OK, I surrender

Here you go... cheeseburger in a can:


CLICK HERE to order this obviously delightful treat.

You're welcome.

SPECIAL SALE: WIZKIDS CONVENTION WEEKEND DEALS!

That's right, starting this SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2nd, the following awesome deals will be available at both Comix Connection locations:

PIRATES CONSTRUCTIBLE STRATEGY GAME:

• PIRATES SUBMARINE - Buy THREE Pirates Constructible Strategy Game booster packs, get one Wizkids Convention Special Submarine FREE!

HORRORCLIX:

• VLAD the IMPALER - Buy ONE Horrorclix booster box, get one Wizkids Convention Special Vlad FREE!

HEROCLIX:

• Buy THREE Heroclix booster boxes, get one Wizkids Convention Special Batman FREE!
• Buy FIVE booster boxes, get one Wizkids Convention Special Thor PLUS one Batman FREE!
• Buy TEN booster boxes, get one Wizkids Convention Special Johnny Thunder, PLUS one Thor and one Batman FREE!
• Buy FIFTEEN booster boxes, get Wizkids Convention Special Fin Fang Foom (Purple Pants Version!), PLUS one Johnny Thunder, one Thor and one Batman FREE!

Most items were previously unavailable except though conventions that the WIZKID gang attended last year. This sale will continue while special items last. Quantities are limited, so get 'em while you can!

A Public Service Announcement

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU:

Join the rest of us geeks and get your very own Comix Connection pull/hold subscription box!

DETAILS HERE, or just ask your Friendly Neighborhood Comix Connection Counter Monkey for information!

Big sale, come soon

That's right, TWENTY YEARS! Stop by the store the weekend of February 15th through the 17th and I'll spin some yarns about the old days while I whittle from my perch atop an old cracker barrel. Stories of when comics were THICK. And cost THREE CENTS A PIECE. Stories like that.

I'll be posting a bunch of stuff from the Comix Connection vault during the month of February... keep your eyes peeled for such relics as: The Tablecloth The Image Guys Drew All Over, and Johnny Craig's winning contest entry blank. Priceless!

Greatest Movie Of All Time?

Quite possibly. Behold:

ITALIAN SPIDERMAN!




Thank you MegoSteve. I think.

And now for something completely ridiculous

Glamorous Cat Wigs!


CLICK HERE to see more kitty weirdness.

Just when you think the world isn't strange enough, someone out there on the internet comes through...

LOST "Easter Eggs" to appear in selected Marvel Comics

Hey all you fans of the TV show LOST... check this out:

(Taken from Diamond Comics Distributor's website)

With the fourth season of ABC’s Lost scheduled to debut on January 31, ABC and Marvel Comics have created a promotional campaign that should have more viewers tuning in to Lost – and reading many of Marvel’s comics to find a host of special references!

These Lost “Easter eggs” are scheduled to appear in numerous Marvel comics released between January 23 and January 30. Rather than just simple ads, these references will include a Lost poster, the number “6,” the slogan “Find Yourself” and more included in various Marvel titles like Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Incredible Hercules and Thunderbolts. Some of the specific books spotlighting the show are Amazing Spider-Man #548, Captain America #34, Daredevil #104, Fantastic Four #553, Incredible Hercules #113, New Avengers Annual #2, Thunderbolts #118 and many others, all listed below. These visual inclusions should serve as enjoyable surprises for any True Believers also interested in discovering what’s in store for the survivors of Oceanic Air flight 815...

Most passing strange.

Swell stickers for the bumper of your automobile

I don't know if you noticed, but we recently got these in the store:


Aren't they swell? They would look mighty fine on the bumper of your jalopy! Try one today! They're only $2.99 plus tax and are made a fine quality vinyl plastic, to hold the colors even after many seasons. Don't be left out... get your bumper stickered today!

RIPOVs Invade York!

That's right, our favorite band invades SMALLS in York, PA this Saturday for their Grand Opening! Behold:



RIPOVS myspace page
Small's myspace page
(NOT FOR KIDS, please!)

Be there or be Cher.


Heck, I might even make it out to see Mike and the band...

Actor Heath Ledger found dead

OK, THIS is weird.

NEW YORK -- Oscar-nominated actor Heath Ledger has been found dead at a downtown Manhattan residence, police said Tuesday, in what might be a drug-related death.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the SoHo apartment that is believed to be his home. A housekeeper went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, and found him dead at 3:26 p.m, Browne said.

