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September 2007 solications
BATMAN CHRONICLES VOL. 4 TP
BATMAN ARCHIVES VOL. 7 HC
JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS VOL. 3 HC
SUPERMAN: THE BOTTLE CITY OF KANDOR TP
THE MAD ARCHIVES VOL. 2 HC
52: THE COMPANION TP
BATMAN: RULES OF ENGAGEMENT HC
THE FLASH: WONDERLAND TP
JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE VOL. 2 TP
JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE VOL. 1 TP
THE HELMET OF FATE TP
NIGHTWING: LOVE AND WAR TP
WONDER WOMAN: LOVE AND MURDER HC
MARVEL ZOMBIES/ARMY OF DARKNESS
PUNISHER MAX VOL. 8: WIDOWMAKER
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL VOL. 1: CIVIL WAR
SPIDER-MAN FAMILY: BACK IN BLACK
ESSENTIAL PUNISHER VOL. 2
GHOST RIDER: TRAIL OF TEARS PREMIERE
WOLVERINE CLASSIC VOL. 5
CAPTAIN AMERICA BY ED BRUBAKER OMNIBUS VOL. 1
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN VOL. 7: SECRET IDENTITY
SILENT WAR
THUNDERBOLTS BY WARREN ELLIS VOL. 1: FAITH IN MONSTERS PREMIERE
WHITE TIGER: A HERO'S COMPULSION
WOLVERINE: ORIGINS VOL. 2 - SAVIOR
LOKI

October 2007 soliciations
COMPLETE PEANUTS 1963-1964 HC
HANK KETCHAMS COMPLETE DENNIS THE MENACE 1957-1958 HC
POPEYE VOL 2 WELL BLOW ME DOWN HC
EC ARCHIVES VAULT OF HORROR VOLUME 1 HC
UNCLE SCROOGE ADVENTURES LAND PYGMY INDIANS WAR OF WENDIGO TP
WALT DISNEYS CHRISTMAS PARADE #5
BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2007
COMPLETE DICK TRACY VOL 3 HC
ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT VOL. 2 TPB
ESSENTIAL WEREWOLF BY NIGHT VOL. 2 TPB
OMEGA THE UNKNOWN TPB
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE VOL. 5 HC
LEGION OF MONSTERS HC
FANTASTIC FOUR: THE NEW FANTASTIC FOUR PREMIERE HC
WOLVERINE: EVOLUTION PREMIERE HC
WOLVERINE: EVOLUTION BLACK & WHITE PREMIERE HC
MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN VOL. 1: HEART OF STEEL DIGEST
SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE VOL. 4: STILL FRIENDS DIGEST
SPIDER-GIRL VOL. 9: SECRET LIVES DIGEST
BLACK PANTHER: FOUR THE HARD WAY TPB
SPIDER-MAN AND THE FANTASTIC FOUR: SILVER RAGE TPB
SHE-HULK VOL. 5: PLANET WITHOUT A HULK TPB
X-FACTOR VISIONARIES: PETER DAVID VOL. 3 TPB
BLADE: SINS OF THE FATHER TPB
IMMORTAL IRON FIST VOL. 1: THE LAST IRON FIST STORY TPB
AMERICAN VIRGIN VOL. 3: WET TP
MIDNIGHTER VOL. 1: KILLING MACHINE TP
EX MACHINA VOL. 6: POWER DOWN TP
ELFQUEST ARCHIVES VOL. 4 HC
TEEN TITANS GO!: TITANS TOGETHER TP
SUPERMAN: KRYPTONITE HC
SUPERGIRL: IDENTITY TP
ROBIN: TEENAGE WASTELAND TP
JONAH HEX: ORIGINS TP
JLA: ULTRAMARINE CORPS TP
HAWKGIRL: HAWKMAN RETURNS TP
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD VOL. 1: LORDS OF LUCK HC
GREEN ARROW: ROAD TO JERICHO TP
ABSOLUTE BATMAN:THE LONG HALLOWEEN HC
BATMAN: DEATH IN THE CITY TP
TALES OF THE BATMAN: TIM SALE HC
52 VOL. 1 TP
52 VOL. 2 TP
THE SPIRIT ARCHIVES VOL. 23 HC

Marvel Comics Third Eye black light posters

"Lost" clues posted

My observations/speculations are now up, a day late since my recording of the show didn't work out and I had to borrow one from a friend.

