John Stanley Library: Melvin Monster v. 3
Written & Illustrated by John Stanley
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

Drawn & Quarterly brings readers another collection of John Stanley’s terrific Melvin Monster comics, originally published in the late 1960s. Melvin’s a young monster, living with his Baddy and Mummy in Monsterville, and he just doesn’t fit it. He’s very polite and wants to go to school – which makes him a very poor monster!

This third hardcover collects the final three issues of Melvin, and though the formula has become more obvious than ever (the increasing number of short gags suggest Stanley was running out of twists on his longer narratives), Stanley’s strong cartooning and sturdy scripting keep the series engaging and fun.

While it’s definitely a book for children, fans of quality cartooning will find plenty of reasons to appreciate Stanley’s terrific work. He’s able to move readers’ eyes confidently through pages, and his quirky, iconic character designs capture the core essence of each character so immediately that little dialogue is needed to enforce their personality.

Drawn & Quarterly, working with designer Seth, continue to knock it out of the park in the design and assembly of the Stanley Library tomes. Sturdy hardcovers, sewn bindings, flat solid pages – you can actually give these comics to their target audience! I’m almost disappointed to get to the end of Melvin Monster; it’s been a relentless fun, terrifically clever series. If you have kids, get all three books. If you don’t, you still owe it to yourself see why Stanley’s considered a master (I’d recommend the second book if you get only one – that’s where I felt Stanley’s voice felt strongest and freshest on this particular series).

Comic book and television writer Jake Black beat cancer a few years ago but has yet to defeat his staggering $25,000 medical bills. Read on to see how you can help.

Black co-wrote a story with Supergirl herself, Helen Slater, in the big #50 aniversary issue last year. He’s also written for Ben 10: Alien Force, Chaotic and did the episode “The Knights of Tomorrow” for Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Black also wrote the documentary, ”Supergirl: Last Daughter of Krypton.” which was featured on both the Smallville Season 7 and Superman/Batman: Apocolypse DVDs.

The writer is using GiveForward.com, a fundraising website, to collect the funds he and his family desperately need. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma back in 2008 and so far has raised just under $4,000 of his $25,000 goal to pay off his medical expenses from treatment. The fundraising will continue through July 12, 2011, his birthday.

To urge folks on, Black is also doing weekly prize giveaways to some of the people who donate. This week the prize is a copy of the Supergirl anniversary issue.

The comic will go to the person who makes the highest donation between 12:01 AM mountain time April 25, 2011 and 11:59 PM mountain time on Saturday the 30th. Winners must post a comment that includes a #Supergirl hashtag, and include their name as the donor. In the event that their is more than one donor with the highest amount, the first donor to contribute that amount and include the required name and hasthag will be the winner.

Make your donation here.

As is public knowledge at this point, principal photography on The Avengers movie is officially underway, and with that comes an official press release from Marvel Studios that confirms what has long been suspected: Tom Hiddleston is reprising his Thor role as Loki for the 2012 summer film. In the comics, Loki played a vital role in the initial formation of the Avengers, though how closely the movie will follow the original 1963 storyline remains to be seen.

Also returning from Thor is Stellan Skarsgård, playing Professor Erik Selvig. The full press release follows after the jump.

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No, not the ones your wear on your face, the kind you drink out of. Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. Last week I did a special extended edition of the column to celebrate the Season 6 premiere of Doctor Who and emptied your wallets in the process. I’ll try to go a little easier on this week. Sort of. Not really. There’s been lots of neat promotional glasses through the years (the Star Wars Burger King ones come to mind) but I’ve found some really cool, handmade geek glassware on Etsy I think you’d enjoy drinking your favorite beverage out of.

No matter which seat you sit in on the bridge, I’ve got a Star Trek Wine Glass for you. For $60 user ImpulsiveCreativity will give you a set of handpainted glasses. You’re choice of either these wine glasses shown or red or white wine, martini, champagne, pilsner, stemless, shot, tumbler or juice glasses. Also check out this Frosted Trekkie hiball glass from user JackGlass for something more subdued, $17.99.

What orc, troll or tauren wouldn’t want to drink out of a World of WarCraft Horde Mug? The famous political symbol from the MMORPG is etched on the 20 oz. glass by user harleyquinn86, $15.

Sure, they weren’t made to be geeky but these Vintage Zombie Glasses would be perfect for your Walking Dead premiere party this fall, don’t you think? Especially if you serve, as user beautifulandhorrible suggests, actual zombie drink recipes in them. The set of 5 for $45.

