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I recently found a few miniatures at Five Below that could easily be adapted for the Disney Nuimos.
I found a miniature keychain version of Monopoly that’s incredibly cute. I made a short video that I uploaded on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
I also found a miniature keychain version of Operation that’s also very cute. I made a short video that I uploaded on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
The last item isn’t a miniature keychain version of a well-beloved board game. It’s a candy tin that’s shaped like a Nintendo GameBoy. It’s incredibly cute and, thanks to the Nuimos having magnets in their hands, they can easily hold that GameBoy. I made a short video that I uploaded on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Meet the trailblazing nuns who took on the patriarchy of the church in the 1960s.
Mysterious crop circle forest in Japan is the result of a 50-year-old experiment.
Homeowners remove old floor and discover giant hand-painted Monopoly board underneath.
This artist sculpts animals and flowers from grains of rice.
YouTuber develops open source 3D printed VR gloves for just $22.
I went back to Walmart in Laurel on April 17, 2020 because I needed to buy toilet paper and the stores closest to me continued to be sold out. Unlike last time, I didn’t find any toilet paper on this trip. (I ended up finding toilet paper at Wegmans near Largo.)
But there were further changes to this Walmart since my last trip in March. Before the whole Coronavirus pandemic began there was a time when anyone could enter through any of the front doors. Now Walmart has only designated one front door as an entrance. There were even barricades set up to ensure that people enter single file.
When I went inside of the store I saw signs on the floor where Walmart has designated their aisles as one-way only.
Anyone who even thinks about going down an aisle the wrong way will see this “Do Not Enter” sign on the floor.
During my time at Walmart I saw that they sold a special edition of Monopoly called House Divided. It sounded more like a strange political parody disguised as a family-friendly board game to me and I later found out that I was right. (No, I didn’t buy this.)
After I went to Walmart I went to Total Wine & More that is located nearby where I bought some more wine. During my time there I saw this display of a wedding dress in the champagne and sparkling wine section. Usually it would be appropriate since June is coming soon and it is traditionally a wedding month. But as I look at it, I wonder how many wedding ceremonies will actually take place this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Will people not get married at all or will it be a very tiny wedding with fewer than 10 people or will everything simply be done via Zoom and everyone will be in separate places? It will be interesting to see what will happen.
It’s that time of the year where we Americans tend to think about things that we should be thankful for. Most people will be sitting at home eating a turkey meal and watching a football game on the TV, with the exception of people who work for one of the retailers who have pledged to remain open on Thanksgiving Day (much to the chagrin of the employees).
Since this day is supposed to be a holiday for relaxing, I’m just going to put up a few miscellaneous photos that I’ve taken over the past few months.
I was on my way to a meeting at my church congregation back in late September when I saw two deer emerge in the parking lot.
I was at a local Target recently when I saw this embroidery kit featuring a t-rex that was called “Tyranno.” I took a photo of it, uploaded it on Facebook, and tagged a friend who is both into crafting and dinosaurs.
I was in the Hallmark aisle at the local Giant supermarket when I saw a plush Snoopy that was dressed as a NASA astronaut, which I thought was incredibly cute.
One day in early October it was an unusually hot 95 degrees outside. I went to a local Carvel’s ice cream parlor where I purchased a chocolate-vanilla twist ice cream cone for myself.
I used the photos as models for one of my ink drawings for Inktober later that same month.
This week Frozen 2 is the number one movie at the box office. In a way it wasn’t a surprise. There was a huge amount of hype at the stores for several weeks before the movie was even released with a lot of tie-in products, such as this Frozen 2 breakfast cereal with the faces of Anna and Elsa.
Here is a special edition of Monopoly that’s made especially for women called Ms. Monopoly.
And, last but not least, here is a drawing I did at The Space, a makerspace located inside of Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland. I happened to stop by to say hello to a few friends last night when I felt inspired to do something that I haven’t done since elementary school art class: Draw a hand turkey (where you trace a line around your hand using a pencil in order to make the outline of a turkey then color it in).
A silly but accurate guide on how to recognize famous painters by their art.
Paula White: the pastor who helps Trump hear “what God has to say.”
