Good finds in teh cheap bins-5 random issues of Groo the Wanderer

Groo is a comic book series that at last count has been published by 6 different companies. Written by Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragoines and with Sergio doing the artwork this is a simple tale of a brainless barbarian and his trusty dog. As they go from town to town trying to earn money and get some cheese dip. Now a few years back I won an auction on Ebay and got like 40 random issues of the Marvel/Epic run of Groo. And the other day dug them out cause I wanted something funny to read. The first issue I read was #24 and dealt with a town that had be cursed to become the ugliest town on the planet. And with how Groo keeps trying to undo the curse. The second issue,#25,was all about how through so misadventures Groo ended up having 3 different groups of raiders attack the same town. Then issue #33 in which Groo becomes leader of a group of pirates. Which is strange cause any ship Groo comes aboard ends up sinking rather quickly. Issue #42 is up next and has the classic story of Grannie Groo trying to marry Groo off to 2 different women. The first of which is a fugly farm girl and the second of which is a rich princess. Great issue that had me laughing many many times.Last one in this group was issue #43. Another issue with Grannie Groo ,she sells Groo into slavery,and he of course messed up her plan. I have always enjoyed Groo,but have learned to never read most than 5 or 6 issues at once. If you do the stories start to run together and it kinda makes then less enjoyable. This batch of Groo comics gets a B+.

AP wrestling 10/31/2009 Green Goblin ring entrance

Wow this has a very tiny crowd that is super vocal.

Archie Van Winkle Independent Wrestler

Thrift store and antique mall finds part 1

Been down in Biloxi since last weekend. Went to the huge thrift store in Ocean Spring the other day and got the following.

Shazam Little Golden book-59 cents-I remember having this one when I was very young. Don't even think I could read when I had it . In decent condition. No rips to any pages and no crayon marks on any page. Still found it funny it has a cover price of 49 cents. But the thrift store wanted 59 cents.

The Phantom Movie novelization-25 cents-It will just get thrown into the "books I need to read pile". But the price was cheap,and I liked the movie.

Triple H stuffed toy with voice chip,Michealangelo action figure,Disney Robin Hood Action figure,Rearview mirror Enterprise toy,and big headed Emperor Palpatine toy-59 cents-This was a clear plastic bag stuffed with about 15 different toys. I saw the Triple H ,Robin hood and enterprise toy. Figured those 3 were worth the price. Gave the rest of the stuff I didn't mention to my cousin's two sons.

Then today I went to a local Antique mall. Has about 60ish booths. Lots of decently priced stuff. one fourth of the back wall is a huge book store. Lots of stuff at great prices. I had went here cause my Uncle had told me he had found some wrestling dvds here the other day. We never found them,I figured someone bought them. But I found a stack of Crossgen Edge TPBs about 5 volumes total. I only had 3 bucks on me,so luck for me they were priced at $2 each. No copies of number 1,but they had 2-5ish. I grabbed a good condition copy.

Al Pro Wrestling Philadelphia MS 02/20/2010

Picked up this DVD at the Xtreme Outlaw Wrestling show I went too last Saturday.I open up the disc using VLC player. Nice the menu looks just like the ones my DVD recorder.Some guy in a suit comes out and tells the crowd why the show is starting late. Looks like a 200+ crowd. Guy in suit starts shilling the 50/50 bucket. Winner gets 50% of the money from the raffle ticket sales. And also gets to walk to the ring with Jerry Lawler. They also want females over the age of 18 for a lumberjill match later. They want to put 12 women around the ring and arm them each with a belt.

First match is Anton Leveigh vs Monty Warbucks. I am not completely sure but it sounds like Warbucks is coming out to Motorhead. That means Bix will already be booing Mr Warbucks. The crowd heckles Warbucks. After about 2 minutes Anton Leveigh's music hits. And the crowd goes wild. Kinda funny seeing a most likely religious audience cheering for a guy who shares his name with the head of the Church of Satan. Warbucks does a half ass Fargo strut,to mild boos from the crowd. Then he slips climbing the first rope and rolls out the ring. The two guys have a pose down that gets the crowd excited. Anton eats a shoulder-block and Warbucks does the Fargo strut again. Monty gets Anton in the corner and starts to chop him. Nice sold looking and sounding chops,he follows this up with a arm breaker. Anton does a spinning arm scissors take down followed by a hurricanrana. Then he climbs to the top rope. Ron Horn has run out and throws him off the top rope. Ron,Warbucks and Warbucks second all beat on Leveigh for a few minutes then Barry Wolf hits the ring. He cleans house and the heels regroup at ringside. Horn and Warbucks do a great Fabulous ones strut outta camera side right. And the ref lets us know that Anton Leveigh won by DQ. Warbucks bets that Ron Horn can beat Barry Wolf in 7 minutes.

