my body sucks.

So, no Mirrormask or comics for us tonight. I got home, woke Amythyst from her post-work nap and then started hacking, gagging and coughing. (For those who've known me long enough, it's the old "mystery ailment," where my throat feels thickish and I have problems with phlegm and stuff.

I've said too much, undoubtedly.

The good news (other than the fact I'm pissed 'cause I wanted to see the movie and get my damn comics) is that Mirrormask is being held over a week, though probably moving to the smaller theater. (No biggie that.)

The bad news is a couple of comics came out Wednesday that are of the type that are highly discussed on many of the blogs I enjoy frequenting. I've already read a few accidental spoilers (one that actually whetted my interest to read IC) and am likely to see several more. Which is annoying. Also, I'm afraid some stuff will sell out. Which would be really annoying. Anyway.

In purely good news, I just read this really entertaining historical novel (more history than novel) about the so-called "Bone Wars" between Cope and Marsh in the latter 19th Century. I'd studied a bit about it in my fabled 2 credit Dinosaurs class, and seeing it in a very nice sepia 2-tone graphic novel was a lot of fun. And anything Jim Ottaviani does is fine by me.

So yeah, I'm disappointed with my evening. Especially since I'm feeling better. Now that it's too late to go anywhere. Argh.

When fan clubs were fan clubs....

...and publisher's cared about the readers enough to create one! An example of Stan Lee's amazingly brilliant hucksterism from the mid-60s is here, thanks to the one-and-only Mark Evanier. I've heard about the first record for literally decades, and it's neat to finally hear it!

Looking back on both the recording and, in a much more general way, Marvel Comics of the time (which I can do thanks in no small part to that "60 Years of the FF" DVD), it's amazing how Lee made fans believe there honestly was a "Bullpen" family, people who worked together and had a ball together. In fact, the myth was so all-pervasive that I remember thinking the same thing reading the "Bullpen Bulletins" as late as the Shooter era. It was brilliant because it made the reader feel he or she (more often he, but there were/are shes) was a part of that fun family. Lee was able to use the idea of the Bullpen to build tremendous loyalty among his readers; people felt like they knew the talent--which, of course, they didn't, not at all. The reality was far from the chummy clubhouse Stan promoted; Marvel Comics was (and is) a business, first and foremost, as many creators can attest to.

Still, the fan club record shows a mainstream comics publisher who was willing to engage with his readers--as do the letters pages of the time. Nowadays, "fan clubs" tend to be crap, letters pages (when they exist, which is rare) print almost entirely dull, complementary letters and publishers seem less interested in building reader loyalty and more interested in the bottom line. Sure, the record was fakery, but it's still fun...and maybe some publishers could use a bit more fun in their relationship with the fans.

Besides, it's honestly cool to hear what everyone sounded like at the time!