Ledger was found with a bottle of pills next to him, according to an NYPD spokesman.

What a horrible loss...

(Hat-tip to Mike B. for the heads-up.)

Who needs Supers when we have REALS!

Real-life superheroes, actually on patrol? CLICK HERE to read the lowdown.

Don't forget to check out the expanded content which includes videos of various real-life superheroes.

Also check out the Google Map of Real Life Superheroes... where's Pennsylvania's guardian of justice?

(And whatever happened to The Venusian?)

Guest Review: CLOVERFIELD

By Phatmogera

Hey Bill and friends, just a quick non-spoiler review of Cloverfield for you. If you like giant critter attack movies, and I'm sure a lot of Comix Connection customers do, you must see this movie. It is the dream some giant monster fans have been dreaming of for decades (yeesh, I'm soooooo old). So, some quick points:

1. The whole movie is footage taken from a hand held camera during the attack. If you get motion sick easy, take precautions! Also, sit back a bit further from the screen. They do a great job with the shooting to get as much of what they want you to see on screen.

2. Hud, our intrepid cameraman and overall most identifiable character, is really funny. His name is short for Hudson, but I couldn't help thinking there is a great in-joke for gamers as your point of view is like a first person shooter's HUD (Heads-Up-Interface). He really steals the show with his lines.

3. You see the critters. Yes, critters. And they are WAY cool.

4. If you are expecting to see the scientists, presidents, or generals planning to stop the critter, or hippie environmentalists trying to commune with the critter, you need to pick a different movie. Cloverfield's stars are the poor schmucks caught in the way of a rampaging monster.

5. No false scares or cheap tricks, just genuine emotions. The cast does a great job. They all have bright futures.

I hope they don't make a sequel, I think it could ruin it. But go see it! I think both theaters in the Comix sidebar are showing it. Between last year's The Host and and now Cloverfield, it is a great time to like people-stomping creatures!

CLICK HERE to view the trailer!

(Thanks, Phatmogera!)

How much available space is on your iPod?

If you have never noticed the link we offer to the podcasts at Comic Geek Speak, you've been missing out on some of the finest hardcore comic geek conversation on the web. These guys love comics and the know their stuff! Established in 2005 by life long comic fans, these guys week in and week out are producing hour long podcasts and tossing out commentary and reviews on all kinds of books from supes to manga to indie titles. There's seriously something for all types of comic fans on the site! Podcast topics have ranged from industry topics like books shipping late and the comic market collapse in the 1990s, to an indepth look at Crisis on Infinite Earths, to debates about what superpowers rank the coolest, and even an interview with Steve Niles... and this month they continue giving DC's Countdown the once over.

So seriously... head over to Comic Geek Speak and give Bryan, Peter, Jaime, Shane, Kevin, and Matt an hour or so of your time and I'm certain you'll be hooked! There's also a forum for all kinds of comic discussion and a ton of great comic stuff to explore on the site. And hey, if you really get hooked, show your support and get your own Comic Geek Speak shirt!

Know your monkeys!

Counter monkeys, that is... I thought it would be fun to interview each of the friendly staff memebers at Comix Connection York and Mechanicsburg to see what kinds of things we like and dislike or just generally enjoy or detest and share it with our website audience. York's manager, Jared, and I have come up with some questions, and I'm putting it out there to anyone who frequents the site to contribute some too if you'd like. So if there's anything random or fun you'd like to ask the counter monkeys, post all comments this weekend and I'll add them to the mix! Posted results should begin then next week.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cool Collectible Marvel Figurines

Perhaps you've seen these cool Marvel Character figures in the stores:


If you're one of the many who have noticed these and have begun acquiring a few, then you'll know how completely awesome they are! Finely-detailed, hand-painted, cast in lead and standing about 4 inches tall, these figures look amazing:


And now there's hope for you DC fans! Behold:




Coming soon (I hope)... let us know if you're interested in any!

Oh, and most are $12.00 each, with jumbo figures going for $20.00. Plus they come with a neat magazine that has a history/summary of the individual character! Check 'em out today!

UPDATE: By the way, the other figures in the first run are Catwoman, Flash, Robin, and the Joker.

A cool art gallery exhibit

Stan Lee Tribute Artwork

Click on the above link to see cool artwork like this:


and this:


And this:


All in tribute to the great STAN LEE!

