T-shirt #303 - Space Ghost with Red Collar

T-shirt #303 - Space Ghost with Red Collar



I originally posted this blog entry the day before my birthday. I am completing it a few days later, which allows me to have photos and videos from the day I originally posted it.

Birthdays have always been special in the Tower household. My mother always put on quite an elaborate show in celebration of our birthdays growing up and then into adulthood, so that we would feel extra special and loved. Not that we had any doubt that we were extra special and loved. And by "we" here I mean my sister and me and my father.

Unfortunately, I do not have any digital copies of any of my childhood birthday celebrations, though this should come along some time in the next year or two.

Our family has always celebrated birthdays in a way that makes me feel very special. I have photos and videos from several birthdays on this page. The photos of me in the featured shirt come from my 44th birthday in 2006. Farther below, you will find a video and a picture of my cake from my 2007 birthday as well as time lapse videos from my current 2014 birthday.

Also, in addition, to being about birthdays, today is also about SPACE GHOST.

So far, I have written about SPACE GHOST twice though not in much depth. Given that I am behind schedule, I am unlikely to deliver much depth today either.

T-shirt #69 SPACE GHOST COAST-TO-COAST BLUE

T-shirt #169 SPACE GHOST COAST-TO-COAST BROWN

T-shirt #69 features a nice picture of me with my parents from May of 2013.

I also wrote the following text.


I love capes.

Space Ghost has a cape.

I love Space Ghost.

This blog (the whole project not just this entry) is a unique vehicle for self-inventory, for making categories, for reflection. More on this process as I proceed. Maybe it will inspire others for similar reflection and self-inventory. Maybe some of the entries will remind people of pop culture icons long forgotten or make others ask: "who the Hell is Space Ghost?"

SPACE GHOST COMIC. There have been a few comics featuring Space Ghost. I have at least one more Space Ghost shirt, so I will have another chance to catalogue and review. I like this one by Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti very much.

Would there have been a Buzz Lightyear without a Space Ghost?

For T-shirt #169 (do you like the unintended and random number connection between 69 and 169), I explored many topics, including mail call. I discussed the parlor trick CD that came in the mail (a Kickstarter I had funded), The Parlour Trick, fun with Ernest Cline author of Ready Player One--one of my favorite books of last year and maybe of all time--a call to stop the killing in Syria, and a review of the awful City of Bones book. Not much on Space Ghost.

But today... maybe a bit more on Space Ghost once I get rolling and all.

BIRTHDAYS AT MY HOUSE

Birthdays at my house were always like national holidays. Normal activity ceased and everything focused on the birthday boy or girl. My mother set impossibly high standards for how to make someone's day super special, a standard I strive to meet with my wife and kids and rarely live up to.

Since my mother's coma and meningitis, we have all carried on trying to make birthdays extra special events for everyone in the family, but none of us could match the special care and thoughtfulness of my mother, Marjorie.

SPECIAL CAKE

One element of special birthdays was our special cake. We always received a specially baked cake, our favorite, baked with care by our mother and then decorated with great artistic talent by our father.

I only have one example of the many examples currently in a digital form (see above). There's a cake of my favorite superhero of the time: NOVA. I would guess that to be from around 1976-78 as the Nova comic was published during those years. I would guess that it might be my cake from 1977.

My father works very great with frosting. I hope in time to get more of his cakes on the Internet as they were truly amazing works of art.

In the photos of more recent birthdays, we did away with the special cake decorations. In the photos of me from 2006, in the Space Ghost shirt, it looks like I am leaning over a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting: a cake known in our family as the "wacky cake." The 2007 cake is my father's favorite, pineapple-upside down cake with frosting. My father loves frosting. This year's cake (seen in pictures below) is my favorite cake, known as the lemon "poke" cake because holes are poked in the cake and a lemon juice (from real lemons) mixture is poured in. The cake is baked with lemon jello to make it more spongy.

