Ben Grimm totally rocks! Reasons #1-3

Why does Ben Grimm totally rock?



1. His amazing fashion sense. An ascot? Why not?
2. His self-assured way with the ladies.
3. His vocabulary is second to none.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ben Grimm, the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing. You know him, you love him. And now you know...three reasons why he totally rocks.

Snakes on a Plane mania continues unabated

Looks like I'm not the only one who is camping out at my local cineplex eagerly awaiting next summer's huge movie blockbuster Snakes on a Plane, starring Samuel L. "Get those snakes off my plane" Jackson!

These guys have begun selling t-shirts and other fine CaféPress.com items emblazoned (my new word of the day!) with the icon of a snake on a plane:



Sure, they're probably doing these unofficially and will get sued by the makers of the megablockbuster Snakes on a Plane. If they're not careful Samuel L. "Dang! How did all these snakes get on a plane!" Jackson will come by and slap them around a little! Still, you have to admire the guys who got the idea to ride the Snakes on a Plane wagon all the way to, or at least towards, fortune. Go buy a t-shirt or a mousepad with a snake on a plane before Columbia Pictures shuts them down. (EDIT: too late!)

Snakes on a Plane!!!!!!!

Haloween Bonus Feature: Happy Halloween from BOO-ly!

Happy Halloween everyone! What are you going as for Halloween? I am going trick-or-treating dressed as a little devil. Bwah! I'm a scary devil! Bwah!




I sure hope that when I say "Trick or treat!" people do not say "Trick!" I hate that joke. Don't make silly jokes when there is yummy, yummy candy to be gathered!

All I want for Christmas is a Batmobile!!!

Dear Santa,

I don't know if you read blogs, but if you do, there's only one thing I want this year for Christmas.

Oh, okay, two things. World peace, and...

...The 1940s Batmobile!

There's only one way this could be cooler and that's if it was big enough that I drive it around Brooklyn! (PS to Santa: I'm eight inches tall).

Oh, okay. Three things. The world peace thing, the Batmobile, and a pink baby pig.

Slow day at the comics corral.

Hi hi hi! It's a cold and windy day here in Manhattan. Going to the comic book store on Wednesday always helps warm my fuzzy little stuffed heart, tho'!

Today I didn't buy much. There weren't that many new comics out that caught my eye. Ever have one of those weeks? Yep, I realize that in these new-fangled days, if you're not buying Infinite Crisis (and its crossover books) or House of M (and its crossover books) or "The Other" (the crossover books that are crossover books all by themselves), you're plumb out of luck when you go looking for comics at your Local Comic Store (or "LCS" as we bloggers like to call 'em!). Those of you who read this blog (all three of ya!) know already that I'm not that interested in Crisis or House of M and I'm waiting for the trade (the dirtiest words a comics fan can say!) on "The Other," so where does that leave me? It leaves me telling you whether a mere two books are fun or not!

BART SIMPSON #26: This comic is fun...sorta. Frequent readers of Comics Oughta Be Fun ("COBF", pronounced "cobif") know that I generally have two grades for the comics I read: fun and not fun. Well, add to that a brand-new grade of fun...sorta. And it's 'propriate I'm using it on this week's Simpsons comic, because I'd actually been thinking of retiring the Simpsons/Bongo line from the fun/not fun rating system. Why? Because they're nearly always fun...but sometimes they're not perfect. I needed a middle grade for comics that are still plenty fun to read—don't get me wrong—but which aren't exceptionally amazing or fantastic. It's sorta like if Mister Ebert waggled his thumb in the middle instead of thumbs up and thumbs down all the time! Anyway, as usual, this week's Simpsons comic is fun...but it could have been better. The thing I like about Bart Simpson is there's usually a buncha stories; if one's not that great, there might be an even better one later on. I liked the first one best (Bart's treehouse is scheduled for demolition. I wish I had a treehouse!) and it has lots of funny sight gags (but where did Homer's bandages go between pages 7 and 8?). The Maggie dream story was kinda silly more often than it was fun or funny and the "Bart goes on a bath strike" story was something you'd see on any Disney Channel sitcom! It wasn't sharp enough for the Simpsons. That's why this issue gets a grade of fun...sorta.. It's better than a lot of comics, but it's not as good as it could be.


