Bongo comics Free for all 2010

Bongo Comics Free for all 2010

 What a great cover. Of course most comics fans will know it is a homage to the cover of Amazing Fantasy 15. With Comic Book Guy in the place of Spider-man. This was the first of the Bongo FCBD comics I ever picked up. We get 4 stories all starring various people from the Simpsons TV show.

The first story is titled "Clown Therapy". Starring Krusty the clown,it is about Krusty who is forced to add educational content to his kid's show. This causes him to freak out and his therapist tells him he needs to change jobs. So Krusty ends up working at the Springfield power plant. And of course wacky stuff happens. Written by Chuck Dixon with pencils by Phil Ortiz and inks by Mike Decarlo,Clown Therapy is a great story to start this issue off with.

Up next is "Maggie's Crib". This is a wordless 2 page story that is written and drawn by Sergio Aragones. I love how Maggie manages to outsmart Homer in this story.

The third story is "Homer beats the heat". It is summer time and Lisa is complaining about how hot it is. So Homer tries various things to help Lisa and him to stay cool. Written by Tony Digerolamo,pencils by Phil Ortiz and inks by Mike Decarlo,this is a fun little 5 page story.

The final story is "The League of Extraordinary Barts!". We have 3 different super hero versions of Barts from different Earths all teaming up. The only superhero Bart I had seen before was Bartman,but we also get a Mr Fantastic version of Bart. And a Bart that is the sidekick to Pieman. This is a great story that is full of all kinds of Easter eggs for comic fans. Written by Ian Boothby,with pencils by John Delaney and inks by Andrew Pepoy. This story is my favorite one in the issue and I would love to see more stories using this premise.

Overall this is a great comic. Plus it being free adds to it's greatness. Bongo Comics Free for all 2010 gets a A.

Bongo comics Free for all FCBD 2012

Bongo Comics Free for all FCBD 2012


Every year on free comic book day Bongo comics puts out a free comic. Most of the time the comic is loaded with great Simpsons stories. Usually it turns out to be one of my favorites of the FCBD choices. Sadly this year it was the worst one I got. 

We start off with a great cover of Comic Book Guy dressed up as various geek icons. We start off with a story about the Springfield bear patrol. It is a great funny little story. And sadly it is funnier than the Simpsons TV show has been in years. Up next is a Sergio Aragones story "My first Peso". This story seems to be auto biographical. And of course has great Sergio artwork. Well after that story it is time to flip the book over. WTF Spongebob? I have never been a SpongeBob fan. This side has one fairly long SpongeBob story. Then a one page gag strip. And both of them are pretty shitty. Now I know I didn't have to pay for this. But if I had known in advance that most of the book wasn't gonna be Simpsons stories I doubt I would have gotten it. Bongo Comics Free for all FCBD 2012 gets a C-.

1001 Classic Commercials DVD set

1001 Classic Commercials DVD

 I have been wanting to get this DVD set for a few years. But never saw it in any stores. Then last year I was trading some DVDs with a buddy of mine. And he had the set and didn't want it. So we worked out a deal. A few weeks later I got in a huge package. The first thing I watched was parts of this set.

The set has 3 DVDs. The commercials are grouped into categories. Like say toys,food,cigarettes,etc. Now I haven't watch every thing on all 3 discs. But what I have watched has been pretty fun. Sadly some of the commercials are in such bad shape they are really hard to see or hear. But then there is some that look amazing when you consider how old they are. One of my faves is one that has Bugs Bunny and the Monkees advertising Kool Aid. Plus I love all the various ads for toys and cigarettes.

I have noticed that this set keeps turning up in the Walmart $5 bin. And it is more than worth that price. 1001 Classic Commercials gets a B.

Blackstar the forgotten prototype for Masters of the Universe

Blackstar

Back in the fall of 1981 a new cartoon premiered on CBS Saturday morning. This  was Blackstar. John Blackstar is an astronaut who is sucked through a black hole and ends up on the planet Sagar. After arriving he meets the trobbits,which are pink hobbit like creatures that live in a tree. Blackstar ends up fighting off the evil Overlord. During this battle Overlord's weapon,the Powersword,splits into two parts. Blackstar ends up with one half and Overlord has the other half. The rest of the series is mainly about Overlord trying to get back the half of the Powersword that Blackstar has.

When I was a young kid this was my favorite cartoon. But sadly it only lasted one season. Blackstar was done by Filmation. And if you watch it you can see how lots of the plots and ideas from this cartoon were used later on in Filmation's Masters of the Universe cartoon. I can remember when I first saw the Masters of the Universe cartoon a few years later I was mad that it had ripped off Blackstar so much.

Now I never remember seeing this show ever in reruns or syndication. But from 1983 through 1985 the Galoob toy company produced a bunch of action figures. Each of the good guy figures came packages with a PVC figure of one of the Trobbits. Also I remember having one that had a flint sparker in the figure that made a symbol on the chest light up.

By the mid 2000's I had pretty much forgotten about this cartoon. Then BCI put out a DVD set that all 13 episodes. Some of which even have commentaries. I quickly bought it and sat down to watch it. Surprisingly it holds  up as good if not better than Masters of the Universe. This DVD set is out of print now. But isn't that expensive.

After doing some research I found out that over in France there was a short lived comic book based on the cartoon. I would love to find some copies,even though I can't read french. It seems weird that neither DC or Marvel did a comic book based on Blackstar. But that might be cause it only had the one short season.

With all the various 80's cartoon series coming back and getting comic books,I would love to see more Blackstar stories. Sadly this cartoon is mostly forgotten. Even among people of my age group most of them have no idea what I am talking about when I mention Blackstar. The Blackstar cartoon and DVD set get a solid B+.