The Super Heroes of Summer 2025

David Corenswet in Superman (2025)
Credit: Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros/DC

I haven't been to a superhero movie for the past few summers. The recent crop seemed pretty lackluster. But two of this year's cinematic comic-book efforts caught my attention and drove me back to the theater, in 3-D no less: Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Both feature the figureheads of their respective comic houses, DC for Superman and Marvel for the FF. Both have been adapted for film and TV numerous times before with varying success. The Man of Steel has flown into pop culture through multiple media since his birth in 1938. He remains one of the few characters to be the subject of a series of movies, at least one live-action TV show, and a Broadway musical (the others are Spider Man, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, The Addams Family, and Nick and Nora Charles.) In addition, Supes was immortalized on the radio (voiced by To Tell the Truth host Bud Collyer) and in several animated cartoon series. Though they are the first family of Marvel Comics, the FF have not fared as well in their transitions to the silver and video screens. They have had no less than four different cartoon series--I remember 1968's Hanna-Barbera iteration best since I used to watch it every Saturday morning--and four sets of actors have played them in live action, receiving mixed notices for the first three times. Now both franchises have been given new life in cinematic form.

James Gunn's Superman has come under fire from conservatives for being too "woke," meaning Superman is portrayed as being too supportive of immigrants since he is one himself, arriving on Earth after his home world Krypton exploded. The parallels between our current political climate continue. The plot is set in motion as Superman interferes when a Russia-like country invades a Ukraine-like neighbor. In a story trope echoing a move the Man of Steel made with Adolph Hitler, the superhero flies the Putin-esque dictator to a remote location and sits him on a cactus, promising worse treatment if the invading leader doesn't behave himself. Also Superman's traditional arch enemy Lex Luthor is a sort of Elon Musk-Donald Trump type who imprisons anyone he doesn't like in a pocket universe resembling detention camps in El Salvador. The villain is in cahoots with the Putin-like despot and actually kills an immigrant food vendor in cold blood just because he was nice to Superman. Luthor also uses trolls (actual monkeys typing on keyboards) to smear Superman on social media. 

Superman was always woke--meaning in favor of social justice and sticking up for the rights of minorities--so the right-wing whining feels petty and churlish. This Superman played with humor and humility by David Corenswet is a champion of the underdog and not a toady of the rich (Trump). 

Book Review: Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began

(Bought at the Strand for $8.50) I had read Art Spiegelman's Maus I a long time ago. A recent American Masters TV doc. on Spiegelman inspired me to pick up Maus II. In both books, Jews are mice, Nazis are cats, Poles are pigs, Americans are dogs, gypsies are moths, Scandinavians are reindeer. An unflinching portrait of Spiegelman's Holocaust survivor father and the author's fraught relationship with him. The father is shown as a resourceful survivor in the concentration camps, but this experience makes him stingy, neurotic and impossible to live with. He's prejudiced against blacks and drives his second wife away, after Spiegelman's mother has committed suicide. The author is unsparing on himself as well, portraying himself as wearing a mouse mask while facing the press over his first Maus book and shrinking into a child while confessing his fears and insecurities to his therapist--also a Holocaust survivor. One of the most important works in dealing with the Holocaust. It brings an impossibly horrific event into comprehensible terms. Though the characters are anthropomorphic animals, they are probably the most realistic portraits of those dealing with the Holocaust.

Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Pt. I

The Biden administration is not the only great new thing in 2021. MeTV has revived the tradition of Saturday morning cartoons with a three-hour block of Popeye, Tom and Jerry, and Bugs Bunny. The nostalgic network also has a Monday-through-Friday one hour show called Toon In with Me featuring animated shorts from all three buckets spanning several decades. There's a host (Bill the cartoon curator) and a puppet (Toonie the Tuna) as well as two supporting players performing bits in between the cartoons. 

