Finally. It's Done.

So April is over, so it's time for Justin Timberlake to say "me" in a way that everyone swears sounds like "May."

So what happened over the past thirty days?

Well...the Pope died.

This sucks. I actually liked Francis. I mean, he was 88 and been in poor health for a while. He'd been at death's door for months, and it took one visit from JD Vance to decide it was time to be with the other popes in the big conclave in the sky.

Definitely the best pope in my lifetime, and most likely ever. Definitely better than the one who exploded after he died, or the one that exhumed a different pope to put his corpse on trial, or the one that went all William Henry Harrison and died after 33 days on the job.

The man walked the walk when it came to his faith and humility. He actually preached compassion, snuck out of the Vatican to wash the feet of the poor, and was ultimately buried in a simple wooden box with his old worn shoes. Hey, if I was facing eternity, I'd wear my trusty comfy shoes, too. 

This of course made many so-called Christians here in the States angry. Since the majority religion in this country is some version of Protestant, it's not surprising. Catholicism is weird, but not the weirdest form of Christianity.

But that's a story for another time. Time to show off something I got.

The Ren & Stimpy Show comics #43! Why is this one so special? 

Well, it took literal years, but this was the last issue I needed to complete my collection of the original main run of 44 issues. I've had a lot of the early stuff as a kid back when it was being printed in the 90s, but about six or seven years ago I sought to finish the set.

Not my image, fyi

I actually already HAD issue 44, bought it right off the newsstand when it was new at an airport as I was leaving for some vacation, and was horrified to learn it was indeed the last issue.

And since it was the last one, it fetches a pretty penny these days. I got it for the low low price of roughly two bucks in 1996 money.

You see, for licensed Marvel comics, especially the Ren & Stimpy run, the early issues are incredibly common and thus, pretty cheap. Like, three dollar bin cheap. Issue 1 of course being the exception, for being a Number 1 and that it had a scratch-n-sniff feature that was sealed and the whole thing is worth more intact. It's when you get to the later part of the run, past issue 30, is where you run into trouble. 

And so for years I scoured every comic shop and comic con I could find, I found comics here and there. coming up empty on the later stuff but ultimately finding most of them. Except issue 43. 

Last week I finally cried uncle and went to eBay for this one. It feels like I cheated. I like hunting on my own, finding booths and stores that carried these comics was challenging enough, and it was an even bigger gamble to find specific books. There's that real rush that comes from actually finding one. So going online feels...less special?

Either way, it's finally in my hands and I can rest easy.

...except I went down a rabbit hole and discovered special issues I hadn't even heard of and now I need THOSE to finish the real complete set.

I did manage to score a few on that same eBay binge, but thankfully they didn't run me too much. Like, "pretty much just paying for shipping" cheap.

You got your requisite Christmas special.

An issue filled with mazes, puzzles, and craft ideas. Naturally, it's important if it's intact like this one was.

And a mini comic that was included with an issue of Wizard.

Incredible to believe that Dan Slott worked on this before becoming the Spider-Man guy.

It comes to no surprise that he wrote my favorite issue, number six, where a mind-controlled Powdered Toast Man fought Spider-Man. The very first time he wrote for Spidey!

Of course Powdered Toast Man wins.

All in all, there's about four specials I'm missing (Four Swerks, Frankenstimpy, Powdered Toast Man Special 1995, Sports Special), so the hunt continues.

And on the subject of comics and hunting for them, this Saturday is the annual Free Comic Book Day!

So if you have local comic shops, swing by and buy stuff from them, and pick up some free comics! I'm lucky that I have three shops within five minutes of my house. I'm gonna clean up.

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Birthday Times!

 Last week was my 38th birthday! I'm old.

It was...fun to start the month with my parents and I coming down with a case of Norovirus or something. Thankfully the worst of it lasted a day or two, but it was just freaky for all of us to catch it out of the blue.

And I managed to catch The Looney Tunes Movie: The Day The Earth Blew Up while it was in the theater! WB's loss is our gain, I thought it was fantastic. Farmer Jim steals the entire movie, and he's barely in it.

But enough about that, it means it was time for my annual birthday trip to New York City!

And this time I took a stroll around Central Park! It's big, but this time I only walked up to the ice skating rink because my feet were already killing me from the trip there. Coulda went to the zoo, but that's a next time thing.

Some fantastic views.

And once again made it to Ichiran for lunch. That was real a real good bowl of ramen, no notes. Just right.

And had to snap some pics of a disappearing sight: Forever 21s that will soon be gone forever. 21. The one in Times Square used to be the Virgin Megastore and that's a hell of a thing to think about.