So we get to match two. Ron Horn and Barry Wolf take turns climbing the turnbuckles. Horn of course getting boos and Wolf getting screams. Wolf throws Horn in the corner and then splashes him. Horn does a great fall and then he does the southern heel tactic of stalling. Horns hits a shoulder block,then Wolf counters with two quick arm drags. Horn rolls out the ring and sits in the lap of some man at ringside. The numerous kids in the audience start making chicken noises at Horn and he finally gets back in the ring. Horn nails a nice looking clothesline then starts stomping on Wolf's hand. He slaps the crap outta Wolf and brings him to his feet to then just knock him down again with a punch. Ron puts Wolf in a bow and arrow. And Warbucks tries to start up a "LETS GO RON" chant. Wolf fights his way back to his feet but ends up eating a stiff elbow from Horn. After criss crossing the ring Wolf connects with a good flying clothesline. Then he climbs the ropes to go for what I bet is his finisher. But Warbucks knocks him down and Horn takes advantage of this. Wolf is down on the mat in pain,and the ref calls for the bell. Horn and Warbucks do the strut again,but Anton Leveigh hits the ring and runs them out. The ref declares Barry Wolf the winner. And Wolf and Leveigh chase Horn and Warbucks outta the arena.

Third Match. "Hells Bells" is playing so I guess that means Milhouse will hate Lord Humongous. I know there is no way this is Sid Vicious under the hockey mask. Looks like the crowd is around 180-200 or so. Oh shit are they handing Lord Humongous a mic? OK that wasn't a mic. Mitch Snakeman Teretta comes out. With his canvas bag,most likely holding a nice sized albino python. Has anyone ever come to the ring using "The Crusher-The Ramones" or even better "The Crusher-The Dee Dee Ramone/king rap song" as their entrance music? This will be the fourth time I have seen Teretta wrestle. I figure with these two guys we might get a good WWF 80's style match. Two big guys hitting each other with crisp power moves. Back and forth till Teretta flips Humongous over the top rope. Both guys fight back into the ring. Mitch ends up hitting a DDT on Humongous manager and then drapes the snake over him. Somehow this causes Mitch to win. I think I might have missed something. Ok the snake isn't an albino. The two times I saw Mitch wrestle last month he had a 8footish albino Python. I have a pic of it i need to scan in."You shook me all night long-ACDC" hits and Monty Warbucks,Ron Horn,and who I bet is Ash Anderson. I am confirmed to be right by the ring announcer. The crowd boos the shit outta Anderson. Then some rock/rap/country song hits and Cowboy Cody starts his way to the ring. Anderson attacks Cody,while Cody is distracted throwing bandannas into the audience. A few minutes into the match Ron Horn and Monty Warbucks again attack the ring and gang up on Cowboy Cody. Causing the match to be "thrown out". Anton and Barry wolf hit the ring and help Cody up. Anton gets on the mic and calls Horn,Anderson and Warbucks the gay trio. And the crowd cheers. Nice Barry Wolf calls Ron Horn "Fat Hardy". I seriously believe Ron needs to be in TNA soon working a Matt and Jeff's little unknown half brother. Barry Wolf refers to the trio as the Buffet Patrol. The heels finally accept the challenge. And we are on to the semi main event.

Anton Leveigh,Cowboy Cody,Barry Wolf VS Monty Warbucks,Ron "Fat Hardy" Horn,and Ash Anderson. Ash starts the match and circles around the ring with Leveigh. Ash rake's Anton's eyes and Warbucks gets tagged in. Leveigh takes him down quick with a arm drag and repeats this a few seconds later with Ron Horn. Barry Wolf tags in and hits a second rope elbow on Horn. Horn tags in Anderson. Wolf gets him in the corner and tries to throw him into the other. But it is reversed by Ash. Cowboy Cody tags in and challenges Ash to a test of strength. Ash kicks Cody in the stomach 2 times . Cody powers up and hits all three of the heels with solid right hands. The heels go outside the ring and huddle up. Cody tags in Wolf. Wolf climbs to the top rope and hits a double ax handle on Ash. But Horn,Anderson,and Warbucks end up triple teaming Wolf behind the refs back. Wolf kinda reminds me of a young memphis era Ricky Morton. The heels triple team Wolf again behind the ref's back. Warbucks drags Wolf to the center of the ring and nails a backhand chop which cause's Barry to collapse to the mat. This keeps going on for 3 or so minutes. And finally Ash goes for a pin,but Leveigh runs in for a quick save. Warbucks tags in and slaps Wolf hard in the face. Wolf is selling this punishment very much like Morton. Horn tags in and Wolf manages to hit Horn with a running elbow smash. Both guys are flat on their backs and the ref starts the 10 count. Horn is on his knees at 6. Wolf tags out at 8. And Leveigh hits the ring just pounding on all three of the heels. Leveigh goes up and hits a second rope frog splash on Warbucks to get the win. Very fun to watch southern style tag match.

