Once Upon a Geek

On Monday I featured quite a few comic book related t-shirts from my closet.  Today I’m finishing up the tour of my wardrobe by showing off my DC comics shirts.  Please feel free to share any of your favorite t-shirts you own either by commenting or via e-mail!

A great Superman t-shirt given to me by my family a couple years ago.  I really like that the “S” symbol is large.  I strongly believe the “S” on a Superman shirt should stretch across the entire chest horizontally.  Additionally, I like the “ringer” look of this shirt.  A “ringer” t-shirt typically features the jersey shirt fabric in one color, but the ribbing used for the collar and the sleeve bands are of a contrasting color.  I wear this one a lot.

A fun classic Superman style shirt I picked up in the 1990’s. I love the squinty 1940’s Superman!  The primary image above is the back of the shirt with the insert being the front left hand side.

A present from my friend Ed back in the 1990’s.  This shirt came in a cool telephone booth shaped box.

Another gift from the family.  Obviously this one was pre-stressed.

This was a clever idea for a shirt.  The primary image above is the back of the shirt, with the insert being the front left hand side.  I liked the idea of having a Daily Planet staff shirt.  The fading on the word “Staff” happened after one wash.  I was kind of bummed, but it sort of makes it look cooler.

Okay, what comic book reader in the 1990’s didn’t have a crush on Death?  I’m not talking Thanos-style, but the Death character from the Sandman comic.  She was absolutely adorable.  This 1993 shirt was the first Death shirt and was drawn by Chris Bachalo.  It’s still my favorite Death shirt.  The fading/stress on this shirt is genuine; I wore it a lot.

Here is another Death shirt.  I believe this one was done by Chris Bachalo also.

A great Death shirt from 1995 featuring a line from her first appearance.  You can clearly see the Bjork influence on the artwork at the time.

I got this Barry Allen Flash t-shirt from Target just a few months ago.  This was a pre-stressed item that looked so classic I had to get it.  Interestingly enough, if Target had waited just a few more months this wouldn’t have been “classic”, it would have been “current”.

I got this shirt in the 1990’s specifically because I thought it was awesome they made a Jay Garrick Flash t-shirt.  Additionally, this is the only comic book t-shirt I own that’s long sleeve.

A very thoughtful present from my friend Ed.  DC has never produced a t-shirt that just focuses on Firestorm, so Ed made me one!  The image is taken from a cover during Firestorm’s elemental period.  You can see the fading on this shirt is pretty severe.  I wore the heck out of it back in the mid-1990s.  Once it started fading, it became a frequent nightshirt.

Another present from a friend.  This one was a gift a couple years ago from my old college roommate, Serv.  You can see the image is a classic version of Aquaman; early 1970’s Super Friends era.  I really like the “ringer” look on this one along with the pre-faded image.

Another great classic Aquaman image; this time from the late-1970’s/early 1980’s.  The image has a little bit of pre-faded effect which suits it well.  This particular shirt was also given to me by Serv last year.  So do you think by giving me all these Aquaman shirts that Serv is trying to tell me he’s gay for me?

A white pocket t-shirt from the WB store with an embroidered Aquaman swimming out of the pocket.  I got this in the mid-1990s.  Fun!

Not truly a T-SHIRT, but still a comic book related SHIRT.  This embroidered denim shirt came from the WB store in the mid-1990s and is all kinds of awesome.  The top image is obviously the front, with the bottom image being the back.  Interesting observation, Aquaman and Green Lantern look all buddy-buddy here.  However, did Green Lantern freak out when Aquaman was killed (like he did when Martian Manhunter was killed)?  Nope.  I’m not even sure Hal has realized that Arthur kicked the bucket.  Well… Hal will know for sure soon enough.  C’mon “Blackest Night”!

This is a really fun take on superhero t-shirts.  This shirt presents the one-page origin of Batman from the earliest days of Detective Comics.  If I remember correctly, I got this shirt in a record shop in Atlanta in the mid-1990s.

