I remember I was getting comics in the early ’70’s from the grocery store, this was ’71, ’72, early ’73. It was usually the neighborhood Jewel store. It was catch as catch can in those days, with no convenient area comic store around. I think it was the late ’70’s before they started popping up around here and even then, it was a haul. No, I was completely dependent upon going with my grandparents to the grocery store and rummaging around the magazine section hoping for the best. As far as getting sequential issues, good luck. I don’t know how much the staff at the grocery store cared about the latest issues, or if the magazine guy came in to replenish, if he was diligent about putting out the next consecutive issue or not. Or for that matter, if I was able to *get* to the grocery store! There was every possibility that if I read a comic that was a part one, it was 50/50 that I’d finish that story. As it was, I’ve gone on at length about about Fantastic Four #112 being one of the first issues I’d gotten, and that was a continuation of a multi part story. Thankfully, it was fairly stand alone in it being a climactic battle. That other first issue, with Batman and Ras Al Ghul, luckily, was a treasury edition that had four stories collecting all the connected stories of the conflict. I wasn’t always so lucky though. 

Then, in ’73, we moved and it was maybe a year or two with no comics (!) because at the new apartment, I didn’t have a clue who might be selling them, since there weren’t any comic stores anywhere near me. This was ’75 I think and I finally happened upon a drug store that carried them. 

I’d left off of the Fantastic Four around issue 142 or so and when I came back, I started back up with 160. That was when I was first turned on to the Avengers and artist supreme, George Perez. I was picking up the JLA again, a lot of comics. Detective, X-men, Defenders, maybe around 20 comics a month! I was set up pretty well for a few years. 

Then I finally went next level in the late ’70’s, hitting an actual comic store with a couple buddies. But we had to take two or three buses to get there and it took an hour minimum each way. It was worth it though. It was my first comic store experience. The guy behind the counter was very much the comic book guy from the Simpsons but they had old back issues — and higher price tags. I think I yearned for some Neal Adams Avengers from right around the Kree-Skrull War. It was a cool place. Undoubtedly a hoarding disaster dump of a store that smelled of mold but to my young, eager eyes, it was awesome. The bus ride back was always quiet, as we were reading intently. So much so that it was an effort to pull ourselves out of the story to pay attention so we didn’t miss our stop! You did not want to miss your stop. 

I remember one bus ride back, I was utterly entranced reading the latest X-men issue because it was part of the Dark Phoenix saga, where they were fighting the Hellfire club, a super powered cadre of businessmen and nogoodniks. The issue ended with that iconic scene with Wolverine in the sewer. You saw his hand grip a pipe, him getting up, encrusted with sludge, and turning toward the camera saying “Now, it’s my turn”. YOW!!!!!!!

Back then, in *that* moment, that was the ultimate. That was the “Endgame” moment for this teenager. 

Time moved on and eventually, I had wheels and I found a regular comic store (Graham Crackers Naperville) during the ’80’s then a neighborhood store (Comics Galore) just a two minute drive from my house in Western Springs, which I patronized during the ’90’s and 2000’s. I got spoiled by the convenience. It went out of business in 2011.

*Being* so spoiled though, having such a close store, I no longer wanted to travel even 15 minutes away to a different store.

So, I got me an iPad and went digital in 2011 and never really looked back. 

Eventually even sold all my printed comics to clear out a fair amount of room in the basement. 

Gotta say, even though there’s a *lot* to be said for the tactile experience of actual printed comics and the fun of going into a comic store and looking around, the pad is simpler and quicker for *me*, anyway. When you can roll over in bed on a Wednesday morning, even at 4am — if you can’t sleep— and buy a brand new comic (or literally any one of thousands from the past 80 years) and read it right there…. and then roll over and go back to sleep….that’s convenience. Your mileage may vary. Many many MANY people like going to comic shops, the experience of stepping *into* the experience, which, for comic shops, includes a lot of other things as well, be it toys, gaming, you name it. You can’t get that or the experience from the pad.

These days, I don’t collect any one specific book regularly. Once in a while, if there’s a particular artist or writer doing something I like, I’ll grab an issue. When Lee Weeks does a couple fill in issues of art on Batman — I’m there. That type of thing. Or when the latest trade comes out of the most recent 5 issues of the Hulk, I’ve been picking that up at a collected discount, etc.

But all that is when things are normal. Things are NOT normal right now.

Currently, with our little crisis-virus, comic book shops are mostly shut down and causing massive financial hardship for shop owners like so many others. I don’t know how much if any help they’re going to get from Diamond distributors or the publishers, so until the shops are back and healthy again, I won’t bother with the digital releases and I’ll forego comics completely. There should be *some* solidarity amongst the community.

