Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
MAIL ( and miscellany
)
(... or "It's Been Quite
The Cheery Little While While Since Unca's Gone Off On One Of His Cranky And Copyrighted
'Tirades,' Hasn't It, Though...?") 
( part
2 )
Back to the ol' Pony Express Mailbag, then
Certified Good Guy (and Mithril Aficionado) Brian Stratton brightens Unca's mailbox once more, with the following:
"Unca, you rule! The latest update on house ads was great. I was also overspending my allowance for comics, and it was due to many of exactly the same ads you show on your site -- the DEADMAN ad certainly got my interest, as did the CREEPER silhouette (I was amazed that even you showed some restraint on the appeal of the DOLPHIN silhouette; but, after the critique of the Super-LOIS LANE ad, I guess you had to be on your best behavior. :))
"One quibble (ever know of a comics fan not to have at least one?) I think on one of your rants pages you say that the price of comics is not a valid reason for the demise of comics sales, but on this page you do think it is one of the factors. Did you change your mind about that issue, or have I misunderstood your earlier or this most recent argument?"
The ever-estimable Brian, I believe, refers to the following passage, excerpted in toto from the CHEEKSRANT article entitled "The Operation Was a Miracle of Modern Science..."
*************************
"Note this, however:
"Comic books of the period (as well as those of the aforementioned Silver Age) were required, by federal law -- in order to maintain their eligibility for Fourth Class mailing privileges (necessary, in turn, to ensure the profitability of subscription copies) -- to place annual 'Statements of Ownership' within the actual, printed comics themselves.
"Said 'Statements of Ownership' detailed (among other points of historical interest) both the total number of copies sold, monthly, for any given title... and the total number of copies later returned to the publisher (i.e., NOT sold) by the distributors of the day.
"As even the most cursory examination of these makes readily manifest the more slavishly 'continuity'-minded Marvel Comics -- at the same time they were passing DC Comics in market share -- did so during a period in which sales for both companies were dropping at an alarming (and precipitous) rate.
"In other words the total number of comics readers was spiraling steadily downwards (as the increasingly 'continuity'-laden comics became progressively more and more inaccessible to the 'casual' and 'newbie' readers)...
"... thereby casting the much-bruited sales 'success' of the Marvel-style storytelling method in a far, far different light than that which is generally assumed as gospel by 'continuity' adherents.
"[EXAMPLE in the Statement filed for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN at the tail end of 1965, said title enjoyed a total paid circulation ('copies sold') of 636,000 per month. In the Statement filed for the same title ten years later, in 1975 -- when Marvel was 'out-selling' DC -- the total paid circulation was 356,000; nearly one-half less, in other words, than it had been before the sales 'success' of the 'continuity'-driven approach to storytelling (!!).]
"Similar and proportionate sales declines are readily apparent (and -- as mandated by federal law -- acknowledged) in ALL of the Marvel titles of this period.
"Clearly; inarguably --NOT the sorts of numbers one typically associates
with the term 'successful.'
"Where did all of those former readers go, in the interim?
"[SIDE NOTE 'continuity' apologists are always quick to knee-jerk, in response, that declining comics sales during this period were the end result of 'increases in the cover price' for comics. However the cover price of an issue of SPIDER-MAN in 1965 was twelve cents, American; the cover price in 1975, on the other hand, was a gargantuan, whopping...
"[... thirty-five cents.
"[Oh, yeah. That probably wiped out a full half of the
previously (one presumes) loyal and contented comics readership base, right
there.]
"Again where did all of those (former) readers go...
"... and why did they leave in the first place?
"The actual characters were still the same crime-busting, long underwear-clad ones that had been so popular and accepted as before, after all.
"The artwork certainly wasn't appreciably any worse, at this juncture...
"... and -- as should be patently obvious to any but the most willfully Pavlovian
and obstinate of nay-sayers -- the cover price of any given comic was
still well and truly within the easy reach of any but the most grasping and
penurious of adolescents.
"So what was the real difference, then, between the comics of '65 and '75...?
"Obvious (and undeniable) answer the method in which the actual stories were being told...
"... or -- in the case of the increasingly alienated (and despised) 'casual' comics readership; a readership inherently far larger than that of the comics die-hards; a readership which neither needed nor desired to be lumbered with bushel-lots of 'continuity,' in order to decently comprehend and enjoy a simple, bloody comic book -- the method in which said stories were not being told.