BIG CANDLES and CANDLE TRAIN

Added 1401.28: I came across this photo above of the Daredevil cake. I had forgotten the big candles and the candle train that accompanied our birthday celebrations. There was a large white candle with our ages printed along the side. The idea was to burn just that year's worth at each birthday celebration. There was also a candle with a clown face (seen above right, just barely), which we burned to the point that there was little left of the candle. At the bottom of the photo, you can barely see the tips of a small train with cars made of wood, linked together with metal eyelets: one train car for each year. Once was passed the age of the original wooden train cars, my mother bought plastic ones, but ultimately, we had to give up the train as she could not find more cars to add. I still liked using it, even if there was not a car for each year (which by now would fill the damn table). Also, I like noting my mother's care with all these elements. I believe the candles are sitting on either circles of cardboard wrapped in foil or inverted plates wrapped in foil. The cake sits on an inverted metal pan or pan lid wrapped in foil. These preparations are further evidence of the boundless spirit of my mother's love for us and for being a mother.

NUTCUPS

As a way to make our birthday even more special, my mother would assemble "nut cups," which contained our favorite (chosen by us) nuts and candies. I am partial to cashews and fruity candies, though I do like whoppers as well (malt balls).

You can see an example of the nut cup next to the Nova cake in the picture as well as how we carried on the tradition (my sister in this case) in the photos of me in my Space Ghost short from 2006. See? There's a nut cup next to me.

Very sweet. Literally and figuratively.

I think this is a tradition to which we need to return.

DECORATIONS

Our homes was decorated extensively for birthdays, which is a bit challenging as my birthday is not long after Christmas. Crepe paper streamers, balloons, special cardboards on the walls (featuring our favorite cartoon characters) as well as matching paper tablecloth, napkins, plates, and nut cups bought especially for birthdays in the birthday celebration section of the store or at the Hallmark or Birthday specialty store. This attention to what we liked and the theme of our birthday carried on into our adult hood. The year my mother came down with the meningitis (2000), I turned 38 years old, and I am not ashamed to say I still had a birthday with all these trimmings hosted by her and my father still decorated a cake.

MY MOTHER'S WRAPPING

My mother's wrapping of presents was a work of art. She carefully chose special paper, which she hunted for in stores year around on her frequent shopping trips. She would add bows, ribbons, special cardboard cutouts of our favorite cartoon characters or of Santa Claus and others ate Christmas. Each present bore a tag, even on our birthdays when the presents were all for us. The tags also had special things written in them, but most often: "To Christopher With Love Mommy and Daddy."


UNWRAPPED GIFT PICTURES

Sometime after the event of the day, though sometime later that same day, but not always, we would pose for pictures with our gifts as seen above and to the left. As you can see, when my sister was young, she posed too even when it was not her birthday because she got presents, too! Yes, so she would not feel left out (and the same for me with her birthday), she would receive a few small presents on my birthday so she would have something to open. I was treated to the same on her birthday.

THE LIST OF GIFTS

In addition to posing for pictures with our gifts, which has morphed in our adult years to just pictures of us with the gifts after we unwrap the packages, we would write down or our mother would write down for us (when we were young) what we got as gifts. My mother wanted these lists as records. She wanted to avoid repeating gifts the following year. She wanted to use the list as a budget guide for the following year. She wanted to keep the list to consult in case she got a good idea, so she could repeat it the following year, such as our elaborate and thoughtfully appointed stationary boxes, filled with stamps, special sticky note pads, pens, folders, bookmarks, and other office supplies and school supplies, again, for which she shopped throughout the year and stashed her purchases. I think my mother also just liked having the lists as keepsakes. I still make lists of my gifts because I know she wants me to and for many of the same reasons. It's nice to be able to look back at the lists years later. They have come in handy while creating this blog. I have been meaning to type the lists from the last few years into computer files.