(Hat tip to reader MegoSteve)

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

COMIX CONNECTION will be hosting a gigantic
20th ANNIVERSARY SALE!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15th, 2008
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16th, 2008
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17th, 2008

EVERYTHING IN THE STORE

20% OFF!

And when we say EVERYTHING, we mean EVERYTHING! New comics, old comics, graphic novels, books, trade paperbacks, T-shirts, toys, statues, games, posters... you name it, and it's yours for 20% OFF! Don't miss out!

Comix Connection 1988-2008: Central Pennsylvania's Ultra-Hip Pop Culture Mecca™ for TWENTY YEARS!

(20th Anniversary Discount cannot be combined with any other coupons, sales or discounts.)

I suppose I should throw this out there...

So what did YOU think of SPIDER-MAN ONE MORE DAY/BRAND NEW DAY?

I have received a bunch of emails from you folks about this controversial story-arc that is currently running through the Spider-man comics, so I thought I'd save us all a lot of time and put up a post here on the website. So what do you think? Let us know in the COMMENTS section.

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! If you haven't read this yet and don't want it ruined, do NOT read the comments!



Come on in!

Scoop covers the greatest movie ever made

That's right! Scoop, an online pop-culture website has finally covered the greatest movie ever made: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension!

Click HERE to read the entire article! Find out what stars Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd have been up to since starring in the best movie ever.

(Please take note there at the end of the article who asked them to look into BB!)

Drive-In Saturday

What do Audrey Hepburn and Catwoman have in common?

Possibly Adam Hughes...

Have a good weekend everyone!

How can you resist

a cute little stuffed animal mouse WITH A SWORD?


Ripped from the pages of David Peterson's MOUSE GUARD, little Lieam is an 8 1/2" tall REAPER OF VENGEANCE! Guaranteed to guard your cubicle from roving staple-borrowers. Available now at Comix Connection! RAARRRR!

Meet the Troop: Comix Connection - York Edition

Here they are in all their glory:

Manager Jared or Jerry, depending on the mood.

Phantastic Phil - he's crazy about-- never mind, he's just crazy.

Eric, the Joker

Josh, who apparently really likes Minimates.

And there you have it. Now you have a face to attach the blame to.

Recent Arrivals: Silver Age Goodies!

We recently acquired a small pile of tasty Silver Age Marvel and DC goodies in the Mechanicsburg store! Included are short runs of DETECTIVE, BATMAN, IRON MAN, INCREDIBLE HULK, BRAVE & THE BOLD, DEFENDERS and TALES OF SUSPENSE (Featuring Captain America and iron Man)!

Behold:







We should have these available by the end of this week, so dust off your want lists! If anyone at Comix Connection - York would like to see these, let your friendly Comix Connection Counter Monkey know, and we will bring them down for your perusal.

Man, I get all giddy when stuff like this shows up! Great stuff!

A Reminder to Subscribers

Dear Comix Connection Subscription Box Holders!

This note is to remind everyone of Comix Connection's Subscription Box policies. As you know, if you buy comic books on a regular basis and want to be certain that you don't miss any of your favorite titles, we PULL them when they come in on Wednesdays and HOLD them for you until you come in to pick them up! There's NO CHARGE for the service and we pull our subscriber orders BEFORE we put the new books on the shelves... this ensures that the subscriber's orders are filled first.

To refresh the fine print:

1) We ask that you pick up the comic books you asked to have held at least ONCE EVERY FIVE WEEKS. If you do not pick up your comic books in a timely manner, we will attempt to call you to see when you are planning on picking them up. If you still do not appear within SIX weeks, we may cancel your subscription box and put any comics that we had held for you back on the rack. Subscription boxes will be reinstated on a case-by-case basis. YOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR PHONE NUMBER CURRENT with us! Please check with the Staff to see if all your information is up-to-date!

2) You may add or drop any titles from your subscription box at any time, but we do expect you to pick up what has already arrived in your box. Let us know as soon as possible if you intend to drop a title!

3) We sell the Diamond PREVIEWS catalog to our subscribers at our cost ($2.70 at this point) and the separate MARVEL Catalog is either free with purchase of PREVIEWS or sold at our cost ($0.50).

4) There is NO MINIMUM NUMBER OF BOOKS required to have a Comix Connection Subscription and NO FEE or PRE-PAYMENT EVER.

