I love the stretchy, horny alien. He and Stretcho look like they’re doing a stretchy dance together. I don’t know why they’re going to this alien planet, but I’m sure glad they did.
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Isn’t this a treasure for the paying customers – all tiny pin-ups, no story, no furthering of the great membership dramas that have defined this book for it’s first 11 issues, causing two name changes. The problems of membership and costume change are, in fact, much bigger than natural disasters, alien invasions, or super crimes for this team. All the norms of superhero work are thrown out the window in the name of slavish devotion to new threads, new monikers, new powers. And even the pin-ups are sideways, which is in no way useful. The highlight, though, are the secret identities. Mike Conka? Steed Ared? Rod Hammer – if ever there was a porn star name in an EL Comics title, that is it. When did the Conka family come over from the old country, I wonder. If there’s a Conka in California and a Conka in New Jersey, are they both descended from the same Conka ancestor? And is Ared short for Aredestenes or something like that? I also wonder whether The It feels belittled by the other rock guy – Mr. Strange. Now that’s an awesome, singular name that respects the quirks of the individual. A name like The It probably makes poor Ben Camo feel like an unwanted statuette relegated to the basement.
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This is no way to treat EL fans during the holidays – the title proclaims Capt. Fantastic, but that’s Hercules on the cover. Still, any comic that quotes from Snoopy’s Christmas in such a triumphant way can’t be all that bad.
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Featuring Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler, Chip Fisher, VoiceDude, Eux Autres, Dan Zanes, 45 RPM, The Pipettes, Linda Laurie, Boy Least Likely To, Meaghan Smith, Werbo, Mojochronic, Idiot Glee, Rose Maddox, Malajube, The Atom, Found Sound Orchestra, Joel Levinson
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Featured are the Glad Singers, Joe Williams, The Raveonettes, Harry and the Potters, The Go Gos, Chris Isaak, Daghan Baydur, Billy May, The Wiggles, Bugs Eat Books, Girls Aloud, Bonanza, Mark Mothersbaugh, Chewbacca, Polyphonic Spree
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Featuring Go Home Productions, Three Suns, Ludiine Sagnier, Johnny Mercer, Neil Hannon, New Christy Minstrels, Al Hirt, Quelles Paroles, Dağhan Baydur, Girls Aloud, Jeff and Sue Mitchel, Lenlow, The Surfers, Amos Milburn, Gred and Forge, Madness, Harry and Hugo, The Sixth Great Lake, Mae West, Dorothy Provine, Ra John and the Rubba Dub Dub Bub Band, Cary Grant, The Cavedogs
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This one features Catchlove, Glad Singers, Watoo Watoo, Holly Golightly, Benji Cossa, Puppini Sisters, Charlie Rich, Count Basie & The Real Tuesday Weld, The Boy Least Likely To, Smash Up Derby, The Red Hot Abe Lincolns, The Fleshtones, New Christy Minstrels, Peter Kay, Au Revoir Simone, The Atom, DJBC
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From cassettes to CDs to podcasts, I have been compiling Christmas mixes for friends for more years than I can actually remember … 25 seems a reasonable guess, but I can’t be too sure about that. I haven’t done a very good job of it this year, so to get me in the last minute mood, I will represent some of my earlier mixes with the bonus that they will be available to newer friends who might not have them already.
So today… we jet back one year. This Yulecast features: The Bonzo Dog Band, The Boy Least Likely To, Eux Autres, The King Sisters, The Avalanches, Joan Jett Vs. DJ Topcat, Poly Styrene, The Fleshtones, Pete Wood Singers, Debbie and the Darnells, Blondie Vs. Paul McCartney, Beach Girls, Johnny Horton, Mumford and Sons, Allo Darlin, Leonard Nimoy
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Being unable to reprint through mechanical means, and sometimes having the desire to mimic my professional publishing influences, I took a few opportunities over the years to redraw entire issues and present them as reprint specials, like the monks and their illuminated texts of old. And sometimes I probably did this work wearing a robe – you know, before bed, mornings before I got out of my pajamas, that sort of thing. The earliest example is an issue of EL Classic in which I redraw the entire issue of Herby and Alfred Meet Frankenstein #1 – check those both out here.
This issue of Mr. America is, indeed, an almost panel-for-panel redoing of the actual first issue I had done before, right down to the final tiny pin-up of Hercules. Unfortunately, I have no idea how much time passed between rendering these two issues, but judging from the art styles, they don’t look very distant. I can tell you that the specific influence for this First Edition was the DC Comics series in the 1970s. They had a steady flow of oversized comics – usually reprints, but sometimes, as in the case of something like Superman vs. Muhammed Ali, all new material. One of the recurring series in this was the facsimile first editions, which would reprint something like Whiz Comics #1 or Sensation Comics #1 entirely as was, except much, much larger. I loved those. The only sad thing about my version is that they were the same size as the originals.
For comparison sake, please go check out the real first issue of Mr. America.
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