Barbie turns 60: Birthday bashes and bashing the dream gap.
America’s new redneck rebellion.
Seventh graders make tampon cookies for principal after he refused to put tampons in the bathrooms.
George Will confirms Nixon’s Vietnam treason.
Archaeologists unearth 2,200-year-old mosaic in an ancient Greek city.
How the 1970s TV series Emergency! inspired an EMS transformation across the country.
The 1979 massacre that spawned the alt-right movement.
Nine-year-old told not to doodle in class lands job decorating restaurant with his drawings.
We have to undo the attack on the middle class that started with Reagan if we want democracy back.
The making of a white supremacist myth.
People getting stabbed in medieval art who just don’t give a damn.
Remember that time Disney lost its damn mind and made The Black Hole?
Continuing this summer’s series of Throwback Thursday posts dedicated to Howard the Duck.
Howard the Duck Magazine #7
September, 1980
After the last few covers depicted Howard has having white feathers, he has reverted back to having pale yellow feathers again for this cover (which is the only colored thing in an otherwise black and white magazine).
Story 1: You’ll Believe a Woman Can Airbrush!
Credit: Trina Robbins, story and art
Synopsis: It’s a one-page story which showcases Trina Robbins’ ability to draw, ink, and airbrush Howard, Beverly, and various villains from the series (such as the Kidney Lady, Doctor Bong, and the leader of the Sinister SOOFI).
The Bottom Line: It’s obvious that Robbins is talented. But titling it “You’ll Believe a Woman Can Airbrush!” is kind of playing into this stereotype that women can’t do comic books at all and Trina Robbins is the rare exception. This is especially apparent when Beverly says “See, she has a deep compulsion to prove that a woman can draw a duck!”
I realize that this came out in 1980 and it was an era when women were just starting to take jobs other than traditional female jobs (like teacher, nurse, and secretary). With the number of women who have gone into the comic book industry in recent years, I doubt that today there would be a story placing great emphasis on the fact that something was drawn and/or written by a woman.
Story 2: Of Dice and Ducks!
Credits: Bill Mantlo, story; Gene Colan, pencils; Dave Simons, inks
Synopsis: The story begins where the Duckworld story in the last issue left off. Howard and Beverly are sitting in a swamp in the Florida Everglades. Standing behind them is the Man-Thing, a muck monster who cannot speak and who can only sense emotions.
At that point Howard sees the Man-Thing lurking behind Beverly. He tries to quietly warn her but when she turns around and sees the creature, she immediately begins to fear him. That is a dangerous emotion for her to fear because it is said that anyone who experiences fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch.
Beverly becomes so overwhelmed with fear that she faints, which drastically and suddenly eliminates her fear. Howard tries to come to Beverly’s aid but the Man-Thing picks up Howard and throws him into the swamp, knocking him out cold. The Man-Thing then picks up an unconscious Beverly in his arms and walks away.
Howard wakes up only to find that both Beverly and the Man-Thing are gone. He climbs a tree to get an idea of where they could have gone and he sees a development that’s known as Swamp City. It has a layout that resembles a Monopoly board game. He also sees the Man-Thing carrying Beverly through the town.
Howard arrives at the Paymaster building where the Paymaster (who sort of resembles Rich Uncle Pennybags) welcomes Howard to Swamp City and he gives Howard $200 in Swamp City currency. (Which is just like in the Monopoly game where a player gets $200 every time he or she passes the spot marked “GO!”)
The Paymaster also gives Howard a free car, which resembles the race car playing piece in the Monopoly board game. Howard uses the car to drive around Swamp City in an effort to find the Man-Thing and Beverly. He drives along streets that have the same name as the Monopoly board game (such as Mediterranean Avenue and Baltic Avenue). The owner of the Baltic Avenue property stops Howard’s car by shooting one of the tires and he informs Howard that he has to pay rent. When he sees that Howard has $200, the owner takes one of the $100 bills along with Howard’s car, tells Howard that he is now the new owner of Baltic Avenue, and drives away.