JSA CLASSIFIED #4: This comic is fun. I've never been a huge fan of Power Girl but this whole storyline has been a fun exploration of who she is and what her relationship to the DC Universe is. It has a twist at the end which was fun just for being different than what you usually get in a twist at the end. You know how so many stories are "what you know about Character X is WRONG!"? Well, this one is "what you know about Power Girl is RIGHT!" It restores the simplest, most common explanation for her origin back to comics, and I'm pretty sure I can guess that means (as the 'blogosphere' has been buzzing about for weeks) a return to the multiverse for DC Comics. I'm not certain how i feel about that. I like Earth-2 and multiple earths and crossover stories. But I'm not certain if returning to that will make the comics more accessible, or, most important to me, more fun. I guess we have to wait and see! (I'll have to wait longer than most of you, 'coz buying this title is the closest I'll get to reading Infinite Crisis!) I think the story loses a couple points for 1) having a kinda downbeat splash-page ending (I woulda wrote it different—a little more triumphant, but I'm just a li'l stuffed bull after all), and 2) there's a two-page epilogue that just kills the momentum of the story itself, makes it not complete, and isn't really anything but a teaser for Infinite Crisis. That's why even tho' this book was fun, I can't award it the Bully-approved seal of most fun comic of the week. Nobody gets that. Maybe next week I'll trot it out again.


Oh sure, I know there are plenty of fun comics out there that I didn't pick up. I want the Showcase Presents: Metamorpho book and the new Little Lulu collection. There's a great digest collection of Sgt. Rock stories I woulda bought if I'd saved more dimes. My point is, we live in a day and age of fun comics all around us, folks. But sometimes they are not always the ones that are brand-new on the shelves that week.

A sure cure for a dreary, cold, rainy, windy day.

When the wind howls
When the rain stings
When it's cold and grey
I simply get out a Batman comic book
And then everything's...o...kay!

Scary, scary Kara Zor-El

So, here's what Supergirl looks like now:





I am scared of Supergirl now. I will go hide under my lead-lined bed and hope she and her creepy Keene eyes can't spot me. Or maybe that her slim-jim-sized waist will snap in half and she won't be able to come get me.

Even the action figure of Supergirl creeps me out:



I am so scared of Supergirl.

Yay! I'm rich!

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

Today in Comics History, October 16, 1990: Why yes, Superboy is tall

from Superman: Secret Identity #1 (DC, January 2004), script by Kurt Busiek; pencils, inks, and colors by Stuart Immonen; letters by Todd Klein

Blast from the Past: Star Wars, Nothing But Star Wars! (5/20/02)

While I'm away for the weekend, let's fill in the time with reruns and have another installment of the frightfully enjoyable feature on my B(ul)LOG called:

BLAST FROM THE PAST!

...in which I will re-present some of my old website entries for an all new, blog-savvy audience. This new one is from May, 2002, when I first saw the wonderful, wonderful film Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. So hope in your Delorean time machine, crank up your flux capacitor and let’s all go…back…to 2002!:

---

YAY!!!! I went on Tuesday to see Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones! Thanks to the wonderful Miss Emily, I got to go to an advance screening two days before the movie opened! Only the most very special people got to go to an advance screening of this movie! I am so lucky! Oh, and John went, too.


(L-R) Jedis, Padmé Amidala, Me, More Jedis.

