THE FORTRESS OF BAILEYTUDE

There’s one word to describe Saturday.

Hot.

Not hot as in the new hotness or that it was hot as in many attractive women wearing Supergirl costumes filled the streets of Metropolis.

I’m talking temperature.

I would like to sit down and talk to the city planner’s that decided that June would be the best month to have a celebration that ninety percent of which takes place outdoors. I realize that this might be my own prejudice because I’m on the heavy side of heavy and that most people absolutely love to be outdoors during the summer. At the same time though when it is ninety some odd degrees and there is very little shade and there are all of these carts selling hot, greasy foods it can get to be a bit much.

So Saturday was hot. It seemed to be the hottest day we were there, which it probably wasn’t because Thursday night was pretty damn warm.

Once again we all had breakfast and that was fun. Steve and Neal had to leave early to get to the press conference while Rachel and I lazily got ready. We decided to drive in that day because it was easier on Rachel’s bad leg. Our first destination was Artists’ Alley, where I had Michael Eury and Brian K. Morris sign my copy of the Krypton Companion. I had a nice chat with Josh Elder, writer of the Batman Strikes comic and Mail Order Ninja. It was a talk that I wish I had recorded because we discussed DC’s inability to promote the books that might interest kids and the state of Tokyo Pop as a publisher. Then I was fortunate enough to get Murphy Anderson to sign my copies of Superman: From the ‘30s to the ‘70s and the original Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told hardcover, which I will now treasure more than ever. Murphy’s companion (it was probably his wife but I never asked) complimented Rachel, which was very sweet because usually older women give my wife the stink eye because of how she dresses.

We left the beautiful, wonderful, how did we ever live without it air conditioning to the heat of the day. On the way back up the main drag we took some pictures of people in costume and had our pictures taken with Josh Boultinghouse, which was neat. Josh was very distracted and frankly I don’t blame him all that much because his attention and presence was in constant demand all weekend long. The picture he took with Rachel was kind of amusing mainly because at the last second something caught his eye off camera and that is where he is looking as you can see above. I don’t know why I find this amusing but I do.

At this point Rachel was rather hungry as she had not eaten all day and we stopped for a brief repast. Thankfully a picnic table under a shady spot was available and we ate there. In the middle of the meal I spotted a guy dressed as Captain Avenger from the John Ritter movie Hero at Large, a film that I watched a bunch of times as a kid. I was impressed with the costume and the guy seemed surprised when I knew what movie he was cos-playing from.

(In case you wanted to know Hero at Large is a movie about an actor, played by Ritter, that earns extra money by dressing as a comic book character named Captain Avenger as part of the build up to the big budget Captain Avenger movie. One night as he was coming home he manages to stop a hold up in costume and word of this gets back to the studio, which starts setting up crimes for Ritter to foil. It’s a cheesy film but a fun one and has a feel good ending.

Man, I really need to buy that movie. I think it’s on DVD. I hope it’s on DVD.)

Rachel was still feeling a bit under the weather and I drove her back to the hotel room so she could get some rest. I left her the car in case she wanted to join me later and headed back into town where I joined up with Steve, Neal, Carol, Rob and Mike in one of the shadier areas of the park near the statue. We hung out for a bit and I talked with Jamie Kelly for a bit. Jamie was one of the runners up for the Official Superman Contest thingie and is a heck of a nice guy. Then Steve, Carol, Rob, Mike, Neal and I made our way to Artists’ Alley to check out the Boys of Steel panel hosted by Boys of Steel author Marc Tyler Noblemen.

This was one of the experiences from the six days we were in Metropolis that I remember with vivid clarity. Most of the group was wearing Superman Homepage apparel. Wait. I take that back. Most of the group was wearing Superfan Homepage apparel because Steve can’t use Superman in any of the off site merchandise. In any case, I felt like I was part of a posse. No. Posse is the wrong word. A group. I was a staff member from the Superman Homepage and here we were, not all of us but some, walking down the street together. People called out to us. Ok, they called out to Steve and Neal, but still, they’re we were. I wonder what it looked like.

I don’t know if I have ever mentioned this before but I am very proud to be a writer for the Superman Homepage. Yeah I have this blog and am trying to kind of do my own thing as far as Superman fandom but the Superman Homepage is the best damn Superman site on the web. Steve and Neal and Barry and Jeffrey and Scotty and Adam and James and everyone else who I am forgetting at the moment work so hard to make the site something special, especially Steve, Neal, Barry and Jeffrey. These are four men who rise above and beyond in their love for Superman. Barry writes some bang up reviews and has some neat videos on his YouTube account. Jeffrey produces about five hundred podcasts a month, including a Superman and Supergirl radio drama. Neal writes so much for the Homepage that I am beginning to think that he isn’t one man but a team of men surgically altered to look alike and then dispersed into the world to fight the good fight of commentary and analysis. He also travels across this great continent to pimp the Homepage, as does Barry.

