Month: July 2010

SUPERMAN SAYS SMOKING WORSE THAN KRYPTONITE

I keep writing this but time is tight this week and it seems that I have been up against the wall when it comes to posting on the Fortress.  The reason is simple; I work for a big box office supply store and it is Back to School season here in Georgia.  So it’s busy as heck at work and I am pretty much whipped when I get home.  So hopefully that will turn around in the next week and I can have these posts up at six in the morning like I want to, so I appreciate your patience with the relative lateness of these posts.

Quick update on From Crisis to Crisis; Jeffrey and I did record last night and finished up about 1:30 in the morning, so that will be out sometime this weekend.  The scheduling conflicts we’ve had lately are pretty much over and the show should be out on time again starting next week.  So again, thanks for your patience there.

Today I have something that a listener to From Crisis to Crisis sent me, which I thought was pretty darn cool.  At one point in the early eighties Superman was part of an anti-smoking campaign where he went up against Nick O’Teen.  Nick was your typical, mustache twirling villain that tried to get kids to smoke.  I have seen YouTube videos of the fully animated commercials tied to this campaign (and you will too on the next YouTube Tuesday) but I have never seen any of the print ads.

Until now.

Thanks to From Crisis to Crisis listener Seamus I have two of those ads that were originally printed in Superman reprints in the UK and Ireland.  So thanks a whole bunch to Seamus for sending these to me and I hope y’all enjoy them.

That’s it for this week, folks.  As always I hope everyone has a nice weekend and I will see you back here on Monday.

Oh, and don’t smoke…or something like that.

More to follow…

YOUTUBE…THURSDAY

Up against the clock today, folks and From Crisis to Crisis is going to be a day late, so I thought I would post a series of clips from one of the best two-part episodes of The Adventures of Superboy, the syndicated series that ran from 1988 to 1992.  Roads Not Taken saw Superboy traveling to two different alternate realities and in one of those realities the son of Jor-El became an evil dictator known as the Sovereign.  I loved this episode as a teenager and at some point will write up something on it for this blog.  For now, enjoy the clips even though the video quality is a little dodgy.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9O76d2U6ig

I seem to remember more of a fight between Superboy and the Sovereign, but that just proves that my freakish memory isn’t so freakish after all.  Either way I hope y’all liked this and I will see you tomorrow.

More to follow…

ACQUISITIONS FOR 07/28/2010

The eBay gods have been kind to me lately.

With the financial situation getting better and better I have been hitting eBay more and more and the deals have been pretty sweet.  Superman trades, or at least the ones I have been lucking into, have been rather cheap.  Here are three I have been able to pick up lately.

At first I was a little disappointed that this collection did not include the four issue Phantom Zone mini-series by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan from 1982 but as I was looking through the comics they did include seem pretty cool.  It even has The Man Who Destroyed Krypton from Superman #205 (April 1968), which features the villainous Black Zero, a name that would reappear several times in several forms during the Post Crisis era.

Original cover price? $19.99  Price paid including shipping?  $6.99

Bargain!

The next two were a package deal.

Continue reading ACQUISITIONS FOR 07/28/2010

YOUTUBE TUESDAY FOR 07/27/2010

As I have mentioned once or twice in the past month I have pretty much walked away from the current DCU as far as the comics are concerned but I still love that universe and the characters that live in it.  Sometime back it was announced that there would be a Young Justice animated series coming soon from Warner Animation and today’s YouTube video is something that came out of San Diego this weekend and I thought it was keen.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiOjAmXDjW4&feature=player_embedded

I have to admit that all signs point to pretty darn awesome if this video is any indication of how the series is going to go down.  I have enjoyed the episodes of The Batman that I’ve seen written by Greg Weisman and Brad Douglas and my other friends over at the Spider-Man Crawlspace have said nothing but good things about his work on the Spectacular Spider-Man so I am confident the guy has a good handle on comic book characters in animation.

The biggest surprise is that the members of the Justice League are involved in the series, especially Batman and Superman.  Usually when these sorts of series are produced the mentor characters are either mentioned and never shown or never mentioned at all, so it is kind of cool that we’re going to be seeing the adults as well as the younger heroes.  The animation style reminds me of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, which is fine by me and the shot of the Hall of Justice put a big ol’ smile on my face.  Would I have preferred a more direct adaptation of the comic series that the series takes it’s name from?  Sure.  I am a huge fan of Peter David’s Young Justice series, but I figured they were going to make some sweeping changes and was prepared for that eventuality.  Frankly I am glad the show looks as good as it does.

So yeah, I am going to go out on a limb and say I am excited about this series and look forward to it’s premiere.

That’s it for today.  Come back tomorrow for more Superman goodness.

More to follow…

THIS ONE IS FOR SCOTT

My podcasting partner in crime, Scott Gardner, has had to take a brief hiatus from the shows he hosts alone, with me and with Chris Honeywell.  I’m kind of bummed but I completely understand real life having to come first.  I’ve been in that position myself.  I didn’t really have time to put together a proper entry for today but I wanted to post a thing or two for Scott.  He’ll understand why.

