How Aunt Lily taught me to love The Human Fly

I bought 10 issues of The Human Fly yesterday, and my Aunt Lily is to blame.

When I was just a little Maxo back in 1970s-El Paso, my parents would often drive downtown to pay the utility bills. Back then you could go in person to an office that would keep the water and electricity flowing, and since the short drive seemed exotic and adventurous at the time I'd usually volunteer to go along.

But I had an ulterior motive.

I didn't really want to spend an afternoon standing in various city-sponsored lines. Almost as soon as my parents mentioned a trip Downtown, I'd start pleading with them to leave me at the main library branch or at my Aunt Lily's used bookstore — knowing full well they wouldn't leave a niño on his own to navigate a cavernous library and its potential for stranger-danger. The idea of a bored and increasingly whiny kid didn't appeal to them, either, so Aunt Lily's it was.

Martin's Bookstore was named after my uncle, who ran the shop with my aunt until he passed away and she took her now-longstanding post behind the register. This is how I always think of her — perched on a stool, greeting customers with a brusque-sounding French accent that has never really faded after years in Spanish-heavy El Paso (Aunt Lily was a war-bride, marrying my Tío Martín after they met during World War II).

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated by her, even though she was always patient and generous. She didn't appreciate a lot of noise, and she made sure her books weren't being manhandled to the point they couldn't be resold. It was usually so quiet in there that when my sister came along we'd whisper, tiptoeing down the aisles of the rambling store as if we were hapless Greeks trying to sidestep the Minotaur.

Now, of course, I realize probably none of this was lost on her. But she'd let us play our games, only shushing us when we'd get too rowdy. More often I'd wander around the store for hours, picking things off the shelf and sitting cross-legged in a hidden corner, wrapped in silence and the musty smell of old books.

I don't remember when exactly it happened, but it was one of those seemingly endless afternoons when my love of comics would be sparked.

What I do remember is being plunked down at a small table in a back room, the same table where Aunt Lily would have lunch after closing the shop for maybe 20 minutes. She pulled a box from off a nearby shelf and put it on a chair next to me; the box was filled with comics.

From that time on, if I was in the bookstore I was reading comics. The Unknown Soldier. The Human Target. Justice League of America. Spider-Man. Superman, Batman and The Flash. Tomb of Dracula. House of Secrets and House of Mystery.

And, of course, The Human Fly.

Needless to say, I was hooked. Aunt Lily had a collection spanning the Silver and just-beginning Bronze ages, and for better or worse those would be the comics that would inform my basis for loving comics. And it's why finding a stash of The Human Fly slapped a stupid grin on my face and sent me reaching for my wallet; suddenly I was back at that back room table, a plate of cookies and a glass of Kool-Aid nearby, diving headlong into a world I would never completely leave.

It wasn't until years later I realized there was a reason those comics were in boxes and out of sight. Unlike the magazines she had in spinner racks throughout the store, these weren't meant for the random patron. These were books she was saving, books she was preserving for collectors and possible future sales. And she was letting her eight-year-old great-nephew paw his way through each and every one of the hundreds tucked safely away.

She still owns the bookstore, still perches on a stool behind the register. I make sure to visit her whenever I'm in town, and the last time I was there I made a point of thanking her — for everything, but particularly for introducing me to comics. She rolled her eyes and reminded me to pick a book off the shelf — something to take with me before I left.


How did you begin reading comics? Did you discover them yourself, or did someone introduce you to the medium? Were you a kid, or did you come across comics as an adult? Share your story in the comments!

WTF Wednesday: Oh, THAT teleport ring

One of the dangers and joys of reading older comics is never knowing who's going to show up. Marvel seemed to be especially quick to jump on any trendy bandwagon back then (how many Obama covers did they put out again?), and even if it wasn't a full-on appearance, that didn't mean the heroes were above a little name-dropping.


OK, wait. I know Saturday Night Live was extremely popular at the time, but that can't be right, can it? Let's check that handy editor's note, because there's no way JOHN BELUSHI made an appearance in ...

... oh.


Panel from Marvel Team-Up #83
Chris Claremont, writer; Sal Buscema and Steve Leialoha, artists

Aw, crap ... I twittered.

Yeah, I finally gave in, so I can now be found on Twitter if you're so inclined. Don't expect constant updates (at least not until my obsessive gene kicks in), but if you're using Twitter it'd be swell to pal around.

Friday Night Fights: Because sometimes words hurt, too

The other day a friend and I were enjoying some conversation out on the porch, and we were discussing the crazy slang the youngsters are using nowadays. We were trying to remember a particular phrase, but for some reason neither one of us could remember it — all we could recall was that it was the sort of thing that would get you a punch in the face. Now, what was it? Talking ... talking ...


