Welcome to Friday’s fantastic, friendly neighborhood, fun loving, Daily Mega Comics Group Updates!

Friday! Whew! 😀 What a week! Paper work! That’s about all we’ve done this week!

So we decided to take a little break and browse some old favorite covers. We enjoyed our little stroll down memory lane so much we decided to share some of our findings with you. Enjoy the gallery! You will find Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colon, Jim Steranko, John Romita, Wally Wood, Bill Everette, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, Vince Colletta and Neal Adams classic work that was the foundation of Marvel Comics back in it’s heyday in the 1960’s! Over all it was the Silver Age of Comics but it was called by Stan Lee, who wrote most of the scripts for these milestone issues, the Marvel Age! I think Roy Thomas wrote one or two as well. 😉 These are the writers and cartoonists that most influenced us, but there were others as well, and we’ll share those one day soon.

Next week! We are still officially on sabbatical but should have some noticeable improvements to the site next week. Keep your fingers crossed and we might even have a preview or two of our new titles too. So bear with us a little longer please.

Have a nice weekend! Other than Basketball there’s not a lot going on this time of year. Most of the country is still enveloped in the icy grip of a very long Winter but Spring is just around the corner so hang in there. So much for Global Warming, eh? 😉 Remember Y2K!

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

CU Next Week!

Marvel’s Greatest Covers #1

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Like the Man said, “’nuff said!”

Welcome to Friday’s favorite, fan requested, fat free, Daily Mega Comics Group Updates!

Friday? What happened to the week?! 😀 Well, things have not exactly come off on schedule this week. We had hoped to have another post for you this week but we just couldn’t do it. We did finally get all our 2008 bookkeeping out of the way and now it’s in the accountants hands to get it ready for Uncle Sam. Whew! We’re glad that’s over.

Everyone loved the 60’s Marvel cover gallery we put up last week we decided to do it again. We give you more reasons why Marvel was such a success in the 1960’s! Again brought to you by  Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colon, Jim Steranko, John Romita, Wally Wood, Bill Everette, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, Vince Colletta, Steve Ditko, Chic Stone, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers, Gil Kane, John Severin, Maria Severin, Herb Trimpe, Jay Gavin, George Tuska and Neal Adams. Without these talents there well may not have been a Marvel Comics! Marvel today owes all it is to these founding fathers who along with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas gave us the Marvel Age of Comics!

In the day, covers were designed to maximize the attention of buyers at newsstands. It was not as much about the art as it was selling that issue! Some were more like ads than covers. Early on Stan Lee populated the covers with word balloons and all manner of hyperbole. The covers themselves had to tell a story enough to entice the customer to pick it out from among all the other choices. As the 1960’s rolled on less words were on the cover, often just the title logo and maybe the name that issues story. So take another stroll with us down memory lane and see how Marvel, the small upstart of that day, got there foot in the door to make the sale.

Next week! We will start back to posting more often as we get back on schedule. We’ll clue you in on what’s been going on behind the scenes and start getting you prepared for the debut of our new titles.

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

CU Next Week!

More Reasons For Marvel’s Success Cover Gallery:

Have a nice weekend!

Welcome to Friday’s Daily Mega Comics Group Updates!

Have you ever felt overwhelmed? Have you ever felt like you have got so much to do and so much more you have promised you would do that it looks like there is just no way to get it all done? That’s where we are now! We are approaching our second anniversary here at the Mega Comics Group virtual offices and frankly we’ve done a lot! We have posted about 300 pages of comic book story and art. We use to know the exact number but we’ve forgotten now! 😉 We’ve also put up about the same number of blogs plus page by page commentary and info on each page of comic art plus a whole slew of sketches, concept drawings and whatnot, not to mention all the industry news and tributes! A new reader of this site could literally spend days reading all the material we have posted here. But don’t get the idea we are tooting our own horn here! Perish forbid! But then since it is our horn who else would toot it? 😉 So whats the point of this little bit of braggadocio? Just a little reminder to ourselves and whoever else might be interested that even though we may be just a tad bit behind schedule we are far from done! We are in the process of trimming out the fat and getting to the meat of what we want to do here with Mega Comics Group! We’ll borrow a phase from our esteemed Publisher-In-Training and Creator of Catch Phrases, Mark Poe and say we will “Begin Again!” Yeah, whenever you feel overwhelmed with obligations, don’t give up, just stop, reorganize and “Begin Again!”

