Hatch, Match & Dispatch – September 2020

Welcome to the twelfth monthly Hatch, Match & Dispatch feature here on Rusty Staples! It's a hefty one this time, chums, and took me a rather long time to compile (I'd like to thank the decision-makers at WordPress for forcing me to use their new editor and thus making the process even longer). Standard disclaimer: …

Altered Images: Not exactly Johnny Blaze…

Oddities: “Hero” Lawman Found Topless in Tabloid Mag!

One of my first glimpses of Sylvester Stallone in the role of Judge Dredd came from a copy of The National Enquirer, dated November 15, 1994. I've never been the sort of person who normally reads mags of that type -- I'm just not that interested in suspect "miracle cures" or the mundanities of the …

Oddities: Superman coasters

So, remember those X-Men coasters I featured last year? Well, guess what? That's right, you guessed correctly, even though there's a pretty big clue in this post's title... Today we're looking at Superman coasters! But these are no fantasy, no careless product of wild imagination, no beermat-like cardboard discs churned out as a cheap promotional …

Rusty’s Reviews Round-Up

To save you literally whiles of searching through this blog, here are all of Rusty's reviews in one place!

Comics on TV: Life on Mars

In the 2006 TV show Life on Mars (named after the David Bowie song that was released on the 1971 album Hunky Dory) Manchester-based police officer Sam Tyler is struck by a car and wakes up in the year 1973. He doesn't know whether he's going crazy, in a coma, or has travelled back in …

Enfari’s Syndrome: School Fun

At first, the very idea seems ludicrous: a school-themed comic! That's like... chocolate-coated cauliflower or a puppy made of pointy gravel. Comics are for enjoyment, school is for enduring. How can the two possibly be combined? Well, back in the ancient olden days when the story-papers ruled supreme, a huge proportion of child-targeted publications were …

Support the Cartoon Museum, London

The excellent Cartoon Museum in London has a huge collection of rare and vintage comics and cartoons, and regularly features exhibitions on specific themes, artists or publications. Not counting visits to family members, for me it's the #1 reason I'm itching to go back to London. The museum moved to a new, larger premises last …

Oddities: Daniel Rand IS Shang-Chi: Master of Kung-Fu!

Marvel's mysterious martial artist Danny Rand -- AKA The Immortal Iron Fist -- premiered in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974)... The cover was pencilled by Gil Kane and inked by Dick Giordano (with alterations by John Romita). It's a great image and a fantastic way to introduce a new character. Later that same year, this …