WRITING IN BOOKS

My mother liked to write in the books we received as gifts as another record keeping and keepsake measure. I shared one such note in T-shirt #119 that appeared in my Doctor Strange book. I re-present it here.



DESSERT TO SCHOOL

Around the time of our birthday, our mother would make a load of treats and bring them, herself, to school to share with our classes. This got me beaten up, so it was good she stopped this practice just around junior high.

PARTIES

We did have parties as kids, though neither my sister nor I were possessed with large numbers of friends. Though we both can remember a year or two with parties and large numbers of kids, our best times were with a friend or two over as guests for play dates around the time of our birthday.

However, for my 18th birthday, my parents hosted an elaborate event in which we had a quest of live action role playing for myself and nearly a dozen of my friends. Yes, I was and I am a geek.

I can never capture in text how wonderful my parents were as parents and how much they showered us with love and special treatment. I am probably spoiled rotten, but I have come to realize just how special all this treatment was and I do not expect it. I am honored and blessed by whatever I am given, and I cherish the memories of my idyllic childhood. I try to share this special treatment now, with my family, though I cannot live up to my mother's standard of excellence, but I can try. Because the true gift is giving and the true love is seeing how you make other people happy. This is what my parents taught me. I am not spoiled. I am blessed. And I much prefer giving than receiving.

PHOTO LOG OF BIRTHDAYS

Comments will precede the photos.

Blowing out candles on my 2014 cake. I no longer need to wish for what I always used to wish for. I have it. I am loved, and I am blessed.

Posing with gifts from 2014. A Battlestar Galactica patch for my geeky shirt creation.

Yes, those are shaving cakes. I still lather up in a cup and brush the lather on my face: old school. And no aerosol cans to dispose of.

You're going to get some shirt previews. In the next, WONDER GIRL! Not to be mistaken for WONDER WOMAN. No, that's Donna Troy's.

Get ready for some METAL MEN content. That's the shirt for the Iron robot.

Birthday at Pattiwood, my parents new condo with my wife, Ivan, my Mom and Dad, plus my sister Lori and her husband Noel. Getting ready to blow out those candles.

Get ready for some METAL MEN content. That's the shirt for the Gold robot.

My mother is laughing in the next photo as my sister distributes cake but not BECAUSE my sister is distributing cake. :-)

RECOGNIZE the next one? Famous comic book sorcerer. I already mentioned him in this blog. :-)

Now, we stop back to 2006 and the birthday that I received and immediately donned the Space Ghost short.  But first the Quickdraw McGraw Bobblehead and some pint glass that I cannot identify in the picture. Underdog perhaps?

More with the Bobbleheads! Baba Looey and Quickdraw McGraw! And yes, I am saving those bows for re-use.

BOOKS!! There's Boondocks if you can spot it, and several others that relate to my writing: Parallel Universes, a couple of books on magic, and one on cataclysmic and prehistoric meteor strikes that pummeled the planet.

SPACE GHOST COMICS!! These are not mine. I got this picture off the Internet, but I do own all of these.

ABOUT SPACE GHOST

Reprinted from T-shirt #101 - the Jetsons.

Space Ghost is a top my Top Ten favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Also, note Quickdraw in the honorable mentions, so hence the bobbleheads.

I am also mad for the Herculoids, but I have no shirt to feature them. I am adding a Herculoids video to this HUGE blog just because. So there.

TOP TEN LIST OF FAVORITE HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTIONS

1. Space Ghost
2. Jonny Quest
3. Atom Ant
4. The Herculoids
5. The Jetsons
6. Fantastic Four
7. Wacky Races
8. Super Friends
9. Birdman and Galaxy Trio
10. Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Yogi Bear, QuickDraw McGraw, Top Cat, Scooby Doo, Hong Kong Phooey, Harlem Globetrotters, and Josie and the Pussycats.

