When I started sheltering in place some 15 years ago, I didn’t even realize it had a name. I just referred to it as a common sense approach and far more efficient for my line of work. The hectic and unpredictable nature of what I do necessitated me either working from home or staying at the office and rarely being home. 

At the time, agencies were almost never ready to get started on a project until 5pm. So one might get in at 9am, sit around all day, then, when my energy was at its lowest, we’d get the call at 4pm that “anytime now” there’d be stuff coming in, due the next day. Depending on the specifics, you had no idea when you’d get out of there, do the cab/train commute home, maybe grab 4 hours of sleep, get up, commute the 90 minutes back, rinse and repeat.

Totally illogical and inefficient. The biggest waste was that 3 hours of total commuting time each day. As an illustrator, yes, I am fast, and yes, it takes just as much out of me as any other illustrator who’s two or three times as slow. It’s certainly not easier for me. I always considered those three hours and what I could accomplish *in* that time. A LOT. So working from home has always been the best thing for me and the clients, regardless of what they think. 

The old fashioned notion of having to travel downtown each day to work, by bus, cab, car, bike, train or by foot is an outmoded model created in the early part of the last century. Some owners and bosses like it because of the prestige. “See my organization, my employees. Look what I have built!” Many executives like it as they climb the ladder, play the game, etc.  get that corner office. Lots of egos, not a lot of efficiency. 

The work day begins at 9am… but does it really? People mostly amble in around 9am (or 8am at some places that start and end their day an hour earlier), so and so hits the John for his morning “constitutional”, many others get coffee, shoot the shit, get in a little office gossip and maybe by 10 or 10:30, actually get the ball rolling. Lots of prep and socializing, not a lot of efficiency. 

Think how much the company’s spending each month on rent for all that office space. And think about what’s *really* needed if you only need to “keep up appearances.” An attractive reception area, the big office and a few conference rooms at most. I’ll wager that once this lockdown is in full swing and it’s apparent that many companies can operate a lot cheaper and more efficiently this way, we’re going see double the the number of people working from home.

But what ho, you say– “Rick, I can’t work from home! Too many distractions! Kids, television, things to do around the house!”

To that, I say grow the hell up, and learn some discipline. I’m assuming you’ve set up your home office with DOORS like you should? (If not, do so) Good! –so close the doors to your home office so the family won’t bother you and turn off the ******* television. You need background noise, put your earbuds in, turn the radio on, whatever. You get in proper mode. You’re IN the office, so do your work. And if you get way ahead of the game, accomplished everything you needed to and more? Knock off early and do one of those house chores that worried you so much before. 

Get the job. Do the job. Clean off your plate and get ready for the next job.

Get ahead, stay ahead.

I’ve had a couple people ask me “What’s it like, having the whole world suddenly living like you? What if they all start working like you? BEING like you?“

I say it’s about goddamned time. 

(Can you tell that I really have a thing about working efficiently?)

I’d been threatening to watch it again — I don’t know *who* I was allegedly threatening, maybe the blu-ray player, I don’t know. Maybe I was just mentally warning myself because originally I was going to watch the Infinity War and Endgame double feature. But come on, that’s too much at once, unless you start at like 3pm. Mind you, if you are going to start marathoning the list of MCU films, doing so because you’re a captive audience during lockdown is not a bad idea at all. 

A couple weeks ago, we watched Winter Soldier, followed by Civil War. I’m the only one who made it to the end and that was just barely. It had been a long day to begin with. 

But watching Endgame this time was a bit different. Looking on this somber world that’s a bit more quiet, with fewer people on the streets. This was especially spooky during the scene after Scott Lang returns, oblivious to what had happened over the past five years, as he wanders a deserted neighborhood. It had an apocalyptic feel that felt ominous and ripped from today’s headlines. 

I’m not sure if the future MCU films will ever have directors quite as good as the Russo brothers. There have been other good ones but none up to the Russo’s level. James Gunn probably comes closest. I know that when assembling and filming both IW and Endgame, the Russo’s were in contact with the directors of other MCU films. It was an effort to keep the characters consistent from film to film. For instance, Gunn had some script and musical input featuring scenes with the Guardians. 

Speaking of music—Following the cold opening, where we watch Hawkeye lose his entire family, we get the Marvel logo intro but instead of the regular rousing theme, we get Dear Mr. Fantasy, by Traffic. We’re then kept completely off balance for the next 15 or 20 minutes or five years later.

