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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 18:00:49 GMT -5
Good feedback, everyone - Thanks. Several points:
First, I also will never take out my wallet for a beggar either - not just because I don't like giving money anymore, but because I'm also concerned about getting my wallet stolen/taken. I have come close to getting mugged in the past, and will never give these people a chance to do so again.
Second, a lot of beggars will not accept food - they will only want money.
Third, I have given money to beggars and have had them be very ungrateful, and say, "That's it?" They should be glad I'm giving them anything, especially since I rarely carry cash on me to begin with.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 17:06:41 GMT -5
Well, to the best of my knowledge, the government assistance phones don't look like iphones, right? So Rom and Ish's points are both valid. Agreed. I've just had a lot of scams attempted on me too many times to have much sympathy for people who claim to be down on their luck. However, I don't want to de-rail this thread too much so...back on topic.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 16:49:21 GMT -5
Yes, but are these phones expensive I-phones with games, Internet, streaming, etc? If so, I don't feel that a government program should be paying for that. As I said, very basic. No games, no camera, no streaming, hardly any memory capacity. It might have a cheap web browser but that eats into the small amount of monthly free minutes you are credited.Besides what I wrote it also would help someone get a job. Its a very low cost benefit that can pay off with improving someone's hardship immensely OK - Thanks for the explanation. But, that doesn't mean that there aren't scammers out there: wgntv.com/2014/11/12/pregnant-panhandler-stirs-up-anger-after-driving-off-in-a-mercedes-benz/www.thedenverchannel.com/news/trending/watch-man-confronts-panhandler-driving-luxury-car
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 16:33:43 GMT -5
Agreed. Not to get too OT here, but I don't have an I-phone at all, just a regular cell phone without Internet or texting.
I understand some may need I-phones for their job/career. However, I have seen some homeless people out there panhandling & they have I-phones. WTF?! If they've got enough money to pay for an I-phone & the related bills, they shouldn't be out there asking others for money. Sickening.
There is a government program that gives qualified low income people a very basic cellphone with limited free minutes per month. They don't pay and it helps them in emergency situations and staying in contact with social services or friends or family. It's not sickening if you know what its all about Yes, but are these phones expensive I-phones with games, Internet, streaming, etc? If so, I don't feel that a government program should be paying for that.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 14:53:03 GMT -5
Re: the comic book store owner in the OP, these guys run a business and probably don't care where the comic books came from - and didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, he's probably no different than most/all other business others.
The real person at fault in this story is the woman's ex, not the comic book store owner.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 14:42:45 GMT -5
An iphone 6 is hardly a necessity. There are many, many other more affordable options out there, including those new government subsidized phones for families living under the poverty level.
Agreed. Not to get too OT here, but I don't have an I-phone at all, just a regular cell phone without Internet or texting.
I understand some may need I-phones for their job/career. However, I have seen some homeless people out there panhandling & they have I-phones. WTF?! If they've got enough money to pay for an I-phone & the related bills, they shouldn't be out there asking others for money. Sickening.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 14:36:29 GMT -5
Digging up this old thread, since I just read the story in the OP. Truly sickening. It's horrible that this woman's ex was able to screw her by selling all of these old (and in many cases valuable) comics without her consent. Her ex was a real P.O.S.
Reading stories like this make me glad I'm single. I've lived with various women over the years & considered getting married at times, but am glad I didn't. I don't want to enter into a legally binding contract with a woman that will enable her to legally screw me financially & take away everything I own.
I have known guys who have lost everything in a divorce, and it's really sad. I'm sure this happens to women as well in some cases - as evidenced by the article in the OP.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 14:00:06 GMT -5
The announcement that Marvel would start to collect Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu in September 2015 (in a series of Omnibuses) was definitely the best collected edition news I ever heard. MOKF had been the #1 series I wanted reprinted for years, and the fact that it would finally happen was amazing news.
I got the first MOKF Omni past June & I'm enjoying the immensely. I haven't read this title in years (my floppies are long gone), so it was great to see this series with remastered art & color, and on high-quality paper.
I'm looking forward to Omni #2 (later this month), as well as #3-4 next year. I'm especially looking forward to Omni #4, which will probably be focused on the Gene Day-drawn issues.
It will also be great to see the Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine reprinted in 2 Omnis, since I never read that series. From what I'm heard, back issues of DHOKF are especially expensive & HTF these days.
Kudos and Thanks to everyone at Marvel who made reprints of these great series finally come to pass!
