Michael D Hamersky On Comics Talks About...    The USS Midway Museum! As Of February 23rd of 2013!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3801 -    This past Saturday, my youngest son, Vinnie, and I went on the USS Midway Museum.  The US Navy Ship is now harbored in the Port of San Diego, across from the Naval Air Station on North Island.

Above... You can see Vinnie and myself in a photo that was taken when we first walked into the hangar deck of the ship...

I've blogged about being a 'Navy Brat' a few times in this Blog, and also blogged about comic books with Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines and the Coast Guard before.   Usually during a holiday, such as Veterans Day or Memorial Day.

This time I'm blogging about the fact that the ship has 66 different exhibits, and Vinnie and I took them all in, staying for six hours on Saturday!

One of the exhibits had the badges of the airplanes, of which I am showing the badge of the VF-31 (Fighting 31) the Tomcatters from 1954.  They had a Felix the Cat on their badge, as shown to the left.  Other squadrons had cartoonish figures also, but I didn't recognize any of them!

I had been on the USS Midway shortly after if first opened, and my son had gone a field trip when he was in 5th grade, so it had been a while for both of us since we had been there.

Taking just a short time for lunch at the 'Fantail Cafe', (which was pretty good, we split an order of lumpia and an order of the chili bowl), we saw all of the 66 exhibits. 

What kind of amazed me was the living conditions between the enlisted men, the CPOs, and the officers.  Each had their own galley / place to eat.   The photos that I took will be shown at this special photo album on my Facebook fan page.  The enlisted men had bunks, sometimes three beds to a space, while the Admiral and the Captain had their own rooms.  But... the officers had to pay for their own food!  Something my dad, who served in the Navy, hadn't told me about before!

Vinnie and I took in the 'Island' which is the tower that rises above the flight deck.  Only twenty persons could go in a group up the four flights of stairs, so there was a small wait time for this docent led tour.  But it was worth it!  Both Vinnie and I took turns in the chairs, as you can see in the photos...

We both had a great time at this floating museum, and suggest that you take it in if you come to San Diego!  There's always the Comic-Con International that runs each Summer here in San Diego, so you can squeeze a quicker visit to the museum in before or after the convention!

Here's the link to the Facebook Fan Page for the USS Midway, so you can find the hours and days of operation..

And again, here's the link to my Facebook Fan Page's special photo album!  

~ Michael

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,801 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!   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 'Local' 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!     

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 Exclaims That It Is...    Blog Post #3800! After Starting On June 7th of 2006!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3800 -    Okay... I wanted to mention that this Blog of mine has now seen 3,800 different blog posts since first starting back on June 7th of 2006!

I mentioned before that I had started it as an eBay blog, as eBay finally decided to start 'their' blog platform.  I decided within a couple of weeks to join in on the fun... And found that I won an easy $100 during their eBay blogging platform contest!

Well... That had me hooked! 

I soon learned though, that while eBay allowed us to blog on their platform, that they did not want any off-eBay links.  I couldn't live with that rule, so I soon started this separate blogging platform of my own on Tripod.com.  That was on February 4th of 2007, which is now a little over six years ago.

I'm glad that I did start this separate blogging platform, because on Halloween of 2009, eBay shut down their blogging platform, leaving thousands of us without a voice.  Well, except for me and a few hundred others I guess that had started elsewhere as well!

Well, today I'm seeing the number #3800 come up in the numbering system for this post.  3800... That's a lot of blogs! 

At one blog a day, every day, that would be 10.41 years worth of blogs!  And I don't blog every day!  And it's a few months short of 7 years that I've been blogging... 

Anyways, I just wanted to mention this milestone today, and I'll be back again soon with a comic book topic to blog about!

And again... My Thanks to eBay for starting me off!  

~ Michael

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,800 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!   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 'Local' 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!     

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...   ARROW The WB TV Show... So Far!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3799 -    Okay... First of all, I have to say that I saw the preview show at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con International, AND received one of the promotional comic books as shown at the top of this blog post. (See this link for my 2012 SDCC photos of the panel, starting with pic #26.)