"Not any longer."
************************
As the lengthy foregoing should now make appreciably clearer -- and a red-faced and much abashed Unca salaams, profusely, towards any reader(s) out there who might feel/have felt similarly misled -- he (Unca, that is) was referring, specifically, to the price differential between the average mainstream adventure comic of 1965 (twelve cents) and 1975 (thirty-five cents); the latter being when the first full and awful sales effects of writing away from the kids audience (rather than towards them) were finally being both felt and reliably ledgered.
Said observation, however, should in no way, shape or form be taken as Unca's glaring with any but the most narrowed of eyes at the stubbornly suicidal insistence of the mainstream comics companies, in continuing to market (badly) a reading "package" (twenty-two pages, give or take; for a whopping $2.50, American) which is -- demonstrably -- all but unmarketable...
... because the sticker price is (clearly) beyond the means or inclinations of the average child; and the content is (again, plainly) palpably unpalatable to the typical adult reader.
The child can no longer reasonably be expected to afford the cost of following even a select handful of resolutely inter-connected titles, nowadays --
(a single month's worth of BATMAN; DETECTIVE; AZRAEL; BATGIRL; ROBIN; NIGHTWING; GOTHAM KNIGHTS; LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT; JLA; and BIRDS OF PREY, for instance, would require a total investment of twenty-two dollars; one holy hell of a lot for any eight- or ten-year-old, obviously, whose sole interest lies in Keeping Up With What The Batman Is Doing, This Month.)
-- and the (non-addicted) (non-addled) adult has an infinite number of far better things to do, ultimately, than hack up that sort of economic hairball for a handful of five-minute-long "reads"; without even the simplest, baseline guarantee that they'll end up with a full and complete story, at day's end.
This wall-eyed and unswerving allegiance, on the parts of publishers and fanboys
both, to a "package" which is constitutionally unable to meet the altogether
reasonable storytelling needs of either child or adult, ultimately, is
the fiscal equivalent of posting goopy, gushing love letters to Dr. Jack Kervorkian,
month in and month out.
There are, plainly, only three possible remedies re this situation, before comics sales have free-fallen so deplorably (and disastrously) as to culminate in the ruin of the industry, entire; examined, below, in order, from Least Likely And/Or "Do"-Able to Most Likely And/Or "Do"-Able.
1.) Lower The Price Of The Average Comic Book To Something No Higher Than (Say) $1.00, In Order To Render Them Decently Affordable For Kids Once More:
Never gonna happen, though.
Seriously. Unca's square on the level, here.
Not because such a package couldn't reasonably be assembled, mind. Anyone who has ever trudged their bleary-eyed way through an average issue of (say) COSMOPOLITAN, or GQ, understands precisely How and Why periodicals such as these are capable of cranking out three- and four-hundred page issues while still adhering to a reasonable cover price seventy-five or one hundred pages of bought-and-paid-for advertising, out of the sum total of pages altogether.
So, yeah technically, Marvel (say) could publish THUNDERBOLTS #50 for $1.50 or so, assuming (again, say) fifty or sixty pages of non- "house" advertising larded into the mix...
... but mass market retailers along the likes of Barnes and Noble or Borders still wouldn't be any more likely to carry 'em, push come to fiscal shove.
Because they wouldn't make anything like enough of the ol' dough-
rei-me slotting them onto the shelves, ultimately.
Not when said retailers can just as easily stock this month's FERRET WORLD, or THE PODIATRY JOURNAL, at three or four times the cover price per issue (and -- thus -- three or four times the amouunt of retailer profit, overall).
Think like someone who isn't a lifelong fanboy for just a moment, here.
What would you do, under those circumstances...?
(Besides any comics package in which the advertising pages out- numbered
the story ones by a ration of three- or four-to-one would only end up
making said story "content" look even flimsier and less satisfying than it does
right now, by way of page count comparison. Which is pretty much
the stone last thing we need right now, in all nekkid honesty.)
So, then Unca wants you all should stop nagging poor, patient and put-upon Tom Brevoort and Kurt Busiek, over on the Marvel "Usenet" boards, about how "comic books cost too mucking fuch nowadays, dammit!"
Trust Unca, campers'n'camperettes:
... if said brilliant, Holmesian-style deduction has already occurred to you...
... then, rest assured they've probably managed to dope it out for themselves, as well.
... and they don't need the likes of you busting their
chops over it, neither.
