Mini news on media move day

Got the keys to the new apartment last night. Very excited. We move in a little over a week, but today was devoted to hauling most of our media from Crummyville to the new digs. With the amount of books and DVDs and CDs that we own, such a move is very tiring.

As you can imagine, I'm not in much of a manifesto mood.

But I wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day. What is Free Comic Book Day? Well, it's pretty self explanatory. Comic shops all over the country will be offering up special free comic books to whomever walks through their doors. I'm not a gigantic comic book reader (it's amazing to see the stacks that guys are buying every time I go in and spend my five dollars), but this event is always fun to attend. For more info, visit freecomicbookday.com.

Also, my friend Jay emailed me the link to some amazingly cool commercials that were created for Scrabble (one of my favorite games). Check 'em out:

He came across them over here at BeaucoupKevin.

My own "Mary Worth," part six

Toby has left the bank with the sinister Mary and the stolen loot. Little does Mary know, however, that the authorities are aware of her scheme!

Here is part six of Ben's Mary Worth. As always, click to enlarge:

"Guerillas"

When I decided to start my little Mary Worth spoof last month (and, don't worry, two-of-you who care, the next installation is coming), I first made a trip to my local comic shop for some inspiration. And, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm a sucker when it comes to things that look cool. This is pretty much how I came upon Brahm Revel's comic book Guerillas. The cover looked cool.

But, let me tell you, the inside is even better.

Set during the Vietnam War, Guerillas opens as many war stories often do, following a young private named John Clayton: scared of everything, afraid to fire, wanting to go home. We jump back and forth in time, seeing his life before the war, his relationship with his father, a World War II veteran, and his intense fear as he tries to make his way safely through the hidden Viet Cong.

Before long, though, the comic takes a sharp turn. Clayton's platoon is ambushed. And, instead of fighting, Clayton hides, awaiting his own grim fate. As he counts his last moments, he listens to his companions scream in agony. Then, something happens. Bullets fly. The Viet Cong are cut down. And, as he slowly comes out from hiding, Clayton sees that there is another American platoon waiting for him. But, something is different about this platoon. There are no men. No humans at all, in fact. 

Only monkeys. In American fatigues. With Army-issued weapons. 

Soon, Clayton finds himself within this new platoon, getting to know his saviors, supplying them with cigarettes, wondering how they have come to exist, and hoping to safely get himself home.

I know, it sounds silly, but the material, handled with great mastery by Revel, actually comes off completely plausible. I mean, I wouldn't at all be shocked if the government has attempted such a brigade already. And the artwork is very elegant and consuming. Even if the story was horrible, I could just stare at the panels and be enthralled.

Guerillas is up to issue 2 as of this writing. Part Tim O'Brien, part Pierre Boulle, I highly suggest this book to anyone interested in not only comics, but war stories.

My own "Mary Worth," part five

Finally, another installment of Ben's Mary Worth hits the old blog.

When we last left our sad-sack heroine Toby, she was in the middle of robbing a bank for Mary (who, as Toby just told the bank employee, is sitting outside with a rifle, waiting to pick off either woman if anything seemed fishy).

So, without further ado, here is part five of our story (click on the image to enlarge):

My own "Mary Worth," part four

Toby is finally going to go to the bank, but will she have the guts to pull off the job? Find out in part four of Ben's Mary Worth.

Click to enlarge!

My own "Mary Worth," part three

It's the night before Toby's big bank robbery! And, in part three of Ben's Mary Worth, we see the anxiety of the evening as our heroine tries to get some sleep!

Click to enlarge for easy reading!

My own "Mary Worth," part two

Here's part two of my ode to Mary Worth. Click the comic to make it larger.

My own "Mary Worth"

I've gone on and on about how much I think Mary Worth is the dullest comic strip on the planet. 

So, I decided to do something about it, a little "putting my money where my mouth is," if you will.

I present to you Ben's Mary Worth (part one of a potential series). Click to make it bigger:

Though this may seem obvious, let me state that this is meant as a parody, and in no way is associated with the actual Mary Worth. I did use the original artwork. However, the words are my own.

The Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum: Nostalgia reigns

It was a rainy Saturday today, so the Professor and I decided to take a trip. A museum was on our radar, but what museum would we visit? A bit of Google searching later, I suggested the Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum in Cheshire. 

What is it?, the Professor wondered.

Honestly, I couldn't tell her. Not because I wanted it to be a surprise, but mainly because the website for the establishment only gave me a vague idea of what the museum actually contained. Was it animation stuff? Was it comic strips? Was it toys? I didn't really know.