5) Anything "Special Ordered" through the PREVIEWS Catalog (T-shirts, posters, toys, graphic novels, whatever) will also be held for you when it arrives - you will be notified of it's arrival by a NOTE in your box! These "Special Orders" also need to be picked up WITHIN FIVE WEEKS of their arrival. If they are not picked up in a timely manner, they will be racked in the store for anyone to purchase and you will lose your ability to place Special Orders with Comix Connection.

6) You can also be put on our GRAPHIC NOVEL PERMANENT WANT LIST if you wish to receive say, every volume of the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN trade paperbacks or NARUTO manga trade paperbacks or STAR WARS CLONE ADVENTURES DIGESTs as they come out... just let us know!

As always, we greatly appreciate your business... thanks!
The Gang at Comix Connection

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them of your friendly Comix Connection Counter Monkey!

Own Dave Cockrum's comics

Want to own comics from the personal collection of Dave Cockrum (who passed away in 2006)? Here's your chance. Of course you know who Dave Cockrum is, right?

From Wikipedia:

At Marvel, Cockrum and Len Wein (under the direction of editor Roy Thomas) created the new X-Men, co-creating such characters as Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus. These characters made their debut in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (Summer 1975), and then in a relaunched Uncanny X-Men (beginning with issue #94). Wein left after an issue and a half, succeeded by Chris Claremont, the team's primary writer from then on. Cockrum stayed with the title until 1977 (as main penciller on issues #94-105 and 107), when he was replaced by penciller John Byrne with issue #108.

(More info on Cockrum HERE.)

And HERE'S the link to the site where you can see the list of Dave Cockrum's comics that are for sale.

This one -> X-MEN King-Size Annual #1 VG/FN $28 would have been cool, but it's already sold!

In 1977

three guys in Worcester, Massachusetts decided to make their own Super-8 version of the first STAR WARS movie!


Check it out HERE!


Then CLICK HERE to go to their website, or just CLICK HERE to view a gallery of stills from the movie!


Simply amazing. In 1977, all I was doing was working on my parent's nerves.

Chillin' in the hot tub with the Red Skull and Viper

Here's a couple of panels from that CAPTAIN AMERICA #395 I was talking about in Wednesday's post... enjoy!

"C'mon in baby, the water's fineRRRRGG KAFF KAFF COFF CHOKE COFF COFF!"

"I can't believe nobody wanted to rent this place... check out that great view of Bergtesgarten! I'll just hang a couple of swastikas on the wall and call it a day."



Only the flushing sound of the whirlpool broke the magic spell of romance that hung thick in the air like something thick that hangs in the air.

"To you, beautiful!"

"Right back atcha, Viper!"

You're welcome.

So what cool stuff did you get for Christmas?

Reader Tom Hayes wants to know: What cool stuff did you get for Christmas?


I finally got my MOLLER SKY-CAR! Thanks to all of you who chipped in the $1.2 million! I really appreciate it! You guys are the greatest! Remind me to give you a lift sometime...

What did Santa leave under your tree? Tell us in the COMMENTS section!

One could almost say of 1990s MARVEL that they were

While Joe and I were doing the end-of-year inventory counts today we were doing as I would imagine you all think we do in our spare time - and that is talk about Truly Crappy Comics. Truly Crappy Comics come in many forms and from many (all) publishers, but today's specimen is CAPTAIN AMERICA #395 (Marvel Comics, December 1991). What cosmic horror could stop both Cap and guest-star Thor in their tracks? Behold:



Yes, that terrifying nightmare fodder... dough. Eeek. They're really scraping the bottom of the bowl here. I tried to read this thing but I got hung up on the image of the Red Skull in a hot tub (!!!) chatting up The Viper, a scene which eventually leads to her joining the Skull for a bit of frolic in said tub, kinda like a giant bucket of villain borscht. The result of this tryst leads to this dialog by a (dis)robed Viper:

"You're an intriguing man, Skull, and a far better physical specimen than I'd have imagined."

Eww. Just eww.


Oh, and the dreaded dripping dough? Why that was the "malleable monster known as DOUGHBOY!"

Dowhatnow? Never heard of him. And I wish I never had. I give this comic an 8 on a scale of 1-to-Craptacular.

Hey, do you smell YEAST?

Other Leagues of Extraordinary Gentlemen?!?

