Cuppacafe

I'm a heroist, don't look it up, it is a term that I coined to describe my outlook on life. I feel that if Heroes did not exist that we would have created them. Well, not only do heroes exist, but we did create them as well. I love the Greco-Roman mythology, and the Norse Mythology as well (I enjoy others but I am more familiar with those). Perhaps this is why I was so drawn to comics when I was younger, and why those stories have stayed with me for so long.

Anyways, one of my favorite stories is about Prometheus, the Greek god who stole fire from his brethren and gave it to man. As punishment for his crime, Prometheus was chained to a rock for all eternity and had his liver torn out by a vulture every day only to have it grow back every night.

I recently came across this webtoon by Mark Weinstein that examines all of the humorous elements of this story.

OK kids, here are my two latest published works, issues # 2 & 3 of The Official Index to the Marvel Universe (V2) Avengers, Thor, & Captain America.

#2 has been out for a bit, but # 3 just came out this past week I believe. I am contributing to the indexing of both the modern (Post WWII) Captain America comics and Thor. Needless to say this is a tad more difficult for me, as I don't really have any where nearly complete runs on either of these titles. Still, we are currently in sections of both runs where I do have quite a number of issues (Although I did have to borrow some early Thor issues from my good buddy, Mark (Thanks pal!).

I know that I contributed to a number of dust jack covers for Marvel hard-bound collections, but I haven't seen the covers yet, so I'm not sure if they have come out as of yet. I'll have to check in on that next week.

OK, now back to whatever was distracting me prior to this post.

The Perfessor

...well, except perhaps the people who use his name to denounce others to achieve their own personal, agenda.

A little background; Fred Phelps, and the asshats who follow him as members of the Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church apparently hates gays so much that they regularly protest at the funerals of servicemen and women who have been killed overseas (defending the right for these maroons to be douche-bags). Classy, right?

Well, they recently got it in their heads to protest gays at the International Comicbook convention in San Diego, the biggest comic con in the world. Well, unbeknownst to these misguided folks they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. You see they were going up against folks who think nothing about dressing up as robots, magical anime girls, Trekkies, Jedi and, well furries, than then walk around in public.

Needless to say, the good folks of San Diego's Comic-Con were well prepared for the arrival of the Westbror protesters with their own special brand of superhumans where they counter-shouted "WHAT DO WE WANT?" "GAY SEX!" "WHEN DO WE WANT IT?" "NOW!" while brandishing ironic (and some very sincere) signs.

The Westboro protesters were not only not prepared, but simply didn't know what hit them.

Yeah, that's right, most of the times these yabos show up, encounters with them degenerate into an angry shouting match, which just gives more air time, and (to their way of thinking) bolsters their cause.

Hopefully this encounter will serve as a model for future encounters (assuming that the Westboro clowns can ever recover what little "dignity" they might have left), and if they ever show up somewhere again, they will be likewise humiliated.

(video after jump) (more...)

Some folks just deserve to be Gibbs-Smacked. This post is about one such jerkwad. No, I won't name him, he knows who he is.

Several years ago, my good friend John Carbonaro purchased the legendary comicbook characters, Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents. He attempted a couple of re-launches, and then somehow, hooked up with this particularly smarmy asshat. It was this guy that not only wormed his way into John's business, but then (quite literally) all but stole his business and (legally-owned) characters away. This disreputable slug, then launched a misinformation campaign to disseminate bogus information that John's legally-owned characters existed in the public domain.

John took him to court, and (eventually) won. Beat the pants off this ganif in fact.

Well, some people don't know how to take a legal drumming like a man, and back in 2005, this dirt-bag was up to his old bag of tricks, attempting to retcon the truth by still claiming that the Agents were in the PD (they are not, and never were). Well, Carbs may be dead, but he still owns the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

Anyway the thread ended like this:

Let's just say that John may no longer be with us, but let there be no doubt that his lawyer can still beat up your lawyer. Especially when it comes to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Count on it.

We still miss you John, but that really is some wicked-ass superpower you have, and I hope that, wherever you are, you are watching, and got a real good chuckle out of this.

You friend.

The Perfessor

Yep, that's right effendis, it is San Diego's big cultural event, the International Comic Con, and well, that of course means that DC Comics has an announcement about the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

According to Comic Book Resources, the team of Nick Spencer and CAFU will re-launch the Agents into the 21st Century.

In this relaunch, a new batch of recruits has been asked to take on the mantle of the original Agent's and while the team faces some difficult choices of their own, Dynamo, Lightning and NoMan are forced to re-visit members of the classic team's troubled past…and some of its deadliest threats.

CBR News spoke with Spencer about the new series and the writer told us that T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents will operate like no other superhero team currently within the DCU, and that the very concept of heroes vs. villains will not only be explored but tested to the limits in every issue.

According to Spencer, this team will be essentially all-new members sporting the same names (powers and drawbacks) of the original teams. "Everything that happened in the original story is honored and is a part of the story, but this happens some years down the road." Spencer went on to say that this new vision of the classic team has been influenced by titles like Planetary, The Authority, Secret Warriors and Checkmate. "It's not a standard superhero book by any means. I think when people check it out, they'll see that this is really a world apart from anything else that's out there currently."

Personally as someone who not only read the original stories, but personally knew John Carbonaro (the man who purchased the characters in the '80s, and then lived through his 20+ year process of trying time and time again to re-launch the characters, I'm not entirely sure what to think of this, except to say that I hope it does well, as I've seen it when it goes badly.

I'll certainly follow the new Agents for the relaunch. I'll try to keep an open mind about it all. More than that, I can't say for now, although it does sound like Spencer does (seem to) have a good handle on it all.

The Perfessor

OK, it really isn't the phone book, but well, as it turns out, Marvel Comics collected all of the Spidey entries from the first volume of The Official Index to the Marvel Universe into a bound volume and issued them as a softcover edition. (To be sure, they also collected Iron Man & the X-Men, but I didn’t contribute to those entries, so I care less about them, as you could guess.)

I'm mentioning it now because, well, I just got my (comp) copies (two of ‘em!) today, so I’m pretty pumped. Further, if I had realized that Marvel was going to issued them as a book, I probably would have contributed entries to the other series as well (Iron Man & X-Men), that way I would have gotten my name in the other volumes as well. Needless to say, for the second series (out now) I’m contributing to not on the Captain America entries, but to the Thor entries as well (Maybe I should do a couple of Avenger entries just so I can get that book when it comes out as well, eh?)

OK, enough fooling around, back to writing my Thor entries for Volume #2.

If you wanted a copy of your own, you can always score one from Amazon.

The Perfessor