John Calnan was working on Batman when I was reading it as a wee lad— I picked up this page because I want to get one from all the guys who worked on the character; Irv Novick, Ernie Chan and Jim Aparo.
One of the many great pickups I made at the show.
CONVENTION REPORT: SANTA CLARA Part III
The weather didn’t cooperate at all.
It was cold, overcast and rainy for all of the four days we’d set aside before the show, so much for working poolside. We setup in the lobby and because fixtures with much of the staff who would accommodate us as best they could. The hotel was incredibly busy with various convention attendees but by Friday afternoon it was a virtual ghost town. Amazing to see the transition.
Over the week we ate at all three of the hotel restaurants and even from PEETS ™ who has a decent selection of sandwiches but terrible coffee. Bad coffee was the running joke for the week, we even tried using Uber Eats to get some better stuff delivered and it was no use.
I think its funny when you’re talking to someone local— they tell you maybe you don’t like the coffee because “west coast coffee is different than east coast coffee” as if I’d never been to the west coast before.
I don’t think this was rocket science, we were in an area with nothing but the convention center around it. If you came and stayed at my house for a week with no car you have a market and a pizza place about 10 mins away and neither place has decent coffee.
But back to the trip— we continued to work in the lobby, food at the sushi bar nearby was weak, and I think our best meal came from an Uber delivery from a deli about 40 minutes away.
Saturday other comic collectors started to arrive and there was even some really major trading going on in the lobby— I saw some $10-$20k books being bandied about.
Sunday was the day of the show— we had to get a big pile of boxes that had been FedEx’d in to the convention center so we were up early to setup our booth. The show itself was small by today’s convention standards but bigger than I had expected. This was a pure comic book show— no Pop figures, no cosplayers, no toys or collectibles, just comics.
I managed to pickup at BATMAN #2 and a BATMAN #6 both from the early 1940s as well as a good pile of other assorted 1940s books.
The boys did well and it was a successful show overall.
Bond... FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981)
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY marks the first Bond film I skipped when it came out. Indiana Jones was out and made Bond look ridiculous. I disliked MOONRAKER so much I had no interest in this one, despite the reviews that said it was the best Bond film in years. When I finally saw it I didn’t think much of it. I don’t know how old Roger Moore was when he makes this one but it’s showing and it’s particularly ridiculous when girls young enough to be his granddaughter are smitten with him.
Today we’d call this film a soft reboot— same actors but new attitude— and the opening pre credit scene with Bond at the grave of his wife and then attacked shortly after by the man who killed her would certainly lead us to believe we’re in for a more serious Bond— but then during a crucial moment where he’s about to kill said villain he offers to buy Bond a delicatessen (?!) before he’s eliminated. All right so how about the rest of the movie? Well it’s smaller in scale and it’s about revenge and Moore does attempt to keep the threat seeming to mean something, so he’s actually better in this one than the last one, but the movie itself is kind of slow and plodding with a not really interesting supporting cast. The Bond girl is the one looking for revenge and it’s awfully strange when he talks her out of killing the guys she’s been after for the whole movie and that the right thing is to turn him over to the authorities— 12 or 13 Bond movies and he’s killed the villain at the end of EVERY single one of them. Now he’s reading them Miranda rights?
BOND: Moore was getting tired, the producers knew it and they were looking for a new Bond— but he’s back for more and he’s trying a little harder. ** 1/2
THEME SONG: By Sheena Easton and its wretched. *
VILLAIN: He’s played by Julian Glover who is interesting because he was almost cast as James Bond back with Live and Let Die. They probably went the right way because he’s not very memorable. **
OVERALL BOND RATING: **1/2 it should probably be a 3 but I’m getting sick of watching these. It’s a long way before they get good again and the worst is yet to come.
Bond will be back in OCTOPUSSY — which I think I did see in theaters and I still would like my money back.
My Brief Stint as an Airport Limo Driver...
Ha, I remember the grueling hours of the three days I worked for them like it was yesterday.
Many years ago, newly divorced and with child support payments and desperately needing a break from studio work I took a job with an Airport Limo company run by an old friend of mine. My driving record was spotless and as he and I talked one night at a friend’s card game he told me he was struggling to find reliable drivers. I had visions of wearing a black suit and driving a sleek black car with a single very wealthy customer in the back to and from Logan Airport a couple of times a night. I’d made the trip to Boston’s airport many times in the past and I’m always surprised when people complain about driving in, I think it’s the easiest ride to any major airport around.
Visions of my quasi secret service gig melted when I arrived for training on the first day. I wouldn’t be manning one of the town cars I’d be driving a van filled with people late for their flights. My trainee driver was a middle aged man who showed every mile. He wore an oversized windbreaker with the company name on it and he looked like he hadn’t slept of showered in a day or two. As I would find out it had actually been three days without either.
Climbing into the passenger seat he showed me how you had a customer list on a clipboard which you then looked up in an Atlas you bought yourself (GPS was just coming into play at this time) and you would calculate out your best route to pick everyone up and get them to the airport.