But I’ve got a whole blog entry lined up dedicated to tv shows “sticking the landing” at the end of their runs. But good lord, Endgame had the unprecedented task of wrapping up 22 films worth of storyline. If ever there was a prime opportunity to not live up to the hype, it would probably be with this film. There’s no way it *could* live up to the expectations brought about by eleven years and all those movies building up to it. But it did. It zigged when you thought it was gonna zag. It was a very different movie than Infinity War and that was brilliant, because it had to be. 

Some fans might have thought they wanted a straightforward superhero romp where the team regroups and just kicks Thanos ass. They *could* have done that, sure. I’m glad they didn’t. There was nothing straightforward about this flick. 

Then there were the fans that hated the time travel shenanigans, diving deep into all the possible ramifications of every action taken by the Avengers during their “Time Heist”. See, one thing sci-fi fans know about is time travel. Oh yes, we’re all experts on exactly how things would, should and could work when it comes to time travel. For some reason, we can suspend disbelief with tons of stuff. From Asgardian gods to talking, gun wielding raccoons, but we can’t just let it go that Steve finished his mission and lived a life with the woman he loves. Mystery Science Theater 3000 got it right: It’s just a show, you should really just relax. But the adage which usually takes precedent is:

You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can never please a “fan”.

I can only doff my cap at how all the main Avengers were serviced here. IW was very heavy on a lot of characters but seemed to balance them all very well, with the possible exception of Cap, who got a bit less exposure than some but more than made up for it in Endgame. True, Hawkeye got the shaft (sorry) in the first film but again, he got quite the showcase in part two. All six main Avengers had their moment of glory, redemption, reward, you name it. 

Some folks just automatically think in a few years, Marvel will just recast Iron man, Cap and the others and start all over again. They can be forgiven for this since there’s been six guys playing Batman in just the last 30 years and three guys playing Spider-man in the last 18. But this isn’t Warner’s or Sony, where their organization, executive judgement and quality film track record are spotty at best. No, Chris Evans, RDJ, and ScarJo are going to be ingrained in the public consciousness for quite some time as those characters, and with good reason, for one thing. If any of them were to be recast in even five years, that would be a mistake, and honestly, Fiege doesn’t really make too many of those. Plus, the MCU is going to continue exploring the rest of the characters in the toy box. More Dr. Strange, Spider-man, Black Panther, GOTG, Captain Marvel and Ant-man. They’ll also start up the Eternals, The Fantastic Four, the X-men and Blade. Hell, they’re even going to continue Deadpool. There’s at least another decade of new stuff to come, with who knows how many more years and characters on the way after that. But I digress.

As always, when you talk about big moments amongst the dozens and dozens of amazing selections from all the films in the Infinity Saga, it’s hard to top that whole end stretch, starting from when Cap gets hammer (YEATH!), to “on your left”. –Don’t get me started on the plethora of callbacks in this movie to every other MCU film.

THEN, you get your Avengers regrouping and kicking Thanos’ ass! 

Top it all off with “I am Iron man” and call it a day. 

The number of times I got the tingles from this film…..

Yeah, I recommend you take a little time and rewatch some of the MCU gems again. It might be awhile before new material comes in.

Let’s face it, by July 1971, Stan Lee was in a rut. A year earlier, Jack Kirby had left Marvel to go to DC comics. Stan and Jack had done just over 100 issues of the FF together but the honeymoon was over. Marvel publisher Martin Goodman had never appreciated the value of what Jack had added to the comics and certainly wasn’t going to give some hired hand a raise. Why, didn’t Goodman’s machinations result in the Marvel age of comics? With some help from Stan and some artists, true, but the majority of credit of course must go to Martin! Or so he thought. 

In a way, Goodman was the catalyst that got things moving. After finding out how much money National/DC was making on the Justice League of America comic, he told Stan to come up with a superhero team. He did, and hired Jack to bring them to life visually, and flesh them out. Thus was born The Marvel Age of Comics. So you see how the dominoes fell and how ol’ Marty probably felt it was all him (not even close).

