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Batman, Green Lantern, and The Flash
The Strips

Martian Manhunter & J. Hex New!

Superman and The Flash New!

Justice League of America

Jonah Hex

Green Lantern

Batman

Green Arrow and The Flash

Hawkman

The Flash

Shazam!

Gotham City Police Dept.

Johnny Thunder and Shazam!

Batman, Green Lantern,
and The Flash

Man-Bat

Metal Men

Pete Ross and Lana Lang

Superman & J'onn J'onzz

Charles M. Jones

Batman and Robin

The Flash and Zatanna

Jor-El and Lara

DC Prez Jenette Kahn

Deadman

Clark Kent and Lois Lane

The Haunted Tank

Superman and Lois Lane

The Unknown Soldier

The Vigilante

The Private Life of Clark Kent

Green Arrow and Black Canary

Sgt. Rock and Easy Company

Witching Hour

Green Arrow, The Human Target,
and Superman

Super Friends

Lois & Clark

Green Arrow & Black Canary

Superman & Jimmy Olsen

Gravedigger

Batman & Shazam!

Justice Society of America

Phantom Stranger and
Phantom Girl

Batman and Robin

Black Lightning

Private Life of Clark Kent

Green Arrow and The Warlord

Eclipso / Mr. Mxyzptlk

The Flash & Adam Strange

Aquaman

Lightning Lad & Chameleon Boy

Justice League of America

Wonder Woman

Zatanna and Professor Zoom

Firestorm, the Nuclear Man

Swamp Thing

Gotham City Police Dept.

Bizarro World

The Atom

The Flash and The Mirror Master

Two-Face

The Batman and the Joker

Lex Luthor and Brainiac

The Flash

Enemy Ace

Green Arrow & Black Canary

Hawkman & the Flash

The Phantom Stranger

Legion of Super-Heroes

Green Lantern

Hawkman

Batman and Red Tornado

Green Lantern and the Flash

The Creeper

Robin, the Boy Wonder

Justice League of America

Legion of Super-Heroes

Elongated Man and Plastic Man

Superman Family

The Flash and the Spectre

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen

Deadman

Hawkman & Hawkgirl

Starman

Wildcat & Dr. Fate

Batman & Robin

Mon-El

Plastic Man

Bob 'Answer Man' Rozakis

Batman & the Flash

Green Arrow & Green Lantern

The Atom

Batman & Robin

Coming soon

Jimmy Olsen & Lois Lane

Steve Trevor

Superman

Steve Savage

The Flash

Johnny Thunder

Sgt. Rock & Easy Company

Scalphunter

Johnny Cloud

Green Lantern

Lois, Clark & Jimmy

Plastic Man

Perry White & Jimmy Olsen

Martian Manhunter

Madame Xanadu

Bruce Wayne

Krypto

Swamp Thing

Fred Hembeck


Batman, Green Lantern, and The Flash
Uploaded May 2, 2002

The next comics-to-film adaptation is looming large. We're barely a day away from the opening of the new Spider-Man flick, directed by Evil Dead dude Sam Raimi. Not by coincidence, we're also barely a day away from Free Comic Book Day.

Yes, you read that right. Free Comic Book Day. A couple of dozen of publishers have teamed with their distribution networks and retail outlets to give away comics as a promotional event. All of the key players are participating: DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, Archie, and lots of other. The big day is Saturday, May 4th, 2002, so make sure that you head on down to your local comics store to grab some corporate swag. Tell your friends and bring your kids. While you're there, shop around a bit - there's loads of great new and back issues waiting for your credit cards.

How do you find your local comic store? If your phone book yellow pages come up empty, point your browser towards The Master List of Comic Book and Trading Card Stores; they'll point you in the right direction.

Other items of recent interest...

Comics writer/artist Colleen Doran has written a great column over at Slush Factory that provides practical advice on time management for people working in the creative arts. Colleen is best known for her long-running 'A Distant Soil' series, trade paperback collections of which, along with other goodies, can be purchased directly from her studio.

Mark Evanier, who has written for television, film, animation, comics, and a little something called 'Groo The Wanderer', has added a previously published column of his to his web site that delves into the compulsive collecting syndrome. This is a subject long familiar to comics geeks like us, and push comes to shove, we all still have our particular collecting joneses that act up at the most inconvenient (and often expensive) times. It's a toss-up as to which aspect of eBay is the worst: that it makes the hunt that much easier, or that it so drastically accelerates what we end up spending.

(Self-confession: It's the DC 100-Pagers from the early 1970s that are turning my crank these days, but I still want that copy of 'Alex Toth By Design', dammit.)

Newsarama has more pages of debate, discussion, and tomfoolery than you can shake a copy of the Liberty Meadows Wedding Album at, regarding the sandbox posturing of Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada, and Peter David that started with an announced price change for a few Marvel titles. Sometimes, you can't help but wonder about the current tenants of The House That Stan'n'Jack'n'Steve Built; sure, I'll look at a car wreck as I drive past, but I don't really like what I'm seeing.

Speaking of Liberty Meadows, now that Frank Cho has discontinued the daily newspaper strip, you'll have to truck on down to your local comics emporium to keep up with Frank, Brandy, Ralph, Truman, and the rest of the cast. Each issue reprints previously published newspaper strips in chronological order, with lots of new material interspersed. It's worth noting that the new material often includes restored versions of strips that had been "cleaned-up" for newspaper audiences and strips that Frank's newspaper editors were too fearful to run at all. If you haven't seen the strip before, do yourself a favour and browse the site to get a sense of the fun you've been missing out on.

New statistics are in from the Grand Comic Book Database, one of my most indispensable comics research tools. The GCD is a remarkably comprehensive database of information about comics, including story credits, creator credits, issue synopses, dates, and much more. Their advanced search tool is particularly useful for tracking down obscure stories and characters. As of April 2002, the database holds just under 350,000 story objects and over a million credits, giving you lots of factoids to dig through.

eBay is still a fine place to find those back issues or unique collectibles you're looking for. Remembering a few caveats is essential, though. Read the auction fine print carefully for terms and conditions; some vendors' auction descriptions can be as cagey as the end-user license agreements too many people click through without a second thought. Pay particular attention to the shipping and handling costs; some vendors tend to pad these mercilessly, and don't assume that winning multiple auctions from the same vendor is going to lead to appreciable cost savings (even if they imply otherwise). Check feedback ratings carefully. Ask questions if you're unsure about something; not only will you be better informed, but you will also be able to gauge the vendor's communications skills from the content and tone of the answers you get.

Finally, here's one from the life-imitating-art category. Every so often, someone asks where the 'proudrobot' domain name came from. It's the title of a short science fiction story that Henry Kuttner wrote some sixty-odd years ago, about a fellow whose technical genius as an inventor came out only when he was three sheets to the wind. Kind of a drunkard savant, if you will. He'd wake up after any given bender to find some oddly-fashioned, purpose unknown machine in his living room, and proceed to determine exactly what it was that he had built and for whom. Hilarity would often ensue.

In that very first story (there would eventually be five in this series), the machine in question, a sentient (and exceedingly vain) robot, turned out to be a remarkably adept beer can opener.

As it happens, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation just published a story about a mechanical engineering student at the University of Florida who has invented The Autonomous Beer-Opening Robot, which will patrol the length of a bar, detecting and opening bottles of beer.

Like I said, life imitates art.

- NP


The copyrights, trademarks and publication rights to Fred's cartoons belong to DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Fred Hembeck where appropriate. Proud Robot Productions graphics, site design, cartoon re-coloring and commentary copyrights belong to Neil Polowin and Proud Robot Productions.

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