Marvel Pop-Ups

I collect comic books.  I have about 15,000 of them.  I also have a room and part of a garage full of comic book related collectibles such as toys, books, trading cards-well, you get the idea.

One set of unique comic book collectibles I find especially interesting is a set of three books.

In 2007 Candlewick Press created a series of three Pop-Up books about Spider-Man, The X-Men and The Hulk.

What makes these three books especially intriguing is that they not only feature killer art in all three titles but also Pop-Up action each time you turn a page.

Take The Amazing Spider-Man book for example.

The hardbound book is cut in an unusual manner-sort of an offset square.  It has a large binding with a unique double hinge design.

While the spin of the book is straight, indented front and back covers allow the book to open as to not tear away the POP-Up function.  The same goes for the other books.

Inside The Spider-Man book are double-page spreads consisting of pivotal scenes from Spider-Man’s impressive run of comic books.

The first page pops out Spider-Man and includes a flip-open side panel.  A pullout tab includes extra text.

The second twin page spotlights the Green Goblin with a similar side panel and pullout section and so it goes for the entire book.

Each double-page spread features Spider-Man fighting one of his classic villains.  It’s like reading a comic book in full 3D.

The X-Men and Hulk books follow the same format.

The trio of books is pretty impressive and is clever binding and engineering feats.  It took a lot of effort and creativity to publish the books.  Sadly only three books exist in the set to my knowledge.  

Whether more were planned I have no idea.  It would have been nice to see an entire set of Marvel Comics Group Pop-Up books.

Wrath of Man

Have you ever met someone and immediately sized him or her up and believed they behaved a certain way only to have them surprise you with some action completely unexpected?

That’s what happens when a new security guard shows up and when a heist occurs he demonstrates previously unknown and unexpected skills.

Warner Bros. presents the Wrath of Man DVD/Digital Code release starring Jason Statham as a mysterious and deadly security guard.

Hi name is H.  Who is he?  He’s not a cop or a security guard.  Where did he learn all of is skills?  Just how deadly is he?  What’s in it for him?  Is it revenge?  Is it justice?  Or is it both?

Either way he is not someone you want to cross, especially if you’re a bad guy.

He’s ruthless, efficient will his kills, shows no mercy and holds a grudge.

Directed by Guy Richie, Wrath of Man is a violent, face-paced, catch-your-breath crime thriller that delivers with action, incredible fight scenes and powerful performances.

50th Anniversaries: Superman, Bugs Bunny and Snow White

Way back in 1988 DC Comics’ Superman celebrated his 50th Anniversary.  Recently Superman celebrated his 83rd Anniversary.

He’s been through a lot of changes in the intervening years and continues to stay current with modern comics’ changes and themes.

John Byrne and Jerry Ordway provide the classic pose of Clark Kent removing his shirt to reveal his Superman outfit underneath on Time Magazine's cover in 1988.

Superman’s legacy is examined inside starting with his origin tale, his transition to TV, cartoons and his status as an American icon.

In the fall of 1987 Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs movies celebrated 50 years of movie magic.

For close to ninety years the classic Disney film has remained popular with animation fans.  

It set the benchmark for animated movies, as it was the first of its kind.

Gladstone published a Golden Anniversary Walt Disney’s Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs magazine complete with photos of art from the film.

Discover how the characters were designed for film, the long process of bringing the tale to the movie screen, and much more.

Look for a special pack of Snow White Panini trading cards, an inserted poster and a complete color reprint of the film as seen in comic books.

Warner Bros. infamous hare: Bugs Bunny, turned 50 in 1990.  Can you believe it, Bugs is 81 years old?!

For eight decades he’s pestered Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck and other would be rabbit hunting scoundrels.

His catchphrase “ What’s up doc?” has become famous worldwide.

Learn all there is to know about that wascally wabbit including his first appearance, his superstar status as Warner Bros. top animated character, his shenanigans and his supporting cast.

Discover how the carrot-munching wise guy transitioned to toys, merchandise, TV and beyond-even garnering a few movies.

The magazine provides information about how his cartoons were produced, the voice talent behind Bugs and his supporting cast and more including an actual animation cell reproduction.

And let’s not forget the tributes from fellow cartoonists.

King's Court

Ladies and gentlemen Konami proudly presents King’s Court for a rollicking good time of deception and strategy and all with class.

King’s Court: the newest Konami Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game addition brings a new level of royalty to the game with “Three Musketeers of Face Cards” – King’s Knight, Queen’s Knight, and Jack’s Knight.  Just look what populates the court:

A high-speed Summoning strategy.
The World Premiere Joker’s Knight that assume the identity of the Knights. 