Another person who looks just like the Paymaster approaches Howard, informs him that he needs to pay income tax because he owns Baltic Avenue, takes Howard’s last remaining $100 bill, then walks away. Howard nearly gets run over by a train then nearly gets smashed by a pair of giant dice that suddenly fall from the sky.
Howard meets an Asian family who used to own the houses and businesses on Oriental Avenue (get it?) until the bank bought them out and they are forced to move. At that point he sees the Man-Thing carrying Beverly and he begins to pursue them until he runs into Swamp City’s Lottery Authority, who resembles both the Paymaster and the Taxman. He insists that Howard take a Chance card and Howard ends up with a “Go to Jail” card.
At this point a police officer drags Howard to jail. Among his cellmates are Jock Driscoll, the urban architect who designed Swamp City, which was originally built as the City of the Future. He begins to tell Howard about his recent past. It was built in the Florida Everglades because the land was cheap.
The builder of the project was someone known as Monk Keys. One day, while Jock Driscoll’s wife, Anne Darrow Driscoll, and wheelchair-bound daughter, Amy, were visiting Jock at the construction site, Monk Keys attempts to aggressively flirt with Anne and Jock responds by hitting Monk in the face. Monk Keys vows revenge.
Soon afterwards Jock and his family move into their new Swamp City home. A few months later Jock receives a letter in the mail informing him that his home was foreclosed on. He raced to the bank to see what was going on and he bursts into a stockholder’s meeting. He discovered that the original stockholders have been replaced with identical looking men who resemble the Paymaster, Taxman, and Lottery Authority. Monk Keys is the chairman of the board and he has grown more ape-like. He tells Jock that he purchased Jock’s mortgage now wants to be known as Kong Lomerate.
Jock tells Howard that Kong Lomerate has purchased the entire town and has thrown him and other people who couldn’t pay their mortgage into debtor’s prison. Howard looks out the window and sees the Man-Thing carrying Beverly. At that moment he devises a prison break-out plan that is successful.
A newly-freed Howard eventually finds the Man-Thing without Beverly outside of a house. He asks the Man-Thing what he has done with Beverly but the creature doesn’t answer because he is unable to speak. Beverly hears the commotion and runs outside of the nearby house. Once Howard and Beverly are reunited she tells Howard that the Man-Thing took her to this house so she could serve as surrogate mother to a wheelchair-bound girl.
It turns out that the girl is none other than Amy Driscoll. Amy tells Howard that Kong Lomerate took both of her parents away but left her behind because she is in a wheelchair and can’t fight back. An upset Amy begins to pray to God to return her parents. The Man-Thing sensed Amy’s distressed emotions and he eventually realizes that she needs a parent. After searching around he sees Beverly hugging Howard in the swamp following their return to Earth and the Man-Thing feels that she would make a suitable mother for Amy, which was why he took Beverly in the first place.
The lookalike stockholders arrive at the Driscoll house and the Man-Thing attacks them. Howard, Beverly, and Amy takes the opportunity to escape. They arrive at Free Parking where they see a van with the keys still inside. The three of them escape in the van but they are stopped at the railroad tracks by an incoming B & O railroad train. It turns out that Jock Driscoll is driving that train. Howard, Beverly, and Amy board that train and Jock drives it into the bank where the money flies into the air and the locals start to collect the bills as they drop to the ground.
Jock, Howard, Beverly, and Amy run to the nearby Empire Hotel because that is Kong Lomerate’s stronghold. They arrive to find Kong with Anne Darrow Driscoll. Anne doesn’t recognize her own husband and daughter. There is also a giant mountain of consumer products like television sets and microwave ovens in that same room.
At that moment the Man-Thing shows up, which frightens Kong Lomerate. When Amy admits that the Man-Thing probably arrived to help her, Kong Lomerate takes her and tries unsuccessfully to force her to call off the Man-Thing. Kong Lomerate then takes Amy and climbs up the mountain of consumer products with the Man-Thing pursuing him. Kong Lomerate ends up battling the Man-Thing which makes the mountain so unstable that it’s on the verge of collapsing. Beverly convinces Howard to climb up the mountain to rescue Amy because he is relatively light in size and the mountain is unstable. Jock manages to snap Anne out of that trance that Kong Lomerate had her in by slapping her face a few times. Kong Lomerate becomes fearful of the Man-Thing, which leads to the Man-Thing burning him because those who know fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch. The entire mountain collapses, burying Kong Lomerate alive. The Driscoll family is reunited and the Man-Thing walks back into the swamp of the Florida Everglades.