What I did glean was that it had 80,000 items and that the admission was free to the public, and that was enough to get us in the car for the 30 minute trip down 84.

And, if you ever were a child (and, I think most of you were at one time or another), this place is totally worth the ride.

As you pull into the driveway of the Barker property off of Route 10, you're greeted by several wooden replicas of famous cartoon characters, from Porky Pig to the Animaniacs to Popeye and Olive Oyl. Sort of a little monument park, only everyone replicated never existed in reality.

Curiosity piqued, we parked and made our way inside.

A short audio clip at the museum's entrance informed us of the BCCCM's purpose (generally, to get children into the hobby of collecting). Talking to the on-site guide that met us at the front door, we also learned a bit about the creator of the museum, Mr. Herbert Barker. Having spent his youth working, Mr. Barker decided, 40 years ago, to begin his childhood again through buying toys. Eventually, this collection got too large for the Barker's home, and the museum became a reality.

Our appetites were whetted. Toys! Tons of toys! 

After signing the guest book, we began our trek.

It was pretty amazing.

80,000 toys! I mean, 80,000 toys! Lining the walls, the ceiling, in cases, on cases, just about everywhere you could fit anything. There were old toys, retro toys, new toys, animation props from Art Clokey's Gumby and Will Vinton's California Raisins, old lunch boxes, comic books, Pez dispensers, collectable glasses; if it was a childhood toy that you cherished, or an item that contained an image of your favorite cartoon character, the BCCCM has it somewhere in the collection.

Here's an image from the museum's website of the interior (photography was not allowed):

The Professor and I could have spent an entire day in the museum and still would have missed half the collection. There's just so much stuff, our eyes got buggy after staring for so long. It got a bit overwhelming, especially once we realized there was a second floor! And everything contained in the museum has a tag telling you the appraised value of each item (though nothing is for sale). So, you can look at all of the old toys of yours that your Mom threw away and slap your forehead at the current market value for each piece.

Popeye fact: Olive Oyl's first boyfriend was named Ham Gravy. How do I know this? Well, on your way out the door, staggered by the mass amount of plastic your eyes have just processed, you get a pamphlet listing 99 little known facts about Popeye. Certainly gives you something to read on the ride home.

I can't recommend this place enough. It brought back so many memories, I felt like I shrunk in my shoes, a six-year-old boy surrounded by every toy in the world. A kid in a candy store, as the saying goes, only the candy is every toy you can ever remember.

In addition to the museum, the Barker grounds also contain an animation gallery. Everything inside the gallery can be purchased, but the items do not come cheap. Animation cels, even limited editions, can run up to multiple thousands of dollars each. Still, the artwork was nice to admire and felt very subdued after exiting the overstuffed museum.

The Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum is only open on Saturdays, from 11 AM to 5 PM. They can be found at 1188 Highland Ave. in Cheshire.

Go and be a kid. You've earned it. 

Hey, look, more frustrated "Mary Worth" readers exist!

Seems like I'm not the only person in West Hartford that finds Mary Worth disturbing. Though I just find it incredibly dull, this person, writing to the editor of the Hartford Courant, feels the paced antics of Mary and her cohorts are often too close to "news" to be entertainment:

I have always relied on the comics section to provide a respite from the news and a moment of escape. This is not always the case anymore because many of the comic strip artists have decided it is their duty to continually remind us about our responsibilities and concerns. For example:

•"Mary Worth" is now educating us on identity theft

•"Rex Morgan, M.D." lectures to us on the issue of adequate and affordable health care.

 Read the full letter to the editor in the Hartford Courant here.

A quick "Mary Worth" update

For those dying to know what has happened in Mary Worth since I dubbed it "worst comic strip ever" a few weeks ago, due to the slow, dull nature of the storytelling, here's a summary:

Toby, the woman afraid her identity was stolen, called her bank and found out someone DID steal her identity (I know, this was a shocker that only very careful readers of Mary Worth would have seen coming). This revelation lead to days upon days of Toby saying things like "I can't believe this is happening to me!" and "I'm so upset I can hardly see straight!" while holding one hand to her forehead in a dramatic fashion.

Of course, this also got Toby flustered about talking to her husband, professor/Prince Valiant guest-star/Gorton's Fisherman enthusiast Ian (who doesn't seem the type to fly off the handle at all, but what do I know?). So, instead of giving us some meaty phone rage between the couple once Ian heard the bad news, Toby says nothing about the identity theft and we all got to learn about the dull conference Ian is attending and how invigorating the people he met were. And . . . sorry, I nodded off there for a second.