And finally the other reason I went into the city: American Woodcocks were spotted in Bryant Park! Apparently they show up there at the first sign of spring, and all the birding accounts I followed starting going nuts over sightings of them.

These are such borbs. They're the birds that go "meep."

It took a little while to look for one (there was a lot of brush clearing when I went and Bryant Park is not as big as you'd think it'd be), I found this one chilling under a bush. It was just sleeping when I found it, I didn't get to see it do its dance or anything. I never saw one in person before, it was such a rush when I spotted it. It's like "where is it?" then BOOM! It's right there. 

And now as we say goodbye to March and welcome the April showers, here's some more random pics I took on that trip.

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Sweet Seventeen

 Can you believe it? This lil blog turned SEVENTEEN?!

There's really no good pop culture reference to "17." Nothing good, anyway. That Sesame Street image is the best we're gonna get.

17 is such a weird age, it's like it doesn't even count. You passed the Sweet 16, and you're not a legal adult until you turn 18. You're just a junior in High School and frankly, that's a year of my life I don't want to revisit.

As for what I've been up to since I last posted...not much. We saw Kendrick's diss track to Drake earn multiple Grammys and sung in front of the whole world at the Super Bowl, for one.

SNL had its 50th anniversary special

The world lost a few people, like Michelle Trachtenberg, Roberta Flack, Gene Hackman (the jury is still out on HOW he died. It's sad enough that he passed at 95), and just today Kingda Ka.

Man, just like the ride itself, it was over in about ten seconds. I only got one ride on it, and frankly that was enough. It also marks the end of the drop tower that was attached to it, Zumanjaro. The view at the top was incredible, and again, I only managed to ride it once.

And of course, we lost Lynne Marie Stewart.

Miss Yvonne from Pee-Wee's Playhouse! Decades in show business and she's one of those people I've never heard a bad word about. She'd been nothing but warm, sweet, and hilarious.

Pictured above is a signed pic I snagged off eBay the moment I heard the news. It was only a matter of days when other signed pics were taken off and relisted for double the price. Bastards.

And while I was there, I picked up this signed pic of Kurtwood Smith.

This was much cheaper, mostly because 

1) He's still alive

and 2) Coming out to defend Danny Masterson really reduced the demand on his stuff. Don't think I paid more than $20 before all the fees and stuff.

And my mind was blown when I learned that Lynne Marie Stewart also played Mrs. Kelly on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

The show won't be the same without her, and I know she's gonna be in the upcoming season. It's gonna be tough when we see the "in memory of" dedication.

So farewell to the most beautiful woman in Puppet Land, and farewell February. Let's hope March is better.

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Goodbye January

Okay, I'd like to make a correction from last month's post: I'm ready to go back to 2024.

January's finally over, and that felt like forever. David Lynch AND Simpsons Tapped Out died, not to mention any hope of not being anxious over the...general state of everything.

But I hope you all remembered to celebrate National Gorilla Suit Day!

Somewhat related, but earlier this month I picked up a book I'd been searching for since my childhood.

"Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head & Other Drawings" by B. Kliban.

A now-deceased family friend that lived Upstate had it when we went to visit on family vacations. She had a few Calvin and Hobbes books and a few other comic strip collections, but this was the one I poured over most of all.

It was the first time I ever saw swears in a comic strip and it blew my tiny mind. It was the first comic in the book, and it was a taste of what was to come.

For literal decades I could not remember the name of the book, nor who drew it. But then one of those engagement farm posts went around Bluesky about comics that influenced you, and I googled the only drawing I remembered (the one you see above), and I hit the jackpot. I quickly found the cheapest copy off Amazon and now it's all mine!

The book was published in 1976 and B. Kliban (or "Hap" as he liked to be called) was once an artist for Playboy, and this book does not hide that one bit.

It's one of a few nude pictures in that book, but it was the one that stuck with me. And it's still timely all these years later.

But THIS is my all time favorite drawing in the book. Just eating pies like he just bit into a big sandwich. There's so many pies, and there's even pictures of pies on the wall! It just tells one hell of a story.

If these cartoons seem familiar, Gary Larson has cited B. Kliban to be a giant influence on The Far Side, and man does it show. This one seemed to be the most Far Side-like, in both artwork and the story it tells. 

Then I saw this one and I said "oh yeah, I see it now."

I think about this one all the time.

And this one.

And especially this one.

You can tell this is from 1976.

Incredible pun.

And another one that would've been at home in The Far Side.

I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure the website was named after this.

And now a bunch of my other favorites.

Another piece of my puzzle falls into place.

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