That's it! Thanks, Zot! Now get off my lawn, ya punk, and take your giant killer robot with you!

(Don't worry — Spacebooger'll turn the hose on 'em ... damn kids and their baggy pants ...)


Following a link? Read more Great Caesar's Post right here!

Panel from Zot! #1
Scott McCloud, writer and artist

Rockin' out with Solomon Stone!

Hey, look what Sims did!

At long last, The Chronicles of Solomon Stone has hit the digital shelves and I'd recommend you get over to the Action Age and check it out for yourself. The first installment is funny, clever and just really, really good. Writer Chris Sims, artist Matthew Allen Smith and letterer Benjamin Birdie pull off the beginning adventures of the world's greatest half-vampire/all-man private detective with breezy confidence, and I'm looking forward to the regular Wednesday updates with the hunger of a Viking werewolf.

WTF Wednesday: In this case, I'm the dog

The steady rumble of work at the day job has suddenly (OK, not that suddenly) turned into an avalanche that's going to take some extra attention to get out from under, so updating is going to continue being spotty this week. Things should be settling down by this time tomorrow — oh god, please let it settle down — and then posting will be back on track. Such as it is.

In the meantime, I'm glad I've got Herbie on my side.


Well, you know what I mean.

Panel from Herbie Archives Vol. 1
Richard E. Hughes (as Shane O'Shea), writer; Ogden Whitney, artist

Review: A stumbling start for Flash: Rebirth #1

After reading Flash: Rebirth #1 I'm ... ambivalent.

I'm glad to see Barry Allen back in the DCU, and for the most part Geoff Johns seems to have a handle on Barry's sense of duty and responsibility. But — as was mentioned in some recent comments — Johns has a seemingly growing obsession with the Silver Age as well as the increasingly in-continuity future laid out in Kingdom Come (originally an Elseworlds story).

He can lay in on pretty thick, which is the reason I stopped reading his Justice Society of America. And I don't know if it's my own paranoia or not, but I got the same sense of relentless nostalgia from parts of Flash: Rebirth #1. There are references and asides a reader would need a strong knowledge of Flash history to understand, and I can't help but see hints of Kingdom Come in the story.

In Kingdom Come Wally West is the Flash who is constantly moving, always running after melding with the Speed Force made his molecules unstable. If you've read Rebirth #1 already, you'll know this sounds familiar but with Barry being the Flash who won't stop, who seems to be connected to the Speed Force in a new way.

Frankly, that's annoying. I'm hoping it's a matter of reading too much into it, but I keep having flashbacks (no pun intended) to Geoff Johns' JSA/Kingdom Come storyline. It is only the first issue, though — I'll be sticking with it to see what direction the story takes.

There were some other, nit-picky stuff that jumped out at me:

• Johns is often chided about is his apparent love of gore, so the blood-spatter on page 3 ended up being a distraction more than anything else. I'm not a prude, but it came across as gratuitous and self-indulgent. And that new (as far as I can tell) backstory for Barry? Even moreso. Doesn't the character have enough tragedy in his background to make him interesting without giving his a traumatic childhood?

• The art by Ethan Van Sciver is great, with detail that informs rather than overwhelms. Hardly anything Van Sciver puts in a panel is static (no pun intended — dammit!), and he brings a heroic-but-human sensibility to Flash. But man, what's with all the Flash-lightning? Is it just me, or does it remind anyone else of the way Todd McFarlane would draw Spider-Man's webbing? Seriously, that lightning effect is getting waaaaay out of hand.

I did enjoy the banter between Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, and one thing I really liked — it might be my favorite part of the whole issue — is Bart Allen's scene. In it he's at the Teen Titan Tower grousing and basically tells his teammates, "Barry Allen, Schmarry Allen; who cares? Wally's the real Flash."

Because that's another way to read this issue: It not only reintroduces the characters and puts the pieces in place for the coming storyline, but it's also very, very meta. It's a fairly clever and gentle way of acknowledging the hand-wringing fanbase, and in a weird way it gives me some hope for the future of Flash.

Has anyone else read Flash: Rebirth #1? Let me know what you thought of it in the comments.

WTF Wednesday: I seriously cannot resist a joke about Uranus

Honestly? Context really wouldn't help this make much more sense, but any Love and Rockets comic is just so freakin' charming and well-done it doesn't matter. Just go with it.


Panel from Maggie and Hopey Color Special #1
Jaime Hernandez, writer and artist

Rebirth: New life for the old Flash could be good for everyone

When Flash: Rebirth #1 is released tomorrow, it will be something of a family reunion for me.

