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 presents a grab bag of items, including Day Early Comics, colorblind casting, comic characters in daily strips, day and date digital releases, and more.

Given the sheer number of announcements about reviving older characters that just keep coming I definitely could write yet another column on the subject--but don't worry, I won't.  I won't be commenting on the imminent return of Thundercats or Voltron and have absolutely nothing to say about the direct to DVD release of Kung Fu Magoo*.  I could probably fill at least half a column writing about how comic book publishers have started to acknowledge the pulp revival moment, though the 'pulp' in Marvel's upcoming Deadpook Pulp title is clearly a reference to pulp fiction paperbacks and not pulp magazines, seeing as how it's set in the 1950's.  But I won't do that either.

And given the interest in steampunk and the number of comic book publishers who wouldn't say no if they were handed a line of public domain characters I confess I began wondering "when is someone going to start reviving dime novel heroes?"  Well the first step might have come with the announcement that in the fall of 2011 we'll be seeing the release of Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention by Paul Guinan.  It's a coffee table tribute (and kind of companion to 2009's Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel) to Frank Reade, the original "steampunk" who in 1876 invented the steam powered robot.  I suppose it's only a matter of time until we see the Moonstone comic…

And now, on a series of completely unrelated notes:

I wish I could say this observation was mine but I heard it from Tad Cleveland last week at Super-Fly Comics & 'Games.  Basically when it comes to colorblind casting in Hollywood we can't pick and choose. If we're going to be 'cool' about Donald Glover (one of the stars of the NBC TV series Community who happens to be black) getting a chance to audition to play Peter Parker in the next Spider-Man movie it also means we have to be "cool" about non-Asian actors playing Asian roles (Prince of Persia, The Last Airbender).

For those of you who don't read The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip Sabretooth finally caught up with Wolverine and in an ending I wish they'd use in the comics they fought until they collapsed, exhausted.   Afterwards Spider-Man told each one privately that they had won the fight and we're told that off panel they had left Florida the best of pals.  Apparently Stan Lee has mistaken Wolverine and Sabretooth for Popeye and Bluto in those WWII cartoons where they were friends for the duration.  Coming soon (now, thanks to the movie, its graying readership has some idea who he is): Iron Man.

When it comes to the whole Early Delivery Survey Situation believe me, I know messing with the habits of our customers can be dangerous; when Comic Book Day gets pushed back a day there are customers who don't come in at all that week.  On the other hand I'm all for having the Diamond shipment arrive on a Tuesday for a Wednesday release, especially if it would eliminate (or at least curtail) Holiday delays and (especially) skip weeks which really hurt sales.

When it comes to the whole Marvel Simultaneous Digital and Print Releases I continue to cling to the (hopefully informed) opinion that this won't hurt our sales and has a better chance of attracting a new readership instead of stealing our customers.  At least at first anyway; when everybody has an Ipad that's liable to change…

As regular readers know I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Dragon Man and am happy to report he's continued to hang around the Baxter Building after Franklin Richards' birthday party.  And in Fantastic Four #579 six year old Valeria Richards proves that she is in fact smarter than her father by doing something that apparently never occurred to him; fixing Dragon Man so he isn't constantly going on rampages.

And, finally, for most of my life I've wanted a nickname but since somebody has to give you one that's never happened.  Well I'm 50 and have delayed gratification long enough; from now on all my good friends can call me "Blast" Bennett.  Cool logo, no?

* Well, except that I didn't believe it when I saw it amongst my Netflix listings and still didn't believe it when I saw copies in stories, but yeah, there actually is a direct to DVD feature called Kung Fu Magoo.  I love Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol as much as anyone but if ever there was a cartoon character who should voluntarily retire its Mr. Magoo.  But if the 1997 live action movie starring Leslie Nielson as Magoo (which still doesn't make any sense to me; was Danny Devito busy that day?) couldn't kill the franchise, nothing could.

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.