Toby then spoke to Mary Worth about her situation, and Mary, assumedly back from a fun vacation doing ANYTHING other than starring in Mary Worth, told her she should talk to someone about how to protect oneself from having their identity stolen. You know, so this doesn't happen AGAIN, torturing readers with three more weeks of watching a woman make two phone calls! 

Judge Parker had someone get shot on a golf course during this time! Heck, even Rex Morgan has moved from his office to a boat over the past two weeks! 

C'mon, Mary Worth, pick up the pace!

2 1/2 weeks of comics. Virtually nothing happened. And, yet, I keep reading it. The train wreck that you can't stop staring at, that's my Mary Worth.

Excellent things from my childhood: The Batman Batbook

When I was a little 80s baby, growing up in Massachusetts, Channel 27 (now a Univision affiliate) out of Worcester had the best early evening program line-up. You had Lost In Space, Vegas, and Batman. I tuned Vegas out most of the time, and watched Lost In Space here and there, but I always tried to catch my man Adam West and his cowl and cape every night after dinner.

And, to my luck, it was around this time that author Joel Eisner released the amazingly thorough The Official Batman Batbook. More encyclopedia than anything, the Batbook listed every episode, cast member, plot synopsis, original air date, trivia, and fact from the three seasons the series lasted; if you had any question about Batman, an answer was most likely found between the front and back cover of this book. There was even a list of every "Holy Bat Word" used by Burt Ward's Robin. My personal favorites, in no particular order: 

"Holy Purple Cannibals" 

"Holy Knit One, Purl Two"

"Holy Chutzpah"

Also included were interviews with different producers and cast members that gave readers an inside look at the show's creation, from the initial thought of adding a laugh-track to let people know that the show was supposed to be a comedy, to the up-and-down relationships shared between actors and crew. Mostly little tidbits, but items that brought the show to a new level of surrealism, especially to an eight-year-old boy flipping through the pages.

Looking online, I saw that Eisner released a "new and improved" revised version of The Official Batman Batbook this year (can you say cashing in on The Dark Knight?). Honestly, I don't know how revised this could be. I mean, the show has been off the air for 40 years. A good chunk of the cast members are dead. Plus, this new version is $32 on Amazon. You can get used copies of the old version for $2. 

If you're into the old Batman show, you should check this book out. It'll tell you all you need to know and more about the series. Reading my copy today, 30-years-old, I'm brought back to the spare room of my parents' home, adjusting the rabbit ears, watching Batman through the static, hoping my Mom and Dad somehow forgot about my bedtime once the show ended. Ah, the memories. 

Quick Book Blurbs: "Thunderstruck" "Selling the Invisible" & "Air #1"

The trailing spouse has plenty of time to read. As such, I figured I'd pass along some tidbits on what I've recently plowed through that's worth a look.

First up is Thunderstruck, by Erik Larson. If you've read Larson's other book, the equally heavy "popular history" work Devil in the White City, you'll quickly get the concept behind Thunderstruck. Like in Devil, Larson spins a twin tale dealing with a stubborn genius and a potential murderer. This time, the genius is Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless communication. The murderer (or is he?) in question is Hawley Crippen, a seemingly harmless doctor living in London. Much like in Devil, Larson tells the story of each man in alternating chapters, leading up to a climax that has the men and their creations meet, to a somewhat thrilling if not ultimately predictable conclusion (this being a work of fact, having the slightest knowledge of the background of either character can spoil the final chapters).

The book is worth a read. My main issue with it, the same issue I had with Devil, is the fact that Larson, most likely due to the amount of available history at his disposal, always spends more time with his geniuses than his crackpots. Sure, wireless communication is interesting, but we all crave that trip into the mind and actions of a nut job, right? A little more Crippen, a little less Marconi, and the book would be perfect.

Next is Selling the Invisible by Henry Beckwith. Subtitled A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, the book mainly consists of a series of examples of how to create the invisible relationship between consumer and company, client and agency. The argument by Beckwith is that this relationship created between buyer and seller is what actually keeps the client satisfied, and that once this relationship is established the work done for said client is better achieved and appreciated. And, to be honest, I believe him. Reading through his examples makes me want to carry a copy of Selling around when I go out for errands or to dinner. Maybe hand it to various waiters and waitresses of cashiers that I encounter along the way. Some of his examples are certainly dated (the book was published in 1997), but the basic concepts are really interesting to read.