The LIGHT Warrior that can Summon without depleting
your hand.
Two more World Premiere “Joker” Cards, 1 Spell and 1 Trap.
World Premiere Arcana Triumph Joker.
Use the new Cards to gather Tributes and add to
Summoning power
Collector’s Rare versions of World Premiere Cards.
Unreleased Cards from Japan.

The King’s Court Booster Set contains 62-Cards with 24 Packs per Box:

10 Ultra Rares
15 Super Rares
37 Rares
15 Cards in the set are also available as Collector's Rares

Booster Packs contains 7 Cards:
1 Foil Card
6 Rare Cards

2000 DC Batmobile

The 1960’s TV Batmobile is the favorite vintage Batmobile of fans with the comic book 2000 Batmobile coming in second.

The diecast metal Corgi 2000 Batmobile comes in a small rectangular box decorated with the Batman logo and an illustration of Batman.

Most of the front and top panels are clear plastic revealing the Batmobile inside against a Gotham City background.

The Batmobile sits on a raised base and is held in place with wires underneath.  Removing the Batmobile you'll notice an embossed image of Batman under the chassis.

The vehicle is a light blue with black accents, extended rear view mirrors, hood bat symbol, full black interior with four high back seats and instrumentation, black rear window trim and vents.

Two large fins extend from the cab to the rear bumper. There are front lights and five rear lights with an above the bumper bat symbol.

Both doors open and close.  The unibody car has blue blend in bumpers, lies low to the ground and feature four mag tires with large silver wheels.  The effort of the car had a molded bat symbol as a grill.

It’s a nicely detailed vehicle with excellent paint coverage and impressive details.

Little Big Heads

At one point in time Bobble Heads or in this case Little Big Heads were all the craze.

People could not get enough of the pint-sized figures that had heads the wobbled back and forth at the touch of a finger, jostling or while riding in a car.

While not as popular as they once were the figures are still collectible today.

Sideshow’s Little Big Heads, Universal Studios Monsters, black and white, 15 figure set includes two Frankenstein figures, The Bride of Frankenstein, two Mummy figures, two Creatures, two Phantom, a Metaluna, the Hunchback, the Invisible Man, Dracula, the Wolfman and a Mole Man.

With so many figures I won’t go into to detail about each one.

All of the figures measure about 3-inches tall. All have heads that move and each are miniature masterpieces of sculpting, color application and craftsmanship.

While their bodies are diminutive their heads are slightly smaller than their 12-inch collectible figure cousins by Sideshow are.

Details are amazing with fully sculpted hands, cloths and accessories such knives, shackles, glasses and other accoutrements.

Check out the Creature’s claws, The Phantom’s miniature doll, The Metaluna’s massive pinchers or Frankenstein’s shackles and that’s just a few of the little extras Sideshow threw in with the figures.

All are painted in grays and blacks matching the look of the old black and white films.

The Silver Screen Edition box is long with a clear plastic viewing panel.

Each figure is cuddled in its protective niche and held in place bay a plastic wire strap.  

All the figures are mounted on circular bases with appropriate textures and dressings to match their respective films.

Pay particular attention to the clothing details with lifelike folds, creases and draping.  

The set is the perfect way to enjoy each figure in the series and makes for a fine display piece along other Sideshow’s Monsters of Universal Studios figures.

Elfquest Cutter Mini-Bust

Artist and writer Wendi Pini created one of the most successful creator-owned and published franchises in the comic book industry.

Elfquest revolved around an Elfish society and the diversity of characters therein.

Cutter (who was a warrior) was one of the fans’ favorite characters.

Dark Horse Deluxe released a Cutter figure/bust that is packaged in a heavy paper stock lidded box with color photos of the figure on all sides.

The bust/figure is nestled in a form-fitting Styrofoam cocoon.

The Cutter figure/bust starts at just below the waist at the upper part of his tan trousers.  From there it proceeds to his bare abdomen and chest up to his long brown fur sleeves vest.

His arms are crossed and he holds a large curved blade sword with a curved pommel.  Both wrists have leather strap wrist bracelets with one strand wrapped around his palms.  

The left arm has an upper arm gold band.

Cutter's face with its pointed chin, large expressive blew eyes, small nose, high cheekbones and large pointed ears are framed by his shaggy blond hair tied in a ponytail held in place by a leather strip.

He also has long blond sideburns.

The figure/bust perches on a tree stump with a large wolf head carved into the bark.

Atop the stump is a cluster of green leaves forming a circular halo that the figure emerges from.

My figure/bust is #277 out of 1,500 figures.

Sculpt work looks just like the comic book version of Cutter. Coloration is well done with nice flesh tones, and excellent application on the sword, clothing, tree trunk and leaves.

