Best DVR Week Ever

This had to be one of the best weeks for my DVR ever. The Game Show Network has started showing the old black and white What's My Line at 3 AM weeknights. The Sundance Channel has gotten all Bravo and Logo-y with Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, a docu-series about straight women who are best friends with gay men. Batman had two of the campiest episodes ever--Hizzoner the Penquin, wherein the wily bird runs for Mayor of Gotham City; and The Devil's Fingers, the highest-rated Bat-episode ever because it starred Liberace. And to top it all off, the BEST Big Bang Theory yet with Leonard, Sheldon, Penny, Raj, and Howard headed to the comic book store for a New Year's Eve party dressed as the Justice League of America. New regular Zack, Penny's current hunky substitute for Leonard, is drafted into playing Superman. The scene at the end was priceless with the comic book store owher dressed as Doctor Who No. 4 (Tom Baker) announcing the winner of the best costumed group as the JLA--and there are THREE JLAs.

Where to begin? WML is like taking a time machine back to the 1950s when Broadway and movie stars would drop by to fool the blindfolded panel who were in formal wear to play sophisticated parlor games. America knew what was playing on Broadway then and cared. Not like now when the only show people know about is Spider-Man.

The Sundance series is fun and growing on me. But the hot guys in the ads on the sides of the bus aren't even on the show and they are way hunkier than the regular subjects.

The Batman episodes were a hoot. In the Penquin show, the pompous waddling kingpin of crime runs for mayor of Gotham and the script satirizes Barry Goldwater, polls, TV commentators, debates, etc. At one point game show hosts like Dennis James and Allen Luden play political TV anchormen as the Dynamic Duo and Pengy fight a mob of crooks at a jeweler's convention. The commentators cover the bat-fight as if it's a political convention--get it?

The Liberace segments were beyond absurd with the swishy maestro romancing Aunt Harriet and flirting with a trio of gorgeous lady crooks.

Oh, and DADT was repealed. So it was a perfect week.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (11)--Comic Smuggling in Times Square

Though I had resolved to cut down on my comic book habit, I came across an incredible deal on Ebay and just couldn't resist. A seller based in NYC was putting up for auction 31 Silver Age DC comics and the bid was only $45. That's less than $2 a book. Maybe the price was so low because they were readers--copies in such poor shape they are only good for reading the comics not for collecting. So I made my top bid $50. What the hell, the guy was in NYC, I wouldn't have to pay postage and handling. I won for $47.50! After a week while the seller had a bad cold, I finally met him in Times Square in front of the Toys R Us on 44th St. and we made the transaction. I felt like a drug smuggler picking up an illegal cache of halucinogentics. Although I shouldn't feel so bad, I did go during lunch and I didn't take more than an hour total, eating my lunch on the subway. He was selling them because he was now collecting science fiction book covers.

Interesting side note: while in Times Square, I spotted the Naked Cowboy for the first time in a while. This is a hunky entertainer who dresses only in a pair of briefs, a cowboy hat and guitar to pose with tourists. It was about 30 degrees and he was getting a lot of attention. Unless I am mistaken this was a different Naked Cowboy that the last one I saw a few years ago. The old one was beginning to put on weight. This one looked a lot younger and buffer. I could be wrong. It could have been the same guy.

Anyway, in addition to the haul of 31 from the Ebay seller, I also recently bought seven Silver Age comics from Time Machine for only $25 and a really beat-up Jimmy Olsen from another shop for $5 (more than it was worth. I should have waited til there was a sale.) Here's the rundown--
Action Comics #344 (beautiful Curt Swan cover, dull Wayne Boring art on the inside)
Adventure #277, 302, 357, 359, 370
The Adventures of Bob Hope #107 (were they really that many Bob Hope comics? Or did he take over another title?)
Challengers of the Unknown #39
The Flash # 130, 141, 183
Fox and Crow #5, 75 (a funny animal title, a genre of which I have very few. #5 is from 1952 which makes it the oldest comic in my entire collection)
Jimmy Olsen # 81, 82, 91, 98, 100, 104 (80 page giant),107, 108, 113 (80 page giant), 115, 129
Lois Lane #81, 88, 90
Sea Devils #13
Strange Adventures #205 (first appearance of Deadman, fantastic Carmine Infantino cover)
Superboy #117, 125, 127, 134, 135, 143, 145, 147 (80 page giant featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes)
Superman Annual #7
Wonder Woman # 131

I haven't read them yet of course so I haven't had a chance to form any commentary. However, I did find something interesting in the Jimmy Olsen #98 (pictured) which I bought at Time Machine a week or so previously. On an episode of The Big Bang Theory from last season, Sheldon, Leonard, Wallowitz, and Raj are arguing about how Superman cleans his super costume since it is just as super as he is. Sheldon had a very funny line about the Man of Steel flying into the sun whose rays burn away any dirt and leave his suit downy fresh--or words to that effect. I thought this was just some funny dialogue the writers came up with that the comics-obsessed Sheldon would say.