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 13:25:01 GMT -5
Excellent thread. Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu is my all-time favorite comic series, ever. I've been a fan since the early '80's. The stories were great, and though the series seemed to initially capitalize on the "Kung Fu" craze of the eary/mid '70's, the series truly improved in the later issues. As a whole, the series is an amazing combination of kung-fu, espionage, with a strong emphasis on noir. I especially like the sequences that take place at night. This is definitely one of the most underrated Marvel comic series of all time. I definitely associate the late Gene Day's art with this series more than any other artist, since I really started collecting the title around the time he started the artistic duties. Though I liked the earlier issues with Paul Gulacy artwork, I was a huge fan of the later GD issues - his run was the pinnacle of the series, IMHO. Superb, and Day really utilized light & shadow to great advantage. Some of his two-page spreads were so impressive, they should be framed in a museum! In fact, Day is probably my favorite comic book artist - despite having a relatively small body of work. He was definitely a hero to me as a kid, even though I wasn't as much of an aficionado of comic art then as I am now. It's a huge tragedy that Day passed at the young age of 32 - at the prime of his career. Ironically, at the time I don't know if I even heard about this. I remember reading MOKF & realizing he wasn't doing the art towards the end of the series, but at the time I wasn't collecting all of the issues due to not being able to always get to the news-stand (limited funds & too young to drive at the time). I think there was a letters column somewhere that mentioned the sad news, but I never had that issue. And, since this was pre-Internet, if you didn't read this in a publication or talk to someone who knew what happened, news like this would sometimes pass you by. I actually found out a lot more about Day in the early part of this past decade, when I read a superb & informative blog which focused on his short but mighty career & included some great art, some of it quite obscure - here's a link: ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2010/11/original-art-stories-gene-day-in-his.html It's interesting to speculate on what Day would have produced if he had lived; I feel his art would have improved as time went on - which is saying a lot since those MOKF issues were superb to begin with. Apparently, before he suddenly passed he was scheduled to work on a Batman story - which would have been amazing. Hell, if he had taken care of himself he may still be working today. Very tragic.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 12:52:38 GMT -5
Good info. - Thanks. Fortunately, I only saw this happen at one newsstand - and, I didn't have any $ to buy comics that day anyway.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 12:51:17 GMT -5
Thanks for the info., Confessor. Yes, I haven't read all of this thread yet - but plan on going back & doing so at some point. This is definitely a very comprehensive review of the Marvel SW series. (Years ago, there was a similar-themed Classic Marvel SW review thread on the Star Wars theforce.net forums, but IIRC those forums re-configured in Fall 2012, and the info. that was in there beforehand got lost - also, there's no search engine on there anymore so it's tough to find older posts/threads).
Re: the availability of the SW newspaper strips in the U.S. in the late '70's/early '80's, it's worth noting that not all areas got both strips. I grew up on the East Coast of the U.S. during that era, and do specifically remember the first Russ Manning strips. However, I never saw the later Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson strip in my area. I first became aware of these AG/AW strips around Fall 1992, when Dark Horse started editing, coloring, & reprinting these to fit into a monthly comic book format.
Your explanation makes sense re: the events taking place between ESB & ROTJ in the Marvel series. That being said & as you mentioned, obviously Marvel couldn't have the heroes finding Han before ROTJ - so they had to lengthen the search to take place in the three years of comics they produced. However, these are some of the favorite EU comics - and, I liked how different stories focused on the bounty hunters that were first briefly seen on the bridge of The Executor (DV's Star Destroyer) in ESB. That also being said, this continuity is contradicted by 1996's Shadows of the Empire novel/comic series. However, I somewhat prefer these Marvel comics - nostalgia has a lot to do with this, of course.
As far as Gene Day's art, yes - it was definitely stellar, and SW #68 - #69 (w/Dengar and the Mandalorians) are quite possibly my favorite two SW comics in the entire series. I'll write more on GD in the Master of Kung Fu threads, since he's primarily associated with that title.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 8:36:44 GMT -5
Yes, you're definitely right about the fan mania surrounding Star Wars - it was obviously a much huger property than any other franchise that was around during that time (or before or since then, for that matter). So, it's very possible that no matter which artist drew the Marvel series it would have still have done well - or, at least done well enough to not get cancelled.
It's also worth noting that these Marvel comics were pretty much the only new SW material that was coming out between ANH & ESB. I.e., back in the late '70's if you wanted to read new SW stories, these were basically it...other than Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978), which was also great (I also think one of the Brian Daley Han Solo novels came out in the late '70's as well). So, I can understand that fans of the films would have grabbed up the comic - no matter who drew this. I myself was a young elementary-school age kid then & didn't even have access to these comics most of the time, but I do remember trying to collect as many as I could.
