Birdman and the Galaxy Trio

I've watched a few episodes of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio from the DVD I bought for $6 from a used book store in Philadelphia. I still regret not having bought that Jonny Quest DVD for only $10 in Boston. Birdman is now best known because of the parody Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law on Adult Swim on The Cartoon Network. The original series was on NBC in 1967. Birdman seemed not to have a secret identity or a normal life, yet why did he wear a mask? I remember there was another series on NBC called Super President about a chief executive who was also a super hero--now there was a secret identity. That reminds of a dream I had last night. President Obama was running in a marathon and I was saying "He shouldn't be running in a marathon, he should be running the country." What do you think that means?

I enjoyed the Galaxy Trio segements more than the Birdman ones. The trio consisted of Vapor Man, Gravity Girl, and Meteor Man. The latter was voiced by Ted Cassidy, also known as Lurch, the towering butler of The Addams Family. He was a giant who died relatively young and made a living playing monsters. He also voiced Galactus on the animated Fantastic Four and had one of the most memorable lines in cartoon history, spoken to the rebellious Silver Surfer: "You dare defy Galactus! I am power ITSELF!" I also enjoyed the line in the comic book version of the Silver Surfer saga when the Watcher called Galactus "Pillager of planets!" The story took on an almost Shakespearean grandeur. Anyway the Galaxy Trio would fly around the universe solving mysteries and fighting oppression. Gravity Girl had this cool sophisticated voice and Vapor Man had these wide shoulders and impressive pecs, yet seemed intelligent and smooth. He had the same voice as Dr. Benton Quest, so he was probably having an affair with Meteor Man while Gravity Girl was the beard. They would head towards the bohemian sections of alien planets and hang out in the gay bars.

Another trio I really liked was the Impossibles because of all the crazy villains they fought--obviously trading off the popularity of the prime time Batman series. I recall the Twister, Mother Grusome, the Dragster, Televistron, the Paper Doll Man, and many others.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (9)--Back to Philly

I feel like a little kid on the day after Halloween. I've had too much fun and eaten too much candy. Over the New Year's weekend I visited my parents in Philadelphia and spent part of the time shopping for comics on South Street and going to a comic book con at a Ramada Inn near the airport (the same location as a previous con which I've blogged about). It turns out this Philly con is held every other month. I also watched the last episode of Doctor Who with David Tenant on BBC-America with my parents (they enjoyed it) and in addition to all the comics, I bought a DVD of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio for $6 from a used-book store (I stopped short of spending $8 on a DVD of Wacky Races, another favorite cartoon of the 1960s). It was a total mind-junk binge.

I also went on another mini-binge at Time Machine here in New York. I had previously bought a Lois Lane with an entire story missing so I returned it and got the full catalogue value and bought some Atoms and another Lois Lane. In Philadelphia, I went to Showcase Comics on South Street and they had some really good deals. Their back issues were 40 percent off. I didn't buy too many because I was going to the Philly con the next day, but it turned out I didn't find any of the titles at the con that they had at Showcase, so I should have spent the money. Another thing that stopped me from spending more moolah at Showcase was the fact that I got a parking ticket while browsing through old Silver Age comics in the store. I put money in a parking meter and got one of those little slips through you're supposed to display on your dashboard, but I lost track of time and they issued a violation exactly seven minutes after the time expired. Bastards! The fine was $36. I felt so guilty, I didn't buy an old Superboy for $6.

The next day I stopped feeling guilty and bought a whole new haul at the comic show at the Ramada Inn. Here's a list of the loot from both Showcase Comics and the Philly Con:
2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (origin of Machine Man, a 1970s Jack Kirby creation after he went back to Marvel from DC)
Action Comics #316, 359
Archie as Captain Pureheart #4
Batman #214 (See cover above, a fairly sexist depiction of the women of Gotham City when you think about it)
Blackhawk #215, 230 (which I already had, damnit. I need to start taking lists to these things)
The Flash #181 (featuring an incredibly racist depiction of Japanese people)
Green Lantern #11
Jimmy Olsen #64, 83, 84, 88
Jonny Quest #1
Lois Lane #82
Marvel Tales #17, 23
Marvel Team-Up #74 (featuring Spider Man and the Not Ready for Prime Time Players from the late 1970s)
Metal Men #31, 34, 38
Modeling with Millie #47 (I couldn't resist, no superheroes, but plenty of fashion)
Our Fighting Forces featuring The Losers #154 (Kirby again, I wouldn't have bought a war comic otherwise)
The Owl #2 (obscure Dell title)
The Silver Surer #18 (only Kirby artwork in this title)
Strange Adventures #204
Superboy #107, 109, 201
Superman #220
Thor #130, 151, 159, 174
World's Finest #191

On Monday I had a discussion with a co-worker also into comics. We were trying to identify the artist of a comic cover on a calendar I had bought. "That's a Kirby mouth," I said. "Yeah, but those are Ditko hands," he replied. Now that I think about it, that's the nerdiest conversation I've probably ever had.