“The fundament of a superhero is the guy in tights saving innocent people from bad things. It’s amazing how infrequently that seems to happen in superhero comics these days.”

 

– Frank Miller

 

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In brightest day, in blackest night
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!

 

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1. “Wonder Woman” by Charles Fox
2. “Spiderman” by Anthony Joseph Perry
3. “Batman” by Neil Hefti
4. “Superman” (theme song, spoken by Bill Kennedy)
5. “Superfriends” (1973) theme song

 

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Teenage Superhero Pregnancy Scare (2005)
Rock & Roll Superhero (2003)
Superhero Wannabe (2004)
Superhero Divorce (2006)

 

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“Weird Al’s song on the first Spider-Man movie, to the tune of Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man'”:

 

 

http://www2.wi.net/~rkurer/toontracker/mmms.html

 

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“In this world, there is right and there is wrong, and that distinction is not difficult to make.” – Superman in Kingdom Come #3

 

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Since he never got his own theme song, here is “Aquaman” sung to the tune of Elton John’s “Rocket Man”:

 

 

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1. Captain Marvel: “Shazam!”
2. Superman: “Up, up, and away!”
3. Bruce Banner (Incredible Hulk): “You won’t like me when I’m angry.”
4. The Thing (Fantastic Four): “It’s clobberin’ time!”
5. Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna): “Wonder twin powers, activate!”
 

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IDW is publishing an issue of its “Star Trek” comic book in the Klingon language:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=39855

 

The “Death of Superman” comic book was published with a mourning armband in order to increase DC’s profits:
http://www.alibris.com/search/detail.cfm?S=R&bid=9011522636&cm_mmc=shopcompare-_-base-_-nonisbn-_-na

 

The Escapist, the (made-up) comic book superhero created by the protagonists in Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, now stars in his own (real-world) comic book:

 

The “death of Captain America” comic book (Captain America # 25) is being republished this week (May 16, 2007) with a blank cover so that fans can have comic book artists personalize the cover, or can draw their own cover: 

 

You can make donations of comic books to armed forces members overseas at www.heroes4heroes.com

 

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1. The Joker (Batman #1)
2. Penguin (Detective Comics #58, December 1941)
3. Riddler (Detective Comics #140, December 1948)
4. Two-face (Detective Comics #66, August 1942)
5. Mr. Freeze (Batman #121, February 1959)

 

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“We grew out of the superhero comics, but we still liked comics, so we started putting our own experiences in the stories we were doing for our own amusement.” – Gilbert Hernandez, co-creator of Love and Rockets

 

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1. Superman (1994)
2. Captain America (2007)
3. Batman (in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, 1986, “but it is really Bruce Wayne faking his own death to continue the fight from the underground.”
4. Jason Todd (the second Robin, killed off by 1-900 vote by the fans, 1988)
5. Supergirl (in 1986’s Crisis on Infinite Earths) 

 

Runner up: Jean Gray/Phoenix in X-Men #137

 

[That’s a big runner up! – E]

 

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“Peter Coogan proposes that the conventions of the superhero rely mainly on a few core concepts: mission, powers, identity, and supervillains. The mission must be altruistic or socially beneficial in some sense, while the powers (or pretense of powers) must be beyond the range of human capability. The superhero must maintain some dual-identity in an attempt to protect himself (or herself) and loved ones. And every superhero needs a good supervillain to battle against. Granted, not all superheroes perfectly meet these criteria, but Coogan goes to great lengths to explain why exceptions can be made.”

 

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1. SuperHeroHype.com — especially good for media-related news

 

2. Comic Pants (www.comicpants.com) — a group of comic book store owners podcast weekly about new releases, and also have thematic episodes about comics, with a focus (though not exclusively) on supheroes

 

3. Girls Read Comics (And They’re Pissed) (www.girl-wonder.org) — critique of comics with an eye toward feminist scholarly concerns (e.g., why Power-Girl’s breasts are an affront to women, and should be to men, as well)

 

4. Ye Olde Comick Book Blog (http://yeoldecomicblogge.blogspot.com/) — hasn’t been updated recently, but is a tremendously funny, laugh out loud review of old 1950s and 1960s superhero comic books

 

5. Comics Should Be Good (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/) — commentary on current comics

 

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1. He invented the polygraph machine
2. He was a feminist
3. He lived in a relationship with two women at the same time, with the women approving of the menage. They were his wife Elizabeth and his former student, Olive Byrne. After he died in 1947, the women lived together for the next 40 years.
4. He was into bondage (you may already have surmised this)
5. He was a psychologist

 

Extra: while he is credited with creating Wonder Woman, Elizabeth apparently had a role in the creation, too
Extra extra: He has a PhD from Harvard

 

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When A Terrific Book Fails To Sell, Who’s At Fault?

