Rasslin' Ramblings: When Hulk Hogan Was a Jerk

It was only a couple years back that the fellas over at Superdickery.com launched their fantastic site and shined a solid spotlight on what many had already figured out but never had the heart or fortitude to say out loud: Silver Age Superman was a tremendous jerk. Indeed, whether it was torturing Jimmy Olsen, toying with Lois Lane’s emotions or raising general havoc, the purportedly virtuous Man of Steel spent the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s as more or less a complete tool.

If there’s any comparable figure to Superman in the world of pro wrestling—John Cena aside—certainly it would be Hulk Hogan, and as Marvel editor Bill Rosemann and I realized the other day, The Hulkster paralleled Kal-El not just in strength and stature, but that in his own “Silver Age” of the 80’s and early 90’s, while being promoted as the ultimate good guy, his character—I’m not casting aspersions on the man himself, that’s for others to do or not do and I’ve never met the guy—was actually a pretty terrible fellow.

Again, this isn’t a news flash—Scott Keith alone has been saying it for years—but pretty enlightening and amusing to sit down and pick apart.

To wit…

-Despite holding the World Wrestling Federation championship for three years, Hogan never gives his supposed best friend, the undefeated and dominant Andre The Giant, a title shot. When Andre gets pissed and sides with Bobby Heenan—a tiny little manager the 300+ pound Hogan liked to toss around like a rag doll—Hulk can’t understand why.

-When Hogan and Randy Savage were teaming as the Mega Powers in 1988 and 1989, The Hulkster was all over Macho Man’s lady, Miss Elizabeth, at every available opportunity. When they were wrestling the Twin Towers and Liz got accidentally knocked out, Hogan ditched the match to carry her to the back while Savage got pummeled by Akeem and The Big Bossman. When Hogan returned to try and get the glory, he was again aghast that his buddy was mad at him. Hulk ended up beating Savage to win the WWF title back at WrestleMania V, splitting the Macho Man and Elizabeth in the process. Then when Macho Man got a new chick, the Sensational Sherri, Hogan would beat her up at every opportunity!

-Hogan took WWF newcomer Sid Justice under his wing in 1991. During the 1992 Royal Rumble, with the vacant WWF title on the line, Sid eliminated Hogan fair and square. Rather than graciously applaud his student for becoming the teacher, The Hulkster threw a fit at ringside and grabbed Sid’s arm despite no longer being in the match, allowing the villainous Ric Flair to dump the big man and win the championship. Despite being the clear sore loser and jerk in this scenario, Hogan was still granted shots at Flair and portrayed as being the good guy—and of course was baffled as to why Sid stopped liking him.

-At WrestleMania IX, Hogan got himself and partner Brutus Beefcake disqualified during their World Tag Team title shot at champs Money Inc. by using a foreign object, then still spent a solid five minutes posing in the ring afterward. Following the main event where Bret Hart got gypped out of the World title by Yokozuna and his nefarious manager Mr. Fuji, Hulk came down to make sure The Hitman was ok and then promptly forgot all about him to run in and challenge the new champ, winning due to mistimed outside interference and then posing for another ten minutes while Bret Hart was in the back getting salt scrubbed out of his eyes.

-Upon debuting for World Championship Wrestling in 1994, Hogan went after Flair’s World title, and in the course of winning it, once again beat up poor Sherri, who had gone five years without having a 6’7” dude slam her and give her multiple atomic drops.

-At Halloween Havoc 1995, Hogan faced The Giant in a Monster Truck Sumo Challenge on the roof of Cobo Arena. After The Hulkster won, he celebrated by throwing his opponent off the roof of the building, presumably to his demise (fortunately, he was fine, and they wrestled like 15 minutes later).

-Hulk Hogan made me watch a 24 minute long match where he and Dennis Rodman beat Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone at Bash at the Beach 1998. He also made me watch him choke The Ultimate Warrior with his weightlifting belt for 15 minutes and then accidentally light his eyebrows on fire at Halloween Havoc the same year. Sure he was technically and actual villain by that point, but c’mon, that’s above and beyond.

-Mr. America.