Next week! We will start a new little feature we want to call Archives Spotlight. This is something we’ve had in mind for several months actually but had not thought of exactly how to do it. As we said in the above introduction, we have somewhere around 300 pages of comic art on this site. It takes more than half a gig to hold it all on our server and yet we don’t think we have utilized it to it’s fullest. For that short sightedness we apologize. But we hope to make amends with the Archives Spotlight. Too often once comics on a web site are posted initially it’s like the  work goes into the archive limbo never to be mentioned again. That should not be. So, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we’ll put the spot light on our archived titles and re-present them as we did when we first posted them. We realize everyone does not like re-runs but we do have new readers coming in all the time so they may appreciate our spotlighting what’s in the archives. Some older readers will enjoy seeing them again.

Also Next Week: We’ll give you the lowdown on just what ol’ Stan “The Man” Lee is doing these days and it has nothing to do with Marvel Comics.

And to set the stage for our Archives Spotlight… While this is not our comics it is  one of the tributes to our heroes who inspired us to attempt publishing comics in the first place! We are doing a re-posting of the 150 Reasons Marvel Comics Succeeded cover gallery we posted about a year ago. Enjoy!

Everyone loved the 60’s Marvel cover gallery we put up last week we decided to do it again. We give you 150 reasons why Marvel was such a success in the 1960’s! Again brought to you by  Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colon, Jim Steranko, John Romita, Wally Wood, Bill Everette, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, Vince Colletta, Steve Ditko, Chic Stone, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers, Gil Kane, John Severin, Maria Severin, Herb Trimpe, Jay Gavin, George Tuska and Neal Adams. Without these talents there well may not have been a Marvel Comics! Marvel today owes all it is to these founding fathers who along with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas gave us the Marvel Age of Comics!

In the day, covers were designed to maximize the attention of buyers at newsstands. It was not as much about the art as it was selling that issue! Some were more like ads than covers. Early on Stan Lee populated the covers with word balloons and all manner of hyperbole. The covers themselves had to tell a story enough to entice the customer to pick it out from among all the other choices. As the 1960’s rolled on less words were on the cover, often just the title logo and maybe the name that issues story. So take another stroll with us down memory lane and see how Marvel, the small upstart of that day, got there foot in the door to make the sale.

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

150 Reasons For Marvel’s Success Cover Gallery:

[svgallery name=”60sMarvelCovers2″]

Have a nice weekend! CU Monday!

Welcome to Friday’s favorite, fan requested, fat free,  Mega Comics Group Updates!

TGIFriday already? Geeze! What happened to the week?! 😀

We’re getting a little excited about the Golden Age Heroes Project! That’s because we’re seeing pencils and inks our esteemed Publisher-In-Training and resident cartoonist at large, Mark Poe has been doing on said project. We can’t show you just yet, ’cause he’d have a cow if we did! 😉 But next week we should start to see at least a preview of the first 100 page book we have been calling Mega Spectacular #1. That name by the way, may be subject to change for a few reasons, one being we’re beginning to suspect it’s too close to or flagship title Mega Tales (Which is on sale now if you look at our ad to the right of this column! Unabashed plug!). So look for that title to change as we mix it up a bit.

We have some new target dates! Sure we’ve given you dates before and we, for one reason or another, did not get the promised publication out. We admit it! The beauty of first doing this stuff on the web is it’s more flexible. We have not missed any deadlines for Distributors or anything like that. Which, if you don’t know, is a cardinal sin in this business! Plus you get to see a lot of the behind the scenes turmoil we go through to get all this done! AND we have gotten most of what we promised out on time like the 4 issues of Project: New Man which you can still read in it’s entirety right on this site! And then there was the Humants 5 issues series! Then we brought you the first adventure of Tess, the Living Tesseract in Mega Tales #1, which those lucky enough to be paying attention got to read all of, on the web, before we cut it back to a 10 page preview promoting the printed addition. That issue is on sale now just in case you have not heard. 😉 So there! We’re not total bums! Just part time bums. But enough of this frivolity! What we started off to tell you is: we have set our target date for September to have the Golden Age Heroes Project up and going. We also tentatively may have Mega Tales #2 ready to start. All Mega Bullpeners and Maniacs take note! So hang in there, hombres! Like the lady sang “We’ve Only Just Begun!” Not bad for a 2 year old, eh?