Then there’s Steve. I say this without any hint of hyperbole but I swear to God if anyone ever gives this man crap or complains about him in my presence I’ll probably punch them, as my friend Shag would say, dead in the face. I don’t know of any man on this planet that has done more to promote Superman and give fans a safe place to come and commune over the Man of Steel. He puts in so much time, energy, blood, sweat and tears making the site what it is. I’m sure there are any number of people who would love to produce a Superman site but how many are actually willing to devote their lives to it? I can barely keep up this blog on a daily basis. The fact that Steve liked my writing enough to give me two monthly assignments means more to me than I can really articulate.

And there I was, with Steve and Neal and Carol and Rob and Mike and I felt this sense of belonging that I hadn’t felt in a long time if ever.

Upon reaching Artists’ Alley we hung out in area outside the room where the panel was to be held for a while enjoying the awesome air conditioning the place had. I walked over and chatted with Michael Eury again and then bought a copy of Superman on Film, Television, Radio and Broadway from author Michael Scivally (pronounced “civil-ly”), which was an excellent book. I devoured it soon after getting home. Steve asked me to interview Michael Eury for the site, which you can see, through the miracle of YouTube, just below this paragraph.

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

The panel with Marc Tyler Noblemen was interesting. The Superman historian in me is always interested in learning new facts about the character and especially his creators. Two things about this panel surprised me the first being the fact that Boy of Steel is set up like an illustrated children’s book. It is by no means a detailed biography, but it tells the story in a straight forward manner that allows the reader to really appreciate the character’s creation and the art is phenomenal. After reading the book to the audience Noblemen displayed some slides that showed some of his research and the Easter eggs hidden in the art. It was during that second part that Noblemen revealed an interesting fact about Jerry Siegel’s father.

One of the major revelations from Gerard Jones’ Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book was that Jerry Siegel’s father was killed during the commission of a robbery when Jerry was a teenager. Noblemen told the room that his research turned up the fact that Mitchell Siegel died of a heart attack soon after the robbery. The loss is still there, but having new information come to the surface is fascinating, at least to me.

After the panel the group headed to the main square for the Superman Homepage meet and greet. A month or so before the Celebration the call was put out by Steve that at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon anyone who was a member of the site could gather behind the Superman statue and finally put faces to screen names, so to speak. The gathering went well. Steve entertained one of the kids and people were genuinely appreciative of Steve and Neal’s hard work. We all took a group photo in front of the statue and afterwards I hung around a bit before deciding to head back to the room for a spell.

In all honesty I had a terrible headache. The heat and the sun finally got to me and I needed to sit down for a bit. I sat in the hotel room as Rachel slept beside me and swore silently as the Internet access continued to suck hard. I watched some TV, drank some water, got changed and headed back into town about a half hour before the Tribute to Christopher Reeve began.

I walked around town for a bit, just soaking in the atmosphere. Despite the dinner and auction going on the town was still lively. I bought some tea from a vendor and just watched the humanity walk by. People seemed to be having a good time. There was a block party going on with free food, which is a good way to get people to come. Standing there, in the shade of course, seeing people gather and commune gave me this weird sense of happiness and contentment.

I grabbed a quick bite to eat and chatted with some people, including Scotty and family as they tried to get Chloe to eat. I even sat down and watched Batman: Dead End, a fantastic fan film made all the more awesome by the fact that it was on the big screen. Before the tribute began the people in charge brought out a cake for Chloe as she was turning two I believe and I held Scotty’s camera so he could be on stage with his wife and daughter.

Right before the Tribute began I spotted Neal and a few other people and quickly moved to sit with them. This is what I was hoping for actually. Two things happened that night that had never happened before. One, I got to see Superman: The Movie on a big screen. I was two years old when the movie first came out and the Special Edition has never made it to Atlanta. So this was a big deal for me. The other first of the night is that I finally got to see the film with other Superman fans. Before that night I had only seen the movie with family growing up, with my wife now or by myself all my life. To be there with other like minded individuals was awesome and the fact that I was sitting next to Neal, who shared many of my opinions of the film, was the icing on the cake.

I wrote up a complete report for the Homepage. You can read that HERE.

(Note to self about my report; some people get a little bent out of shape when you suggest that puppets may not be the best medium to express tribute to an actor.  Must keep this in mind for the next time something like this happens.)

Afterwards we all headed into the night. The street was almost completely deserted as we made our way back to Rob’s rented vehicle. Plans were made for Carol, Neal, a very nice woman named Jennifer (who had been cos-playing as Lois Lane earlier in the day), my wife and I to head to Harrah’s to do a little gambling.

I’ve never been to a casino and in all honesty despite the loud noises and bright lights they are a rather depressing place to be. Rachel and I played a few hands of Black Jack and lost, which came as no surprise. Neal was playing Craps with this scheme that seemed to be working for him so I joined him at the table. Incredibly I managed to win some money. I started out with forty and ended up with sixty. More than anything it was fun to sit there with Neal, Rachel, Carl and Jennifer and joke around with each other and the person running the table/

We left the casino an hour or so later. Rachel and I went back to the room because we were both exhausted. It was a nice ending to a busy but all around great day and night.