The series evoked memories of my childhood Saturday mornings when the three broadcast networks ran cartoon programming from 7AM to 1PM. Of course, we watched every moment in our pajamas starting with Bugs Bunny reruns on ABC until the horrible Kukla, Fran and Ollie live-action foreign film festival on CBS at about 1PM. Then we had to do our homework or get out of the house, one or the other. This was in the late 1960s. The shows and their schedules have overlapped in my memory, but the clearest ones were the super-heroes. This was the era of the cultural dominance of the prime-time Batman series so there were a slew of super-powered good guys, often satirically portrayed. Here's a rundown of my favorite shows of this genre:

Frankenstein Jr and The Impossibles

I've written about this series in previous blogs, but it still remains a favorite. Combining the superhero craze of the late 60s with the pop-rock fad, the Impossibles were a mop-top teen singing trio who are also secretly super-heroes--Fluid Man, Multi Man and Coil Man. Though how they acquired their powers and their real identities are never explained, it hardly matters. Every episode featured the guys at a gig being interrupted by their chief, Big D, giving them a crimefighting assignment. The main joy was the insane super villains they encountered each week such as Mother Gruesome, Televisitron, The Twister, The Spinner, Smogula, Dr. Futuro, Crunella Critch the Creepy Witch, etc. 

Frankenstein Jr. was a giant robot invented by annoyingly precocious boy scientist Buzz Conroy. Together the duo faced a similar slew of diabolical law breakers. I always preferred the Impossibles who got two episodes per week to Frankie and Buzz's one. But I have grown to appreciate the futuristic background of the latter series.

Florida Trip Day Eight/Nine: Comics in Miami, plus Thoughts on Trump's Nightly Game Show

We are into the second week of shelter in place during the coronavirus crisis. Trump is on the airwaves every night now, thinking he is the host of a high-rated game show called The COVID-19 Hour, sponsored by the MyPillow guy. Trump probably said to him, "Make me some masks and I'll give you free airtime." After an advert for MyPillows and the Bible, Trump plays Wheel of Ventilators. Governors line up at the wheel, spin it and whoever kisses his ass the most gets the biggest amount of medical supplies. Yamiche Alcindor and Jim Acosta try to get him to answer questions, but he just wants happy talk and compliments.

The governor of Florida has finally broken down and ordered a statewide stay-at-home restriction after allowing reckless spring breakers and beachgoers to spread the coronavirus. (And the even stupider governor of Georgia apparently didn't know the disease can be transmitted before you start to

show symptoms.) Will the sunshine state ever return as a tourist destination? I'm glad I was able to enjoy it before the crisis hit. The final two days of my Florida trip were spent with relatives of my husband Jerry in Miami, relaxing after running around Orlando with my brother Jonathan. Friday we drove down to the Florida Keys which I understand is now sealed off to outsiders. Saturday I wanted to drive to a comic store I had visited on my last trip.

A & M Comics is located on a street with a bird's name in Miami. You can miss it if you didn't know it's there. There are crude paintings of superheroes on whitewashed walls and it's right next to a gas station. On the inside, it's like an episode of Hoarders or someone's garage with overflowing boxes everywhere. There were lots of hard-to-find Silver Age comics to fill gaps in my collection at not-unreasonable prices. My favorite purchase was Detective Comics #282 in fair condition. This one is from 1960 during Batman's outer-space phase when the Dynamic Duo were regularly visited by aliens. I also bought a Star Wars Christmas ornament for $10. After about two hours of sifting through long boxes and moving piles around, I made my purchases. The owner told me there was going to be a comic-book convention the next day at the Miami Airport Hotel and he was getting an award for service to the Miami-area comic book community. (I also bought a Star Wars Christmas ornament for $10.) I told him congratulations and said I would try to attend--I could actually make it before my flight back to NYC.

Tivoli: A Short Story

We had found Tivoli the night before, searching for someplace to eat dinner before the opera in the next town to the south in the Hudson Valley area. The performance of the rarely-performed Oresteia by Taneyev was at a college campus as part of an arts festival (here's my review), but there were no nearby restaurants. So our weekend guest who was seeing the opera with us found a number of culinary choices on his Smartphone. We drove for maybe 20 minutes on Route 9G before the turnoff to the tiny town which contained a cluster of city-style eateries including the Japanese one we finally settled on, an avant-garde theater company, and a used-book store in what looked like a broken down old house.  

Old Paperbacks Vs. Comics: Which Are More Valuable?

An issue of Magnus Robot Fighter is worth more
than a paperback of Hemingway or Fitzgerald

When I was a kid, comics were 12 cents and paperback books were $3, Hardbacks about $10. Now in this digital age, the positions of value have reversed. Those same comics go for $5-$20 depending on their condition and the books are $1 or even 50 cents a piece. I remember my parents telling me my comics were trash but now they are more valuable than the "real" literature I should have been reading. I did read both, but I enjoyed the comics as much as the works of Gore Vidal and Joyce Carol Oates.

