Palisades Park and the Batman Slide

 

Let me tell you all a little about Kennywood Amusement Park. Wedged somewhat uncomfortably into the Homestead area of the greater Pittsburgh region, Kennywood is nevertheless a premiere amusement park for Western Pennsylvania. With more than 120 years of history, Kennywood has roller coasters both old and new, from wooden rides like the Jackrabbit and the Thunderbolt to steel coasters like the Phantom's Revenge and the Sky Rocket. And, like any self-respecting Pittsburgh-area institution, there's also a healthy Steelers presence in the new-ish Steel Curtain ride. It's a destination attraction for the area, and a great mid-level amusement park all around.

When I moved from Pittsburgh to the eastern side of the state a few years ago, I knew that I wanted to visit some of the nearby New York City-area amusement parks, namely Luna Park at Coney Island and Palisades Park. I had Coney Island in mind because it's a world-famous park and a real slice of Americana; why not visit somewhere that's been immortalized in different forms of media over the last several decades?

I've since checked that off my list. I've rode the Cyclone and enjoyed it, though I've yet to ride the Wonder Wheel. It's a park that's quaint and quite overpriced, though it's a place I'd recommend seeing at least once, and it's directly off of NYC's most popular beach, south of Brooklyn. I bought a hot dog there! I got the whole experience.

Palisades, New Jersey is located near the George Washington Bridge, across the river from northern Manhattan. It's definitely a town for people who want to live in the city but don't want to pay a million dollars to get a condo there. The commute across the bridge is a relatively easy one.

There were two reasons I wanted to check out Palisades Park: the first is, okay, the 1962 Freddy Cannon pop bubblegum hit of the same name:

Can I just say that "I gave that girl a hug/In the tunnel of love" is a pretty awkward attempt at a rhyme? Anyway, the second reason is that I've gotten used to seeing the following ad in old copies of certain DC Comics:

Any amusement park that's good enough for Superman is good enough for me, right? So I thought that the park would be fun to check out.

This particular ad comes from 1967's Green Lantern #56, which features the second appearance of Charlie Vicker, the actor who played Green Lantern on TV and was deputized as a real GL when his brother was killed (revenge being a central tenant to wielding the ring). This half-page ad also comes with a coupon for the park to (gasp) cut out and use for a free admission:

The coupon was also good for one trip on the Batman slide! Now, one might wonder why Superman is the only figure in this ad and not Batman, if the ride was named after the Dark Knight, especially since the extremely popular Adam West Batman show was on the air at this point. But I suppose you just have to accept that Superman is a world-renowned character and just go with it.

One thing I learned while planning a trip to the semi-world-famous Palisades Parks is that...it's been closed since 1971. Over 50 years! In its place now sits, would you believe it, a high-rise apartment complex, which, okay, now that I type it, I can very much believe it. I'm sure it remains prime real estate.

So what WAS the Batman Slide at the forever-closed Palisades Park? From the information you can find online, it seems like it was a pretty standard slide tower, rising to heights of about 20 feet; kids would take a burlap mat up a flight of stairs and slide down while riding it, just like...you know...just like Batman. I found a video that briefly shows the slide, complete with the Batman logo. Here's a grainy screenshot!

I suppose my dream of riding the Batman slide has been forever dashed by the fact that this park closed down before I was born. To be honest, though, they probably wouldn't have accepted my coupon, anyway.

Interestingly enough, right after I snapped the picture of the ad, I sat down to read a copy of Marvel's Sleepwalker #1, a new and possibly masochistic purchase. Where does Rick and his best girl go on date night? To Coney Island, of course. Let me know if the Wonder Wheel is worth it, Rick.

pictures from the 2021 Comic-Con Special Edition, part 2

 Is it time to look at more pictures from the 2021 version of Comic-Con? It is! These are all from Saturday, the second day of the show.

For a number of obvious reasons, this Special Edition show was much more stripped down than what you would expect from a regular, pre-2020 convention. The banners were even more low-key, with the toucan taking top billing, rather than having the usual Marvel movie franchise as a sponsor.

Black Widow gets set up as doors open.

Here's a Kingdom Come-era Wonder Woman costume!

I was surprised that I didn't see more costumes that incorporated masks at this show. Here's a perfect example of what you could do with a great costume that you happen to be wearing during a pandemic. What a great Shredder!

