An "Ongoing" Mystery... At Last!

To kick off 2024, let's hit the ground running with some great news...

...Although I'll expect Shaggy and Scooby to do most of the "running" - and occasionally "hitting the ground", for that matter!  

THE WAIT IS OVER! THE HIATUS HAS PASSED! 

WHY, EVEN THE WAIT FOR THE HIATUS TO PASS IS OVER!!!

After TWO 12-Issue limited series starting in 2021 and 2022 respectively, one of the best and woefully underrated comic titles out there is FINALLY BACK AS AN ONGOING SERIES!!!

Of course, I'm referring to the one... the only (...unless you count the previous two such series)... THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES with its THIRD issue #1 from DC Comics, released on January 02, 2024!  ...Talk about celebrating a new year!  

And back it is, with its most iconic team of writer Sholly Fisch and artist Dario Brizuela - who've been bringing Batman and Scooby together since SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP #1 back in late 2023!

And have alternated over the runs of THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES Series 1...

...And Series 2!

And now it's back... EVERY MONTH (unless Warner Bros. Discovery cancels it because they've lost too much money on executive compensation, streaming overexpansion supplanting reliable-and-always-there-for-you physical media, and an almost endless list of bad decisions that have made this mega-merger a joke)!  

I sometimes lament my no longer doing my monthly comic reviews, as I did for SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP, but, in their place I've indexed (with the level of detail I'm noted for) every issue of THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES at GCD.  Not exactly a substitute, but worthy as my contribution, among the contributions of so many other dedicated individuals, toward making the Grand Comics Database THE best comics indexing and information site there is!  

Series 1 HERE!

Series 2 HERE!

New Series 3 HERE! 

Go take a peek at all of the great issues of THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES to be found there. If you haven't read them all before, perhaps you will after this!  

You won't regret it!  Now, I can start looking forward to reading and indexing the next issue... Same Bat-Scoob Time, same Bat-Scoob channel! 

Happy New Year 2024!

 ...or "May Your Days Be Mer-ry... In FLIGHT!" 

[Click to Enlarge]

Here's an unusual New Year's greeting from DELL FOUR COLOR #149 SMILIN' JACK (Dell Comics, 1947), reprinting a SMILIN' JACK daily newspaper strip from an undetermined New Year's Eve/Day in the 1940s!  

As the copyright on the strips in this issue are for 1940, 1941, I'd assume it would have been for the turning of 1940 to 1941... the last New Year's Eve/Day of peace for too long a while.  Though, to bring it nicely full-circle, when the strip was reprinted by Dell in 1947, peace reigned once again. 

Let's all hope the same applies to 2024!   

Smilin' Jack strip by Zack Mosley. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 2023!

This might have been our Christmas card for 2023... and STILL might be if we ever get it together... had the last quarter or so of 2023 played out a bit easier, and less problematic.  No sooner did "Our Crime Story" come to a long-awaited end, than... not one but TWO more whammies hit us in short order (don't ask), effectively ending our 2023 on the downside. 

We are still well, by and large, and moving in the right direction - but far more war-weary than we ought to be, given the good, and overall conventional way we conduct our lives.  But, it's best we start counting down to 2024 right away - 'cause it can't come too soon for us! 

For now, please join Averi, Cici, Logan, Esther, and Joe in the spirit of "the mo-osst won-der-ful tiiime of the yeeear"!  We send all of you our best wishes for a joyous holiday season!  

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!  Your good wishes, and those three li'l angels up top, will make it happy and merry for us!  

BIG BOXING DAY UPDATE!!!

Guess what?  On Christmas Day, those "three li'l angles" DID indeed make everything happy, merry, and bright!  

...Knew they would!

Separated at Mirth: Donald's Hammock Havoc!

Donald Duck really oughta give up the hammock bit!  

 No, for once this post is NOT about the infamous "Bird Bothered Hero"!  I promise! 

It seems that too many intrusive woodland creatures either use it as a BRIDGE, as in DONALD DUCK # 221 (Whitman Comics, Cover Date: August, 1980)...

...Or, as a LANDING SPOT, as in CHIP 'N' DALE # 50 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: January, 1978)! 

Gotta love those RED SKIES and PURPLE TREES!

At the very least, he should have sought advice from PORKY PIG, who wisely incorporates the woodland creatures INTO his hammock resting! 

Th-th-th-that's all folks!  

 No, wait... Just one more question!  

I've been around a long time, and I've seen many tranquil suburban back yards over those years... AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN A REAL HUMAN BEING SLEEPING IN A HAMMOCK!  

Now, I figure that "sleeping in a hammock" either IS or ONCE WAS a "thing", due to its many depictions in comics and animation... But, have you ever seen it for real?  Just curious!  

It looks as if it would be difficult to get in or out of, yet too easy to fall out of! (Much less be intruded upon from above!) What say you?  

  Just GIVE IT UP, Donald!  

Cynical Blog Post: I Wanna Hold Your Hand... Then Again, Maybe Not!

When I start becoming cynical about Love - and The Beatles - it's worth noting...