Not that I'm that crazy over Arrow (Green Arrow), as it is a DC Comics character.

Yes, I did enjoy the Green Lantern / Green Arrow series back in the1970s with Neal Adams & Denny O'Neill, but I didn't read all of them.  That series ran in Green Lantern #76 (April of 1970) through #122 (November of 1979), which was quite a while.

So technically, I'm not an old time fan of Green Arrow.

However, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the preview show was at the Comic-Con.  And the promo comic book was pretty good too, although I sold my copy before the Summer was over.

So... I was there when the TV show premiered on the WB on October 10th of 2012.  Tina and I have viewed all of the episodes since then, all fiveteen of them. 

I for one am quite interested in this show, and am glad to hear that it has been renewed!

The show is actually aimed for persons younger than myself, like the 'Smallville' series was.  I just couldn't get into the 'Smallville' series, which ran for ten seasons. I tried a few times, but gave up.

However, this Arrow TV show, doesn't have all of the continuity built into it.  I'm finding that each episode is pretty well grounded, with just some annoyance of the previous five years on the island in flashbacks.

The cast is pretty good, and I find myself liking Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen (Arrow). 

The supporting cast is pretty darn good, with David Ramsey as John Diggle.  David has an extensive acting background, which I wasn't aware of. David brings an extra sense of reality to the show.

Katie Cassidy plays Dinah Laurel Lance in the series.  I just found out resarching for this blog post that she is daughter of David Cassidy, a singer I liked on the TV Show, The Partridge Family!  Katie does a fine job as well, but seems to have less air time in the current episodes.

Susanna Thompson plays Oliver's mother, Moira Queen.  I'm intrigued by her role, and she is getting more airtime in the latest episodes.

I've got to say that with only fiveteen episodes aired so far... That I'm hooked!

For you to catch up on this TV series, I'd recommend checking out the Wikipedia entry for 'Arrow'.

I would give this season a Very Fine / Near Mint (VF/NM) 9.0 comic book grade.  I'm looking forward to the final six episodes in this first season. 

~ Michael

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,799 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!   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 'Local' 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!     

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 Contemplates On...   Flo Steinberg   Marvel Comics' Gal Friday & More!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3798 -    I have been reading a collection of Alter Ego magazines that I purchased at the San Diego Comic Con International a while back.

While going through the issues, I've run across some names of persons I haven't thought of for a while...

One of those was Fabulous Flo Steinberg!

She is shown at the top right of this blog post circa that era.

Flo was sent by a temp agency in New York City in March of 1963 to Marvel Comics, when a 25 year old Flo was looking for a job. 

Stan Lee had been running the Marvel Comics division of Magazine Management in a small office.  He needed help.  Help in the way of what was then called a 'Gal Friday'.  Flo fit that bill and worked there for several years.

Matter of fact, it was Flo who was the third voice on the flexi-record that I received after sending in my dollar to the ol M.M.M.S.  (Merry Marvel Marching Society).  Here's a link to the audio that you can listen to, with Stan, Flo, Jack, Sol, Stan G, Artie Simek, Sam Rosen, Chic Stone, Wally Wood, Dick Ayers, Don Heck, and others.  I wore that record out listening to it so much!

Flo only quit after not receiving a $5 week raise in 1968, after working at Marvel Comics for 5 years. She was sad about it, but went on.  Indeed, she even published a comic book herself, titled 'Big Apple Comix', in 1975!

Flo had moved out to San Francisco in 1970, and ended up in the state of Oregon.  Later she came back to New York, working for Captain Company, which was the mail order division of the Warren Publishing Company.

Others at Marvel remembered Flo with a lot of good feelings about her.  As a matter of fact, Flo was included in the Fantastic Four in What If? issue #11 from 1978 that Jack Kirby scripted and penciled!  Flo was the Invisible Woman, while Jack was the Thing, Stan Lee was Mr. Fantastic, and Sol Brodsky was the Torch.  Great little story there, in case you haven't read it yet!  The front cover is shown at the top of this blog post.

