RANDOM NOTES strike back: Allegiance Comics, The Tick reunion, a new Funko Thing figure and more!

Sometimes I have stuff to talk about that doesn't really warrant an entire post, but I want to talk about them anyway, so I put them all in a post called "random notes". Also, there's an X-Men character named "Random". I hate him.

And off we go!

I'm still lamenting the loss of the DC's 100-Page Giant Walmart-exclusive comics, so I was surprised to see a new comic book display for Allegiance Comics on a recent walk through the superstore. This one isn't in the checkout line, but with the books and magazines that are usually near the back of the store, and it's got a pretty prominent endcap display going for it.

I didn't purchase any of these, but one thing I did notice is that they all had big Walmart price stickers stuck on the front of each cover.

A little while ago, I posted about a virtual Tick reunion panel hosted by House Seats and featuring cast members from all three iterations of the Tick tv shows. It happened on November 15th and it was wonderful!

The whole thing lasted about 2.5 hours and had different cast members reading scripts from each version of the show, including an unproduced episode of the cartoon!

It was simply incredible to see all of these fine folks together in one virtual space. Between readings, each Tick and each Arthur had their own mini-session to talk about their roles. I had never seen David Burke in anything after his time in the 2001 show, so I especially enjoyed getting to hear from him.

"Crossover", a new comic from Image Comics by Donny Cates and Geof Shaw, came out last month. It features a lot of copyrighted superhero approximations, including re-colored thinly-veiled versions of Captain Marvel and Spider-Man. It also maybe has The Tick show up in one panel? It might just be a re-colored Ant/Giant Man. But this guy is blue, has what looks like antennae, and is causing property damage, so I prefer to think that it's the Big Blue Bug of Justice.

Gamestop released a frightening number of new, store exclusive Fantastic Four Funko Pops for Black Friday (eight in total, ugh) this year. Each new mystery box includes a Pop figure of an FF member with a Venom symbiote. Here's the Thing, and also, I guess, the Dr. Doom/Venom pin that came in the box. There's a metallic version of the figure as well.

Back in May, I posted about the copies of the personalized, mail-in X-Men and Captain Universe from 1994 that I have. I bought both of my copies from eBay, one of which was originally purchased by or for Josh Meinhausen, whose name appears over and over throughout the book.

Well, just a few days ago, Josh himself commented on the original post to tell me that this copy...had actually been stolen from him a long time ago! Yikes! That is not what I wanted to hear. It appears that my copy fell out of the back of a truck, so to speak. Josh, if you're reading this and would like to have a tear-filled reunion with your previous possession, let me know and I can try to make that happen. Or I can just send ransom notes with pictures of this book in peril.

I've been working on a few lettering projects recently. I made these weird balloons and I like them. Here, look at them, too!

So what else have I been doing? Well, I'm staking out potential press conference locations, and I stumbled upon this little-known gem in North Philly.

Also, someone please update my IMDb page to reflect my recent appearance in the Hulu-streaming "Happiest Season" movie. Hey there, K-Stew.

Marvel's 1994 X-Men/Captain Universe personalized comic

The above advertisement and mail-in form appeared in a lot of Marvel Comics in 1994; I remember seeing it all the time, but I never went ahead and placed an order. The ad was for an X-Men/Captain Universe crossover comic (officially titled "X-Men/Captain Universe: Sleeping Giants") that would be personalized for each and every order. If that weren't cool enough, the book had a cover by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt.

I probably never got this because of a combination of things: I was never a big X-Men fan, I didn't want to rip anything out of my comics, and at 13, $14.95 plus shipping seemed like a lot of money. Still, probably because of that dang cover, it was one of the various promotional comics that has managed to stick in my mind ever since I saw it.

Twenty-five years later, the book is relatively hard to find and usually not cheap, either, but after searching for a number of years, I managed to get a copy. It was a little beat up and didn't have the accompanying trading card, but at least I was able to get one for a price that wasn't too steep.

And then, of course, two weeks later, I found another, nicer copy for even cheaper. What can I say? The (Captain) universe is funny like that. So now I have two copies of this mail-in book, ones that once belonged to Josh Meinhausen and Allen Bechy. Josh's copy was more well-read, to be sure. I also get the feeling that the post office didn't take great care of these in transit back in '94. Nice copies are tough to come by.

Captain Universe is a relatively obscure cosmic Marvel character, which combines the "Enigma Force" (sometimes called the "Uni-Power") with a nearby host; the idea here is that Captain Universe is "the hero who could be you!" So in times of crisis, the power is granted to someone in need. That seems built in for a story like this, where folks could write in and get their name in an actual Marvel Comic.

From what I can gather, the trading card (also personalized) came stuck, face down, to the front cover when it arrived. Maybe the white strip had sticky stuff (official term) on it or something. Anyway, mine is detached, but it doesn't take anything away from the presentation. And the card is harder to find than the book, for obvious reasons. This also features Hildebrandt Bros. artwork!

Let's take a look inside the book. One thing that became obvious really quickly was that the book takes absolutely every opportunity to put the buyer's name in. It probably shows up, almost shamelessly, 30 times throughout the book. You're welcomed on the inside front cover with a letter from Stan Lee himself.