SPACE GHOST RESOURCES

SPACE GHOST WIKI

SPACE GHOST FAQ

SPACE GHOST COMIC VINE

SPACE GHOST REDDIT

SPACE GHOST TUMBLR

SPACE GHOST GALLERY NERD LUNCH

SPACE GHOST FAN FICTION

SPACE GHOST COMIC REVIEW - BASEMENT REJECTS

SPACE GHOST TRIBUTE - ALEX TOTH

SPACE GHOST TOONPEDIA


I am not sure I need much more to create a Space Ghost love letter. Between all the art, the links, and the videos, you should see the love. It's vibrant. Check out Space Ghost for yourself if you don't know anything about him. He's awesome.

Now where's my Space Ghost pint glass. Time for a BREW.

SPACE GHOST VIDEOS

The original Space Ghost opening

SPACE SPECTRE (1981)

"THE OVENS OF MOLTOR"





Space Ghost Episode 2 - Gargoyloids 






Space Ghost Episode 3 (Nightmare Planet)






and because I don't have a Herculoids shirt... alas alack.

The original Herculoids cartoon






































MY BIRTHDAY VIDEOS Some special videos. Not too exciting here unless you know me. But I did post them to You Tube. First the 2007 birthday. Then 2014 in time lapse and finally some gaming from earlier this month in time lapse. Whew. This is a lot of content. I am tired.

My Birthday 2007 Tower Family Space Ghost Shirt

My Birthday in Time Lapse 1401.18 

My Birthday in Time Lapse 1401.18 - pt.2

Gaming in celebration of my birthday 1401.05

COVER GALLERIES

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 62 shirts remaining - chris tower - first published - 1401.18 - 20:56
final publication - 1401.21 - 19:58

T-shirt #281 - Marvel Heroes Various

T-shirt #281 - Marvel Heroes Various

Welcome again to the featured subject of my blog: comic books. I have written about comic books in at least eighty-five [85] of the two hundred and eighty one [281] posts so far posted to this blog, and not surprisingly, I still have more to say.

This is a new shirt that I bought last week at Meijer. This is just the kind of shirt I might never have bought if not for the blog and my main activity, which is writing about comic books.

Though I have written reviews of comic books, lists of favorites, weekly comic lists, and though many of my t-shirts feature comic book art and thus the subject of the blog post is that comic book or character, I have not written specifically about why I love comic books. What about comic books specifically attracts me and allures me, focuses my adoration into a thing so strong its nearly palpable. Though I may not render the full answer to this question today, I will begin to answer the question: why do I love comic books?

But first,boftasese themany of these heroes (or characters as some are villains) can you name? I think my list featured near the end of the blog is accurate, even though the pictures I am featuring do not quite display the shirt's art in a way that can be easily scrutinized in its entirety. I will include close ups of the shirt farther down in today's blog for more easy identification of these characters.

Today's blog is a comic book festival. First, I want to explore the aforementioned question of why I love comic books. I have stacks of comics that have been waiting for review, and though I will not post all of those reviews today, I wish to get started. Obviously, the shirt is part of the subject matter, and there's the weekly comics list (which is very short for this week).


WHY DO I LOVE COMIC BOOKS?

Though I wrote about the following memory yesterday, I am giving it more text time and a better featured spot here in today's content.

As a child, growing up, I always received a stack of comic books on Christmas Eve. My parents were very wise. They knew that I would sleep at best five or six hours, and I would be awake by three or four in the morning and ready, eager, basically coming out of my skin to open my Christmas presents. Their only hope of sleeping until seven a.m. was to let me open a gift of comic books the night before that I could read until the appointed time.

Though I no longer get a gift of comics to open on Christmas Eve, I still reserve special comics to read on Christmas Eve to honor this tradition.

My comic book love is rooted in childhood. My father read comic books to me before bed. My parents encouraged me to purchase my own comic books by structuring my allowance around the cost of comics and taking me to places that sold comic books. And the Christmas Eve box always increased my comic book collection exponentially. So, obviously, reading comic books takes me back to the happiest times of my life, the security of childhood and the certainty of the love of my parents. But there must be more.