This is another unusual item (and I know, not a t-shirt).  It’s a silk robe featuring the Superman “S” symbol.  If you look closely, you can see small versions of the symbol all over the fabric.  Then there is the obvious red “S” symbol on the front pocket and backside.  The robe is really pretty to look at, but somehow a silk robe just doesn’t scream manly to me.  Especially Super-manly.  Needless to say I haven’t worn it much.  But on my wife it looks hot!

Well there you go, a brief look into Shag’s closet.  Don’t forget, share your favorite comic book t-shirts if you’d like!

I bought a new comic book t-shirt this weekend at Kohls and it got me thinking about what to wear to Dragon*Con.  I looked through my closet and was amazed at how many comic book t-shirts I had amassed.  I mean seriously, these things pile up.  Back when I managed a comic book store, you could consider  these to be work clothes.  Nowadays, I don’t get many chances to wear these t-shirts.  So I decided they needed to see the light of day one way or another.  Therefore, today and tomorrow you get to stroll through my wardrobe.

Over the past 15 years, I have gotten so many t-shirts that I’ve split them across two days.  Today I’ll be showing off my new shirt, Marvel comics shirts, Scud the Disposable Assassin shirts, and Astro City t-shirt.  Some designs were purchased pre-faded (or pre-stressed).  Unless specifically mentioned, assume any fading occurred naturally with these shirts.

To see the other comic book t-shirts I’ve previously displayed here at ONCE UPON A GEEK, please click here and then scroll down.

Here is my new shirt!  The image is of the late-Bronze Age Justice League of America (with a few extras thrown in for good measure).  I love the strong white outline on each character; it’s really sharp.  Also, it’s nice to have Aquaman, Flash, and Firestorm all on one shirt!  This is  the second officially-licensed shirt I’m aware of that features Firestorm. Poor Matchhead, he doesn’t get much play.

Cool Marvel Comics t-shirt bought by family a couple years ago.  Certain parts are high gloss (like Cap’s shield).

Pre-faded Marvel t-shirt from Target bought by my wife and kids within the past year or so.  The faces are very reminiscent of the 1980s corner box images.

“Daredevil Yellow” t-shirt by Tim Sale.  I bought this shortly after the series because I’ve always loved Daredevil’s original costume.

Andy Warhol-style Spider-Man shirt.  I believe this is Mark Bagley art from his original run on Amazing Spider-Man.  I wore the heck out of this shirt in the mid-1990s.

Havok from X-Factor drawn by Joe Quesada.  I bought this shirt around the time he was drawing X-Factor, long before his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics.  The faded design on this shirt is genuine.  Because I enjoyed Peter David’s run on X-Factor so much, I wore this shirt all the time.  Once it started to fade, it became a frequent nightshirt.

Jim Lee Xtinction Agenda shirt.  Got this for my birthday around the time this story was published.

Astro City shirt I bought in Colorado on vacation a few years ago.

Fantastic Scud t-shirt I bought back in the 1990’s (when Scud was being published the first time around).  Back then you didn’t have internet shopping; you had to order shirts like this via the mail from an ad in the back of the comic book.

Another Scud t-shirt I bought back in the 1990’s.  The stress on this shirt is genuine.  I did everything I could to get people to read Scud, even promoted it on my own body.

Another Scud t-shirt.  The primary image above is the back of the shirt, with the insert being the front left-hand side.  This shirt was designed to look similar to the body of the Scud robot.  The only downside to this shirt was that it was bright yellow.  It takes a brave man to wear a bright yellow shirt.

Drywall, Scud’s sidekick.  Great shirt!  Very colorful and fun!

This is a fairly unusual one.  I got this for attending Diamond Comics 11th Annual Retailers Seminar.  It was held in Baltimore in 1994.  Diamond Comics distributes the majority of comic books in the United States.  That particular year they took us to a Baltimore Orioles game; thus the baseball jerseys.  Very cool!

As promised in a previous blog entry, here is my “Tony Was Right” t-shirt!  I can’t wait to wear this to Dragon*Con!

