Fun comics in Seattle!

Hi hi hi everybody! Here I am in the Emerald City! No, not that one—that's what they call Seattle, Washington! John and I are here on a business trip (even tho' he is doing mort of the business!) Yesterday we went to see Mister Mulliner (no relation to this guy!) at Amazon.com so John could sell him the wonderful Norton books he has, and then today we went to visit Fantagraphics and had lunch with Mister Gary and Mister Kim 'n' Eric 'n' Greg 'n' even Conrad came along for the visit! I had a wonderful Cuban sandwich that was so good it made me immediately forgive Fidel Castro for most anythin' that he might have done. Viva la sandwich! I even got to play with Mister Kim's dachshund, Lugvig! I miss Ludvig. He was very long and low and cute. If you are reading this, Ludvig, hi hi hi!

We went to Zanadu Comics in Seattle which is a lovely lovely store! They have lots of comics and books and action figures and toys and all sortsa stuff. John bought me a bunch of new comics to read but instead I thought I'd tell you about some other things he got for me there and that I got this week in Seattle that were so much fun than just the usual bunch of weekly comics!


THE ESSENTIAL LUKE CAGE, POWER MAN: HERO FOR HIRE: This comic is fun! First of all John bought me a big fat Marvels Essentials collection of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire! This is one of the 1970s Marvel comic books John loves a lot and I thought it was the most fun ever. It's about a big strong black superhero private detective in New York—he's kinda like "Shaft" except he has super-strength and diamond-hard skin and you can sing a song about him without being told to shush yo' mouth. Luke Cage works out of an office by a movie theater on 42nd Street back in the 1970s and has all sorts of adventures fighting bad guys and solving crime and yellin' "Sweet Christmas!" and "Jive Turkey!" and "Luke Cage is Bustin' Through!" all the time! He sure did get beat up a lot but he's pretty tough. It's a big big book of black-and-white comics reprints and it took me all day to read it. I highly recommend it. Two hooves up! (You can buy one for yourself if you click on the Amazon link up and to the right—see? Right over there! Tell 'em Bully sent ya!)


WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS #16: This comic is fun. John usually buys me new comics but he said what I need once in a while is to see what comic books used to be like. That's why he bought me the Luke Cage book and that's why he bought me this raggedy old back issue from the bin at Zanadu and told me I'd enjoy it. And boy howdy did I! We are going to Reno, Nevada next week (we'll be visiting Amazon's Fulfillment Center there) and I'm really looking forward to seeing the West. This comic book got me all ready for being out West! It was four reprints of Marvel western comics that were—as the cowboys would say—darn tootin' fun! There was a Kid Colt, Outlaw story, and Black Rider (oooh, he's spooky!) and Apache Kid, and a story about a bad gambler...western fun all around! Some of the stories were by my personal pal Stan Lee. (Stan's a heck of a nice guy but make sure you remind him, very politely and gently, that he didn't create the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man all by himself! He had lotsa help!) Anyway, yee-haw, this old comic was fun, and I sure do hope John will buy me some more back issues once in a while.

THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1957-1958: This comic is fun. And John didn't even buy this one for me! Eric at Fantagraphics gave it to me and said that even tho' the book won't be published and in your local bookstore until October, I could have a early paperback copy! YAY! Thanks, Eric! You're the coolest, dude. If you look at the picture above you can see it isn't a finished book. This is what we in the publishing world call an "advance reading copy" or "galley" (well, at least what John tells me it is called!) I was a little worried when they told me it was an "advanced reading copy" because I was thinking maybe I wasn't advanced enough to read it, because, you may recall, I am jus' a little stuffed bull! But Eric assured me that it wasn't "advanced," it was "advance" and that just meant it came out early. Hooray for Eric! He also gave me a nifty "Dennis the Menace" pin and John told me that Camilla would say it was very approprate for me to be wearing a "Menace" pin .............. I don't get it. Anyway, that just made it the best visit every to Fantagraphics and I really, really enjoyed reading THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1957-1958 in our hotel room in Seattle. It is all early comic strips by Charles M. Schulz (make sure you spell it right! it's not "Schultz!) and some of the best strips are in here. Mister Kim said "Sparky was hitting on all cylinders in these strips!" I didn't see any sparks or cylinders but I laughed and laughed and laughed. That's why THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1957-1958 gets my award for the most fun comic of the week.