And now a bit of a re-posting from one of our Friday blogs from last year: Hmmm…Actually we’ve used this gig twice in the past year haven’t we? Oh well, some things are worth a second or third look! Enjoy!

Everyone loved the 60’s Marvel cover gallery we put up last week we decided to do it again. We give you 150 reasons why Marvel was such a success in the 1960’s! Again brought to you by  Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colon, Jim Steranko, John Romita, Wally Wood, Bill Everette, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, Vince Colletta, Steve Ditko, Chic Stone, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers, Gil Kane, John Severin, Maria Severin, Herb Trimpe, Jay Gavin, George Tuska and Neal Adams. Without these talents there well may not have been a Marvel Comics! Marvel today owes all it is to these founding fathers who along with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas gave us the Marvel Age of Comics!

In the day, covers were designed to maximize the attention of buyers at newsstands. It was not as much about the art as it was selling that issue! Some were more like ads than covers. Early on Stan Lee populated the covers with word balloons and all manner of hyperbole. The covers themselves had to tell a story enough to entice the customer to pick it out from among all the other choices. As the 1960’s rolled on less words were on the cover, often just the title logo and maybe the name that issues story. So take another stroll with us down memory lane and see how Marvel, the small upstart of that day, got there foot in the door to make the sale.

No Final Video trailer for Mega Tales #1 Yet! This has been another learning process indeed! We have the video looking good in iMovie and in Quicktime. When we get it to YouTube we are losing something in the translation. But we’ll keep on until we get it.

Next week! We will get back to looking at the hottest conventions going on this summer. Sorry we missed that Monday, but as always, see the large ad in the right hand sidebar to go to the page with all the convention info on it.Possibly a preview of that Golden Age Heroes Project. And lot’s more! See ya then!

______________________________

Archives Spotlight

We continue our look back at our previously posted web comics. We’ll be looking at all that’s come before with this feature and adding new comments as well. This month we are reviewing Project: New Man! Stay tuned to this section Monday, Wednesday and Fridays for more news on our archived titles.

Project: New Man #1 – Page 28 – Shhhh. Listen to the conversation.;-)

Mark’s Remarks: Dave analyzes his real first adventure since becoming New Man. Max adds his years of experience as guidance for our hero. Just how Max got involved in the project will be revealed in the next issue which we’ll roll out in just a few more days at the conclusion of this landmark publication.

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

CU Next Week!

Have a nice weekend!

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Here we go again!

The 2018 NFL Conference Championships are over. What started out as a tight, defensive game in the first half turned into an offensive shootout in the second half of the AFC Conference Championship!  This one pitted the 9 Time Champion New England Patriots, against a young and very talented Kansas City Chiefs team. The roller coaster ride in the second half could only be decided in overtime with the Patriots scoring a sudden death touchdown to seal their Super Bowl bid.

Before that one was the no less exciting New Orleans Saints verses the new L.A. Rams! The game had a fast start but then stalled a bit. Then in the 4th quarter the race was on to a tie and Overtime! This one has a little bit of everything including what may be the most infamous none-call by officials in NFL history!

Patriots win their 9th Conference Championship. Now, on to the big showdown with the Rams. The Pats won their first Super Bowl against he high flying St. Louis Rams back in 2001 which launched their dynasty. Can they do it with he new L.A. Rams for a 6th Super Bowl title and tie the Pittsburg Steelers for the most Super Bowls wins in the NFL? We shall see February the 3rd.

Super Bowl 53 may prove to be one of the best! Sunday, February 3rd. Check your local listings for the time.

Stuf’ Said!

