RIP

Jay Cronley

1943-2017

My dad used to work with him at the Tulsa World.

I read these two books by him a long time ago.

september city

I went to the mall for lunch the other day. I had a gyro with extra meat and no fries because I wanna be skinny like the spiderman. After eating, I went for a walk around the mall cuz I'm old. Just kidding. I saw a sign that said there's a new bookstore downstairs next to Macy's. I went and looked. There's actually a tattoo shop next to Macy's. Next to the tattoo shop is the new used bookstore. I think it was called Fine Books. I went inside for a closer look. No new books anywhere. Seemed kind of like a smallish selection. Nowhere near as big as Gardner's, but lots better than the used bookstore in the strip mall across the street that seems to have nothing but paperback romance novels. I glanced over their limited sci-fi selection. No Rucker, no Sheckley. I did however spot one by Wm. Rotsler and a few by  G.A. Effinger. I ended up buying The October Country by Ray Bradbury. I'll be back for the others. I believe they buy and trade as well as sell, so perhaps next time I'll see more stuff.
There used to be a bookstore in the mall. I think it was Waldenbooks. They only sold new books and magazines. It was way different. That closed about a year ago. The bigger mall out south used to have a Waldenbooks and a B. Dalton. Those are long gone now. Both malls now have Barnes and Nobles across the street from them. I haven't been out to that big mall in a long time. It's farther away and the traffic out there sucks. There were no bookstores in there last time I visited. I wonder now if that's changed. Probably not.

Skinny Malinky

The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids

by

Stanley Kiesel

Skinny Malinky Leads the War for Kidness

by

Stanley Kiesel

I read these a long time ago but I still have them. I remembered them recently and had to recommend them. I might have to re-read them soon. Here's a link to a great article I found while searching for info about these books. It contains a good description of the first one here, as well as a few other excellent YA titles I remember reading.

handful of paperbacks

I used to have these when I was in elementary school. Today I found them at the used bookstore and got them again. I love the cool sci-fi cover art. I also got:

• House of Stairs by William Sleator
• To the Land of the Electric Angel by William Rotsler
• Tik-Tok by John Sladek
• Roderick by John Sladek

Witch

The last few days, I've been working downtown at the Performing Arts Center. Wicked is in town. It's the second time it has come to town. I'd like to go see it this time, since I missed my chance last time. Hopefully I will.
I read the book a few years ago and liked it. I also read the sequel, Son of a Witch, but didn't like it as much. Maybe I'll read the third in the trilogy someday, if I can find a used copy or get it on sale. Someday.

second favorite superhero

Machine Man
Don't remember when I discovered it. High school maybe. 1984? More like 6th grade.
It was a four part series, Machine Man 2020.
From Wikipedia: Machine Man was reactivated in the year 2020 by a group of outlaw scavengers called Midnight Wreckers (led by X-51's old friend Gears Garvin), and forced to battle his old enemy, the industrialist ice queen Sunset Bain, as well as mercenary Arno Stark, the amoral Iron Man of 2020.

After reading up a bit on this character, I realized that I know very little of it's history outside of the four issues I had read. At the time I was just getting into Heavy Metal magazine and Blade Runner. I wanted to be a Midnight Wrecker and live in an abandoned McDonalds.

To me Machine Man was a cross between the Terminator and Inspector Gadget. Not as cheesy as Gadget, but not as threatening as Arnold.

I've decided to create a comic book hero dream team here. First memeber was Longshot, second is Machine Man. Don't know how many more yet, to be continued...

shopping spree

Yesterday was my day off and I bought a half dozen books at the used book store. Here they are:

1. Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon. Recently read Maps and Legends by this author. Tried to find the one that he won the Hugo and Nebula for, but they didn't have that one.
2. Ender in Exile - Orson Scott Card. I read Ender's Game and War of Gifts last year. Now I have Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon as well as this one. They're all thick-ass books.
3. Losing Joe's Place - Gordon Korman. This guy was one of my favorite YA authors growing up. I used to have a bunch of his books, now I'm trying to collect them all again. I'd never even heard of this one before.
4. Singularity - William Sleator. Another favorite from my youth. I still have 3 of his books sitting on my shelf: Fingers, Into the Dream and The Green Futures of Tycho.
5. Doctor Who & the Talons of Weng Chiang - Terrance Dicks. Did I mention that I love Dr. Who? Nerd Alert! This was a 6 part story starring Tom Baker (my favorite Doctor) and Leela (my favorite companion).
6. Doctor Who and the Android Invasion - Terrance Dicks. Another book based on a Tom Baker story, but one which I don't have on DVD yet. I vaguely remember seeing the episode on PBS back in the mid 70s. I seem to recall Sara Jane's face falling off to reveal fake eyes and computer circuits inside. Probably traumatized thousands of Brittish boys and girls for life.
7. Anthrax - Return of the Killer A's. Not a book. Gardner's also sells music, videos and toys. I was a little disappointed to learn that the version of I'm the Man on this CD was the censored version.

my favorite super hero

Longshot
Mid eighties, I was in my mid teens, early summer. My dad was coordinator for a cross state bicycle tour called FreeWheel. I brought my bike, but mostly rode in the van ahead of the tour, to the next campground in the next rural town.

After setting up camp, I would often set out on my own to wander the streets of the small town we'd arrived in, checking out parks and arcades, convenience and book stores, pawn shops and groceries. I earlier blogged about discovering The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton in one of these towns. I discovered Longshot the same way.
I probably got it in some nameless quick stop or piggly wiggly. By the end of FreeWheel I had found the first 2 issues and was addicted. Interesting note: Being a Brian Bosworth fan at the time, I thought Longshot's blonde mullet was cool. And check out the leg warmers on She-Hulk. Sexee.
So I got home to Tulsa and stalked the various comic book stores around town until I had the whole series. Still have them, encased in mylar bags, filed away inside a cardboard box, inside another cardboard box, on a shelf in my front hall closet. They're all there next to other comic books I'll eventually get around to blogging about here someday.

Neat Stuff

I first got into Peter Bagge in high school, when I was hanging out with a friend who had a copy of Neat Stuff in his car. It was all about Buddy Bradley. I read the whole thing and was quickly hooked, went out and bought all the Neat Stuff comix I could find, and later, HATE.

1978

This was the first book I ever read. I was in first grade at the time. I remember laying on my back on the kitchen floor, in an apartment in Edmond, reading about Henry Huggin's dog. I would later read many other Beverly Cleary books. Books about the Quimbys, Otis Spofford and Ralph the mouse.

Danzig's Books

I saw him in concert in OKC, Nov. 18, 1992. Rock City Cafe with special guests White Zombie and Kyuss. This is the concert where I punched out some drunk little mexican indian looking guy for trying to fight me. Then later I got dropped on my head in the mosh pit and woke up twenty minutes later at the bar. Good times.