But fear not... I'm probably just working through the lingering aftereffects of "Our (recent) Crime Story", and I'll be as high as ever on the Beatles (...and, in the later years of their original band incarnation, they could be pretty "high" themselves) and Love in a short while! 

When The Beatles first sung "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", they probably never envisioned anything like this sequence from CAPTAIN AMERICA #103 (Marvel Comics, Cover Date: July, 1968)! 

[ Click to Enlarge ]

Or, just focus in the two panels that count...

POWDERED CORROSIVE?!  MICRO-FLAME THROWER?! 

That's enough to deter even a hopeless (but cynical) romantic like me!  ...Or even this guy...

Oh, and before we leave this issue, let's have a look at the cover and see The Red Skull and what may be the ugliest bunch of Nazis ever to (dis)grace a comic book...

...Including, at... (Ironic Phrasing Alert) the "far right"... a Nazi Mr. Spock! 

WOW!  Talk about "Mirror Mirror"! 

But, hey... It's not as if he hasn't done this bit before!

Um, maybe we'd best go back to something more pleasant... like hand-holding...

...Aw, skip it! 

Our Adventures Through the CROOKing Glass: Out the Other Side and All's Well!

Yesterday (Thursday, December 14, 2023 - as I write this), we have at last turned the final page, read the afterword, glanced briefly at the rear endpapers, and slammed the back cover decidedly shut on "Our Crime Story"!  

And, while it seemed to Esther and I as if it were to be a "never-ending story", it's beginning on November 17, 2023 - and ending on December 14, 2023, clocks it in as just shy of a month!  

...But OH, what a terrible, frenzied, panicked, and ultimately draining month it was!  

Now, since this humble Blog may very well have inherited the mantle of "The Happiest Place on Earth", with the Disney theme parks having fallen from the top spot in recent years - some of it brought on by the actions of the Disney organization itself, but more of it the result of ambitious and overreaching political figures and the groups that support them - I'm not going to elaborate on the details of "Our Crime Story"  in this otherwise "Happy" venue...

...Suffice it to say Esther and I became the victim of TWO completely unrelated crimes - perpetrated by TWO (or more?)  completely unrelated persons - that, through a convoluted and very unlikely series of events, somehow became connected... but only in ways that continued to impact our lives!  

I'm both surprised - and pleased - to say that the ending of "Our Crime Story"  was far "happier"  than I imagined - ultimately resulting in a loss of about fifty dollars in cash, when it could have been considerably more far-reaching! Devastatingly far-reaching, I must add!

If you believe in any sort of "A Great Cosmic Balance", or what some folks call "Due", or anything of that sort, I guess I *might* have had it coming!  But, NOT ESTHER... who lived and worked in the street-crime ridden version of New York City of the 1970s thru the early-to-mid 1980s (...which, alas, has made a comeback in the last few years), and was a three-time victim...

On the other hand, I, who have spent the vast majority of my life in the near-in New York City suburbs - and whose worst brush with crime was having the radio antenna stolen off my car (...coincidently, during the brief period of my adult life that I lived in Brooklyn - as evidenced by all those Letters of Comment I had published in the comics of the "Disney Interregnum" - with thanks to Elaine!).  That is, assuming you don't count as actual "crimes" post-divorce dealings with an ex-wife and the railroading - let alone the outright efforts of career sabotage - associated with toxic office politics!  ...Had a lifetime's worth of THAT STUFF!

It stands to figure that Karma was waiting to serve up a big helping of crime to yours truly and, having done so, I consider that particular instance of "Great Cosmic Balance" achieved and done!  

YOU HEAR ME, KARMA... ACHIEVED AND DONE! ...Go away and drop some crime and (especially) punishment on the domestic and world political leaders (present and recent) who deserve it far more than this humble Blogger who's (mostly) "played by the rules" his entire life! 

Related to this, since I've lived this long without ever breaking a bone, and suffered no greater physical injuries than hand, arm, and face scrapes in a sidewalk fall (save one serious eye injury, caused by a tiny floating piece of construction debris while walking in Greenwich Village in 1982), I DO dread Karma's possible future visit to balance that score - but ENOUGH OF THAT - LET'S RESUME BEING "THE HAPPIEST PLACE (...okay, maybe just "Blog" but my ambitions are set on "place") ON EARTH! 

Our normal (and decidedly "happy") posting will resume very soon!  Thanks for being here! You make it all worthwhile!  

It's a CRIME-ing Shame!

For that small number of folks who may be wondering why I've gone so silent for a while,  I should let you know that Esther and I have been the victims of TWO completely unrelated crimes... that have since bizarrely connected in ways too complex for me to go into here!

No loss of life, limb, and (maybe?) property, and we probably won't discuss it further here... unless some of you are detectives, police, Batman, or Super Goof!  So, let the speculation run rampant - but, I must emphasize, WE ARE OKAY!!!

This "adventure" began on November 17, 2023, and is still disruptively with us into this morning (November 30, 2023)!  

There IS an end in sight, but we just can't seem to reach it yet, as new twists and layers continue to pile on!

I want to apologize to everyone whose communications and Blog comments I've been forced to ignore, as we continue to work through this ongoing situation!  We'll be back, because you can't keep a good Blog - or good Blogger - down!