If there's a thesis to this section, it would be something like: "though comic books conjure up happy memories of childhood and were encouraged by my parents, my love for the four-color stories extends to a deep affection for episodic fiction, for heroic stories, for fantastic and magical stories, and for a vast, intricate, immensely complicated tapestry of stories, characters, histories, premises, other worlds, and other dimensions."

In the ultimate analysis, comic books are simply a part of my life. I was defending my love of the soap opera The Young and the Restless twice this week. I have been sharing about it purposefully to test the pre-conceptions and assumptions people make about the things of their world. Y&R, as it's known, has been a part of my life since 1974, not as long as comic books (which I started reading in 1966), but long enough that it is a daily part of my life and a cherished part. Ultimately, these things define who we are. They become the familiar sights and sounds of our life's soundtrack and as such become immensely comforting.

Some might argue that by focusing attention on these things born from childhood that we are clinging to the past not growing, not moving on. But how are these affections different than establishing religion early in childhood, establishing a favorite sport to play, or a lifelong avocation, such as fishing? These things are not holding us back; these things are part of who we are. They are our identity. My identity is firmly rooted in popular culture and art experiences more than anything else, though these experiences are always attached to real relationships and love shared with real people, as the art works reflect those relationships and those loves.

I love comic books as an extension of the love I have for the people in my life, first and foremost, my parents. And that's truly FANTASTIC.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS

Uncanny X-Force

Last week, I dedicated myself to some serious comic book reading during Sunday's Lions game and tackled the FIFTEEN issue backlog of Uncanny X-Force, which I completed though not until nearly ten at night, long after the game ended, and typically past my bedtime. There's nothing like reading many consecutive issues all together. The guys in the comic book store motivated me to grab the trades of the previous run of Uncanny X-Force, and though I have not read all the stuff, I liked the "Dark Angel Saga" very much. So, when Marvel rebooted with Marvel Now, I started buying the issues, and, well, that was fifteen months ago.

These issues hold up very well as one continuous story. Apparently, there are two more issues due in the run before Marvel once again reboots its line (which I must say is growing VERY tedious).



I liked these issues very much because the stories mostly centered on Psylocke (Elizabeth Braddock) who is one of my favorite X-Men, as I shared in T-shirt #218.

Actually, I read the first issue months ago, and then forgot I was buying the comic until it reached issue eight, and then I bought back issues and stashed the comic in my back log until I could catch up. There's nothing like a football game on a lazy Sunday, my typical day for R&R, to pour through a stack of comics in the back log. Maybe I should take pictures of the back log sometime just to provide perspective.

SPOILER ALERT!! If you do not want to know what happens in this comic, stop reading.

In Marvel's recent reboot of Uncanny X-Force, Sam Humphries and Ron Garney (later Adrian Alphona, Dexter Soy, and Ramon Pérez) take over from Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, and Leonardo Manco. The story telling does not suffer. Based on the back story of volume one, the first issue of the reboot starts with a framed story, Betsy Braddock with her psychic knife at the throat of her old nemesis Spiral in a crowded night club. Beautiful art by Ron Garney unfolds the back story leading to this attention-getting splash page as Wolverine kicks Psylocke out of his school and unofficially sends her after a drug cult in L.A. run by Spiral. Storm and Psylocke team up with former Alpha Flight mainstay Puck, forming the core of a new X-Force team. It turns out that Spiral is pretending to sell a drug that is actually the mutant ability of a young girl named Ginny. Meanwhile, Bishop returns from the future, and Fantomex runs through Paris with one third of his brain in the clone body of Cluster. What? That's a lot for one issue, but Humphries handles the writing deftly.

Issue #2 ratchets up the action as Storm, Psylocke, and Puck track Spiral, who has taken off with the girl, only to confront Bishop in a showdown. Bishop has been possessed by a demon bear. He defeats the X-Force and takes the girl.

