Lookee! The Master Action Figure is on pre-order here.

eta: Take note: Limited Edition of 500. t /pimping

Jonathan Lethem on Jack Kirby.

Cool beans. Not least because he's writing about the dead center of my comics fanatacism (in the mid-seventies, I literally bought every single Marvel and DC comic that came out. Hard to believe now, but I was able to do that on lawn mowing money and bottles returned for deposit.) Interesting that he doesn't even touch on Jack's Fourth World stories at DC (my favorite, and certainly a huge impact on DC continuity, since in Darkseid Superman finally got another villain worthy of him).

Also? I got to shake Jack Kirby's hand once.

And here's another Buffy figure surprise -

Buffy Palz. They're like block figures. Scroll down to see some of them. Most bizarre.

Interesting that he doesn't even touch on Jack's Fourth World stories at DC (my favorite, and certainly a huge impact on DC continuity, since in Darkseid Superman finally got another villain worthy of him).

I was wondering about that, too, because I also thought the Fourth World was Kirby's best stuff. The issue where he finally showed the origins of Orion and Scott Free was amazing.

The comics Karl and I actually relished in 1976 and 1977, if we were honest (and Karl was more honest than me), were The Defenders, Omega the Unknown and Howard the Duck, all written by a mad genius called Steve Gerber, and Captain Marvel and Warlock, both written and drawn by another auteur briefly in fashion, Jim Starlin.

And in this, Lethem is me, because they were my two favorite Marvel writers. (Starlin did the Moth story in the first issue of The Escapist.)

And in this, Lethem is me, because they were my two favorite Marvel writers.

You also had titles like Killraven, Conan, Master of Kung Fu and Tomb of Dracula all having very long runs with cool writing and art in that period.

The Defenders was bitchin' though.

The Defenders was bitchin' though.

It was very strange, because I never cared for Dr. Strange, Namor, or the HUlk, but I liked that book a lot.

So is Batman: No Man's Land only a novel -- or was there also a series of comics by the same name?

Yes, the other two things came in -- of three things I ordered from Amazon marketplace: one was exactly what I thought I ordered (Batman: Year One), one turned out to be only a piece of what I thought I ordered (Robin: Year One book 1) and one was something COMPLETELY different.

Oh well.

So is Batman: No Man's Land only a novel -- or was there also a series of comics by the same name?

I was a story that ran in all the Bat comics (and spilled over into Justice League, Young Justice and others.) The bulk of it is collected in 5 graphic novels. It's surprisingly compelling.

What Victor said. I think I saw a novelization of it recently at B&N, but the real deal is well worth reading.

Randomly, I share a birthday with the late Julie Schwartz. I feel strangely unworthy.

Okay, what are the 5 or 6 tpbs that I should be looking for then?