This observation occurred to me this week as I shopped for both forms of antiquated reading pleasure. I still had left-over birthday money and a gift certificate for the Time Machine from my neighbor. This season, I had taken her to several Broadway shows on my press tickets and she asked my partner Jerry what would be a gift I would really appreciate. So with the gift certificate, I bought the following:
Alpha Flight #2 (a team of Canadian superheroes created by Gary Byrne whose Fantastic Four storylines I enjoyed, so I thought I'd try it)
Fantastic Four #258, 265, 281, 347, 348
Human Torch #3
Justice League of America #200 (special double-issue with various artists contributing)
Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 AD #12, 37 (Magnus is a human with super strength fighting against renegade robots out to crush humanity in the technologically advanced, continental-wide city North AM in the year 4000. A rare, exciting and original Gold Key title which specialized in comic versions of popular TV shows and cartoons. The sci-fi were actually pretty inventive including talking animals and super-sleek flying cars you drove from a reclining position.)
Superman Family #174
Tales of Suspense #68
Wonder Woman #189

Comic Scene: Birthday Purchases and Chris March

For my birthday, I went to Time Machine and purchased another cache of comics. Going there makes me think of a secret club for cool kids. You have to ring a bell and climb a flight of stairs to get to it. I conferred with other collectors on the quality of vintage books including the placement of staples and cut-out panels which ruin the value. I'm nearing completing my Supergirl in Adventure Comics run, finding #397 and #415 from the late 19602-early 1970s. In #415 the Maid of Might is choosing a new costume based on readers' suggestions. Perhaps that would make a good Project Runway episode.

Speaking of which, I met Chris March, of PR and Mad Fashion at the Drama Desk nominee event yesterday at the Essex House. His Butt-Cracker Suite is nominated for Unique Theatrical Event and Costume Design. We chatted briefly and agreed Michelle was the correct winner of this season. He also said he couldn't imagine going through what Stanley did, having to sew so many dresses at the last minute backstage at the Fashion Week show. He said if that happened to him, he'd have been crying in a corner.

Other comics purchased: Adventure #305 (featuring Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes); Atom #20 and #43; Flash #199 and #203

Chris March of Project Runway and Mad Fashion at
the Drama Desk nominees Event

Frantic Theatergoing and Free Comic Book Day

John Lloyd Young and Linda Lavin announcing
the Drama Desk nominees at 54 Below

This has been a hectic week of theatergoing and comic book shopping. There are a lot of shows to catch up with at the end of the season as we prepare for Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Tony voting. Another important event is Free Comic Book Day, a promotional event for the comic industry when they try to draw in new customers with free offers at the various comic-book stores, which falls on the first Saturday in May.

The Drama Desk nominees were announced by previous DD winners John Lloyd Young (Jersey Boys) and Linda Lavin (Broadway Bound, The New Century) on Monday at 54 Below. The next day Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sutton Foster performed similar chores in giving out the Tony nominees. My reactions to both lists and that of the Outer Critics Circle will be explored in an upcoming blog post. Wednesday was the Tony nominees reception and that afternoon I attended the matinee of The Nance with Nathan Lane. Thursday I caught up with Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, which was presented earlier this season at Ars Nova and is now in a new location called Kazino all the way down on 10th Ave. They give you a Russian dinner as part of the show which is based on a section of War and Peace. The show didn't get out until midnight. Friday I was supposed to see Pippin, but Patina Miller, nominated for all the major awards as the Leading Player, was out that night and I had to reschedule.

Carmine Infantino, 1925-2013

Comic book legend Carmine Infantino died this week at 87. The DC artist and editor is credited with saving Batman in the early 1960s--before the campy TV show--by giving the Caped Crusader a "new" look. He replaced Dick Sprang's childish boxy, angular drawings with a fluid, almost avant-garde style. He also co-created the Silver Age Batgirl (in response to ABC's request for a female companion for the Gotham Goliath). There had been a previous Bat-Girl--Betty Kane, niece of heiress Kathy Kane, secretly Batwoman. But the new Batgirl aka Barbara Gordon, daughter of Police Commissioner Gordon, was not a silly teenager with a crush a Robin, like Betty. She was a "dynamic daredoll."

Infantino also created the new Flash and launched the Silver Age of Comics. After World War II, many superheroes titles were scrapped with only the big three--Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman--surviving. Responding to a demand for more caped do-gooders, Infantino re-invented the Golden Age Flash and launched the Silver Age of Comics. More Golden Agers such as Green Lantern, Hawkman, and The Atom, were reborn. He also co-created such heroes as Deadman, Animal Man, and The Elongated Man, an amateur sleuth able to stretch his body like Mr. Fantastic, Plastic Man, and Mr. Gum.

