The Ending To Every Harvey Pekar Story

Roscoe Lee Browne

The video link at the top today is from the 80s cartoon "Visionaries." That's because Roscoe Lee Browne died recently. Millions knew him as The Other Butler on "Soap"--the one who replaced Benson. Thousands knew him as the Kingpin on the 90s Spider-Man cartoon show. But for me and dozens of Visionaries fans, he was the awesomeness that was Merklyn.



That guy did not f___ around. You wanted to recharge your magic hologram flagpoles or whatever, he was damn sure going to make you WORK for it.

As to why the third video link is a World of Warcraft rap...I can't help you. Sorry.

M.O.D.O.K. has a posse

It probably does need to be said that in there history of comics, there have been very few villians who invoke a sense of "cool" and "loyalty" amongst what could actually be called a "fanbase".

I don't mean villains like the Joker, who thanks to Alan Moore and Jack Nicholson, are now essentialy either remembered for one heinouse deed OR are characitures of themselves. I also don't meen guys like Magneto, who simply look cool posing with a helmet on and have essentially become the super villain equivalent of an evil Urban Legend. Wheverever you look, there he is. He's a dictator. He's the savior of his people. He's Dead! He's Alive! He has no name. He has a name, it's Eric. Does he not look like an Eric?. Wasn't he beheaded? Nah, he wasn't even in the country when that shit happened.

Then there are guys like M.O.D.O.K!!!




The Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. Modok was made buy those bucket headed AIM guys. These dudes below:



Yeah so they made a MODOK guy and he's a HUGE head on a tiny body and he can't walk. He flys around on this killer weaponized toilet. He blast folks with some sort of ray from his giant Robin Williams-like forehead too. His major issue isn't even that stuff. The thing that he seems most obsessed with is making more MODOKS out of super heroes. So you fight him and if you lose or get caught in one of his big brained death traps, BAM! SpiDok or Captain AmeriDok or IronDok or MoonDok is what we are in for. That's just nasty.



At any rate, this is why guys like MODOK, Arnim Zola (later for him) and Batroc the Leaper (him too) are actually some of the coolest villains to ever punch Captain America in the schnozz. This is also all pre "Resistance is Futile" Borg stuff too. Just freakin cool!

Checkmate

I'd like to start with talking about a comic that is near and dear to my heart. That comic is Checkmate. Checkmate has a few things going for it in my opinion. If you want me to buy a comics then you need to have a few things covered:

1. Make it a team book.

I love team comics. Who doesn't. 12 heroes for the price of 1? Anyone could read Spiderman and his drama but wouldn't you rather read Spiderman moping but then having 11 of his friends kick ass until he gets a date?

Checkmate is a book about an organization of UN sactioned super guys who act as either spies or a first responce/counter terrorist unit.

2. Include some of my favorite characters

Like you want to read a team book full of dogs who couldn't carry the Global Guardians, Outsiders or the Sea Devils.

Checkmate has Mr. Terriffic, King Faraday, Amanda Waller, Count Vertigo, Fire and Alan Scott (the original Green Lantern). That's not bad. You get 2 JSAers, a Batman supporting character more interesting than Harvey Bullock, a cold hearted bitch who ran the Suicide Squade and 1 cool super villain in Count Vertigo.

3. The book has tro have a hook

Checkmate has a chess theme complete with Kings and Bishops and stuff. Even the Pawns are cool.

Buy it!!!

Post Number 1!!!

Whoo Hooo!!! This is the first post for the Official Blog of Third Coast Comics.

My name is Terry or Doc Midnight and I really don't care which you call me because Terry is cool and Doc Midnight can see in the dark, has a med degree and a pet owl.

The goal here is for me to post about what I think of the comics we come across and whatever else happens to be going on in the world of comics and pop culture.

Alright, consider this post in the books and lets see what we can get into.

Terry