 

 

Below Ground In SoHo, An Innovative Reading Space:

 

 

“Best-selling crime writer Patricia Cornwell has filed a libel lawsuit against another author and is asking a federal judge to bar him from posting defamatory messages about her on the Internet”:

 

 

Books, The Bloggers, And The Critics:

 

 

“Literary blogs are fine. They’re a version of your mom’s book club. But when it comes to serious reviewing, we need serious media”:

 

 

“Sir Edward Elgar’s public image used to be that of a musical Colonel Blimp: he even looked like a colonel”:

 

 

Philip K. Dick’s novels read like the work of someone who knows what it’s like to hallucinate:

 

 

“Arthur Koestler was far from being a good man, but he did struggle toward the good by the light of his stunning intellect”:

 

 

“Goethe was a new kind of hero, and man who brought art and life together in a way that did not look like a grubby compromise”:

 

 

“”So is it any good? No. Absolutely not.” Ian Sansom on W.H. Auden:

 

 

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1. Doctor Octopus (Amazing Spider-Man #3)
2. Green Goblin (Amazing Spider-Man #14)
3. Rhino (Amazing Spider-Man #41)
4. Calypso (Amazing Spider-Man #209, originally introduced as a partner of Kraven the Hunter)
5. Hammerhead (Amazing Spider-Man #113)

 

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http://punkrockpenguin.net/waste/amuse/badcovers/contest.html:

 

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 “A lot of the drawings that I do are just little noodle drawings that are not superhero stuff, but just to keep my hand moving.” – Todd McFarlane

 

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1. “Pocketful of Kryptonite” by the Spin Doctors
2. “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman” by The Kinks
3. “I’m no Superman” (theme from Scrubs) Lazlo Bane
4. “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” by Five for Fighting
5. “Resignation Superman” by Big Head Todd & The Monsters

 

Runners up: “Superman” by The Clique; the song was later made famous when R.E.M. covered it on their 1986 album Life’s Rich Pageant

 

“Even Superman Shot Himself” by Powerman 5000

 

“Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down

 

“Sunshine Superman” by Donovan (also mentions Green Lantern)

 

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Fearnot, Pennsylvania

 

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1. “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath
2. “Catch Me Now, I’m Falling” (“This is Captain America calling”)
3. “Ghost Rider” by Henry Rollins Band (Crow Soundtrack)
4. “Magneto and Titanium Man” by Paul McCartney & Wings
5. “The Riddler” by Method Man

 

Runners up:

 

“Sgt. Rock is Gonna Help Me” by XTC
“Spiderman” by the Ramones
“Wolverine Blues” by Entombed

 

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“I have a contribution to your call for Super Heroes. In 2004 the State Library asked if I would allow a PSA to be filmed in my Library. The point was that ‘Super Librarian’ would save the day or something like that. My location was selected, in part, because we are not very identifiable as it was supposed to be a library that could be anywhere; it also didn’t hurt that I’m friendly with the State Librarian. It’s on YouTube and here is the link.”

 

 

[I love the book Conan the Librarian myself. Do not bring books back late when he’s working. – E]

 

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“I was reading comics at an early age, and I started thinking about cartoons at a certain point. I remember picking up superhero comics consciously around age 12 or 13, specifically because I was thinking that maybe this would be a good career move. Then I got into the whole superhero scene.” – Chester Brown

 

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A convention of comic book fans.

 

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This week my son and I have been writing pangrams (“Mother’s Day Quiz” is a nice start — no duplicates in 14 letters). We’ve had the most fun writing sentences-with-every-letter-in-the-alphabet utilizing Star Wars characters’ names, but I’ll spare you those. Here are my two best efforts:

 

Quizzical twins proved my hijack-bug fix.

 

Flying back, we had to go over picturesque Juarez Mexico.

 

As with haikus, the best pangrams manage to create a vivid image without calling attention to their form — being natural in an unnaturally short length is, well, hard. Start getting below two alphabets in length and awkwardness is very common. And here, my top five list of pangrams (with ties):

 

5T. Five or six big jet planes zoomed quickly by the tower.
5T. Xavier picked bright yellow jonquils for Mitzi.

4. Just keep examining every low bid quoted for zinc etchings.

3. Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes.

2T. The five boxing wizards jump quickly.  (31 letters)
2T. Two driven jocks help fax my big quiz.  (30 letters)

And the top panagram (when names and acronyms are allowed): 

1. New job: fix Mr. Gluck’s hazy TV, PDQ!   (26 letters)

 

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“Funny that I played Joan Jett today on my show from “Mullets Rock, Too!”  Featuring cuts like: Ted Nugent,”Wang Dang Doodle”; Eddie Money, “Baby Hold On”; Aldo Nova, “Fantasy”; Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”; Cinderella, “Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone” and others, complete with awful illustrations of varieties of Mullets.”

 

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“I’m sorry, the five worst hairstyles all belong to one man: Snoop Doggy Dogg. This man has never had a good hair day.”

 

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“Lady Diana Spencer (Princess Diana) and Michael Jordan — made it fashionable for not-quite-bald men to shave”

 

 

“I can’t believe Dorothy Hamill isn’t on your celebrity-inspired hair style list!  Every girl who was a child in the early 80s had a Dorothy Hamill haircut at some point.”

 

 

“Louise Brooks!”

 

 

“What about Veronica Lake and Twiggy? Tangentially, may I suggest Top Five Superstar Male Baldies? The order is roughly chronological”:

1. Yul Brenner
2. Telly Salavas
3. Michael Jordan
4. Bruce Willis
5. Michael Chiklis

 

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‘This isn’t exactly an awful book cover, but I’d consider it to be unbelievable but real book of the week. Only you don’t have that category. It’s Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say ‘No’ to Drugs.“

 

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“‘Nuff said.” – Stan Lee

 

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