Coming back was worse because your list was five times the size of the departure list and you didn’t know who was getting on. So you’d have to prepare for all possible towns and then rework them as people actually got on. Pickups were simple, you’d pull up to the arriving gate and park at the curb outside, then step out and yell the name of the Airport Limo company and wait for whatever suitcase clutching traveler would come running. You’d load the suitcase into the back, check them off your list and then head to the next arrival gate.
Sometimes you’d meet another van somewhere on the road and you’d exchange passengers— maybe you have some that are going North or South or West— and then you’d head that way. My training driver had been doing the job for over 10 years, he loved it. He worked about 17 hours a day and sometimes slept in the van. He loved Flynn’s Truck Stop on Rte 20 in Shrewsbury because they considered the fleet drivers truckers and allowed them to use the lounge which consisted of TVs, video games and showers. He clearly only used the first because I doubt he’d ever played a video game and I know he had an aversion to showers.
Still, he was friendly and upbeat and I watched him collect a lot of tips from the passengers. When the van got full we’d head in or out. I’d never used Airport Limo’s before but it struck me that you might be on this thing for three hours if you were the first pickup as you gathered other passengers. Logan is a forty minute ride from my house.
The company used two way radios and the drivers and dispatcher talked with lingo that sounded like they were making WWII bomber raids. At the end of your shift you were expected to fill up the van (they called them a bus) with gas, vacuum it out and return to base.
The training was pretty simple. I imagine today with GPS it’s even simpler, but I was confident that day two of my training would go smoothly— it’d be my turn to drive.
Continued…
My Art Collection: JACK KIRBY's OMAC
A very recent pickup by the King of Comics himself, Jack Kirby! Kirby had a long and notable career but my favorite era of his was when he worked for DC Comics in the 1970s— he did some crazy work there including this page from OMAC #2.
Okay look at this place— does this look like a great place to setup and work for five days? Picture looking at this in the middle of a New England Winter and imagine how quickly you’d say yes!
CONVENTION REPORT: SANTA CLARA CA Part II
We dropped our bags off in the room at the Hyatt in Santa Clara California— and while it was a nice room it looked a little on the small side for three guys— so I checked with the desk to see if I could book another room but the hotel was full.
We’d opted not to rent a car for this trip since we’d be working and we assumed we’d be able to walk to various options nearby— when I saw the SF Forty Niners football stadium literally five blocks away I knew we would be in trouble— stadiums are notorious for killing any competing food business so after asking around we decided our best bet was to eat at the hotel bar— remember I’d just eaten at the Hyatt in South Carolina where the food was literally next level.
It was apparent from the frozen pizza and the somewhat limp salad that this Hyatt hadn’t gotten the message. This was bad hotel food, not inedible, but bad as in overpriced and underwhelming. Next to me at the bar was a fellow who had come in for a software convention and he was remarking that there was absolutely nowhere to get a cup of coffee around here. There was a PEETS ™ Coffee Shop in the hotel lobby but apparently it closed early on Wednesdays. I wasn’t thrilled with them as the prospective coffee supplier as I’d had PEETS ™ in the past. Most hotels have free coffee in the lobby, this one didn’t. It had all you could drink cucumber water but that was it.
The Weather outside was sunny but very brisk— in fact I’d call it downright cold. It was nice to see Palm Trees but not nice enough to sit outside.
After Dinner we had a quick meeting to discuss our plans for the next few days. Traveling with my sons is on par with traveling with Veronica— they are so much fun and easy to get along with it’s always a pleasure. They had work to do with their vintage comic business, and they also had work to do with MARVALEOUS, the startup comic book company we are all heavily involved with.
We laid out our plans for the week, we’d get some sun, get a lot of work done and then prep for the show on Sunday.
More next week.
Bond...MOONRAKER (1979)
As a 12 year old boy I loved the previous Bond movie so I was excited when this one came out, and probably at the time I liked it— but I was 12. I saw it again years later and thought it was absolute drek, so going into this now I was wondering if it was as bad as I remembered.
It was.
The theme song is “Where are You?” but it might have been more appropriate if they’d gone with “What Were We Thinking?”— the next James Bond movie was supposed to be FOR YOUR EYES ONLY But instead STAR WARS came out and did killer business so they opted to make MOONRAKER which they thought would cater to that crowd. Sadly it’s not the worst Roger Moore James Bond film but it is the one that officially proclaimed WE ARE NO LONGER TRYING!
Jaws is back as the killer from the previous movie but from the opening scene he’s treated more as comedy relief than as an actual threat— when your pre credit scene ends in a circus I guess you shouldn’t be surprised that your movie is full of clowns.
This time around Drax is the badguy and he’s a guy who wants to pioneer space, it will save mankind so he’s going to steal nuclear missles and blow up the world or he’s going to steal spaceships and blow up the world— I’m not sure, I stopped trying too.
James Bond will be back in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
BOND: Roger Moore is cashing his paycheck, they don’t care about making a serious spy thriller any more, so why should he care either? *
THEME MUSIC: It’s disco space and its dreadful. *
VILLAIN: Drax is pudgy and annoying, he reminds me of a D&D Fan going on endlessly about Hobbits and my eyes glaze over. *
OVERALL BOND RATING: *1/2 and I’m being generous