Neilalien : A Doctor Strange Fansite : A Comic Book Weblog  

Al Williamson, EC Comics great, classical comics illustrator, has died [Comics Reporter obit]

Posted 30 June 02010 - Permalink

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"Correspondence between Steve Ditko and the Graphical Materials Librarian of the State Library of Pennsylvania William T. Fee regarding donations, [0]2008-[0]2009" is something you can see at the library [State Library of Pennsylvania Catalog] [via Ditko Comics]

A series of [16] letters [in a folder] beginning with a request from William T. Fee, the Graphical Materials Librarian at the State Library of Pennsylvania, to Steve Ditko, requesting a list of seminal works and/or donations of his material, sent December 12, 2008. After the first letter from Steve Ditko, dated December 29, 2008, all notes arrived accompanying donations. Letters from Ditko are pencilled, off-size notes, those from Fee are word processed but undated. Last letter, from Fee, was produced March 26, 2009. Additional notes relating to particular donations are housed with those items.

Posted 29 June 02010 - Permalink

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Doctor Strange Sighting: New Avengers #1

The new New Avengers book, part of the Heroic Age Avengers book-burst, does currently involve some threatened "revamp" of Marvel Magic drawn by the wonderful Stuart Immonen, so it is definitely on the radar of this weblog, if only for some in a '99% rubbernecking how many cars might be in this next looming Bendis highway pile-up for Doctor Strange fans', '1% how the hope of the hardcore Doctor Strange fan springs eternal', kind of way.

Doctor Strange is possessed, mind-controlled, etc., early, quickly and off-panel, second after Son of Satan (that we know of) by the new looming mystical threat to this dimension. Bendis can't help but make Doc seriously and passively state over and over that Voodoo is the new Sorcerer Supreme (the saving grace was later, when everyone thought the Eye was still Doc's). Voodoo seems next- his fate is unknown but he apparently teleports the Eye of Agamotto into Luke Cage's lap for safekeeping. Possessed Doc and Hellstrom follow it to Luke Cage. The mysterious possessor seems very keen on possessing the Eye. Hijinx to follow.

Neilalien's judgment, as always, is reserved after merely one issue. The curiosity keys for him will be (a) if Doctor Strange is merely a drooling idiot or possessed pawn until the very end when someone else saves the day, (b) how devaluing-to-Doc the depiction of the Eye will be, if it is this tale's MacGuffin, how many untrained people will use it, what the dimensional threat needs it for, where on the continuum between 'powerful but still just a tool' and 'entity-unto-itself questing for and kingmaking a new Sorcerer Supreme again' will it fall, and (c) how the "Magic revamp" chips fall, what it is, how it ends. We shall see.

[New Avengers #2 solicit text; #3 solicit text]

Posted 28 June 02010 - Permalink

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Fred Hembeck draws "Spider-Man Vs. The Sinister Six! (Plus One...)" [Hembeck.com]
Neilalien seconds the hope that Hembeck will get a chance to draw a tale paralleling Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 with Doctor Strange.
Hembeck is currently selling Doc-including sketches on Ebay [#1, #2, #3]

Posted 27 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Saturday Wong Limerick

Wong grows weary of this, our dimension,
Due to Internet misapprehension.
  His name, I'm afraid,
  Gets his emails delayed--
People think they're for penile extension.

[Submitted by ADDTF]

Posted 26 June 02010 - Permalink

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New column about abandoned and forsaken storylines debuts with one of the all-time whoppers: the undoing of Englehart's Doctor Strange world destruction/recreation Clea/Ben Franklin 'secret occult history of America' epic [Comic Book Resources]

Posted 25 June 02010 - Permalink

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When Spider-Man's cupcake capers went horribly wrong [Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun]

Posted 24 June 02010 - Permalink

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Will Dr. Strange Be Marvel's First Superhero Movie To Fly Under the Disney Banner?

Marvel Studios has hired Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Conan) to write Dr. Strange [Deadline] [Comic Book Resources] [A.V. Club]

Report that Patrick Dempsey wants to play Doctor Strange pretty much entirely full of crap [A.V. Club]
Old and resurrected Bleeding Cool/Arne Starr whispers dissed.

Posted 23 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Doctor Strange Limerick

Doctor Strange had some marital tension
With sweet Clea from the Dark Dimension-
  She left him to rule there,
  With "Strange" and new flame hair,
And now she gets barely a mention.

[Submitted by Brendan]

Posted 22 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Steve Ditko Limerick

None better than Ditko in all the lands
Could draw angled bodies, scared eyes, and hands;
  Otherworldly places;
  And stern heroes without faces
Imbued with the mind-set of Rand's.

