personal history

personal history

Cover Charges: My favorite comic book covers…

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Cover Charges: My favorite comic book covers…
               Recently Facebook pages and groups devoted to comic books have listed “Top Ten Comic Book covers” from professionals and fans.
               My friend Clyde and I discussed this topic one Saturday night and resulted in his blog post that you can view here. http://playmst3kforme.blogspot.com/2013/06/weve-got-you-covered-10-great-comic.html
               I stand by what I said. It would be very hard to do. But as I flogged my memory it became easier. I ended up with quite a long list. I could either go with comic book covers that have become iconic – Brave & Bold #28, Amazing Fantasy #16 and Action Comics #1 …

I could have gone with comics that I love as a work of art, such as this beauty – Batman #241 with
art by Neal Adams. It’s a comic I do not own, but is definitely one of my favorite covers. Wow!

               Or this famous cover from World’s Finest #7 from the 1940s. It’s another comic I do not own, but it IS one of my favorite covers. If only because it never fails to elicit a sophomoric giggle. Hee-heehee-

hee…

               Robin does look quite proud, doesn’t he?

 

               I wanted to do something more personal. These are ten comic book covers that made me want to buy the comics. Something about the cover attracted me enough to say, “Oh I’ve got to get that.” Some are iconic, some are beautiful pieces of art; some just pressed my buttons (in a good way). If a comic book cover is supposed to entice you to purchase and/or read it, these worked … for me …
               You may notice the distinct lack of Marvel comics. This is because I did not read much Marvel growing up. I got most of my comics for free from Sparta Printing – who printed National Comics (they officially changed their name to DC Comics in 1976), Harvey and Archie. So Marvel comics were only picked up in the grocery store.
               And all of the comics were from the 1970s. This was when I was a boy into my very early teens; comic book covers mattered more to me than they do now. I haven’t been excited by a comic book cover in many decades. Maybe older and wise, maybe not.  A cover may intrigue me but it is the interior art or story that catches my imagination. That is too bad, I suppose, but it helps keep impulse buying in check…
                Someone might say, “How could this cover excite you? It’s silly! Now Spiderman #28 – THAT gave me the willies!”  Really? Tell me more about it! I’d love to read your lists!
               So these are personal favorites only. Maybe someday I’ll do my favorite list of “iconic” or “classic” covers, but for now, this is all about me! Haha!
               These are in no particular order:
Superman vs Spider-Man: the Battle of the Century. 1976.  What comic book fan did not soil themselves upon seeing this cover? Even the house ads in other DC and Marvel comics brought a chill. It was this iconic cover with the words, “THIS … SAYS IT ALL!!” It helped that it was a rollicking good read that lived up to the hype! The cover was by Carmine Infantino (layout), Ross Andru (finishing and pencils) and inked by Dick Giordano – all hall-of-famers.
               Occasionally a comic cover lives up to its hype. This is one of them.
 
 
 
 
Superman #317. 1977? Neal Adams art. A later part of a multi-part issue, which was a better-than average story; so I would have gotten the issue anyway.  , but I was so wooed by the cover! An angry Superman!?  Wouldn’t you run away, too?
               Adams is a wonderful artist. Look at those muscles.  You can almost hear the cords creak as Superman flexes…
Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-56). 1978. How can you look at this and NOT say, “Oh, I’ve got to see what the hell this is about…”. Iconic cover by Neal Adams. He was asked to redo this for a millennial-end issue of “Sports Illustrated” with the 20th century’s greatest sports legends. Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan boxed in that one. Babe Ruth was in the forefront. In the audience were Sandy Koufax and a legion of others.
 
 
Superman Family #182, 1978? Neal Adams art. Are you sensing a theme here? This was DC’s first “Dollar Comic”. A dollar? For a comic book? Yeek! It would blow the budget of any teenager, but I couldn’t resist the cover. The stories inside ranged from great to mediocre. Neal Adams draws Supergirl.  Ooo-la-la. Plus it had Krypto on the cover.
               You gotta love Krypto!

 
 
 
Marvel Team-Up #74. 1978. “Is this a joke?” Talk about a cover that

screams “I’ve GOT to get this one.” Art by Dave Cockrum & Marie Severin. A fun issue that never wallowed in silliness.