Hey, I may not be a full blown Hulkamaniac—I was a little Tornado as a kid, cheering on Kerry Von Erich, then transitioned to whatever Shawn Michaels called his fans before there was a Clique and I realize I was the only dude chanting the name of the guy in the sequined chaps—but I recognize and appreciate all the man did for the business.

I also recognize and appreciate how there probably wouldn’t be a comic book industry without Superman.

But if those guys hung out in the 80’s, they probably would have just taken turns giving Lois Lane and Sensational Sherri atomic drops before making Jimmy Olsen marry an ape and never letting Paul Orndorff have a title match.

Sayonara, Smallville Extra: I Can't Believe We Haven't Seen...

Kiel and I have not had a chance to touch base on "Booster" (or for that matter "Dominion") quite yet, but rest assured, we've come this far on the runaway train that is Smallville, and will be finishing the ride, albeit perhaps with the timeliness of a New Jersey Transit evening commute (show of hand for who got that one...thank you, Rickey).

In the mean time, here's a lazily assembled visual gallery of all the Superman/DC characters that I can't believe didn't somehow make it in some form or another into a decade of Smallville, a show that has featured, aside from their regular cast that includes Green Arrow...

...Supergirl, Doomsday, Zod (twice), Brainiac, Impulse, Aquaman, Cyborg, The Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, Zatanna, Amanda Waller, Rick Flag, Emil Hamilton (twice), Morgan Edge, Perry White, Maggie Sawyer, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Krypto (sorta), Jimmy Olsen (sorta), Bizarro, Lara, Zor-El, Plastique, Maxima, Faora, The Persuader, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Dan Turpin, Toyman, Bruno Mannheim, Metallo, Roulette, Speedy, the Wonder Twins, Icicle, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Stargirl, the Justice Society of America, Checkmate, the Suicide Squad, Silver Banshee, Maxwell Lord, Cat Grant (twice), Deadshot, Glorious Godfrey, Darkseid, Isis, Granny Goodness, the Female Furies, Desaad, Deathstroke, Mera, Ultraman, Amos Fortune, Superboy, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle...

...so yeah, here are some other folks they sure could have worked in:

STEELGANGBUSTERBLACK LIGHTNINGCAPTAIN MARVELADAM STRANGEHAWK & DOVEVIBELOBOTHE ATOMIC SKULLRAMPAGECONDUITAMBUSH BUGWILD DOGJONAH HEXKAMANDIRICHARD DRAGONALPHA CENTURIONTITANOVARTOXEGG FUMISS MARTIANAGENT LIBERTY

My First Justice League

In the inaugural post of my new blog over at Marvel.com, I talked about being initially exposed as a comics reader (not as a video game player, toy buyer or general consumer of pop culture knowledge) to the X-Men in the backdoor manner of discovering them via the Kings of Pain crossover because I was buying New Warriors, and thus having the first roster I ever encountered consist of Legion, Madrox, Polaris and the rest of the Muir Island misfits who filled in while the real team was momentarily disbanded. I mused on how particularly as a kid the first impression you get of a comic book team is an odd thing and sticks with you even if you first “met” a short-lived and unremembered line-up, which certainly happened a lot in the 90’s.

Take the Justice League.

My actual first experience with the Justice League was as a very young kid when I would go to visit my friend Josiah and he had a big chest in his basement of probably around a hundred old comics he’d gotten from some older relative. They ran the gamut, but were mostly from the later Silver Age with a lot of DC’s, particularly lengthy runs of the Satellite Era Justice League of America. One of my first vivid comic book memories is reading the issue where the JLA fights Jonah Hex and a bunch of other time-displaced heroes who are being manipulated by The Lord of Time.

(Fun fact: It was also at Josiah’s house that I concocted my infamous homemade Flash costume which my mother took a picture of that she later blew up to a poster when I was 18 and has since made its way online if you look hard enough)

I didn’t become a serious comic book fan until the 90’s though, starting with Marvel, primarily New Warriors and the X-Men books. It was the Death of Superman that first got me curious about DC and it was via that storyline that I first came across a contemporary Justice League.

