u/Saboscrivner

Back during the dark days of 2020, amid the COVID lockdowns and Black Lives Matter protests, comic book artist Steve Lieber went on social media and encouraged fans to donate to the racial justice organization Brown Hope, based in his city of Portland. In exchange, he would draw a limited number of postcard sketches for the donors, of a fictional character of their choice. I caught his social media post in time to discover and support a great organization, and I chose my lifelong favorite superhero, Blue Beetle (the second one, Ted Kord). It came out so well!

Flash forward to last week, and Steve Lieber popped up in my feed again, not just sharing new artwork or hyping a new publication, but making a similar offer for donations to the Transgender Law Center, another excellent organization that needs all the help it can get. He was offering postcard sketches for the first six lucky donors, and I caught him again. This time, I requested Blue Beetle's best bud and another favorite of mine, the greatest hero you've never heard of, Booster Gold. I even sent him a photo of his earlier Blue Beetle sketch and asked if he could do this one in a similar style.

I think he understood the assignment. I am so honored to have these in my collection, and now I'll finally get them both framed.

By the way, Steve Lieber has drawn two of my favorite comics of the 21st Century: Superior Foes of Spider-Man for Marvel and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen for DC. These are both hilarious books (written by Nick Spencer and Matt Fraction, respectively), but Lieber adds so much to the comedy with his characters' expressive faces, exaggerated mannerisms, and countless gags in the background. He is one of my favorite artists in comics.

Here in Orlando, Florida, we have a super-creative, talented butcher name Matt Hinckley, who runs Hinckley's Fancy Meats, a stall in the East End Market, a small food hall. He creates all kinds of sausages, pates, terrines, other charcuterie, and incredible sandwiches. I wrote a review on my food blog a few years ago, but I don't work for him or have any connection to the business.

At some point Hinckley's Fancy Meats started offering the best selection of tinned sardines and other seafood in Orlando, and they got into mail order too. Now they have their own website, Hinckley's Tinned Fish. I'm a huge fan of tinned seafood, like probably everyone else here, and I review them on my blog as well, so I figured plenty of people here would be interested in this mail order business.

It looks and feels pretty good, and the price was right.

Everyone was hoping CToys would go the extra mile and include a smiling head, even though the original MAFEX figure didn't come with one. I'd say it is more of a smirk, but anything is better than angry, scary Superman.

I am very happy with my purchase so far. It will replace the Superman I've had in my display since around 2003, from Mattel's DC Super Heroes line that predated DC Universe Classics.

A while back, I posted about piecing back together James Owsley's epic "Gang War" from Amazing Spider-Man #284-288, culminating in Spider-Man Versus Wolverine, which was the most hardcore thing I had ever read in 1986.  When I was a boy, I picked up most of them off newsstands, and they were my introduction to Daredevil, Punisher, Black Cat, Falcon, Hobgoblin, Wolverine, and more. Amazing #287 is Erik Larsen's first published artwork for Marvel, years before his ongoing run on Amazing, and the great Kyle Baker drew that cover.

Owsley's Spider-Man Versus Wolverine led to the shocking revelation of the Hobgoblin's secret identity in Amazing #289 (written by the late, great Peter David), after teasing out the mystery since his first appearance in Amazing #238, about five years earlier.  (I can't imagine any writers or readers having the patience for that now!)

But what I never knew until last year was Owsley got two issues of Web of Spider-Man to wrap up his loose ends, despite burning bridges and getting the boot.  I finally tracked down the surprisingly hard to find Web #29 (where Wolverine explains to Peter exactly what he had blundered into in Spidey Versus Wolverine) and Web #30 (the origin of The Rose, and why he did all the shit he did during "Gang War").

To me, this is PEAK Spider-Man.  Right after this, J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck would do their legendary six-part "Kraven's Last Hunt" (which is scary as hell, even when I read it for the first time a couple of years ago), then the big wedding to MJ in an Annual, then David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane would take over with Amazing #298.  

I recently learned that around 1996, Hobgoblin creator Roger Stern wrote a three-issue miniseries explaining why Owsley and David's Hobgoblin reveal was a misdirect, and that the character Stern had in mind the entire time was the one true Hobgoblin all along and he was pulling everyone else's strings.  This miniseries was available on Hoopla, and it was so funny, with so many footnotes and citations to past issues by Stern, Owsley, Tom DeFalco, and more, explaining why this was the new definitive take on the Hobgoblin.

Just in case anyone didn't already know: James Owsley would change his name to Christopher Priest and write the best Black Panther run ever, starting in 1998 under the Marvel Knights imprint.  

And just one more thing: The Rose would show up again (washed up and in a bad place) in one of my favorite comic runs of all time, Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev's Daredevil run from the 2000s.

Secret Wars DD arrived today, and I love it! I've been enjoying seeing all the crazy poses people online are putting it into, but I'm going to keep this Daredevil carded. The Secret Wars packaging is such a nostalgia bomb for me, since WHEN I WAS A BOY, the original 1985 Mattel Secret Wars figure was my introduction to Daredevil.