Justice League of America #137. 1977. Ernie Chua (Chan) pencils and Frank McLaughlin inks.
               Nowadays Superman and Captain Marvel (Shazam) fight each other annually. But this was the first time they shared a story – how could I resist it? It was also the first time they “really” shared a cover (earlier comics had Supes “introducing” Cap or their posters were hanging side-by-side, that sort of thing…).
This was part 3 of the traditional JLA/JSA team-up with Cap and other Fawcett characters appearing and fighting alongside our favorite heroes. It was the first time I had heard of or read about Spy Smasher and Ibis the Invincible – who have gone on to become two of my favorite comic book characters!

Batman #253. 1973
Oh.
My.
GOD!!!
Mike Kaluta art (no one – NO ONE – would have been able to do this better).
 
 
 
 
Richie Rich and Casper #1. 1974. Artist unknown. Oh, wow! Together! Oh, WOW, said my nine-year-old self!
               The story was fun and the artwork well done. Surprised to see a non-superhero comic on the list? Me too. But I still remember how thrilled I was seeing this and reading it. Forty years later I still remember the entire series with fondness.
 
 
Detective Comics #468. 1978? It’s hard to believe this is the only comic on this list drawn by my beloved Jim Aparo, inked by Tatjana Wood.
               The Calculator! Over the past five issues this villain fought other DC heroes in the back-up feature (Green Arrow, Hawkman, etc. – all of them beaten and lying unconscious on the cover) and NOW he’s fighting Batman in a book-length battle! I was so excited seeing this cover when it came out! Great conclusion to a fun story line! It is in no way an iconic cover or a legendary story – but this youngster loved it!
 
 
 
Star Wars #1. 1977. Cover by the legendary Howard Chaykin, inked by Tom Palmer.
               Great cover as always by Chaykin, especially considering the flood of Star Wars comic art to come. But imagine the impact of this cover on this 12 year old kid …
               Star Wars? As a comic book? Star Wars! As a comic book! STARWARSASACOMICBOOK!! “Earl to Aisle 3, Earl to Aisle 3. We have another boy passed out in front of the book stand. Earl to Aisle 3.”
Oh, ok, one more.
 
 

Batman #291. 1979 or 1980? Look at this beautiful Jim Aparo art (I felt bad about only having one other Aparo cover on the list and this issue immediately sprang to mind…). Tatjana Wood again inked.

               The cover made me snap this up – only to find out it was part one of four! Rats! Even so, it was a great story arc. I wish it would be released in a graphic novel. The Bronze Age gets a bad rap nowadays and that is too bad. There were some wonderful stories that a lot of fans missed during that late-1970s era. This is one of them!
Honorable Mention:  Power Records, 1975. This is not a comic book, but dig the cover! Another Neal Adams classic. When I saw this album I had to have it! It took the Beatles (or my discovery of them in 1979) to knock this off of my record player once and for all. I still have it!
                If this were a comic book cover it would rank in any Top Ten!
 Honorable Mention #2 – the entire run of Marvel’s “What If…” 1978?  The whole point of this comic series – tales of alternate endings to the various Marvel Universe mythos – was to goad the reader into buying this anthology series. “Ooh, aah,” was often heard at the newstands when a new issue came out – What if Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four? What if Captain Ameria had not “disappeared” after WWII? What if Shang Chi served Fu Manchu? What if Bruce Banner had always kept Bruce Banner’s intelligence? What if the New X-Men never formed? What if someone else had been bitten by that radioactive spider?
               Others will muse over “great” covers and “iconic” covers, but these captured by heart and imagination more than the others. There have been better covers – there have certainly been better stories on the inside. But just looking at the covers on my list brings back good memories.
               Isn’t that the whole point?