But another *major* factor in development of the Marvel we knew then, resulted from Goodman being frugal (i.e. cheap). As Marvel started to take off, they had multiple titles going out each month. Jack was penciling 6 at one point, Steve Ditko, 2, and a couple other artists pitching in as well. But Stan was writing all of them. Goodman wouldn’t give him any help, but Stan was good at thinking on his feet. He developed “The Marvel Method”. He’d have a brief conversation with the artist on the next issue, and go over a rough plot on what has to happen in the issue. The artist would then proceed to break down the story beats into pages and panels in pencil form and deliver it back to Stan, who’d add the dialog. This process saved Stan a fair amount of time, that he could then put toward other responsibilities.

This was a necessary happy accident that ended up being brilliant and changed the industry. This method threw the process open, giving the artist freedom to bring more to the table, a sort of a visual improv. Then, it threw the project back to Stan, who could react to all the surprising visuals and up his game with the added dialog. While yes, this was a great new process, there were unintended problems and miscommunications. 

For instance. Kirby was older than Stan. 20 years earlier, Stan was the coffee boy, while Jack was co-creating Cap with Joe Simon. So Jack had a certain image of Stan in his head, never mind that Stan was now in charge and called/hired Jack to work for him. Jack never quite seemed sure as to what Stan actually did. So, when Jack was working with the Marvel Method, he’d receive the plot from Stan, then go home and break down the visuals. *Then*, he’d write his dialog in the margins, thinking that was what was going to be used. Here in lay a huge, huge problem that would fester and eventually explode down the line.

Jack never read the finished copies of any book he ever drew. He just kept moving forward, ever forward, head down, to the next assignment, like a shark. So as far as he was concerned, he drew *and* wrote all the issues. He never bothered to look at the books to realize that Stan the former coffee boy was actually doing all the dialog. So, in Jack’s mind, he pretty much did it all. This was the stance he took until the end. I remember listening to both Jack and Stan on a radio interview where all this came out. Stan literally told Jack on the air that he didn’t use Jacks margin notes for dialog, that the dialog that went in via the letterer and that went to print was Stan’s, that all Jack had to do was go look at an issue –and Jack still didn’t believe him. And this caused hurt feelings as time went by. 

But Jack *was* doing the majority of the work resulting in the end product, coming up with new concepts and extra characters as he broke down and pacing out the visuals. The Silver Surfer being the most famous example. Because Jack *did* add so much to the finished product, he justifiably felt he deserved a raise. Goodman said no, stupidly thinking of Jack as just another artist and an inconsequential one at that, easily replaced. In light of the refusal, Stan suggested maybe Jack could do fewer panels per page, thus, less work for the same money. Once again, Goodman’s short sighted cheapness resulted in another goldmine, as with this new approach, this enabled Jack to pour more power into his visuals and build an even greater legacy.

But eventually, it all came to an end. After years of not feeling appreciated by guys like Goodman and feeling that Stan was taking more credit than he deserved as the face of Marvel, Kirby decided to put out some feelers in the marketplace. Carmine Infantino was the lead man at DC comics at the time and offered Jack a generous position drawing books and creating properties over there and Jack jumped at the chance. 

But it turns out timing and style were everything. This was 1970 and guys like Neal Adams were coming up with a new, more realistic style that was very popular. Jack’s look was going out of vogue and the other big problem was that Kirby’s powerful, yet blocky, wonky style was the antithesis of how things looked at DC and he didn’t get a reception from the fans befitting that of a king, unfortunately. But Jack did plant some very important seeds, creating the New Gods and Darkseid specifically, the cosmic villain that DC would lean *heavily* on to this very day as THE go to bad guy. While Marvel has conquered the cinematic universe with many characters Jack co-created. 

But in ’71, while Kirby was trying to settle in over at DC, Stan must have figured it was about time to downshift. For those early years, he was pulling the strings, crafting the entire MU for awhile, plotting out the path, then promoting the company for years after. He was still writing the FF and would for maybe another year, giving us one last incredible Thing/Hulk battle and a couple other treats before hanging up the typewriter. 

Bottom line, there was a synergy between Stan and Jack. No two other comics professionals produced as much as they did, at the quality they did *while* together. They both did other things afterward but nothing came close to what they did together, because the thing IS… their 100 plus consecutive issue run on the Fantastic Four has never been equaled in epic quality or importance to the comics industry. 

My wife hates board games. There are a few she might join in on, depending on the scenario but your typical board game, no way. She’s that way with card games too, for the most part but she’ll play the occasional game of Uno or Kings in the Corner if necessary. I think that attitude toward games may come from when she was a kid and her grandmother would play games with the her but change the rules to her advantage. She was a character! 