2.) Increase The Total Number Of Pages Per Issue, Per Title; a la the Mega-Successful "Manga" Comics of Japan (Thereby Increasing Their Attractiveness To The Adult Readership, Content-Wise):
This seems a perfectly sane and sensible alternative, certainly, to the editorial packaging methods being employed nowadays, in this country; and one which the typically far-sighted Tom Brevoort has already begun experimenting with, re the recent "100 Page Monster" editions of such comparatively popular Marvel Comics titles as AVENGERS, and THUNDERBOLTS.
[UNCA CHEEKS' ASIDE ... but it should likewise be noted
that Unca has no clue whatso-frickin'-ever as to how well (or poorly)
said experiments have actually fared in the marketplace, to date; although
he's darned curious, for real and for true.]
That the "Monster" package is one sweet li'l bargain, cost-wise, is patently undeniable. AVENGERS #27, for instance, contains eighty-six pages of hard, actual story content, for a list price of $2.99 (twenty-two of these being brand new pages, in the bargain); breaking down at (roughly) three-and-a-half cents per page, overall.
AVENGERS #28, on the other hand -- the (normally sized) issue immediately following holds a scant twenty-two pages of story content (although they're way nifty pages, certainly, Kurt!), for a list price of $1.99; breaking down at (again, roughly) nine cents per page, overall.
In other words, then the reader gets THREE TIMES as much story for their dollar with the "Monster" format comics than they do with the non-"Monster" format comics.
As Cartman often observes, on SOUTH PARK "Sweeeeeeeeeeet."
However -- and Unca, here, is basing the followwing observation(s) upon careful perusal of the post-AVENGERS #27 postings on the Marvel "Usenet," solely; so take 'em with the requisite portion of sodium chloride -- it's the hardcore fanboys who are (inexplicably) pissing and moaning over this whole "Monster" format business, apparently.
No. Seriously.
Y'see a significant percentage of said fanboys
have taken to mewling, online, to the effect of "... but... but I don'
wanna have to pony up a whole 'nother dolllllllllllllarrrr for
an extra eighty pages of OLLLLLLLD stuff!" (Even if said "old stuff"
-- as in the case of the aforementioned AVENGERS #27, f'rinstance -- is el
primo vintage Jack Kirby; Stan Lee; George Perez; Steve
Englehart; Kurt Busiek; Roy Thomas; and Harlan Ellison,
mind. I mean it's certainly not as if we were talkin' eighty pages
of... I dunno... Ron Marz and Rob Liefeld, here.)
(... and said choraled protestations are even more mordantly amusing, when one pauses to consider that -- right now; as Unca types these very words, in fact -- there is a five-hundred-postings-PLUS anti-Marvel jihad taking place over on the "Usenet" boards; with the company (and its online representatives, thereof) being savagely pilloried and lambasted over NOT reprinting ENOUGH of its "old stuff," FAST enough to suit said cranky contingent.
(You couldn't bloody pay Unca enough to take on Tom Brevoort's
job, boy. You. Just. Couldn't.)
In any event both DC and Marvel have sufficient stores of previously published material behind them (from the late '30s onwards) to make such a publishing stratagem a perfectly feasible one, of course; and it would gladden Unca's slowed and fossilized heart to see the ages-agone works of such stalwart comics pioneers as Jack Kirby; Steve Ditko; Carmine Infantino; Gil Kane; Roy Thomas; John Broome; Gardner Fox; and Robert Kanigher (among others) readily available, once more, at reasonable prices; for an entirely new generation of young'uns to discover and batten upon, anew.
Given the studied and mulishly ahistorical mind-set of the fanboys of the present day, however -- the vast amount of for whom even breakfast qualifies as Pre-Atlantean History; to be scoffed at and sneered at and (ultimately) derisively dismissed --
... well Unca entertains some doubts as to whether or not they'd willingly accept and support such a scheme, right where the tire meets the tarmac.
Which doesn't mean that Unca doesn't hope he ends up being proven much wrong, in said estimation.
... and, Tom if the final sales reports, re said "Monster" format comics DO end up being encouragingly fat'n'healthy ones, comparatively --
... then @#$% the fanboys. And then plow right ahead and
do lots and lots more "Monster" comics anyways.
3.)