I’d urge anyone who can in some way, shape or form, help out their local comic store, please try and do it.

My earliest memory is — I believe — me drowning. Some deep, buried, vague memory. I can only assume I was a toddler. It certainly wasn’t me being born like some water baby, as that “new age” stuff was I think well after my mother’s time and even if it wasn’t, that’s not my mom’s thing. It was the early 1960’s and she smoked and drank while pregnant like everyone else did. My birth was in a hospital and I’m sure she was zonked out on whatever the hell the drug of the day was. But I digress!

Anyway, I assume I was a toddler that had fallen into someone’s pool. All I remember was sinking down, looking up dumbly, as a hand reached in, grabbed my foot, and pulled me out, no worse for wear. Again, this had to be mid ’60’s and if it was someone’s pool, I could only guess that we were in Florida at Darryl and Marylou’s place in Key Biscayne

We’d visiting there numerous times in the ’60’s and then their later places in Sarasota. But here’s the thing– from what I remember as I got older, these guys lived in style. It was a mixture of Madmen and the Rat Pack doing a week of shows at the Copa. Darryl was my mom’s cousin and a really great guy. He *lived*. I think he sold lawn mowers and ran a bar, but he had a lot of friends, a lot of gatherings by the pool, he enjoyed life and he managed to grab himself the perfect life mate match, a lovely lounge singer named Marylou. 

Marylou was one hot number and a popular singer in her familiar places in the sunshine state and even performed with celebrities. I don’t know a lot of details because my mom would never really tell me much about any of this stuff during my life and then would just drop a bombshell on me during casual conversation. A year ago, during a meal, someone had mentioned Marylou being a singer and my mom blurts out “Yeah, Nixon played piano with her once.” Sure enough, back in the ’60’s, Richard M. Nixon had a place in Florida and evidently being practiced on the piano, one night he accompanied Marylou during a performance.

This is just one of the interesting tidbits she would share out of the blue. My kids would stare at me with a “I can’t believe you never said anything!” and I’d just point at her. It’s all her.  I don’t tend to keep stuff in much. If there’s a story to be told, I intend to tell it.  If for no other reason than so it can be passed on. And my my kids can never say I didn’t share. It’s all gonna be out there on the blog kids! This is the year I cover it all! 

Anyway, this is the kinda casual ’60’s party atmosphere you’d have at Darryl and Marylou’s place. The kinda laid back atmosphere where people are Laughlin’, eatin’, smokin’, drinkin’, and a toddler could very easily waltz right over to the pool and fall in. *****And I would wager everything I have, that either Darryl or Marylou jogged over, stuck a hand in, grabbed me by the foot, hoisted me out and put me on a towel, or in a highchair, saw that I was fine and continued whatever they were talking about and absolutely no one gave it another thought, ever. I don’t even know if my mom was there or if she was ever told, because who cares, I was fine. 50 years,after, the last time I saw Marylou, I brought this up. She had no memory of it and that’s not a surprise because who cares, I was fine. She probably never did give it another thought even though she, or Darryl probably saved my life. And she performed with Nixon, I don’t know if you’ve heard….

But as a side note, just think how that toddler falls in pool, gets saved scenario would play out these days so many levels. Probably get eight crisis counselors. Two camera crews and a SWAT team involved. Then a reality show. 

This was originally supposed to be about my attempts at water sports. Maybe in the next installment….

You know, without barber shops and stylists during this pandemic… for the next two? Three? Six? Eight months? That’s gonna get interesting. They’re gonna get hairy. Really, unless you have a family member that knows what they’re doing, or you’re ready to just shear yourself like a sheep…

…we gonna get hairy.

Oh baby. Do you… do you hear what I’m sayin’? 

I’m sayin’ we *should* get hairy. 

Let’s bring this bitch back to the ’70’s all the way. 

Gimme head with hair

Long beautiful hair

Shining, gleaming,

Streaming, flaxen, waxen

Give me down to there hair

Shoulder length or longer

Here baby, there mama

Everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair

Oh yeah, I am suddenly in the mood to go full scale, beyond the pale, save the whale, hail HAIR!

Join me, won’t you? You’re never going to have a better excuse to grow that ‘fro, Joe.

Come on, let’s get braggy and be all shaggy, Maggie.

Can you go for…. ohhh, I know you *could* go for a little “Rubber-band man” now, couldn’t you? Oh, yeah, you listen to that and you grow that hair, mon cher.

Mmmmfff mmmff mmmff. 