He was magnificent at sci-fi settings. His futuristic cityscapes for the planet Rann in the Adam Strange series always took my breath away. Strange was an archaeologist who travels to distant Rann by means of the zeta-beam to save the Rannians from whatever menace was befalling them that month. Evidently, they needed someone from Earth to solve their problems since they couldn't handle any themselves.

I met Infantino once at a recent Comic Con and got his autograph on The World of Carmine Infantino paperback edition. I was hoping he'd drawn a Batman or Adam Strange, but only got his signature.

Comic Scene: Supergirl's Identity Crisis

We're going to start a new department at the David Desk: Comic Scene, where I will examine trends and issues raised by my comic book purchases:

The last comic book I bought was Adventure #421 from the days when Supergirl was the star of that series (1972). The front cover shows the Maid of Might beset by green demons with a blonde villainess pointing a flaming sword and screaming "You've tried to destroy us. Now, Supergirl, you must die!"  In the issue's story "Demon Spawn," the baddie Nightflame is in fact the evil part of Supergirl herself who lives on a microscopic world inside the Blonde Blockbuster's head. She kidnaps Supergirl and brings her to this bizarre nightmarish place which is really the heroine's subconscious, with the intention of draining her superpowers and taking her place in the outside world. In a typically sexist choice, Supergirl is only saved by the love of a good man, Geoff, the producer of the TV news show where she works in her civilian identity of Linda Danvers. Geoff, who has no superpowers, somehow infiltrates Supergirl's mind and forces Nightflame and the Demons (sounds like a rock group, doesn't it?) to retreat.

Christmas Comics

My Christmas present from my partner Jerry this year was to be let loose in a comic book store where I could spend up to $100. Yes, that is what this boy wanted most of all. I chose The Time Machine on 14th Street on the 2nd floor because the owner Roger usually has a fine selection of older Silver Age stuff. I've already gone through all of his cheaper DC and Marvel, so I was looking for higher-end, rarer pieces to fill in my collections of odder, less popular heroes such as The Atom, Green Lantern, Hawkman, etc. There were two GLs I specifically wanted, but he had already sold them when we got there last Saturday. I got over my disappointment and picked out three Atoms I needed--16, 18 and 26. The attraction of The Silver Age Atom is the magnificent art by Gil Kane and Sid Greene and the bizarre situations the world's smallest superhero finds himself in. I wonder if at the DC editorial meetings, they would come up with a weird concept and then have to write a story to fit it. In No. 16 from 1964, a deranged scientist has captured the Atom and ironed him flat. (He doesn't look too happy about it.) Something to do with pressing all the energy out of the Atom so the villain can absorb it.

Another highlight of the Time Machine haul was an early Superboy from 1953, one of the earliest comics in my whole collection. The guy (Roger was out that day) said it was worth $50, but he would give it to me for $25 since I was buying a bunch of books. I also enjoyed the Spectre # 4, this short-lived 1960s series focused on a supernatural hero fighting the forces of astral evil with great Neal Adams art and get a hold of the masculine, super-hot villain in the sexy helmet and cape on the cover (He only appears briefly inside because he's mostly a force of destruction possessing the little boy playing with the world to his right.)

I still had some money left in the gift, so the next day, we went to St. Marks Comics on 8th St. where they were having a Xmas/New Years half-price sale. They always have one around a holiday at that store. They were also cleaning out their Copper Age stock for $1 a piece (For non-comic obsessives, Silver Age is 1950s into the early 1970s, Bronze Age extends into the 1980s, we are in the Copper Age now, some call it the Modern Age)

High and Low Culture: Comics and Opera in Upstate NY

Last weekend I ran the gamut from high culture to low within 24 hours. On Saturday, we went to the high-definition screening of the operatic version of The Tempest from the Metropolitan Opera to the Time and Space Limited Theatre in Hudson, NY. Sunday, I drove to the Albany Holiday Inn to attend the Albany Comic Con (I missed this year's huge Comic Con at the Javits Center in Manhattan). I was probably the only person to have attended both events. Though the audiences did not overlap, they both were enthusiastic and part of a niche. Opera and comics do not appeal to the masses, but their supporters are devoted.