Posted 21 June 02010 - Permalink

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Some Superhero Limericks

So Swamp Thing was published by Vertigo
Which mature readers found quite neat-o:
  But when the sales did drop,
  And the series did stop,
"Back to the DCU!" said DiDio.

[Submitted by Progressive Ruin]

Played by an Australian actor,
Empowered with a healing factor.
  Violent without pause,
  Possessed of claws-
His height a wee bit compacter.

[Submitted by Matt Heslin]

Posted 20 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Doctor Strange Limerick

There once was a servant named Wong
Whose dick was enormously long.
  Built-in kung-fu fighting bar;
  Stirred tea from afar;
From anywhere he reached the ritual gong.

Posted 19 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Doctor Strange Limerick

The Ancient One was sex-friends
With an old crone from Athens.
  When the question was placed,
  How her privates did taste,
He said with a shrug, "Depends."

Posted 18 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Doctor Strange Limerick

Doctor Strange granted Clea a treasure:
Watoomb's Wand, its worth far beyond measure.
  In her chamber she'd stay,
  Using it night and day,
For she found it was ribbed for her pleasure.

[Submitted by Sanctum]

Posted 17 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Doctor-Strange-Related Limerick

There once was a Doctor Druid
Who found he could no longer "do it".
  He complained with a fume:
  "When they renamed me from Droom
It drained all my seminal fluid."

Posted 16 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Limerick About Neilalien

I sent Neilalien a link,
Of a Doctor Strange poster in fluorescent ink.
  Customized in 3 dimensions,
  For full-on cosmic intentions-
Yet I heard nothing, not even a wink.

[Submitted by Alex]

Rectifying the situation: Fan takes his Doctor Strange Third Eye blacklight poster to 4th Floor Framing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for conversion into awesome 3-D paper art! [Ursula 1000 1st pic, 2nd pic]

Posted 15 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Doctor Strange Limerick

When Clea's love was finally dead,
Doc turned to hookers in her stead.
  The girls they please
  But now when he pees
It burns like Dormammu's head.

Posted 14 June 02010 - Permalink

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A Doctor Strange Limerick

A surgeon who was once all the rage,
Doctor Strange became a powerful mage.
  When asked by Dormammu
  What else he could do-
Doc replied, "Dude, I also don't age."

Please help Neilalien test out a new email address (and be advised that he has a new email address) by emailing love and limericks of your own (but please not spam) to: webmaster -at- this domain.

Posted 13 June 02010 - Permalink

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Blue Hat Man The Brave and the Bold: Batman and Doctor Strange [The Brave and the Bold: The Lost Issues] [via io9]

Lovenote to closing comic shop The Bookie- and to a childhood of comics- by creator Matt Dembicki [Powell's Books]

The Art of Ditko reviewed: "An inferior presentation of superior material." [Four Realities]

Ditko rocks out Machine Man #10 [Diversions of the Groovy Kind]

Marvel announces unprecedented same-day Direct-Market/dead-tree and iPad/digital release of a comic book, Invincible Iron Man Annual #1; some see the future of comics, some see the end of comic shops [PR at Comic Book Resources] [Robot 6 reaction roundup]

The Death of Dracula out 30 June: Dracula to die again; book will "explain and organize the vampire universe for future use"; "new paradigm" for Marvel [Bleeding Cool]
Remember that time Dracula died and Doctor Strange was involved?

Night Nurse and the Struggle to Address Non-Mainstream Culture [Hero Sandwich]
No one knew what to do with a progressive series written by a woman and starring a strong female character, except cancel it.
Short-Lived Series Shows Comics Struggled with Strong Female Characters [Texas Tech News]

The Alpha-Male Origins of the Marvel Universe [Popularity Contest]

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Marvel Universe* (*But Were Afraid to Ask Stan Lee) [Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!] [via LinkMachineGo]
Love the one-panel origins from Spidey Super-Stories.

Three Arguments About Comics We Could Be Having [Comics Reporter]
1. Does Reprinting Archival Comics Material Have A Moral Component? 2. Why Are So Many Direct Market Comics Shops Still Female Unfriendly? 3. What Are All These Superhero Comics Really Saying? [Two More]

10 Things Superhero Comics Do Better Than Any Other Genre in Any Other Storytelling Form [Comiks Debris] [via ADDTF]

The X-Men are broken because they aren't a special human minority anymore [The Hurting]
Interesting points re: if mutants "breed true" and can no longer have normal human children, and the storytelling implications of going from millions of mutants to 198.

The Periodic Table Of Super-Powers [Comics Alliance]

The Reoccurring Prop Newspaper [/Film]
Update/More: The Story Behind the Recycled Newspaper Prop [Brow Beat/Slate]

Posted 7 June 02010 - Permalink

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