Pop Artifact! Halloween!

Vintage Halloween comic book cover



Found at the Grand Comic Book Database.

Upcoming Marvel Masterworks volumes

The Marvel Masterworks Resource Page has an interview with Masterworks Editor Cory Sedlmeier, who says we can expect the following in 2006:

* A series of "Atlas Era" Masterworks collecting Marvel's pre-superhero monster, jungle, crime, war and sci-fi comics. The first volume, focusing on monsters is "Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era: Tales to Astonish Vol. 1".

* A "Rawhide Kid" Masterworks volume.

* The first volume in a "Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos" Masterworks series.

Upcoming comics previews

Mile High Comics has previews of: Astro City: The Dark Age #4; Batman: Gotham Knights #70; Batman: Journey into Knight #3; Captain Atom: Armageddon #1; Lucifer #67; Robin #143; Seven Soldiers: Klarion The Witch Boy #4; Daredevil vs. Punisher #5; Marvel Knights Spider-Man #19; Marvel Monsters: Fin Fang Four; Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #1; Runaways #9; She-Hulk 2 #1; Spider-Man Family #1; Weapon X: Days of Future Now #4; X-Men and Power Pack #1 and X-Men: Colossus - Bloodline #2.

More Upcoming Comics.

Quick hits

Cleveland Jewish News checks in with comics author Harvey Pekar.

Via Bedazzled: An online collection of movie serial posters.

DVD set collects 40 years of the X-Men

Out from Graphic Imaging Technology Inc. in November the "40 Years of X-Men" DVD-ROM set collects nearly 17,500 pages of X-Men comics, including X-Men #1 (September 1963) through X-Men #461 (August 2005) plus 18 annuals and Special Editions including Giant-Size X-Men #1.

Graphic Imaging also produced the "40 Years of Amazing Spider-Man" CD-ROM set and the "44 Years of the Fantastic Four" DVD-ROM set.

Plastic Man shredded!

Art Spiegelman's "Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits" was among the books shredded (whatever happened to burning?) in Houston the other day a group called American Veterans in Domestic Defense.

According to the Houston Voice:

Members of the group are seeking to remove about 70 children’s books from the system’s seven libraries, claiming they contain explicit material not suitable for young children.

They believe the books contain pornographic pictures or promote homosexuality. Fliers with a list of 12 of the 70 books were passed out at the rallies.

...Cabaniss brought copies of Art Speigalman’s (sic) “Plastic Man” to the protest, telling people that the first 60 pages of the book look like a comic book, but the rest of the book has “pictures straight out of Playboy and a group of six or eight couples who are sitting around bored and decide to do wife swapping.”


Sane people should know: Spiegelman's book is a study of Jack Cole's comic art and includes many examples of his work, including his Plastic Man comics, horror and crime comics work and cartoons he produced for Playboy. There's no question about it being a thoughtful work, intended for adults. No secret agenda about it.

Pop Artifact! Halloween!



Vintage Halloween comic book cover

Quick hits

Josh Holloway, Sawyer of "Lost", was robbed at gunpoint yesterday.

Warner Bros. is considering a film about James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

The Flaming Lips have finished filming a Christmas movie.

Just in time for Halloween: How to make your own Doc Ock outfit.

Mark Evanier with the inside skinny on those Merry Marvel Marching Society records.

Dial B reads "Infinite Crisis" so I don't have to.

Check out comic artist Jay Stephens' cool new Monsterama blog.

Bob Dylan has a new tune, "Tell Ol' Bill," on the "North Country" soundtrack.

ICE has info on a trio of cool Swinging London-era films recently released on DVD.

It's John Peel Day in Britain. Here's a roundup of the festivities honoring the legendary deejay.

As everyone in the world already knows, you can now watch TV reruns on your iPod.