Coming Soon: Day Four: The Quest for a World’s Record

More to follow…

It’s the Fourth of July here in the States, a day that seems to be mainly for grilling out and having sales at large retail outlets but for some of us it is a day to honor a group of men that bucked the system and managed to form a new nation.  Sure the Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed by all of the members of the Continental Congress on the Fourth, but it seemed like a good day as any.

Superman has long been associated with American iconography, mainly because of World War II and the George Reeves television series but you can’t discount the end of Superman II when Superman streaks across the sky carrying the Stars and Stripes.

 

I like it.  Some may not but I certainly do.

This year I am going to start what I hope will become a tradition here at the Fortress.  Every Fourth of July, for as long as I maintain this blog/site, I’ll post a couple of my favorite covers and images of Superman and the American flag.  I may not wear my patriotism on my sleeve, but there is something really cool about seeing Superman and that flag together.  This year I chose two fairly recent (within the last decade at least) covers that I thought were amazing. 

First up is the cover to Superman (Vol. 2) #178 by Ed McGuinness.

This was during the year that Superman wore black in honor of those who had fallen during the events of Our Worlds At War, an affectation that took on a more somber tone after the events of 9/11 and the horrors of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93.  This cover hit at just the right time I think.  Some of us needed that iconic shot of Superman, the flag and an eagle.

Good stuff.

Next up is the cover of Action Comics #803 by Dave Bullock.

Given the context of the story and the fact that the Superman on the cover is not the real Superman this cover might not be the best example of Superman and the flag.  Still, take all of that away and you have a stunning piece of art.

That’s it for this year.  I hope everyone has a very happy and, more importantly, safe July Fourth holiday.

More to follow…

I am seriously digging on the Alex Ross painted covers that have graced the latest issues of Superman.

I really am.   I have some issues with how Ross draws the character, such as the shape of the S shield and the fact that sometimes he makes Superman look a little old, much like Curt Swan did back in the day, but I respect Ross (and Swan for the matter) enough to let that go and enjoy the art.

The latest cover (shown above) is probably my favorite of this current run.  There is something truly powerful in seeing Superman lift the Daily Planet globe.  It’s just a beautiful piece of art and it has this really neat Easter egg in it as well.

If you look toward the bottom left hand side you will see this sign.

Wylie’s.  Maybe a bar.  Maybe a restaurant.  Maybe a combination of the two or a sports bar where the people of Metropolis go to support their teams because Metropolis strikes me as a city where the people have so much spirit that they overturn cars and set things on fire when their football or baseball team wins the Super Bowl or World Series.

All that aside I love the fact that it is a reference to the novel The Gladiator by Phillip Wylie. 

If you are a student of Superman lore the name might be familiar to you, but in case you aren’t obsessive/compulsive like I am The Gladiator was a novel published in 1932 and presented the reader with the life story of a man named Hugo Danner, whose scientist father injected his wife with a special serum while Hugo was still in the womb that would (and did) bestow upon Hugo powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.  Hugo was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, could leap tall buildings in a single bound and nothing more than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin.

And his life was miserable because of it.

The Gladiator is a fantastic novel.  If you can track down a copy do so.  It is not a happy or uplifting book and it is pretty clear that the author had issues with women, but if you are looking for an engaging story about a man that despite his great abilities can never seem to find happiness or a purpose than this is a novel for you.  Wylie wrote angst ridden super powered characters decades before Stan Lee made that type of hero popular.  In many ways it is a sad tale and written in a very…interesting style but the story is rich and the settings and characters vivid on the page. 

There have been some comic adaptations of the novel, most recently by Wildstorm, which took the setting out of the early part of the twentieth century and put it into the 1960s, which I think hurt the story on a certain level but was a fine read nonetheless.  Roy Thomas also worked the story into the history of Iron Munro, a member of the Young All-Stars.  Despite the novel saying such a thing couldn’t be Iron Munro was Hugo’s son, but then again Roy Thomas made a career out of retroactive continuity so that really shouldn’t be a surprise.

How much of an influence Wylie’s novel had on the creation of Superman is up for debate.  Publicly Jerry Siegel denied ever reading the book but given the fact that Jerry was such a voracious reader and that he apparently reviewed the novel for a fanzine it would be hard to believe that he didn’t run across it at some point.  Having read the book I have a hard time thinking that Siegel “stole” anything from Wylie. Beyond having the same abilities Hugo Danner and Superman are two completely different characters and lead very different lives.  Superman was the champion of the weak and the oppressed.  Hugo Danner drifted through life and grew to hate his abilities and humanity as a whole.  Superman was a hero.  Hugo was as well, or at least he ended up in situations where he saved lives, but he also took them and is more of a tragic figure than anything else.