The figure/bust comes wrapped in tissue paper and is cradled in form-fitting Styrofoam cradle secured with plastic tape.  The entire assembly slides in and out of its box with little effort.

The Incredible Hulk #265

Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk learns what it means to take on the best of the West when he comes face to face with The Rangers consisting of Firebird, The Night Rider, Shooting Star, Texas Twister and Red Wolf.

It’s an Old West showdown as the Green Goliath tussles with some pretty ornery Western folk.  Cowboys and Indians give the old Hulkster a rambunctious time of it.

The Corruptor has caused the Hulk to reach new levels of anger.  With that he has taken over the Hulk and is commanding him to kill Rick Jones unless he contacts The Avengers.

Once The Avengers arrive the Corruptor plans to use his power on them to control them and obtain the power he desires.

Rick refuses but the Corrupter threatens to have the Hulk kill the captive Teen Brigade.  Rick reluctantly agrees to contact The Avengers.  He sends a signal to them only to have it intercepted by the members of  The Rangers.

The Rangers converge on the Corruptor and the Hulk and the sagebrush flies in a Wild West showdown like no other.

Currently a raw The Incredible Hulk #265 in mint condition costs about $10 with a mint slabbed copy fetching close to $100.

The Avengers And Me

Several years back I purchased at a used book store: Patrick Macnee’s book The Avengers The Inside Story.

It made for a fascinating read.

After looking over the book I discovered that it was a re-issue of Patrick’s earlier book: The Avengers And Me published by
TV Books.

I was determined to get the original version and to my surprise I found it a couple years later at that same used bookstore.

I purchased it and to my surprise when I got it home and opened it to the front page I discovered it was autographed by Patrick himself!

He died not long ago and this book has become a special part of my The Avengers collection.

Of all the British TV series The Avengers has been and always be my favorite.

The Avengers And Me offers a unique and up close and personal appraisal of the TV series by one of the actors who starred in the series: Patrick Macnee.

Patrick made quite a career and name for himself on the series.  Not bad for starting out in a second-tier British TV series that originally was about a doctor seeking revenge against those that killed his wife.

When the series star left the series Patrick was confronted with the opportunity to star in the show.  His partner would be a woman.  Her part was originally to be played by a man.

Instead of changing the dialogue and action to reflect that of a man, the producers decided to keep the original version.  Honor Blackman played Cathy Gale.

She was tough, resourceful and deadly in her own right.  She became one of television's first liberated women. Later Diana Rigg replaced her as Emma Peele.  Originally another actress was to play Emma but producers replaced her because she didn’t seem to fit the role.

Later still another actress took over after Diana left the series.

While The Avengers offered a glamorized look at English life and the country, the book delves more into the people who made the show possible.

Patrick offers insights into the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of the show from its early concept as a simple revenge and bring to justice format to the super spy parody it later evolved into.

To be sure Patrick talks about his various leading ladies. I’ve always enjoyed Patrick's work.  He genuinely seems to enjoy himself and he is very modest when it comes to his career.

No showboater, he gives other actors. actresses and production people their just due.  Perhaps that’s one of the reasons he was so well l liked with cast and crew.

He truly appreciated the fact that he had steady work, a paycheck and was realistic about his acting talent and his styling power.

The book examines all of the various stages of The Avengers from its original concept to its re-introduction over ten years after the original series  ended as The New Avengers-again starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed only this time with two fellow agents-one male, one female.

Pages are brimming with black and white and color archival photos both in front of and behind the cameras.

It’s a delightful insight into the quirky and trend-setting series from the actor who starred in each phase-Patrick Macnee.

The Punisher Magazine #1

Way back in the 1970s Marvel Comics was no longer restricted on what type of comic books it produced.

It began featuring more hard-edged characters in its comics like Wolverine, Morbius and The Punisher.

Issue #129 of the Amazing Spider-Man saw the first appearance of The Punisher.

The character became so popular that Marvel Comics gave him his own black and white magazine in 1976.  Marvel Super Action #1 was all Punisher!

Previously he appeared in Marvel Preview Presents #2 as part of anthology black and white collection along with a story about Dominic Fortune.

Unlike his appearance in mainstream Marvel Comics, his magazine allowed him to be as ferocious and violent as necessary.

It’s in this magazine that he showed just how deadly he really is.

In the lead-in story The Punisher recounts his origin to a certain lady of the night.  He tells of his family’s death at the hands of the mob and how he exacted his revenge.

Too bad this particular lady never got to consummate their encounter.  Turns out this lady is more interested in his death than sex.

Did you know that Marvel Comics had their own Huntress character?  This issue features her premiere.  She’s not a lady you want to tackle with.

A long article on the various Destroyer type characters popular during the 1970s are examined and a special Weird World tale is also incuded.

