Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett looks at the new Doctor Who costume, Phoenix in the U.S., MST3K, and Lockjaw.

Every Doctor has a distinct sartorial style, and when the next Doctor's was recently revealed (see "Doctor Who Revealed"), the internet was prepared to pass judgment.  There were haters of course, while others such as myself automatically "took the mick" (meaning to tease, mock, or ridicule).  I suggested that it was "a bit too Godspell" while others saw it as more of an homage to Steve Urkel or Mork from Ork.  Clearly, the eyes of a lot of people gravitated towards her braces (that being British for suspenders).

History, of course, will be the final judge of whether her wardrobe will be considered a hit or a miss, but until then we might want to take under advisement a Radio Times story, "Survey reveals what fans think of all new Doctor Who."  According to it, “a poll of more than 19,000 RadioTimes.com readers revealed that 73% of them thought the new outfit... was a right treat."

As I often say, sometimes it seems like people are producing comics exclusively for me.  So it’s only appropriate for me to say a sincere thanks for a couple of comics I never expected to see.  For instance The Phoenix, an all-age/all-gender British comic weekly I’ve repeatedly written about over the years.  As I wrote back in 2015 (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Weekly Comics in Review"), for a couple of years you could get a digital subscription to it via the iTunes store, but with only a brief announcement that came to an end.  Given its quality and concentrated kid appeal, I thought that comiXology would soon pick up where iTunes had left off, but years went by and the only proof that it still existed came in the form of a series of trade paperback collections of some of its features.  Among these were Neil Cameron’s wonderful Mega Robo Bros., Bunny Vs. Monkey by Jamie Smart, creator of the very dark and very odd Slave Labor Graphics title Bear, and, finally, Evil Emperor Penguin by Laura Ellen Anderson, which I reviewed for ICv2 ("Review: 'Emperor Penguin' TP").

I had pretty much given up all hope of ever being able to read another issue of it when I saw this headline on the Publisher’s Weekly site, "Scholastic to Publish 'Phoenix' Comic."  As much as I love it, I generally think of it as being a niche interest comic, so I was gratified to see the story being picked up by sites like The Hollywood Reporter, Bleeding Cool. Comics Beat and, yes, ICv2 ("Kids Comics Roundup: It’s Old But It’s Good").  According to the piece, there will be print trade paperback collections twice a year and all previous individual issues of The Phoenix will be available for digital download on comiXology, as well as new issues on a weekly basis.  The current issue is #300, the last one I read was #193, so, I’ve got some catching up to do.

With absolutely no effort I can lose track of massive chunks of time, which is how I had no idea Thanksgiving was next week until I started seeing ads for the Macy's Parade on TV.  Which means, as the headline of the piece on AV Club indicates, "Exclusive: 'MST3K' Turkey Day streams again with Joel Hodgson, Felicia Day, and Jonah Ray."  As it points out, 2017 has definitely been quite a year for the franchise, what with the success of MST3K: The Return on Netflix, which was, well, something I couldn’t even have imagined possibly happening a few years ago.  On the other hand, Netflix still hasn't renewed it for a second season, there’s still no sign of the licensed Dark Horse comic, and the only significant bit of new merchandise that’s been released has been Funko Pop! figures of Tom and Crow.  Still, mustn't grumble, and be thankful for what we have.  If it wasn’t for the marathon I might end up stuck watching The National Dog Show; how that ever became an annual Turkey Day tradition surpasses all understanding.

Finally, as someone who has written so often about Lockjaw in the past, I’m certainly thankful for the announcement of the four-issue Lockjaw miniseries coming in February (see "Marvel Plans 'Lockjaw'").  I realize there’s precious little chance of it ever becoming a regular series in our current market, but back in the 50s both DC Comics (Rex the Wonder Dog) and Marvel Comics (Blaze the Wonder Collie) regularly published comics about heroic dogs.  So, why not now?  I’ll concede the idea of the heroic dog might seem a tad hokey to contemporary audiences (I mean, it has been quite a while since anyone’s tried a revival of Lassie) but who better to modernize the concept than Lockjaw?  Imagine the appeal of a giant dog that would suddenly appear to protect and comfort those who needed him most, then whisk them off to a fantastic adventure anywhere in the universe.  Maybe I’m crazy, but that sure sounds like a Disney/Marvel animated feature to me.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.