Recently I finished wadding through Alan Moore's extensive compilation of the history of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in "The Black Dossier", and again I found myself thoroughly amused at the universe building Moore does combining so many fictional characters into a cohesive world of their own. This time out there's not just characters from Victorian era pulp stories and English literature, but plenty of characters maybe more familiar to readers from films, such as Harry Lime from Carol Reed's "The Third Man", Richard Hannay from Alfred Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps", an assemblage of figures from several works of German Expressionist cinema make up the ranks of a German attempt at a "League", the French team has several such figures too. Even good old James or "Jimmy" Bond shows up.

These new additions to the world of The League got me thinking that I remembered our dear Canadian (or is he Scottish?) adventurer Richard Hannay showing up somewhere else before... in the Universe of Wold Newton.

I first heard of the Wold Newton Universe years ago when I found an article about the works of Hugo and Nebula award winning sci-fi writer Philip Jose Farmer. Farmer wrote two books as fictional biographies, one on Tarzan called "Tarzan Alive" (1972) and the other on Doc Savage, entitled "Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life"(1973). In Farmer's books, he accounts for the super heroic traits of these men being linked to a family tree of exceptional offspring. This tree began with the crash of a meteorite which fell in Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, on December 13, 1795. The meteorite was radioactive and caused genetic mutations in the occupants of a passing coach, whose future descendants were thus endowed with extremely high intelligence, strength, and an exceptional capacity and drive to either carry out acts of exceptional good, or, as the case may be, exceptional evil. The "family" of progeny of these travelers are supposed by Farmer to have been the real-life originals of fictionalised characters, both heroic and villainous, over the last few hundred years, such as Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Doc Savage, and Lord Peter Wimsey. Other popular characters that Farmer concluded were members of the Wold Newton Family include:

Solomon Kane; Captain Blood; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Sherlock Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty; Phileas Fogg; The Time Traveller (main character of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells); Allan Quatermain; A.J. Raffles; Professor Challenger; Richard Hannay; Bulldog Drummond; the evil Fu Manchu and his adversary, Sir Denis Nayland Smith; G-8; The Shadow; Sam Spade; Doc Savage's cousin Patricia Savage, and one of his five assistants, Monk Mayfair; The Spider; Nero Wolfe; Mr. Moto; The Avenger; Philip Marlowe; James Bond; Lew Archer; Travis McGee; Monsieur Lecoq; and Arsène Lupin."

This "family tree" saw some major growth in 1997 thanks to Win Scott Eckert, when he posted the web's first site devoted to expanding Philip Jose Farmer's concept of the Wold Newton Family. Eckert's site "An Expansion of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe", uses Farmer's concept of the the Wold Newton Family as a unifying device where The Family expands into a universe of documented crossovers between fictional characters which appeared in various media and genres. It should be noted though that not all characters linked into the Wold Newton Universe are necessarily blood relatives, descendants, or ancestors of those present at the 1795 Wold Newton meteor strike, just that they all exist in the same shared fictional universe. A universe which is still expanding and I kid you not now includes:

Victor Frankenstein and his Monster; the Chthulu Mythos; comic strip characters from Dick Tracy to The Phantom; Doctor Who; The Immortals from Highlander; Robert E Howard's characters such as Conan, Kull, and Red Sonja; Zorro; The Lone Ranger and Tonto; all kinds of TV cowboys from Paladin of "Have Gun, Will Travel", to The Cartwrights from "Bonanza" and Matt Dillon and company from "Gunsmoke", as well as Brisco County Jr.; the characters of the Star Trek Universe; Vampirella; Indiana Jones; Mulder and Scully of the X-Files; and one Miss Buffy Summers and a her "Scooby Gang" of monster fighters; and so much more stuff in between that I couldn't even attempt to mention it all here.

If I've piqued your curiosity at all, you can learn more about the Wold Newton Universe at:

http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp.htm

Also, please know that Win has written pulp tales for a yearly anthology of Wold Newton type stories, Tales of the Shadowmen Volumes 1-4 (Black Coat Press, 2005-2008), mostly centered on the adventures of Doc Ardan, a French version of Doc Savage. Volume 4 is currently offered in this month's Previews Catalog. Win has also penned a story for the upcoming The Avenger Chronicles from Moonstone Books, which is offered in this month's Previews too.

If this type of fiction is of interest to you, check out Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volumes 1-3, or Warren Ellis' Planetary Volumes 1-3. In Planetary, this premise of fitting many different science fiction, fantasy pulp, and super hero elements into the same universe comes together in an entertaining adventure of a team of archeologists of the strange and unknown. A collected fourth volume should come about if Warren Ellis could finally wrap up the series, but that's a rant I could devote an entire post to some other time.