You hear that? That’s HAIR growin’……

This ain’t no fan-fic about a cowlick….this is a fan of the follicle, and I unfurl for the curl.

So, come on then, and give a salute… to being hirsute.

You won’t be happy until you’re praying to the prematurely graying, COME ON!!!!!

(This has been a public service announcement by the council of hair growers.)

(No Man-buns.)

This is the day where you go almost anywhere on the internet, and you start reading an article that almost doesn’t seem too outlandish in our world today, then suddenly it seems ridiculous, then you think WTF?!?!, then you notice the date. 

I guess a lot depends on how early it is, if you’ve forgotten what day it is, etc. Really, it’s probably easier than ever to forget what day it is as they are all starting to blend together, what with the family being home all the time. Have to start leaving notes on the doors for upcoming appointments, etc. 

But the April Fool prankster relies on surprise or you being distracted to catch you unawares. Certain lame elements remind me of the low end of puns. I like a clever pun– there just aren’t many out there. Most of them are groaners.

I appreciate a clever prank as well. I’ve seen some masters at work and have been on the receiving end of them as well. One time back in the ’90’s, my first office was in a cubicle. A coworker, Zeke, had skillfully slid all my furniture and the cube walls together, basically squeezing my office into a knot, with only the bare minimum space for me to walk behind my desk, creating a brief illusion there was nothing wrong …before realizing that the entire thing was screwed. It was pretty good but of course majorly irritating at the time. I found out who the culprits were, exacted some revenge on them but saved the majority of the retribution for Zeke, the mastermind. Being a writer, he usually got in to the office at about 7:30 or 8am to take advantage of the quiet. I got in at 5am. Went into his office, packed up each and every item on his desk, including the lamp and phone, everything, put them in a box, climbed up on the desk, removed a ceiling tile and deposited them up in there. Then, I went about turning all the remaining items in his office backwards. Desk, chairs, every one of his 100 bits and articles on his giant bulletin board, you name it. I then left a quote on his desk from Casey Kasem: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” Then, when I got back to my office, I left him a message, so when he finally found his stuff and plugged his phone in, the little message light would be blinking.

The point I was trying to make was, if you prank me, I’ll prank you back. Hard. 

The only other issue I had was another guy who thought it would be fun to rub a little cheese in the mouth piece of my phone, so when I was on the phone, I’d smell something but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Not bad, but I had to go into the holes of the mouthpiece with a toothpick to scrape out all the cheese. What to do in retaliation? I searched out an exotic seafood market somewhere in Chicago, found just the right sized squid (it might have been an octopus–it had tentacles), unwrapped it, and inserted it into the back of his lowest, least used desk drawer in his office. 

Late Friday night.

Before a long, hot, three day weekend. 

He realized his situation pretty quickly come Tuesday morning. No one else pranked me after that.

My buddy Lou had a great running phone gag he’d play on our friend Debby though. Just about every year for a while. He’s a good actor and he’d really sell it each time. Always got her, too. I’m paraphrasing here, forgive me if I get it wrong, Lou.

*ring*

Debby: “Hello?”

Lou: “Hi, I’d like to speak to Bob Walls please.”

Debby: “I’m sorry, there’s no Bob Walls here.”

Lou: “Alright, can I speak to David Walls please?”

Debby: “No, sorry, no one here by that name.”

Lou: “That’s odd, I thought for sure this was the number. Is Jenny Walls there?”

Debby: “No, look, there is no one here by that name.”

Lou: “So, you have no Walls there at all?”

Debby: “No, there are no Walls here!”

Lou: “Then what’s holding up your ceiling?”

Then was usually a lot of swearing on one end of the line and guffawing on the other.

Anyway, recite that entire bit while you wash your hands. 

And remember, careful who you prank. Payback is hell.

You’re stuck at home. The entire family is stuck at home. After you take care of any necessary work, emails, etc., you have to fill the time. Yeah, sure, there’s tv–it IS a great time to watch that old movie you’ve heard about for years but never got around to watching. You take strolls around the block, getting some fresh air, you immerse yourselves in boardgames, various interpersonal activities. But where do you go from there?  I got you covered.

Put on your own broadway show. Yes, it IS an amazing idea, thank you!

If EVER you wanted to put a metal colander on your head, grab a yardstick, go tilt at a hastily constructed cardboard windmill and sing “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha”, it’s all there at your fingertips. 

Been aching to perform “West Side Story” to feed your inner gang member? Well, bend over… and start snapping your fingers like a Jet. 

Hey, you’ve always loved “Cats”, and now is your chance to easily do a production that surpasses the movie! 