A few weeks ago after Stan Lee passed away, we paid tribute to Stan The Man, his life and career. The tribute actually became a series of articles which gave insight and reflection on the life and work of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and other original members of the Marvel Bullpen. It seems The Marvel Age can never be brought up these days without getting into the Lee – Kirby Debate on who created what. That’s a good thing, because we want to make sure credit is given where credit is due. There are some who are more authoritative on this subject than we are. There are a lot of other folks who only think they know. John Morrow of TwoMorrows Publishing is one of those who definitely IS in the know concerning this matter. He may not have been there but he has diligently and exhaustively researched every scrap of information and assembled chronologically the quotes and events of the creation of the Marvel Universe from it’s founding! John is a big fan of Kirby and Lee in that order. 😉 He has dedicated most of his life to publishing The Jack Kirby Collector, a magazine that celebrates Jack Kirby’s work as well as many more fine magazines dedicated to various aspects of fandom.

TJKC issue #75 has just come out. This issue John has compiled his case of just who did what and presented quotes and evidence in chronological order. He has his own opinions but for the most part he lets the reader decide based on the evidence presented. This book is well thought out and expertly designed which has become a hallmark of TwoMorrows. There’s 163 pages to read, so by the end you will have gleaned enough evidence to know once and for all who did what. Read more about it below directly from TwoMorrows…

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID is shipping now in print and digital editions, and to say I’m humbled by the early response to it would be putting it mildly. It’s a project I’ve been wanting to produce for several years, but now that lawsuits and creator credits have been put to rest, I was curious to see if people still wanted to dig deeper into the genesis of the Marvel Comics Universe, and what roles Jack Kirby and Stan Lee actually played—not just in creating the characters, but in shaping the company’s overall output and direction. It appears the answer is a resounding “yes!”

I didn’t want to just rehash the old partisan “Lee’s the genius behind Marvel” and “Kirby got robbed of credit” arguments. I wanted this to be a new approach to examining the topic. So I set out the CHRONOLOGICALLY (and that’s the key) document what both men had to say about it; plus include commentary (presented chronologically as well) of others, from Wally Wood and Steve Ditko, to wives Joan Lee and Roz Kirby. And then attempt to pinpoint what work was being produced at the time all that “stuf'” was being said.

I also wanted to present it in a visually different way, and one I think really helps the “oral history” approach of this book illuminate the subject more clearly. Once I got into the bulk of the research, I saw that this would necessitate taking the financial risk of changing the book from its planned black-&-white format, to full-color, because color was going to be so important to clarifying such a research-heavy, dense tome—and I’m talking about the importance of using color for the TEXT of the book (although it’s always nice to have images in color as well).

This is not a book you’ll want simply for its art. The visual examples I chose are there to support the commentary, not to show how beautifully Kirby could draw. This book is all about research (and believe me, that research took on a life of its own, and consumed my own life for months).

But if you care about the genesis of the Marvel Universe, you need to get this book. Feel free to ignore my brief editorial comments and opinions (all clearly marked) if you like, and just read Stan and Jack’s (and others’) quotes, in chronological order, juxtaposed against what they we working on at the time. You’ll see where both men were remarkably consistent in their accounts, and where they veered as time went on. Based on what early readers are already telling me, you’ll learn things you didn’t know, and be enlightened about Kirby and Lee’s lives and careers, both working together and separately.

Kirby died in 1994. Ditko died while I was researching this book, and Lee passed just a few days after the book was at the printer (and alas, too late for me to add a mention of his passing). But I think STUF’ SAID will stand as a lasting tribute to what they, and so many other Marvel talents, created—and an important historical document that is the culmination of what I’ve been trying to do with the Jack Kirby Collector for the last 25 years.

(Courtesy of John Morrow’s Facebook page.)

Get this one before they are all sold out! You can get a digital copy if you like but you are going to want the printed copy for your bookshelf as well. Trust us. When you order the printed version you get the digital copy free. So you can have both for one price! This is one of those milestone books which will be referred back to again and again for years to come whenever the Lee – Kirby Debate is discussed. Miss it not!

Marvel’s Greatest Covers!

(Edited and revised from the original post of Friday, February 20th, 2009.) 

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Super Bowl Weekend is here!

The 2018 NFL regular season is over. The Playoffs are over, The Conference Championships are over. The Pro Bowl is over. Now, we begin the 53rd Super Bowl! When the dust settles and the confetti and balloons are released and the trophy is awarded and the speeches made, regardless of the outcome, regardless of who wins, history will be made…

Coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots is going for his sixth Super Bowl ring. If he succeeds,  he will become the oldest head coach to win a Super Bowl. On the other sideline, is Coach Sean McVay, of the L.A. Rams, if he were to win, he would be the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl.