I fast forward thru the ring announcer and stop on who I assume is a heel. He is talking about how he doesn't like fat people,and nasty people from Philadelphia. And he guarantee's us that Jerry Lawler won't make it to the PPV tomorrow. Jerry Lawler makes his way to the ring with two referees. I assume the heel is Neil"The real deal" Taylor. With his manager Hollywood Jimmy. The King works on the mic cutting down Hollywood Jimmy. Nice Taylor is coming to the ring to "Beat It-Micheal Jackson". OK I am kinda confused the DVD back cover promises over 2 hours of action. But this is the last match listed on the back of the case match listing. According to the clock this runs 2 hours 40 something minutes . And we are at a little over and hour. The King comes out to "Back in Black-ACDC". WTF did they just have a ACDC greatest hits CD for the music? Both guys stall for 5 or so minutes. Taking turns with the house mic. The crowd is of course behind Lawler. IIRC Philadelphia is pretty close to Memphis. Taylor slams Lawler. And Lawler quickly slams Taylor. Taylor rolls outta the ring. They lock up again,and Taylor throws Lawler into the ropes. And then hits a back body flip/ The King gets back on his feet and gets throw again into the ropes. But the King hits the breaks and smacks Taylor with a right fist. Hollywood Jimmy complains about Lawler using closed fists. But this of course just gets the crowd even more behind Jerry. The king hits a jawbreaker that sends Taylor to the mat. Lawler hits three right fists then tries to pin Taylor after a dropkick. Taylor kicks out and the King keeps telling Taylor to "Get UP!". Jerry hits another right fist and Taylor takes the Greg Valentine face first fall to the mat. Somehow Taylor ends up with what looks to be brass knuckles. And he hits Lawler with them. Taylor climbs to the top rope. And catches Lawler with a jumping punch thingy. Lawler wins, but while he is celebrating Taylor punches the King in the back of the head. Then starts to choke Lawler on the bottom rope. Some guy comes into the ring talking smack on Hollywood Jimmy. But the guy gets blindsided by Taylor and then a beatdown from Neil and Jimmy. Ok this is strange this is the listed main event. But the counter list almost an hour left. Oh crap Taylor now has Lawler handcuffed to the bottom rope. Lawler seems to break the handcuffs. And runs the two dasturdly heels outta ring.

Out comes JD Macay. Backed up with the Ghost Rider. Seems this was supposed to happen at a later show, But JD doesn't want to wait. And he wants to face the Giant Hillbilly tonight in a strap match. The ring is surrounded by what looks like 9 women. I guess this is the lumberjill match and it is now also a strap match. Is Russeo booking this? The ring announcer is trying to make sure all the lumber jills have a belt. And the lady in front of the camera keeps talking about how she will "Whip the tar outta Macay's little white BUTT! I'M GONNA TEAR THAT LITTLE WHITE BUTT UP!!". Then sadly the camera person tells her to get outta the way.Shit they aren't using a strap. Giant Hillbilly chases JD outta the ring and JD gets hit with a belt. He quickly rolls back in and starts yelling at the lady that hit him with the belt. This is the longest match I have seen with Hillbilly in it. JD ends up out in the audience and two of the ladies try to hit him with their belts. JD gets a small comeback on the Hillbilly. And the crowd starts chanting for the Hillbilly to get up and beat on JD. JD takes off his boot and hits the Giant Hillbilly with it 3 times. Then puts the Hillbilly in a figure four. But the Hillbilly reverses it. And JD taps out.