Re: Infantino's art, I still attest that it was far superior to the other artists that had worked on the Marvel SW series up to that point. That being said, I do prefer most of the later post-ESB artists, especially Walt Simonson. My all-time favorite comic book artist - the late Gene Day (most associated with MOKF) - also drew/inked?! 1-2 issues of this series (between ESB & ROTJ).
On a related note, I was always amused by the "continuity" in the comics between ESB & ROTJ - even at the time. I.e., at the end of the ESB film, Luke & Lando told each other that they would meet on the rendevouz point on "Tattoine" - in order to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt. This was obviously carried over into the beginning of ROTJ.
However, in the comics set between ESB & ROTJ Luke, Leia, Lando, and Chewie were going all over the galaxy looking for Han, despite the fact that they presumably knew where he was the entire time?! Sure, I understand that Marvel had to make the stories interesting in those three years - however, it still makes for some poor continuity.
The 1996 multi-media novel/comic/video game Shadows of the Empire (also set between ESB & ROTJ) made a lot more sense re: this continuity.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 8:12:43 GMT -5
I would definitely be onboard for some Thundarr action figures; I missed the three that came out around 2004 (Ookla, Thundarr, and P. Ariel), and those go for big bucks on the secondary market these days.
It would actually be great to see a whole line of Thundarr figures; there were so many cool mutants/magicians/aliens in the cartoon that I can easily see a full-fledged & extensive action figure line. Maybe it could be sold exclusively online and/or to specialty toy stores. Sure, there may not be a huge market for this but I'm sure there is some demand. There are a lot of us older collectors/fans out there who still have fond memories of this series.
Shifting gears, to those fans who own the official Thundarr DVD's (4 disk set), I had a technical question:
Last year, I got out these official Thundarr DVD's from the local library & re-watched the show. These were all in the original full-screen format, i.e. 4:3 - this is the way those of us who watched this show back in the day saw them, i.e. to fit on the old Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) TV set.
More recently, I got these official DVD's from Amazon, and am currently watching them - note, these are definitely the official DVD's that came out circa 2010/2011, not bootlegs (I've never seen bootlegs of this show). However, these copies are in the "Widescreen" format - i.e., they fill up my entire flat widescreen TV set. Note that I'm not a novice re: aspect rations; i.e., my TV is set up so that if I'm watching a widescreen movie, it will automatically be set to the correct format (16:9). And, full-screen TV shows/movies will automatically be shown in the correct format too, i.e. 4:3.
Note that if I "change" the format of my TV screen to 4:3 when watching these Thundarr DVD's, it will truncate the picture of these Thundarr Widescreen images, so half the picture will be cut off. Obviously, this does not look good.
So, do I have some kind of "alternate" copy of these DVD's that have been modified from full-screen to widescreen? However, if so, why is it that the previous DVD's I saw were full-screen? Are there two different official sets of these official DVD's?!
Note, I'm not upset about this - nor do I plan on returning them (I got them from Amazon months ago, and just got around to watching them now - so, it's too late to return them anyway). They do look good - I'm just puzzled about this.
Any info./input regarding this would be great - Thanks in advance!
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Post by rom on Sept 8, 2016 19:22:19 GMT -5
Great memories of Classic Machine Man. I only read a handful of issues back in the day, but just got the new color Trade reprinting the whole series. I'm slowly making my way through this, and am really enjoying the Kirby artwork. However, I'm a huge Steve Ditko fan - and am looking forward to the later issues (with Ditko art) even more. Also worth noting is the superb MM 4-issue mini-series that was released circa Summer 1984; this has sublime art by the great Barry Windsor Smith, and took place in the future; it had an interesting cyber-punk/Blade Runner-ish vibe. That sounds interesting, I'll have to check it out sometime! For what it's worth, the MM 1984 mini-series was reprinted in the Iron Man 2020 Trade in 2013. IMHO, the MM mini is worth the price of the Trade alone - though I don't know how much it would cost to get the individual floppies. marvel.com/comics/collection/46217/iron_man_2020_trade_paperback
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Post by rom on Sept 8, 2016 13:48:07 GMT -5
When I was a kid back in the early '80's, I do remember going to a local toy store on a regular basis, which unusually enough had a somewhat substantial comics section (all direct market comics). There was an older German/Scandinavian lady who always used to yell at us kids for reading the comics - so, I tried not to do this....too much Again, being a kid with an almost non-existent budget I couldn't buy all of the comics I wanted, unfortunately.
Many years later (the '90's) I do remember going into Border's books and getting into DC's Vertigo collected editions/Trades - which were new at the time. IIRC, I read some of the Preacher & Hellblazer series that way. I liked the fact that no one who worked there was getting upset that you were treating the store like a library
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