Showcase Presents: Big chunks o' fun

I'm no penny-pinching little stuffed bull, but I do 'preciate value for money. That's why I have to tell you that if you like fun comics and great values, run, don't walk, to get the first two books in DC's Showcase Presents series!

The first two are Showcase Presents: Superman, Volume 1 and Showcase Presents: Green Lantern, Volume 1:

Each book is a big chunky collection (over 500 pages!) of consecutive reprints from the Silver Age, reprinted in fabulous black-and-white (but hey, you already know what color Green Lantern is, don't you?). I can hear you all saying: "Oh, yeah, these are just DC's version of Marvel's Essentials series. That's nothin' special!" You think that, don't you? Don't you? Well, you're just plain wrong, buster! Don't get me wrong: I love the Marvel Essentials. But so far with just these two first volumes DC has done a lot of things right that Marvel got wrong with the first batch of Essentials:

• These two introductory volumes are only $9.99 each! (Future volumes will be $16.99, same price as Marvel's Essentials.)
• The black-and-white linework reproduction is very sharp and distinct. No badly-scanned pages that look like photocopies of old color comics, no way! Here's a riddle: what do DC's Showcase volumes have in common with 7-Up? A: They're crisp, and clean, with no caffeine!
• Each one only costs $9.99!
• Each page has a page number on it! So, f'r instance, when I tell you there's a really weird but fun cover to Action #251 on page 327, you don't have to guess what page I mean!
• Only $9.99 for each book!
• Whiter paper than the Essentials...paper that doesn't look like newsprint!
• Nine...ninety...nine!

The Superman volume was 'specially fun because it features consecutive Action and Superman comics starting in 1958 with some of the goofiest but most fun Superman comics from the Silver Age: back when Lois was trying to trick Superman into marrying her, when Jimmy Olsen choppered around in the Daily Planet Flying Newsroom, when every two-bit crook planning a Metropolis crime spree had a chunk of Kryptonite the size of a canned ham, and when Supergirl, Superman's cousin, came to Earth and got left behind in an orphanage so she wouldn't blow Superman's secret identity. Well, at least she didn't have a belly shirt, big Michael Turner soupplate eyes, and scary Susan Powter abs. The Green Lantern book is a little slower to get off the ground but these are still big, wild, fun cosmic and earth-bound adventures of the man who was without fear even before Matt Murdock didn't look where he was going when he was crossing the street! I liked how even though his powerful GL ring doesn't work against the color yellow, and apparently every threat in the Silver Age was yellowy or yellowish or maybe a nice pleasant shade of goldenrod, Hal Jordan could always come up with a way to defeat the menace anyway! That's my Hal! (Not this guy.) Hooray for the Silver Age! Hooray for DC Showcase Presents! Hooray for fun comics!

Adventures in Bullhattan: Little Subway People

Everybody in New York City is in a big rush: people rushing from here to there, hopping on the subways and zooming off to work or home or the theater or shopping or the Hamptons or someplace else, whew! I feel sorry for these people because they're so busy rushin' from place to place they don't see some of the weird and wonderful and pretty and fun things along the way on their journeys. Since I'm a little stuffed bull who likes to stop and smell the roses (or the popcorn, if that's what's along the way), let me be your pers'nal guide to some things you might have passed by every day and never realized was even there!

I bet you all know that there are millions of people who use the subway every day, right? Well, I bet you don't know that little people use the subway too! Don't believe me? Well, you're wrong! All you have to do to see otherwise is to head down to the 14th Street subway station on the    line and look carefully...


Do y'see 'em? Little Subway People! They're everywhere! They re just about as big as I am and they're bronze-colored and they have big round heads. And if you look carefully in the 14th Street station, you'll see them on the floor, on benches, near posts, on the ceilings—just about any place you look there's a little subway person hangin' out!


This one is collecting money. Do you think he makes big money?


Oh wow! That is big money!!!!!!


Whatcha readin', little miss subway person? Is it Harry Potter?


Golly! This is a good book. It's all about little gilded people in New York City!

Do you want to read, hear or see more about the little subway people, from people who also noticed them? Sure you do! So until next time, fellow Bullhattanites...enjoy the city!

Snakes on a Plane update: Samuel L. Jackson speaks!

Like I've said in the not-too-distant past, I can't wait for the 2006 blockbuster motion picture Snakes on a Plane starring everybody's favorite star, Samuel L. Jackson!

If like me, you too want to find out more about Snakes on a Plane, Mister Jackson recently gave an exclusive interview to Collider.com in which he tells how he didn't want to work on the film unless it was titled Snakes on a Plane! (Click on the link to find out more!) That's my man Samuel L. Jackson, that is!

I can't wait for this movie!

Our next President!

I'm too young to vote, but if I could, I'd vote for this guy for President in 2008!

I support his urban renewal program. I'm not as big a fan of his Superman-killing policy. But that platform didn't seem to have hurt the last guy any during his term as President.

Don't nod, back Zod!

What kind of Batman am I?

What kind of Batman are you?

You're 1950s Batman. Sure, you're still a scourge of criminals and all that is evil, but you don't forget to have a fun time battling crime as well. You have a sidekick that you support and joke with, not that you use as a pawn in an unholy bloody crusade against the underworld. Your adventures include giant gorillas, space aliens, multi-colored Batman outfits for all occasions, time travel, immense typewriters, and multi-dimensional imps. You're the Batman with a Bat-Hound. You're not merely 1950s Batman, you're fun Batman. Your likes will never be seen again in modern comics.

What kind of Batman are you?
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