The huge SDCC banner made its return to the front of the convention center!

I hear that there are a few Toys R Us locations still functioning in Canada. Maybe Geoffrey is starting the long trek.

HBO's Peacemaker show was by far the most popular offsite event, and it's one of the few things that got close to feeling like how things used to at the show.

And true to Comic-Con fashion, this line took forever to get through. I didn't make it on Saturday, but I kept an eye on this site all weekend.

The barbell is a nice touch. I wonder if he could've brought it in during a more normal year?

Sam Wilson's Captain America and Spider-Punk!

If you moved, she shot you, straight up.

Is this War Machine/Punisher mashup canon? Also, look at this War Machine/Punisher mashup's cannon!

Bob and Linda Belcher continue to be a solid middle-aged fan costume, and the masks add another fun element to these.

What...what is this Captain America statue? An anime thing? It looks like an anime thing.

I asked these folks for their pictures because at first I thought it was a weird Planet of the Apes/Gilligan's Island combo. I quickly realized that they were actually dressed as characters from an anime series. It was too late for me to back out. I took the picture.

I went to some panels this year! I usually plan on going to a bunch but then never find the time. This one was about the Comic-Con museum and their new Gene Roddenberry display.

This was the best group costume by far. How did they get 10 people to go to Comic-Con and all dress up? I don't think this could've happened in a regular year. 

These shots are mandatory.

I don't know what "Under the Oak Tree" is, but good on them for getting the strongest man in the world to help out at their booth. Also, it was great to see a big, gaudy Comic-Con display under any circumstances!

Here's another good use of a costume with a mask. Sub Zero here also had a vape pen that he used to blow smoke for pictures, which certainly broke a lot of convention floor rules, but, okay, it did look like he was breathing out frost.

This was a great Adora costume!

It didn't get much busier than this on the show floor, which is of course a wild departure from years past. You can see here that there also wasn't any carpet on the convention floor. I miss the crowds! But it was nice to be able to walk wherever you wanted to on a Saturday.

Here are a couple of space cowboys.

I guess these are also space cowboys?

Toward the end of the day, I went back outside and checked out the Peacemaker display again. In addition to the trailer/obstacle course that was the main attraction, they also had a food truck set up with free food for the whole day. That was quite a throwback! When I arrived, there were maybe 10 people in line, and everyone could get one item from the menu...but you were allowed to get back in line as many times as you wanted to. Did I try everything on the menu? No, but I did all right. The mozzarella sticks were great! 

Peacemaker's sidekick Eagley was on hand, too, complete with a really thick Brooklyn accent. 

Eagley was also available for more formal pictures.

I enjoyed getting to hang out at this offsite for a little while as the show was nearing a close. I was determined to get in to the actual obstacle course the next day.

There were a number of themed tables and chairs set out on the lawn. It was all very laid back. I definitely enjoyed it.

NBC's La Brea also had a small offsite nearby. I have not seen La Brea. I hear it's about falling into a sinkhole and finding a new world inside the earth? Like hollow earth theory stuff? I mean, okay. Anyway, I got my picture in front of the glowing logo, pretending to sink into what I imagine is prehistoric earth for some reason.

The whole thing took about three minutes to get through, if you took your time. You walked past the logo and saw some wreckage, like a stop light and street sign.

And, uh, an ambulance. The folks working the display gave away from branded swag from the back of the ambulance. I got a water bottle and a portable charger.

And there was also a Wooly Mammoth skull? And some mysterious fog. This was a weird event.

I went back in the convention center for an after-hours panel and found this dancing robot just hanging out and having a good time. It's Comic-Con, baby!

Hawkpeople!

I almost never make it into the Marriott Hotel for a regular year of Comic-Con, despite them having some things that I'm interested in. It's just hard to find the time (and it takes so long to wind through the crowds to get there)! This year, though, in the time between the end of the show and my panel, I got to check out some of what they had to offer, including this awesome (and dimly-lit) pinball room. The machines were set up to play for free, and I played for a solid hour before leaving. It was a lot of fun, and something that I miss out on during a normal year. 

Back to the convention center, where I ran into Mr. Nimbus. A shudder to think what it was like walking around shoeless all day.

Up the escalator.