There were a few other comic book t-shirts I owned previously that I’ve gotten rid of over the years.  A few that spring to mind:

• A Rob Liefeld drawn “New Mutants” shirt from around the time of issue #90.  This was before his art got too wild.  If you exclude Superman t-shirts as a kid, this was the first comic book t-shirt I ever owned.
• A mega-print shirt of Jae Lee’ Doctor Doom from the “Namor” comic book series.  Mega-print shirts were all the rage in the 90’s.  A mega-print shirt would feature one primary image that had been blown up to cover the entire shirt.  For example, this Doctor Doom shirt featured a close-up of Doom’s face, but was blown up so the image spread to the entire shirt (including the sleeves), and was then repeated on the back side.
• A mega-print shirt of Todd McFarlane’s Spider-Man.
• A Kyle Rayner Green Lantern t-shirt.  Essentially designed to look somewhat like Kyle’s original uniform.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of “Shag’s Closet”.  Come back tomorrow for the DC shirts…

We are truly living in magical times for old-school comic book fans.  Many of us grump and groan about how things were better “back in our day”.  Well, I’m here to tell you that things are great today even for people like us!

While I still keep up with numerous monthly titles, there are dozens of older comics that I think back on fondly.  In recent years, new media has emerged to celebrate these older books.  I often think about going back and re-reading an entire run of one particular series or another.  However, I don’t usually have the time given that I keep up with a lot of new material that also interests me.  Thankfully, I can now recapture the sense of wonder these old comics brought me by following things like the Word Balloon podcast & Back Issue magazine.  Additionally, the current comic book era provides readers with incredibly easy access to older material they may not have read. These reprints make it easier than ever to read comics you missed.  Finally, the internet has proven to be invaluable in researching particular comics or storylines.

Word Balloon

From the Word Balloon web site - Created By Chicago Talk Radio Host John Siuntres, The Word Balloon podcast features one on one mp3 audio interviews with comic book creators, plus the creative minds behind Film, TV, Gaming and other media.

Simply put, if you are a comic book fan and you are NOT listening to Word Balloon… then you are broken.  John Siuntres is a fantastic interviewer and really gets the inside scoop on comic books.  Whether you strictly enjoy old school comics or read the new stuff too, there has been an interview or two that you’d be interested in.  Some reoccurring guests of his include: Geoff Johns, Brian Michael Bendis, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Matt Fraction, Jepf Loeb, and Ed Brubaker.  And that’s just the guys who come back on a semi-regular basis.  He’s done tons of non-reoccurring interviews with modern day and Silver Age greats such as: Chuck Dixon, Robert Kirkman, Beau Smith, Marty Pasko, Kurt Busiek, Steve Rude, Neal Adams, Ethan Van Sciver, Marv Wolfman, Walt Simonson, Steve Englehart, Ron Marz, Mike Grell, Denny O’Neil, Mike Mignola, Brad Meltzer, Gail Simone, Dan DiDio, Joe Quesada, and the list goes on and on.  The nice thing about this format is that the recordings remain posted on the web (over 150 to choose from), so you can listen to any of them anytime you’d like.

Siuntres has an amazing rapport with his guests and they typically cover their landmark works, any relevant background and anecdotes, how they got into comics, and what lies in their future.  The interviews are compelling and well done.  It’s great to relive some of your favorite comics through the eyes of their creators and you often find out things you never knew about them.  I can’t recommend Word Balloon to you enough.  Even if you don’t have an MP3 player, you can download the episodes and listen to them on the computer.  The most recent interview (at the time of this writing) is with Ethan Van Sciver on his upcoming projects, “Green Lantern: Blackest Night” and “Flash: Rebirth”.

Back Issue Magazine

From the Back Issue web site - Back Issue celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments.

Back Issue is another product that does a great job celebrating the comics of yesteryear.  There are several different “departments” within the magazine, such as: “Flashback” which revisits the plotlines, creators, and characters from older series; “Pro2Pro” where two comic professionals interview each other (more like a conversation); special features, straight-forward interviews; “Greatest Stories Never Told” that discuss storylines that were planned out but never came to be; art galleries; and “Back Talk” an honest-to-goodness letters page (just like in the old comics themselves!).  Each issue is themed, such as the current issue on the shelf #29 - “Mutants Issue”.

