This Saturday, check out a cartoon that could only be from the 80’s. Watch the Flash, Wonder Woman and the Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna) take on a group of outer space hot-rodding teens.
Category: Comics
Popular Search Terms
Looking through the site logs today, I noticed some of the terms/phrases that have led people to my little slice of the Internet. In an attempt to “give them what they want” I’ll pick a few and provide the answers. Here we go:
getting a silver surfer quarter: My guess is ebay is the only way this will happen. With the US Mint putting the smack-down on 20th Century Fox and the Franklin Mint for distributing these babies, they’re going to be even more rare. If you really, really want one, just print the image below and glue it to a California state quarter.
why do ben and johnny switch powers? I’m not sure about this, because I haven’t seen the movie, but the preview leads you to believe that after Johnny is touched by the Surfer, his molecules become unstable (in a nod to the comic fact that the FF’s costumes are made from unstable molecules). When he is touched by another member of the FF, they swap powers.
dc comic water wizard photo: The Water Wizard is actually a Marvel villain, so searching for DC Water Wizard might not get you much. Perhaps you were thinking of the Weather Wizard, who is a DC comics villain and enemy of the Flash. Anyway, here’s a picture of the Water Wizard. Get all his info in the database.
harvey birdman font: If I recall correctly, the closest I came to matching the Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law font was with the dafont.com Dynomite Font.
and finally, saving the best for last…
what sinister secrets are being hidden in winnie the pooh: I don’t know, but if anyone finds out, I too, would also be interested in knowing.
Update: Silver Surfer and the Law Breaking Quarter
It looks like 20th Century Fox should have done a little more research before releasing 40,000 Silver Surfer themed quarters into circulation over the Memorial Day weekend. Created by the Franklin Mint, the quarter violates federal law and the U.S. Mint isn’t happy.
The U.S. Mint said in a news release Friday that it learned of the promotional quarter this week and advised the studio and The Franklin Mint they were breaking the law. It is illegal to turn a coin into an advertising vehicle, and violators can face a fine.
“The promotion is in no way approved, authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by the United States Mint, nor is it in any way associated or affiliated with the United States Mint,†according to the release. The federal mint did not say whether the studio or the private Franklin Mint would face a penalty.
The altered coins are quarters honoring the state of California that entered circulation in 2005. They feature George Washington on the front, as usual, but a colorized version of the character on the back. All 40,000 are slated to be in circulation throughout the country by the end of Memorial Day weekend, and about 800 were released in each state.
In all likelihood, the studio knew exactly what they were doing, as did the Franklin Mint. What started out as a unique promotion is now national news. Since there’s no such thing as bad publicity, just add this law-breaking tactic to the list of promotions used by 20th Century Fox to increase visibility for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
If you’d like a Sliver Surfer quarter of your own, they are (of course) currently all over ebay.
Update: WizardWorld.com Redesign (Wizard Magazine)
About 2 weeks ago I made a post about the redesign of Wizard Magazine’s web presence. WizardWorld.com seems to show slightly out of date content, but all links connect to the WizardUniverse.com domain. Many other sites and forums echoed my opinions. It looked like the world wide web universe generally agreed.
I guess Wizard agreed as well, since the only place to see that redesign is at an IP address – http://208.122.2.22/. It’s pretty bad when to launch an poorly designed and built website, but I’d have to say, it’s even worse to admit you did and revert back to your old design less than 2 weeks later.
Showcase Presents: Captain Carrot (DC Comics)
I’ve posted before about my love for Captain Carrot. There’s something about that comic that just reminds me of being a kid. I only had a few issues of the series, the first of which I’m sure came with a “comic collecting starter kit’ ordered from the JC Penny (or Sears) Christmas Wish-book in the early 80’s. So it’s not a love from being over-exposed.
I suppose it’s the same love I feel for many of the comics that started my collection. I got the same feeling when not too long ago I located a copy of Fantastic Four #210 in a quarter bin. Flipping through its pages, I remember specific panels and was fascinated to read it again. I think that’s part of the reason I like Captain Carrot so much now. Back then it was just a “funny” book. Now, I read it and I see all the references it was making to the current comics of the time. It’s like watching The Simpsons, where kids find something funny and adults get a completely different picture. It’s a Meta-Text to the DC Universe and other comics of the time.
The origin of the team came about when Superman was investigating a strange phenomenon causing the citizens of Metropolis to begin acting like their primate ancestors. He soon found a ray streaking at him from a strange barrier surrounding the Earth, which prompted him to use a meteorite as protection. When the ray struck the meteorite, Superman and the meteor’s fragments were sent from Superman’s native dimension into Earth-C. There, Superman met several of the world’s residents, who had gained superpowers when they were struck by the various meteor fragments.
The animals and Superman soon teamed up to stop the source of the ray (which was also causing the denizens of Earth-C to behave like their non-anthropomorized animal ancestors), which turned out to be the old Justice League villain Starro, a sentient starfish, who was launching his de-evolution assault from the Earth-C universe’s Pluto. After defeating the villain, the animals decided to stick together and form the Zoo Crew, and Superman returned home.
Anyway, to get on with the point of this long winded post, DC Comics announced that the full run of Captain Carrot will be available in their Showcase format on September 26. For those unfamiliar, the Showcase format is a phone-book size collection of comics (usually 20-25 issues), printed on newsprint in black and white. For the past few years DC has been releasing their older comics (Superman, Batman, Justice League) in these collections. Marvel has something similar with their Essential line. Both lines are a great way for new and old fans to pick up full runs and large sets of story-lines or issues for very little $$. Both collections retail for $16.99 and can usually be found online for $10-$12. That’s a lot of bang for the buck. Don’t pass them up because of the black and white printing either. Before the 90’s, comic art wasn’t as detailed, so the simpler illustration style reproduces beautifully without to color, with some volumes looking better than their color counterparts.
Now have some fun and check out Issue 13 of Captain Carrot and His Zoo Crew. Just mouse over the image after and click the NEXT or PREV links to continue.
