Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (10)--Superman and Batman Visit Krypton

Among the comics bought at the Phila. comic show was one with so many holes in the plot, I just had to comment. It's World's Finest no. 191. This was a series in which Superman and batman teamed up and was extremely popular. In this issue from the late 1960s, Supie and Batty journey back in time to the planet Krypton because Superman's parents mysteriously appear on Earth, mention they are about to commit a crime and then vanish. To begin with, has Superman forgotten he'll have no superpowers on Krypton? How will they get back before the panet explodes? They don't even travel in a time bubbble, Batman just puts on a space suit, hitches a ride on Superman's back and off they go (maybe he was used to riding bareback, if you know what I mean).

This also ties in with the theme of an earlier blog about how everyone and his brother--Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Mon-El, and now Batman and Superman--seems to have visited the doomed planet and Jor-El and Lara. I will have to do a time line at some point.

So Superman and Batman materialize on Krypton during a student protest against robot professors--yes, even though we are on a different planet and it's about 40 years before the 1960s, there are long-haired kids kicking up a ruckus just like on earth. Ridic! The two heroes break up the kiddies' fun by taking over the local weather-control station and starting a downpour. Evidently, Krypton was advanced enough to control the weather and have robot teachers, but they hadn't mastered space flight which would have saved them.

Jor-El, one of the few human professors, takes an interest in the costumed clowns--I mean visitors--and invites them to his home. They pass a Krypton movie house showing patrons carrying their own helmets with speakers and mini-screens (this contradicts another version of Krypton moviegoing shown in a Jimmy Olsen story wherein he visits the bottle city of Kandor and patrons experience the sensations of the movie including kissing without the aide of helmets. But maybe this was a fad in Kryptonopolis which did not take hold in Kandor.) But I digress.

The two earth heroes are welcomed into Jor-El and Lara's home. The scientist's wife remarks, "I have the feeling I've seen you before," referring to their brief appearance on earth. What Lara and the writers of this story have forgetten is that Superman did know his parents before. He was trapped in a time-vortex (or something) and wound up on Krypton just before Jor-El and Lara got married. He got to know them well and spent much time with them as Jor-El's scientific protege. He even fell in love with Lyla Lerrol, Krypton's leading emotion-movie actress (which goes back to the contradicting methods of Krypton cinema, perhaps I should write a disseration on that.) The four of them went out all the time, dancing and drinking in Kryptonian nightclubs. Superman was resigned to remaining on his homeworld and dying with his parents and new love, but he accidently was trapped in a movie rocket, took off, and headed into the same time vortex, returning to present day Earth.

All of this must have slipped Lara's mind. Anyway, it turns out the Els aren't crooks, but are leading a select troop of recruits to perform a secret mission on a Kryptonian island where committing crimes is the law and being honest is outlawed. So having proven his parents aren't theives, Superman heaves a sigh of relief and suddenly recalls he and Batman have no way of getting back to earth. He actually says, "I forgot about that." Luckily, the superheroes get caught in the same time thingie his parents did and are back on earth. It was part of a top-secret government project which must now be destroyed; otherwise Battie and Supie would be drawn back to Krypton. Sort of like the Time Tunnel. Remember that show? I recall asking if we could go to my great-aunt's house on Wednesday nights because she had a color set so we could watch it there.

More Cartoon Quandries

What was Space Ghost's relationship to Jan and Jace? Did the masked twins ever have parents? Is Space Ghost some kind of creepy guardian uncle? Where did they find that minkey in space and why does it have to wear a mask? Who is Space Ghost? Is he literally a ghost? Are they supposed to be in the future? And if so, what is their relationship to the Galaxy Trio?

When did the Flintstones jump the shark? Was it when Peebles and Bamm Bamm came into the picture? Was Betty infertile (You'll recall Bamm Bamm was adopted.)? What's the deal with the Great Gazoo? They obviously ran out of ideas so they thought--why not have a little green man from outer space with voice of Harvey Korman advance the plot every week? And can't I get that dumb song "Let the Sunshine In" out of my head. (Not to be confused with the number from "Hair")

Why did Underdog in the guise of humble, lovable Shoeshine never wear pants? And where did Shoeshine live? He couldn't have afforded more than a studio apartment on what he made shining shoes. Maybe he couldn't afford pants. And where did the super-energy pills come from? Did he invent them? And if so, why not sell the patent, make a fortune and buy some damn pants for Christ's sake?

Brit's In-Hume-Manity to Man

Brit Hume is a perfect example of the anti-Obama forces. After his recent call for Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity, he could not fathom why these liberal elitists were upset just because he was proclaiming his truth--that his religion was superior to all others. That's the colonial, white, chauvinist, parochial mindset to which Fox News gives voice--I'm in the majority, my religion/class/race/way of thinking is followed by everyone I know at the country club and by people who look like me, so it must be right and everyone else's may be exotic or cute or interesting, but when you need forgiveness and redemption, you come to us. These people literally cannot think outside the box. Obama--and to Hume, Tiger Woods, too--is so outside their box, he scares the hell out of them.

Having a President born in Hawaii to a white American mother and a black African father, and raised for much of his childhood in Indonesia is just so foreign to them it literally blows their minds.

