wear that has removed the black, and I don't expect that pressing would fix that.  The corners I can see are blunted and/or creased; lots of edge wear in the edges that are visible in the scan.  And there's those horizontal creases on the front left edge near the bottom of the "M" in the logo.

This is a reader copy, but that's perfect for enjoying that sweet Bob McLeod artwork.

Pfft. No back scans. 

On 10/13/2017 at 5:35 PM, Panelfan1 said:

Picked up this at NYCC . Never heard of the artist before.  Its the cover art for his personal sketchbook.  His name is Jon Somariva.  He was sitting next to yildray cinar. He's from Australia.  Loved the art for the arts sake.  Price was fair so didnt hesitate to get it.

"Red J" Sommariva's art is always lotsa fun!  It's always a blast to see the sketches he posts at his Instagram site: https://www.instagram.com/sommariva/.  And there's some great stuff in his sketchbooks!

The important thing is that you and your family are safe.  Let me know what you collect, PM me a shipping address, and I'll be happy to send some books your way in the generous tradition of comicsyte95 , woowoo and Mapleleafvann.

I've schlepped my collection across the country for over 25 years, nearly coast-to-coast and a few spots in-between (the places I've been overseas weren't the kinda places that you'd bring any comics).  I'm lucky that I did not have them with me when Hurricane Hugo passed right over our heads with some of it's highest-recorded winds.  I can only imagine what it would feel like to go thru what you are experiencing.  Good luck to you, your family and your neighbors.

25 minutes ago, delekkerste said:

To say that "[replacing] one risk locus with multiple elements" somehow has no value is to imply that these multiple elements have 100% correlation and that there is no benefit to diversification, which is obviously wrong. 

To counter that is to imply that diversification has a generic, universally applicable utility and value.  In this case it seems like it should be feasible to implement simple, reasonable and effective controls to adequately reduce the risk to an acceptable level while maintaining the integrity of the collection...if that is Walter's intent.  I'm sure this isn't the first time someone's dealt with this problem, and it seems like plenty of collections are maintained as an entire unit without getting lost to oblivion.  It seems this could be done without inducing additional risk (unforced errors) by splitting it up for ca$h.  To do so just to adhere to a theory turns the theory into dogma, and dogma easily morphs into a misguided sense of security.

1 hour ago, delekkerste said:

This is the basis of both actuarial science (i.e., the insurance industry) and modern portfolio theory. 

Authoritarian appeals that focus on broad credentialism rather than specific logic can be unpersuasive.  "In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're different." Attributed to Yogi Berra

10 minutes ago, delekkerste said:

In layman's terms:  don't put all your eggs in one basket. 

What if it doesn't make sense to use multiple baskets?  We put all of our "eggs" into one "basket" all the time.  Does it make sense to always send two vehicles to the grocery store, and to divide the bags into both cars so that at least some of the goods will make it home?

It's not always better to accept the inevitable attrition of some dispersed assets in order to gamble that a portion of the items will, ostensibly, survive.  What is the overall intent...the desired outcome?  is it preservation of the entire library as a complete unit, or just to make sure that some pages..any pages...survive the zombie apocalypse?  Will certain items (splashes, covers, UXM/NTT) be tiered into gold-plated baskets while others get staged in OKC awaiting the next twister?  Lastly, haven't they already "dispersed" and preserved the longevity of some of the collection via the Artist Editions?

As fun as this discussion is, it really seems that they're even talking about this isn't exactly a vote of confidence in RISD...