In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

Though it must be said that that has been harder and harder to avoid. It would be remiss to not acknowledge the growing efforts of those resisting authoritarian overreach, which has led to at least two deaths of late, and likely more. We name Renée Good and Alex Pretti as victims of this situation.

I will mention, on the UK side, more of the more extreme Tories from the last administration are defecting to the very very Right Wing Reform Party. I've seen this described as rats leaving the Titanic to discover they've landed on the Titan submersible. A confused mental image, but I understand what they mean.

The international stage defies any attempt at summary because where would be start, but that is part of the playbook, so let's not and focus on trivialities

The UK version of the Traitors ended with a remarkably tense finale where, with a sort of delicious irony, the Faithful wavered in their support, but the Traitors remained faithful to each other. There's probably a lesson in there.

Masters of the Universe got a teaser trailer which I think looks like a LOT of fun

And so did a series I didn't even know was happening Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord.

Starfleet Academy had it's most "college humour" episode so far, with a prank war breaking out between the Academy and the War College next door.

And Tom Baker and John Leeson are joining together again to play Holmes and Watson in a new audio drama! Which will also feature Nicholas Rowe, who played Young Sherlock in the Spielberg movie back in the 80's!

 

Sal Buscema has passed away. In my opinion he was one of the best 'old school' comicbook artists and his work on Spectacular Spider-Man was a stand-out. I decided to share the ending of #200 which is a classic.

( Scans under the cut... )

 

https://www.cbr.com/legendary-marvel-comic-artist-sal-buscema-passes-away-89/

“Wow. I just received word from Mrs. Joan that Sal Buscema passed away last Friday. He was 89. Today, he would’ve turned 90. When I think back on my childhood and all of the comic books that I read, Sal’s name seems to have appeared in just about all of them. I didn’t just read the books that he illustrated, I studied them.

Every nuance in his pencils and his inks I saw and tried to mimic. He was definitely one of the greats during those years at Marvel, when handling more than three titles a month was not just a requirement but a necessity. Sal’s art had a direct impact on my own, along with his older brother John, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, John Romita Sr and Ron Frenz.

Ron, God bless him, was the person responsible for Sal and I meeting some time ago and for that I’ll be forever grateful. Sal was a very nice, kind and generous person who I am happy to have known and who took note of my skills enough to mentor me. The wonderful conversations we had will always be cherished.

My condolences to his wife Joan, the Buscema family and to all of us fans who grew up with and love his amazing art. I’ll have more posts later. – SC”

No, I haven’t lost track of my numbering. These two “inventory stories” were published later on, but they seem set around here in the chronology. The first is the first Keith Giffen-Gerard Jones writing collab, with art by the underrated Linda Medley. Her style wasn’t as attention-getting as the works of Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, or even Bart Sears, but her down-to-earth approach syncs with the down-to-earth aspects of Giffen’s plotting. She’d do some more League work and go on to her own indie series, Castle Waiting.

Say, did you know film fans could be just as obsessive and antisocial as comics fans?

( ‘‘I’m so glad I’M normal!,’’ said everyone reading this story. )

 

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One thing about the Doug Ramsey/Bei the Blood Moon's relationship has been constant from the start.



( The love that cannot understand it's name )

 

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8

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While some JLI members lost their solo series after getting into the JLI, Scott Free, AKA Mister Miracle, got his back in a second volume. (All unmarked citations here are for Mister Miracle v2.) J.M. DeMatteis wrote issues #1-8 with assistance from Keith Giffen and Len Wein; Wein took over for #9-13, and Doug Moench finished it out with #14-28. The series’ central conflict was Scott and Barda trying to live out the late-20th century version of the American dream: a home in the suburbs, a repair shop that’ll support them both (boy, those were the days), no crazy super-shenanigans.

( ‘‘We’ve got to BLEND IN to small-town New Hampshire life, honey! That means we vote Republican now! We’re not like those big-time city slickers from CONCORD!’’ )

"I caught the [60s Batman] TV show in reruns after school every weekday. There’d be a great block of shows that I’d run home for: Star Trek, The Monkees, Twilight Zone, etc. There was a lot of cool stuff that hit stores from Batman-mania that Dad and Mom would get for us, so it was always I source of excitement and great joy. When I was asked to do an issue of DC Solo I immediately got together with my big brother, Lee to do our Batman love letter, BATMAN A Go-Go." - Mike Allred

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Giffen plot and breakdowns, DeMatteis script, Hughes pencils.

“Club JLI” (#34) has a real “1970s-1980s movie comedy” vibe. Ex-millionaires Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are still broke and anxious for a new side hustle. Their repo gigs have been getting too depressing, and Booster’s old merchandising and licensing deals don’t bring in much bacon. But they are members of the Justice League International, the highest-profile super-team on the planet! That’s got to be monetizable somehow, right?

Sure it is! And wait until you hear the plan for their new business venture!

( What could go wrong? )

 

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