Then there are the quarterbacks. Jared Goff is not the youngest QB to play in the Super Bowl, now in his third year, but he certainly hasn’t been at it as long as future Hall of Famer, Tom Brady. However, this is Goff’s second post season appearance so he is not a rookie either. He may not feel the pressure of being the new kid in the game but he is going up against possibly the best QB to ever play the game. That is pressure enough! ’nuff said.

The coaches and the QB’s are not the only factors in this Super Bowl. There is some great talent at all positions on both teams. Case in point: Julian Edelman and Todd Gurley could be huge factors this year.

Last game? As always when coaches and players reach a certain age the speculation rumor mill is running 24/7! At 41 and having played 19 years in the NFL and racking up incredible stats and winning 5 Super Bowls, Tom Brady certainly could retire with more accomplishments than most could ever imagine. But will he? Personally, ye ol’ Mega Minions unanimously agree, a feat not at all common, that Brady will stay at least a couple more years. We think it more likely that Coach Bill Belichick would retire but we really doubt that will happen either. But who knows, either one could surprise everyone and decide this would be their last Super Bowl.

Who do you think will win? Whew! We have no agreement around here on that subject. Let’s face it… a large number of folks are tired of seeing New England in the Super Bowl similar to the number of people nationwide who are tired of the Crimson Tide being in the National Championship game. So there are a lot of Patriot haters out there who are not so much Rams fans but they will be cheering L.A. on as if they were. That’s understood. As for the Pats, well, there are worse things to be hated for. Being hated for being so good… that’s like a backwards compliment. 😉 Odds are the Patriots will win, but these games are not won or lost on paper or in Vegas, but on the the playing field.

Plenty more could be said but suffice it to say, Football Fans, you don’t want to miss this one! Super Bowl 53! Sunday, February 3rd. Check your local listings for the time, as if you don’t already know. 😉

More of Marvel’s Greatest Covers!

(Edited and revised from the original post of Friday, February 27th, 2009.) 

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

The Patriots win their sixth Super Bowl!

We have a 2018 World Champion! 

As predicted the New England Patriots have prevailed fro a 6th time over a worthy opponent to win the 53rd Super Bowl! We all expected a good, competitive and high scoring game. Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad as the ol’ song said. Yes, it was a good game depending on your viewpoint. For diehard football fans who have been around long enough to remember the days of tough defenses that ruled the league it was a real hoot! Like one commentator said it was a “throwback game.” This was a shock for most who had gotten use to some high scoring offense this season like has rarely been seen before in Pro Football. It was competitive to be sure, mainly on defense. But is was not the be offensive shootout most of us expected. It was all field goals until half way through the fourth quarter when the Patriots posted their first and only touchdown. The final was 13 – 3. not the flashiest victory by the Patriots but a win is win.

But as we promised history was made! Coach Bill Belichick is the oldest coach to win a Super Bowl, and the only coach to ever win 6 Super Bowls. Tom Brady is the only quarterback to ever win 6 Super Bowls. Neither one has any plans for retirement, so it is likely we will see them both in the hunt for another Super Bowl win next year and possibly for 2 – 3 years after that. Of course, there are no guarantees on this scenario since we never know what else might happen n that time frame.

Super Bowl commercials are usually one of the great side benefits of the Big Game. This year there were only a few we all thought was really funny. One of our favorites was the Walmart movie and TV cars ad featuring the original KITT from Knight Rider, the DeLorean from Back to the Future, one of the Batmobiles and many more. Then there was this one…

Mark’s Remarks

When Losers Are Winners!

Did you see the post game interviews after the Super Bowl? Some of it was a little funny, and some was profound.

First the media folks just could not seem to get Tom Bradys attention. It was humorous to watch. Tom was more interested in shaking hands and thanking his team mates, coaches, team owners and friends from the other team. But he did eventually get around to talking to reporters too. It’s understandable, the press always swarms the quarterbacks and coaches and they often miss speaking to those they want to show gratitude or congratulate because one reporter after another sucks the air out of the room! 😉 So, this time, the press had to humble themselves a little and wait patiently for Mr. Brady to come back and talk to them.  Very appropriate.