In any case I really can’t fault Jerry if he did swipe from the book.  Some of the best characters of all time were distillations of other concepts.  Batman was Zorro.  The Fantastic Four had a lot in common with the Challengers of the Unknown.  The Incredibles is a lot like the Fantastic Four.  There really are no new themes and ideas, just interesting combinations of stuff that has come before and I find nothing wrong with that.

It would be interesting in that, “wouldn’t that be cool,” kind of a way if you could do a story where the characters meet.  I know I am stepping into the realm of fan fiction here but I think there is merit in an Elseworlds special where the Golden Age Superman meets Hugo Danner.  The differences between the characters alone would make for a good story because you could really get into what makes these two men tick and why they would probably never, ever get along.

Sure there would be a fight, but that’s a cool scene, not a story.

Oh well.  Enough wool gathering.  There is much to do and miles before I go to sleep.  Neat cover, though.  Ross is a master.  There is no denying that.

And I really dig that Easter egg.

More to follow…

I was getting ready for work today and had one of the local A.M. stations on because I dig on talk radio even if I don’t agree with most of what the host has to say.  I will listen to Top 40 radio occasionally, but I much prefer the talk format and I find that hearing opinions I don’t agree with tends to firm up my own thoughts on a particular subject.

One of the larger A.M. stations here in Atlanta is WSB 750, home of Neal Bortz, Clark Howard and, God help us all, Sean Hannity.  It is also home to the University of Georgia Bulldogs in all it’s  forms but mostly in football, so there’s a lot of programming having to do with the Dogs, especially during college football season when Larry Munson is calling the games. 

WSB is able to air a tribute to Vince Dooley, head coach of the Bulldogs for twenty-seven years and as I was shaving they ran a commercial for it.  Usually I block out such things because, well I’m shaving and despite the fact that I am not using a straight razor I like to pay attention when I have a sharp object scraping hair off of my throat.  The reception in the bathroom is rather poor for some reason but despite that handicap I noticed that there was a college football band playing something under the commercial.  I stopped and listened because it sounded very, very familiar.

It was John William’s Krypton theme from the various Superman films.

I was taken aback.  I like football as a sport but have never paid much attention to it as I was too busy with my head in a comic book.  Football, college or otherwise, has never really been my bag and here was a theme that I have been hearing nearly all of my life being associated with a college football coach.

It was just…weird.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, though.  My buddy Big Honkin’ Steve over at Geek Out Online (home of the Geek Out Loud podcast, which all right thinking people should listen to)  mentioned once that they play the Superman theme at the games every once in a while.

Still.  Very strange.  Somebody put their chocolate in my peanut butter and while it’s cool it is also rather odd.

Oh well, life goes on.

More to follow…

No, I have not forgotten about the final three parts of the series on my recent trip to the Metropolis Celebration.  I am working on them but once more real life is making it mighty hard to get to this blog, which I am going to rectify hopefully starting today.  My goal is post something everyday this month and if I can do that I am pretty sure I can keep it up from there.  I actually have some plans for the coming thirty-one days and if everything falls together just right it should be a lot of fun.

At the top of this post you will see my kick ass new keyboard and mouse.  They were released in 2006 by i-rocks and I was never able to find any in my neck of the woods.  I found these in Metropolis and I have to say that I am very impressed with how well they work.  The mouse is much better than the piece of crap I had before and while the keyboard took some getting used to I am vey happy to have a full keyboard again.

Having the keyboard, mouse and mouse pad led me to rearranging some things on the desk so now the shelves of my desk, of which there are five not counting the two places for speakers, are full of my Superman books.  Just about all of the reference books, essay collections, original novels and adapatations are within easy reach now so when you add that to the coffee cup to the right of my laptop and the various action figures resting on top of the hutch you get a totally Superman tricked out workspace.

All of which reaffirms that I border on obsessive/compulsive when it comes to my collectibles. 

Since I was about twelve or so I started getting anal-retentive about my stuff.  I get it from my father really, which is probably a good thing because it keeps me organized.  The thing is you can take things too far.  Like having to have all of the stuff on my desk be Superman related.  I couldn’t just have a piece of Superman and a piece of this and a piece of that.  The fact that I have the first series of Superman/Batmanfigures up there is pushing it and the fact that I couldn’t find a Superman or even a Justice League calendar this year resulted in me buying a Spider-Man drives me nuts to this day.  Six more months and I should relax on that score.

Then there’s the way I file my books.  A sane man or woman would just file them alphabetically by title.  Not me.  My collection is separated into the following sections:

1. Superman books
2. DC books
3. Marvel books
4. Independent books

Sections 2 through 4 are more or less in alphabetical order, but not those Superman books.  Oh no.  I have to get cute there as well. 

First off you have to deal with what I consider a Superman book, because it’s not only books where Superman is the main character, there’s his family to consider as well.  So if Superman is a main character it goes in.  If the main character came from or is closely associated with Superman it too goes in.  The books where Superman is a member of a team don’t go in mainly because there are times, such as with the Justice League, where he’s not a member and I don’t want to break up that run in the main collection.  (Remember, anal-retentive is hyphenated.)  I also disqualify books where Superman is a guest star because, again, I don’t want to break up the run.