But Linda likes puzzles and now, especially during lockdown, she’s tackling some old ones, new ones, borrowed ones and screwy ones. She’s embarked upon a puzzle trading program with Theresa’s boyfriend’s mom Sharon. The latest Master challenge was a brilliant and complicated 2,000 piece picture with a road trip/postcard theme with cool graphics. It took up the better part of the week for her to do. In fact, after that monster, her neurons were firing at such an accelerated rate, she broke out a 500 piece puzzle of “a cat in front of a fireplace” and knocked the whole thing off in under 90 minutes. 

Where as she’s not crazy about board games, I can take or leave puzzles. I Don’t have the patience for them. And after she gets in the puzzle groove and starts making significant progress on any one picture, it’s best to stay clear. If you stick your hand in to maybe place a piece, you may lose it. For you see, that’s when she’s in The Plak-Tow….The Puzzle Madness. 

Best to let her do what need be done…

With SO much information and misinformation and those that prefer “Ms Information” floating around, I thought maybe I’d attempt to debunk the things I actually know are false and confirm what I know to be true.

1. COVID-19 is *not* hiding in your closet wearing a hockey mask.
2. That’s someone else and I’d really worry more about him. 
3. COVID-19 is *not* the shape you see standing in front of your window.
4. That is the ghost of Alfalfa, from the Little Rascals tv show from 100 years ago.
5. If Spanky McFarlane shows up, *then* you have a problem.
6. Bad news: COVID-19 *IS* under your bed right now, waiting. 
7. Good news: disinfectant spray will neutralize that one.
8. Good news: they have a new test for COVID-19.
9. Bad news: they’ve created blood goblins that test you by eating your face.
10. Worse news: they only eat your face if you *don’t* have it.

So that one’s *kind* of a lose-lose. I believe they’ve already discontinued it.

But yes, if you go into groups of people in public, unprotected, you’re playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette with your health and people you love, especially the elderly and the immunocompromised.

That pretty much covers what I can and cannot debunk and/or confirm.

Enjoy your board game. 

A few years ago, we lost our Dominick’s store as had so many other people. In its place opened a Mariano’s. I’d heard good things from people, as I’d never stepped into one before. They had a big grand opening weekend with someone playing a piano (haven’t seen that since, yet the piano’s still there), cool purple flood lights illuminating the exterior at night (ditto, long gone), and state of the art self-check-out, which is far more trouble than it’s worth, and is hated or annoyed by many, even when it’s working properly. If they have a dedicated person who watches over the self check out, which they do, since they have to ask if you need help or monitor liquor purchases, etc, seems like a huge waste of space, time and resources. But, I guess if you’re just getting one thing, are in a hurry, don’t screw up the chip vs swipe CC protocols, the machine’s working fine and the one item isn’t booze, you’re golden.

It became readily apparent that even with all the latest grocery store conventions, innovations, and endless choices of olive oil (it’s their thing), it wasn’t enough. The end product of the store as a whole was less impressive than the Dominick’s before it, the Jewel a mile away, or the nearby Tony’s or Aldi’s which opened recently. My wife prefers the shopping and selections at all those places over Mariano’s but it’s close enough to be within walking distance, which at times comes in handy. 

Recently, Mariano’s got a make over of sorts. Although, a make over usually tends to make one look better. This was, I guess, either a change supposedly for the better, corporate had a brainstorm (seems more like a stroke) or maybe they just didn’t care anymore. I’m not sure. They basically moved everything around and reorganized, tearing off all the flooring in the process. They just left the cracked, stained cement floor underneath on display. The resulting disheveled, “under construction” look prompts one to think “I wonder when all this disorganized mess will get cleaned up and they’ll be back up, presentable and ready for business?” 

Sadly, this IS them “cleaned up, presentable and ready for business.” This is their look. It must be by design. I can only guess that the powers the be wanted to go with the atmosphere of a grimy warehouse or simulate a war torn Walmart or maybe an extreme level blue collar Sam’s Club of some sort. I don’t know the thought process behind this. It’s not a welcoming atmosphere. Even the shopping carts are all new, thick, black, industrial looking. More of a Home Depot feel. Which is great for Home Depot. A grocery store? Maybe not so much. They even reinstalled a Starbucks inside to replace Vero, their old in store coffee shop. I even think *that’s* a mistake. A) the Vero prices were cheaper and B) there is , I kid you not, a full blown, bigger Starbucks less than 200 feet away. This whole “upgrade”(?) is kind of a disaster.