Upcoming!! Diamond Previews, July 2021

 

DC Coming Attractions #85, Dec. 1983

Long before the Internet and social media existed comic book publishers had to find way to promote their product.

DC Comics distributed for free at local comic book shops its DC Coming Attractions newsletter.

While this may not seem like a big deal with all the social networking and over abundance of promotion online nowadays, it was a big deal back in the 1980s.

Very few publications existed that promoted comic books.  Oh sure, you had the ‘official’ price guide, a couple of magazines like The Comics Reader, The Comics Journal and the like, and that was it.

But, usually when the periodicals were published they were out of date.

DC Direct actually notified comic book collectors and readers what to expect in stores on a specific date.  Diamond Previews did not exist yet, so comic book publishers put out their own promotional material.

DC had Coming Attractions, Marvel had Marvel Age, a few of the smaller publishers had newsletters and occasionally companies would release press releases to comic book shops.

In fact, my local comic book shop gave away copies of DC Direct to its customers.

It really comes a no surprise with today’s hunger for first appearances in obscure publications that early issues of DC coming attractions have now become sought after collector items.

DC Coming Attractions #85 had first looks at Infinity Inc. and a new George Perez New Teen Titans poster.  There was not a lot to talk about that issue but follow-up issues offered some real winners.
 
For example issue #85 now sells for a whooping $25 on E-bay.  Not bad for a giveaway!

Godzilla Vs. Kong

Get ready for the ultimate smack down as the twin titans of Godzilla and King Kong battle it out for supremacy.

After their successful relaunch movies it was inevitable that the giants of destruction would duke it out as humanity helplessly stands by-that is until Mechagodzilla shows up.

On land, at sea and in the air the dynamic duo of destruction go head-to-head in some of the most spectacular fight scenes ever seen in a movie.

Stunning visual effects, a powerful soundtrack and acting, both by the human cast and Kong and Godzilla, results in a spectacular movie fans of both Kong and Godzilla are sure to love.

Warner Bros. proudly presents the Godzilla Vs. Kong movie on Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Code with lots of extras including a commentary and featurettes about making the movie the classic movie.

In the movie Kong’s protectors journey to return him to his island home along with Jia a small orphaned girl who has a unique bond with Kong. Along the way they encounter Godzilla as he leaves a path of destruction behind him.

The two titans clash as orchestrated by an unknown force.  Who will triumph as the battle shifts to deep within the Earth’s core where gravity doesn’t exist?

The two creatures combine their power to fight Mechagodzilla and after a heated battle the twin titans grudgingly admit respect for one another.

It’s giant creatures galore all set in exotic and amazing vistas ripe with mystery and danger.

It’s the battle of the century and viewers are invited along for the ride.

Thor #411 and # 412

For a real rompin’ stompin’ slugfest featuring Thor and Juggernaut then be sure to pick up copies of both Thor #411 and 412.

This is one the best Juggernaut stories every created in my opinion.

You really get to see just how powerful old Juggy is.  Only the mystic power of Thor’s hammer stopped his rampage and that was by teleporting him to another location.

Oh, and as a side note for you key moment collectors out there issues 411 and 412 also introduced to the Marvel Universe The New Warriors consisting of Speedball, Namorita, Firestar, Kid Nova, Marvel Boy and Night Thrasher.

The issues also contain a continuing Beta Ray Bill adventure.

Both issues were put out in 1989: 42 years ago!   Hard to believe since I bought them off the newsstand.  How time flies.

Happiness Is a Mood, Positivity Is A Mindset

If you’ve read the title of this review you’re probably thinking, “Say what?  Has he gone all philosophical and cosmic on us?”

Well, sort of.  I’ve come to realize as I’ve old (I'm pushing 70 years old) and that my mind is not quite as sharp as it once was-especially my memory.

Plus, since I am older I have a lot more to do than when I was young-especially around the house, going to weddings, funerals, etc. and keeping doctor, dentist and other appointments.

Honestly I do more things now that I’m retired than I ever did when I was working.

Anyway, back to my point.  I need a way to keep track of my time, tasks and appointments.

Sure I could write it down on paper or or post-it notes.  I could even spring for a cheap planner-but what fun is that?

Andrews McMeel Universal/Publishing has come to my rescue.  The company has produced a great, small, colorful, wire bound planner that not only includes each month listed starting in September 2012 to December 2022, it also includes come great extras.

Besides looking cool the Positively Present Planner is packed with all sorts of colorful quotes, challenges and places to keep notes.  

Why settle for a plain old planner when I can have one that stimulates my mind, presents a few challenges, is small enough to take it wherever I go and brings a smile to my face?

Keeping appointments and planning my time has never been so much fun!