And they got their asses kicked in the first issue of their book I purchased.

Shortly before Superman got killed off, the guy who committed the deed—not Doomsday—writer/artist Dan Jurgens had just taken over Justice League America (“of” was not very 90’s, hence why Legion of Super-Heroes never saw the success it did in the prior decade). He brought Supes in as team leader—a big deal since in that post-Crisis On Infinite Earths/pre-Infinite Crisis period Superman had never been part of the League, his Silver Age stints retroactively wiped out—to a group that included then-mainstays Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire and Ice, as well as reformed villain Maxima and supposedly all-new character Bloodwynd (spoiler alert: it was Martian Manhunter with amnesia and the most 90’s name this side of X-Treme).

A comic book neophyte, I had no exposure to the glory days of Justice League International and thus no clue why Guy, Booster, Beetle, Fire and Ice were on the team. I had no idea who Maxima and Bloodwynd were. Having read those old 70’s issues and just knowing the big DC heroes via cartoons and lunchboxes and whatnot, Superman was the only guy on the team who made any sense to me, yet he was treated like an odd fit and about to die anyhow.

As I mentioned, this team was not long for the DC Universe. They were served up as cannon fodder to Doomsday in order to demonstrate how badass he was (which as you might imagine didn’t work for me as I was totally unfamiliar with the characters and thus unimpressed that he whooped a guy in bug goggles and girl with green hair). Before all was said and done, Beetle was in a coma, Booster’s power-providing gear was shredded, Fire burned out her abilities and Ice got traumatized into retirement.

Just as soon as I had been introduced to the Justice League, they were shuffled off. The next issue, a new team debuted, led by Wonder Woman—who, remember, like Superman had never technically been in the League before, so this was a big deal—retaining Guy, Maxima and Bloodwynd, then adding Agent Liberty, Black Condor and The Ray. This configuration was also short-lived, with Liberty and Condor taking off after an arc and being replaced by the returning Beetle/Booster/Fire/Ice quartet as well as Captain Atom. As Zero Hour drew near, the Judgment Day crossover came and went, paving the way for consolidation of the various Leagues—there was a Justice League Europe/International as well plus a Task Force led by Martian Manhunter after the Bloodwynd thing ended—for the Gerard Jones era I wasn’t too high on and ended up jumping off of.

The funny thing is it didn’t drop my jaw when the first X-Men I saw was a guy with a Mohawk instead of Wolverine. Likewise it didn’t seem unusual that “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” as far as Marvel was concerned were The Black Knight and Sersi when I started reading comics. I was aware of Marvel, sure, and that’s where I started as a fan, but I had residual sense of how things were “supposed to be” gleaned from cultural osmosis. If the comic I was reading told me that Scott Lang was Ant-Man and also kind of in the Fantastic Four, then I took that at face value, because it was all I knew.

It was different with DC. Whether it was the Batman TV show from the 60’s or Super Friends or coloring books or actions figures or just the old comics from Josiah’s basement, I had a pre-formed opinion of how the DC Universe was supposed to be, and when those Justice League stories didn’t deliver what I was expecting, I felt oddly betrayed. Not by the creators or company, but by the characters themselves. How dare Batman not have time to spend away from Gotham? What the heck were The Flash and Green Lantern doing hanging out in Europe? Did Aquaman seriously have conversations to hold with fish that were more important than fighting Despero?

When I returned to reading comics around 2000, Grant Morrison had brought the Big Seven back to the JLA and all seemed right with the world. Likewise, thanks to Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s work, I now understood that being an Avenger was a bigger deal than Crystal and Deathcry would have had me believe.

It’s somewhat ironic that the current Justice League line-up is closer to the one I grew up reading than the Satellite/Morrison team—and the New Avengers at least aren’t far off from the Bob Harras-penned team I followed in my youth in terms of relative A-listers—but now it seems far more like these quirky teams exist when a creator sees potential, not simply because the characters they really want are preoccupied.

In other words, Aquaman may have snubbed the Justice League 20 years ago because he was playing with his hook hand, but now James Robinson won’t return his calls! Eat it, Sea King!