I remember Flo's name being mentioned a few times in Marvel Comics during that early to late 1960s period, usually in the Bullpen Bulletins sections.  I unfortunately never got to meet her at a convention.  I do know that she was a panel at the 2007 New York Comic Con with Ralph Macchio, Stan Lee, Joe Sinnott, and Gene Colan.

Here's the link to Flo's Wikipedia entry.

Here's the link to Flo's Grand Comics Database entry.

~ Michael

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,798 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!   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 'Local' 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!     

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 Contemplates On...   Roy Thomas   Comic Book Writer 1965 - Present

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3797 -    I have been reading a collection of Alter Ego magazines that I purchased at the San Diego Comic Con International. 

The magazine is Roy Thomas' volume 3 of the magazine and is published by TwoMorrows Publishing.

I just finished reading issue #50 (cover dated July 2005), which celebrated 40 Years Since Modeling With Millie #44, the first Marvel Comic that Roy worked on!

In that same issue of Alter Ego were other articles, all on Roy's 40 years in the comics industry.

Now this was a magazine that needs to be shared with others!

Roy was interviewed by Jim Amash in the article titled:  "Roy The Boy" In the Marvel Age of Comics. A wealth of information was presented, including Roy's thoughts on persons that were working there in 1965 when he first came to the company, after working at DC Comics for about two weeks!

I was really pleased reading this article, and the other flip side of the magazine.  Well worth the cost of the magazine!

Which got me to thinking... I haven't really blogged about Roy Thomas in this Blog before.  Sure, I've posted a few pics of him, but as for a full fledged blog post... no.

Here's Roy's Wikipedia entry so you can see Roy's background.

I knew Roy was a little older than me, he was born November 22nd of 1940.  He was first involved in comics fandom, and was part of the first Alter Ego run of issues.

In 1965 he was given an offer to work for DC Comics in New York City.  He was there for almost two weeks, when he realized that he had made a mistake in accepting the offer.  He took a writer's test with Stan Lee at Marvel Comics and joined them.  He stayed from 1965 to 1980!  After that he went back to DC Comics, and then in later years worked for independent comic companies. Today he is the Editor of Alter Ego magazine, now with over 100 issues in volume three of the mag, and writes in other industries as well as comics.

That would make Roy 'The Boy' 72 years old... Whew!   I knew I was getting older, but still...

Well, Stan 'The Man' Lee just turned 90 in December...

Anyways, the title of this blog post is 'Reflecting on Roy Thomas...', so I'll get back to Roy.

It seemed to me, back in the mid 1960s, that Stan would start a comic book, and then turn it over to Roy.  For the most part, that was okay with me, as Stan developed a lot of comic books, and couldn't keep up.  Which is why they had 'the Marvel Style' of producing comics. See this link as to the two main different style of producing comics.

It was Roy's influence at Marvel that led to that company obtaining the license to publish Conan the Barbarian comics.  Which I found the early issues to be great!

Roy was the first Editor-In-Chief after Stan Lee, from 1972-74.  This was a period of growing pains for Marvel Comics, and Roy went back to writing.

I found his fondness for the 1940s era to be amusing, as I enjoyed his 'The Invaders' comic book title to be pretty good.  I didn't follow Roy to DC Comics, so I missed a lot of his work there...

Here's a link to Roy's comic book credits at Grand Comics Database. You'll see a lot of titles there where Roy worked on a series.  With over 11,000 credits to his name! Whew!

After Roy joined Marvel Comics, there seemed to be a gradual increase in the number of writers there.  I saw less and less of his work, as the Marvel Universe expanded.

After 1980, when Roy left for DC, I just didn't see anything by him, as I wasn't reading DC Comics at that time.

Of course in later years, I read some of the indie comics he was writing, including Xena: Warrior Princess for Topps Comics.

Over the years, I've run into Roy at several San Diego Comic Con International events, and gotta say... That Roy is a really nice guy!  I look forward to see what he has coming next!

Here's a link to other posts I've included Roy in...

Here's a link to the Alter Ego Magazines that I have listed for sale.

 ~ Michael

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,797 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!   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 'Local' 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!     

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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