Got myself a birthday present. Issue 47 of Marvel’s GI Joe A Real American Hero (ARAH), slabbed and graded at 9.8. Possibly the highest grade available, at least from what I saw on eBay. It is, without question, one of my favorite covers from the entire 155 issue run. Fortunately, for my wallet, issue 47 is not a key issue and the near mint copy was not expensive. According to a Google search, "key issues" are individual comic books considered more valuable or collectible tha

Actually, I am not an avid sports fan, however winning the NBA Championship after 53 years of heartbreaking loses transcended sports. The Knicks were on dozens of television shows, awarded with ceremonial keys to the city of New York, honored with a ticker-tape parade and I guarantee the cold open of Saturday Night Live, when the show returns in the fall, will be about the team. Their triumphant victory was a pop-culture event, overshadowing (at least temporarily) the other m

Although the term had been around since the 1940s, Steven Spielberg’s classic Jaws firmly established the ‘blockbuster’ designation in 1975. Two years later, in 1977, George Lucas’s science-fiction epic Star Wars cemented the trend. Summer became blockbuster season. Each year, as the temperature rises, studios take their biggest swings and release what they hope to be a major box office success. For decades the summer blockbuster season was owned by one or two films. They enj

As part of my 9 to 5, I select historical news items from our archives and transcribe them for the current edition. This week I stumbled across a front-page interview with a couple who claimed to have witnessed multiple, basketball-sized orbs of light dancing about in the trees just outside their kitchen window. The article did not provide any definitive explanation and, as there were no mentions in following editions, the mystery remains unsolved. Even if you break it down t

As a child of the 80s, I grew up in the undisputed golden age of action figures. Star Wars was on it’s way out by the mid 80s with Return of the Jedi being the last of the trilogy and new toy lines were entering the marketplace in droves. Toy manufacturers adopted a similar approach as Star Wars creator, George Lucas, and gave their toy lines a rich history and in-depth lore. Adding to the playability, the intriguing character development and nuanced motivation for the confli

National Library Week was last month, April 19-25. Starting in 1958, the annual observance is a celebration of public libraries, library professionals and volunteers and the significant role they play in education and childhood development. Your public library is an amazing place deserving of much more than just one week of celebration per year and the constant battles they fight when seeking municipal funding. Staffed by dedicated individuals who are passionate about reading