I was waiting for this movie forever! You might think you are the biggest Star Wars fan in the world but that is me! You would have known I am such a huge fan of this movie because I was the one in the Count Dooku costume waiting on line. Except all I had was a black cape. So I was "Count Dooku on Laundry Day." Marshall wanted to be Chewbacca. Hee hee hee! Chewbacca is not in this movie, Marshall!...NO HE ISN'T!

It was a very fun movie. The special effects were really great and Natalie Portman is very very cute and I loved all the lightsaber fights. Anakin Skywalker frightens me! Brrrrr! He seems like he is going to turn out evil or something! Do you think that will happen? No, I bet not.

There were many fantastic bits in the movie. Here are My Top Ten Favorite Scenes in Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones:

10) Alfred Hitchcock cameo in the clone breeding scene.
9) The guy in the stands of the arena with the big sign that said "We Watch the Arena Games on ABC: Always Be Crushin' Jedis!".
8) Little Boba Fett versus Little Han Solo fight.
7) Amidala kissing a Wookiee behind Anakin's back.
6) The atomic-powered Yoda-Mobile!
5) Mace Windu slamming back a frosty can of Colt .45.
4) Ten minute-long apology by George Lucas for The Phantom Menace.
3) Jar Jar Binks's haunting rendition of the Love Theme from Attack of the Clones.
2) Amazing detail of Ewan MacGregor's computer-animated beard.
1) The burning and sacking of Atlanta by General Grant and his troops.

I cannot wait until I can see it again! In the meantime I am surfing the web and looking through all my favorite Star Wars related websites. Why don't you look at them with me? C'mon, it'll be fun!

• The Official Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones Website!
• My favorite Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones tie-in merchandise!
• The Star Wars Kids website. This is for little kids. Like Marshall. Hey Marshall, I bet there are pictures of Chewbacca on this website!
• Queen Amidala. She's my favorite! She is sooooo cuuuuuute!!!!!!! "I will not condone a course of action that will lead my people to war, Senator." Hee hee hee!
• Star Wars toys and action figures by Hasbro. Collect 'em all! John did!
• Star Wars Legos. I like to build Legos! I just have to remember they are not for eating. They just look so yummy and candy-licious! Mnmmmmm...Legos.
• The Injuries of Darth Vader page. Ouch! That looks like it hurts, Mister Vader.
• Christmas with Chewbacca!

Yayyyyyy! I loved Star Wars! Clones...attack! Hooray! Thanks, Miss Emily!!!! XOXO, Bully

Umm, Miss Emily...can you get me a ticket to see Episode III? I would like to see it next week, please. Thank you.

---

A PS from the 2005 Bully: I didn't get to see Episode III that next week, but I saw it this year! Boy, was that exciting! I can't wait until Mister Lucas makes Episode IV! Maybe I will stand in line for it right now! What do you think happens to Anakin? Do you think he has a future career in his big clumsy black armor? Well anyway, in the meantime, you can get Episode III (and II, too!) from Amazon.com! Amazon.com, where excitement and adventure is only a click away! Yay!

The bullest skies I've ever seen are in Seattle.

Hi hi hi! Wanna see photos of my trip to Seattle? Sure, we all do! Well, then, click here! And once you do, I highly recommend the "slideshow" option!

Adventures in Bullhattan: Cloud Graffiti

(12th Street between University Avenue and Broadway)

Superman's Amazon.com Wish List

Alan Moore asked the musical question: "What do you get for the man who has everything?" Why not look on his Amazon.com Wish List?:

Farmer Boy (book) by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Adventures of Lois Lane (CD) by Lois Lane

Songs for the Daily Planet (CD) by Todd Snider

How to Write Articles for Newspapers and Magazines (book) by Dawn B. Sova

Great Caesar's Ghost (book) by Cynthia Sterling

The Hidden Fortress (DVD) directed by Toshirô Mifune

I Love Kansas (book) by Richard Taylor

Take Off Your Glasses and See (book) by Jacob Liberman

Streisand Superman (CD) by Barbra Streisand

Still Me (book) by Christopher Reeve

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!