Spider-Man And Mary Jane Call It Quits

I've only been on vacation one week, in Hollywood no less, and celebrities have been having babies, a predicted favorite football team of mine lost, and divorces are always in the headlines, but Spider-Man splitting with Mary Jane? I did not see this one coming, and I am not sure how to react to it, but this article from FOXNews helps clarify some details.
Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, believes it is time to shake things up in the life of Peter Parker, the nerdy New Yorker who upon being bitten by a radioactive spider attained the ability to transform himself into a web-spinning world savior. And it was easier to do that, he said, if Parker wasn't married.
Still, as the writer and artist who created the story that transformed Spider-Man into Single-Man earlier this month, Quesada has made himself about as popular with some of his readers as the villainous Green Goblin. "When we first did it, the reaction was, 'How could you do this? This is a terrible thing to do," he recalled. "But with the first issue of 'Brand New Day' [in which Spider-Man returns to single life], our letters very quickly changed to people saying, 'This is fantastic. This is the Spider-Man we remembered. We didn't know what we'd been missing."
To briefly recap Spider-Man's trials and tribulations, his beloved Aunt May was recently wounded by an assassin. To save her life he and Mary Jane struck a deal with the devil-like Mephisto in which she would be restored to good health if they allowed Mephisto to erase every memory of their time as a married couple.
Reaction from the critics was swift.
"Considering I have been reading Spider-Man for exactly 20 years now, and that seems to be the amount of time Joe Q. has decided to rip from Spider-Man continuity, can I simply return all of my Spider-Man comics for a full refund?" asked one of the more polite postings on Marvel's Internet message boards. "It's heresy for some people," laughed Dave Pifer, who runs the Secret Headquarters comic book store in Los Angeles. Others, however, have been more quick to adapt. "The ones who are new to superheroes like Spider-Man, they're excited about it," Pifer said. "They feel like they're starting at the beginning." One message poster even joked that the beautiful Mary Jane, who remains in the Spider-Man cast, is free now to pursue Brad Pitt.
But what of the man who created Spider-Man? What does he think? "I think it's a very creative idea. It should stimulate a lot of interest in the characters and the books, and I'm eager to see what happens next," said Stan Lee, who wasn't involved in the current story.
It was Lee who married Spider-Man and Mary Jane in a mock ceremony at New York's Shea Stadium in 1987.
"Amazing that they're not even middle-aged yet," Lee quipped.
So how do our comics collectors feel? You tell us!

Artist Combines Sports And Art In Gallery

If you find yourself in Edmond, Oklahoma, this article outlines a gallery with a new concept worth taking a look at. David Fisk, artist, found a business that combines sports and art with “Images Gallery: The Art of Sport.” The gallery, which opened Dec. 20, features sports photography and artwork by about 100 artists. The artwork portrays a variety of sports, including basketball, football and golf.
“I always liked sports art and there’s nothing like this around here. It’s a niche I saw a great potential for in Edmond. There’s already quite a few art galleries in Edmond,” he said. Fisk previously worked in the newspaper business and did everything from page design to editing. “I was just ready to enter a new phase of life,” he said. “I did that for 36 years, and I was ready for something else.” Fisk said what he most enjoys about his new gallery is just sitting and looking at the different artwork on his walls. “I spend a lot of time in here,” he said. “It doesn’t really get old.”
The authentic sports memorabilia in the gallery ranges from $5 to $13,000. One of the most expensive is a painting of Roy Williams titled “Over the Top,” which was painted by Christopher Nick, a popular children’s book illustrator. “That’s a pretty famous shot,” Fisk said.
He said the gallery offers art on commission and art searches to find a certain image. He said they can convert a photograph into a painting. In the spring, Fisk plans to commission a few artists who will convert sports photos into art for parents who want paintings of their children playing or in their uniforms.
Fisk said he has sold a lot of OU and OSU paintings, but he’s been collecting artwork from all across the nation since last summer. “My goal is to represent some Oklahoma artists nationwide as an art representative,” he said. Two of his featured artists include Stephen Holland and Robert Hurst, who are considered top sports artists in the nation. Fisk said Holland is the official artist for the Baltimore Ravens and Muhammed Ali. Hurst is the official artist for the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Steve Boaldin, Edmond artist, said he is submitting several paintings that feature everything from golf to baseball.

Yardley Community Center Antique Show

The national trend of going green has worked its way into the world of antiques. That's what Joy Harrington — a collector, dealer and the organizer of this weekend's Yardley Community Centre Antique Show — said as the center sets the stage for its 54th annual show. An antique isn't just something that sits on a living room hutch anymore, said Harrington, a community center board member. “People are starting to remember, or think about, older things and are reusing them,” she said. Of course, some things (read: the expensive ones!) are meant to be just collectibles, she added.

Twenty-one dealers from throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland will set up shop Friday and Saturday at the Yardley Community Centre, selling primitives, miniatures, quilts, furniture, cupboards, jewelry, pottery, crockery, ceramics and more. Organizers expect from several hundred to nearly 1,000 people to attend. The money raised helps the community center maintain its building, which dates to the early 1800s. The items at the show range from antique bottles that cost just a few bucks to antique furniture that costs a few thousand dollars. “We really try to have a nice balanced show that's for everyone,” Harrington said.
For more of this article, or if you would like to attend the Yardley Community Center Antique Show, click here.

New 'Supernatural' Comic Book Series

According to this article from buddytv.com, Supernatural: Rising Son is a six-issue miniseries that will tell another story about the young Sam and Dean Winchester, much to the enjoyment of comic collectors of the Supernatural: Origins comic books published by WildStorm last year. The first issue is set to hit stores on April 23 and will pick up a few years after Origins, following a 7-year-old Sam and 11-year-old Dean as they travel with their father, John.
“Whereas the first series was more about John and his becoming a hunter, this one's much more of a dysfunctional family story,” explains writer Peter Johnson, who's also a co-executive producer on the TV show. “We're really going to explore the differences between Sam and Dean in this one,” Johnson continues. “Dean is becoming aware of what his dad's up to and we'll see him training and hunting a little bit, while John will start to key in on something different about Sam.” The bad news about the series is that show creator Eric Kripke, who had a lot of input on Origins, couldn't have any involvement due to the writers' strike. While the strike doesn't preclude people from writing comic books, Kripke bowed out due to the thin line between writing for a TV series and writing a comic based on a TV series.
Despite that, Johnson promises that the Rising Son story will fit in nicely with the show, and even feature some familiar faces such as Bobby, a fellow demon hunter. He also says that readers should expect “freakier monsters,” including “some badass female villains and a big bad villain that may have something to do with the TV show.”
For those who missed Origins in its single issue format, a trade paperback collecting the entire series will be published in April. Johnson also mentions that he made an editorial change in the collected edition regarding the Winchester's signature Chevy Impala. In the original comic the Impala was something John found on the road, but due to the protests of fans it will now be something that was in the Winchester family prior to the beginning of the comic series.
There's already talk of a third miniseries being planned that would bring the story right up to the pilot of the television series. Even with Supernatural being sidelined due to the writers' strike, fans of the Winchester boys should have plenty of demon slaying fun to indulge in for months to come.