Like most comic book geeks, I have "my" versions of legacy superheroes, and in the case of the Flash, Barry Allen is mine. Barry Allen — square, straight-arrow, "boring" ol' Barry — is the first Flash I experienced. He was the one I grew up with. The one I pretended to be when I'd try to snatch something out of the air before it could hit the ground.

But this doesn't mean I don't have any room in my personal Flash Museum for Wally West and Jay Garrick (though I could never warm up to Bart Allen). When Barry sacrificed himself in Crisis on Infinite Earths to save the universe ... well, it made sense. It was exactly the sort of thing the character would do, and it also made perfect sense that Wally — who had been Barry's protégé as Kid Flash — would carry on in his fallen mentor's place.

I especially appreciated the way Wally was distinct from Barry, rather than just a carboard plug-in used to fill a suddenly empty speedster slot. Where Barry was the classic selfless hero, Wally was usually just fun — and more than even Barry, Wally seemed to cement the idea of a Flash Family.

I'm hoping Wally doesn't suddenly become marginalized by Barry's return — but as a fan, I'm willing to risk it. Does that make me a typical fanboy? I hope not. But I can't deny I'm excited to see what Geoff Johns does with the resurrection of the Silver Age Flash, particularly since I thought he already pulled off the impossible by bringing back Hal Jordan as Green Lantern (again, my GL).

Which brings me to what I would most like to see in the Flash reboot; more Flashes. When Johns brought Hal back from the hell that was the Spectre storyline, he didn't suddenly jettison Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner. If anything, he helped further define those characters, and then expanded on the whole GL Corps concept. I don't see why something similar can't be done for the Flash Family. Ever since Barry met Jay, there really hasn't been just one Flash in the DCU — why should there only be two?

It may not be obvious, but I'm not one of those comic book fans who thinks things were better back in the day. As I said, Barry's death made sense and I was perfectly content to let him stay dead. And if it was almost any other writer than Johns, I'd most likely be a lot more suspect than enthusiastic.

But as it is, I'll be happy to welcome back Barry Allen tomorrow — as long as it doesn't mean saying good-bye to anyone else calling themselves the Flash, too.

What do you think of Barry Allen's revival? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to vote for your Flash in the sidebar poll. And while you're at it, take a look at Ron Richards' "6 Questions That Flash: Rebirth Needs to Answer" at iFanboy for some interesting thoughts on the Scarlet Speedster's return.

Cover Up: Wolverine #4 (of 4)

I love this cover, for no other reason than it's one of the few cover depictions of Wolverine in which he's not popping his goddamn claws.

Oh, alright — I also like the fact the Wolverine #4 (of 4) cover plays up the idea of Logan embracing a samurai-style mindset, which is my favorite iteration of the character. The art by Frank Miller is lean and expressive (moreso in the actual issue than in this bare-bones cover), and manages to give Wolverine a playfully dangerous appearance.

Speaking of a dangerous appearance, if you take a not-so-close look at the image it's probably obvious my copy has seen better days. But considering it's been through a basement flood, at least five moves and the irony-laden horror of being crushed by a pile of comics, it's remarkable that it has survived at all. Truly, Wolverine cannot be killed.

Oh, and one more thing; the first two issues of this mini-series? Total claw-poppin'.

Can you smell what the Hulk is cooking?!?

Whew, nothing like a stale wrestling reference to freshen things up after a week without updates, right? Sorry about the radio silence, guys — some family business and a pile of work that just got bigger during the few days I was out of town did a nifty job of keeping me from posting. Things seem to be settling down a bit, so hopefully I'll be back on what I laughingly call my "schedule" next week.

But hey, you didn't come here to hear me cry about not blogging; you came here to see the Hulk make an elephantman cry. Well, you're in luck!


The next time someone is debating whether or not the Hulk is more man than monster, they should remember the time he actually made a Dumbo reference in the middle of a fight.

Spacebooger once saw a needle that winked its eye — so he punched it.


Following a link? Read more Great Caesar's Post right here!

Panel from The Incredible Hulk #253
Bill Mantlo, writer; Sal Buscema, artist

Friday Night Fights: Who's hungry for some Conan?

Luckily for fans of the sullen-eyed Cimmerian, Conan is not the guy getting his face chomped on by a blood-thirsty swamp fiend. No, that dubious honor goes to an unnamed and unlucky sap who thought his friends were right when they said tying Conan up and taking him prisoner would be a good idea.

We can see how that turned out for Conan's captors: After all, who do you think encouraged them to take a shortcut through the swamp in the first place?

Oh, Conan — you rascal!

If you're looking for more high-spirited (and highly painful) hijinks, Spacebooger is happy to provide.


Following a link? Read more Great Caesar's Post right here!

Panel from The Savage Sword of Conan #172
Chuck Dixon, writer; Mike Docherty, penciller; Ian Akin and Brian Garvey, inkers