Think Before You Meme

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Think Before You Meme
 
            There’s a meme floating around Facebook lately that ruffled my feathers a bit. It went:
            “There comes a point in life when fun no longer means clubbing, drinking, or being our till 4am, or thinking about yourself!
            “Fun means Disney movies, family dinners, bedtime stories, long cuddles, a messy house, sleeping by 10pm and hearing little voices say “I love you”.
            “Becoming a parent doesn’t change you, it makes you realize that the little people that YOU created deserve the very best of your time. Repost if you get it. I hope I see this on the wall of every Mother and Father I know!”
            I generally agree with this with one major exception.
            The person who created this meme had their heart in the right place, even if their head was in Tulsa.
            Here’s why:
            My wife and I adopted our daughter when she was three days old in 2009. I did not create her; my wife did not create her.  The three of us share no DNA, unless it was with the common ancestry of Ook the Australopithici a million generations back.
            I know, I know, Homo Sapiens aren’t descended from Australopithecus, deal with it, I’m rolling…
            Did we “create” her hair color, her eye color, her eventual adult height and weight? No. Did we “create” her love of Barney the Dinosaur? Hell no. Did we “create” her smile, her sense of humor, her vocabulary? Yes, (the answer to those questions would have been “no” had we adopted a ten year old, just to point out a fact.) so in a sense the meme writer’s use of the word “created” was correct; but I will wager that was not what he/she meant.              
            Is it axiomatic to assume that if we did not create our child she does NOT deserve the very best of my time? Well, anyone who took a class in logic would say yes. Just as those posts of “Like and repost if you love Jesus” implies that if we do NOT like and repost…
 
            Shortly after my daughter was born Huggies had a sweepstakes – free diapers for life or some such. According to the rules from the television commercial announcing the contest, all you have to do is fertilize an egg and gestate for nine months and give birth to a baby. It was meant as a joke but it ruffled those self-same feathers as the meme did three years later.
            Being a grumpy old person, I wrote to the company and explained that I and my wife were adopting. Why were we excluded from their contest? I explained to them the millions of adopting parents they are excluding and ignoring and perhaps Pampers would treat us better.
            I received a canned email saying they understand my frustration and of course the contest was open to us and any adopting parents. The “rules” were all in fun and I was provided an official statement of rules. And indeed gestating self-created zygotes was nowhere mentioned in the rules.
            We entered. We didn’t win. Bastards…
         
            Months earlier, before our daughter was born but the adoption all but completed, our local K-Mart had a parking lot marked “For Expecting Mothers” just after the handicapped spots and just before the parking for the rest of us. We parked there quite a bit.
            “Should we park here,” my wife asked.
            “You are an expectant mother,” I said. Fortunately for come hapless clerk no one called us on it.
            The expecting mothers’ parking sign is no longer there. Perhaps too many fat men or elderly ladies parked there and they saw their nice gesture to pregnant women was being ignored. Unlike someone with a handicapped sticker on their Mercedes doing back flips into their store, there was a parking privilege they COULD do away with.
 
            Am I arguing that adoptive parents should be given special class treatment under the constitution? No. Should they be treated the same as any expecting or … (what’s the word) … arrived (?) parent? Yes, certainly.  
            I guess my point is a meme author (and anyone who shares it on FB and elsewhere) ought to think about who they might be excluding when they pontificate. I’ve done it too and so I try to be careful about such things.
            Some people might say, “Lighten up”. I expect most of the people who would roll their eyes at my perceived slight would also be the kind to sputter and fume when they are told “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. Woe to you hypocrites!  I am discussing about being more inclusive, not less.
            An imagined slight to your religion because a store clerk doesn’t identify it specifically may be your hang-up. An imagined slight to my not having a true parent/child relationship because my child was not born to me naturally is my hang-up. It may be egocentric of me to say but my hang-up seems less political and less petty; you don’t hear Pat Robertson say much about a “War on Adoption”.
            There, that’s off my chest.
            I’m thinking for the countdown to Christmas I may do reviews of the various adoptions of my favorite Christmas story – “A Christmas Carol”. More to come!
 
Copyright 2012 Michael G. Curry

FIRST POST: A BIO

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FIRST POST: A BIO

My first post on my first blog. I suppose I need to share something about myself, to repeat a cliche.  I work at Bankruptcy Clinic PC in Mount Vernon, Illinois. 