What could be more appropriate than this Iron Man Tumbler? If it had Tony Stark passed out on the other side perhaps? Either way, user aradiadiane says, “You can show your love for Iron Man by using one of these 16 oz. glasses instead of drinking straight from the bottle.” $15

Such a cool idea! A set of 4 Piranha Plant Short Champagne Glasses. User CrossP has handpainted this set for $35 and promises they don’t bite. S/he also has several other Mario themed glasses. Another favorite of mine? The Mario Mega, Bee, Boo, and Mini Mushroom Glasses for $55.

As always, bear in mind, since Etsy is a craft website and not a commercial, mass-market dealer, items are almost always one-of-a-kind or in very limited availability. When you see something you like, buy it. It may not be there the next time you surf round. (Yes, it’s a very dangerous site for your wallet.) Also, since most items are created individually, many sellers are willing to customize something specifically to suit your needs. Just ask!

I feel somewhat conflicted by Blog@’s image-importing ability being felled by e-goblins for weeks now (For the record, we can still put up images, but not in a way that would do any favors for my already questionable drawings; controlling the sizes is a dicey proposition). On the one hand, I like having cartoons at the top of these columns to differentiate them from all the other columns about new releases each week and because it spared me writing any kind of introduction and because it gave me a legitimate reason to Google Image search, say, Godzilla or Jack Kirby Thor drawings for an hour and then scribble on index cards for an afternoon.

On the other hand, just writing a column and not illustrating it as well is so goddam easy, and it leaves me with plenty of free time to pursue my hobbies—like Google Image searching Godzilla and Jack Kirby Thor drawings and then scribbling away an afternoon.

Anyway! Here are some things that you should be able to find at your comic shop this week, things that look like they might be good, or might be bad or that I might just want to talk about…

Action Comics #900: To celebrate the 900th issue of the longest-running serial comic book, DC comics has called in…a bunch of dudes from outside of comics? Okay, I’m just being a jerk—television and prose writer Paul Cornell, director Richard Donner, TV producer Damon Lindelof and screenwriter David Goyer all have comics work on their resumes, ranging from Donner’s co-scripting of a few Superman arcs with Geoff Johns and  Lindelof’s single miniseries Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk to Cornell’s current run on Action and Goyer’s run on JSA.

They’re all among the many creators contributing to this $6, just shy of 100-pages anniverarys issue. The main event is Cornell and artist Pete Woods’ conclusion to their Lex Luthor-starring story arc that’s been running through the book while Superman’s been…unavailable, a story also containing art by Dan Jurgens, Rags Morales, Ardian Syaf, Jamal Igle and Gary Frank. The book will also feature work from Ryan Sook, Miguel Sepulveda, RB Silva, Geoff Johns, Paul Dini and Brian Stelfreeze. Regardless of the source, that’s a lot of talent for a single purchase.

DC breaks down who’s doing what here and shows off a few pages here.

Brightest Day #24: It’s a big week for big DC books. This double-sized, $5 issue is the conclusion of the biweekly, year-long series that spun out of Blackest Night. As someone who read the first 23 issues with interest, I’m hoping we get a satisfying conclusion, but the existence of a miniseries titled Brightest Day Aftermath and concerning itself with a major plot point not introduced until the twenty-third issue doesn’t give me a lot of hope. The publisher’s other biweekly, year-long series Justice League: Generation Lost, which shipped on the weeks Brightest Day didn’t, also sees release this week (wait, how did that happen?), in another 48-page, $5 special.

Bulletproof Coffin: I haven’t heard a single bad thing about David Hine and Shaky Kane’s miniseries from anyone who’s read it and talked about it yet, so I’m assuming it’s pretty good. Trade-waiters like myself can find out this week, when the $18, 200-page collection arrives in comics shops.

Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth: Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell’s eagerly-awaited image-filled, $50, 330-page hardcover biography of the highly influential and greatly admired artist will focus on Toth’s life through the early 1960s, while a second volume will pick up from there. This is no dobut going to be at the top of a lot of comics fans’ shopping lists this week.
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If Rich Johnston is to be believed, DC is planning a new Justice League International series to spin out of this week’s finale to Justice League: Generation Lost. If true, it’s a move that makes a lot of sense; Generation Lost has cemented the characters into a unit after some years of them being in the wilderness – Since, what, Extreme Justice? Excepting I Can’t Believe It’s Not Justice League, I guess – and I’ve always wondered why Teen Titans and Justice Society became franchises while Justice League has remained relatively untouched since the JLA/JLA/Extreme Justice era that predated Grant Morrison’s revamp of the series, especially in the light of Marvel’s massively successful Avengers expansion. But Johnston also says “it’s not the only exciting Justice League book I hear has been scheduled,” which leads me to wonder… Is Brightest Day also leading up to a new Justice League book? (more…)

Don’t want to wait until Thursday to find out who the writer of Marvel’s Marvel Universe MMORPG is? The official announcement will be broadcast live from an event in San Francisco starting 5:30pm Pacific on the 28th, but regular listeners of John Siuntres’ Word Balloon podcast might already have learned the identity of the writer. In the most recent episode, Brian Michael Bendis said that he was working on a videogame project that he couldn’t talk about ahead of an announcement being made around April 28th. The timing might just be a coincidence, but… Well, that seems pretty unlikely, wouldn’t you agree? Only two days until we find out for sure, though…

In case you hadn’t heard, filming of The Avengers got underway this week, and Entertainment Weekly checks in with the first photo from the set.

Okay, so, it’s not Hulk vs. Thor, but it’s fun nonetheless. Gang, THIS. IS. HAPPENING. Even with all of the comic-related films of the last 20 years, I’m still mildly surprised to consider that this is on its way.

As it has been since things got rolling, plot details remain under wraps, though the article does note shooting plans for New Mexico, Cleveland, and NYC. Tell us, assemblage: what would you like to see when the Avengers hit the screen?

Some of you are probably already aware I have an (un)healthy obsession with Batman. If you don’t, read this, it will become abundantly clear. Regardless, I’ll pretty much take any excuse to celebrate Batman so when I heard today was “Batman Day” I decided I needed to do a little research.

Most people claim today is “Batman Day” because it supposedly marks his very first appearance in comics. But not everyone is in agreement on that. (more…)

In his weekly “Talk To The Hat” interview at Comic Book Resources, Tom Brevoort spilled some beans about Avengers projects that never were, including this one:

The third one I can remember — and at least two different people pitched this at two different times — was an idea that never got as far as an official title, but it was essentially “Black Avengers.” It was “Let’s put all the African or African-American heroes together on a team for an adventure,” and in those cases too, there was nothing about the idea beyond “It’s a bunch of super heroes together” that said “Avengers” beyond the fact that “Avengers” is a term that’s salable. I think there’s something very specific about what “Avengers” means to the Marvel Universe. They’re the varsity. They’re the A-list. They’re the Man. They’re not about being super heroes because of demographics or ethnicity. They stand for something specific and occupy a certain role. If you don’t have some degree of that, then it doesn’t feel like Avengers.

Firstly, way to accidentally mix “We passed on a Black Avengers book twice” with “The Avengers are the Man.” Secondly, I can’t work out whether “Black Avengers” is a terrible idea, or a great one. It depends on the creative team and the story, I guess; I admit that I’d at least be curious enough to pick up the first issue if Priest were writing it (I wonder if one of the “two different times” the idea was pitched was the book that became Priest’s The Crew? Am I misremembering that he was upset that forces within Marvel thought it was “a black book” despite only one of the leads being black?). Is this just liberal white guilt talking, or is there actually something weirdly racist about “Black Avengers” as a concept for a series?

Take a look at this beautiful painting:

It’s not just a lovely portrait of Petey Otterloop from Richard Thomspon’s Cul de Sac; it’s also the first publicly-released work from Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson in 16 years. The famously reclusive creator has broken his creative silence to contribute this oil painting to the “Team Cul de Sac” fundraiser to benefit Parkinson’s research (Thompson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2009); it’d be too much to hope that this means more of Watterson’s recent work may be released to the public, but that isn’t stopping me from crossing my fingers…

“Robin in the Rye”: Andrew Lorenei has Robin perform scenes from J.D. Salinger’s most-read novel. Nice Penguin cameo. Check out Lorenei’s archives while you’re there; lots of good stuff. (Via Comics Cavern)

“So you tell me… is the following image OK for a 12-year-old?”: At Eye on Comics, Don MacPherson notes a weird panel from a recent issue of Thunderbolts, and points out that Marvel rated the comics okay for ages 12 and over. It often seems to me that folks at DC and Marvel spent a lot of time coming up with their ratings systems, appy them to some books once, and then never, ever thnk about them again.