Allen Bechy's copy had text that didn't line up super well in the printing process, which I'm sure what a disappointment at the time. And the personalized text has a different weight and feel to it than the other, standard stuff, but it's still kind of impressive that this worked out at all on such a large scale.

The story is by Bob Budiansky and Jim Craig, both industry veterans if not stars. The plot is fairly generic: a kid (ostensibly you) travels to New York City where bad stuff happens. You're transformed into Captain Universe, team up with the X-Men (after a brief confrontation), and save the day. Everything about it is very 1990s, but it's about what you might expect from a comic like this from '94.

"Suddenly, I'm not plain old Allen Bechy anymore!"

The X-Men show up at the shopping mall where this all goes down. Wolverine is unnecessarily aggressive the whole way through.

See? Wolverine threatens to rip your lungs out. For no reason! Why did this make it into the book?

The mail-in form asked for your home town, for the purpose of tossing it out there a few times. So now we're closer to showing up at Allen Bechy's house in Utica, NY.

It also asked for a friend's name, as your character stops to make a phone call. Josh's friend was "Dad".

Well, it looks like Captain Universe saves the day! Here's some more poorly aligned text! Oh well.

On the inside back cover, you can get a personalized letter from Charles Xavier.

The back cover also folds out into a double-sided poster, complete with your name on both. These are also by the Hildebrandts, and are more satisfying to look at than the entire interior comic.

A lot of kids tore their posters out, as well, so I'm lucky that I was able to get a copy that was in good shape.

The very back cover - also personalized, as no space could go to waste - tells you a little bit about Captain Universe.

There are two versions of this book: one with a male Captain Universe and one with a female version. As you might expect, the female version of the book is much more rare and thus expensive. I don't know if I'll ever shell out $300 for that version, but I'm at least happy to have finally found a copy for myself. It was an ambitious and fun concept and I'm sure it made a lot of kids happy for Christmas of '94.

Whatcha reading?

If you've got a comic book collection, then you probably have a few stacks of unread books. Over the past few years, I've slowly fallen behind on reading the new comics I get every month coupled with the back issues I've also picked up. I've kind of been resigned to the fact that I would never catch up - ever - but then, what do you know? A global pandemic can stop almost all comic book production in North America.

The last full week of comics shipping from Diamond distributors was at the end of March, and Diamond recently announced that they would start shipping once again for books that go on sale May 20th. That means we've got about two months with only a few new comics coming out - DC managed to get a few books to stores in April through some new distribution channels - and I actually got to the end of my "new comics" pile a few days ago.

Because there's not much else going on, I thought I'd share a few titles that I've got lined up to read during these interesting times.

The last few books I read from my "new" stack were DC's oversized 80th anniversary titles that just came out: Flash, Wonder Woman and Robin. I was surprised to find that the Robin issue was the best of the bunch. DC obviously had a hit with Action Comics and Detective Comics #1000, and now they're doing it with every book they have. Ah well.

The first new books to come out after the March shutdown were the Walmart DC Giants in the middle of April. I'll admit that I was somewhat comforted when I found them in their usual place at the checkout line. Our Fighting Forces, in particular, was actually pretty good. Oh, and the Batman: Caped Crusader Giant was actually a Target exclusive from a couple months ago, but I only found it recently (before we all went on lockdown).

I finally took the time to complete my run of Route 666 from the now-defunct Crossgen Comics. I came very late to the Crossgen party when they were up and running; I started reading El Cazador and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, just about a year before the company went belly-up in the early 2000s. Route 666 is something of a PG horror story; I'm enjoying it, even though it gets repetitive at times.

Any suggestions for other Crossgen titles I should pick up? I've got my eye on Negation. I know this company crashed quite spectacularly back in the day, but I appreciate their willingness to try out different genres.

The X-Men's Beast had a short run on Amazing Adventures back in the '70s - this is where he first changed to his furry form, although he's grey in this series. I don't know what possessed me to pick up his appearances in this title; I'm not a great fan of Hank McCoy or the X-Men in general, but I guess he's only in seven issues and only the first is a bit pricey. It's pretty much what you'd expect - overwrought superhero drama that tends to be a bit over-expository. But the covers are nice and it was an interesting change for the character that has seemed to stick.

Back in November, at the Rhode Island Comic Con, I found and bought the entire "Just Imagine Stan Lee" line of DC titles. It interested me when I first saw it, about 20 years ago, but there were too many titles and the prestige format meant a price tag that was too hefty for me at the time. Luckily, these books have not held their value at all, so I was able to get them all for a pretty cheap price. These books are currently in the on-deck circle, so to speak (remember sports?). I don't have great expectations for any of these, but the art on most of these looks great, and it's an interesting concept, at least.

Lastly, we've got Friday, a new digital series from Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin, published by Panel Syndicate. I don't have any great interest in digital comics, especially ones that I know will eventually be printed. But I enjoy Brubaker and absolutely love Martin, and other books from Panel Syndicate have been top notch, so I got this first issue. And what do you know? It's great. I highly recommend it. You can download it here: http://panelsyndicate.com

Well, that's it for now. I hope that everyone is safe and continues to, you know, stay inside and read comics. What are you reading these days? Leave a comment and let me know!