They even busted down the giant, endless selection of olive oil. Their thing!

Now they have a new one: “We need to sweep this shit up.”

Because the Thing IS.

I awoke and assessed all things. 

After the morning cleanse, I descended.

They were asleep.

I stood in the great room. 

I listened.

The refrigerator and furnace were between cycles.

The cable DVR was in sleep mode.

Outside, the streets were empty.

No squirrels scrambled on the roof.

No wind.

It was a complete silence.

A rare silence.

A mime silence.

I begin the dance.

When I decided to do this blog every single day for 2020, I could not have predicted COVID-19 and the different world we now live in. Nor can I predict the very different world we will be living in in another two months, and of course the drastically different  setting by year’s end. 

On my end, life is hardly different from normal during lockdown but we seem to have three distinct groups of people that are at play right now in society.

A) The general populace that has hunkered down to do what they can to aid in slowing down the spread of the virus. These are more or less rational, intelligent human beings.

B) The gun folk who are buying more and more arms and ammo, thinking the time of war approaches. Some say it’s for defensive measures against those who would try and take what’s theirs. The ones that would try to take what’s theirs will undoubtedly also be armed to the teeth as well. I can understand people having the dark thoughts. I’m just hoping the ones with the *really* dark thoughts, those who would presume to roam the streets like a self appointed peace keeping force will continue to play out their dark fantasies only in their heads and in their basements. 

C) The rebellious and oblivious members of society who continue to make everything worse. The oblivious ones flitter about, thinking that because they feel fine, they’re not infected, they can’t imagine being sick. The insidious 14 day incubation period of the virus is tailor made for these oblivious, stupid, irresponsible, jack-asses. They could each be infected, spreading it around to anyone and everyone for those two weeks, including their kids, parents, the elderly, the immunocompromised, friends and coworkers. 

The rebellious ones defy the the virus, steadfastly refusing to alter their lives because of the bug. They’re not gonna let it win! One genius and future leader of the free world –if he isn’t dead at 21 due to rampant stupidity– said that “if I get it, so be it, but no way is it gonna stop me partying!”. Frankly, if this argument in favor of “thinning the herd” were to die due to COVID-19, I wouldn’t shed a tear, because his brainless activities put a lot of other people in danger. 

Groups B and C will also be the loudest when it comes to not letting “authority” stomp all over Their Freedom while “authority” tries to save heir lives.

So yeah, I have no idea where my thoughts will take this thing each day. I do have about a month’s worth of entries on different topics already in the queue that I want to get in here. I think I’ll need them just to break things up. I think we’ll need some distraction, some occasional fiction and I think we’ll need some occasional silly and absurd, too. 

Silly and absurd, I’ve got.

Many people love to take naps. My wife, daughter and mother all excel at the practice. That’s great for them. I’m not a huge fan of naps because usually, I’m never quite tired enough to drift off. And on that rare occasion when I *am* tired enough and fall asleep, whether it’s five minutes or an hour, I’m utterly useless the rest of the day. Just a dopey lump. 

The worst is being awakened by the phone ringing. Being sprung so violently from the hug of Morpheus, there’s a five second period where I don’t know what’s going on, who I am, who’s on the phone, what day it is, where I am — and if it’s someone *returning* your call, I have to hope I can somehow snap out of it quick. Of course then the problem is that after the five seconds, I am fully cognizant and the absurdity of the situation floods in and I want to start laughing. I have to hope the person on the other end of the line has a good sense of humor as well. Thankfully, this has really only happened to me a handful of times in my life. Still, it’s unnerving.

But coming out of a nap and just being a zombie for the rest of the night has happened plenty if there’s nothing going on. If I’m in the middle of a job, that doesn’t happen, as I’m perched and in a constant mid leap of action. But a lazy, beautiful Sunday afternoon after a long walk taking in a lot of fresh air? Oh, it can happen.

Just don’t call me.

What’s that ya say? You’re pleading, begging, grasping for the answer to the question, maybe the biggest, most important question that CAN be asked, considering the topic of this entry: “Rick, oh venerable one… what IS your favorite comic ever?” Finally, he asked me. 

JLA/Avengers by Busiek and Perez. Four, 48 page issues. The epitome of a fan boy’s dream. 