If you feel you can handle rapid fire dialog, sure, go for “My Fair Lady” and if you are *really* feeling like you can hang with the big dogs, go ahead, “Hamilton” the house down! 

There are a ton of great movies you know by heart. Now you can present your inimitable take on them. Jaws! The Sting! Jurassic Park! Altered States! The Irishman! The Grudge! Deliverance!

Ah, no. No, don’t do Deliverance, just don’t. I don’t care if you do have a banjo, don’t. Thanksgiving get togethers will never be the same. 

Are you too embarrassed to perform? Hell, no one will ever see it! Unless of course you record it. Anyway, you’ve now got more on your plate than you could ever want to keep you busy. I’m glad I could help. I’m sure we’ll see all new YouTube celebrity sensations soon enough. 

You’re welcome.

Everyone’s sheltering at home, and if they want to work out, they now have to DO it at home. Believe it or not, I have tips. Several, in fact.

But what ho…..you say “Rick, you’re a tree trunk of a blob! Surely, you don’t exercise!” Ah, but I do. Really, it’s the best place TO work out, in my opinion, for many reasons. Going to the gym is a waste of time and money and half the people are there to show off. And it’s a Petri dish, I don’t care how diligent you are about wiping down the equipment. And, believe it or not, according to my doctors, aside from the cancer episode and my overall weight, the old heart, lungs, arteries, etc., are all doing great.

OKAY! I have several things I do. Some programs, some calisthenics, etc. but I change things up here and there. Your body starts to get used to one thing if you do it too often, so it’s good to mix it up. Mind you– the following exercises and routines, I only do one of these in a day, like the running or a P90X workout. I don’t combine them to do two in a day but your mileage may vary.

*Running. This, I do far more often when it gets nicer outside but I do what I call a walk/run. It don’t jog for three or four miles straight anymore because that just wears on your knees. No, I do eight sets of sprints. I walk for 90 seconds and then run full out, fast as I can for 30 seconds, then repeat it another seven times. All eight cycles will take less than 20 minutes, too. This allows you to get in an intense yet short workout, all in your immediate neighborhood.

*Insanity. This is a program you can get fairly cheap online. LINK HERE. I got one disk, and it’s a variety of moves you can do, along with the instructor. It really is insanity in that the whole thing is like 22 minutes but you will not be able to do everything in there. Even the instructor and his two students he has with him have to take a break here or there but it is an excellent cardio workout. All in your living room.

*Jumping jacks and crunches. This is a lighter day’s workout. I do four different type of crunches, 125 each, and 500 jumping jacks. So, 1,000 total. You can look on YouTube for a variety of different crunches and break them up however you want.

*Kettle-bell. I’ve got a 45 pound kettle-bell and when I do it, it’s the standard swing and about 25 reps each time. When I’m in a kettle-bell phase, I’ll do anywhere from 200 to 300 swings in a session. Usually takes less than a half hour. In fact, you can take the Russian Kettle-bell challenge…

*P90X. This is a great set of DVD’s, here’s a link, with over a dozen workouts included. available on Amazon as well. There’s one just for abs, but another four for arms, a couple for legs, one for the core, cardio, plyometrics, stretching, Kenpo, and a 90 minute yoga workout. You’ll need weights for some of them like the arms. But it’s a great, very comprehensive program.

*The 500 rep challenge. Here’s the link, it’s a cracker. Basically ten different exercises, 50 reps each. You’ll need some weights for a couple of them. Should take around 40 minutes or so when you’re in the groove. You start off with 50 push ups and that might be the easiest of the bunch.

AND, if *none* of that appeals to you, you’ve always got: 

*The Prison Cell Push Up. Designed for the ultimate shelter in place. The perfect exercise for an 8×10 cell, guaranteed to whip you into shape. 

Get down into plank/push up position. 

Do a push up. 

Staying in plank, bring your right knee up to your chest and back.

Do a push up.

Staying in plank, bring your left knee up to your chest and back.

Do a push up.

Spring up to your feet and jump up.

Repeat the whole thing. See how you feel after ten cycles. It’ll take you less than a minute. 

Now currently, I’m doing the 500 rep challenge two to three times a week, and the crunches/jumping jacks two to three times a week. The plan is to start mixing back in some of the P90X arm workouts into the rotation, along with the Walk/runs and keeping all Four in play to some degree each week. When I want something different, I might pop in the insanity disk for a change. Ideally, I only take one day off a week for rest but work schedules mess with that. And if I don’t sleep well the night before, I don’t push it. Know your limitations. 

And that’s it — a very nice mix of exercises and possibilities, all of which you can do at home. 

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…