InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You want me to apologize?"

heartless guttersnipe (parsimonia) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-05-07 19:31:00

Entry tags:

char: ghost rider/danny ketch, char: spider-man/peter parker, publisher: marvel comics

Guess who's coming to (my) town?
Alrighty folks, this is a bit of a re-post of the Spider-Man and Ghost Rider comic that I received as a little kid and had posted to the old comm. It prominently features the SkyDome and other Toronto Blue Jays-related things. Why? Because the ~~Rogers Centre~~ SkyDome was new back then, and the Jays were playing well, and the world was out to get me, that's why. (Over-exposure to baseball-related things as a kid made me hate the sport for many years. But enough of my bitterness, on with the comics!)

(Six interior pages and one cover under the cut.)

Half the comic is mostly that kid inserting bike safety lessons into the story, but I have kindly spared you, since we are all (I hope) above the age of six by now.

Hey! It's written by Dwayne McDuffie! I don't think I noticed that before. Anyways, there's this kid who's biking around downtown Toronto alone, remembering all his safe bicycling rules and wearing his helmet, when he decides to take a shortcut down an alley. Unfortunately for him, there's a villainous ex-con driver barrelling down that alley who accidentally hits the kid with his car. Being a Bad Guy, he takes off. Hit and run.

Fortunately for our little cyclist, a fellow on his motorcycle (who happens to be the kid's cousin) arrives on the scene and is able to get Phil (the kid) help, while silently swearing vengeance upon the evil hit and run driver. Yep, Danny Ketch has family in Toronto!

Heheheheheh. Anyways, Danny and Phil are now at Sick Kids' Hospital with Phil's parents. Peter Parker is in the hospital as well for some reason and accidentally bumps into Danny in the hallway, who sets off his Spidey-sense.

As Danny's leaving, he sees the driver in his car (said driver had been calling around to hospitals to see if the kid was all right, and was contemplating leaving a few bucks anonymously for his "hospital bills"--dude forgot his OHIP?). And so enters...

Oh, Ghost Rider! So, stuff happens here which I'm not scanning. Ghost Rider almost causes the driver, Ray, to crash his car, but Spidey slings his webs and saves him. Ray lies to Spider-man and says that it was Ghost Rider who hit the kid. Spider-man is skeptical, but decides to seek out Ghost Rider for a nice little chat. Meanwhile, Ray goes to a "seedy, underworld bar" and hires some thugs he knows from jail to protect him against Ghost Rider and to kill off the kid.

Spidey and Ghost Rider meet and have the usual "first we fight, then we become BEST FRIENDS!" scene...er, minus the best friends part.

Heh. I love the dig at the Toronto Sun. In the next page, Spider-man and Ghost Rider get separated as the kid's safely bicycling friends ride by.

I can't remember who, but I remember someone once saying that that is the best characterization of Ghost Rider they'd ever seen. I can't really say one way or the other, because this may be the only Ghost Rider comic I've ever read all the way through.

Anywho, I also wanted to let you guys know about the Toronto Comics Arts Festival that's happening this weekend in Toronto, if you're nearby.

They literally have a gazillion comics creators attending (seriously, just look at the guest list) and it's all free and happening at the Toronto Reference Library! Fun!

That is all.

(Post a new comment)

	mysteryfan 2009-05-07 07:44 pm UTC (link)
	With this as an introduction, no wonder you love comics! (Reply to this) (Thread)

parsimonia
2009-05-07 07:53 pm UTC (link)

Well, to be honest, I don't think I ever really read this when I first got it. Partly because, as I said, I hated anything to do with baseball. But I must have at least been looking at the pictures, because there's an ad for the Burger King Kids' Club in there, where I've filed out the application and I've written that I was age 6.

An issue of Bone is the first comic that I actually remember having and reading, but I plan to do a post on it at some point.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	mysteryfan 2009-05-07 08:06 pm UTC (link)
	Alright, I used that as a joke last time and you laughed. For me, I'm pretty sure my own six year-old self would have been more about writing my name on things inside the comic than reading this area-specific baseball team/Ghost Rider/Spider-man story. Note: I have read less than 25 whole Marvel comics ever and used to also hate baseball. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

parsimonia
2009-05-07 08:09 pm UTC (link)

Alright, I used that as a joke last time and you laughed.

HAHAHAHA oh no, I am getting unfunny in my old age!

For me, I'm pretty sure my own six year-old self would have been more about writing my name on things inside the comic than reading this area-specific baseball team/Ghost Rider/Spider-man story.

Yeah, true. And unlike today, I don't think I would have found it interesting or special that a comic was set in Toronto back then, either.

Note: I have read less than 25 whole Marvel comics ever and used to also hate baseball.

We are kindred spirits!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	hybrid2 2009-05-07 08:00 pm UTC (link)
	this is one of the first comic I ever read. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	parsimonia 2009-05-07 08:11 pm UTC (link)
	Heh, awesome. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	newnumber6 2009-05-08 03:22 am UTC (link)
	Hmmm, I had no idea Kathryn and Stuart Immonen were Canadian. That's another Canadian Connection for Runaways (since she's the next regular writer). If I wasn't both lazy and a social-phobe, I'd drop by and tell her (jokingly) not to screw it up. ;) (Reply to this)

	lookingforsigns 2009-05-08 08:43 am UTC (link)
	"Can't miss him. His head's on fire." You just don't get quality lines like that anymore. (Reply to this)

	tanetris 2009-05-08 01:48 pm UTC (link)
	Perhaps I'm just tired, but (Reply to this) (Thread)

	parsimonia 2009-05-09 12:20 am UTC (link)
	HAHAHAHA YES. It's especially fun given that he is not wearing a helmet. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

psychop_rex
2009-05-09 02:13 am UTC (link)

Well, yeah, but he's practically invincible - you whack the guy with an I-beam, he'll get up and dust himself off - and almost never crashes, given that he can RIDE UP WALLS. I somehow doubt that motorcycle safety is really his primary concern.
This kind of reminds me of an episode of Darkwing Duck, where Darkwing DIES (it turns out to be a dream, of course) as a result of not wearing a helmet while on his motorbike. I found this mildly preposterous, given that he is routinely shown absorbing insane amounts of damage Looney Tunes-style and surviving the experience. ("Clever of me to use my spine to break my fall like that!" he says after falling out of an airplane.) Any show where Toontown physics apply is probably not the appropriate venue to talk about bike safety.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	raisedbymoogles 2009-05-08 02:20 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, Ghost Rider. Never too busy to give the kiddies a thrill. (Reply to this)

raattgift
2009-05-29 04:40 pm UTC (link)

I know I'm late to the comment party on this, and I may have said it over on LJ before, but it still bugs me that the skyline is reproduced so faithfully on the credits page... but WHAT is Spider-Man swinging from?

The best I can come up with is that he's parasailing with the other end of the web stuck to something on the Gardiner Expressway westbound, except that would require improbably fast traffic, and it doesn't explain where he's aiming the next web. A seagull in for the surprise of its life, maybe?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	parsimonia 2009-05-29 04:44 pm UTC (link)
	HAHahahahaha, I have no idea. Perhaps the perspective is screwy and he's actually a lot closer to the ground. But you're right, from that view, he's probably closer to the lake. (Reply to this) (Parent)