Return To The Storytelling Verities Of The (Infinitely Better-
Selling) Silver Age Of Comics Self-Contained
Stories; Re-Introduction Of Principal Characters, Each
And Every Issue; No More Company-
Spanning "Events";
Treating "Continuity" As A Seasoning, Rather Than
a Staple; Etcetera, Etcetera):
Could be done in a heartbeat, actually.
Plenty o' working (and highly-regarded) writers still out there, who would all but leap-frog over one another, in order to do precisely that sort of thing again, on a regular and ongoing basis.
Brian Augustyn. Cary Bates. Kurt Busiek. John Byrne. Gerry Conway. Paul Dini. Steve Englehart. Mark Evanier. Bob Haney. Tony Isabella. Geoff Johns. Karl Kesel. Mark Millar. Grant Morrison. Tom Peyer. Roger Stern. Roy Thomas. Mark Waid. Len Wein.
Like Unca said plenty o' them out there. (... and durned
good'uns, too.)
Wouldn't completely solve the ongoing sales malaise of the present-
day, of course. (Nor has Unca ever said it would, either, for all of that.)
... but it's (obviously) a whole lot easier to sell the casual or "newbie" reader on picking up the occasional issue of (say) TITANS or DAREDEVIL if they possess some reasonable foreknowledge or assurance that:
*** ... they'll be granted all the backstory information any tyro reader might reasonably demand (e.g., the names and motivations of any/all primary characters, along with -- if said comic does happen to be one tiny storytelling unit within a greater, multi-chaptered "whole" -- a brief summary of what has gone before), at barest minimum.
*** ... they won't end up feeling as if someone's run a particularly unsavory sort of "bait-and-switch" on them, after being informed -- at issue's end -- that "to find out how this story ends, rush right on out and snatch up POTATO SALAD SQUADRON #57; SECRET FILES OF THE POTATO SALAD SQUADRON #123; MADAME COLESLAW #20; and THE POTATO SALAD SQUADRON'S BESTEST PAL, SPARKY WINGNUT #31! On sale NOW -- !"
Otherwise asking some as-yet-uncommitted tyro reader to keep feeding tokens into the storytelling "slot" -- at $2.50 or so per whack, mind -- in hopes of some sort of pay-off, ultimately, is simply unreasonable on the very face of the thing.
And they won't do it.
Because there's no bloody reason they should do it.
No matter how many smug, self-satisfied assurances they receive from the fannish hoi poloi, to the effect of "... ahhhh... but, you see it's a serialized meee-deee-yumm, silly newbies. You have to play by our inbred and exclusive rules, now. That'll be another $2.50, incidentally. MWAH-ha-ha-ha."
However this solution -- much like the earlier "Monster" format one -- would bring about such pique-ish splutterings of high, towering dudgeon from fannish quarters, you'd think somebody had suggested permanently altering Captain America's costume to a ballerina's tutu.
For all of their communal wringing of hands and making of moan, you see, over the pitiful, palsied state of the medium, sales-wise the fans of today have no interest whatsoever in meeting the vaster, untapped audience halfway.
Or one-tenth of the way. Or one-thousandth of the way.
Their grudging Solution Ultimate -- such as it is, mind -- is for the whole, wide rest of the world to just sorta shrug its collective shoulders, and agree to see everything their way.
... because "Hey! I've been following POTATO SALAD SQUADRON since the very first issue, awright? I have... whaddyacallem... rights, okay?"
As if making the purchase of (say) issue fifty gave one absolute veto power over the content and presentation of issue one hundred and fifty.
Looks pretty goddamned stupid, laid out in black-and-white like that,
don't it...?
Buying issue [XXX] of this title or that one gives you the one-time "right" to an entertaining and well-executed comic book.
That. ONE. Time.
That's all it "gives" you.
That's all.
The fact that you may (inexplicably; anally) feel some sort of "entitlement" is due you, post-purchase, is -- plainly and simply -- your own look out, Chester.
You want each and every purchase you make to end up connecting, seamlessly,
onto each and every other purchase you make try investing in Legos.
O. Ann Stafford (and, my goodness, but it's genuinely gratifying to ponder and reflect upon how many distaff readers this site currently enjoys!) writes:
"i want to thank you.
"i stopped collecting comics a few years ago; for one thing, prices were only getting higher and higher; but, most importantly, i felt
dissatisfied with my chosen artform (and justifiably so) and i wandered away from the campfire looking in other media to sate my curiosity and for something more "adult" (as well as less embarassing). all the while trying to convince myself that comics were too juvenile to be worth my attention.
