Where to begin to continue...

I truly don't know where to begin, or how to go about explaining it all, so here it is, briefly as possible, just to get caught up. Also, I'm trying to get this done quickly, so will not include links. If something here sparks a desire for more info just search for it. I'll probably come back to this post in the future and add links... just because. Up, up and away!

SUPERMAN

On Saturday I forgot to mention an odd trend of Superman. For a few weeks now we've had what seems to be a Spanish version comic book of Superman, Super-Homem. I'm not fluent in Spanish, but I think this book may be Portugese. Something about language looks other than Spanish to me.

Anyway, It's printed in a smaller format than a typical comic, but it's thicker, like a graphic novel. I guess it's closest print comparison would be thick squarish Japanese manga books that have been steadily growing in popularity. So, yes, I said it's been around for a few weeks, but it was specifically noticed and mentioned by a customer a few days ago. This Spanish/Portugese language Superman book collects a number of stories following the Death and Return of Superman, as evidenced by his longer hairstyle during that time.

And that leads me to a customer request for the Death of Superman comic. They're not expensive or hard to find. In fact, they're so abundant that it's one of a few comics for which we seem to have many multiple copies on hand at all times. Almost everyone who wants one already has it, and that's what made the request something of a surprise.

So, after those two incidents, and in the middle of the VR conversation I mentioned in my previous post, Superman by The Kinks played on the radio.

To wrap it all up, another customer traded in a 2004 issue of The Adventures of Superman. Superman trade-ins aren't uncommon, but I rarely notice them. This one caught my eye for containing a promo poster from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - a personal favorite film, with certain similarities to a Superman cartoon from the '40s. The poster was one in a series of six available at the time in various DC comics. I hadn't known of the posters until seeing this comic. I would have collected them.

DISNEY

OK, nothing unusual about Disney in Bonnett circles. We love the Disney! The thing that's odd is when we're suprised by Disney. In October 2012 Disney surprised EVERYONE by taking over Lucasfilm. A deal that huge shouldn't have come out of the blue as it did, but it seems they really wanted to keep it under wraps until it was done. The Star Wars themed ride Star Tours has been a Disney fixture for quite some time, so we knew there was more than a passing connection.

About two weeks before this huge deal we acquired a pair of Mickey Mouse ears for our in-store toy collection. A stray Darth Vader helmet had been sitting around for some time and I thought it would be fun to put the ears on it. Little did I know that I was divining the future with our toys:

A few things to note about this photo. It's second of two I shot with my phone. The other had glare on the Mickey Mouse Club logo, so I moved the shot to this spot, suitably in our science fiction section. Note the fish toys on the right. I put Flounder from The Little Mermaid in this photo because he happened to be handy. The other fish (tail-only) is a squeaky toy of the fish from Disney's Pinnocchio. I promise it's all true. That helmet would not forgive the growing nose of a liar.

Then, at the beginning of this year, my son and I visited the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH to see some collections of the photography of Annie Leibovitz. At that time there was a question of whether we would go to the Leibovitz show or another photo show at the Cincinnati Art Museum featuring the photography of Herb Ritts.

In making the final decision I image searched both photogs to get an idea of which show we thought we'd enjoy most. Our final choice turned out to be our original choice, Annie Leibovitz. Both photographers are great, but Leibovitz has shot more of what we felt we wanted to see. The Disney surprise in this case was my discovery of A.L.s Disney Dream Portraits which feature celebs as Disney characters.

My car radio is tuned to 24-hour Classical WDPR 88.1 FM, Dayton Public Radio, but I frequently listen to a variety of podcasts while I'm driving. The chances of hearing any particular thing are slim, and since I keep irregular hours I hear different bits of programming with little anticipation of hearing certain types, styles, or composers which might be featured by the show hosts. However, since just before Christmas I've heard at least one piece every week on WDPR that has been featured in a Disney film. The Nutcracker Suite was featured in the original Fantasia, Rhapsody in Blue was a highlight of Fantasia 2000, Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia, Pines of Rome from F2K, and the amazing Sorcerer's Apprentice which appeared in both films.

This past weekend I was graced by a visit from my son. We didn't have plans. We were just hanging out on Sunday, did some shopping, visited some friends, played some Uno, watched some Disney. We were going to watch Robin Hood but we didn't seem to have it handy, so we watched Fun and Fancy Free instead, which is really two separate stories shown as a single film. The surprise (for me) was that we ended up watching Disney. I had expected a night of video games or adventure movies, but I'm glad we picked what he did.

The first cartoon in Fun and Fancy Free is Bongo, from a story by Rudyard Kipling Sinclair Lewis about a circus bear who finds freedom and love. The story is narrated by Dinah Shore. Where's the Disney surprise? Well, this bit includes some very Fantasia-esque scenes as Bongo falls in love with a lady-bear. Watch the heart shaped clouds, there's an unintentional surprise there as well. A further surprise the next day was finding a DVD of the old Carol Burnett show... one of the guests being Dinah Shore. Strange how things happen sometimes.

The second segment is Mickey and the Beanstalk starring the famous mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. This story is told by famous ventriloquist Edgar Bergen with the help of his "friends" Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, and includes some segments of mixed live action and animation.

All in all a very entertaining picture. And as I was typing this stuff about Disney a commercial for Disney Cruises aired on TV. The Disney machine keeps rolling and rolling.


Honestly, there's more to all this, but I'm spent, and I realize this hasn't been my best post. If you've read this far I thank you. More and better posts coming soon, and check back for links. I'll probably do some editing on this post as well, when I return to add the links. Right now it's a 1st printing of the 1st edition. Collect them all! Links have been added and some minor editing has been done, including a rather major correction... Sinclair Lewis wrote Little Bear Bongo, which became the cartoon "Bongo" in "Fun and Fancy Free," not Rudyard Kipling. I honestly have no idea how I switched those two names. Be well!