Cuppacafe

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

Last year, two of my friends died, a few months apart. The were both in the comicbook field, and both died of health-related illnesses. They were both in my general age group (one slightly older and other slightly younger). I was not prepared for either and am (still) not over either. I've spoken about both at length John Carbonaro, who died a year ago, February, and Rusty Haller, who went towards the end of last year.

One of the places that I eulogized Carbs was in Jim Main's Comic Fan (#5), as it turns out, issue #6 is where I eulogize Rusty. While I wish Jim continued good will in his publishing "empire" I'm kind of hoping that he never publishes another issue of Comic Fan again.

I don't have that many friends.

***** This just in! I just learned that this issue of Comic Fan also contains three reviews I wrote of some most-excellent indie comics! *****

The Perfessor

You see, the thing about john, is that he won't let us forget him. I just received this comic mag that carried one of the eulogies that I wrote about him.

As of this writing, John's legacy (the T.H.N.D.E.R. Agents) are safely in the hands of his heirs, and are being prepped for a new licensing deal courtesy of BatFilms (the folks who gave us all of the Batman films of the past several years), as well as DC Comics.

I’m looking forward to the next incarnation of these beloved, Iconic characters.

The Perfessor

Probably 10 or 15 years ago my good friend John Carbonaro told me to watch this TV political Pundit named Rush Limbaugh, as he was very good. I had never heard heard of Limbaugh, so I watched his show. The one I watched had Limbaugh railing against Jimmy Carter for the rise of the Ayatollah in Iran.

Now I always liked John, but I clearly remember cocking my head to one side and saying to myself that was an interesting comment, because I knew, well, hardly anything about Mid-East politics, but I did know that the Ayatollah came into power because US Republican leadership kept a dictatorial Shah in power for like 50 years oppressing his people so that the US could get preferential treatment from Iran in regards to Oil.

The religious rise of the Ayatollah was a backlash to the Shah, who (as I said) was kept in power by the right-wing conservative branch of US political machine. It was just Jimmy Carter’s bad luck that it happened on his watch.

Needless to say, this was the only time I ever watched Limbaugh, because if I knew that he was full of it over this bit of intel, then he couldn’t be someone that I was interested in listening to (you simply can’t isolate a snippet in time and view it out of historical context to get any proper analysis out of it).

Anyway, you can imagine my growing disdain with the right that it apparently has pinned it’s future on the ramblings of this drug-addled fool. Thus you can imagine how entertained I was to learn the following:

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, host and Republican Joe Scarborough drilled Rush Limbaugh for cheering Chicago’s failed 2016 Olympic bid. Scarborough said, “I will tell you middle Americans that swing elections see that and go oh my God Republicans have gone off the deep end.”

Yep, the right has begun to feed on itself.

The Perfessor

*At least that is what Al Franken told me.

John Carbonaro was a good friend of mine.

He passed away earlier this year.

It was because of Carbs that I met Walt, and so, in some small way, he is partly responsible for the existence of this blog

At this year’s Comic-Con International: San Diego they devoted a page to John’s passing, and they invited me to write something on his behalf.

Here, with the help of Hal Jones, an artist friend of mine, I did just that.

John, we miss you.

The Perfessor