Mix & Match Super Villains

It’s no secret that the Eisner Award-winning Invincible Iron Man is a pretty consistently solid comic book (or so the scoreboard would indicate). Matt Fraction’s writing is sharp, Salvador Larroca’s art is slick, my main man Alejandro Arbona edits the heck out of the whole shebang and Tony Stark has become a wonderfully complex and charismatic lead.

So it’s no surprise I dig the book as I do, but even I was a bit taken aback at how much I’m digging the current “Fix Me” arc in which Spider-Man archfoe—revealed to also be a former Stark peer in his younger years—Doctor Octopus is squaring off with Iron Man as he attempts to get Tony to cure his life-threatening physical ailments or at least admit his failure. It’s well-written, well-drawn, all that jazz, but honestly one of the biggest draws for me is simply seeing Doc Ock, generally an Amazing Spider-Man fixture, mixing it up with somebody new (and he brings Sandman and Electro along for the ride to boot).

Heroes trading their villains around is, of course, nothing new and has been going on since at least the Silver Age if not longer (I truthfully do not know if, say, The Red Skull ever appeared in Sub-Mariner during the 40’s or if Golden Age Lex Luthor fought that era’s Batman) and has been a fixture ever since. Particularly in the 90’s, if a villain was popular—Venom is the number one example that jumps to mind—you’d see them everywhere whether it made sense or not (A-listers like The Joker or Doctor Doom aren’t in the discussion here as part of what makes them great is that they can face off with anybody and it works).

In recent years, as restraint has returned to the medium, super villains have tended more or less to find a home title/hero and stick to it, so when something like “Fix Me” occurs it feels a little more special, as I’m sure it did the first time Magneto fought the Avengers back in the 60’s. More than that, though, if you find just that right “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that” pairing, it’s so sweet to see a bad guy out of the element you associate them with, but making such a perfect adversary for their unfamiliar dance partner. No matter how good “Fix Me” ultimately is, I’m sure Doc Ock will remain primarily a Spider-Man baddie simply because there’s such a rich history there, but developing a side feud with Iron Man can only up his profile and make for more great stories. I’m hoping for similar goodness in the just-announced “Storm Hunter” story this summer where Kraven goes after The Black Panther in another matchup that just makes total sense.

Following that train of thought, I wracked my brain for some shuffled hero vs villain showdowns I think have a lot of potential—and by the way, I fully recognize that as much as I know about comics I’ve got decades of continuity working against, thus I’m sure at least one of these has happened already and I look forward to hearing about it in the comments, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done again and even better.

(Also, I don’t have Photoshop at home, so I’ll assume you all know what the good guys look like and instead display pictures of the baddies)

SUPERMAN VS BANE
First and foremost, Superman always needs more villains he can just get into punching matches with, because the rotation between Metallo, Bizarro and Parasite in between cerebral wars with Lex Luthor and Brainiac gets played pretty quickly. Realistically, maybe Bane isn’t in Superman’s weight class, but then again, neither are a lot of the guys he fights. Besides that, Bane is a lot smarter than your average musclehead (when he’s being written right), as he’s the guy who not only physically dominated Batman, but weaved the psychological web of destruction that allowed that to occur. The optimum time for this to happen would have been right smack dab in the 90’s when Bane could taunt Superman with the “I broke your best friend” card, but done right today, this could bump Bane up a level and give Superman a fresh sparring partner for when you just need an issue of Action Comics full of double page spreads.

THE X-MEN VS THE DEVIANTS
It’s tough coming up with opponents for the X-Men particularly in the here and now as they are literally an army living on their own private sanctuary. However, the Deviants’ numbers dwarf even Cyclops and company, plus they’re an entire race bred more or less to go to war. Really there could be no more perfect threat for the X-Men to play against, as the Deviants are mutants gone down the worst possible scenario and any last remnant of Xavier’s dream torn to shreds: they’re an offshoot of humanity feared for their power, shunned for their differentness and driven to isolate themselves and lash out against the Eternals, Celestials and every either “normal” or “gifted” group that has been able to ascend into the light they’re denied, so of course they would really hate the X-Men. I’d love to see Cyclops’ strategic skills pitted against the likes of Warlord Kro and the X-Men forced to look into the dark mirror of what they could become—and are actually moving closer to if they really take a minute to think about Utopia—in the Deviants.

