2005-08-30 - 1:07 p.m.

This past weekend, in addition to the unexpected purchases of the new Baroness figure and Polar's Pomegranate Soda (not listed on their website, but I swear to god it exists and is marvelous), I plunked down four bits for the Mighty Marvel Superheroes Fun Book from 1978.

I thought it was going to be an exciting activity book with pages like "Color the Hulk's pants!", but it's actually a devistating gauntlet that requires an encyclopaedic knowledge of pre-1980s Marvel Comics. The only thing a non-superfan could complete are the mazes, and indeed, those are the only pages completed in this used book from 27 years ago.

However, some of the illustrations are PURE COMEDY GOLD:

• What is up with Franklin Richards here? He looks like the dancing midget from Twin Peaks. I haven't read any FF from that era; did Reed and Sue habitually dress him like he was on his way to present the Nobel Prize in Physics? Also, don't look at the bear. No, don't. It will terrify you.
• Similarly, I haven't read any Ghost Rider, but I always had a vision of him as a badass demon of vengeance, not a total dork. He looks like he needs his Ghost Inhaler and Ghost Protracter.
• Stan Lee is all the heck over this book. Here is a great picture of him in Spiderman's costume, with a silly cape and those damned fold-down renfest boots that every Marvel character was wearing in the seventies. I've erased the word bubbles so that you can write your own! WHAT IS STAN "THE MAN" LEE SAYING?
• An example of the kind of trivia quiz in this book. If you can answer these, you were probably a very, very lonely child.
• I rather like this one. Please, someone finish Beast's face. It's scaring me.
• HA HA HA HA HA OH HERCULES WHAT THE HELL

(X-Posted like an X-Man)