Name The Monster Contest!!

How to make the hard transition from holiday weekend to work week?

A contest!!

Oh, dear. How about a name of "Freaking Nightmare" with the why of "OMG that pink belly makes the monster look seriously frightening"?

What's the prize for this contest?

A pool!! Great!! But I live in an apartment/home without a large enough yard! What does the small print say?

Ah, the old $1000 savings bond ploy!.

Also, I like how they try to game you with the "pool is free, installation not included" scheme.

There were lots (and lots) of other prizes (albeit mostly from "lesser" toy companies):

Well, I can't offer anyone a pool, or any actual prize at all, besides fame and, well...not even fame, really. Still, there are worse ways to spend the morning. So give a name to the hideous abomination cute monster!

From Space War #12 (1961)

Manic Memorial Day Triple Overtime--Superman Takes A Holiday!!

Even the Man Of Steel deserves a day off!

I just love the smile and jaunty stride that Bob Oksner gave him there...

But lest you think that this is a typical lying DC cover:

Ladies and gentleman: our hero.

Oh, don't worry, it's just a dream!

See, it's way too complicated, but an alien bunghole has worked some whammy so that, when Kal-El's not wearing the Superman uniform, he's just plain Clark Kent, with no powers whatsoever. Which has caused our hero to have something of an identity crisis about who he is and how he divides time between Clark and Superman. Hence, the dream.

"At least the kite got away..."

From Superman #298 (1976)

Manic Memorial Day Bonus--Don't Tease Us, Answer Man!!

From the Ask The Answer Man column in The Unexpected #185 (1978):

OK, Bob Rozakis and Al Milgrom, silly dismissive answer aside...

THERE IS NOW NOTHING IN THE WORLD I WANT MORE THAN A JONAH HEX/MAN-BAT TEAM-UP!!

Rebirth, anyone?

Manic Memorial Day--Neal Adams Didn't Get The Memo!!

DC could certainly do worse things than give Neal Adams carte blanche with some of their characters.

I've made no secret of my love for what Mr. Adams has brought to the industry. 

And, hell, the man is going to be 75 next month, and he's still drawing!! And still drawing well!!

So good on DC for saying, "What the hell? Let's give Neal fee reign on an out-of-continuity Batman title!"

Of course, Batman Odyssey, while visually spectacular, was kinda nuts:

Yeah, Adams' Batman regularly used guns against criminal, and even fired at crowds of citizens to inspire them to move. So maybe off book a little bit...but still great fun in a totally insane sort of way.

So now we come to Superman: The Coming of The Supermen, where Neal gets to play around with the Man Of Steel, free of nu52/Rebirth constraints.

But once again, Adams hasn't quite grokked how his hero is "supposed" to behave.

Kalibak has kidnapped a young refugee child who was under Superman's care, in order to draw Kal-El to Apokolips.

And Superman is none too happy:

Hoo boy. Let's look at that again:

It's good to see the red tights back. But "Nothing requires you"? "Your life is forfeit"? "I'll beat it oput of (him)"?

See, maybe that's what the mix-up was...maybe Zach Snyder was (through time-travel or whatever) reading this series when he crafted his version of Superman for the DC Cinematic Murderverse!!

Anyway, stay off model as long as you want, Mr. Adams. You've earned it, and we're enjoying the ride. Happy Birthday, sir!!

From Superman: The Coming Of The Supermen #4 (2016)

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Swedish Funnies!!

There is no better reason for the Quarter Bin to exist than to provide me with 20 year old Swedish reprint collectons of American newspaper comic strips!!

Knasen is the Swedish name for good old Beetle Bailey, and our book focuses heavily on his strips...

...both new and "classic":

Of course, this guy is a natural to reprint in Scandinavia!

Other American strips get the reprint treatment...

The Swedish for "Pluggers" is Knegare, which translates literally as "ware-slave," which makes the panel feature ultimately cooler!

And the Swedish for BC...

...is BC!!!

And in case you wanted to know how to translate Wizard of Id into Swedish:

There are a few other strips in the collection, as well as ads for other collections:

Yeah, I guess GROO translates into any language!!

Also...

Sigh...I miss Kalle och Hobbe.

But please, please don't ask me to explain this back cover:

What the what?!?!?!?!

Spoiler Saturday--Yes, There Really Is A Kalamazoo!!

So, in this week's Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur #7, a young Kree named Mel-Varr comes to Earth to capture an Inhuman, to prove to his jerk father and jerk fellow Kree that he's not a loser.

His target? The least powerful Inhuman his computer could find: Lunella Lafayette--Moon Girl!!

So he disguises himself as a human--from where, now?

OK, just wait one darned minute now...

Inside of Lunella's Yancy Street classroom, well, there's considerable resistance...to the concept that Kalamazoo exists!

STOP RIGHT THERE!!!!

Yes, we exist, urban lad who believes in aliens and big red dinosaurs and super-heroes, but not in my hometown!

We're right here on the map:

A true New Yorker should already know that, as Yankee superstar Derek Jeter was raised here!!

I won't turn this into a local tourism commercial here (Gibson guitars!! Upjohn!! Checker Motors! Bells Brewery!). But yes, unnamed lad (and writers Brandon Montclare & Amy Reeder), we are indeed real.

Oh, yes, and there's that song:


Check out that dance number at the end!

So, Kalamazoo--real place, not the home of invading evil aliens.

Although if you want to pronounce it Kal-elmazoo and pretend Superman came from here, be my guest...

Also, you should be reading Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur, because it's a really excellent book!

Friday Night Fights Ricochet Style!

You know who never gets any respect as a Spider-Villain?

The Shocker, that's who!!

Well, OK, that's because he really doesn't deserve any respect, as we'll see in this week's Friday Night Fight!!

Shocker has a plan to black out the whole of New York City unless he gets a million dollar ransom--which the mayor has refused to pay!

Fortunately, Spider-Man put the kibosh on Shocker's attempt to take out a power plant--except Web-Head is jumped by security guards who believe the Daily Bugle...which gives Shocky a chance to escape...and move in for the kill!

WHUDD!! THAMM! BRODD!! CRAKK!

Spacebooger still hopes to see Shocker as a villain in the next Spider-Man movie...

Spidey watches Shocker rebound himself out of action in Amazing Spider-Man #152 (1976), by Len Wein, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito & Frank Giacoia

Now is the time for you to go and vote for my fight. Why? Holiday bro--I don't have to come up with an answer. Just go vote!!