Coming on the TIP! Saturday Picture Page

Marvel Comics "Third Eye" blacklight posters! Tune in tomorrow.

Pop Artifact! Doctor Who jigsaw puzzle

See the Best Doctor Who Sites on the Web.

Pop Culture Roundup March 3, 2006

Via the Brill Building: Monty Python interview footage not seen since 1975. Are we all watching the great Python "personal best" specials now airing on PBS?

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From Graphic Novelties: A conservative parents watchdog group has singled out "Teen Titans" as the most violent children's show on TV. I watch the progam, happily, with my son don't see much objectionable about it. The violence doesn't seem any worse than anything else in the genre and the plots nearly always have a "good message" about friendship, feeling good about yourself and doing what's right. Plus, the dialogue and plotlines are quite witty and imaginative. Which is probably why the conservatives really don't like it.

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Also from Graphic Novelties (Franklin Harris' newest blog, if you haven't checked it out): George Clooney says he played Batman as gay in "Batman in Robin." Well, I suppose he had to do something to make the lackluster script interesting for himself.

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Via a new sharity blog dedicated to the late Byrds' singer Gene Clark, some rare Byrds.

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Dial B for Blog's profanity laced review/evisceration of DC Comics' "Infinite Crisis" #5 just made me spew coffee out my nose.

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Via Mark Evanier: The Southern Poverty Law Center posts a review of Will Eisner's last graphic novel, "The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

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Another cool albeit obsessive sharity compilation from Xtabay: 19 versions of "Hey Joe" from the Byrds, Hendrix and Love to the Standalls, Shadows of Knight and Surfaris.

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James Bond is going to drive a Ford?!

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Personal File, due out in May, is a two-CD set of tunes, poems and stories Johnny Cash recorded in his home studio in the early 1970s, according to Rolling Stone. Sounds like great stuff:

He sang Tin Pan Alley hits, traditional folk and gospel tunes, new originals and favorite covers by the Louvin Brothers and Johnny Horton, among others. He recited poetry and reminisced about his teenage job as a water boy on a river-dredging crew and the hours he spent glued to the radio, loving and learning the very songs he sang in these sessions.

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Folk singer Pete Seeger is the inspiration behind Bruce Springsteen's upcoming covers album.

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Paul McCartney's campaign to save cute baby seals from being bludgeoned on Canada's east coast is meeting with some controversy, reports The Guardian. However, most people seem to support his efforts:

A poll in the Daily News, a local paper based in Halifax, near Prince Edward Island, suggests the animal rights campaign could be winning.

According to the online survey, 59% of people favour banning the hunt while 32% think it should continue; 9%, meanwhile, feel that "the Beatles suck".

Top 10 comics, DVDs, CDs, action figures March 3, 2006

Pop Artifact! Trick eye (with suction cup)

Vintage DC Comics house ad

Pop Culture Roundup March 2, 2006

Mad magazine has found itself in a censorship flap, Gulf News reports:

The Mad Classics 2005 Yearbook included a satire of a piece of toast sold through an internet auction site, after the owner claimed the Virgin Mary's face was imprinted on it.

The magazine mocked the news, sketching faces of religious figures into food, including "Mohammad in a Pancake." The comic also satirised the US army's reputation, running a mock advertisement for toy soldiers.

They included a Quran flusher, a soldier holding a book above a toilet. The figurine was in reference to a report, later retracted last year in Newsweek, that claimed US soldiers tried to flush a Quran down the toilet.

Another sketch satirised the role of Halliburton in Iraq, a contracting company the US Vice-President Dick Cheney used to work for, and to which the US government granted billions of dollars in contracts to rebuild Iraq.

The sketches show the Iraqi flag, which has written on it God is Great in Arabic (Allah Akbar), reworked to read Halliburton.

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Disneyland's Main Street: In Lego.

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Booksteve draws Iron Man. Looks better to me than a lot of those Image artists...

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Datajunkie has a smorgasbord for horror fans: A look at Tom Sutton's art, Charlton's "Ghostly Tales" and "Cooking with Vincent Price" audio.

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Jack Wild, who played Jimmy on "H.R. Pufnstuf," and the Artful Dodger in "Oliver" has died at age 53 after a battle with mouth cancer, The Associated Press reports.