GREEN ARROW VS CAPTAIN BOOMERANG
Ok, maybe pairing off the two specialized weapons guys is a bit cliché, but just because it’s sensible doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be fun. Awesome arrow vs boomerang dual aside—and once they get to the gimmicks it would be seriously amazing—the personalities would be an interesting mesh as well. Going after Green Arrow would be a sensible move for Boomer, as he’s one of those villains constantly trying to prove he’s better than his reputation and targeting the perceived “weakest” member of the Justice League falls right in line with his character. For Ollie, looking at Boomerang would be—as with a the X-Men/Deviants pairing I just discussed—a glimpse at the road not travelled but that could still be. Digger is a guy who has let arrogance and his vices consume him and lost his family because of it; Ollie isn’t that far off from that. Both guys are arrogant and snarky and would have I suspect a spirited battle of wits, words, fists and projectiles.

SPIDER-MAN VS BATROC
This may be my personal favorite. I have already read the amazing Captain America & Batroc one-shot by Kieron Gillen and Renato Arlem headed to stores this Wednesday, and it only renewed and strengthened my affinity for “Ze Leapair,” a truly fantastic pseudo-villain and just fun character. I’d love to see Batroc gain a higher profile in the Marvel Universe, and Spider-Man is the perfect opponent for him. Captain America and Batroc always have cool dustups, but at his core, my favorite Frenchman is an acrobat, not a scrapper, so Spidey would be a great opponent for him just from a physical and fighting style angle. Batroc is also a guy who leads with his pride, preferring to prove himself against Cap rather than beat him or even pull off the big score and he’s all about the honorable opponent, so you know he and Spider-Man would start off trading barbs, but the Wallcrawler’s ceaseless banter and deprecating sense of humor would ultimately drive him—no pun intended—up the wall. And yet, underneath the surface, Batroc and Spidey actually have more than a little in common: both are underdogs, both seek and generally don’t get respect, and both stand by their morals at the end of the day (seriously, read any good Batroc story and he’s not really a bad guy, more of a thrill junkie and swashbuckler). Put the right artist on this and it would be an instant classic fight sequence, but the correct writer could also forge a cool rivalry/friendship in the end—paging Mr. Gillen and Mr. Arlem!

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES VS BLACK ADAM
Probably the best Legion of Super-Heroes story ever is The Great Darkness Saga, with Darkseid emerging in the future, and a modern highlight of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s run came when Ra’s al Ghul showed up as the out-of-nowhere mastermind trying to take over the United Planets. Long story short: Present day villains are gold in the 30th/31st century. Black Adam is immortal and this could certainly still be around somewhere in a thousand years or so, plus he’s one of the few figures who simply on his own could present a viable physical challenge to a fighting force as vast and diverse as the Legion. I’d love to see Captain Marvel’s toughest opponent lock horns with Mon-El and Ultra Boy, trade sparks with Lightning Lad and Lightning Lass or match magic with The White Witch. Black Adam is an unstoppable force and some of the Legion’s greatest battles have come when they go up against that type of threat; I’d love to see Cosmic Boy or Brainiac 5’s battle strategy, but I’d also like to see what happens when BA shrugs it off and ignites the tempers of Legion hotheads like Wildfire and Timber Wolf, leading to the inevitable dog pile. Throw in Isis and Osiris as well and this is a slobberknocker for the ages for sure.