I just realized that earlier they said that the winner of the 50/50 raffle would come out in the main event with Lawler. But this didn't happen and Lawler wasn't the main event. two guys hit the ring. One of who I think might be Alan Funk. I have no idea who the other guy is . Then some rap song hits the speakers and CJ Cash and some guy who's name I can't make out head to the ring.Fairly long well paced tag match.Cash and the guy in the yellow trunks have the crowd completely behind them. The two heels do the old fake tag behind the refs back bit and basically double team Yellow Trunks guy. Wait I think yellow trunks guy is Cameron Valentine. And 10 minutes or so into the match the dvd is over. That sucks but shit it only cost me $5. It was worth what I paid for it.

Xtreme Outlaw Wrestling 10/30/2010 Brookhaven MS Factory Furniture Store Free show

This is the free show that was promoted at the last XOW show in Brookhaven.it was held at a local furniture store. I showed up about 1 1/2 hours early and ran into the old guy that believes that since Mid South folded wrestling has been fake. Ended up getting to talk to a few of the workers,and got them to autograph a poster from the last show. Checked the gimmick table and they had a dvd. All Pro Productions presents Wrestling at the Carthage Coliseum,Carthage MS Halloween Night 2009. It was only $5 so I picked it up. The front and back covers list,Cameron Valentine,The real deal Neil taylor,CJ Cash,JD Mckay,The Giant Hillbilly,NWA superstar Johnny Morton,Special Ed,and Nick Grymes. They were selling "autographed" pics of Stone Cold for $2. There was no chairs,unless you brought your own. So I was happy I had thrown a folding chair in the backseat of my car before I left home.

First match was Soultaker Grim VS Antino Salvadori. Antino was working a mafia gimmick and was the face. Soultaker Grim,Who it turns out owns the ring that was used,was doing a kinda heel undertaker/bikertaker gimmick. Grim riles up the crowd ,and after about 8 minutes of action hits Salvadori with a chokeslam to get the pin. The kids in front of me asked their dad if Soultaker Grim was Undertaker's and Kane's older brother.

Next up was Ron "Fat Hardy" Horn VS Faroh of Phunk. I had mentioned before the show to Horn that at the last show he reminded me of Adrian Street. He thanked me and said that he knows Adrian and how cool Adrian is. Faroh of Phunk is wearing a bandanna and a black shirt that on the back it has the naked lady from the 18 wheeler mudflaps and the word FAROH below it. Fairly quick paced match with Faroh doing lots of fast paced moves and Horn stalling and other classic southern heel tricks. After Horn has been stalling for a few minutes I yell "Hey FAT HARDY lock up already!". And the crowd starts to call him Fat Hardy. Horn ends up cheating the win, and this gets the crowd very rowdy.

Jesse Dalton VS Barry Wolf is up next. Barry Wolf is the guy that went by Dustin Wolf at the last show. Barry is also Mr 500 since he came in at 500 in this years PWI 500. Nice back and forth match that last for at least 10 minutes,before Ron Horn runs in and helps Dalton win. This causes the Faroh of Phunk to come out and challenge Dalton and Horn to a tag match later on in the show. After some heckling from a large woman in the crowd.who had about 4 teeth,Horn/Dalton finally accept. The promoter comes on the mic and tells us this will be the main event. Which is kinda weird cause the poster list Kamala VS Mitch "Snakeman" Teretta as the main event.

After the match the announcer tells up they are having a 50/50 raffle. You buy a ticket for a buck. And before the main event they will pick a winner. The winner gets half of the ticket sales money and gets to come out with one of the teams at the main event.

I look over to the door that is serving as the lockroom door,and see Snakeman coming out. He walks to the ring and then opens up his canvas bag and throws out his at least 7 foot long albino python. I am puzzled why the advertisted main event is happening as the 4th match of a promised 7 matches. Then some tribal music hits and out comes Kamala. Who looks like he is weighing in at 250 tops now. No Akbar or Kim Chee as his manager instead he has a guy,that I was told is training. Seems this guys name is Soul Train. He is a average height kinda chubby super pale white guy. The crowd kinda doesn't know how to react,since both guys are faces. Kamala refuses to get in the ring until the snake is put back in the bag. Finally they lock up,and Kamala throws Snakeman into the corner. After about 6 minutes of chops,and shoulderblocks from Kamala,Ron Horn hits the ring and causes a draw. I found this kinda weird. I figure it might be cause both guys are faces.