"Lost" clues season 2, episode 4

Official recap from ABC:

Everybody Hates Hugo
Air Date: 10/12/2005
We open on Hurley, in the middle of the hatch's pantry, surrounded by his favorite thing in the world - food. Unfortunately for him, it's only a dream and he wakes up facing the reality of his newly assigned job - to inventory it and figure out how to make it last. Until then, nobody is to get anything - no exceptions. He enlists Rose's help and confides in her that his biggest worry is that everything is going to change - that he'll be the most hated man on the island once this job is put into action. So he keeps the contents of the hatch a secret, even from his most trusted friend, Charlie.

Likewise, in FLASHBACK, we learn that Hurley actually kept his winning lottery news from his best friend, fearing that everything would change. He quits his job and embarks on a journey to enjoy all the little things he loves best in his life. He acts as if nothing has happened and enjoys the freedom he knows will be lost once he comes clean about his newfound wealth. He asks his best friend to promise that no matter what happens, their relationship will never change.

On the island, Sawyer, Jin and Michael are lifted out of the trap to learn that their captors are actually survivors from the tail section of the plane. But that doesn't lessen the antagonism between Sawyer and Ana Lucia. These people have been under attack and are much more defensive than our guys. Twenty-three originally survived, but only five are left. Something went terribly wrong. The good news is that one of those survivors is Rose's husband, Bernard. The Tailies bring Sawyer, Jin and Michael into a bunker where they have been living and surviving since the crash and discuss what to do next.

Back on the beach, Charlie pressures Locke for answers about the hatch, while Claire finds the message bottle from the raft. She shares the news with Sun, fearing the worst. But Sun decides to spare everyone and keep their hope alive by burying the bottle.

Meanwhile, inside the hatch, Sayid's explorations lead him to conclude that the strange magnetic wall is made up of Chernobyl style concrete - somebody wanted to cover something up in a hurry. And in the pantry, the pressure starts to get to Hurley, who decides to use the remaining dynamite in their possession to blow up the hatch and thereby, solve all of his problems.

But Rose talks him out of it and gets him to accept that things change - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Hurley comes up with a solution that satisfies everyone - there's plenty of food to last for a while, so why not be generous and hand some of it out now, just as he did with his lottery winnings.

And as the survivors feast on food they haven't had since the day before the crash, Rose tucks away a candy bar for Bernard in hopes that he is still out there…somewhere.


Clues and speculation:

* After three straight hours of "What the...!," things are quieting down a little bit. This episode left the Hatch and focused on some of the other characters.

* We learn Sawyer, Jin and Michael's captors are indeed survivors from the plane's tail section.

* These Tailenders have discovered and set up camp in what looks like another Hatch, or perhaps a section of the Hatch we already know. There are Dharma Initiative symbols on the wall. However, these quarters are pretty barren. There don't appear to be computers or appliances as in the Hatch we've seen previously. There's no furniture or food apparent either.

* The Dharma Initiative symbol in the Tailenders Hatch area is different from the one in the more familiar Hatch. Check out these images from the 4815162342.com forum:



* It seems likely that this new Hatch is separate from the Swan station already shown and that it was used for another aspect of the project. Remember, the "orientation" film tells us the Dharma Initiative was created to study "meteorology, psychology, parapshycology, zoology, electromagnatism" and "utopian social" something or other.

* Evidently, something bad (an attack/attacks by the Others?) has befallen the Tailenders because they're very wary. They also make reference to several of their numbers being missing or dead. The preview for the next episode indicates the Others are out there and they're dangerous.

* The Tailenders say there were originally 23 of them. That's one of the mysterious numbers of course. The recap above says 5 of them are now alive. More on 23.

* The bottle containing messages from the survivors washes up on shore, leading Sun to believe Jin, Sawyer, Michael and Walt must be dead. Interestingly, Shannon's reaction to this discovery isn't related in any way. She's the one who saw the vision of the dripping wet Walt in the jungle a couple shows back. With all the focus on the Hatch, she's one of the characters we've really lost contact with. Perhaps a near-future episode will remedy that.

