“Speaking of Inalienable Rights, Amy…”, 1976, 1978 edition, G.B. Trudeau
Happy Fourth of July!

Star Wars: Invasion #3 has what appears to be the first appearance of the posing strap in a Star Wars comic.
Now watch someone link me to the Wookiepedia article about Mandalorian Battle Jock-Straps…

Dark Horse is also selling a Bettie Page coffee mug with disappearing bra action. Oh, straight people…

The closest I’ve ever come to hearing a Fallout Boy song is seeing Pete Wentz’s dick on the internet. Finding out that their songs are about stacked female robots doesn’t make me any more likely to buy an album.

Seriously, this shit is just getting pathetic.

Image has a book coming out called Tiffany’s Epiphany, which appears to be about why we should empathize with bullies because they’re “lonely.” With that kind of deep insight into the psychology of bullying I look forward to the future volumes that explain why picking on the sissy bunnies who aren’t good at sports is okay, because if they didn’t want to be picked on they’d learn to act normal.

They’re outing Millie’s Rival, Chili?

You so rarely see the cleavage-window costume on male characters…

Cutting to the chase, Digital Manga Presents is publishing a comic simply called Boys Love.

I’ve got no interest in fake Tarzan Ka-Zar, but that’s a nice sculpt.

I’m really surprised that Topps is doing gay-porn trading cards.
Hmm? Pro-wrestling? Not gay-porn?
There’s a difference?

Oh, look, it’s an action figure of the character that was outed on a spin-off online series to answer complaints about yet another sci-fi show that had no gay men in the future who was later revealed to be a traitor because, come on, do you honestly think you’re going to see a heroic gay character on an American sci-fi show?

So, I was informed that the latest Previews featured “bear” costumes.

This only goes up to size XL. The manufacturers are apparently unaware that bears will buy any piece of crap with the word “bear” on it. Missed opportunity.

And now, What the Hell is Wrong with Straight Men?

Real women photo-shopped to look like cat-girls, who are famous for appearing in porn parodies of The Brady Bunch. Seriously, guys, what’s up with that?

What with the constantly having to fight off Indians and bandits, no wonder my magazines always arrive creased.

It’s enough to make sticking pieces of wood into Snoopy seem reasonable…

So, a little while back, I found an affordable copy of Master Comics #45, from 1943. One of the features was “Balbo the Boy Magician”, which I had never heard of before and I’m now sort of fascinated with. Two reasons for that: one, it’s a “magic” character but the stories have a strong skeptical bent, and two, Balbo’s partner is a man named John Smith, an African-American character not drawn in a stereotyped manner or speaking in dialect. In 1943. Giving the lie to the defense of characters like Ebony and Steamboat, that we shouldn’t consider those portrayals offensive because “no one knew better back then.”

Anyway…Balbo is performing a trick for a packed house when one spectator becomes agitated.

It seems that Mr. Walsh panicked because he’s being tormented by a man claiming to be immortal magician Caliostro who keeps threatening to show him things that grow bigger. Uhm…okay. I’m not sure why that’s so terrifying, but Balbo and John agree to help Walsh and expose this Cagliostro as a fraud.

Balbo chooses the wrong time to get smug.

After our heroes are tricked and overpowered by a dwarf, Cagliostro appears and delivers the least menacing line in super-villain history.

And now, terrifying “wearing glasses” horror!

Oh no! It’s a…larger than average guinea pig…

Ah, look at the apparently terrifying giant animals playing!

Uhm…that’s clearly an octopus…

John Smith saves the day with dwarf-tossing!

I have to admire the dwarf’s loyalty…after being tossed through a glass tank at an octopus, he’s still not betraying his boss.

Okay, so a villain who casually tosses off misspelled references to Lovecraft is kinda cool.

And now, Cagliostro’s peculiar plot explained!

And rationality triumphs.

The Left-Handed Hummingbird, 1993, Kate Orman
Orman’s part of the “Alternate Universe” saga is a bit of a romp in comparison to some of the others, with the Doctor and his companions bouncing backwards and forwards in time, crossing time-lines with the supporting cast, in their quest to defeat an evil alien psychic vampire that has disguised itself as an Aztec god. It’s the book that gained some infamy in certain Who-fan circles for featuring scenes of the Doctor taking LSD.