Liker of Niche Things

And not-so-niche things. Blog named for the band Sparks and superhero The Phantom, two things that are as American as apple pie but mostly popular in Europe. Top two musical artists are Prince and Alice Cooper. Proud two-time MST3k revival leaguer. Full of obscure comic book knowledge. Mind warped by Power Rangers as a child. He/Him/His.

[lilaccatholic]

It’s Fourth of July Eve so make sure to leave some milk and cookies out for Captain America

[lilaccatholic]

I THOUGHT AFTER FOUR YEARS YOU PEOPLE WOULD LET THIS DIE AND YET AGAIN I OPEN THIS CURSED APP TO FIND MORE NOTES ON THIS POST

[thesparkwhowalks]

Back when I was working at a comic shop, I opened our email newsletter the week of Independence Day "reminding" people to hang their swimsuits from the ceiling fan so Captain America and The Falcon could fill them with hot dogs and potato chips.

I sometimes wonder how I had that job for eleven years.

[thatoneautisticfnaffan]

Tumblr users are like “B-but that’s my emotional support 4Chan language 🥺🥺”. I don’t give a shit, stop calling people -oids.

[chamomile-teabag]

WHAT ARE YALL READING RN you must tell me

[racistspiderman]

More women

[sevey6]

Thank god they decided to make more

[somesaypoetry]

Wow

Dolly Parton has really been hard at work

[cumbacon]

But In doing so…she created her biggest enemy…Jolene

[ichikun]

[worldheritagepostorganization]

World Heritage Post

[thesparkwhowalks]

Listening to the latest MBMBAM, I had a thought: the McElroy Brothers know a lot more about The Phantom than the average person and so much less than I, an autistic man with a Phantom collection, wish they did.

[thesparkwhowalks]

And they know even less about Morris Day and The Time! If they hit a third one of my special interests, it will start feeling personal.

[thesparkwhowalks]

On shows like Jack of All Trades and Xena: Warrior Princess, Bruce Campbell appeared alongside a bunch of actors who would go on to be supporting characters (civilians, monsters of the week, et al) on Power Rangers once it moved to New Zealand.

In Bruce Campbell's new movie Ernie & Emma (saw it last night, highly recommended), a major supporting character is played by Cerina Vincent, the Yellow Lost Galaxy Ranger.

I don't know how relevant this trivia is to anything but my ability to austically link most anything to Power Rangers, but I thought it was interesting and wanted to share with the class.

[cherryhatter-deactivated2015072]

KICK THE CAN!

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

To kick the can, reblog it. I wanna see how long this can go on for.

[visibun]

the oldest reblogs for this post that i can find are from january 2nd of 2013. this can has been getting kicked around tumblr for almost 13½ years now

[drtanner]

And yet somehow this is my first time kicking it!

[thesparkwhowalks]

RIP to Anthony Stewart Head, best known for his work on TV shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso or movies like Repo! The Genetic Opera. Truly a genre media all-star.

[thesparkwhowalks]

So here's a fact about me: from the ages of 13 to 19, I was a highly active member of the message boards on He-Man.org, then the internet's most prominent Masters of the Universe/She-Ra fan site. In fact, from 16-19 I was a moderator of a few boards. My handle was Uncle Dorko.

So suffice it to say, I am very excited for the movie opening this weekend.

[thesparkwhowalks]

I saw the movie! I really liked it, though not without some criticisms, but there was one thing that really impressed me. There are some deep-ass cuts in there for character choices, especially among the villains: characters that didn't get toys in the original or 2003 series like Goat-Man, Karg, and Pigboy all make prominent appearances. I, being the kind of dork I am, caught all of those.

BUT THEN THERE'S DIAN. She's a member of the Eternian Royal Guard, she gets some very prominent sequences in the final battle, in all she's on par with Ram Man and Fisto in terms of story importance. And eclipses Moss Man, who in is in some MOTU continuities a minor deity. Anyhow, I didn't know the character and figured she was an original creation.

Until I got home and pulled out my Character Guide & World Compendium (which a few people I knew back in the day worked on). It turns out that Dian is a Royal Guardsman from the newspaper comic strip. Which is, admittedly, sounds about right for how deep you have to go to find female warriors in this franchise that didn't debut in She-Ra.

But hats off to the writers on that one.

[thesparkwhowalks]

In my head, I know that it's not incorrect for people to be clowning on Freedom250 for having the villains from Purple Rain as a headlining act.

In my heart, I hate that Morris Day & The Time are getting dragged as has beens.

[coolcomicbookcovers]

[thesparkwhowalks]

So here's a fact about me: from the ages of 13 to 19, I was a highly active member of the message boards on He-Man.org, then the internet's most prominent Masters of the Universe/She-Ra fan site. In fact, from 16-19 I was a moderator of a few boards. My handle was Uncle Dorko.

So suffice it to say, I am very excited for the movie opening this weekend.

[andthepeople]

always funny to remember darth vader is anakin skywalker. the adrenaline junkie chucklefuck who used to dive head first out of speeders and built a pod racer in his yard when he was like six is now upper-middle management for the evil empire. half of his appearances in the original trilogy are Meetings. vader spends like 80% of his time dealing with bureaucratic bullshit. status updates. team meetings. holo-Zooms. budget rundowns. anakin betrayed the jedi and caused the fall of the republic and his punishment is being CC'd on every email forever. and you know what. he would hate that. the punishment fits the criminal

[coolcomicbookcovers]

[why-i-love-comics]

Sarge Steel info page

art by Dick Giordano

[thesparkwhowalks]

Multiple online sources, including both Wikipedia and DC Wiki, list his given first name as "Sargent". Meaning Sarge isn't his rank but a diminutive of his name.

I cannot find an issue citation for that, but it is really fun if true.

[chestnutroan]

I think the 'Fruit Sniffer' will be big on here

[thesparkwhowalks]

Reading 1967's Dynamo #4, from the period of time when Fawcett Comics was defunct and DC hadn't bought up Captain Marvel/Shazam yet. Shows how popular the Marvel Family was in their heyday.

Side note, the word they give Dynamo to trigger his power belt is "Excelsior", which was not yet Stan Lee's catchphrase at the time.