And into the panel room, where I saw this guy casually walking around with a copy of Action Comics #1. Now, is this the 1938 original? Let's not ask so many questions and just believe that it was.

The panel I was so excited about attending was the Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog! One of my favorites. There was no after-show karaoke this year, for the standard reasons, but I hope to make in back in 2022 for another round.

The night ended and I took the trolley back to my room. I waited with Magneto and wondered why she couldn't simply pull the trolley to us with her incredible powers. It was a long day for everyone, I guess.

That's it for the middle day of this Comic-Con adventure. There are more pictures to come!

Original Curt Swan artwork from Superman #310!

Curt Swan in undeniably one of the most influential Superman artists of all time - I would say that the only artist who can compare is Joe Shuster, the character's co-creator. Swan was a DC stalwart for decades, churning out thousands of pages for any number of titles, but he's rightfully most well known for his work on the Man of Steel. After Swan died in the mid-'90s, DC continued to use some of his unpublished pages for anniversary stories, such as Superman's Wedding Album issue and, more recently, 2018's Action Comics #1000.

The market for Swan's work is pulled in two directions. His pages are in demand because of his classic take on comics' most recognizable character, but since he was so prolific, there are simply a lot of pages, especially from the 1970s onward. Generally speaking, an in-costume Superman appearance means you'll pay a bit more than one without. I was recently able to purchase two very affordable pages from 1977's Superman #310, both with pencils by the legendary Curt Swan.

The pages, interestingly enough, are ones published subsequently: story pages 8 and 9. 

The first page is undeniably the better of the two, because this one features none other than a bespectacled Clark Kent, looking dapper in his business-professional suit (but, sadly, no hat). Also featured is Steve Lombard, a character who pops up every so often in the book.

Steve is a former jock who sometimes picks on Clark, still thinks of himself as the star quarterback, and is often kind of a joke - he's a guy whose best years are behind him, but he doesn't realize it. His type is probably familiar to most folks and he's someone we should probably pity. Sometimes he and Clark have an inter-office rivalry, but it often ends with Clark, like, secretly using his super-breath to blow his chair out from under him so he dumps his sandwich on his shirt of something.

Both of these pages had dialogue that was pretty heavily edited, as seen above with all of the blue editor's pencil marks. But both pages came with the margins trimmed, so I couldn't see what most of the lines pointed to.

Anyway, Lombard is a character who has been around for decades, but most people aren't familiar with him. On this page he takes the company's new camera in an attempt to get an inside scoop. Oh, it should be noted that in the '70s, Clark, Lois and company moved on from the Daily Planet to WGBS, a television news station. I guess they thought that the newspaper industry wasn't relevant anymore? NEVER!

The second page in my bundle is, unfortunately, sans Clark, as we follow Lombard on his ill-fated operation. But we do come across another Superman staple - STAR Labs! I guess it's S.T.A.R. Laboratory on this page. What did "STAR" ever stand for? Anyway, Steve meets up with a robotic menace and is down for the count.

I know henchmen when I see them! This crew is actually smuggling Metallo out of storage, where he'll later do battle with Superman, and Lombard will be used as bait.

Sorry, Steve!

These pages were inked by Tex Blaisdell. I don't necessarily think his inks went particularly well with Swan's famously clean lines. Blaisdell's inks seem to roughen up the artwork a little much for my tastes - he's no Murphy Anderson.

The back of both pages comes with a stamp that indicates copyright information. 

The back of one page comes marked with two possible names: GR and Swan. The second is obviously a reference to Curt Swan, but I have no idea what GR stands for. The issue was written by Martin Pasko, Inked by Blaisdell and edited by Julie Schwartz. Maybe it indicates that it's a GREAT PAGE! Maybe.

We can also see, scratched out, that this page was at one time on sale for $25. The first page in this set, with Clark, was at one point $55. Despite getting a really good deal, I paid a bit more for these. If you see a Curt Swan page on sale for $25, grab it!

Here's the issue that includes the pages! The cover is not by Swan, but rather Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.

And here's the two-page spread, with Clark looking on and Steve getting shot all to hell by a killer robot.

I've been on the lookout for some Swan original art, but they're usually a bit above my price range. These two rather everyday pages fit my budget and also featured some dramatic robot action and a concerned Clark Kent! I'm happy to have 'em.