Based on Shakespeare's play, The Tempest featured fascinating staging by Robert LePage who sets this tale of the banished Prospero in La Scala, the famous Milan Opera House. You'll recall that Propsero was originally the Duke of Milan before his treacherous brother casts him out to sea. The broadcasts give you such an intimate experience of the performance. When we have gone in person, we're always way up in the second or third tier. I also love the broadcasts from the National Theatre of Great Britain, since not every show they feature is gong to make it to Broadway. It's like taking a trip to London without the expensive airfare.

Time and Space Limited is a charming little space in Hudson that features off-beat and independent films as well as art exhibitions.

Costumed patrons at the Albany Comic Con

The Comic Con was just as intimate, taking place in the small Holiday Inn off the highway in Albany. I limited myself to spending only about $30. One dealer had an enormous selection of nice Silver Age stuff. We chatted a bit and he said he would email me about his next sale at his house. I asked if he had a website or was on Facebook or Twitter. He replied had none of those social media outlets since he was so busy with studying to become a nurse. He had a coverless Tales to Astonish with a nice Giant-Man and the Wasp story as well as a Steve Ditko-drawn Hulk in which the Green Goliath battles with the Humanoid creation of the big-brained Leader on a runaway railcar. Giant Man and the Wasp are an overlooked pair. They were founding members of the Avengers and were left out of the big movie version. But there are rumors the Wasp will appear in the upcoming Iron Man 3. Without Giant Man, the Wasp won't be as interesting. She was kind of a sexist stereotype of a flighty female, but her romantic byplay with Giant Man made them the Nick and Nora Charles of comics. The obnoxious and arrogant Sub-Mariner later took over their spot and they were relegated to only appearing in The Avengers. At least each of the Justice League had their own feature in DC Comics.

Here's a list of the comics I bought in Albany. Another interesting find was The Spectre #8, the penultimate in the series. The Spectre was a DC supernatural spirit who lives inside the body a tough policeman. The Spectre first appeared in the 1940s, then faded away. He came back in the late 1960s and the artists applied psychedelic colors and design popular then to depict his ghostly adventures. It was sort of a safe LSD trip for little kids.

Action 371, 409
Captain America 108
Fantastic Four 267, 283
The Flash 159
Marvel Double Feature 5
Marvel Tales 131
Spectre 8
Superman 252 (100 page spectacular)
Tales of the Unexpected 71
Tales to Astonish 63
Wonder Woman 186
World's Finest 123

Namibian Vacation: Game Drives in Etosha

Between our package tours to the desert and Etosha National Park in Namibia, we stayed one day in Windhoek at the same guest house where we were earlier in the week. While seeking the crafts fair during this free day, I found Uncle Spike’s Book Exchange, a used-book store with hundreds of paperbacks in English, German, and some Namibian. He actually had a stack of tattered comic books, none from the Silver Age, but I bought one for 5 Namibian dollars—which is about 60 cents US. It was a ragged copy of Captain Atom, a Charleton Comic drawn by Steve Ditko in 1967. The most interesting element was a full page house ad for Charlton, a second-rate house which trailed behind DC and Marvel. The ad read “Action Super Heroes? We Got ‘em! And they’re not half bad.” Not a very ringing self-endorsement.  We also learned of the death of Phyllis Diller which made me sad because when I was a kid, she was on TV all the time. Her braying laugh, bizarre outfits, and mile-long cigarette holder always made me giggle.

Our four-day excursion to Etosha started the next day. Our guide was Hella, a Namibian-born woman of German descent in her 70s who had a thick German-African accent. The only other person on the tour was Crystal from Austria, a pharmacist who spoke very little English and had been to Africa over 20 times previously. We drove to the park in a large 4x4 vehicle (pronounced by Hella as “beetle”) equipped to drive on the rough roads and afford views of the animals. The drive to Etosha was just as long as the one to the desert.

We stayed in four different lodges and took several exciting game drives, sighting all kinds of wildlife. The most striking images were at the watering holes when almost all the animals—giraffes, elephants, zebras, springbok, etc.—were not moving because they are afraid of a single lion.  Cars surrounded the scene as if they were at a drive-in movie. The elephants actually were not afraid of the lions and did move, two shook trunks with each other in greeting. But all the rest were standing perfectly still as if posing for a picture.

The first lodge was commercial and upscale, full of German and South Africans, with very few Americans. We got up at 6AM the next morning looking for lions since we had spotted that one at the watering hole the previous evening. We were one of the first ones out of the lodge and were rewarded with viewing of a pride of lions consisting of two males, and several females and cubs. The head male was obviously hooked up with the female who was currently in heat. He followed her around as the pride crossed in front of our car, allowing us to get several close-ups. Later we saw elephants washing each other and zebras having sex.