At least I hope he will.

That’s it for now.  As usual…

More to follow…

MORE SUPERMAN FAMILY COVERS

I am pressed for time this Friday, so all I gots today is some more of those Superman Family covers from that eBay lot I bought a few weeks back.  Before we get into that, though, I recommend you go check out this post from my buddy Shag’s Once Upon a Geek blog.  He has been posting house ads from DC circa 1987 and there are a few Superman related ones in there so go check it out for that and because it is an awesome blog.

And now…on to the covers.

More under the cut.

Continue reading MORE SUPERMAN FAMILY COVERS

FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS EPISODE 60: AUGUST 1990

Episode 60: August 1990

Welcome to the sixtieth episode of From Crisis to Crisis: A Superman Podcast! This podcast has a simple premise; examine just about every Superman comic published between Man of Steel #1 in 1986 to Adventures of Superman #649 in 2006 in an informative and hopefully entertaining format.

Part index. Part commentary. Part history lesson. All podcast.

This time out the boys discuss the Superman books that came out with the August 1990 cover date on them. In Superman #46 the Man of Steel teams-up with two heroes from Infinity, Inc. to fight the new Terra-Man. Adventures of Superman #469 begins with a serious public display of affection before two old enemies show up to get revenge on…Clark Kent! Then Soul Search begins in Action Comics #656 with Superman going to…Hades to fight for the souls of Jerry White and Jimmy Olsen. This is all followed by a quick look at Superboy: The Comic Book #7, Elsewhere in the DCU and the Elsewhere, Elsewhere feature.

Quick note; From Crisis to Crisis will be one or two days late next week due to a scheduling conflict. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up on that.

Another quick note: Mike states at one point that the Superboy comic the boys discuss this month is the last one penciled by Jim Mooney. This is not the case. He pencils the next issue as well.

Continue reading FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS EPISODE 60: AUGUST 1990

ACQUISITIONS: ACC EDITION FOR 07/21/2010

So you are looking at the title to this post and quite possibly you are asking yourself is, “What is ACC?”

Well, ACC is the Atlanta Comic Convention, a great one day comic show that happens once every three months in, well, Atlanta.  I mean it’s right there in the name.  It’s run by Wes Tillander, who is a great guy and puts on a fantastic one day show that is 90% comics, which is fantastic.  Sure you have some off the beaten path dealers, like the person selling fans and parasols and such and you also have one or two DVD dealers, but other than that it is all comics, which is a rare thing to find these days considering even most supposed comic book conventions are, in reality, pop culture conventions.  It’s not that there is anything wrong with that sort of thing, but I’m a comics guy, so it is nice to be with my people and see all of the pretty books.

I didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of money this time out, so I wasn’t planning on getting much of anything.  I had a small list of comics I was on the look out for and would buy if the price was cheap enough.  In an odd bit of coincidence all of the items I bought were Superman related and one…one was such a freaking epic find that four days later I am STILL geeking out about it, but I will save that for last.

The first thing I found was a copy of Superman: Adventures of the Man of Steel.  This is a trade paperback of the first six issues of the Superman Adventures book that was published to go along with Superman: The Animated Series.

Bask in the glow of the Bruce Timm cover.

More under the cut.

Continue reading ACQUISITIONS: ACC EDITION FOR 07/21/2010

YOUTUBE TUESDAY: THE LATE EDITION FOR 07/20/2010

Sorry I am running late today.  This morning was crazy, so I didn’t get a chance to post this earlier but here’s your YouTube Tuesday for the week.

This time out I present the trailers for the Superman related DC Universe animated films, starting with Superman: Doomsday.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3keuiWzY-Q

While I have a fair amount of quibbles with this movie I rather liked it overall.  I went into it realizing that they were not going to do an panel for panel adaptation of the original story, so that helped.  This is an enjoyable movie though I still hate the lines on Superman’s face.

Continue reading YOUTUBE TUESDAY: THE LATE EDITION FOR 07/20/2010

DAILY PLANET PAGE FOR 07/19/2010

I’m feeling pretty basic today so here’s another one of those Daily Planet pages I was talking about a week or so ago.

I would love to give you the lowdown on all of the stories that were hyped on this page but while I own the books I haven’t had a chance to read them yet.  For some reason I always forget that Vixen first appeared in a Superman title and I recently found out that a character named Vixen appeared in the fourth season of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.  I am not sure how close the Lois and Clark people stuck to the source material but I don’t have much hope considering what a hatchet job they did to Deathstroke: The Terminator.  The DC Comics Presents issue looks pretty cool.  I have always been a fan of when Superman (or Batman for that matter) teams up with a character that comes out of left field and I would never have thought to put Superman and Man-Bat together, but it is against the Atomic Skull, a character I have always liked for some odd reason.  The Super Friends looks…like an issue of Super Friends and the Superboy and Superman of 2020 sound interesting at the very least.

Hope y’all enjoyed this and come back tomorrow for YouTube Tuesday.

More to follow…