The “Mutants Issue” has a couple perfect examples of why this magazine is so great.  There is a fantastic seven page article on “The New Mutants”.  While I would love to take the time to re-read all 100 issues of this comic, it’s not likely to happen anytime soon.  However, this article distilled down the major story points from the series, sprinkled with information taken from various creator interviews to give you some inside information you couldn’t gleam from the comics alone.  The article brought back tons of memories of these beloved comics.  So I may not get around to re-reading them, but I can still revisit why I love them so much.

Another example as to why Back Issue is great comes from the four page article on X-Factor.  You may recall the 1986 X-Factor series starred the original five X-Men (including the recently back-from-the-dead Jean Grey).  Well apparently the series was originally envisioned without Jean since she was in the hereafter.  They had planned for Dazzler to fill the “babe” slot in the series, along with the other four remaining original X-Men.  The idea to bring back Jean came from an incredibly unlikely place… Kurt Busiek, believe it or not.  Back when he was simply a fan he shared his idea for Jean’s resurrection with Roger Stern, who passed the idea on to John Byrne, who eventually passed the idea on to Bob Layton (writer of X-Factor).  And thus Jean Grey’s revolving door with death began.  Hard to believe that Kurt Busiek, a writer who didn’t become well known until the mid-1990s, was responsible for Jean Grey’s return in the mid-1980s.

Like Word Balloon, I can not recommend Back Issue to you enough.  I promise if you pick up an issue, you’ll find at least a couple things inside to interest you (if not the entire magazine).  The next issue ships in September and is the “Saturday Morning Heroes” issue in which they discuss Captain Marvel, Super Friends, Super Powers, Space Ghost, Astro Boy, and more!

Reprints

Whether it be color trade paperbacks, absolute editions, omnibuses, black-and-white Essentials/Showcases, or Marvel’s digital platform… it’s easier than ever to catch up on comics you missed.  All the publishers have become very savvy with their release schedules and delivery channels.  You can typically find newer stories collected and in stores just months (sometimes weeks) after the final issue shipped.  Additionally, publishers are focusing on reprinting older material and making it easier to get.  Nowadays, you can find trade paperbacks for sale in just about every bookstore.  For me personally, I have a bizarre soft spot for “Marvel Team-up”.  Don’t ask me why, but I do.   I only read a handful of issues growing up, so I picked up the first two volumes of the “Essential Marvel Team-up” to read more of these old stories.  Sure they are corny, but I’m loving these collections.  Other black and white reprints I’ve picked up in recent years include: Showcase Presents Aquaman #1; Showcase Presents Metal Men #1; Showcase Presents The War that Time Forgot #1; Essential Marvel-Two-in-One #2; Essential Avengers #2; and Showcase Presents Batman & the Outsiders #1.  I’ve also been getting the Dark Horse color reprint collections of the old Marvel “Star Wars” comics.  Even though I have the original issues, it’s so much easier to read these collections rather than dig out the originals from the bottom of a seven-high tower of long boxes.

The Internet

Finally, it bears mentioning how much the internet has changed comic book research.  In the old days, if you were curious about a particular comic storyline, you had to hunt out the back issue to find out what really happened.  For example, during my youth I spent years collecting old Uncanny X-Men comics from the early 80’s just to get the complete understanding of X-Men history.  With the proliferation of the internet, you can simply hit Wikipedia (or one of many other sites) and the entire history of a character or comic is chronicled in a neat package for you.  No longer do Editor footnotes referencing obscure comics confuse the reader.  Just a couple clicks away and you can know exactly what happened in any comic.  This can be a blessing and a curse.  I’ve found myself choosing not to seek out a back issue or trade paperback because I could read a summary of what happened on the internet.  While that clearly saved me some greenbacks, I did miss out on enjoying a classic tale.  It’s also an easy way to run across unfortunate spoilers.

Conclusion

Throw all this together and you’ve got a new golden era from the long-time comic book reader.  For example purposes, let’s say the FLASH WEEK I ran a couple weeks ago really got you jonesing for some old Flash.

