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J. Caleb Mozzocco @jcaleb.bsky.social · 15h

Today on the blog, it's reviews of every new thing I read last month, which means BATMAN: GARGOYLE OF GOTHAM, SUPERGIRL Vol. 2 and the new Archie Halloween special. Not many books but, as usual, I went long on all of them.

everydayislikewednesday.com

A Month of Wednesdays: September 2026

BOUGHT: Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham—The Deluxe Edition (DC Comics) Mesmo Delivery and The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child artist Ra...

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J. Caleb Mozzocco @jcaleb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I saw someone mentioned this comic on Bluesky today, which reminded me that I haven't publicly asked DC to collect Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck's 10-issue, 1992 JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA series in a while. Please DC Comics, for the love of God, collect this series.

The cover of 1993's Justice Society of America #10, featuring art by Mike Parobeck depicting the team rushing towards the reader in various action poses.

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“I know more about everything than anybody in this room…Anybody anywhere in the world,” he says. I find that hard to believe. Bet he can’t even name three different Pokémon.

(I was going to make a joke about how changing the name from AI to SI doesn’t solve any problems, but i guess there’s an actual technical distinction between artificial intelligence and superintelligence, beyond the obvious linguistic one.)

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If The Question Is ‘Is Tommy Tuberville Really That Stupid?’ The Answer Is Always Yes

I wonder who these kids having sex reassignment surgery without telling their parents put down as their emergency contact when filling out their paperwork.

wonkette.com

Always.

By the way, I ultimately went with the image of Tomax and Xamot in the earlier post because it shows off the flight pods better, but it was down to that image and the part where Cobra Commander shrieks "Retreat!" over the theme song while clinging to the top of one:

An image from the opening of G.I. Joe: The Movie, in which the screen splits into four panels, showing Cobra Commander clinging to the top of a flight pod piloted by a Cobra Viper from two different angles.

I was okay with Serpentor, but there have been a few points where I thought, "Wait, this is a little much, isn't it?" These mostly involved G.I. Joe and Cobra each having their very own space programs; 1987's #65 had both teams' space shuttles fighting in space and it felt too STAR TREK to me.

Reposting because, like Kurt Busiek, I too would like collections of the Alan Grant/Val Semeiks DEMON.

If DC Comics is counting potential buyers, I too would like to see the Grant/Semeiks run collected.

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GI Joe 1080p HD Bluray Intro

BTW, that image of Tomax and Xamot piloting Cobra flight pods comes from the opening of G.I. JOE: THE MOVIE, which remains perhaps my favorite three minutes in the entire history of cinema and is something I watch on YouTube every few months. Here, want to watch it again together...?

youtu.be

YouTube video by poa9s

I can't stop thinking about this, as it seems such a strange and unlikely place to draw the line, you know? (Hama and co. also never used Cobra-La, but that's understandable, as their existence would sort of break the whole book in a way a random dumb Cobra vehicle appearing in an issue wouldn't).

While Larry Hama and his co-creators dutifully introduced every action figure, vehicle and playset from the original toy line into the comic, no matter how outlandish (Raptor, Crystal Ball, the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball, etc.), 1985's Cobra Flight Pod (AKA the "Trubble Bubble") never appeared.

An image from the opening of G.I. Joe: The Movie, featuring Tomax and Xamot piloting Cobra flight pods, AKA "Trubble Bubbles."

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Derf Backderf @derfbackderf.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I recently finished G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO COMPENDIUM 3, which means I have read the first 113 issues of the original comic (and the entirety of its sister comic SPECIAL MISSIONS) produced between 1982 and 1991. And I just realized something conspicuously absent from all those adventures.

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Reposted by J. Caleb Mozzocco

This Wednesday at 7pm! Join me for the official Cleveland book launch of THE DISSIDENTS, hosted by MacsBacks Books at the Grog Shop, just up the street. There will be a visual presentation packed with goodies about the making of this book, followed by a signing. I'll be drawing in title pages.

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(Amusingly, both the Marvel shelf and the DC shelves have a trade paperback collection of a series in which each publisher's respective superheroes fight Godzilla, GODZILLA VS. THE MARVEL UNIVERSE and JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. GODZILLA VS. KONG.)

Meanwhile, DC got twice as much shelf space. As you can see, there's a lot of collections from the Absolute line, a lot of Batman, a surprising amount of SANDMAN (Have they not heard?) and some "Compact Comics" collections of the likes of WATCHMEN, V FOR VENDETTA and various superhero books.

A photograph of two bookshelves from a bookstore, full of DC comics.

Perhaps surprisingly, after the Ultimate stuff, the best represented runs were Ta-Nehesi Coates' BLACK PANTHER and G. Willow Wilson's MS. MARVEL.

J. Caleb Mozzocco @jcaleb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Still thinking about Marvel vs. DC in terms of their current trades and graphic novel offerings. Tonight I stopped at the nearest bookstore. This is their one Marvel shelf. There's a lot from their Ultimate line, some STAR WARS, Spidey and Wolverine (Including Tsutomo Nihei's WOLVERINE: SNIKT!)...

An angled photograph of a bookshelf in a bookstore featuring Marvel trade paperback collections of comics (with the store's cardboard separators in the middle).