Stories begin to converge in a smart lattice of plots. The focus of the issues is clearly on Betsy. Issue Three starts with background about the onset of Psylocke's powers as a young woman and more about her relationship with Fantomex (detailed in Uncanny X-Force volume one) that ended in Fantomex having his brain split in three parts and deposited in three clone bodies. Also, Betsy's thirst for vengeance against Spiral who tortured her at the behest of Mojo (lots of X-Men back story) is a continuing theme, especially since Spiral was as much a victim of Mojo as Betsy, and she is trying to change her life and atone for her sins. Meanwhile, Fantomex and Cluster are en route to save Psylocke from Dark Fantomex.

The story becomes further complicated as Betsy ventures into Bishop's mind and discovers that he has been hunting a revenant that hid in his mind to travel back to our present from the far future and sneak out to possess Ginny. Issue five takes place almost wholly in Bishop's mind as Psylocke and Storm learn of his mission to seek out and destroy revenants while Puck and Spiral bond, and in the end Cluster kidnaps Betsy. Issue Six takes place primarily in Betsy's mind as she has a psychic conference with Wolverine, and we learn she absorbed the demon bear, who is now her docile comrade, after healing it while in Bishop's mind.
Still with me?

Betsy and Spiral have their reckoning, and Betsy lets Spiral go; in the end, she agrees to help Cluster rescue Fantomex from Dark Fantomex, also known as Weapon XIII (which is a much more interesting name than "Dark Fantomex"). As the rescue is underway, the story details Betsy's time in Paris with Fantomex and Cluster after the original Fantomex's brain was split in three and deposited in three clones. This time in Betsy's life was alluded to as something she didn't want to discuss in issue one, setting up for the eventual payoff. These issues are the ones I love best as they are all about Psylocke, Elizabeth Braddock. Have I mentioned how she is one of my favorite X-characters? Yeah. So this was great stuff. Issues seven through nine are my favorites of the run so far because of the focus on Betsy and her relationship with all three Fantomexes. Humphries shows excellent sense of how to give a story its final moment, such as the end of issue nine as Betsy flies home after her confrontation with Weapon XIII.  In true comic book fashion, after the final moment with Betsy, the issue ends with the lead in for the next story arc with the culmination of the Revenant Queen story.

Starting with issue ten, the Revenant Queen story is not as strong as the previous work as  Ramon Pérez is no Ron Garney  or Adrian Alphona and Dexter Soy. The art is not bad; it's just a little lacking in some ways, though Ramon Pérez is very good with revenants and with the psychic nightmare blasts of the Revenant Queen's blood poison. The Revenant versions of Storm, Psylocke, and Puck are very well rendered by Ramon Pérez, and Humphries' story telling remains strong. Bishop saves the rest of the team in issue eleven and Spiral returns to help defeat the Revenant Queen in issue twelve. Alphona returns on issue twelve, and the art/story blend sees improvement. Issue twelve features some much needed back story and character development for Spiral and ends with the BIGGEST reveal of the series: the Revenant Queen is really Cassandra Nova, the evil twin of Charles Xavier who died in vitro. (Okay, that's a simplification of Cassandra Nova's origin and identity. So if you want the full story check the link.)

Art duties switch to Phil Briones and Angel Unzueta in issue thirteen as the Uncanny X-Force fights Cassandra Nova, who is attempting to turn the world into a playground, a living Hell, for her horde of demonic revenants. In the final showdown, Nova offers Betsy Braddock her original body in exchange for her allegiance, as Nova needs all the psychics she can get to continue her destruction of the world. Humphries creates a great sign of Cassandra Nova's dominance of the world: once the moon turns completely red with blood, all is lost. Throughout the story, the blood creeps more and more over the moon. But before Psylocke and the team can defeat Cassandra Nova, they are flung into the Underworld. The Demon Bear factors into the resolution of this predicament. To trap the Revenant Queen, a psychic must die. In the end, Psylocke kills her former self, her original body, concluding with the line "I will make my own happiness" as she skewers her former self. Thus, her story line, her angst over being a killer, her desire for a "normal" life, reaches a climax. The Demon Bear is trapped with Cassandra "beyond the veil." But it's not all over yet! The last panel of issue fifteen sets up the next issues as Bishop expresses anger at how his memories were tampered with.

