This month, just some comments and observations. - I was on a business trip in Arlington, TX the week Batman #676 (part 1 of the Batman RIP storyline) was released. I checked out a comics shop in the area on Wednesday and they were sold out. When I returned to my local comics shop in the Chicago 'burbs, they were sold out too. A week later, they had two copies selling for $5. apiece. (Thank goodness for my pull/hold!) - (SEMI-COMPLETE) BOOK REVIEW: The Nearly Complete Essential Hembeck Archives Omnibus by Fred Hembeck (Image Publishing); 900 pages, $24.99 No, I didn't read the WHOLE book yet as this just came out last week. If you've read comics since the late '70s, you might remember Fred Hembeck's gag strips when DC Comics used run a 1-page Daily Planet feature in their comics, OR remember various humorous one-shot issues he did for Marvel characters -- which you WON'T find either in this book, by the way. I was on the fence about getting this until I saw the actual product (and as I can't seem to find my copies of his earlier publications). My concern was the cost and some of the material being dated, as Hembeck's insightful and funny musings and anecdotes mostly covered silver-age comics (and it's occasional silliness and absurdities). Still, with 900 pages, Hembeck covers a LOT of ground, and his love of comics and their respective creators really shines through and I would recommend it based on that. My only nitpick is that is that this is reprinted on cheap paper, and as Hembeck crams a lot of words in word balloons, it can be very difficult to read the tiny words. - SPOILER WARNING/IRON MAN. Yes, the Iron Man movie was much better than I thought. All of the respective leads (Downey, Jr., Paltrow, and Bridges) went up a notch in my book as actors (and they weren't too shabby to start with). Four thoughts: Paltrow's character COULD have been a "damsel in distress" a few times as the story progressed, but DIDN'T. I thought Pepper was presented as a character who was smart and thinks on her feet. While I wanted more respective "name" Iron Man villains, in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't get any. It would have likely bogged down the movie. But please, next time, give me the Black Widow ... or Titanium Man. I loved the '60s "Iron Man" cartoon theme instrumental playing in the background during the awards ceremony scene. And was that the same announcer's voice during that scene from the cartoon too? Samuel L. Jackson, thank you! - Finally, a letter column oddity that I stumbled up from the silver-age; specifically, Superman #135 (v.1 Feb. 1960) "Dear Editor, Inasmuch as your offices can't supply back-numbers of your various SUPERMAN magazines, would it possible for you to print my address so that readers who have old issues can swap or sell them to me?" (Sorry, but old issues of used magazines are known disease-carriers, so we can't encourage such swapping. -- Ed.)

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