There have been some earth shattering comic stories over the decades. A couple with *maybe* a tiny bit better art, or a better script, or maybe even a technically better structured or stronger story. Maybe. But this was a complete package of top notch words and pictures, coupled with every Justice Leaguer and Avenger in all of history, together in the most epic storyline ever. FAR superior to the slap dash crap known as Secret Wars. Gobs and gobs and gobs better than Crisis on Infinite Earths. Heads, shoulders, knees and toes above and beyond any crossover that has ever been attempted. It. Did. Not. Disappoint.

What made it especially satisfying for me was the fact that unlike a lot of fans who have usually been committed DC fans OR Marvel fans, I’ve always been a fan of both, right down the middle since day one. The day I picked up a Batman vs Ras al Ghul treasury edition by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams and Fantastic Four #112 by Stan Lee and John Buscema – Hulk vs Thing.

Back in the early ’80’s, there was an early attempt to do this cross over. George Perez had even penciled the first 20 page issue. But various forces at DC and Marvel either didn’t play ball or let their egos get in the way and the project died, leaving George very disappointed, along with millions of fans. 

You know what? I’m glad it worked out the way it did. Sure, back then, I was ACHING to see this happen too. Thanks to the first issue, we even got a glimpse of how things were going to play out. Three or four person teams from both sides would duke it out in different historical settings. The first match up was set in a WWI battlefield where Batman, Hawkman and Zatanna battled Captain America, Scarlet Witch and Eros. The two villains who were calling the shots for all this were Kang and the Lord of Time, thus, the varied settings spread across time. And I’m sure it would have been a good crossover, with the heroes finally setting aside their differences and uniting to win the day. But as good as it would have been, there was a good chance that once this crossover project was completed, it would probably never be done again, for a variety of reasons, both financial and creative. In waiting, we eventually got a superior product. Of this I know. 

The story we got was more layered and sophisticated than the basic format presented back then. At least the Grandmaster, Metron and Krona were known cosmic entities that propelled the narrative. I’m not even sure who the Lord of Time was and don’t know why on earth they wouldn’t have used the more well known Time Trapper. The original project was to be four, 20-24 page issues. Here, we had twice that. Another factor was the maturing of Perez as an artist as the millennium approached and he started work on this. With the additional 20 years under his belt, George was truly at the very top of his game. It would be another 10 to 15 years before his health would finally force him to lose a step or two with his art. 

Finally, waiting also gave us all that much more history, characters and events to be included within the epic story. Just think about all the various changes that all these heroes went through between the beginning of the ’80’s and the beginning of the 2,000’s. All the more fodder for the story. And what a story.

Heroes from two universes racing to collect various cosmic, all powerful MacGuffins from around the universe, all on directions from duplicitous cosmic entities to stop the destruction of their own universe, allegedly from actions of the opposing team. The dimensional shifts adversely affected some of the characters such as Cap and Supes, making them a bit more aggressive and antagonistic, especially when the two core teams finally faced off against each other.

When you’re a kid reading comics, you inevitably want to know who’d win in a fight. Superman vs Thor. Batman vs Captain America. Green Lantern vs Iron man. This was it, the battle to end all battles. And the execution. Oh, the execution was wonderful. 

I think THE battle most people wanted to see was Cap vs Bats. Wisely, instead of going all out with these two, they went small. Personal. A face off. The shield was already on the ground, so Batman stayed away from the belt. Dukes up. Maneuvering around each other. Testing each other. Jab. Block. Feint. Parry. And each slight movement was communicated and accentuated by the light rain shower that was falling. It was one of the most brilliant pieces of visual communication ever. 

There were other quiet moments, giant moments between all these characters (and properly IN character) I’d loved for decades. Ultimate fanboy moments — this  really had everything and if you do like the mainstream big guns or comics in general, I whole heartily recommend you get the collection or individual issues — if you can afford them. 

Because of all the red tape involved in splitting up profits, the books have not been reissued, much to the dismay of many a retailer. As I suspected, 20 years down the line, there’s not much chance of this crossover happening again. 

Last bit — since they featured everyone who’d ever been part of the teams, I had an extra special treat when in one scene, Cap is working with Batman in the Batcave when in teleports the Thing on a specially designed craft for that type of duty, with Reed and the FF on the monitor explaining some things to Bats and Cap. Batman and the Fantastic Four. All on one page. 

Yeah, that was good. 

I gotta dig that out again.