Just a minor correction Maybe the Fantomas films didn't have much success when they came out, I don't know I wasn't born yet. But decades of TV reruns every other year means they're very famous now (I was actually joking about one scene with my office pal last week).

anyway, keep up the good work Brian, I just found out about your site and spent the whole afternoon reading CBULR.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpG6_FjgY4w

Oh, and to add fuel to the fire of the Aunt Harriet rumor from above: While she wasn't created for the TV show, since she originally appeared in 1964's Detective Comics #328, her history's somewhat interesting as well, since she wasn't the first Aunt added to the Batman cast. The original aunt was named Aunt Agatha, who predated the Aunt Harriet name by 10 years. Agatha first appeared in 1954's Batman #89. Agatha finally has got the respect she was due in modern DC continuity, since she was revived in this month's Batman issue by Grant Morrison. No idea if Aunt Harriet wasn't just originally a misnamed Aunt Agatha making a second appearance, but it's an interesting possiblity.

When SESAME STREET was announced back in 1968 or 69 as a new sensational kid's education program, there were ads in DC comics with Superman and Batman saying THEY would be on this new Sesame Street. The ads were half-page and fairly common. My little brother watched Sesame Street, and I'd ask if Superman or Batman ever appeared, but he said no. DID they ever appear? My gut feeling is that someone decided two super-fighters were a bad idea for a little kids' show, or the deal may simply have fizzled over rights and revenues, or for some other reason. Anyone know?

Clayton Emery
http://www.challengersoftheunknown.com

This is somewhat overstating it. Yes, Fantomex is clearly based on the character of Fantomas (and on Diabolik), but Morrison didn't just grab the original, public domain character and port him into the X-Men universe (in the way that Alan Moore used the public domain characters of the League of Gentlemen books). Loads of comic book characters are based on preexisting characters, but that doesn't make them direct grabs. The Mandarin and Ra's al Ghul are both based on Fu Manchu, for example, but Denny O'Neil didn't literally "take" Fu Manchu and make him a Batman villain.

NOTE: the handling, especially Mantlo's, could have been by editorial fiat, for all I know - I'm simply identifying the writers at the time.

Under Byrne's hand, Northstar was fairly firmly established as being homosexual, without it being overtly stated. we see scenes with him and a friend, and only the most obtuse of readers could interpret the scene as not being two men who are gay and romantically involved.

When Byrne and Mantlo swapped books (Byrne took over INCREDIBLE HULK), Mantlo didn't really do anything of the sort. Then again, on this book at least, Mantlo's writing didn't really seem to have the subtlety necessary to pull off what John had done.

During Mantlo's tenure, Northstar appears to be ill. The illness may have started while Byrne was writing the book, and was interpreted to be AIDS. However, in ALPHA FLIGHT 50, the illness is revealed to be magic-oriented, and Northstar and Aurora are revealed to be magical beings. Addendum: A check of Wikipedia implies that Mantlo started the illness, that he intended it to be AIDS and to have Jean-Paul die in #50, and that it was indeed editorial fiat that changed things. Also, that Northstar's magical heritage being able to be stated as him being part Faerie was intended as a subtle jab back at editorial. Like I said, Mantlo didn't do subtle real well in this book. In fact (another aside, I know), the one page of his ALPHA FLIGHT run I best remember was the second or third page of the issue (somewhere around # 46). There were four panels, which where about 50% word balloon, with 6 footnotes. It was an info dump about the preceding several issues, and was a testbook example of why the current recap page at the front of each book can be a very good thing.

WTF?

Would you ever, EVER say "I never really liked Banshee but that's because I hate the Irish"?

Or "I never really liked Storm but that's because I hate the blacks"?

Prejudice is prejudice pure and simple. If you can't outgrow it at least keep it to yourself.

back in the late 70s - early 80s, Eddie Campbell (and a friend) released a photocopied comic book they called FLICK, as reference to that little apocrypha. You can read a a bit about it on Campbell’s GRAFFITI KITCHEN, now collected in THREE PIECE SUIT."

Yeah, that story was the first time I'd ever encountered the flick urban legend.

Mitchell was Joel’s last episode. Diabolik was the show’s last episode.

I sit corrected.