Boxed Out

Here at The Clutter Reports we have seen that cardboard can be your friend. It can also be a fire hazard and something else to trip over or cover your desk or shelves. So this week’s assignment is a boring article but a necessary operation. Some boxes I keep because it’s good to store things in to keep it protected. But if there is something I’m not storing away or have another option for, it’s going to go into the recycling bin. I actually did this recently with mail-in boxes that are too small for the drawer dividers or any other current project and it’s not like they’re hard for me to get if I need them in the future. Even if I stop working at the store I think they would be willing to put something aside and I will be ordering more things in the future. They’re easy to replace. Otherwise, if they aren’t needed for storage and I’m not sending the item back, it’s in the way and so it’s going away. That should clean up a little room up here.

Just remember to check through the box before folding or breaking it up. I almost threw out an extension cable for my webcam I didn’t even know (or at least forgot) came with it.

Related articles

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• Cardboard Kitchen (spoonful.com)
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Comic Report: DC Universe Presents #50

This one comes from my other site so it’s a bit more relaxed than a usual Clutter Report review. I did get my computer desk cleaned off like I wanted to and now the battle with clutter on it begins anew. However, this week was devoted to some new video equipment and thus this transferred review which was actually quite recent.

Superman is my favorite DC superhero, possibly my favorite superhero period. It’s not just the amazing powers he has, but what he does with them. Despite what this cynical age (which sadly includes too many superhero writers) believes would or should happen, he helps people and then tries to lead a normal life. He’s someone who kids can admire and adults should try to be more like, and his adventures can be somewhat mundane or large and fantastic. Where Batman is versatile with how he can be portrayed, Superman is versatile with what kinds of stories he can be part of.

I grew up in a very Superman-friendly period. Adventures Of Superman was in syndicated reruns, as were the Filmation cartoons, we had a series of theatrical releases, and even Superboy had his own syndicated TV series for a while…which went into some weird ideas in the later seasons. As far as comics, I had the Justice League of America comic I’ve reviewed on my other site, a book & record where Superman fought a terrorist group, which is boring to review but a good read/listen, and DC Comics Presents #50, a comic I once lost but happily found a back-issue of so I can still enjoy. And it’s just as good a read now as it was then. This was Superman’s team-up book, and he teamed with many of the DC Universe’s best and newest and even traveled to Eternia to fight alongside He-Man. So who did he join forces with during the “50th Golden Jubilee Issue!”?

Greatest team-up ever?

DC Comics Presents Vol. 5 #50

Featuring Superman and Clark Kent

DC Comics (October, 1982)

WRITERS: Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn

ARTIST: Curt Swan & Kurt Shaffenberger

COLORIST: Gene D’Angelo

LETTERER: A. Kawecki

EDITOR: Julius Schwartz

That’s right, Superman teams with his own alter-ego. And to quote an old cliche, “not a hoax, not an imaginary story”. This team-up is actual DC canon pre-Crisis. So how did this happen?

DVD Report: Godzilla Vs. Biollante

I’ve noted in the past that I’m a huge Godzilla fan. I’m also trying to make some room on the video shelf and replacing VHS with DVDs is the best way to do it. It doesn’t hurt that finding a VHS player will someday be near impossible, although I have yet to switch to Blu-Ray. (No HD TV anyway.)  So when I found Godzilla Vs. Biollante at K-Mart for $5 I grabbed it. And paid for it, with the lady cashier even saying it was a classic and she didn’t sound like she was joking. Actually, I don’t care if she was because I happen to think it is.

Construction companies must be the richest businesses in Tokyo. Right after cleaning services.

Godzilla Vs. Biollante

FORMAT: DVD

PRODUCED BY: Toho

DISTRIBUTORS: Miramax and Echo Bridge Home Entertainment

STARRING:Kunihiko Mitamura, Yoshiko Tanaka, Yasuko Sawaguchi Emi Kodaka, Masanoru Takashima, Turu Minegish, Ryunosuki Kaneda & Koji Takahashi

DIRECTOR: Kazuki Ohmori

PRODUCER: Tomoyuki Tanaka

I’ll Get This Thing Cleaned Off Yet

 

You again, huh? I was going to do another DVD review this week, but I decided getting this cleaned took priority. This is an old picture; what I had here looked much worse. As I write this there’s still some work left to do. I’m determined to get this mess back into useable workspace. I’ll keep you posted.

 

Related articles

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• Spring Cleaning: Blitz Your Home in a Day! (toppstiles.co.uk)
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• Your Handy Apartment Cleaning Checklist (apartmentguide.com)
• Cleaning House:15 Minutes Until They Arrive, What do You D0? (routinehabit.com)
• Is Obsessively Cleaning Endearing? (luciustheninja.wordpress.com)

 

Toy Report> The Free Comic Book Day HeroClix

I know very little about HeroClix the game. I’ve never played it and never really studied it. I don’t really know the rules, but the bases turn to show different icons at different points, which is how the game is played. I think. That’s not why I own them. I own them because they’ve been given out for the last few Free Comic Book Days, usually in conjunction with whatever comic book-based superhero movie is coming out.

And these things are just so cool looking. A lot of gaming miniatures have posed figures but HeroClix goes a bit further, possibly because they can sitting on a disk that’s needed for the game. They’re also fully painted, though not extravagantly so. This is still a collectible figure game, like Yu-Gi-Oh but in plastic. Most of these HeroClix are superheroes although they have tried branching out into other battles, like Transformers. I wouldn’t mind adding one of those to the Bumblebee shelf, but all I have are the movie ones. Interestingly this year got a collectible box (above) while the other usually just came with a baggie and instructions I can’t follow. So let’s look at the two versions of the toys, two DC heroes and stuff based on the Iron Man movies.

In Which Time Defeats Me Again

Thanks to a last-minute change in my work schedule I couldn’t budget ANY cleaning time. That really bugs me, and the computer desk is getting cluttered again. I don’t know how that keeps happening. Hopefully I’ll have more time this week to get something reviewed or at least cleaned up. I’m really getting tired of being surrounded by this mess.

DVD Report: All-Star Superman

Cover of All Star Superman, Vol. 1

How about a bit more time with the hero of Metropolis? While I wanted to talk about the book that I reviewed last week, I did pick up a NEW piece of Superman non-comic media.

All-Star Superman was a 12-part mini-series written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quietly. The story involves (this isn’t a spoiler, it’s the plot) Superman dying. I read the first issue and didn’t get into it. That’s not a condemnation; it looks like a good comic. It’s just we haven’t had a proper Superman story in years, even in his own comic book so it just didn’t garner my interest.

Last week I was in BJ’s Wholesale Club when I came upon the animated version of the unfortunately abbreviated story. I already knew about it (DC has been putting a number of comic arcs into animated form…not surprisingly many of them written by current creative officer Geoff Johns) but it came out in a time when my money was too low to consider it. Now finding it at $3 when my funds are a bit larger, I figured why not? So was I right to avoid this, or is this a touching portrayal of Superman’s last days?

“I forgot my sun tan lotion.”

All-Star Superman

FORMAT: DVD

STUDIO: Warner Animation/DC Universe

DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Home Video

STARRING: James Denton (Superman), Christina Hendricks (Lois Lane), and Anthony LaPaglia (Lex Luthor)

based on a story by Grant Morrison  and Frank Quietly

WRITER: Dwayne McDuffie

PRODUCERS: Bruce Timm & Alan Burnett

VOICE DIRECTOR: Andrea Romano

DIRECTOR: Sal Liu

EDITOR: Margaret Hou