A few days later Howard and Beverly decides to take the next Greyhound bus out of town. Jock gives Howard and Beverly money as a thank you for their help in reuniting his family. The pair board the bus and pay for the tickets. After riding in the bus for a few miles, the bus throws both Howard and Beverly off then drives away. It turns out that the money they received from Jock was Swamp Currency, which is worthless outside of Swamp City. The story ends with Howard and Beverly walking towards Miami.
The Bottom Line: This story is a well-done satire that mixes the Monopoly game with King Kong while throwing in jibes at Wall Street as well. Naming Jock and Anne after the main characters in the 1933 movie King Kong was pretty funny along with having Kong Lomerate (who previously appeared in the original color comic book series) make a return appearance.
The idea of Kong Lomerate buying mortgages really resonated with me because I still have memories of what happened during the crash of 2008, when Wall Street firms actually sold adjustable-rate mortgages to low-income people who really couldn’t afford them but the firms didn’t care because they wanted to make a short-term profit. Granted this story was printed years before the 2008 economic meltdown but it seemed to predict what actually happened on Wall Street in real life and the repercussions can still be felt to this day as people are stuck in homes with high mortgages that are underwater.
Then there was also mention of Swamp City as being the city of the future. I can remember when Walt Disney originally came up with the idea of an Epcot, it was supposed to be an experimental planned community that would serve as a center for American innovation and urban living. (In fact, Epcot was originally an acronym and it stood for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow.) After Disney’s death, those experimental community plans were scuttled and Epcot subsequently became a theme park at Walt Disney World in Orlando where all the rides had a cutting-edge futuristic theme.
Story 3: Duck of Many Faces
Credits: Bill Mantlo, story; Marie Severin, Walt Simonson, Marshall Rogers, John Byrne, and Howard Chaykin, art
Synopsis: Bill Mantlo writes the introduction to a series of illustrations of Howard and Beverly as done by the top comic book artists at the time. Howard and Beverly are drawn as characters in a film noir detective movie, encountering a mummy in Egypt, superheroes Duck-Man and Duck-Girl (a parody of Batman and Robin), fighting a giant snail known as Snailian (a parody of the film Alien), and as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
The Bottom Line: I found the black and white art to be very well-done. It was interesting to see the different portrayals of Howard and Beverly by a variety of artists.
Story 4: Street Peeple: Dynamite, Baby!!
Credits: Lynn Graeme, story; Ned Sonntag, art
It’s the second installment of the Street Peeple series, which has absolutely no connection to Howard the Duck or even the Marvel Universe in general.
Synopsis: Three young female street performers share an apartment together in late 1960’s San Francisco. Cheyanne is a tall thin white blond haired woman who’s a flower child. Moonchild is a plump overweight white woman who’s an Earth Mother type. Qwami is an angry black revolutionary who wants to completely tear down the racist, sexist, capitalist system. Currently staying with them in their apartment is Riff, a white hippie man. He is pretending to have amnesia in order to be able to stay in the apartment as long as possible because he has a secret crush on Cheyanne, who doesn’t pay much attention to him. He doesn’t know that Moonchild has a secret crush on him because he is too smitten with Cheyanne to realize this and Moonchild is too intimidated to confess her attraction to Riff. Rounding out the unconventional household is Horsemeat the cat.
It’s Saturday morning and Qwami wakes up in a cheerful mood, which surprises her roommates because she is usually angry. But then she sees Riff eating breakfast and her mood quickly turns sour because she wants him to leave their apartment as soon as possible.