* How did Ana Lucia get to be so tough? What did she do in life before the crash? She seems to be well-versed in handling weaponry and bashing people around. She appears to be the de facto leader of the Tailenders. How did she inherit that position?

* Jin speaking English turned out to be a Hurley dream sequence.

* Also in Hurley's dream, Walt appears on a milk carton:



(screen cap lifted from this thread)

* Was the lottery Hurley won fixed?

Other stuff:

* Yahoo! TV has a few clips from the episode.

* ABC's "Lost Journal" has been updated to include a reference to the "feast" Hurley made available.

* Here's a teaser for next week's show.

See last week's "Lost" clues.

See the Best "Lost" Sites on the Web.

Pop Artifact! Halloween!





Vintage Halloween comic book cover



Found at the Grand Comic Book Database.

Quick hits

Kid Flash is coming to the "Teen Titans" toon.

An overview of "Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards," the new Jim Ottaviani comic about Gilded Age dinosaur hunters. (The Free Comic Book Day preview of this was great).

The New York Times details DC's "Infinite Crisis," which promises to "recalibrate" the company's heroes for a "grittier age." And here I thought they already were gritty.

San Francisco's counterPULSE dance company plans to stage a live production of the "Buffy" musical episode, "Once More With Feeling," on Halloween.

Fantagraphics Books provides a peek at seven never-before-published strips that will appear in it's upcoming "Complete Peanuts 1959-60" volume.

Via Bedazzled and some other folks: a gallery of vintage surf movie posters.

Fred Hembeck on horror comics artist Richard Corben.

Lady, That's My Skull alerts us to a new issue of the Army's Preventive Service Monthly featuring comic art by the great Joe Kubert.

PCL LinkDump spots some cool Halloween audio available for download.

The Kinks: "Waterloo Sunset" -- Today's Best Song Ever



The loveliest pop tune ever? Pretty much.

Of all the fantastic songs Ray Davies turned out during the mid 1960s, this is his masterpiece--better than anything he did then or since.

Leading in with brother Dave's descending line on electric guitar followed by a bed of strummed acoustic guitars and wife Rasa's lovely backing vocals, it's an absolutely gorgeous piece of music.

It sounds like a love song, but isn't. The narrator is a loner, stay-at-home guy who finds peace of mind observing the crowds around Waterloo Station and the sunset overhead. Released at the height of the Swinging London period, the song manages to freeze a special moment permanently in time.

Available: on Something Else by the Kinks.

"Lost" preview, season 2, episode 4

Spoilers! All over the place! Click at yer own:

* Here's ABC's official teaser for tonights' show.

* Here are teaser pictures from the episode.

* And an extended preview of tonight's show.

Other stuff:

* Here's a copy of the "orientation film" that appeared on last week's episode.

* Don't know yet if this is official (i.e. produced by ABC), but here's a site for the fast food chain Hurley worked for before hitting the jackpot.

* More info about "The Third Policeman," a novel featured in last week's show.

Tune in here tomorrow for a look at the episode's "clues."

See the Best "Lost" Sites on the Web.

New comics releases



Available now at yer local comics shop or via This is Pop!-supporting links:

Astro City Local Heroes TP

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Previews Exclusive Buffy Vs Dracula Bust

Comics Journal #271

Complete Calvin and Hobbes HC

Donald Duck Adventures Vol 14 TP

Doom Patrol Vol 3 Down Paradise Way TP

Essential Spider-Man Vol 7 TP

Essential Werewolf By Night Vol 1 TP

James Bond Spy Who Loved Me TP

Marvel Monsters Where Monsters Dwell

Premiere Coll Rogue Statue

RGK: The Art Of Roy G. Krenkel SC

Rogues Gallery Rhino Bust

Stokers Dracula HC

Tony Millionaire Little and Large HC

Wally Woods Lunar Tunes SC

Walt Disneys Comics & Stories #661

Winsor Mccay Vol 5 Early Works TP

Wolverine Maquette

X-Men Bizarre Love Triangle TP

More Upcoming Comics.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" teaser poster

Here's a peek:

Season 2 "Adventures of Superman" and "Lois and Clark" DVDs due in January

The sets will be out Jan. 17, according to Warner Bros.

