When you’re a little kid, it’s hard to predict what’s going to scare you. I could read horror comics all the time, and they never did much for me one way or the other. But what scared the dickens out of Li’l Scott back in 1976? This issue of WORLD’S FINEST, for one thing. In […]
I think I’ve mentioned in these pages before that one of my favorite things about the San Diego Comic-Con is the annual back-issue crawl that fellow C101 columnist Chris Ryall and I make on Sunday afternoon. Quickly filing through aisles and aisles of quarter and dollar longboxes, it’s the most prime example of comic-book Darwinism. […]
This column first appeared March 19, 2008. This is a tough one. Not only is Dave Stevens’ creation THE ROCKETEER such a longtime favorite of mine, but I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Dave many times over the last 20 years or so, and he was just a hell of a nice […]
Flipping channels the other night, I happened across a film from a few years back that featured Superman and Batman grimacing and sneering at each other while a weirdly floppy-haired Luthor gads about the screen. Rather than subject myself to that, I climbed into the Wayback Machine and headed for June of 1952, when The […]
This piece is dedicated to the memory of artist Carolyn Kelly, daughter of POGO creator Walt Kelly, and guardian and custodian of his work and legacy. Carolyn Kelly had been spearheading the recent beautiful hardcover reprint collections of POGO from Fantagraphics, and even drew the strip herself during a brief revival. To learn more about […]
That’s what the San Diego Comic-Con can start to feel like in recent years: out-and-out war. It’s you against 124,999 other folks, all of whom are trying to get to the same places and buy the same things that you are, and you wish they’d just get out of your damn way. Stop. Take a […]
The Doctor Who fans out there can relate. Whenever The Doctor regenerates, usually the TARDIS will change too, but it always still looks and feels like the TARDIS. Oh, sure, the colors and details may change, but all the familiar facets remain: the curved walls, the central console. It still feels the same. You know […]
Every piece of official art that was ever used to promote BLASTOFF, everything from our logo and title font to over 70 theme banners, has all been the work of a single talent, our Artist-in-Residence Elena Casagrande. Elena was the first call Jud and I made when we started the business and needed a logo, […]
The time has come! This weekend, Saturday, July 13, and Sunday, July 14, will be BLASTOFF’s final days of operation in North Hollywood. Jud and Scott will be in the house all weekend, so come on by and take advantage of our biggest sale ever! All “new” and current comics are on sale for $1! […]
The little girl sat at our children’s table two or three times a week. Sometimes, weekends. Her mother would fit herself into one of the tiny chairs, purse in her lap, reading a Spanish romance novel. The girl would build a small stack of Archies and Tiny Titans and keep them within arm’s reach. She […]
You’d think a great Spider-Man movie would have to take place mostly in New York. Au contraire. So many great Spidey stories have been travel stories, whether Spidey was in Florida confronting the Lizard, or the Savage Land working for JJJ, or off to London to try to win back Gwen Stacy. So even though […]
BLASTOFF WELCOMES COLLECTOR’S PARADISE TO NORTH HOLLYWOOD Award-winning SoCal retail chain to take over for departing vintage-comic boutique North Hollywood, CA, July 2019 – Blastoff Comics and Collector’s Paradise are pleased to announce that they have entered into an agreement that will allow Collector’s Paradise to take over Blastoff’s popular brick-and-mortar location at 5118 Lankershim […]
We are delighted to announce that our friends at Collector’s Paradise will be taking over our spot in the North Hollywood neighborhood! We couldn’t bear the thought of leaving our community without a quality bookstore, so we reached out to the best retailers we knew to come in and set up shop here at 5118 […]