• You could listen to the Word Balloon interview with Mike Baron as he discusses his tenure on the Flash, or Ethan Van Sciver’s interview on the upcoming “Flash: Rebirth.
• You could read the Back Issue magazine #28 article “Dead Man Running: The Trial of the Flash” all about the mid-1980’s Flash (Barry Allen) trial for the murder of the Reverse-Flash.  Since I’d never read those issues, this 10 page article was really informative for me.
• You could pick up any number of Flash trade paperbacks, include the early 1950s and 1960s adventures of Barry Allen in full-color Archive format or the black-and-white Showcase reprints.  Or if you’d like something more recent, there are a number of Wally West trades by Mark Waid and Geoff Johns available.
• You remember Amanda Pays playing Tina McGee (yummy) in the Flash TV series.  However, you’ve always wondered what Tina McGee was like in the comic book.  You do a quick Google search on “Tina McGee” and the first result you get is the fantastic reference site “Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning“.  There you can read about both the comic and TV series versions of Tina McGee.  What a great research tool!

Let’s shake off the reputation for our curmudgeonly attitudes and celebrate!  It truly is great to be an old-school comic book fan right now.

This t-shirt design is crazy funny, but I’m sure also very controversial.  It was worn by Matt Fraction, writer of The Invincible Iron Man comic book, at the recent San Diego ComicCon.  I’m not entirely certain who to thank for this awesome design, but Matt was pointing everyone to “Tony Was Right.com”.  Personally, I stumbled across it on the “For the Love of Comics” blog.

I am so very tempted to get this printed on a shirt and wear it to Dragon*Con.  Oooooooooo… I think I’m gonna have to do it.  I love stirring up trouble.

What a great Father’s Day I had!  My wife made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast, I spent the morning playing with the kids, then we all swam in pool for the first time this season, next I got to eat Sonny’s barbeque for lunch, and finally we went to the comic book shop!  What a fun stress-free day!

In addition to some nice typical Father’s Day items, I gotta mention the geek-related swag I received.  I got a cool Marvel t-shirt from Target that I’ve been eyeing lately (see picture to right).  Then I also received two plates that my kids drew for me! You can see the plate on the left was done by two-year old daughter.  She’s currently in her Impressionist period.  Don’t worry, we’re watching her closely to ensure she doesn’t cut off her ear and give it to anyone.  The plate on the right was done by my eight year old step-son.  You can see he’s done a Doctor Who themed plate for me.  This may just be my favorite piece of Doctor Who related merchandise now!  You can clearly make out the 10th Doctor, Martha Jones, K-9, and the remains of a recently-destroyed Dalek!  He got all the colors right, and even drew in the Sonic Screwdriver.  I’m so proud of my budding little geek!

In regard to the shirt, I love the 1960’s/1970’s era Marvel apparel.  The fake fading makes them look even cooler! However, I gotta ask you (my geek buddies) to help me identify one of the faces on my new shirt.  I recognize everyone except this guy.  Who the funk is he?  He’s not Reed Richards and he’s not Nick Fury.  I’m clueless.  A little help here?

I hate to simply repeat what every other self-proclaimed geek has been saying, but here goes… the Iron Man movie was freakin’ awesome!  I think it might just be the best comic book movie I’ve ever seen.  I love me some Superman II, X-Men II, Spider-Man I & II, and Batman Begins, but this movie was just was great.  The casting was spot-on (loved Downey Jr, Paltrow, and Bridges), the special effects were awesome, the script was energetic and funny, and the fight scenes were very actiony yet you could follow them.

They also did a great job capturing the essence of the character.  I’m not sure if it was Marvel’s influence or Jon Favreau’s, but they did a really nice job of summing up Tony Stark and Iron Man.  My personal guess is that this was successful because it was a Marvel film (rather than some corporation studio).  I think a corporate studio would have just utilized random character concepts they thought the general public would respond to well.  Whereas Marvel/Favreau really understands what has made the character work for the past forty years. 

This movie was INCREDIBLE… no wait…. it was FANTASTIC… no, that’s not it… it was AMAZING… nope, but getting closer… it was UNCANNY… no… how about SPECTACULAR…. almost… it was most definitely WEB OF… okay, one last try… this movie was INVINCIBLE!  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

I can’t wait for the sequel and related movies in 2010 and 2011!