Wild became a teen music idol, releasing three albums - "The Jack Wild Album," "Everything's Coming up Roses" and "Beautiful World."

But he struggled with alcoholism and his adult acting career was fitful, although he had a role as one of the Merry Men in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" in 1991.

Wild was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2000, and surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy had left him unable to speak.

The actor blamed his cancer on years of heavy drinking and smoking. "My lifestyle had made me a walking time bomb," he said last year.

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The Teen Titans return to the Cartoon Network later this year in a full-length movie: "Teen Titans Tokyo," Newsarama reports.

Comic Book Birthday: Mark Evanier (writer)

Images from the Grand Comic Book Database.

Visit Mark.

"Lost" clues: "Maternity Leave," season 2, episode 15

Official recap from ABC:

Maternity Leave
Air Date: 03/01/2006
What happened to Claire when she was abducted by the Others?

When Rousseau shows up at camp and tells Claire that her baby could be 'infected', Claire sets out on a journey to find the answer to this question. Armed with memory "flashes" triggered first by Rousseau's presence and then through Libby's relaxation exercises, Claire remembers that she was in fact being held somewhere on the island and given vaccine for the baby. Convinced that the only way to cure Aaron is to find the vaccine, she enlists the help of Rousseau and Kate to find this mysterious place where she was being kept while the Others had her.

With Kate and Rousseau as her guides, Claire slowly pieces together this missing time in her life to discover something unthinkable…but in the end, the most important information she uncovers is that she was meant to be a mother.

Meanwhile, Jack and Locke continue to try and keep Henry a secret from the camp, but it's becoming increasingly difficult. When Mr. Eko ventures down into the hatch to borrow some tools, he figures out that they are keeping a man inside the armory and tells Jack he wants to speak with the prisoner. While Henry maintains that he is not an Other, Eko treats him as such and confesses to killing two of his friends.

Jack and Locke continue to butt heads about how to handle the situation, further straining the power balance between our two heroes. And when Henry uses this information to try and get inside Locke's head, John Locke's composure snaps for the first time, giving way to his complete frustration at being trapped by his responsibilites to the hatch.

Observations/speculation:

* So it looks like the scruffy Others and the neat-looking Dharma Initiative folks (Ethan, etc.) are one and the same. Why are they trying to fool the crash survivors with their "shipwreck" clothes, beards and all?

* I'm starting to wonder if the survivors are on an island at all. What's to say they weren't drugged on board the plane and brainwashed to believe they survived a crash. Claire, obviously, was very successfully drugged/brainwashed into thinking Ethan and his cronies had her best interests at heart.

* Why did the Dharma folks abandon the medical hatch? And where the heck are they now?

* The medical facility has an "emergency hatch." Why? Where does it go?

* Who is the "he" Zed refers to when talking with Ethan? Hanso? DeGroot? Gale? Somebody unknown to us?

* Here are some details from Amazon on the book Sawyer is reading:

Lancelot Lamar is a disenchanted lawyer who finds himself confined in a mental asylum with memories that don't seem worth remembering. It all began the day he accidentally discovered he was not the father of his youngest daughter, a discovery which sent Lancelot on modern quest to reverse the degeneration of America. Percy's novel reveals a shining knight for the modern age--a knight not of romance, but of revenge.

* Where the heck is Michael?

* Where the heck is Desmond?

* Where the heck is Walt?

* It doesn't seem like Locke and Jack will be able to carry on their private Gitmo scenario with Henry forever. Especially with Henry starting to play mind games with Locke. Seems like something a Dharma-trained psychologist ought to be pretty good at.

* Ethan says it would be complicated to explain when Claire asks him where all the items in the nursery came from. Also hard to explain where the late model washing machine and dryer in the more familiar hatch came from. Perhaps the Dharma folks go "off the island" occasionally.

* The airplane mobile appeared in a Claire flashback in an earlier episode, but why would the Dharma folks use such a mobile? Do they want to make Claire think about the plane crash? Do they want to make her think there was a plane crash? As you can see from this person's screen grab, the little planes of Oceanic Air logos on them:

* This picture in the nursery looks like the Others boat:

* What's the deal with Eko's beard? Did the two nubs he cut off represent the two men he killed?

Other stuff:

* See a preview for the next episode.

* Hear the latest "Lost" official podcast.

* See screen shots from "Maternity Leave."

* See the Best "Lost" Sites on the Web.