Time for intermission,so I walk back to the gimmick table and see they have sold out of the DVD I bought and have a new one for sale. All Pro Wrestling,Philadelphia MS Feb 20,2010. And it list a lineup of Jerry the King Lawler,Rob Horn aka Ron Horn,Neil The real deal Taylor,Anton Leveigh,Monty Warbucks,Hollywood Jimmy,Lord Humongons,and Mitch Teretta.I check the back and it has 6 matches listed. And buy it since it is $5. I go back and sit down and see that Dustin/Barry Wolf is at ringside and so I go up and talk to him. Turns out he had read my review of the last show. And then he offers to autograph my dvd,and I get a picture with him. A few minutes later the Faroh of Phunk comes out,I go to get a pic with him and he comments on how most of the audience is taller than him. Then Mitch Snakeman Teretta hits the ring. He is doing free autographs and taking pics with his snake in the ring for $5. I got get a pic taken. And he tells me he will have it printed up for me later in the show. Kamala comes out and is charging $5 for autographs. And the promoter is selling a program for $2 that has pics of most of the guys on the show,plus various other wrestlers that work in this area. I end up buying a poster of the event from a kid for $3 and after the show got a few of the guys to autograph it. I go talk to the announcer and he tells me he will give me the match listings after the show. So I spelled all the names as they were listed.

Finally intermission is over and John Thor comes out,but he sadly doesn't have his cane with him. Then "King of the Road" hits and The Giant Hillbilly comes out. The crowd goes fucking insane. Hillbilly seems to almost be more over than Kamala. They work almost the same match as the last time I saw them. But the crowd again gets really into it. Giant Hillbilly hits a giant splash in the corner and pins Thor for the 3 count.

Jay Blade is out next,and since he was one of the best workers on the last card I am excited. He is working heel again. Then the announcer tells us that The Nick Mason Experience is on his way to the ring. Nick it turns out is the skinny teenage kid I saw earlier putting the ring together. Fun cruiserweight style match.

Now it's time to see who wins the 50/50 raffle. Turns out to be some teenager. He goes and gets his half of the money. And it is time for the main event. Out first is Ron Horn and Jesse Dalton. They get heckled by the crowd and Barry Wolf and the Faroh of Phunk hit the ring. This was your classic southern style tag match. With Horn and Dalton cutting off the ring on Wolf. And cheating every time the ref is distracted. Wolf is like a modern day deep south indy Ricky Morton. His selling is getting the crowd all worked up. The woman with 3 teeth says something I can't make out,but it causes Horn to LOL for 3 or 4 minutes. Finally the Faroh gets the hot-tag. And he cleans house. Him and Wolf do a double roll-up and win the match. As soon as the match is over the crowd starts walking off. But Ron Horn gets on the mic and talks about how they just got a free wrestling show. And should at least go take a look inside the local furniture store that is sponsoring the show. Sadly most of the crowd ignores him. I go thank the promoter and the store owner for the show. And then got to talk to John Thor and Jay Blade for a few minutes. Overall it was a better show than the last one in town. And I am hoping the 2 DVDs I bought will also be just as fun.

Xtreme Outlaw Wrestling show 9/02/2010 Brookhaven MS

Xtreme Outlaw Wrestling Card 09/02/2010
Lincoln Civic Center in Brookhaven MS

XOW runs shows through out Mississippi and parts of Tennessee. On Wednesday I saw a poster up at the local library. In big letters it said WWE superstars. Then listed the following wrestlers. Kid Kash,Anton Levay,Giant Hillbilly,Brian Christopher,Mr Wrestling,Doink,Chief Pierre Goldstein and The Snakeman. I saw that tickets were only 10 bucks,so I decided to go. Showed up about 40 minutes till they opened the doors. Waited in line and had a old man explain to me how wrestling has been fake since Mid South/UWF folded. Finally the doors open and I go get a seat in the front row. Behind me is a stage and on the corner of it is a old ass video camera on a tripod. Saw they had a gimmick table set up,so I walked over and checked out the merch. There was a couple of WWE DVDs that you can normally find for $5 but they wanted $10. Also they had a bunch of kids WWE shirts. About 20 of the John Cena camo baseball caps. A handful of kid sized foam WWE belts. And weirdly a bunch of rubber snakes. Not seeing anything I wanted to buy I went back to my seat and found out from the guy sitting next to me that on the 30th of this month XOW will be back in Brookhaven with a free outdoor show at a local furniture store. And they guarantee that Kamala will be at the free show. To kill sometime I take a quick count of the crowd and it is about 200 or so. Kinda funny that a tiny Indy fed in a tiny MS town can draw a bigger crowd than IWA-MS has in about a year and a half.

The show starts about 5 minutes late,and a local radio DJ is the announcer. He tells us that tonight will be a tournament for the All Pro World title. The belt looks pretty nice for such a small fed. But first off we are gonna get what he refers to as an exhibition match.