Later the coaches gave their assessments of the game. Most are more interested in what the winners of the Big Game have to say, and rightly so. But right here I want to draw your attention to Coach Sean McVay, of the L.A. Rams. We have seen it all from indignation to melancholy to shock, but this time the loser displayed sincere humility. How do I know it was sincere? Well, some folks try to put on an act of humility while its obvious by their words, tone of voice and/or actions it’s just an act. But as I listened to Coach McVay, the youngest head coach at age 33 to take his team to a Super Bowl, it was very apparent this guy really learned from his experience. He took all the responsibility for the loss without blaming it on any one. It was not the players fault, or the assistant coaches, or the fans, or politics, or any of a hundred different excuses which we’ve heard others make.

Now, don’t read between the lines here, there is nothing there! This is not a critique of any one head coach or any individual at all. This reflects more on where we are in society today. It seems like one in a million will take full responsibility for their actions. Many will say it, but only one in a million show evidence that it is anything other than lip service. How many really take responsibility and make changes to attempt to have a different outcome the next time the opportunity to win comes around? How many had rather just be a victim, blame it on everyone and everything and never go anywhere? It’s the ol’ “Nobody loves me” syndrome!

Winners don’t think about why they might lose, they think about how they will win! That one key will fill a person with such positive energy that they don’t have room for anything negative. When they win then they celebrate a little while and get back to work. When they lose they shake it off and get back to work. It’s that simple. They don’t live in the past, they live for the future. Our whole nation could benefit from that philosophy. We have whole cultures in this country that are so hung up on the past, either what they did or didn’t do or what someone did to them and they never go anywhere. They are like a car stuck in the mud. Many of these people call themselves Progressives. How can you progress if you are always looking back? See how far you get in your car if you are  focused exclusively on what is happening in your rearview mirror! The rearview mirror is a necessary tool if used correctly. But if you focus on that and nothing else you are sure to have a wreck!

Coach Sean McVay and his the L.A. Rams will be back in the Super Bowl. That is, they will IF they maintain the humility to learn, make adjustments. and go forward. Now, THAT is progressive! 😉

Onward!

– Mark

The original FBCC Mega Comics Group introduction page.

And welcome back to us!  ?Back from our sabbatical but running a little late this Monday morning. We have a lot to fill you in on but we’ll be brief this morning  since time is short and save the main “catch up” for tomorrow!

As we reported a few weeks ago, Facebook Comic Convention is an unofficial virtual comics, animation and media convention bringing together the robust community of industry professionals and fans registered on Facebook. The Facebook Comic Con is a project now under construction, preparing for a grand gala premiere celebration on the weekend of March 12-15, 2009.

To sign up and get more info: Facebook Comic Con.

That’s the old news! The NEW News is Mega Comics Group will be participating in the convention and is now signed up and has a table set up. Lot’s of stuff is going on even now before the official kick off dates listed above. So head on over and browse the guest tables and exhibits. Online, virtual, conventions have been tried in the past but this one on Facebook promises to be different. It’s the first, to our knowledge, to be hosted on a Social Networking site. Or has someone tried this on MySpace? If you know drop us a comment, we’d love to know! Regardless, this one promises to make history and is already causing quite a stir all over the comics industry! Events in planning include:

• An Opening Party
• Keynote Addresses
• Guest Panels and Interviews
• Script & Art Reviews
• Costume Contest

And more! The Special Guests list include:

• Stan Lee
  Honored Patriarch of the Comics
• Adrienne Colan
  Honored Guest
• Len Wein
  Honored Guest Writer
• Gail Simone
  Honored Guest Writer
• Elliot S. Maggin
  Honored Guest Writer
• Tony DeZuniga
  Honored Guest Artist
• James Hundall
  Honored Guest Writer
• Janet L. Hetherington
  Honored Guest Writer
• Ashraf Ghori
  Honored Guest Artist/Animator/Film Maker
• Jon F. Merz
  Honored Guest Author/Film & TV Producer
• Don McGregor
  Honored Guest Writer
• Dave Simons
  Honored Guest Artist
• Josef Rubinstein
  Honored Guest Artist/Inker
• Gerry Alanguilan
  Honored Guest Writer/Artist/Publisher/Curator

Michael Netzer, formerly known as Mike Nasser, is your host and the founder of the event. Mike produced some awesome work back in the 70’s and 90’s for Marvel and DC and is no slouch when it comes to quality artwork either! He did the art for the Facebook Comics Con Poster/Header seen above. Folks, do you  really want to miss this? No, we didn’t think so. CU there!

