Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents His Take On:   Spinner Racks!   Comic Books Spinner Racks, That Is!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3668 - First of all... I've been reading some other blogs concerning comics and other pop culture topics, and found that I have missed blogging about comic books spinner racks!

Well, I'm old enough to remember those for sure!

The top left photo is from a ways back, and reminds me of hitting the Seven-Elevens in my Imperial Beach, California area when I was a kid!

The photo to the top right of this blog post is a little later, but brings fond memories back to me.

This one, shown to the immediate left, is a little bit older than my earliest reading of comics, I believe.

What with the Comics Code Authority stamp at the top of the spinner rack.  I do remember seeing the stamp, but not on the comic book spinner racks that I frequented.

I also remember that the front placed comics in the rack holders would usually be a little bent, as those persons thumbing through the racks would necessarily bend the comics over at the top, to see what laid behind them.  The comics in the spiner rack weren't bagged & boarded like those in the photo!

Sometimes you would come across a month or two or three month old comic book, that had been missed being pulled for return credit.

There were a few stores in Imperial Beach, where I would ride my bike to, to pick up the latest issues.

Spinner racks were all that those stores had to place their comics into. 

The stores were either 7-11s or liquor stores.

I remember what fun it was to ride my bike to go pick up the latest Marvel Comics that I collected!

Those sure were fun days while they lasted!

Well... Mostly fun that is.  There was a small problem in distribution to the stores, and sometimes I would have to go to three stores to find the comics to keep my collection complete!

Not like nowadays, where the LCBS (Local Comic Book Shop), will have your comics pulled if you ask them to do a 'pull' list for you.

Yeah, those were the 'Good Old Days', with spinner racks!

~ Michael D Hamersky

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,668 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,752 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly differently, sorry about that!  The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer.  Note:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:  Make It So Marketing Inc., PO Box 130653, Carlsbad, CA 92013

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents His Take On:   Cathy Christian   As Vampirella & Avengelyne!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3667 - Believe it or not... Cathy Christian was the first official Vampirella model to appear at various conventions in the early 1990's!

Of course she also appeared in the first Topps set of trading cards, named:  'Visions of Vampirella', that were released in 1995.

That set had her pictures on the front of cards numbered from #37 to #45. When you flip the cards over to  the reverse...  All 9 cards build up to one large picture of Cathy as Vampirella, (see top of this blog post for set photo).

Unfortunately, I don't believe Cathy ever made it to the cover of a Vampirella comic book.  However she did manage to do a centre-fold for Vengeance of Vampirella #6 and was featured on an official poster as well.

Cathy Christian is better known as the role model for Avengelyne, the long-running heroine of the comic book saga by Rob Liefield.

That series was first published in Maximum Press in May 1995.

I met Cathy as both Vampirella and as Avengelyne at a few cons.

The very top right photo is from the Los Angeles Sci-Fi and Comic Book Convention from 1997.

Here is the Wikipedia entry for Vampirella.

Here's the Wikipedia entry for Avengelyne.

There isn't a Wiki entry for Cathy Christian at this time.

Here's the Grand Comics Database page for Vampirella, and for Avengelyne, for the comics / magazines that were produced.

Although both Vampirella and Avengelyne are continuing to have comics produced... Cathy Christian is no longer touring as either character...!

~ Michael D Hamersky

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,667 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,752 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly differently, sorry about that!  The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer.  Note:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:  Make It So Marketing Inc., PO Box 130653, Carlsbad, CA 92013

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents His Take On:   Satchel Paige   Striking Out Jim Crow

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3666 - First of all... Although this graphic novel bears his name, Satchel Paige is not the main subject of the book!

That's because James Sturm and Rich Tommaso actually tell the story of a retired baseball player.  It was this guy's one encounter in the Negro Leagues with Satchel that impressed upon him the idea that the Jim Crow laws that existed at the time might not apply to all blacks.

This gave the main character of this story hope for a future where his young son might live in a world where blacks and whites can live peacefully together.

So... Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow is actually a fictional piece of work, not a biography, like I was thinking it was by the front cover of this graphic novel.

The two authors have taken some already told stories about Satchel and created a visit by him to the fictional town of Tuckwilla, Alabama.

This graphic novel does lay out a simple story, yet conveying an even bigger theme involving the period in American history of 'segregation'.

I believe that the lack of color in the interior pages add to the hopelessness of the then current situation. There is black, white, and a greenish gold color used in those pages only.

With the blurb:  'The Center For Cartoon Studies Presents"... I'm figuring that the two authors were aiming to sell their graphic novel to the educational market as their main source of revenue.