"try though i might, i couldn't completely forsake my first love. i
usually flipped through WIZARD every month or so; i'd browse my favorite comic stores for old times sake; i kept au courant by cruising a few websites; once or twice i even weakly broke down and bought one of the damned things, to see what my favorite character was up to. all done as a guilty closet homosexual would nervously eye some gay porn.
"sounds like a naked case of denial, right?
"about two months ago i discovered your site. i'm 21 and started
collecting -- and only
knowledgeable starting at -- about '90, '91, but
it's to your deserved credit that
i read your various bios and
editorials about an era and charaters
that i'm (almost) wholly ignorant
of, and (truly)
have no emotional involvement in, and am still and
finally reminded of what made
me interested in the artform and why i
should be shamelessly devoted
to it, warts and all.
"although
i'm still not collecting again (ANOTHER price increase?),
i consider it my duty
as a comic enthusiast and consumer to protest.
also, your views on the economic
status of the industry then and now
and it's effects are very convincing.
i don't agree totally, but i do
think that if todays creators
can't attract the younger readership then
our hobby has become unrecognizable
from what we first loved about it, and so will die out along with
us, and that is certainly a sad and
possible fate. i don't like that."
Oh, hell. Unca's been depressing you good folks again, hasn't
he...?
Wellllllllllll... I'll tell ya, Ann Unca remains guardedly (if wildly fluctuatingly) optimistic, re this whole Last Trump of Judgment business, comics-wise.
There are some darned canny and clever editors out there in the trenches, after all; Marvel's Tom Brevoort (again) being a sterling example of same, what with his initiation of such far-sighted projects as the "Monster" format comics; the unbelievably consumer-oriented black-and-
white ESSENTIALS "phonebook" collections; the aggressive printing and promotion
of an expanded trade paperback division; green-lighting blessedly "kids friendly"
comics such as the recent AVENGERS 1 & 1/2; and so on, and so forth, and
yadda yadda yadda.
There's also DC's Dan Raspler the perspicacious gent who has gifted we readers, over the years, with such welcome and well-crafted fare as the Grant Morrison (and -- now -- Mark Waid) JLA; the presently ongoing SILVER AGE project; and similarly-themed entertainments. He's a keeper.
The company, itself, has demonstrated nothing short of Nostradamus-
level prescience, of course, in the much-merited success of its handsome ARCHIVES editions; the year-long schedule of "Millennium" reprintings (ongoing, as of this writing); the gorgeously-constructed "100 Page Super- Spectaculars"; as well as its madeningly incremental (but no less welcome, for all of that) inching away from the very lip of the CRISIS- fashioned precipice, storytelling-wise, with the publication of series' such as Mark Waid's THE KINGDOM, and (again) the SILVER AGE project.
So, you see, Ann there is hope, overall, that attention is finally
being paid; and hard, fiscal realities -- at long, long last --
decently being attended to.
(On the other hand, however all it takes is a quick news release
to the effect that the studiedly adult-oriented Warren Ellis has
been brought aboard to "revamp" the Marvel Comics "X"-titles -- which is pretty
much the last thing they need, really; an even more unfailingly
bleak and jaundiced outlook, storywise -- to siphon some of the air from that
particular attitudinal balloon, for a little while. Still the plush
toy is, by nature, an optimistic critter, all in all.)
Ann continues, thusly:
"now for some suggestions.
"i consider your site a bit of a history class (that even sounds like a
back-handed compliment to me too, sorry) and i infer (incorrectly?) from one of your "rants" that you are racially mixed, so who better to give a discourse on the representation of minorities in mainstream comics?
"i know you've already touched upon some of these concerns already in certain pages, but i propose an honest and unbiased focus on historical firsts (non-caucasian superheroes, supporting characters and solo titles), racially relevant storylines and retcons, absolute
characterization embarassments, and unconcious racism (and otherwise) among the creators themselves.
"secondly, as i'm sure you know, DC has started to reprint THE SPIRIT Archives, so now seems a proper time for your opinion on the matter. this is one of those characters i mentioned that i'm completely ignorant about, but i've always heard Eisner compared, and, sometimes, even noted as artistically superior, to Kirby. if you are interested in writing about the character, please explain Eisner's fabled contributions to the entire field and why he deserves this respected prominence."
*WHEW*!
