You can listen to the episode by clicking: Episode 119
This episode features our favorite toe-headed kid, his best friend, and a guy made of fire, invading a toy store owned by a guy with a bow tie and featuring an alien who pops. In honor of that, I would like to review some of the excellent offerings in this years Amazon Holiday Kids Gift Book: Share the Adventure.
I was surprised to get a toy catalog in the mail this year. It moved me back to my childhood at the same time as shocking me to see something so analog in the digital age. But my cynical nature took a back seat when I turned to page 49 and I saw a transforming Lego version of Optimus Prime. I mean, c’mon folks. This book is the dreams of my childhood today!
Actually, if we want to move a page prior to the last one, we have even more Lego sets. One flavor for every child. You have sets that cover fantasy, history, magic…and popular franchises that ask us to buy everything associated with it. But I digress into negativity as I review this trove of treasures.
Let us turn to page 42. Since that is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, I would expect to find some truly inspiring toys, and I was not mistaken. Batman takes this page, and a bit of the next with He-Man and other. What we are given is a treat of awesome action. Not only can you fulfill your desire to explore a Bat-Cave, but you can also carry a Lego Havoc staff that stands 40.5 inches tall. One moment, I need to add something to my wish list.
Sometimes you have to think about more than just the kids in the world, sometimes we need to think about the adults, especially the really cranky ones, like Maestro. In those cases, I would suggest page 51. There is an amazing selection of plushys from teeturtle. I mean, who would say no to and Octopus plushy. And there is also the Care Bears….THE CARE BEARS. Caring is in their name!
Everyone loves to play a game. And this catalog has some ideas for you. On page 65, they dare to ask the question, what Monopoly variations have we not done? My question back to Hasbro, where is my Power Pack Monopoly game? Checkmate!
No Love for the Human Torch in this book, it is all about the wall-crawler on page 37. Spidey and his Amazing friends (not featuring Iceman or Firestar, cowards!) have an entire page to entice the kids. you have these cute little characters and vehicles, and of course more Lego. There is always room for more Lego.
There is so much more in this book that we can talk about, but I really do not have time. I kinda chose this as a framing device because I thought it would make writing this page go faster, but instead I am looking up pages that I find interesting and not getting this podcast out. Besides, you stopped reading a while ago.
We need to just sit back and thank Amazon for giving us a catalog. As children, we used these as a gateway to imagine all of the wonderful things we wanted, and then to have the crushing weight of reality destroy us as we opened presents. We should pass on that tradition to our children.
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Eighties Action by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3703-eighties-action License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Tides Of Iron by Alexander Nakarada Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/8382-tides-of-iron License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist website: https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com/
Jeff and Rick Present 
Good afternoon from SEMO, where we are actually having a gorgeous autumn for once! The last few years the weather has been pretty difficult in transition between seasons. It has been pretty nice to actually get to see the leaves change color and stay on trees a while. It’s the small things that make things feel worthwhile.
Speaking of small things… this issue sounds like a fun and light read. I have never been able to get into Impossible Man as a character. I’m with Jeff in that that character as well as Mr. Mxyzptlk are always more irritating than whatever their purpose was on paper. I like that the focus is on Franklin along with Artie and Leech. Having Johnny chaperone the kids had me wince. I think this stems from the fact that Johnny Storm never has clicked for me as a compelling character. He always reads as one note. As a group, the FF has some interesting dynamics to me, Thing obviously being the most interesting. Johnny feels like a side character in a Judd Apatow production, only not funny.
When you both spoke about Neil Edwards pencils in this issue, and I looked at the images on this post, I believe I had an epiphany. I think Edwards must use a lot of photo referencing for his panels, or maybe light boxes images. Not Greg Land bad, but it explains the static feel of his storytelling. As Rick says, they are good looking pictures, but, they don’t tell a story. I have always looked at a lot of frequent Brian Bendis collaborator Alex Maleev in the same way. There is no discernible storytelling in the panels. It feels more like a collection of stills in Edwards pencil. I could be wrong and he may be doing more straight cartooning these days.
The Future Foundation curing the Thing of his rocks for a week? I don’t know… I wish the plot beat could be getting members ages and backstories cleaned up. Figuring the ages of the Power siblings is similar to bingo numbers depending the book and year. I sometimes wonder if the Future Foundation story could be used by Marvel Studios in time? I could see it as an animated miniseries as STEM education avenues are growing in popularity, Also, the fact that the EIC and former scribe of The Loners said on a panel at a convention recently, Marvel Comics is really just manufacturing content and ideas for their Studios.
Well, going to sign off for now. I try to keep the long winded nature of writing to you guys in check, but, I sometime get carried away. I hope you and your families have a great Halloween!
Jeremy
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Jeremy.
Now you made me look up SEMO. Is it Southeast Missouri State University? I gotta know! 🙂
I love it when the leaves change color, and I look forward to it every year. I am always bummed when they change and are immediately knocked out of the trees be a big wind or a rainstorm. Never fails to make me sad. This year our seasons went from an extended heart of summer to late fall over night. Mid October and I was at a public fountain with my kid running around getting sopping wet outside and not being uncomfortable at all. Now, cold all the time with wet feet from all the rain.
I like your description of Johnny, very accurate and that is how I see him as well. He did get interesting to me a year or two ago when he looked at his life and wanted to make it more fulfilling…more grown up if you will. Last I saw he was in the process of absolutely wrecking it with a very dumb choice that he made. Hmmm, I need to find time and start reading mass comics for fun again instead of just the one or two I read every couple of weeks for the show.
“Marvel Comics is really just manufacturing content and ideas for their Studios.” Hmm, interesting. Makes sense too. I think we all know where the money is coming from with Marvel right now and it is its movie side of things. I think that any of the “kid” or “youth” comics could work well as animated series. That way they can run as long as you like without having to worry about the kids aging out. It is a mercenary view I admit, but it makes the most sense to me. No need to introduce the Power kid’s cousin Oliver so to speak.
I like the long winded writings. No need to keep them in check if you don’t want too. It just shows that you have things to say and are passionate about them. That is respectable in my book.
Halloween was great. It rained like a monster and the mom and dad tax on the candy bag while we walked from door to door was pretty steep, but we had a nice night. Hope you had a good one too.
-Jeff
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