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Oh jeez, I just remembered THIS comes out this month too...and costs $125.

The cover of The Spectre by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake Omnibus Volume 2.

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J. Caleb Mozzocco @jcaleb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

(BTW, “Gorilla Grodd” auto-corrected to “Gorilla Geoff”, and now I want to know what Geoff’s deal might be…)

J. Caleb Mozzocco @jcaleb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

So if they published this to coincide with LANTERNS, do you think they will do one for that Jimmy Olsen/Gorilla Grodd show…? If so, what would it reprint? Three Jimmy Olsen comics and two Grodd ones…? Maybe the best Jimmy Olsen comics featuring gorillas…?

A picture of a Green Lantern magazine on a rack of other magazines. The cover features an image by Jim Lee, and the cover copy reads “Five Acclaimed Comic Book Stories By All-Star Writers And Artists!”

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J. Caleb Mozzocco @jcaleb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I love this weird-ass series so much.

Like all of the previous such collections, it's obviously not for me. Probably even less so than the previous magazine reprint collections, as MY favorite GLs are 1940s Alan Scott and 1990s Kyle Rayner, and I loathe Hal Jordan as much as a real human being can dislike a fictional character).

There are ads for DC's Absolute line, their DC Finest line and some Green Lantern trades in there, too, so it's possible to imagine some kid or getting one of these as a gift and having their interest piqued enough to start reading DC Comics.

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If you're curious about the contents, it reprints 1959's SHOWCASE #22 (first appearance of Hal Jordan), 1971's GREEN LANTERN #87 (first appearance of John Stewart), 2012's GREEN LANTERN CORPS #0 (New 52's alternate origin for Guy Gardner), 2005's GREEN LANTERN #1 and 2025's GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1.

You know those magazine format collections of reprints dedicated to Batman, Superman, Supergirl and the Justice League…? Today I saw one featuring Hal Jordan and wondered who THAT was for…until I remembered that LANTERNS show exists…and comics people seem to like it okay, right…?

This Friday is payday, and I'm thinking about all of the comics I could be buying and ordering this weekend if I WEREN'T currently spending almost twice as much on gas every week as I was last year. I'll get you all eventually, I swear...!

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I know like four things about Iceland, and the fact that Bjork is from there is one of them. She shows up in the book rather quickly:

A passage from Nancy Marie Brown’s book Looking For The Hidden Folk.

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Interesting point about belief in elves in relation to belief in God…and a great retort about cats in the Bible.

I didn't have this poster in my room, but it was on the wall at my local library, and I used to study it while waiting in line for my mom to check our books out.

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I just started reading this book yesterday morning, drawn in by the sub-title, which promises the intersection of an aspect of the occult/supernatural/religion with environmentalism. That's a real sweet spot of my interests (Besides, you know, comics). It's pretty great, so far...!

The cover of Nancy Brown's book Looking for The Hidden Folk: How Iceland's Elves Can Save the Earth.

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It IS amazing that he won all three Elections [sic]. Indeed, you could almost say it is unbelievable.

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I like this 1933 Children's Book Week poster because, by the logic it articulates, the fact that I have 45 shelves full of comics collections and graphic novels is NOT a bad thing. In fact, I should probably have a few more by this point!

1933 Children's Book Week poster, a black and white photograph of a young boy reading a book in front of a set of bookshelves. The coyp reads "Grow With Books...Add a shelf for every year"

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I suppose it’s high time I finally get around to reading it then, huh…? I see it’s part of Marvel’s Premier line, which I’ve been assuming features the books they themselves think of as among their best graphic novels to offer readers.

I thought Sports Illustrated claimed “SI”, like, decades ago…?

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I saw this book at the library today, and I kind of love the tag line. It seems like it could almost but not quite be a tag line for a Lucas Lee movie.

The cover for the novel “Killer Move” by Michael Marshall, which bears the tag line “Your password is protected. Your life is not.”

I’D buy a Marvel Premier Edition of it…! I suspect that it is not currently in print in any format though, is it…?

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Agreed. I’m not sure ITS in print either, which seems insane, but I could be wrong about that…

As a person who read those comics (which were great!), I’m glad I was able to secure collections of ‘em before they went out of print…!

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Indeed. When I was listing all the standalone graphic novels featuring Marvel characters, they were from Abrams…plus some kids ones from Scholastic (or are they a part of Abrams?) and some manga through Viz…

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I was just thinking how Douglas Wolk’s ALL THE MARVELS has an entire chapter basically devoted to recommending that readers go pick up MS. MARVEL and UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL…!

...and while I personally like reading the occasional compendium, omnibus, Epic Collection or whatever, they're not great "starter" books. Like, no way would I ever hand someone who tells me they like Spider-Man or Ghost-Rider or whoever a 1,000-page doorstop and say, "Here, start with this...!"

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That does suck, as North and Henderson are still producing new, great work that--theoretically--would lead readers to seek it out. In addition to it being an awesome book with an immediately appealing heroine, of course. I mean, the name alone sells the book to a degree...

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After months of reading 10 pages or so at a time of a very dry, scholarly non-fiction book, I have finally finished it. Now comes the most strange and fun part of such reading: Looking back at all the pages I had marked and trying to determine why Past Caleb thought I would be interested in them.