Year: 2014

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Indicia Weirdness, Marvel Edition

That last post got me curious, so I went to check. Marvel Comics Group only became listed as the publisher of Avengers in 1973, a full ten years after the series had been launched. For the first 58 issues, it was officially published by “Vista Publications, Inc.” – a publisher which just happened to have the same address as the Marvel Comics offices, unsurprisingly – with absolutely no mention of Marvel Comics anywhere outside of the logo on the cover.

For #59, Avengers was published by “Perfect Film & Chemical Corp.” although the copyright is shared between that company and “Marvel Comics Group,” receiving its first indicia mention.

Starting with #60 and running through #109, the comic was published by “Magazine Management Co.,” which shared the copyright with Marvel Comics Group. #110 is when Marvel Comics officially becomes the publisher of the series.

I seem to remember reading somewhere – maybe The Secret History of Marvel Comics? – about Martin Goodman’s love of happily swapping out shell companies in order to work the books in his favor, but I have to admit, I hadn’t realized it went on so late into the success of Marvel as a brand.

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Fun With Numbers

In 1986, as every comic book fan who was around at the time can remember, Marvel Comics celebrated its 25th anniversary. There were special anniversary covers for the entire line to reinforce the point.

Then, in 2009 – 23 years later, for those of you in the audience who hate math – Marvel Comics celebrated its 70th anniversary. That celebration included a lot of reprints, including this one, which “celebrate[s] a senses-shattering 70 years of Marvel Comics.”

Two years later, in 2011, Marvel Comics celebrated its 50th anniversary, which again included lots of anniversary covers. It should come as no surprise, then, to read that this year, Marvel Comics is celebrating its 75th anniversary.

If Marvel wants to add in some more chances for special anniversary issues, it’s worth pointing out that the words “Marvel Comics” don’t actually appear in the indicia of Avengers until #59, published at the end of 1968, so we’re still four years away from that particular 50th anniversary…

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“Real Love” is a trifle. It will never be included in any sane discussion of the Beatles’ best work, and if judged against the standard of just about anything recorded in the sixties it falls far short. Despite all of these caveats, however, the song still somehow manages to come alive. You can hear twenty-five years’ worth of cobwebs being shaken loose, three excellent musicians who had grown unaccustomed to working together, learning to do so once again. It’s stiff and slightly awkward, but its humble imperfections seems almost charming when placed next to the stentorian literalism of “Free As A Bird.” There was so much riding on these two tracks that there was no way the songs themselves could ever meet the world’s expectation. One of them was a misfire, and justly forgotten. The other, however … the other succeeded despite itself.

The great Tim O’Neil on the second “new” Beatles track to come out of the Anthology project from the 1990s. He’s pretty much entirely right on he value of this and “Free As A Bird.”

Related: Regina Spektor’s version, which – choral opening aside – may be my favorite version of the song.

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It is longtime [Media Research Center] media analysis director Tim Graham who writes “almost everything published under [Bozell’s] name,” a former MRC employee tells me in an email. “That includes his weekly column. Same goes for his books, which at least carry Graham’s name in a secondary billing, but also aren’t written by Bozell (but Bozell keeps 80-90% of the advance and all profits!)”

Turns out right-wing media watchdog Brent Bozell doesn’t write his own material. As distasteful as this is, I’m more appalled by the response from the company that syndicates his material when presented with the accusation:

“It is absolutely false to say that Brent Bozell does not write his column. … I remember years ago when Brent suggested that he share the byline for his column with Tim, and I said it would be better for us to promote a single individual. We have decided, however, that since Tim works so closely with Brent on the column, we have changed it to a joint byline.”

That’s right; it’s an accusation so false that they changed the byline just because.

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After two solid indie efforts, Flood was They Might Be Giants’ major-label debut, and it broke them out from the avant-garde and into real transatlantic fame. Aided by a congregation of zealots in college radio and in the MTV offices, Elektra Records pushed Flood on a newly ascendant generation of—let’s not beat around the bush—geeks. Suddenly playing concerts in suburban theatres increasingly full of spectacled teens, the bewildered band was left wondering what had become of their old art-damaged urbanite fans.

From here.

I may be misremembering, but I think that Flood was the first album I bought for myself, at age 15. I still really like it, and also still feel like the follow-up, Apollo 18, is this cruelly-ignored masterpiece.

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Today, Facebook announced a custom gender option with additional privacy settings for transgender people. The new feature, which GLAAD helped develop, enables users to select a custom gender option, indicate preferred pronouns and adjust privacy settings for the custom gender field. It will be available to those who use Facebook in U.S. English.

Well, good. About time.

(Press release, no link. Go to Facebook, I guess.)