 

Last up for today is issue number one of Air, a new comic series created by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker for Vertigo/DC. Spiraling out of the fear of flying and threat of terror in the skies that panic many Americans today (with or without warrant), the title follows a flight attendant named Blythe who is quickly caught in a tangle of deception involving a secret, vigilante anti-terrorist group and a man who may or may not be a terrorist himself. The writing in this comic is smart and real. It isn't too pop-cultured, which is a trait that often kills many modern comics for me (I still can't read Y: The Last Man because of this). The art is also very nice, with enough flair to keep the panels consistently interesting. Issue one certainly set an intriguing tone, giving the reader quite a bit to chew on and ponder. I'm looking forward to seeing what number two brings to the table. 

That's all for now. I'm reading three books right now, so I'll maybe be adding some more titles in the near future.

"Mary Worth": Maybe I'm onto something here . . .

The other day, I railed against the comic strip Mary Worth, in which I brought up the idea that certain characters from the strip were so bored by the dull nature of the story unfolding before their eyes that they took leave to more exciting strips. One of the characters I mentioned was Ian, college professor and Gorton's fisherman look-alike. I brought up the scenario of Ian heading over to Prince Valiant, where he may actually have something to do.

Well, I may have hit on something here. I opened my comic section of the Sunday paper today and, while glancing past Valiant, came across this panel:

And, if you recall, this is our friend Ian:

I'm thinking we may have a match. 

Now, if I can only figure out where Mary has stumbled onto . . .

"Mary Worth": The worst comic strip ever

The Hartford Courant carries quite a few "serial" comic strips: Gil Thorp, Rex Morgan, M.D., Judge Parker, pretty much everything except Gasoline Alley. All are hokey in their own way, often over-dramatic, but none are as horrible and gut-wrenchingly dull as Mary Worth. The butt of many jokes over time (including the Simpsons episode where Comic Book Guy brags about having "a very rare Mary Worth in which she has advised a friend to commit suicide" to Bart), I had never really seen the strip until I moved to Connecticut. Now I understand why it is made fun of so often. Nothing, I mean NOTHING, happens in this strip. Since I've been in CT (now about 6 weeks), this is what has transpired:

This woman, named Toby, secretly bought a DVD (ooh, the technology!) for her husband . . .

Ian, a college professor (and possible candidate for the Gorton's Fisherman mascot position).

Seriously, I'm surrounded by college professors around here and none seem to resemble this guy.

Anyway, back on track . . .

Toby bought a DVD for her husband, Ian, as a birthday gift. This took a week's worth of strips to accomplish. Seriously. First, she looked at the store, which didn't have it, then she decided to shop online, where you can find anything, and it is "SO EASY!" 

Then, for three days, she actually bought the DVD. This was like a illustrated manual of how to deal with Amazon.

Then, she gave Ian the DVD. And they watched it . . . for three days.

Then, Toby got her credit card bill, and it took her four days to look at it and pay for the DVD.

During this time, Ian left for a trip, thankful to be away from the boredom that is Mary Worth. Possibly he was off to a guest appearance in Prince Valiant, where he could carry a sword and actually do something.

But, we didn't follow Ian. We stuck with ever-so-interesting Toby. Lucky us. 

Now, after all this excitement, we finally got to the action. Here's the kick in the pants. 

Wait for it . . .

Toby suspected someone has stolen her credit card number! AHHHH! The horrors of modern internet technology! If she only hadn't bought the DVD online! Now we can scare all the elders that read this even more from ever touching a computer, thus keeping newsprint alive for one more day!

And that's it. That was over a month of this comic strip. Woman buys DVD, gives it to husband, they watch said DVD, he leaves, she pays for her credit card bill, then finally suspects something is awry. A whole month.

At least a strip like Rex Morgan has some interesting illustrations. Mary Worth is just flat and plain, both in artwork and in story. And, to top it off, the character of Mary hasn't been seen in nearly a month. Even she can't stand the monotony of her friends. She's off trying to find a new strip. Come to think of it, Sarge in Beetle Bailey doesn't normally wear a red ascot, does he?

Artist: Matt Kindt

Matt Kindt is a comic artist I discovered in the past year when I read about his book "Super Spy." A complex and beautifully rendered tale of WWII's secret world of underground spy networks, the book is a treat to read. It's one of those graphic novels that you're constantly shuttling back and forth when reading, making sure what you read was actually what happened, piecing together all of the snippets, and learning the true nature of characters as they themselves realize their purpose.

On Kindt's website, you can check out elements of "Super Spy" in addition to other work he has done, like the terrific "Pistolwhip." In the shop area, you can purchase limited run prints Kindt made of classic spy characters. I picked up the James Bond image. Absolutely worth the $20. Plus, the guy is really nice. When I had a question about the prints, he responded within an hour of my email.

He also has a blog you can check out of some of his commissions.