Legends of the Dark Knight: Alan Davis

Still feeling worn out from the past couple of weeks, so this is another rerun from an earlier blog of mine.

Batman, as a fictional character, has been around since 1939. As with any long-lived character in popular culture, he has changed and evolved to reflect changes in the culture. Over 75 years, that’s a lot of change, and while it’s easy to be a fan of Batman, the question becomes of which version of the character is one a fan? Is it the dark, gritty loner of the first year of the series? The campy version from the 60s TV series? The version from the 70s, returning to the dark, serious tone but still feeling human? The obsessed, emotionless douchebag of the current series? One of the things I loved about the short run by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis in Detective 569-575 was that it showed that a Batman story doesn’t have to be exclusively either dark and humorless or light and silly. It’s one of the most successful merging of the darker, more realistic tone of the 70s and 80s with the lighter, more fun stories of the late 40s and 50s, and that’s why it’s perhaps my favorite period of Batman comics of all time.

What's in the Box?!?: July Gentleman's Box, Star Wars Smuggler's Bounty, and Marvel Collector Corps Year One Special

First, apologies for not having a blog last week. We were traveling, and dealing with some stresses at work and at home, and I just wasn’t able to get anything done early enough.

This week, we’ll be talking about this month’s subscription boxes!

First up is the Gentleman’s Box, which was waiting for me when we got home on Monday. Since the packaging is the same every month, I didn’t bother to take a photo this time. 

This month’s box honors “Our Favorite Fashion Mogul.” Reading the description, that is apparently Tommy Hilfiger, but I had to do a little research to confirm that.

This month’s box isn’t jam-packed with little items, but what is there is definitely quality. $101 worth of quality, retail, according to the booklet.

What's in the Box?!?: July Nerd Block, Gentleman's Box, and Marvel Collector Corps

Welcome back! First, some housekeeping: I think I’m going to change my posting day from Friday mornings to Saturdays. it’s a little easier for me to try to get something written for Saturday, rather than Friday. So, keep an eye out for new stuff on Saturday mornings for the foreseeable future.

Now: onto this month’s subscription boxes!

First up is the June Nerd Block. I didn’t even bother taking a picture of the outside of the box this month, because it is exactly the same as it is every month. Besides, it’s the contents that matter.

I had thought this month’s theme was Ghostbusters, but I can’t find the preview card from last month to confirm that. I’m not sure, because this month is kind of a mixed bag.

The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens

Since we are just past the 25th anniversary of one of my favorite films, The Rocketeer, I want to revisit the character and the comics and stories about him. Back in 2011, on an older blog of mine, I wrote an entry about the original comics by creator Dave Stevens. I was pretty happy with that blog at the time, and still am. So, rather than reinvent the wheel, I present it here again.

As a kid, I loved the Rocketeer. The creation of taken-too-soon Dave Stevens, the 1930s hero first appeared in comics a few months after I entered comics fandom myself. Only a relatively few stories appeared over the next decade or so, but I eagerly devoured every one. And when the movie came out in 1991, I was in heaven. Last weekend, a number of things led to me wanting to watch the movie again, and that led to me rereading the comics. I’m pleased to say they all held up exactly as I remembered them.

I am the Law! Reading Judge Dredd, Part 1

I first read about Judge Dredd in 1981 the pages of Fantasy Empire #1, a semiprozine focused on British science fiction and fantasy. I had bought the magazine for its Doctor Who cover, but it also included articles on Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (which I think I was already a fan of), the Prisoner (which, despite this article, I didn’t really discover until years later) and Judge Dredd. For whatever reason—and I can’t recall what those reasons might be, 35(!) years later—the Dredd article really had an impact, and made me want to check out his series.

At the time, exposure to Dredd in the US was limited to a couple of reprint volumes from Titan Books, focused mainly on the work of Brian Bolland. I bought the first Dredd volume, which collected Bolland’s earlier stories, including the first Judge Death tale, and the two-volume collection of the Cursed Earth. If memory serves, my local comic store also got a volume collecting the second Judge Death story (the first appearance of the other Dark Judges) and other stuff. There were also some other collections of 2000 AD material, like Robo-Hunter and Nemesis the Warlock, but I remained focused on Dredd.

I remember being fascinated by the high-energy storytelling and the weirdness of Mega-City 1. And this was probably my first real experience with an anti-hero. I understood that Dredd was the main character, but not necessarily a hero to admire. I don’t know that I entirely got the satire at that point, but I could see that there was a lot of humor to the series. In short, this series about the adventures of a hard-line fascist cop in a huge post-apocalyptic future in an overpopulated Mega-City covering the entire east coast, was like nothing I’d ever seen, and I loved it.

Adventures in Smoking: Makin' Bacon

As my next step in learning how to smoke meat, I decided to make my own bacon. I had read on Grillgirl.com that she made bacon using Bill Gillespie’s Smoking Bacon and Hog Cookbook. The book sounded like it would be a good resource as I learn how to smoke, so I purchased a copy for myself.

Unlike Grillgirl, I didn’t want to use expensive Kurobuta pork belly for my first attempt. So we purchased about three pounds of regular pork belly at the Butcher Block. (My wife loved watching them use the band saw to cut our portion off.) As a side note, one of our initial concerns about making our own bacon was being able to slice it, since we don’t have a meat slicer. I had the idea to ask the guys at the Butcher Block if they could slice it for us if we brought it in. They said they could, and that was the final obstacle in our way cleared.

What's in the Box?!?: Gentleman's Box, Smuggler's Bounty, Nerd Block, and Firefly Cargo Crate for May 2016

It’s time for another subscription box round-up! Here are the subscription boxes I received since my last round-up post (excluding the second Ghost Post box, because that deserves its own entry).

First up: the May Gentleman’s Box! The inspiration for this month’s box is “Our Favorite Soul King,” or Ray Charles.