So included are four pages of notes and footnotes that help to explain their illustrated pages.  I found those pages to be very interesting, and they would be helpful to younger readers who would be reading this graphic novel.

My comic book grade for this book is a Very Fine / Near Mint (VF/NM) 9.0 out of a possible 10.0 comic book grading scale.

You can find it for sale at this link: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

~ Michael D Hamersky

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,666 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,752 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly differently, sorry about that!  The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer.  Note:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:  Make It So Marketing Inc., PO Box 130653, Carlsbad, CA 92013

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

---

Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents His Take On:   Comic Book Century   The History of American Comic Books!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3665 - This Book Is Supposed To Be......the History of the American Comic Book for a younger readership, say like the 7th - 9th grades.

It does cover a lot time periods in its' 112 pages, and since it does cater to the juvenile nonfiction category, it manages to at least briefly describe each period.

The cover is not the most appealing one for a mainstream reader in my opinion.  It features what appears to be a mad scientist and a dectective / crime scene.

However the interior pages do cover the beginnings of comic books, the superheroes taking off, the comics going to war, the Comics Code Authority stamp, and other major periods for comics. That was  the strong point to this book.

My only problem with the text, was that it had a few errors in the history it told. For some reason these errors keep getting repeated when the history of comics is told. Taking out those few errors, the book is well documented and sourced with several features at the back of the book for reference.

Other than that, the book had enough photos and pictures of the creations the text was about or the period it was referencing to. Stephen Krensky did a good job in the interior pages to interest the reader into learning more about the history of comic books from the 1930's to the 2000's.

This would be a pretty good book for a library to have in the juvenile nonfiction section, or for someone looking to get a young reader interested in the history of comics and possibly collecting them. The cover may not appeal to young girls however.

My comic book grade for this book is a Very Fine (VF) 8.0 out of a possible 10.0 comic book grading scale.

You can find it for sale at this link:  Comic Book Century: The History of American Comic Books (People's History). 

~ Michael D Hamersky

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,665 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,752 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly differently, sorry about that!  The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer.  Note:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:  Make It So Marketing Inc., PO Box 130653, Carlsbad, CA 92013

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents His Take On:   ELVIS:  The Ed Sullivan Show!  The Classic Performances DVD!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3664 - I just came across the above pictured DVD and immediately sat down and watched it on my laptop.

Why?  Well, here's one reason: Blog #3319.

I've not seen all three of the performances below at one sitting.  Yes, there are clips, kind of grainy, on video, but this is was the first DVD that I saw that had all three appearances of Elvis Presley and his group on the Ed Sullivan Show.  

So what does this DVD have?  Here's a promo:

"Share the excitement of Elvis Presley's earthshattering introduction to the nation in this collection of iconic performances from "The Ed Sullivan Show," and experience for yourself why Elvis became the legendary King of Rock and Roll! Appearing on the show Sept. 9, 1956, Elvis sent shock waves through a repressed nation with his soulful singing, wild hip gyrations and raw energy, attracting a record-breaking TV audience of more than 60 million people. Presley returned on Oct. 28, 1956, continuing to provoke ecstatic screams with hits such as "Don't Be Cruel," "Love Me Tender" and "Hound Dog." In fact, these exhilarating performances were so explosive that Elvis was filmed above the waist during his final Sullivan show appearance on January 6, 1957!

SPECIAL FEATURES: Remembering Ed and Elvis; Why Ed Didn't Host Elvis' First Appearance; Elvis and Ed: Intros and Promos; Caught on Celluloid: The First Moving Pictures of Elvis Presley; Special Elvis Moments; Jerry Shillings Home Movies; Documents from the Graceland Archives; Documents from the Sullivan Archives."

Okay... That would be enough for me to at least rent this DVD, if not buy it!

I found the screen quality of the videos to be very good, and so was the sound quality!

I had not seen all three shows with all of the performances before in one sitting.

Kind of reminded me why I had a very large Elvis Presley record collection at one time!

If you haven't seen this DVD, you gotta check it out!

I give this DVD a Very Fine / Near Mint (VF/NM) 9.0 out of a possible 10.0 comic book grading scale!

Here is where you can purchase this DVD either New or Used! Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows: The Performances

BTW, here is the link to where Elvis stories can be found in comic books! 

~ Michael D Hamersky

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,664 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link!  We currently have over 2,752 'Followers'!  Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button!  And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!!

Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

Web Page Note:  This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards.  Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly differently, sorry about that!  The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer.  Note:  Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. 

NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:  Make It So Marketing Inc., PO Box 130653, Carlsbad, CA 92013

 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there.  Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!

---------------            

      

In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related.  You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also!  As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'!

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