B is for Belated: Happy Birthday, Sesame Street

Sesame Street turned 40 yesterday. Meant to get around to posting about it, but pretty much forgot. Hopefully it doesn't mind a late card with a $5 bill in it.

Anyway, thanks for the many fond memories, Sesame Street, for being around long enough for me to watch with a child of my own, and for your somehow staying as entertaining for me at 33 as you were when I was 3. Maybe a little less Elmo, Baby Bear, and Abby Cadabby, though, okay? Thanks.

Here's my favorite Sesame Street segment (probably yours, too), and one of the funniest bits from any TV show ever:

Better Late Than Never Reviews - Maybe Still a Touch Swiney Edition

Quickish reactions to recently read comics. *CoughHackSputterWheeze* Let's do this. *SnorfleGaspChoke*

Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #s 1-5 - I was enjoying Jonathan Hickman's run on FF so much I wanted to read the Dark Reign tie-in mini he wrote preceding it (and I couldn't find the trade, so I scrounged up the issues), and yeah, it was just as good. And while I enjoyed Reed's soul-searching and Sue, Ben, & Johnny's (and their various counterparts, too) cross-dimensional hijinks, what impressed me the most was that Hickman actually did something with Franklin and Valeria. In most FF stories involving the kids, they're hostages, their powers go wonky, or else they're just shuffled off to Alicia's house before the rest of the fam heads off to the Negative Zone. But here they have they get their own adventure, and if we're all being honest with ourselves, most of the best scenes. Two kids - exceptional kids, admittedly, but still - hold off an entire HAMMER squad, and their method of pissing off Norman Osborne (particularly Franklin's method to "mess with his head") was hilarious. Plus, I think it's funny that a kid surrounded by sci-fi every day of his life like Franklin would spend the entire time dressed as a cowboy (why wouldn't his fantasies be more down to earth when his regular life is most kids' dream?). If you're enjoying Hickman's regular run on Fantastic Four but skipped/missed this, backtrack and read it. You'll be glad you did.

Fantastic Four 572 - And yeah, this is still great, too. The storyline ends a bit more abruptly than I was expecting, but I definitely get the feeling that we'll be coming back to some of these plot threads later.

Not much more to be said, really.

The Boys #1 (Dynamite edition) - I've never been a big Garth Ennis fan, but so many people whose opinions I trust have been raving about The Boys from the beginning, and this reprint of the first issue was only a buck, so I figured what the hell. And I have to say, I kinda liked it. While there's all the usual profanity, debauchery, and ultraviolence, I was legitimately shocked by Hughie's tragedy. Did not see that coming at all, and found it rather heartbreaking as a result. Well played, Garth. I'm certainly curious to see where the story progresses from here and will be tracking down the trades at some point in the near future.

Final Crisis - Finally got around to this, and as most of the rest of the inter-ma-net debated this endlessly months ago, I won't belabor the point: this was a mess, a shambling collection of ideas and happenings all banging into one another as they desperately search for a plot to hang themselves on (though they'd be better served searching for something to hang themselves with). Not so much scripted as scribbled on napkins during a 3 martini lunch. And based on how little effect it seems to have had on the DC Universe in the months since its release, I can't help but think the company didn't care for it, either. When a company sweeps a story under the rug the same year it was published, that says something.

Down with the sickness

It's been a long, rough week at Trusty Plinko Stick World HQ. We'll be back soon.

Pretty Sketchy: Kitty Pryde and Wolverine by Pat Loika

Late 80s-style Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde and Wolverine by the marker king and arguably most-connected (and certainly one of the friendliest) guys in comics, Pat Loika. Pat also did a great Captain Marvel for me a few years back.

Thanks again, Pat!

The way life should be? Yeah, not so much.

When you come from Maine, you spend a lot of time defending it to other folks because the state has a certain reputation for being ass-backwards.

And, as was proven again yesterday, the state itself does very little to change that perception.

Oh, and better still, they vote against gay marriage but for medicinal marijuana. Hate, fear, and weed... sure, Maine, nothing redneck about that at all.

Happy Birthday, Steve Ditko!

Comicdom's favorite Ayn Rand fan, "Shy" Steve Ditko, is 82 today.



For the uninitiated, Steve co-created Spider-Man and Dr. Strange for Marvel, created Captain Atom, the Question, and the Ted Kord Blue Beetle for Charlton, Mr. A for his own self, and a bunch of great sci-fi and monster stories for any number of publishers. But my favorite Ditko creation of all appeared in two back-up features that originally ran in Charlton's E-Man #s 2 and 4, a fella by the name of Killjoy.



Killjoy, like The Question and Mr. A before him, typified Ditko's strong Objectivist outlook, but whereas Q and A (now that would've been a team-up!) stories were pretty serious affairs, the Killjoy strips are wild and very tongue-in-cheek, with Ditko working in an almost Kurtzman & Elder-esque fashion (and it's fitting, too, that I first encountered this Mad imitation in an issue of Mad's greatest imitator, Cracked). Bizarre caricatures, flop sweat, wild takes, people bursting into dramatic tantrums at the drop of a hat (WAH! SOB! He's not fair!)... it's good stuff, even if you don't necessarily agree with all of the politics at the heart of it. You can read both stories here.

Happy birthday, Steve!

Lazy Monday YouTube Blogging: 1, 2, 3, 4 chickens just back from the shore

Sesame Street's attempts at turning an artist's popular song into one about letters or counting or whatever can be hit or miss. This one is just about perfect:

Not sure if we were dynamic, but we were definitely a duo.

Yeah, Halloween was fun this year.