After all of that I break the comics down into sections.  Those sections are:

1. Main books (Action, Superman, Adventures of Superman, etc.)
2. Team-Up Books
3. Out of Regular Continuity Books
4. Specials and Mini-Series
5. Family Books
6. Adaptations and Other Media Related Books

In those sections I decided to go chronological by title.  At one point I debated going chronological by issue after watching High Fidelity a billion times, but gave that up for the sake of my sanity and my wife’s sanity.  So here, for no other reason beyond my compulsion to post about it, is the road map of my Superman comic book collection.

Ready?

Section 1: Main Books

• Action Comics
• Superman (Volume 1, became Adventures of Superman from issue 424 to 649)
• Superman (Volume 2)
• Superman: The Man of Steel
• Superman: The Man of Tomorrow

Section 2: Team-Up Books

• World’s Finest
• DC Comics Presents
• Superman/Batman
• Trinity

Section 3: Out of Continuity Books *

• All-Star Superman
• Superman Confidential (Given the funky nature of Superman’s history at the moment I consider these out of continuity.  This is only my opinion.  Your opinion may vary.)

Section 4: Specials and Mini-Series

• All of the mini-series, maxi-series, one shots and specials in alphabetical order

Section 5: Superman Family Books (Which are in alphabetical order for some odd reason)

• Steel
• Superboy (Volume 1)
• Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes
• New Adventures of Superboy
• Superboy (Volume 2)
• Superboy and the Ravers
• Supergirl (Volume 1)
• Daring New Adventures of Supergirl/Supergirl (Volume 2)
• Supergirl (Volume 3 a.k.a The Peter David Series)
• Supergirl (Volume 4, current book)
• Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes

Section 6: Adaptations and Other Media Tie-Ins

• Superman III Adaptation
• Supergirl Adaptation
• Superman IV: The Quest For Peace Adapation
• Superboy: The Comic Book (based on the nineties syndicated series)
• Superman Adventures
• Smallville

And there you have it.  My messed up filing system.  I don’t recommend it, but it sure does work for me.

This begs the question; how do you file your Superman books? 

Actually, it begs the question, “What is wrong with you, Michael Bailey?” but after that it begs the question of how you file your Superman books.  Go ahead and use the comment section below and let me know.  I am genuinely curious.

More to follow….

* You may have noticed that there isn’t a section for Elseworlds stories.  Well, I have those on the book shelf.  When they first started putting that stuff out they called them book-shelf editions and that concept sticks with me to this day.

Yeah, I’m weird, but we’ve established this already so let’s move on.

I haven’t had a chance to tag any of them yet but I did manage to upload my Metropolis Photos into a Photobucket album for your convenience.

Hope you like them.

Click Here For The Photos

While I was not the man’s biggest fan I do want to express my condolences to the family, friends and fans of Michael Turner.  Sadly Turner lost his long battle with cancer and as someone who has dealt with a family member living and ultimately dying of the disease my heart breaks at the the thought of those who were close to Turner.

His connection to Superman wasn’t the strongest but I did enjoy his art of the The Supergirl from Krypton arc that ran through the pages of Superman/Batman #s 7-12 and the variant cover to Superman (vol. 2) #205, which I have posted above. 

His style may not always have been my cup of tea, but Turner was a dynamic artist.  At 37 he left way too soon and I have no doubt that he will be both missed and remembered.

Rest in peace, Michael.  May you live on forever through your art.

 

Day Two started very much like Day One. I had breakfast with Steve, Neal and Mike K, who is a member of the Homepage and a great guy I first met at DragonCon back in 2006. Carol was there as well and Rachel even made an appearance. Steve and Neal popped out early because they had a baseball game to get to and everyone else dispersed leaving Mike and me alone to have a long and very enjoyable conversation. I can honestly say that Mike changed the way I look at Superman as a character, which is something I thought would never happen. I won’t go into it now mainly because it would take too long. Suffice to say there is a post in there somewhere which I will hopefully make sometime in the future.

 

Rachel and I took a quick dip in the pool before getting ready for the day. We were running a little behind, which was totally my fault, and I ended up heading into town by myself so I could make the one o’clock Superman Jeopardy. I rushed to get there, which turned out to be much ado about nothing because I didn’t get on stage as a contestant. Nine guys walked up to the stage, including Steve and I, and instead of narrowing us down based upon our knowledge of Superman lore we all chose numbers and the three slots from the Friday and Saturday Jeopardys were snapped up. I hung around waiting for Rachel as the contest went on and even managed to win a coffee mug by answering one of the audience questions. Towards the end they announced some bad weather was coming through and that we should all prepare for a coming storm.

(Admittedly it was an easy question. When is Superman’s birthday? I kind of felt bad because that’s my birthday, so it wasn’t all that hard. Then again all I won was a coffee mug that says Boxing News so I guess it all balances out.)