It's such a great-looking figure, I have no doubt Hasbro will rerelease it in a different deco, and then I'll open that one. But this DD and the cel-shaded version from a few years ago are my all-time favorite Daredevil figures (see my third photo).

Collectors are already finding this figure at Target stores, and it's up on Amazon right this moment, so if anyone wants an affordable classic red costume DD for their collections, you could do a lot worse. Hasbro hasn't released a single-carded red costume DD since 2015 -- any other red comic-style versions have been in rare two-packs or three-packs with other, less desirable figures.

Well, if not grails, then books that have been damn impossible to find.

Today I got DC's Batman: Daredevil: King of New York graphic novel by '90s Bat-family workhorse Alan Grant and Eduardo Barreto, to go with Marvel's Daredevil and Batman, which I already had.  I don't think I've ever actually read it, because it was so difficult getting through D.G. Chichester and Scott McDaniel's early '90s Daredevil run.  At least for me, McDaniel's art is the ultimate ugly '90s style (far more than an easy target like Rob Liefeld), to the point that his art made the stories hard to follow. 

But now I can finally read and compare both graphic novels! I think the only person who would be more excited about these than I am right now is Ben Affleck.

I also got some Kyle Baker graphic novels today from a different eBay order, but that's not what r/Daredevil is for.

Well, if not grails, then books that have been damn impossible to find.

Today I got DC's Batman: Daredevil: King of New York graphic novel by '90s Bat-family workhorse Alan Grant and Eduardo Barreto, to go with Marvel's Daredevil/Batman, which I already had.  I don't think I've ever actually read it, because it was so difficult getting through D.G. Chichester and Scott McDaniel's early '90s Daredevil run.  McDaniel's art is the ultimate ugly '90s style, to the point that his art made the stories hard to follow.  But now I can read and compare both graphic novels! I think the only person who would be more excited about these than I am right now is Ben Affleck.

I also completed my collection of Kyle Baker graphic novels I used to own and enjoy, but sold or traded a long time ago.  I got back the Cowboy Wally Show and Why I Hate Saturn earlier this year, and finally got You Are Here and I Die at Midnight from the same eBay seller.  These are so obscure and long since out of print, and the fact that three of them were published in a larger format than typical comics probably didn't help.  Best of all, they were both signed by Kyle Baker, which I had completely forgotten until flipping through them just now.

As a cartoonist who writes and draws equally well, I'd rank Baker up there with Los Bros Hernandez, Cooke, Mignola, and Chaykin and Miller in their '80s prime.  He preferred telling his own high-concept stories than doing Big Two work for hire, which is a big reason he remains so obscure, but I know he has done work in animation and advertising in more recent decades, and sometimes he pops up at DC or Marvel with some random new project.  He even drew some of the earliest Transformers issues for Marvel in the '80s, back when he was first starting out, which would have been my first exposure to his work when I was a boy.  But I love all four of these graphic novels. They are up there with Justice League International, the original Ben Edlund run of The Tick, Superior Foes of Spider-Man, and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen as some of the funniest comics I've ever read.

I always have a "hunting list" at comic shops, but these have all eluded me for years.  I wasn't in any hurry because I like having things to look for and look forward to, but I finally pulled the triggers after finding them for acceptable prices.  Feels good.  

I write a food blog, but I swear it isn't monetized. I don't make a dime off it. My entire goal is discovering delicious new foods and sharing information about them. In addition to reviewing restaurants, I also have a tradition of writing a massive review of all the mustards I've tried over the past year in a recurring feature I call Cutting the Mustard. As an arbitrary tradition I started in 2021, I post these on Memorial Day weekend, maybe because people are having cookouts and buying mustard to go with hot dogs and burgers.

I set a new personal record this year by reviewing a whopping *22* new mustards, and I would love to know if anyone has tried any of these, and what you thought of them. So if you like mustard as much as I do (if such a thing is possible), click below to read Cutting the Mustard V on The Saboscrivner food blog, and let me know what you think, especially if you have any mustard recommendations for me.
https://saboscrivner.com/2026/05/24/cutting-the-mustard-v-what-are-ya-yellow/

I write a food blog, but I swear it isn't monetized. I don't make a dime off it. My entire goal is discovering delicious new foods and sharing information about them. In addition to reviewing restaurants, I also have a tradition of writing a massive review of all the mustards I've tried over the past year in a recurring feature I call Cutting the Mustard. As an arbitrary tradition I started in 2021, I post these on Memorial Day weekend, maybe because people are having cookouts and buying mustard to go with hot dogs and burgers.

I set a new personal record this year by reviewing a whopping *22* new mustards, and I would love to know if anyone has tried any of these, and what you thought of them. So if you like mustard as much as I do (if such a thing is possible), click below to read Cutting the Mustard V on The Saboscrivner food blog, and let me know what you think, especially if you have any mustard recommendations for me.
https://saboscrivner.com/2026/05/24/cutting-the-mustard-v-what-are-ya-yellow/