That evening’s lodge was more rustic than the previous one and not as nicely kept. The public toilet in the men’s room was blocked and had been for a week—according to an angry letter written on the toilet door by a tour guide. There was a watering hole at the lodge where we saw a rhino during sunset and a matriarchal herd of elephants after dinner. There was no internet and the only TV was tuned to European soccer and South African rugby, but we didn't need any other entertainment.

The next day Friday was spent driving to the Etosha Pan, previously a huge lake, but now a dry stretch of salt. Later we encountered secretary birds and khory bustards, two species of cartoonish birds which looked like crosses between the Roadrunner and Franklin Pangborn. I had always thought secretary birds were so called because they looked like they should have dictation pads and were ready to follow you around and make travel arrangements. More elephants, zebras, giraffes. We stopped for a swim at a tourist center then drove out of the park to a lovely private lodge. At cocktails, we learned that there was a shooting outside the Empire State Building that morning and that the US political world was still in an uproar over Missouri Congressman Todd Akins’ stupid comment about rape not leading to pregnancy so it should not be an exception for abortion.

There were about ten guests including us. Hella explained there was a surplus of accommodations nearer to Etosha so this place, which was done up in a mining motif, was relatively vacant. The rooms were luxuriously safari style and the dinner was more game like oryx and springbok.

Digital Comics, Project Runway, and Comic Book Men

I'm probably the only blogger who will write about those two topics in the title--comics and Project Runway--together in one post. I just happen to be that weird combination of gay man and geeky fanboy. I remember thinking I was also probably the only person in the tristate area who carried both the latest edition of the New Yorker and the new I Zombie in their shoulder bag. I am also probaly the only kid who had Doctor Who paperbacks next to Doestoyevsky on his shelf.

But the strange dichotomy comes under the heading of what I've been reading and watching lately. As you may recall, my partner Jerry got me a Kindle Fire for Christmas and I have been downloading a lot of crap onto it. There's an app for Comics and I have so far downloaded about ten so far. I hope it doesn't take up too much space because I don't know how to put them in the cloud--don't you love these technical terms? I still don't know what cookies are.

I also wander if I should download comics because that will diminish my need for actual print comic as opposed to virtual ones. So far I have downloaded the latest issue of the Fantastic Four, a comic version of the Avengers--the British TV series with Diana Rigg and Patrick MacNee, not the Marvel Superhero group--an indie comic called Too Much Coffee Man, the first Man Mad comic from Mike Allred, Archie's gay friend Kevin Keller's premiere solo issue--see my earlier post on Rick Santorum. The app also had an entire run of the first 20 or so issue of Batman from the late 1930s to the early 1940s. I downloaded an issue featuring the work of Dick Sprang, one of the most prominent artists of the 1950s Batman with the square jaw and the ever-present smile.

This leads me to the new AMC (American Movie Classics) series Comic Book Men. Many cable reality shows are based on collectors of esoterica who have stores where weirdoes come in to sell their stuff and the hook is how valuable this junk is. Pawn Stars, American Pickers, etc. are examples of this genre. This new series is based on the real-life store in Red Bank, NJ owned by Kevin Smith called Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. Smith made several movies incl. Clerks (which I've never seen). Side note: Isn't it weird how cable networks have all sort of melded together. AMC was originally a purveyor of classic Hollywood fare, but now they are a weird amalagm of original programming (Mad Men and The Walking Dead) and this reality stuff, just like TLC and Discover and the History Channel. Anyway, I watched the first episode of Comic Book Men and part of the second (too tired). It's strictly for comic book geeks like me. The four nerds--and I mean that as a compliment--who work in the store greet weirdos who come in off the street trying to sell them some crap from their attics. In between negotiations, the quartet does some goofy stunt like sell overstock at a flea market or play street hockey. I'll have to watch more to form a solid opinion, but it's kinda fun and the type of place I'd hang out at.

But I've grown disillusioned with Project Runway All Stars. The co-dependence between Kara and Kenley is not enough drama to keep me going. The biggest conflict each week is when someone uses someone else's sewing machine. I think the main problem is the designers have all been through this before and there is no Tim Gunn to shepherd them. The last episode I blogged about was the Miss Piggy challenge. Nothing very exciting has happened since.