Afterwards a group of us went over to Hardee’s for lunch. I haven’t eaten at a Hardee’s for years, mostly because the one here in my neck of the woods was terrible and eventually closed down. Surprisingly it was good. Sure the food stuck with me all freaking day, but it was good at the time. It was another chance for some lively conversation. Soon we were heading back to the tent for the Murphy Anderson panel only to discover that the panel had been moved because of the incoming weather. So off we went for the building containing Artists’ Alley as the clouds grew dark and threatening overhead.

Artists’ Alley was a cramped space when you first walked in. They crowded a bunch of the talent together but everyone seemed to be dealing with it just fine. It was more spacious in the side room, which serves as a church when not sheltering comic fans and artists. Over in the corner was Michael Eury, former editor at DC Comics and current editor of the always entertaining Back Issue. I chatted with him for a minute and arranged for an interview after the panel.

The panel was a lot of fun. There were three other artists at the table, but most of the questions were directed right at Murphy. After a technical glitch was corrected and we could hear what Murphy had to say the questions began. It was interesting hearing about his history as a comic book artist and to find out that he briefly worked for the company that Jerry Siegel was serving as editor for after the 1948 lawsuit. Murphy also revealed that he always thought of Superman as science-fiction character, which I found fascinating for some reason. The questions continued for about an hour and finally the panel wound down.

Rachel informed me she was stepping outside to call home and make sure all was well before I headed over to Michael Eury’s table. Michael turned out to be a really nice guy and a lot of fun to talk to. We started the interview next to his table, but the next presentation began and the area we were in proved to be too loud. So we found a spot in the art gallery and continued our conversation by an air conditioner and considering the fact that not only had it had been hot for the previous two days we were in Metropolis but that we had left a heat wave here in Fayetteville, GA and our air conditioning had gone out right before we left I was happy to be near the sweet, sweet air vent.

Played hell with the audio I’m sure, but hey, that’s the give and take of life.

(Shameless plug: You can hear the interview in the forty-fourth episode of my podcast, Views From The Longbox. Get to the episode by clicking HERE.)

After the interview I followed Michael back to his table, got his business card, felt like an idiot because I forgot my copy of the Krypton Companion back at the hotel room and noticed that some time during our chat the heavens opened up and a Noah worthy rain was pouring down. It was coming down in buckets, as they say, and this wouldn’t have been too much of a problem if not for the fact that Rachel had left to call her mother and when she returned I was not where I had been previously. I felt really bad because apparently she walked up and down the street looking for me and it was during that walk that she discovered there was a hole in her umbrella. She tried calling me but Artist’s Alley isn’t so much a dead zone for cell phone signal strength as a black hole where nothing can escape and eventually she found me during the interview, which made for a nice bit of audio as she was pissed.

She forgave me.

Eventually.

We waited a bit to see if the rain would let up and when it became apparent that it showed no signs of doing so we ventured outside eventually taking refuge at the Chamber of Commerce down the street. I made my way next store to this impromptu store that was selling action figures, comics and other collectibles. The Metropolis trip is the first time in years that I haven’t tracked down a comic shop to visit so this and the vendor selling trades and action figures outside were the closest I got to one. I didn’t buy any comics nor did I pick up any action figures for two reasons, the first being that I can pick up the comics and action figures they had for sale at the shops around where I live. If that would have been all this makeshift shop had to offer I would have purchased something as a memento of the trip, but that stems from the second reason I didn’t buy any of the dollar books and such and that is they had all this other, obscure stuff that was just freaking awesome.

Give me the choice between cheap comics that sit in every single comic shop’s fifty cent box and something you just don’t see everyday I’ll go with something you don’t see everyday all week long and twice on Sunday. There was a lot of neat stuff there and it wasn’t all Superman related either. There were Batman items as well as the odd Hulk item no doubt there to tie into the new film. It was kind of hard to choose what I wanted to buy because there was so much to choose from. There was a press packet from the first Superman film, photos, books and even a set of super hero planters just in case you enjoy both comic books and growing small plants.

I finally settled on a few items and for the thirty-bucks I spent I think I made out quite well. First up was a three pack that was put out for Christmas sometime in the eighties mostly likely by Tor, a sci-fi publisher now owned by MacMillian. If you grew up during the eighties then you probably saw Tor’s Story of Superman in the grocery store. It was a paperback sized reprinting of Action Comics #500 and I must have seen that thing a thousand times while shopping with my mother. Steve Younis kindly gave me a copy of one of the current printings of the book that popped up around 2006 but here was a three pack that included an earlier printing as well as The World’s Greatest Superheroes Presenting Superman (a collection of the World’s Greatest Superheroes comic strip) and a book that contained both The Superman Puzzle Book/The Superman Game Book. These were shrink-wrapped together on a piece of cardboard that had a stocking on the other side with the Superman logo on it. It was twenty bucks for all three, but considering I had never seen the comic strip and game book I thought it was worth it.