The larger issue is that Hume and his ilk don't think of themselves as citizens of a world culture but as Americans first and the rest of the world be damned. He has a perfect right to espouse his faith and extoll its benefits, but for him to slam Buddhism when he clearly knows nothing about it is preachy and superior and he should not be surprised when he gets called on it. As Ghandi said, "I like your Christ but not your Christians." Forgiveness and redemption are the main thing, not who delivers them. What if Woods finds peace and sanity through Buddhism, chanting, or therapy? Would that make him any less happy? I guess not according to the Reverend Brit.

And BTW, what about all these right-wing adulterers and closet cases like Sanford, Foley, Enright, the one from Louisiana who was visited the whores, Ted Haggard, Newtie, newly divorced Karl Rove? I suppose they've been forgiven and redeemed?

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.

The One Joke Kathy Griffin Will Not Tell

What makes Kathy Griffin do it? On her third New Year's Eve broadcast on CNN with Anderson Cooper, she dropped the f-bomb. And it wasn't even that funny. She deliberately mispronounced the name of that balloon kid--"Is it Falcon, fuckin,...?" You could tell the only reason she said it was that she was on live, she could get away with it, and CNN probably made a big deal about her not cursing just because she told some rowdy guy in Times Square to suck it last year. She just wanted to push some buttons. The f-word here didn't make a political point or nothing.

But there are some places that even our beloved Kathy won't go. She must want to be asked back to CNN even though she said the f-word. I've heard from several sources that dreamboat Cooper is gay and Kathy, who just loves to push the envelope, did not make one joke about his alleged semi-closety existence, nor has she ever in any of her CNN appearances or anywhere else. Why do you think that is? Particularly when she was also appearing with openly gay Lance Bass (remote from Las Vegas) and Don Lemon (in the crowd) who is also rumored to be gay. This was probably the real super dealbreaker with CNN: "Kathy, if you make insinuation that our fair-haired boy who is our only hope of beating Fox in the ratings is a secret hairdresser, you will never be on any CNN show ever again! And that includes Larry King!"

I wish Anderson could be open enough about his sexuality so that Kathy could rib him instead of just making gags about him getting coffee for Kristain Amanpur. Obvioulsy, middle America could not take having it said that their Anderson who stood up to unfeeling politicians like Senator Landrieu and felt their pain during Katrina, might actually be a show-tune lovin' sissy boy.

I recall one interview Cooper was conducting with Pi Diddy or Sean Colmes or whatever he was calling himself at the time. Diddy offered Cooper some gift to give to his girlfriend. The newscaster replied he didn't have one. Why couldn't he just have said, I'm gay? He would say he's not the story. But all straight newscasters do not hesitate to mention their wives or husbands. It's the old invisibilty again.

Sidenote: While grocery shopping on Sunday, I noticed the National Enquirer at the checkout line. The cover story was "Who's Gay and Who's Not." Anderson was among the celebrities pictured. I actually started to read this fine example of investigative journalism, but the line ahead of me moved and I had to put my yogurt on the moving belt.

Obama Gets Caught Off Base

While driving to Philly to visit my parents for News Years weekend, my partner Jerry and I were listening to an African-American-interest show on NPR. There was a segment called From the Barbershop and they were reviewing both the year and the decade past. One of commentators noted that the actor Danny Glover recently stated that he didn't see much of a diffference between the policiies of Barack Obama and George W. Bush. The commentator said Hollywood people should not talk about politics and that included Spike Lee. But Glover's disillusion with Obama lead me to think about why the "left-wing base"--and there is one, it's just not as vocal or nasty as the right wing base and they don't dress up in 1776 costumes and throw tea parties, maybe they should--is disappointed with the president.

The left base is angry because Obama is turning out to be too much like every other president--he makes noises to appease those who elected him and then in order to get any legislation done, he compromises with the opposite side and winds up governing to the middle--which, like it or not, is where most of the country is ideologically. The voters who were enthuiastic for Obama from the very beginning of his candidacy loved him because they took his talk of change literally. They thought if he were president, he'd close Gitmo immediately, withdraw all the troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan (although he never said he would do the latter), repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act, get at least a public option for health care if not single-payer, and give all their children college scholarships and run in a marathon and win every event in the Olympics all at the same time.

These idealist Democrats rejected Hillary Clinton because they thought she represented "old" Washington. She wouldn't stand for anything, she'd just get stuff done and how boring is that? I voted for Mrs. Clinton in the NY primary because I thought she would make the better president--she had been in the White House and in the Senate and she knew how the game is played. You cosy up to your opponents (she's friends with McCain) and give them something in return for what you need. Now Obama is doing the same thing--look at the all the compromises in health care, Nebraska's getting everything for free just because their senator wouldn't vote for it otherwise. The extreme left is all downhearted because Obama is playing the game. It would take a truly revolutionary person to change Washington--and they don't always succeed. Woodrow Wilson ruined his presidency and his health, suffering a stroke when he tried to get America to take a leadership position and join the League of Nations. Lincoln saved the country from disunion, but gave his life.

Obama's popularity is slipping because he's playing for the middle and is pissing off both extreme left and right. It's interesting there were parallel situations in both Congress over health care and Copenhagen over climate change with negotations producing results which made all parties angry. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize yet maintained the importance of military force when necessary. Obama is trying for a balancing act and it's a difficult task. I hope he strikes the right balance so the Republicans can't use him as a target to make gains in the House and Senate and possibly take back the White house in 2012. Progressives need to grow up and realize nothing gets done with some compromises.