The Tick panel at the 2019 Rhode Island Comic Con

One of the nicest things for me in all of 2019 was being invited to November's Rhode Island Comic Con as part of the show's celebration of The Tick, past and present. This all came about because Ian Nichols, artist on many of the Tick issues I've written, did a lot of legwork to contact and book some of folks associated with the character. When he brought it up and asked if I'd be interested in being a guest at the show, I naturally jumped at the chance.

I had a nice time at the show in general - it's a mid-level show that reminded me a lot of the old Pittsburgh Comicon from the late '90s. There were, of course, plenty of entertainment celebrities at the show, but there were a lot of retailers and comic creators and other areas that were represented, too.

New England Comics had a booth there, and they packaged up Ian and my Tick convention story for the show with a new cover by Ian. It was one of two show exclusive comics available over the weekend - the other being X-Men #1 from the current series.

Bob Polio from NEC was there!

Saturday of the show was the biggest one for me, because I was asked to be part of a panel that included Ian, Bob and actors Patrick Warburton and Griffin Newman (Peter Serafinowicz wasn't able to make it). I took a picture of the schedule! I do not regret it!

I've been on a few panels before, many of them very low-level and lightly attended (I've appreciated them all, to be clear). This one was set up to be one of the biggest of the entire convention, with actors I admire from shows I enjoy. I'm grateful to have been involved with it at all - I know that the folks in attendance were there to see the actors on the panel, but I was excited nonetheless to share the stage with everyone else.

The panel started at 11:00, not long after the convention opened for the day. A handler came and corralled me at around 10:40 and took me through the bowels of the building. It was all very official. We picked up some of the other guests and made our way to the ballroom.

When I got there, I got to be one of the people allowed behind the mysterious panel curtain. Once 11:00 rolled around, we were all called out to the stage area.

Did I take a picture once I got onto the stage? Yes I did. At the very left we have our moderator, followed by Griffin, Patrick, Ian and myself. Bob Polio is just to the right.

Let's post a few pictures from the actual panel. These ones come mostly from the convention feed. A big Tick fan, Maryellen, sent me a few of these as well.

There are more, but you, uh get the idea.

It was really enjoyable to get to be able to be on stage with these fellow Tick creators. I knew that most people weren't there to see me, so I tried to keep from jumping on every question (but I have so much to say!). I think that it all went well and that the audience enjoyed it. I even got to ask Patrick a question of my own (there had been rumors that he might have eventually played Barry Hubris on the Amazon show - his answer was, basically, "no"). But more than anything else, it was so much fun to get to talk about The Tick and how much we all loved the characters with a room full of fans. I'm extremely grateful to have been a part of it.

And yes, the whole panel was filmed. There was a crew with a camera and several other pieces of camera-crew-like equipment in the room! I saw it being filmed. I filmed the filming with my eyes!

That might raise the question, "why didn't you just show the recording?" And that is quite the pertinent question. I have yet to see the footage, even though I'm pretty much dying to. I know it's out there. I want to see it. I want to share it! It was a fun panel that I think other people would like to see. If I'm ever able to get a copy...it'll be out there to view. The reason I didn't write this post in December is because I've been trying to wait for the footage to appear.

Once the panel ended, I managed to get a few pictures: one on stage with Ian and Griffin...

...and one behind the curtain with everyone (except Bob, who wasn't up for it)!

We all hung around for a few minutes, talking about the convention, the Amazon series, the comic...just The Tick in general. I enjoyed every second of it, and I'll always be grateful that I got to be a part of this panel (and the Tick universe). Now that the Amazon Tick series has been cancelled, will I ever see some of these folks again? I sure hope so.

Let's look at a few other Tick-related images while we're at it. The convention folks snapped this picture of Ian and me on Sunday, before I left. Did I get heckled about wearing Steelers gear deep in the heart of New England? Yes, I did. But hey, all of those people can go straight to hell! I hate them all.

I'm pictured here with some fans dressed as Hobbs and Ramses IV from the Amazon series. On the right is the aforementioned fan who took some of the panel pictures!

And someone dressed up as The Tick himself on Saturday!

Here's the show program.

Open it up the featured guest page, and who do you see? Some well known creators...and there at the bottom right...

...there's my picture! This picture originally included a goat! I demand to know why they cut out the goat!

Here's the Tick and X-Men covers.

After the Amazon show was cancelled, the studio unloaded a lot of props from the series. I got a few things...more on this later (I think).

I found a '90s kids Tick Halloween costume! This one didn't have the mask, but I already have a mask, so now I have the whole thing! It's a kid's large. Maybe I could wear it?

I also was able to get two badges from last year's Wondercon in Anaheim. All of the badges had The Tick on them! It's some of the only promotion Amazon did for season two!

And lastly, I found this sound bite CD from the 2001 Fox series. It's in perfect shape and sealed - which means I can never open it to listen to the tracks. So now I guess I have to find another copy? Such is life.