Coming to the ring first is Ron Horn,who is working a prissy heel gimmick. Then next we have Dustin Wolf,who seems to be working the typical southern face gimmick. Horn stalls and does a few comedy spots before locking up. After a couple of arm drags by Wolf the guy sitting behind me calls Horn "FAT HARDY". Which gets the crowd to start up a "FAT HARDY" chant. Both guys did a great job getting the crowd worked up with lots of interaction. After about 15 minutes of decent back and forth action ,Horn wins by holding the tights of Wolf. Fat Hardy hauls ass to the back. While Dustin walks around shaking hands with all the kids. Before the next match can start the crowd notices Horn walking outta the big bay door of the civic center,and they boo him again.

First match in the All Pro World title tournament is John Thor versus The Snakeman. Thor comes out first looking like Greg Allman and Sandman mated and produced a kid. He evens has his own version of a Singapore cane,which I swear is a cane fishing pole. Thor is obviously a heel,and starts interacting with the crowd. Then The Snakeman comes out with a big canvas drawstring bag. He opens up the bag and throws a huge snake,at least 8 foot long,into the ring. All the kids and half the adults start running up to the ring. The one guy they had working security does his best to keep the audience away from the snake. Big surprise John Thor is afraid of the snake. Finally after about 6 minutes of stalling and yelling at the crowd Thor finally gets in the ring and locks up with Snakeman. Another decent 12 minute or so match. Thor gets the cane and hits Snakeman with it 3 times,and the cane splitters. The ref signals for the end of the match,and Snakeman advances when John Thor gets DQed for using the cane.

Second match in the tournament is Jay Blade versus Anton Levay. Blade is out first and has some nice looking ring gear. Anton Levay comes out next and the guy next to me talks about how Levay looks like Fez from that 70's show. They lock up and run the ropes a few times.Levay gets thrown outta the ring and lands right in front of me. Then Jay Blade climbs to the top turnbuckle and hits Levay with a flying cross body block. They brawl around the crowd and end up on the stage behind me. Blade slams Anton off the stage to the hard concrete floor. Blade goes for another cross body and misses. They get back in the ring and Anton throw about 3 very nice looking kicks. Levay climbs the ropes and hits a frog splash for the pin. This ended up being the best match on the card,and had a nice crusierweight feel too it. After the match Anton gets on the mic and cuts a promo about how he loves wrestling in Mississippi but he hates the MS athletic commission. He mentions how lots of what he said is going over most of the crowd head.

Intermission time,and The Snakeman is out for autographs and pics. 75% of the crowd goes to get a picture made with Snakeman. I bend over to get the drink I had under my seat,and when I pick my head back up I see about 10 kids in the ring. After a few minutes some lady comes out and gets the kids outta the ring. So all the kids go over the announcer's table,which has the All Pro World title belt on it. And they take turns posing with the belt. I hear the sound of a cowbell,and see the Giant Hillbilly coming outta the back and he heads to the ring. He gets one of the mics and talks about how his opponent can't make it tonight,but he wanted to come out and thank the crowd for coming to the show tonight. Hillbilly is busy talking to the crowd when John Thor hits the ring and smacks the Giant Hillbilly 2 times with his splintered cane. Hillbilly gets pissed off and hollers at the promoter that he wants a match tonight with Thor. The promoter agrees to this and sets the match ,which will happen when intermission is over.

4th match of the card , Giant Hillbilly versus John Thor. Thor comes out first and has Jay Blade with him. Giant Hillbilly is next and he gets right in the ring,but Thor stays outside the ring and heckles a rather large lady in the front row. One of the kids on the other side of the ring from me,walks up and hands the Giant Hillbilly a rubber snake. Hillbilly gets Thor to finally get into the ring,and when Thor gets near him. Hillbilly shows him the snake. Thor runs away,and Giant Hillbilly throws the toy snake at him. After what seemed like 10 minutes of heckling the crowd,Thor gets in the ring and the match starts. Giant Hillbilly works the standard big man offence.He slams Thor a few times and does a big splash in the corner. After the splash Hillbilly gets the pin. Not that good of a match,mainly cause Hillbilly is kinda limited. But the crowd was really into the match ,and the kids were chanting "HILLBILLY" through out most of the match.

Final of the All Pro World title tournament is Anton Levay vs The Snakeman. Both guys shake hands and hug to start the match. Snakeman does lots of power moves,and Levay is all crusierweightish. The crowd seemed to be evenly split between Levay and Snakeman. After about 10 minutes of mat action ,Levay hits a good frog splash and gets the win.