Okay, then. In (more-or-less) order:
1.) Unca has been somewhat leery of tackling the whole issue of "race," on this site, ever since he witnessed, first hand, the ignorant and merciless savaging of writers Tom Peyer and Roger Stern, over on the (now defunct) AOL-sponsored LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES message board, a few years back; the hate-driven spewings leveled in the unfailingly gentlemanly Grant Morrison's direction, over the same matter, on the old JUSTICE LEAGUE board; and (most recently) the purest, distilled drivel flung towards a (doubtless) startled Kurt Busiek, on the boards, over the presently ongoing "Triathlon" story arc.
I mean people genuinely like (say) Kurt Busiek, Ann.
Still there are upcoming entries, on this site, which cannot (and will not) help but to scrutinize said subject, ultimately chiefest among these being the slated in-depth examinations of DAREDEVIL #47; CAPTAIN AMERICA #115 - 119, and #153 - 156; SUB-MARINER #56; AVENGERS #113; JUNGLE ACTION #6 - 18; and DEFENDERS #22 - 25, re the ongoing 50 All-Time Coolest Marvel Comics Stories series of articles.
There's also Unca's still-in-progress ('cause he really and truly wants
to get this one right) autopsy on the old DC, Marvel and Dell "war" comics
of the '60s; which is (hopefully) gonna cause more than a few eyes to
bulge, upon successful completion.
Also also there's gonna be an installment in the upcoming LOIS
LANE series of articles which -- Unca's solemn word of honor, now --
is either gonna make you laugh or cry, depending upon how much weight
you wanna accord what were (obviously) the best of auctorial intentions,
anyway, for the era in question.
2.) You're certainly not the first person to request an examination
of Will Eisner's contributions to the comics medium, Ann (and -- betcha;
betcha a dollar) you won't be anything like the last, neither.
Unca's hesitation, in this area, has been (cheifly) born of a certain reluctance to stray too terribly far afield, subject-wise, from the comics of the Silver and Bronze Ages, in all nekkid and whey-faced openness.
However he's also willing to put the subject up for a straight-up-and-
down vote, from the readership assembled.
We'll give it to (oh, say) the end of June, 2000, then anybody want Unca to turn his evil and sullen gaze towards THE SPIRIT; ALL-STAR COMICS; FIGHTING AMERICAN; and/or BOYS' RANCH (the four most frequently requested Golden Age comics, re the e-mailings hereabouts) ... cast your ballot, via the normal channels.
Anybody who don't wanna see it you, too.
What the hell it ain't like Unca ain't already ridiculously
over- committed, topics-wise, as is.
GenXorccist (oh, you nutty, koo-koo teenagers, and your whacked-out, "hip-hop" slang, you!) weighs in, enthusiastically, with the following:
"I had to tell you that your page is one of the best dedicated to comics on the web! I'm always stopping by and reading those great articles and reminiscing about the Silver Age (my fave comics age!) I'm especially entranced by (and very appreciative of ) your tribute to heroes of color like Luke Cage, Falcon, Black Lightning and Black Panther! Thank you for such wonderful insight into these characters! I'm constantly directing visitors to my site to yours so they can read these great histories! Thanks again, and keep 'em flying! (hey, told you I was a fan of the Silver Age!)"
At Unca's age, GenX nothing much "flies," anymore. Just... y'know... flutters a little bit, mebbe.
I know... I know. "Too much information," right...?
Seriously, however Luke Cage and the Black Panther both
rank well within Unca's "Top Five Marvel Comics Characters of All Time"; the
Falcon makes the top ten; and the louder or more strident fan of
Black Lightning that Unca knows of, first-hand, is creator Tony Isabella.
So these
were all genuine and positive pleasures to do, certainly.
(... and -- just because he knows good and durned well that you're
all gonna ask, anyways Captain America;
the Black Widow; the
Banshee; Red Wolf; Shang-Chi;
Daimon Hellstrom; and Victor
Von Doom. This week.)
(For you DC fans, out there the Batman;
Green Lantern; Jonah
Hex; the Hawk and the Dove; Sugar
and Spike; Captain Action; Robby
Reed; the Question; and [obviously]
the Ambush Bug make up the rest of that
list, respectively. This week.)
You all keep reading; and (Unca's increasingly dicey health and circumstances allowing), I keep writing.
That's the deal.
"This, That and the Other Thing" Gargantuan Combination Mailbag and CHEEKSRANT (PAGE ONE)
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