Here is the biography I wrote for the firm website and it is formal. I expect the posts on this blog will be sillier and more personal… 
Michael G. Curry was born and raised in Coulterville, Illinois by his father, who worked in the Air Force, and his stay-at-home mother. He was raised with two sisters. He loved school and was president of his senior class. Coulterville was and still is a small farming and mining community of 1,100 people in Randolph County. Michael believes that being from such a small town and school instilled in him values such as a strong loyalty to home, church and to friends he still keeps in contact with nearly thirty years later!
Michael attended Eastern Illinois University in Charleston for two years where he drew a daily comic strip and advertising illustrations for the college newspaper. He graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television Communications and a minor in Journalism. While in college, Michael was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi, an Honorary Music Fraternity, and Sigma Delta Chi, an Honorary Journalism Fraternity. At SIU he co-founded Radio Action – a student-run radio production company for southern Illinois businesses and was its first President; as well as hosting music programs for WSIU-FM. Outside of his radio interests, Michael also tutored and proctored the learning disabled for Project Achieve.
After graduation, Michael concentrated on his radio career which would total ten years. His work included radio stations in Springfield, IL, and Carbondale, IL. He hosted the first new age music program for WSIU-FM. At another station his oldies show featuring music exclusively from the 1960s was once the number one rated program in its time-slot. His commercial and other radio production pieces included weekly comedy sketches for the morning drive program and spokesperson for a then-up-and-coming sandwich chain called Jimmy Johns – his ads playing in Chicago, Champaign, IL (University of Illinois), and West Lafayette, IN (Purdue University).
Going to law school and becoming an attorney was a goal of Michael’s since he was a child. After his success in radio, Michael decided to enter the legal field in order to help others whereas he would only entertain them. He applied and was accepted at law schools at the University of Illinois, Northwestern, and Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. Michael selected SIU because it was closer to his family and it would allow him to continue part-time radio work.
Michael juggled work and school throughout his law school experience. Despite the seeming lack of time, Michael did join the legal fraternity Phi Delta Phi and was a member of the Products Liability Moot Court team for two years. He was also elected Third Year Representative for the Student Bar Association – effectively the Senior Class President again.
Michael worked in the Belleville, IL, law firm of LeChien & LeChien in real estate and family law, juvenile criminal representation as well as creditor work. He began representing individuals in bankruptcy law in 1993 and has since filed over 6,400 bankruptcies in southern Illinois as an associate with The Bankruptcy Center in Mount Vernon from 1995-2009 and now with The Bankruptcy Clinic.
He feels that helping others out of financial troubles is one of the most satisfying of the areas of law in which he has practiced. “I’ve seen thousands of people whose lives are devastated by debt caused by health problems, divorce and job loss. Add to this the sometimes vicious ways banks and lenders treat their customers to collect those debts – when a person instead needs sympathy and understanding and … well … a break – it makes me happy and proud to help them through bankruptcy.”
Michael enjoys listening to music in his spare time as well as playing guitar, piano, trumpet and violin. He has traveled to England once and Ireland three times – where he got to visit the village in which his great-grandfather lived in the 1840s. He enjoys writing and has been published in Whosoever e-magazine and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Michael has lived in Mount Vernon since 1995 and married his wife, Esther, a librarian, in 2000 and in 2009 adopted a daughter. They attend Meadowbrook Christian Church in Mount Vernon.

Bar Admissions

  • Illinois, 1992
  • U.S. District Court Southern District of Illinois, 1993

Education

  • Southern Illinois University School of Law, Carbondale, Illinois
    • J.D. – 1992
    • Honors: Highest Grade: Senior Writing, Education Law
  • Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois
    • B.S. – 1987
    • Major: Radio-Television Telecommunications

Classes/Seminars

  • Featured Speaker: Changes/Issues in BAPCPA, BASIL, 2005
  • Featured Speaker: Ethical Issues – Bankruptcy Attys, BASIL, 2009

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • National Association Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, 1997 – Present
  • Bankruptcy Association of Southern Illinois (BASIL), 2004 – Present
  • Illinois State Bar Association
  • St. Clair County Bar Association

Past Employment Positions

  • Law Office of Mueller & Haller (Bankruptcy Clinic), Associate, 1995 – 2009
  • Law Office of LeChien & LeChien, Associate, 1993 – 1995

Fraternities/Sororities

  • Phi Delta Phi
  • Sigma Delta Chi
  • Kappa Kappa Psi