IRON MAN VS THE LEADER
I’m biting a little on the Iron Man-Doc Ock feud I started the post talking about, but if anything, that story has shown me that Tony Stark up against other smart guys makes for quality stories. For years and years The Leader has been banging his giant head against the wall trying and failing to put mind over muscle against The Hulk, so it would be interesting to see him step up to somebody of his own intellect. Conversely, I don’t think Iron Man has ever gone against anybody with the brain capacity of The Leader, so it would be a different kind of challenge for him than battling The Mandarin or one of his numerous armored rivals. I don’t hate The Leader’s chances here, as a guy who has come within inches of putting The Hulk down despite no physical abilities can surely give Iron Man a run, while Tony would be in the uncomfortable position of not being able to necessarily fall back on his knowledge, having to opt for finesse and firepower instead.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Review plus Lazy Susan: retro heaven

I saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo the other night which has a slow build but is riveting, as the story of a missing girl gets overtaken by a larger story. In the same way the journalist Mikeal (based on the author who died before he could finish the 10 book cycle on abuse and violence on women) is overshadowed by this mystery researcher, indeed the whole missing girl and film is almost overshadowed by the mystery of Lisbeth.

The work is a denouncement of what is allowed as acceptable behavior: now that is the way males and males in authority treat women while a generation ago it is the Nazi ideals, or as it is put by one relative on this island of now rich, older generation: “Yes, he had no love of the children of Abraham.” (hated Jews)

But this is not a US film where we go Nazi=bad/thus solved. The problems isn’t JUST the Nazi’s, since as the film ‘What did you do during the war?’ showed, you dig a little bit and you find lots of people who were in the Hitler youth, or in the war for Germany or named after Hilter and immigrated after the war. I know several. The question is do these people consider that attitude still acceptable, did they after the war? The ones I met see it now as while part of their personal history also part of a great delusion.

In the film we are directly challenged, not by the abuse of women we are shown or told about. This is accepted by us, as stats roll over us all the time. No, one woman challenges, specifically Lisbeth, who is a burr under the skin to men who feel themselves important (Lisbeth treats all men the same – she wants no interaction with them, which is completely unacceptable to many - Those male need to establish a dominance whether that is a drunk male who feels he can push a woman aside and not get punched, or a business or other authority figure abusing the bounds of authority). Sexual abuse is rampant, dubious actions rampant both in the past and present, which would have no meaning if Mikeal was there alone in the film. It is the presence of Lisbeth (her vulnerability and her 'dragon') which cystalizes the sexual abuse which we have become culturally accepting of. We may not SAY, “She deserved to be abused/raped/groped/beaten...” but this film challenges our thoughts of ‘well, if she is going to act like……(like that to someone like him….) then what does she expect?’ The film links the need for superiority that drew some to the Nazi's to the same desires, now played out on women, often vulnerable ones.

We find that out because the film shows us what for many are considered extreme violence: acts of sexual abuse and violence towards men BY a woman. People flinch, they told me ‘well except those minutes I had to fast forward’ from viewers, from those who rent these DVD’s. The rapes, the incest towards women, the dismemberment, that was just....you know, common: But that calculated violent dominance using sex modes and pain which visually rips away the pretence that sexual abuse is anything BUT about power, power against men which makes the viewers squirm and turn away.

Making Hannibal Lector sexualizing noises and sniffing, making inappropriate comments about women is simply a cultural reference now. THAT isn't disturbing. But the androgynous Lisbeth as an answer to Prof Higgen’s lament of ‘why can’t a woman be more like a man!!’ – she uses people for sex and rolls over for sleep, she takes her place when walking, she comes back at you, she believes she has the right to decide a male's fate, much as we have seen hundreds of times in film from men deciding about women: in this she challenges your mind. I would NOT recommend this for anyone of rape as you will trigger – bad. Because it isn’t Hollywood shown sexual abuse of women, but what occurs every six minutes in the US.

Do I recommend it? Hell yeah. Lisbeth is a person who looks into the fire, and which is a mirror to help me see myself, knowing already what she does, seeing how she could do that after what she has gone through, that is iron courage. She knows she is in a war and wears cameo to match.

The next day before the heat started to go crazy here, Linda took me to Lazy Susan, a retro shop that had opened recently in town, and was doing good business. It heavily featured locally made products, from car adverts found in old magazines mounted (which had the men going through the bin), to these popular hand made journals out of favorite books that were falling apart.
In the same way, the owner, or manager and others use retro postcards to make memo pads, here is a selection of the memo pads.
Some of the items are marketed, from larger companies, but focus in the same theme, here are the journals from Harlequin.
They do a great trade with oilcloth, selling it by the meter ($12) in a variety of colours and retro patterns. They also use it to reupholster furniture and a set of three chairs in the window was already sold. As were some of the bike Panniers, while some were on sale. The manager couldn’t keep up with the sales in making them.