After breakfast Qwami, Cheyanne, and Moonchild head over to the United States Bank so they can perform their juggling act. Riff comes along with them even though he is not a performer. Qwami asks the people watching them to toss out six random items for them to juggle. The audience obliges by tossing out a boot, a feathered hat, a hammer, a frisbee, an apple, and a child’s top. Cheyanne, who is juggling the child’s top, accidentally drops it and it spins away. Riff volunteers to retrieve it because he’s trying to impress his secret crush. When he picks it up, he sees a cryptic message written on it stating “six sticks of dynamite blasting caps, stocking mask, blue van at 1:30 am, Fishbone Alley.” Qwami sees Riff with the top and angrily demands that he gives it to her.
Later in the evening the four of them host a party in their apartment. Riff is depressed that Cheyanne is ignoring him so he decides to meditate near a box that’s loosely covered with a blanket. Riff looks over at the blanket-covered box and notices that it has “Dynamite” written on it. He remembers what he read on that top earlier along with Qwami’s angry reaction to him having the top. He puts two and two together and realizes that Qwami is engaged in a terrorist plot. He confides his suspicions to Moonchild who is reluctant to think that her own roommate is a potential terrorist. He gets Moonchild to come with him to Fishbone Alley around 1 am and they see a blue van parked there.
At that point Riff decides that he must save Qwami from herself so he sneaks over to where the van’s driver is and he tells the driver that the Feds are on to their plot and they are watching the van. The driver immediately gets out of the van and runs away. Riff takes over the driver’s side and puts on the stocking mask that he finds in the front seat.
At that moment Qwami arrives with both Horsemeat and the boxes of dynamite in tow and she boards the back of the van. Riff drives the van away and there are several panels of Qwami, Horsemeat, and the boxes of dynamite being knocked all over the van. (It’s obvious that there are no back seats with seatbelts.) Eventually the van stops at an undisclosed location at dawn and both Qwami and Horsemeat exit the van feeling totally disoriented and dizzy. The two of them manage to reach their apartment where Qwami turns on the TV and learn that the planned terrorist attack at the United States Bank had gone ahead without her. Qwami begins to cry while the proclaiming that the revolution has started without her.
The Bottom Line: I was underwhelmed with the first story in the previous issue and this second story hasn’t done anything to change my mind about Street Peeple. I found it completely unfunny. The several panels where Qwami, Horsemeat, and the dynamite boxes getting knocked around in the back of the moving van were lame.
What’s more, the characters are so one-dimensional that I end up not even caring about them. Why is Qwami so angry all the time? Why has she decided that armed revolutionary struggle is the only cause that she embraces in her life? Did she encounter too many racist incidents in her past? Is she such a devoted follower of radicals like Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X that she has decided that violence is the only way to change the system? Or is it something in the water that she drinks in her San Francisco apartment that’s twisting her brain into making her angry? You won’t know by reading this story. You’re expected to accept that Qwami is just plain angry, which results in making me even care less about the fact that she’s angry.
You also don’t know why Riff has decided to prevent Qwami from becoming a terrorist (and possibly getting caught and sent to prison) even though she is hostile to him. Is it because he is a pacifist who’s opposed to terrorism out of principal? Or is it because he hopes that Cheyanne will be impressed with him as a hero if he prevents her roommate from being a terrorist? There are no answers other than you are expected to accept that Riff simply wants to stop Qwami from being a terrorist.
It just seems like all Street Peeple is doing is just wasting extra pages that could’ve been used for better stories from someone else.
Howard the Duck Magazine #7 is the last issue that is reprinted in the third volume of Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection. There are a few odds and ends in the back of the book, which consist mainly of short Howard the Duck comic strips that were originally published in Crazy magazine (which was Marvel Comics’ answer to other black and white humor magazines that appealed to teens and adults like Mad and Cracked). These strips weren’t much and I didn’t find them all that funny.
So I’ve come to the end of another volume of Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection. Like I wrote a few weeks ago, I was only going to do these reviews on a weekly basis until Labor Day and the holiday weekend begins tomorrow. I’m going to take a break from doing any more reviews for the moment. I promise that I will try not to let another three years go by before I start reviewing Howard the Duck again.
This issue was reprinted in Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 3, which can be purchased online at AbeBooks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookDepository, eBay, IndieBound, Indigo, and Powell’s.
