Artifacts: Halloween Cards

Halloween apparently used to be a card-sending holiday.  This first card is actually probably not exactly a Halloween one, but it was sent around Halloween.  Aunt Judy mentioned one of her grandchildren dressed up as a hobo.  She also mentions a girl racer.  That would be Danica Patrick.  I don't remember what rained out race she was referring to.

This card features a pop-up ghost.

Here's a Peanuts Halloween card.

Here's a homemade Peanuts Halloween card from mom and dad.  I was three years old.  They did a nice job drawing this.

Artifacts: Valentines Cards 4

We start off with a sad Valentines card with grandma and grandpa missing seeing me.

Two more from grandma and grandpa.  They must have known I was a Peanuts fan.

This was from a kid from grade school.  He was a bully, but I somehow befriended him.

A couple of Strawberry Shortcake cards.  These are cute.

Your eyes aren't deceiving you.  That is a Valentines card from the 70's with the included lollipop still attached.  I have no explanation why I didn't eat the thing or why it had been in a scrapbook all these years.  The only scarier thing is that this wasn't the only card with one in the scrapbook.  In the other one's case, it had melted all over the page.

I don't know why, but I love this tea ceremony card.

Artifacts: Valentines Cards 3

More Valentine cowboys.  Is this showing a panda and a raccoon stealing cattle?

Here's a couple of cards featuring a couple of lollies.  Feels inappropriate for some reason.

Mom sent me this card from the 70's just a few years ago.  This is very sweet.

Here mom and dad said they wouldn't "trade" me.  I don't remember what prompted that (thankfully).

I don't know who this is from.  I can't interpret the verse, but I still love handmade cards.

Comic Review: Titans 100-Page Giant #1

I played a little hokey from work to get this.  In fairness, I’d finished all of my work and I had some time before I’d be clocking out.  I just wished I’d noticed that two senior officers were still around before I’d left.  (I don’t think they noticed.)  I was gone for under 20 minutes (I timed it) to walk to Zia Comics and back.  Given the distance, the heat, and the somewhat uncomfortable dress shoes I was wearing that was awesome time. 

Unfortunately, the comic I’d gone to get, Adventureman #1, wasn’t there.  Yes, I was there on a Wednesday, but they were out (again).  This turned out to be a good thing.  After I saw this video review of the comic, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed it, even if the artwork was good.  Thankfully, I immediately noticed this 100-page Titans comic and snapped it up.  If I’d known it was here, I probably would have come just for this. 

The first story was for the most part what I came for, a somewhat classic-style Titans story.  I’ve mentioned my admiration for the Dick Grayson Robin/Nightwing character before.  He’s in great form here.  Donna Troy (Wonder Girl?  Troia?) gets a bit of a short-shrift, but it’s a short story.  Stargirl does have pink hair, instead of orange, but is still improbably glamorous.  Then there’s Raven.  Gibi mentioned a group restyling in one of her cosplay ASMR videos recently.  The punk look here is a definite downgrade.  Those are the characters I care about.  The story was okay and fairly fun. 

The next new story features just Raven and she looks even worse.  The story doesn’t really make sense, but the artwork is pretty good.  This one gets a down vote though.

Next up is a classic Teen Titans story from the 60’s.  It’s . . . ah . . . quaint.  I do dig the classic artwork.  Of note here, along with the regular members, there’s a whole bunch of other teen heroes.  We have Betty Kane, the original Bat-Girl, playing tennis on the aircraft carrier.  There’s also Harlequin, who may have been renamed Joker’s Daughter later.  Her “powers” seem to revolve around using gag gimmicks to knock out the villains.  

Next is a Starfire solo story, which seems to be a reboot of part of her origin.  (I’m not entirely familiar of her origin, new or old.)  This is a cute story with some obvious appeal.  However, it is left on a cliffhanger.

Finally, there’s a teamup story with the new Superboy and the current Robin.  I’m still a bit put off by both characters.  I didn’t know Lois and Clark had a kid until I read that Robin Special linked above.  Damien Wayne is just kind of annoying.  I will admit though that they sort work well together and the characters make some sense in the DC Universe.  Of course if you’re going to have kid heroes, you need kid villains, so why not child versions of the dads’ adult arch-enemies?  Again, it’s only a part one, so I have to give this an incomplete.

Overall . . . wait-a-minute.  Didn’t I say last time I wasn’t going to buy anymore comics, certainly not new ones?  I’ve probably said that a few times over the last few years.  So this is what it’s like to be a battered wife.  Okay, fine.  Take Two.  Overall, for $5, this was maybe barely worth it, mostly for the first story.  These things are so close to being great fun comics, but don’t quite get there and it’s disappointing.  I’d just have to ask that they choose their reprint material more carefully, do better with the new material, and not do continued stories, especially since I don’t know if they’re going to be a #2.