Over at Back in the Bronze Age, Redartz showed some pix of various action figure-type toys he’s kept for years. That got me thinking about some of the stuff I have lying around, so I dug out a few relics and took some pix of my own. You can click on the images for a closer view. Continue reading “Toy Nostalgia”
Category: Uncategorized
Ape Trekker
I received my copy of Ron Randall’s latest Trekker story (Battlefields) today, plus some pretty cool extras. It’s another great chapter in the Mercy St. Clair saga; even Gulliver seems to like it, despite what he calls a “lamentable lack of apes” in the story so far.
All Hallows Ape
Sad News
Stan Lee died today and the tributes are pouring in. There’s not much I can add; Stan co-created so many of Marvel’s characters that his legacy will probably never go away. The way we think of characters like the FF, Thor, the X-Men, the Avengers, Hulk, Sub-Mariner, and (my favourite) Spider-Man–their personalities, their essence, really–is because of the way Stan wrote them. And he was so in love with comics that his enthusiasm was infectious, leaving a veritable vocabulary of his own making. I know I’ve channeled him in my own writing plenty of times, and I’m sure countless others have too.
So, as Stan might have said: Face Front True Believers, and Excelsior!
First Day of Fall
Today is officially the first day of fall …
… unless you live in Saskatchewan!
Rule Britannia!
Yes, I’m cheering for England–my dad is from there, after all–so I hope they make it through to the final. (Off to a good start … Trippier just scored from a free kick.)
Of course, there’s no doubt who Gulliver is cheering for either …
(I know that’s a UK flag, not an England flag, but I don’t have a St. George’s flag, so it’s the best I can do.)
UPDATE: Well, Gulliver’s not happy at all now. Congratulations to Croatia on making it through … France will be quite a challenge, I’m sure.
Sad Ape News
Gulliver is sad today because Koko, the famous sign-language gorilla, has died at the age of 46. She was one of a kind 🙁
Trekker Kickstarter
I don’t usually shill for people on my blog, but I’m making an exception in this case. Ron Randall is doing a Kickstarter campaign to bring his latest Trekker adventure to print. I’ve already donated, and he’s getting close to his target, so I thought I’d spread the word. Trekker is a cool sci-fi story about interstellar bounty hunter Mercy St. Clair, who’s trying to make her way in a dangerous world while learning some hard truths. The art is great and the characters are compelling, so check it out.
Okay, sales pitch over!
Sad News
Apparently, long-time comics writer Len Wein has died at the age of 69. I’ve read a lot of Wein’s stuff over the years and most of it was pretty good. Of course, he’s probably best known for co-creating Swamp Thing and the All New X-Men, but I remember some of his other work fondly: JLA (he’s the one who brought back the Seven Soldiers of Victory); Batman (with some classic villains); Amazing Spider-Man (where he used plenty of classic baddies like Molten Man, Shocker, Hammerhead, Doc Ock, Silvermane and brought in some new ones, like Will o’ the Wisp and the third Green Goblin). He had fairly long runs on Incredible Hulk, Thor, Deadman (in Adventure), Green Lantern, and wrote all of the first Blue Beetle series. He also wrote the Legends miniseries, which helped redefine the DCU after the Crisis.
I haven’t read all his stuff, but what I have read I generally like. Wein respected history, but wasn’t afraid to give long-established characters new personality traits. I’ll be reviewing his late 70s/early 80s Batman run next year and I’m looking forward to re-reading those issues; I seem to recall liking them. Len Wein will be missed.
Little Green Men
On Monday there was a post over at Back in the Bronze Age about those little plastic Army men a lot of us had as kids. (If you’re wondering about Back in the Bronze Age, it’s a really cool site focusing on the years 1970-1985 or so–aka the Bronze Age of comics–but they don’t just talk about comics. Check ’em out and tell ’em Gulliver sent you.) Continue reading “Little Green Men”