To See a Man About a Horse

Akron’s getting a P.F. Chang’s, one of my favorite upscale chain restaurants. It’s actually going in up the street from us, so we’ve been able to keep tabs on its progress since construction began. And when we went out to breakfast Sunday morning at the new First Watch that went in next door to where Chang’s is going, we got an up-close peek at the China Bistro’s development. We know it’s getting closer to completion because at least one of the signature horses has arrived on-site.

But what was interesting was that we got to see a side of the horse we never noticed when dining at various Chang’s locations... the horse’s behind. Turns out it has a heart-shaped ass.

What is Essential?

I’ve mentioned before how much I love the original Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. I have a bunch of the single issues from back in the day and the Marvel Essential trade paperback collecting all 15 issues. But here’s the problem with the Marvel Essentials line: lack of color. Again I was flipping through the trade paperback and stumbled on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Uniforms entry. Now S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division), headed by Executive Director Nick Fury, is “an extra-governmental intelligence and security organization dedicated to protecting the nations and peoples of Earth from all threats, terrestrial or extraterrestrial.”

Initially looking at the entry in the Handbook, I suddenly felt like I was eight years old and sitting in my pediatrician’s waiting room trying to figure out the “find the difference between these pictures” puzzle in Highlights. I was completely baffled by the entry because I missed the “color of accessories denotes rank” comment on the page.

I ended up having to pull out the original issue of the OHOTMU to figure out the color coded designations. Level 1: Executive Directors (Fury) has white accessories and white gloves (all other levels have blue gloves); Level 2: Special Directors have white accessories; Level 3: Regional Directors have yellow accessories. Even in the color depictions, I don’t see a difference between Level 4: Special Officers and Level 5: Regional Officers, both appear to have orange/brown accessories. Level 6: Field Agents have red accessories; Level 7: Administrators have brown accessories; and Level 8: Technicians have blue/gray accessories.

While I appreciate what Marvel has done with the Essentials line of trade paperbacks (cheaply reproducing batches of original titles in black and white provides fans a low-cost way to catch up on or revisit decades-old issues), you can see the trouble a black and white reproduction of certain titles can sometimes pose.

Vintage Central Florida, Part 4

Probably my favorite sign of the bunch, the Beefy King was also a favorite place to grab a bite to eat for lunch when I was a bachelor and lived nearby. And, unlike a lot of the signs I shot back in '98, it appears to still be in business (and it damn well should be!).

424 North Bumby Avenue, Orlando, Florida

Must See TV

Warner Home Video recently released Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960's Volume 1 and 1970's Volume 1. I think this is a great idea: A sampling of what the world looked like at the time. I have long said to friends that I would love to see an "NBC Thursday Night '80s Lineup" DVD. Just like the two-disc Saturday Morning Cartoon volumes, they could take a similar approach here. Maybe a 1984 edition, capturing first season Cosby Show antics lifted straight from Cosby's stand-up routine, Family Ties and Cheers hitting their stride a couple years into their runs, pre-Markie Post Night Court getting off the ground with the genius of Selma Diamond originating the acerbic bailiff role, and the veteran Hill Street Blues to round out the package. They could do four volumes, one for each year the five shows were broadcast together (1984-1987). Legal entanglements, I'm sure, preclude this dream from becoming a reality, and I could do my own mix DVD of these shows if I wanted to since there are season sets available, but I'd be all over something like this!

Next up: Some ABC '80s Saturday Night with The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Or maybe not.

Sign of the Times

I like to flip through my Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe every now and again. This Marvel Essential is a black and white trade paperback collecting the 15-issue encyclopedic limited series from 1983 and ‘84. Although not printed in color, it’s still fun to revisit the characters of my youth in the incarnations I first met them. Recently, I was perusing the book and stopped on the entry for Dazzler. Dazzler, Alison Blaire, is an aspiring singer with the mutant ability to transform sound into light. While the development of the character is fascinating (originally conceived as a cross-promotional and multi-media tie-in between Marvel Comics and Casablanca Records intended to have a real-life counterpart), I was struck by her weapons description in this volume of the Handbook:

Weapons: The Dazzler carries a customized radio/cassette tape-player powered by two 9-volt batteries, with auto-reverse, the Dolby B noise-reduction system, and an over-sized 4-inch speaker with an exceptionally heavy voice-coil. The tapes she carries are edited to provide continuous music. The Dazzler also occasionally wears a woman’s size eight pair of roller skates which magnetically adhere to her boots.

Villains beware!

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Back Our Frozen Confections!

It's All Geek To Me

Elliott Serrano, the resident comic book authority at the Chicago Tribune's RedEye publication and author of the Geek To Me blog, has been really supportive of Deus ex Comica. Today, the interview he did with me ran on the blog. I really enjoyed answering Elliott's questions. They were interesting to me as the interview subject and required a bit of thoughtful reflection in my responses.

The Geek To Me blog is well worth your time to check in on regularly. Elliott also does a web video highlighting the current week's more notable or undiscovered gems (which is how I have found stuff like Vertigo's Air) and has been a guest on Around Comics.

As always, if you've bought a copy of Deus ex Comica, thank you! And if you enjoyed reading it, please take a moment to rank and review it on Lulu, Amazon, and/or GoodReads. I appreciate everyone's support!