While we were there a couple came and wanted this ‘nice purple oilcloth’ for the birds. The manager explained that the oilcloth was actually for the day of the dead and there were skulls and skeletons wearing bicycles in the dark patterns (can you see them?). She only found this out after people had made picnic clothes and come back going, “Why are there skeletons in my nice tablecloth?” Of course after overhearing this we got some ‘ends’ for $3.50 and have lots, but immediately made a non-slide cover for my food.

There are so many retro products everywhere, in every cranny that I know I missed a lot, since I didn’t even notice the wonder woman clock at ALL until it was pointed out by the manager.
She said they had a lot of Wonder Woman at first but it had flown out, all that was left was the clock and the travel case/make-up case in the window (because of course wonder woman needs perfect hair spray and make-up!).

Don’t worry, there was Batman stuff as well, though most of it was sold out.
I was very impressed by the Superman board game (I had the Battlestar Galactica Board Game as a kid, AND the Star Wars Board game, AND the Emergency One board game – Linda had the Muppets board game – which ones did you have?). And the holder. The manager was completely baffled (not having made these) on what purpose they served. She said, “I sold one to a woman as a tin to keep cookies in, or was it for baking cookies?”

I said, “What about using it to keep your Superman/Batman Comics? You know, all in one Place?”
She was blown away but this wild idea but thought it might work. Um, hey, I might have only been allowed Christian Archie Comics (Oh yeah, they exist!) and Richie Rich but I know a comic book holder when I see one.

Which reminds me, the theme of the Comi-Con this Year seems to be ‘40+ year old men lament and relive their youth’ That is actually the plot of three of the five nominated manga (including 2 where one goes back in time to 14 called Distant Neighborhood (on the wish list) and the other called 20th Century Boys goes between six male friends growing up in the late 70’s to them coming together now to save the world). 8 Eisner nominations go to ‘Old Man Logan’, about Wolverine 40 years on, sort of how now the Hulk, Fantastic Four and the rest have gone through so many variations that they seem lost (ergo Watchmen). ‘Old Man Logan’ is about how Wolverine deals with looking back and dealing with the past catching up to him (on wishlist).

Now for those who are not into guys with claws, there is Curious George, who can forget his unusual approach to puzzle pieces and what happens? – sort of a huge cautionary tale against eating them.

There is also a Kawaii/Cute Tea Set of Madeline, which was just SO cute and made me want to buy it right there, and have a tea party with plushies. One advantage of dying I guess is early memories are strong (like having tea with plushies). Sadly Linda said, “I’d never even heard of her until the movie.”

THE MOVIE! Oh my, the whole lost childhood of reading Madeline books, sigh, it is just so tragic to think about.

There were some postcard boxes to look through including one off postcards or vintage postcards. I managed to find a couple that appealed to me and I thought might appeal to some reader, I mean, who doesn’t like a girl who not only knows her knots but also her guns. I will note that she knows about as many knots as I do, since isn’t that a bowline or a granny which is why she is holding it in her teeth, to stop him from kicking loose (My grandfather from the navy knew some knots but I was not as good at them).

My favorite was this postcard, simply because (let’s be honest now), many of us had a feeling like this toward our scout leader, or older and those nose in the air so proper, so often correcting older scouts. This girl however manages to take action with some pretty no nonsense shoes. I sigh in envy of her wild abandon. Now truthfully, who had this feeling? Never? Loved selling cookies? Loved people telling you around everyday and getting wildly exciting about things like edible plant identification? Or better yet, ‘Betterment Projects’ like cleaning up garbage on a beach or the like? Loved the songs and singing?

Leaving the store what drives in, at speed but a roadster from some arcane age, with collector plates (meaning it is a real restored or original car), with a police car in pursuit, who immediately boxes the car in. But no ticket, just another car lover.