The details:

The Adventures of Superman Season 2 DVD

Sleep tight, Metropolis. No matter what trouble comes your way, a powerful hero will protect you...

And trouble does come - big trouble: a plummeting asteroid... a terrorist targeting transit systems... deadly radiation... mad scientists... a criminal clown. But none is a match for the Man of Steel.

George Reeves returns to put on the hero's cape (and when necessary, the customary eyewear of a mild-mannered reporter) for the steel-bending, bullet-speeding, tall-building-leaping excitement of 26 Season Two episodes. Noel Neill joins the series as Lois Lane, the Daily Planet reporter who sometimes suspects that maybe - just maybe - Clark Kent isn't who he says he is. Powerful fun!


The 5 disc set will contain all 26 episodes from the second season:

  1. Five Minutes to Doom
  2. The Big Squeeze
  3. The Man Who Could Read Minds
  4. Jet Ace
  5. Shot in the Dark
  6. The Defeat of Superman
  7. Superman in Exile
  8. Ghost for Scotland Yard
  9. The Dog Who Knew Superman
  10. The Face and the Voice
  11. The Man in the Lead Mask
  12. Panic in the Sky
  13. The Machine That Could Plot Crimes
  14. Jungle Devil
  15. My Friend Superman
  16. The Clown Who Cried
  17. The Boy Who Hated Superman
  18. Semi-Private Eye
  19. Perry White's Scoop
  20. Beware the Wrecker
  21. The Golden Vulture
  22. Jimmy Olsen, Boy Editor
  23. Lady in Black
  24. Star of Fate
  25. The Whistling Bird
  26. Around the World with Superman


Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman DVD

He catches bullets in his hand, snatches innocent citizens from the jaws of death, and zooms bombs deep into outer space. But just when you think nothing can overwhelm Superman, love brings him to his knees.

Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher are back for the thrilling second season of new adventures. Action reigns as the Man of Steel unleashes chop-'til-you-drop martial arts moves to battle a mysterious Chi master, pits his mighty powers against the firepower of resurrected '30s mobster Al Capone, and mows down a perp walk of twisted-genius bad guys who challenge him with a lethal array of threats, theft, murder and mayhem. Super hero. Super action.

The second season saw Justin Whalin join the cast as Jimmy Olsen, and Bruce Campbell appears as Bill Church Jr. in the final few episodes.


The 6 disc set will contain all 22 episodes:

  1. Madame Ex
  2. Wall of Sound
  3. The Source
  4. The Prankster
  5. Church of Metropolis
  6. Operation Blackout
  7. That Old Gang of Mine
  8. A Bolt from the Blue
  9. Season's Greedings
  10. Metallo
  11. Chi of Steel
  12. The Eyes Have It
  13. The Phoenix
  14. Top Copy
  15. Return of the Prankster
  16. Lucky Leon
  17. Resurrection
  18. Tempus Fugitive
  19. Target: Jimmy Olsen!
  20. Individual Responsibility
  21. Whine, Whine, Whine
  22. And the Answer Is...


See the Best Superman Sites on the Web

CD new releases of note

Oct. 11

John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus Maclise, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela Day of Niagara: Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol. 1
John Coltrane One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note
Gang of Four Return the Gift
Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto Getz & Gilberto #2
King Crimson 21st Century Guide to, Volume Two, 1981-2003
Paul Weller As Is Now
Robert Wyatt Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Oct. 18

Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass Christmas Album
Funkadelic America Eats Its Young, Cosmic Slop, Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow, Funkadelic, Let's Take It to the Stage, Maggot Brain, Standing on the Verge of Getting It on and Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
Brian Wilson What I Really Want for Christmas
Young-Holt Unlimited The Definitive
VA The Great American Baseball Box
DVD Frank Zappa The Dub Room Special!