Retro Spins: Chicago - 17

For as much as I like the song, Stay The Night, by Chicago, I have to admit that in my older years it's become known to me as the rape song. I mean, the lyrics are right there, plain as day. "I won't take no if that's your answer." It doesn't get any clearer than that what the singer's intentions are. It's cringe worthy, and it kind of makes you feel guilty to find yourself singing along.

Chicago has a unique way of titling their albums. It makes it convenient for sorting them in order, but man, does it feel lazy.

I'm sure I've said this many times before. I know Chicago's hits, but beyond that, I'm not so much in tune with their music. In listening to the few albums I have from them, I can honestly say at this point that this point of view is not going to change. I like the hits, the rest I can easily pass on.

Which leads me to today's list of Chicago 17. Of their handful of albums I own, this one packs the most of the songs that I wanted in my personal catalog of music. Tracks such as, Stay The Night, Hard Habit To Break, Along Comes A Woman and You're The Inspiration are all present and accounted for. Well worth the buy in price for those alone.

As for the rest of the album, and as I kind of already stated above, it wasn't for me. The music wasn't bad. It just wasn't catchy. Nothing really memorable, so to speak. Still, there's no denying that Chicago isn't stacked to the brim with talent. Of the various 80's bands that went mainstream, they certainly stand out in the unique crowd for their combination of pop and horns mix.

Overall, I'm interested in diving into the remaining albums I have, but I probably won't venture beyond that.

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More With Series Four - G.I. Jigsaw's Spider-Man Peg People

 

Everyone loves when George of G.I. Jigsaw comes around! I reached out to him back in April to show him a photo of a vintage phone I found at my building, asking him if he wanted it. When he said, "Yes," he said he'd also be dropping off the next set of Spider-Man Peg People. Well...Heck yeah!

George handed me that all too familiar clear box, with the "figures" within wrapped in paper towel. When we last talked, he hinted at throwing a curve ball by jumping around a bit in the list of characters, versus going through them consecutively. That's cool! I love a good surprise.

Solo

Johnny Storm, The Human Torch

Firestar

Iceman

Task Master

Arcade

Swarm

Humbug

Styx

Stone

Awesome group shot of the new characters.

Which of course immediately got incorporated into the fold.

I love this mix of classic characters intermingling with some of the newer, and more obscure ones. They're all immediately recognizable, which is a testament to George's ability to capture each one's key facets and characteristics that make them who they are.

George seems all in on making more and more characters that I keep throwing at him. That may be a curse for him in the long run with my non-stop OCD. I even went as far as to create a classic style checklist (below), which every time I look at it, it grows.

This design has a strong vintage Star Wars cardback vibe...Because I stole it. Right down to George's very own proof of purchase points.

I can't wait for George to get through all of these!

And I can only imagine that his response would be something along the lines of...

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Retro Spins: Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi

 

We always hang in a buffalo stance! But what the heck is that exactly?

To stand with your arms tightly crossed looking over to side at somebody. This comes from the pose struck by Bruce Smith of the Buffalo Bills in the late 1980's Usage: "RUN DMC often posed in a "Buffalo Stance"

Word! That's fresh!

Neneh Cherry didn't hit my radar until around 2005. It was around this period in time when I was compiling a variety of 80's playlists that a coworker of mine suggested that I add Buffalo Stance. After a bit of digging, I came across the track, and liked enough that it stuck with me from that point on as a must have, and I eventually tracked down a copy of the album, Raw Like Sushi.

I appreciate what the album was going for, but ultimately, it just wasn't my thing.Rap is not my main go to for tunes, and while I respect the groundwork that was 80's rap, it's never really appealed to me. If nothing else, I do get the track, Buffalo Stance, out of it, so it wasn't a complete loss. Plus, I didn't necessarily hear anything I didn't like. Overall, I just wouldn't play it again.

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Just Doodling: Kissing Time

Got bored. Drew picture.

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Retro Spins: Cameo - Word Up!

 

Come on, who doesn't love Cameo's Word Up!? I mean, just look at the video...Oh...And that bright red codpiece. Hmm....

...What the heck is going on in this video? Of course there are police officers who break out and dance at the end. That makes sense. Yeah, no.

Okay, so let's focus on the album itself. Maybe that's a bit better.

You know what? It's not bad. The entire album has a funky groove to it, some great tracks, and most importantly, they're pretty good. I actually ended up adding three tracks to my play list. Word Up! was of course one of them. The other was Candy and You Can Have The World.

The album intrigued me enough that I wanted to go in search of Cameo albums. This is where my mind was totally blown! Not only have they been releasing albums since 1977, but continued to do so through 2000! 2007 if you count their live albums. Holy smokes!