Besides, they look good on the shelf next to The Official Superman Quiz Book and other paperbacks from that era.

Next was a set of four postcards put out in 1972 that featured the cover to Action Comics #1, Superman being hit in the shoulder and calf by lightning, the Amazing World of Superman logo and an “old school” shot of the route the various Pre-Crisis Kryptonians took to get to the Earth. I don’t know if they are actually from 1972, but that’s what the copyright says and considering there were plans to build a Superman theme park in Metropolis and 1972 was when it became the official home of the character it is believable that they come from that time.

Finally I picked up three magazines that I was very happy to find. Two of them I had seen the previous day in the Super Museum in a display of magazines released around the time of the 1978 film and I even took out my little digital recorder to get the names and issue numbers so I could find them later. Starlog #10 and Newsweek cover date January 1, 1979 both had Christopher Reeve on the cover and both were magazines I thought would be hard to find. The Newsweek has a subscription tag on the front, which let me know that the magazine had originally belonged to Randolph Voldish of Woodbury Heights, New Jersey and while I would have preferred to not have the tag I will take what I can get. The third and finally magazine was the first issue of a fanzine published in the early eighties called Comics Collector, which was put out by Krause Publications. Krause also publishes or at least used to publish it they don’t anymore the Comics Buyers Guide.

I like old fanzines in general because they serve as time capsules to the eras they were published in, but this first issue was dedicated to Superman so it was lock. I probably would have bought it anyway. I have a bunch of issues of the magazine already and this would have fit nicely into that collection.

After looking at one of the vendors that sold wooden statues and such we took a spin around the local Hallmark store, which was also the town’s drugstore, to check out the Superman display they had in their window. They had some neat things but I had already spent some money so I wasn’t in the mood to get any more. They did have a giant stuffed bear that was decked out in a Superman T-shit and sunglasses, which suggested to me that he was there for a good time and thus you have the picture on top of this post.

With that the day ended early. Rachel wasn’t feeling well and needed to get some rest so we retired to the hotel where she promptly fell asleep. I puttered around on the computer and tried to find something on television but Friday is a dead zone for TV so I ended up crashing early myself. The only big event that night was the forties style ball that we didn’t have tickets to because I just wasn’t thinking far enough ahead to get them but from what I hear it was a lot of fun. I needed the rest anyway. This was the first vacation where Rachel and I got to actually relax, so ending the day early wasn’t such a bad thing.

Comic Soon: Day Three (Saturday)

More to follow…

I started the day by having breakfast at the hotel with Neal Bailey, Steve Younis and Steve’s sister Carol.  Nothing fancy, just the “continental breakfast” that the Baymont offers.  Rachel stayed in bed as she had been up late setting up the room.  During breakfast ScottyV from the Homepage came by with his wife and daughter and the conversation was all kinds of fun.  As breakfast was wrapping up Josh Boultinghouse, the town’s new official Superman came by, and holy crap on a stick did this guy look like Superman.  He wasn’t even in costume and I thought the guy looked like Superman.  His build had something to do with it but he also looks like Brandon Routh and Christopher Reeve had a kid.  He seemed like a nice guy and apparently he did audition for Superman Returns at one point.

After that I headed back to the room where Rachel was awake.  As the lengthy process of getting ready went on (my wife takes a while to get showered and dressed) I watched the Incredible Hulk marathon that Sci-Fi Channel has been running all week.  I kind of felt bad about this because I’m here for a Superman celebration and I end up watching the Hulk.  It was like I was cheating or something.

Rachel and I walked to the main strip where all the activities were and the first place we went to was the Superman Museum.  I can’t tell you how completely and utterly awesome this museum is.  I really can’t.  It’s such a hard feeling to describe.  It wasn’t a religious experience by any stretch of the imagination but it was close.  Rachel and I have been to a number of museums over the years but more often than not it was something she was interested in and I’m cool with that because I like to make her happy.  But this time it was all me and I found I had to slow down because I was going too fast.  There is just so much to take in.  All eras are covered.  All of the movies and animated series and television series and trading cards and EVERYTHING.  I have never before felt that a place was designed just for me and I know that in reality it’s not just for me but considering we were one of the few people in the joint it was easy to lie to myself about it.

I’ll have a gallery of the pictures I took set up soon.  I took seventy-five or so pictures and we are planning to go again in the next two days so there will probably being more.  I would like to post them all here, but frankly posting seventy-five pictures to this page wouldn’t be good for either of us so I will link to the gallery as soon as I get back to the Fortress proper.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of the collection.  I mean there was some really neat things in there and it was one of those situations where the more recent items (say in the past twenty years) were just as fascinating as the items from the thirties, forties and fifties.  There was also a lot of, “I remember that,” and “I had/have/really freaking want that!” going on.  I really liked the section devoted to the Death of Superman, which had the Superman/Doomsday bookends that I have slobbered over kind of wanted since they came out.  They also had a nice set up of the various versions of SupermanVol. 2 #75 and even a frame devoted to the rise of Electro-Supes from 1997. 