But oh no! In Jimmy Olsen #98 in the story "The Four Clocks of Doom" (not the cover story, I might add), our favorite cub reporter is appearing on a TV trivia show answering questions about his best super-buddy. "How does Superman clean his indestrucible uniform?" asks an audience member. "By flying into the sun and letting the flames of old Sol burn away the dust and dirt." So the Big Bang writers were referencing an actual comic. You can imagine Sheldon actually finding the comic and pointing to it, saying "How could you doubt me? If you spent more time on comics and less pining for unavailable women, we wouldn't be having these pointless conversations."

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (7)--The Phila. Connection

Two weeks ago I visited my parents in Philadelphia and spent Sunday morning at the Philly Comic-Con held at the Ramada Inn by the airport. It was quite small and took up only two ballrooms. No celebrities giving out autographs or panels, just comic-book dealers. I didn't spend as much as at the last one (see previous blog). Here's a breakdown of the haul:

Archie as Pureheart the Powerful # 3--Archie and Reggie as superheroes

Brave and the Bold #120

Demon # 6, 11 (almost completes the entire run except from #1)

Detective Comics #310, 319, 325

Flash #169 (80 page Giant)

From Beyond the Unknown #1 (completes the entire run)

Inferior Five #4

Kamandi #3 (almost complete run of Kirby issues except for #1)

Lois Lane #60

Magnus Robot Fighter #36

Mystery in Space #28, 86, 99, 101

Strange Adventures #111, 174

Strange Tales #142

Tales of Suspense #82

Super DC Giant--Challengers of the Unknown #S-25

Thor #156 (two pages of story missing, damnit!), 160, 162, 169.

Some impressions of this haul and the last one: Lois Lane and Superman are really dysfunctional. In Lois Lane #60 (see illustration above), Lois and Lana pretend to go into suspended animation to be awakened thousands of years in the future when Superman while be dead...dead...dead! Supie attempts to bring them back by flying into the future, but their bodies disintegrate. It's all a practical joke to teach the man of steel a lesson for being short-tempered with the gals for demanding so much of his time--needing to be rescued and all that. They all laugh it off. "Oh, I thought you were dead and you scared the shit out of me, but I guess I deserved it. Ha! Ha!"

In a Superboy issue I bought at the Big Apple con (#121), a teenaged Jor-El, Superboy's father, arrives in Smallville from Kyrpton thanks to a time machine. Superboy doesn't want to reveal the true nature of their relationship since he would have to tell his future dad his world will be destroyed. "I won't reveal I'm his son," says Superboy's thought balloon, "for that would lead to telling him of Krypton's doom laying ahead. He might brood. I'll just have to enjoy my father's companionship as a...er...boy pal!" (boldfacing was in the comic) Ewwww! That is wrong on some many levels. Not the least of which is the brooding.

The Strange Adventures and Mystery in Spaces are strangely beautiful, as is the very first From Beyond the Unknown which was a reprint series from the 1970s, collecting sci-fi stories of the 1950s and early 60s from the forementioned mags. In Strange Adventures #111, published in 1959, there's a story of Earth 100 years in the future. The Star Blazer returns from a 50 year mission with crew as young as when they left, proving the theory of relativity (I think). A Spacelator breaks down, causing traffic to be stalled for a hour. A sudden downpour is halted by weather control stations. The busy day ends with an exciting broadcast from the badlands of Venus where an explorer is trapped and a quick game of space polo between earth and Pluto. Of course earth wins.

In Mystery in Space #86, the usual Adam Strange story is accompanied by a tale of The Star Rovers--a trio of space adventurers consisting of writer-hunter Homer Glint, markswoman and former beauty queen Karel Sorensen, and star athlete Rick Purvis. Each of the three encounters the same space mystery and they each have a different version of the solution. It's a sort of sci-fi Rashomon. I find these simplistic futuristic tales so fascinating. There's also Star Hawkins, a 21st century private eye with a robot secretary, and Space Cabbie, a galactic hack driver.

More in future blogs, I'm getting deeper and deeper into this like the guys on Big Bang Theory. In a recent episode, Wallowitz bet Sheldon his Fantastic Four with the first appearance of Silver Surfer versus Sheldon's Flash of Two Worlds with the Silver and Golden Age Flashes. The sad part is I knew exactly what they were talking about.