The Howard the Duck Series
Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 (1973-1977)
The Early Stories
Howard the Duck #1-3
Howard the Duck #4-5
Howard the Duck #6
Howard the Duck #7 and Marvel Treasury Edition #12: Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck #8
Howard the Duck #9-11
Howard the Duck #12-14
Howard the Duck King Size Annual #1 and Howard the Duck #15
Howard the Duck #16
Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 2 (1977-1979)
Howard the Duck #17-19
Howard the Duck #20-22
Howard the Duck #23-25
Howard the Duck #26-28
Howard the Duck #29-31
Howard the Duck Magazine #1
Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 3 (1979-1980)
Howard the Duck Magazine #2
Howard the Duck Magazine #3
Howard the Duck Magazine #4
Howard the Duck Magazine #5
Howard the Duck Magazine #6
Howard the Duck Magazine #7
Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 4 (1980-1996)
Howard the Duck Magazine #8
Howard the Duck Magazine #9
Marvel Team-Up #98 and Bizarre Adventures #34
Howard the Duck #32-33
Sensational She-Hulk #14-17
Marvel Tales #237 and Spider-Man Team-Up #5
Howard the Duck MAX (2002)
Howard the Duck MAX #1-2
Howard the Duck MAX #3-4
Howard the Duck MAX #5-6
The resurrection of an obscure, niche vinyl format: The 3-inch record.
Autographed Trump hats and books sold on his website were signed by a machine.
Willie Nelson rescued 70 horses from a slaughterhouse and let them roam free on his ranch.
These CEOs make 1,000 times more than their employees.
At just 21, Iddris Sandu is the tech genius behind Uber, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Giving generative art its due.
A billion dollars can be raised in two days for Notre Dame while poverty and starvation is ignored.
The antitrust case against Facebook: a turning point in the debate over Big Tech and monopoly.
Here is the second day of my new drawing series known as The Drawings of Easter. Since today is Tax Day, I’d thought I’d do some special fan art.
As you can see, the Monopoly game mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags is thrilled over the fact that, thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, he won’t have to worry about paying taxes since he’s rich. I was inspired to do this drawing after learning that, under President Donald Trump’s tax plan, the wealthiest will pay a far lower percentage of taxes than non-rich people. Then there are corporations like Amazon who, despite being a trillion-dollar company, won’t have to pay any taxes this year.
Outrageous? Yes. That’s to be expected since, in my lifetime, this country has become a place that favors the rich.
A free tutorial on how to make angels from used dryer sheets.
Laid-off Sears workers left with nothing—and they say wealthy bosses are to blame.
What you can do about bullying in assisted living.
Man made $2,500 in a day buying Monopoly for Millennials at Walmart and selling them online.
How Mark Burnett resurrected Donald Trump as an icon of American success.
Why we’re underestimating the American collapse.
The Elf on the Shelf is a surveillance-normalizing little creep.
Sheryl Sandberg saga shows that it’s time to lean out of corporate feminism.
Holy hypocrisy: Donald Trump, Stormy Daniels, and the religious right.
Calamityware now makes porcelain ornaments with its signature disaster scenes.
Robert Reich makes his UC Berkeley course on Wealth and Inequality in America available on Facebook.
Does America have a caste system?
Severn bridges stop taking tolls after 800 years.
Democrats have hijacked the anti-Trump resistance.
Mass shooters aren’t self-loathing—they are humiliated narcissists.
Why European fascism is destined to die a slow, painful death.
Why we need to include female villains in our history books.
Pussy Riot has accused Bella Thorne of ripping off their signature ski masks.
Haiti is poor because colonial powers like the United States made it that way.
The economic recovery threw the middle-class dream under a Benz.
Hasbro introduced Monopoly For Millennials and Millennials are mad.
Hate groups make unprecedented push to recruit on college campuses.
Cheating and manipulation: Confessions of a gaslight.
The lost American museum that had it all.
How to turn a red state purple (Democrats not required).
Why Baltimore doesn’t heat its schools.
Here’s a free pattern for a beautiful knit scarf.
What does it feel like growing up in a collapsing world?
Ahed Tamimi offers Israelis a lesson worthy of Gandhi.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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