Saturday, August 27, 2016

Waiting for Doom Episode 68: Disobey Your Mum and Get On the Magic Bus OR Thank You Driver for Getting Me Here

Sorry for the lag, folks, but as my spin class instructor always said,"Excuses are like backsides. Everyone has one and no one wants to hear yours!" 

So without further ado, here's the lowdow on Episdoe 68 of Waiting for Doom.

Good grief! Mike and Paul are back and babbling on about the Doom Patrol again! Someone call in the government to put an end to this madness!
  • Down on Derrington Way – 8:03
  • Doom Clock – 11:47
  • Doomsplaining – 15:15 – this week we look at issues 51 and 52 from volume 2, from Grant Morrison and Richard Case!
  • Mailbag O Doom – 45:43 – We read your responses to the question, “Who’s your favourite made-up spy person?”
Here's the linkage

And now the pretty pictures. 

#51
The cover from another era, put to good use. 
Who's on the telly now?
Can I buy your magic bus?
Penciller Richard Case must have been having some fun with this book, as he surely never knew what Morrison was going to throw at him next. For instance, take the nightmare in Dorothy's closet. 
Yankee Doodle. No relation.




And how about a snip of Mike's enjoyment from this issue. 




And issue #52
The Cover for #52. That's Fifty-Two. Hmmmmm. . .
Yankee Doodle gets a little bit more involved in the proceedings. 

Call it macaroni. 

Not a fan of interview situations, Cliff changes the subject. 

The U. S. flag as a tablecloth.  

From the United States flag code, which is far and away more nuanced and meticulous than the Comic Code makes it rather clear that the flag shouldn't be used as a tablecloth. From Section 176, Respect for the Flag:
No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.
  • (a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
  • (b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
  • (c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
  • (d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.
  • (e) The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
  • (f) The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
  • (g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
  • (h) The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.

Which leads to the question of Nobody's political platform: 

. . .and the return of Morden. 
Old Mr. Morden. How droll. 


Of foes and feathers - a Hawkman stor-er, sorry. Wrong assignment. 

And so there you go, fellow Patrollers. What'd you think? Did you like the obnoxious delay between podcast release and blog post? Have you seen any feathers lately? Canyou believe we're only 2 new comic book days from the first issue of Doom Patrol Volume 6?

NONE of these are the question of the week, however. That question is: 
Who is your favo(u)rite character with a fin (or fins)?


5 comments:

  1. Don't worry too much about when you get it up, Doug, it's a bonus... I imagine most people realise that if they want a comment posted here subsequently read out on the podcast, by the end of Monday, Oz-time, is probably not a bad guess.

    Nice episode, as ever, boys. Mike Sekowsky's cover authorship is disputed, with Mike Tiefenbacher - big time fan and author of some nice Whatever Happened To... shorts - favouring Bob Oksner. http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/477/

    That Who's Who-style free pamphlet, I don't think 'ashcan' is the right term... wasn't an ashcan a placeholder meant to secure copyright rather than a promotional giveaway?

    Thanks for the reminder about Pender's Fen, I've not seen that since the Seventies. The star, Spencer Banks, appeared in one of the best UK teenage TV dramas ever, Timeslip - it's on DVD, worth searching out. The UK really did go for pagan-influence dramas back then, what with the likes of the John Mills Quatermass and Children of the Stones.

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  2. A favorite character with Finns seems like an odd request, but here you go:

    http://www.comics.org/issue/1042297/cover/4/

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  3. I think I see what you did there! 😄

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  4. I was very interested in hearing this episode and these issues covered. When you presented the first parts, you guys seemed a little weary of how nutty Morrison was in this portion of his run. I always thought he found his footing again with this run. Whether it was the return of Mr. Nobody, or the crazy new Brotherhood, or the rather sad downbeat ending (who knew we'd be rooting for the LSD Bus crew!), or Jack Dandy and his wild look, I just thought Morrison was back in the swing of things here.

    There is a ton to love here. The rather banal way the Love Glove is tricked into betraying Nobody, "Agent !" finally surprising someone, cops injecting themselves with Thorazine, the bizarre political landscape of America (glad things have changed!). It all just seemed to work.

    Bottom line, I felt a little better when you guys came around on this arc. I worried that maybe my recollection of it was off but on rereading I still liked it.

    As for finned characters, one of my earliest recollections in comic reading was a grubby copy of Sub-Mariner #71 where he fought the finned foe The Pirahna. It scarred me as a kid. The ocean is blood tinged the whole issue as Namor is scratched, stabbed, and bled to lure a school of the flesh-eating fish by the Pirahna (who can control his little finny buddies). But what really got me was the ending in which an injured Pirahna is betrayed by his fish army and is eaten alive by his own pirahna. Brrrr .... my elementary school mind was creeped out ... and then immediately reread the issue a billion times. Brutal and awesome!

    He is a D-lister. I don't think he has many appearances. But this one, like a good tuna steak, was seared .. into my mind.

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  5. I'm with you, Anj, in that the finny foe who made the biggest impression on me came from a Sub-Mariner comic. Tiger Shark had such a dynamic visual, and the original comic has since left my hands more than once (long story), but despite his slighly-more-elevated C-list status, Tiger Shark at least gets my attention to pick up a book. His inclusion in the Masters of Evil in THAT Avengers storyline was lackluster, but at least he appeared.

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