Yet Even More of Marvel’s Greatest Covers!

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

The Alliance of American Football Official Logo

The Alliance of American Football Is Here! 

Holy Pigskins, Batman! We forgot all about this last week! The Sports media has been talking about this off an on for several months and the debut weekend finally arrived… last weekend! We totally forgot! We didn’t see one game! Well at least not while it was being played we did go find the replays after we realized our error.

What is the AAF?  Glad you asked! The Alliance of American Football is the new kid on the block. Remember the XFL? Well, this ain’t it! But it’s similar and much better! But rather than rely on our sub-par writing skills to explain let’s just gip the essence of it form our pls at Wikipedia:

Birmingham Iron

The Alliance of American Football (AAF) is a professional American football league founded by Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian. It opened play on February 9, 2019, one week after the National Football League’s Super Bowl LIII championship game. The AAF consists of eight centrally owned and operated teams. All teams except Salt Lake are located in cities on or south of the 35th parallel and all teams except Birmingham are located in metropolitan areas that have at least one major professional sports franchise. Of the eight teams in the league, all but Arizona and Atlanta are located in markets lacking an NFL team.

A Little History

Arizona Hotshots

Filmmaker Charlie Ebersol was inspired to create the AAF in late 2016 after making the documentary This Was the XFL for ESPN Films’ 30 for 30 series; upon researching and examining the history of the XFL, he came to the conclusion that the concept was viable but that the finished product was both poorly executed and, from an on-field standpoint, bad football. He began developing the AAF in December 2017, about the same time that word had come out about XFL co-founder Vince McMahon possibly reviving the old XFL brand.

The AAF was announced on March 20, 2018. Ebersol sought to focus on creating a solid football product in the hopes that it would attract fans. He hired a team of experienced football players, coaches and executives to prepare the league for launch. The AAF is overseen by former NFL general manager Bill Polian, former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, and executive J.K. McKay. Advisers also include former Steelers receiver Hines Ward, former New York Giants and Oakland Raiders defensive end Justin Tuck, retired referee and current Fox NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira, and Ebersol’s father, retired NBC Sports executive (and co-founder of the original XFL) Dick Ebersol.

Memphis Express

To ensure professional-level football at launch, the AAF set out to hire coaches with professional football coaching and championship experience. On April 7, 2018, the first team, Orlando, was announced with its Coach Steve Spurrier. By June 2018, the league had announced its eight inaugural teams and their cities.

On July 30, 2018, the Alliance announced the league had signed 100 players. In August 2018, the league held the Alliance Scouting Combine at three locations and four dates: August 4, 2018 in Los Angeles, California; August 18 in Houston, Texas and August 25–26 in Atlanta, Georgia. By August 24, 2018, 205 players were signed. These dates provided an opportunity for players cut at the NFL roster deadline, and each player signed a three-year contract worth $250,000 (with a $70,000 salary in 2019), with performance-based and fan-interaction incentives allowing for players to earn more.

Orlando Apollos

In July 2018, Starter, through G-III Sports, which manufactured NFL jerseys in the 1980s and 1990s, was named the official on-field apparel and game-day uniform supplier for the AAF, marking a return for the brand to professional football. On September 20, the league announced four eastern inaugural franchises’ names and logos. The western four teams were revealed five days later.