I'm definitely going to have to dig into their discography a bit more and see if there are other songs I like from them. I guess I'll work my way back through the 80's from this album and see where that lands me. Until then, that wraps up this post.

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Awesome Con 2024 - Part 7: Convention Books, And Prints

As the sun sets on Awesome Con 2024, it does so as often my convention posts end, with the showing of my updated convention book. Well, actually, there really wasn't any sun. It was cold and raining the entire day of the show, and only got worse as the morning turned to day, and then evening.

But I digress.

Not too many new signatures added this time around, and probably not a bad thing. This book is filling up, and people are struggling to find a spot to sign. Most seem to have an aversion to signing on the back. I may need to start a new book.

Signed by Art Adams, Jeph Loeb,
Jim Salicrup, and Joe Rubinstein
at Awesome Con 2024.

Signed by Art Suydam, Jim Shooter,
Mark Waid, Michael Golden, Renee Witterstaetter,
Rick Leonardi, and Ron Marz at Big Lick NOVA 2023.

Signed by Al Milgrom, Alex Saviuk, Bob Hall,
Bob McLeod, Bob Wiacek, Brian Michael Bendis,
Chris Claremont, Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin,
Jon Bogdanove, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Judy Bogdanove,
Kieth Williams, Klaus Janson, and Walter Simonson
at Baltimore Comic Con 2023.

Signed by Mark Bagley
at Awesome Con 2024.

Signed by Howard Mackie, Jae Lee,
Pop Mhan, and Terry Kavanagh
at Baltimore Comic Con 2023.

Art Adams

Jeph Loeb

Jim Salicrup

Joe Rubinstein

Mark Bagley - Sending away for his Christmas
card assortments.

In addition to my Amazing Fantasy 15 reproduction, I also got a couple more signatures on my Heroes for Hope book, adding Art Adams and Joe Rubinstein to the mix.

Signed by Art Adams and Joe Rubinstein
at Awesome Con 2024.

Signed by Al Milgrom, Bob McLeod,
Chris Claremont, Howard Chaykin, Klaus Janson,
Louise Simonson, and Walter Simonson
at Baltimore Comic Con 2023.

While there are no new signatures on the back, I'm including it here just because.

Signed by Jim Starlin,
at Baltimore Comic Con 2023.

Rounding everything off were a series of prints I picked up, as well as a fantastic commission piece, all of them signed by their respective creators / sellers.

Miles Morales by Mark Bagley

Carnage, Venom, and Spider-Man by Mark Bagley

Mary Jane Watson by Mark Bagley

I guess I have a Mark Bagley wall now

I'm not big on picking up prints of comic covers, but this McFarlane Spider-Man issue one print was nagging at me while I stood at Jim Salicrup's table. Then of course, it's $20.00 for one, or $40.00 for three, so who's going to buy just one?

Initially, I was going to put these going up the stairs to my loft, but decided that I would inevitably bump into them and knock them off the wall if they were there.

They look okay next to my prints purchased
from Art Suydam at Big Lick NOVA 2023.

Look closely at the prints above. Three of the four mirror each other. Art's just happen to be zombie iterations. Hmm...Maybe I should reorganize these to be more symmetrical.

 

I wasn't initially going to grab this print (below) from Jeph Loeb, but when I saw it was also pre-signed by Tim Sale, I figured, why not? Two signatures for the price of one (and a half). Truthfully, the piece is drawn by Sale. As a writer, Loeb had nothing to do with this work other than taking money for it, and adding his signature to it.

When the creator is charging $20.00 per commission, and promises you can come back in an hour to pick it up, and on top of that says to pay him when you get the drawing, it really becomes easy to give in and pick up a commission.

And that's how I ended up with my second piece in my "Peter Parker - Decisions" series. Jim Salicrup's artwork may be "basic" in terms of what one would expect in a commission piece, but at the end of the day, it's a unique style, and it looks great! Especially next to my first one done by Rick Leonardi at Big Lick NOVA 2023. I STILL have not received the commission piece I bought from Jim Shooter at Big Lick NOVA 2023.

You have to enjoy the inside joke as well. At my request (insistence), Jim poked fun at McFarlane by "hiding" one spider on the drawing, and adding the number "1" under his signature. As I've mentioned before, McFarlane would hide spiders in his covers, and though not at first, would eventually start numbering how many were hidden under his signature for readers to find. It was a nice touch to his drawing for the editor who worked hand and hand with McFarlane for many years at Marvel.

Can you spot the hidden spider?

A simplistic piece, but beautiful. I love it!

And with that, my trip to Awesome Con 2024 is wrapped up, and behind me, but Big Lick NOVA 2024 is hot on its heels.

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