Turns out that a bunch of guys no-showed. I am not sure if maybe the Athletic commission had anything to do with this. Kinda sucks that 4 guys listed on the poster weren't at the show. But the show was more than worth the 10 bucks admission.

Why isn't this better known 01

The Tick Luny Bin Trilogy issues 0-3

story and art by Eli Stone

This is the second storyline in the Tick series by Eli Stone. The Tick is hypnotized and returns to the Evensville clinic. Which is a mental hospital he escaped from in the first issue of the Ben englund Tick run. When he gets there the evil doctor that worked with the Tick during his first stay there tries his best to convince Tick that he is a normal person and should give up his superhero gig. While this is happening Arthur goes and recruits M.O.A.V,the mystic order of arachnid vigilante, to help him bust the Tick out. The membership of M.O.A.V. is made up of the other patients of Evensville that escaped at the same time Tick did. Since Tick is in the hospital Barry,the former Tick, decides to work a deal out with a group of super villains. They are lead by Chairface Chippendale. And the deal is Barry will bust them while they are committing crimes,but he will let them go instead of turning them over to the police. Well since Barry is a little bit insane he ends up just beating the shit outta the various villains. So a small group lead by Chairface goes to bust The Tick outta Evensville. This all comes together in the third issue,where two groups,one made up of Arthur and the MOAV and the other a group of villains with Chairface show up. The evil doctor tries his best to remove Tick's mask but no matter what it won't come off. This causes the doctor to proclaim "The mask is the Tick and the Tick is the mask." An explosion happens and most of the villains are captured. Arthur,the Tick and MOAV escape unharmed. But the evil doctor is badly injured and before he dies he reveals a secret about the Tick to Arthur. Sadly this isn't revealed to us the readers. When I first read this was already a huge tick fan cause of the Foxkids cartoon, I had heard of the NEC comic,and even owned a couple of issues. But had never read any of them. Thanks to the great owner of Lynns Comics in Nederland Texas, I started reading this series. He gave all 4 issues to me and told me go read them if you don't like them you can keep them for free,if you do like them give me 12 bucks for all 4. Needless to say I loved them,and over a course of about 2 years managed to acquire most of the previous Tick comics,and bought every new Tick series that came out. The storyline was really good,lots of oddball humor with a touch of seriousness that was the trademark for the original Ben Edlund Tick run. The artwork was also good,sure it's black and white,but the shading gave it a depth that most current color comics don't seem to have. The Tick Luny Bin Trilogy earns a B+.

I love the cheap bins 02

Americomics #3

Published by AC comics

1983

The second and final appearance of one of the Charlton Action Heroes from AC comics. This issue contains 2 stories. The first one "Return from Pago Island" story/inks by Rik Levins edits/inks by Bill Black stars the Ted Kord Blue Beetle. While he is taking down a warehouse full of criminals,Ted is surprised by the original Beetle Dan Garrett busting through the wall. It seems that Dan is mad at Ted for abandoning him at Pago Island,and is back for revenge. After a fairly lengthily fight it turns out that the Dan Beetle is a robot that Ted's crazy uncle created. Ted manages to take it down and the story ends. The second story "The Blue Beetle to live again" Written by Leo J Laney and Neal Stannard,with art by Leo J Laney and Bill Black. Two very Kirbyish looking gods bring the 1940's Dan Garrett Beetle back to life. Some gangsters have kidnapped Ted Kord and Dan goes to save him. Using the powers granted to him by vitamin X,Dan manages to take out all the gangster fairly quick.At the end him and Ted shake hands and plan on teaming up again. This issue unlike the Sentinels of justice one isn't that great,the first story has good art and an ok story,but is nothing special. The second story has art that is a weird mix of Kirby and Ditko. The story is fairly cliched and not that good. Americomics #3 earns a 5.5. And that is mainly for the front and back covers.