The AAF Inaugural Season 2019

On October 16, 2018, the Alliance announced its schedule (indicating the day and location, but not the time, of each game) which has two games each on Saturday and on Sunday most weekends. Quarterback skills training camps were held at the Alamodome in San Antonio on November 12 – 14. On November 27, the league held a four-round “Protect or Pick” quarterback draft in the Esports Arena at Luxor Las Vegas and broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

Salt Lake Stallions

The AAF began its inaugural, 10-week season on February 9, 2019. The first points in AAF regular season history were scored by kicker Younghoe Koo of the Atlanta Legends, who made a 38-yard field goal against the Orlando Apollos. The first shutout in league history was recorded by the Birmingham Iron when they defeated the Memphis Express, 26–0, in Week 1.

A four-team playoff is to be capped with the league’s championship game at Sam Boyd Stadium near Las Vegas, planned for April 27. If the AAF reaches its second season, it will find itself in direct competition with a revived XFL, which is announced to begin play in 2020.

The Teams of the AAF

Team	Home	Stadium			Head Coach
Eastern Conference
Atlanta Legends	Atlanta, Georgia	Georgia State Stadium			Kevin Coyle
Birmingham Iron	Birmingham, Alabama	Legion Field			Tim Lewis
Memphis Express	Memphis, Tennessee	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium			Mike Singletary
Orlando Apollos	Orlando, Florida	Spectrum Stadium			Steve Spurrier
Western Conference
Arizona Hotshots	Tempe, Arizona	Sun Devil Stadium			Rick Neuheisel
Salt Lake Stallions	Salt Lake City, Utah	Rice–Eccles Stadium			Dennis Erickson
San Antonio Commanders	San Antonio, Texas	Alamodome			Mike Riley
	San Diego, California	SDCCU Stadium			Mike Martz

San Antonio Commanders 

This will be Weekend 2 for the AAF! Don’t miss it! Here’s a schedule for you:

Salt Lake at Birmingham • Sat, Feb 16 – 1:00 PM CT TICKETS

Arizona at Memphis • Sat, Feb 16 – 7:00 PM CT TICKETS

Orlando at San Antonio • Sun, Feb 17 – 3:00 PM CT TICKETS

Atlanta at San Diego • Sun, Feb 17 – 7:00 PM CT TICKETS

(Read more about it at Wikipedia or go to the AAF website.)

Mark’s Remarks

The Power…

The hurt doesn’t just go away. It hangs around and worries you until you can think of nothing else. The questions of “Why?” and “How could…?” Are repeated over and over.  You want to think of something, anything else, but the emotional pain lingers and haunts you unmercifully.

It grows, multiplies and metamorphoses into resentment then bitterness. As it does it invites in confusion, anger and jealousy. As if that were not enough, soon envy arrives showing you all you could have had if the hurt had not stolen what was rightfully yours. Revenge, masquerading as justice, then speaks up calling for the wrong to be made right, for restoration to be made. “That’s right, make them pay for what they have done, make them feel the pain they caused!” The more you consider it the more you think they are all alike. They should all suffer. Thus, prejudice sneaks in as well.

Suddenly, there seems to be a pause in the fervor of the melee and you can hear a small meek voice say “forgive.” All the others mock and ridicule! Impossible! The questions of “Why?” and “How could…?” return but direct the attention to you.

Again the tiny, steady voice speaks “forgive them…” Indignation comes to your defense, “How could I forgive them after what they did to me?” Revenge, still masquerading as justice, declares “It’s not humanly possible!”

Again that small, pained voice is heard, “ father, forgive them, they do not realize what they do nor who they serve. my trust is in you” 

The universe stops! All is quiet. It’s as if nothing dares to move or even breath. After several minutes that seems much longer the voice of another then says, “Surely, this was the Son of God.”

Then the small voice again meekly says, “only believe.” Realization dawns. Only God can forgive. I can only forgive if I trust in His forgiveness.

The universe resumes. But it’s quieter now, more peaceful, ready to get on with life.

(Refer to the Bible – Luke 17: 1-6, 23:34-47, Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:37-39,Romans 8 – King James and The Message translations.)

________________________

Just something that came to me this morning as a woke up. It’s a little rough, not as polished as I’d like, but I thought I would share it with you. Forgiving others is, at the same time, the most impossible yet the most powerful thing we can do. However, we cannot do it by our own strength. It takes the power of almighty God. Only believe. 🙂

Onward!

– Mark

Marvel’s Greatest Covers of the 1960’s #4

Okay, now let’s take a look at some comics from the Mega Comics Group!…