So I was envious because most of these items would be freaking awesome to have albeit somewhat impractical to store.  The only area that I looked at and thought, “Wow, I actually have 98% of these,” was the glass case containing the various trading cards put out based on or featuring Superman.  They had the sealed boxes, which was neat to see because I long ago opened the boxes I purchased off of eBay and from comic stores and conventions and just kept the set.    The ones I didn’t have included the hologram trading card set from the mid-nineties (which I should have purchased when they were cheap at Wal-Mart back in the mid-’90s), the Famous Comic Book Creators set, this set called DC Stars that was, I believe, put out exclusively through Wal-Marts back in 1994 or 1995 and I think there were a few sets from the forties and sixties which are a little beyond my price range. 

After the museum we hit the main street where we enjoyed some of the fine food that the street vendors had to offer.  It was the usual mix of pizza, funnel cake, snow cones and such along with the screened T-shirt stands, arts and crafts booths and other fair and festival vendors.  The difference, and this is where you know you’re at a celebration dedicated to a comic book character, was that there were stand selling trades, action figures and other such items.

The official ribbon cutting took place at five.  A whole bunch of us gathered around The Statue and they did this little skit to introduce the new Superman.  A guy calling himself the Red Mullet tried to assume the role as Metropolis’ premiere defender but failed to even open a pickle jar given to him by Lois Lane.  Then Bizarro showed up (the guy playing him did an excellent job with the Bizarro speak) and threw his hat into the ring but then the new Superman showed up, talked Bizarro into going home and even opened the jar of pickles.  It was a bit corny but fun nonetheless and Josh nailed his role as Superman.

He cut the ribbon with a giant pair of scissors.  I would have preferred heat vision, but that would have been hard to pull off.

A little while later we all went to this place called Willy Jack’s, which is a burger and wings place (along with peel and eat shrimp) that had some excellent food.   I had this mushroom Swiss burger with grilled onions that was freaking amazing.  Even the fries were good.

After that the group from the Homepage and a group of people from the Celebration message boards went bowling.  Now here’s the thing; I haven’t bowled in about nine years and I was awful then, so my game was about like Dresden a few days after the bombing.  I had fun though, which was the important thing.

And that pretty much ended the day.  Rachel and I drove ScottyV and family to the bowling alley and on the way back to the hotel I found out that Scotty lives not to far from where I grew up in Pennsylvania, which seemed to surprise both of us for some reason.  Soon it was back to the room where Rachel and I collapsed in short order.

Coming soon: DAY TWO (FRIDAY)

More to follow…

Well, the Celebration proper officially starts today, but some fun things happened last night and this morning that I thought were worth mentioning.

After a seven hour car ride (which was very relaxing, surprisingly) we got to the hotel.  Driving into Metropolis was kind of neat.  It is very much a small town, which I like because I dig on that look.  The first thing Superman themed was the giant sign that welcomes you to Metropolis.  I would have gotten a picture but something happened and the camera was left on and the batteries were dead, which was disappointing, but hey you roll with the punches and move on.  Almost immediately after entering town I saw one of the city’s police cars and it is extremely trippy to see a real life police car that has METROPOLIS plastered on the side.

Trippy and awesome at the same time.

After getting unpacked and somewhat settled I finally got to meet Steve Younis, Neal Bailey and Steve’s sister Carol.  Nice people all.  We walked around town, talking about this and that, and Steve led us to The Statue.

It’s fifteen feet tall and extremely impressive.  It’s a bit awe inspiring actually because of the size of the thing.  We came from behind and Steve pointed out that it had the yellow S on the cape, which old school as I am with the costume (old school as in the past thirty or so years version) I appreciated.  Steve offered to take a picture with me since our camera was without life and Carol ended up taking a picture of Neal, Steve and I, which I will post at some point.  The neat thing about the stature is that when you walk up the steps around back you see that Superman is standing on the symbol and it is surrounded by bricks with the names of the people who donated money.  The creepy thing about the statue is that since it is fifteen feet tall you are pretty much face to face with Superman’s crotch, which may be funny but is still unnerving.

We all hung out for a bit and then headed back to the hotel and parted for the evening.  I sat around for a bit watching The Negotiator on HBO and after a few attempts to get the WiFi to work (it’s a poor connection but appears to be working just fine now) I finally just passed out from exhaustion.

This morning I woke up to an alarm that Rachel set for me and had breakfast with Neal, Steve, Carol and another Homepage staffer Scotty V (who had his wife and daughter with him).  A good time was had by all.  At one point Neil Cole, who runs the Superman Super Site, popped by and it was probably one of the best times I have had with a bunch of people I just met in quite some time.

Currently we are getting ready to head out and bum around town until the ribbon cutting ceremony.  I wanted to hit the museum before the crowds come in and we need to run an errand as well.

So far I’m having a blast. 

More to follow…