I love the cheap bins 01

Americomics Special #1

Sentinels of Justice

published by AC Comics in 1983

Written by Dan Saint John

Art by Greg Guler

Backgrounds by Matt Feazell

This is one of two issues published by AC comics in the early 80's that features the old Charlton Action Heros. In this issue Blue Beetle,Ted Kord,Captain Atom,Nightshade and The Question are the super team Sentinels of Justice. They are called together to meet up with the police commissoner. He tells them about a rash of robberies that all involve alternate forms of energy. So he sends the four masked heroes to protect a new solar battery. Turns out a villian ,The Manipulator,is the mastermind behind these robberies. He has assembled a team consisding of Iron Arms,Fiery-Icer and "the lunatic terrorist group" The Madmen. The next day at Whittier Hall the battery is being shown to the public,Captain Atom and Nightshade are inside in their civilian identities. And Beetle and Question are outside keeping watch. Beetle spots a hovercar,and radios Question and they both head into the hall. An 8 page battle happens with the heroes taking out every villian but the Manipulator. But seems Manipulator has an ace up his sleeve. He presses a button on the cuff of his jacket and The Banshee flys in through a window grabs the Manipulator and flies off. The four heroes try to follow him,but it turns out that Iron Arms isnt as defeated as they thought he was. So they work together to take him out. On the final page we see Manipulator bragging about he has a spy inside the Sentinels of Justice team,and we see a shadowy figure who it turns out is the real lead villain. Sadly we will never find out who this shadowy man is. Since right after this book was finished the Charlton Action Heroes were sold to DC. This was a fun comic. It was the basic first story of a superteam that any comic fan has read many times,but you can see where it has plenty of pontential. The artwork while not the best is still nice and clean. I would have loved to see what AC had planned for futher issues of this title,but that never happened. But since I found this for $1,it is more than worth what I paid. If you are a fan of either the Charlton run of these four heroes,or the later DC run it is worth finding a copy. One thing I liked about it was it was printed on slick paper,but it wasn't the super shiny paper that is used a lot today. Americomics Special #1 gets a 7 outta 10.

Cheap Complete runs 02

The last 10 issues of Malibu's Protectors comic show an noticeable improvement in the artwork. And also have the two best story lines in the series short run. After wrapping up the Ms fury storyline in issue 12,the Genesis crossover starts. Genesis was a way for Malibu to create their own universe by connecting 3 different titles. They are Dinosaurs for hire,Ex-Mutants,and Protectors. The crossover shook up the Protectors team,and when it was over they had about 3 new members and had lost a few of their old members. Overall this was the second best storyline in the Protectors run,the only detriment is that you have to get issues of Dinosaurs for hire and Ex-Mutants to really understand what is going on. Sadly even this crossover didn't help increase the sales of the title,so with issue 18 the final storyline is started. Titled "The Beginning of the ending" it ran 3 issues and had the Protectors going up against the biggest threat so far. Some members of the team die and in the last few pages of issue 20 the entire world is destroyed. Insuring that there is a small to nil chance of the Protectors ever coming back. This series is rarely mention now,mainly cause of the bad art. And cause around the midway point Malibu started up the Ultraverse which got all the acclaim. But if you are a fan of Golden age heroes and can enjoy a well written comic that has below average art it is worth picking up. I found most of the issues in cheap bins or for cheap online. But the last three issues had very low print runs so they usually cost a bit more,but with some searching you can find them for around cover price. So if you have read and enjoyed Project Superpowers give The Protectors a chance,you might be surprised. 8 outta 10.

Cheap Complete runs 01

Back in 1992 a indy company named Malibu had managed to raise their profile. They published the first few comics put out by Image. Protectors was a super hero series where most of the heroes were reworkings of public domain golden age heroes. While it never had great artwork,you can say the first 5 or so issues had horrid artwork, the writing was good and interesting. In this universe there hasn't been super heroes around since an incident that destroyed most of Richmond VA. After the evil Mr Monday shows back up,the government decides to form a new government sponsored super team. So the Protectors are born,headquartered on a decommissioned navel ship. The team is lead by Man of war,a semi patriotic hero that is some level of invulnerability and carries a flaming sword. Other stand out members are Gravestone who is Malibu's version of the Specter,and The Ferret who is your basic Wolverine rip off. The first 5 or 6 issues deal with the team forming,and learning to work together. Then bam one of the heroes,Masked Marvel, who is also the president's son is killed by Mr Monday.This happens in an issue that on the cover had a tight close up of Masked Marvel's chest and the hole in his chest goes thru the entire comic. Lame gimmick but it did make this issue stand out when it came out. This causes the team to take a more proactive approach to fighting crime. Next up the team ends up getting transported to another dimension. Where it turns out the city that was thought destroyed is. Here they face a villain that is very Jokerish. After this storyline we meet a new heroine who is called Ms Fury. And that ends the first 10 issues,at another time I will talk about the next ten issues. Every one of these issues can be found cheap,I got a handful of them for free and the rest I never paid more than a buck for.Truthfully if you can handle bad art and have a interest in alot of the lesser known golden age heroes this series can be a fun read. 6 outta 10.