I am glad to be caught up on this excellent story and look forward to the next two issues.

Since I wrote so much about Uncanny X-Force, I am going to stop my reviews now. This is plenty of content.

LISTS OF SUPERHEROES - today's shirt

Image below, left to right starting at the very top: Top Row: The Blob, ?? Hank Pym??/The Original Human Torch, Union Jack, ??Thunderbird??, Hercules. Second Row: Northstar, Atlas, Speedball, Songbird, Radioactive Man, the Hulk, and Deadpool. Third Row: Nick Fury, Stature (Cassie Lang), The Thing, Luke Cage, Silver Surfer, Black Bolt, Jessica Jones??, Falcon, Black Cat.

L-R: Hulkling, Namor, The Human Torch (FF), Sue Storm (Invisible Woman), Spider-Man, Daredevil, Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), Iron Man.
Next Row L-R: Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Wiccan, Captain America, She-Hulk, and Wolverine.

In the image below, I am stumped on the character in the upper right corner below Falcon and the Black Cat and above Doctor Strange and Nova.
L-R: Spider-Man, Wolverine, Mister Fantastic, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Doctor Strange, Unknown??, Nova.

L-R in below: Patriot, Sentry, She-Hulk.
Next: NightCrawler, IceMan, Professor X, Cyclops.

Previously named heroes in below, so starting with Punisher, Black Widow, Dagger, Cloak, Sasquatch, and at the very bottom in the white hood: MOONKNIGHT.

WEEKLY COMICS LIST

It's a very small list this week. No back log at all. I have already read all three of these comics, though I am not reviewing them here today. I am planning another massive comic books and football fest on Sunday. In fact, unlike past days of R&R, I plan to spend nearly all day on the couch with the dog, comic books, and football games. I will have more to report after Sunday.

COMICS FOR 1312.24

Forever Evil #4
Justice League #26
Avengers #024.NOW (Rogue Planet #1)

Bought For Piper: Harley Quinn #0

LYING CAT T-SHIRT

COMIC BOOK COVER GALLERY - ASSORTED

Here's some covers that have been clogging up my t-shirt blog folder and I just feel like sharing. I am all about sharing comic book art if you haven't noticed. I will try to add useful captions.

A great site for comic book art and reading about comics is PENCIL&INK BLOG. I have added it to my daily feed. FOLLOW. It's worth it. (Unless you don't like comics.)

Adam Strange is DC's SF revision
of John Carter of Mars. He's among my
favorite non-Franchise heroes.

This is a UK edition, but it's still among my favorite covers from
the 1970s. I own it. Though technically, it does not qualify for "oldest" category.
Mike Ploog art but looks a little like Gil Kane.

Another comic I own. Prepare for a Mister Miracle love fest.
I have a shirt. This is Marshall Rodgers. Superb.

Another comic I own. Great Kirby stuff.
I did not follow the New Gods as closely
when the issues came out, but I am a huge fan now.

Jim Starlin's WARLOCK
More to come on possibly my favorite
Marvel non-Franchise hero.

Thank you to Brian Bendis for sharing this via Tumblr
as a Christmas treat.

Starlin on Warlord? Yes.
Looks a lot like Grell.
LOVED this comic.

Mike Ploog - good stuff

Considered a top ten Neal Adams cover,
I don't think I own this one, but I like it.

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 84 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1312.27 - 20:03
final publication - 1312.28 - 9:43