Lois Lanes are fun to draw: So says super cartoonists Kate Beaton at the bottom of this series of Lois vs. Superman strips. I don’t know about drawing them, but Lois Lanes are certainly fun to look at, at least when Beaton’s drawing them. I hope someone at DC is already on the phone trying ot get a hole of Beaton to offer her a sack of money to do a Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane revival special.

“We’ve been well received. We’re told there’s nothing quite like it in the city”: That’s Drawn & Quarterly publisher Chris Oliveros in this Montreal Gazette feature on the D+Q  brick-and-mortar bookstore.

“I never would have imagined that the American popularity of anime would have given birth to such an involved, complex and constructive culture”: I really enjoyed this column on Sakura-Con by Timothy Siegel of Forbes. It’s kind of charming in its outsider speaking to an audience of outsiders tone, but ir really sounds like Siegel went from knowing nothing about any of this goldanged anime stuff to being completely won over by it. I wonder if he’ll be cosplaying at the next Sakura-Con?

Please enjoy some Easter leftovers: Yet Another Comics Blog shares a Walt Kelly-drawn Easter cover, Polite Dissent continues its Peeps cosplaying super-teams tradition, Sunday Comics Debt looks at an older B.C. Easter tradition (Wait, if the comic is literally set Before Christ, then how can they acknowledge a holiday founded on the death of Christ…?), Todd Klein tells us about his easter egg coloring, Ty Templeton presents some rabbit-on-rabbit violence and shares a picture of Superman hanging out with a Joker-creepy Easter bunny, Law and the Multiverse examines a few legal issues regarding the Easter rabbit and Daryl Cagle rounds up some Easter-themed political cartoons.

Want to help out a creator in need? Then listen up — legendary artist Gene Colan was hospitalized early Thursday morning, and he’s selling some books and artwork!

Details on the creator’s illness are sketchy, but Cliff Meth reports on his blog that the creator has had “a radiology procedure … to stop internal bleeding.” Meth has said that Colan is feeling optimistic, but is also in pain.

So how can you help? At the link above, you can purchase a number of signed books and even some artwork from the legendary creator, including signed editions of the Essential Iron Man and Daredevil books, as well as a full-color recreation of Iron Man #1 by Colan himself! So what are you waiting for? Dive in, and help a pro!

[Image via The Hero Initiative]

No doubt all you loyal Blog@ readers have lately been saying to yourselves, where’s Mike been with his untimely, semi-coherent reviews? My apologies for the absence – somehow the three non-comics that I’d requested from the library, despite all having seemingly different wait times until I’d get my copy to read, all came in within five days of one another (and right on the back of a brief comics break I’d taken to read another prose novel). I know, what are the odds? Murphy’s Law says pretty damn high.

So if you’re curious, E.L. Doctorow’s The March is quite good. Not quite essential, but worth your time if you come across it. Waylon Jennings and Lenny Kaye’s Waylon and Keith Richard’s Life are both enjoyable, despite a few awkward digressions and some later chapter rambling. Michael Lewis’s Moneyball (yeah, I’m late to the party, so what?!) is simply superb, even if you’re not a baseball fan. Though its snotty afterword didn’t really help its case.

So, anyway, I’m back to comics. Let’s get to it:

Modern Masters v. 25: Jeff Smith
Edited by Eric Nolen-Weathington
Published by TwoMorrows

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Alexander Joseph Luthor is a self-made man. His father was an abusive alcoholic who often took out his anger on young Lex and his sister Lena. Unlike his father who had trouble holding down a job, Lex was cunning, with a natural talent for manipulation and a scientific mind years ahead of his age. Lex felt stifled by those around him, angry that they were unable to keep up with his science or understand his desperate desire to leave Smallville and be part of a larger world. Only Clark Kent, a boy who was a few years younger, seemed to ever understand Lex and occasionally offer him any kind of friendship.

After arranging for his father to die, he used the man’s life insurance policy to leave Smallville and travel. Luthor’s life led him to many vile teachers. He studied under the centuries old terrorist Ra’s al Ghul, the same man who would become one of the Batman’s arch-enemies. For a time, he worked under Bruno Manheim, the mobster in charge of Intergang. Briefly, Lex worked on the planet Apokolips, studying the advanced technology of the New Gods before attempting to kill his “master”, the demonic and nearly-immortal Darkseid. After being thrown off of Apokolips and returned to Earth, the alien technology he copied, added with his own ingenious inventions, gave Lex a small fortune and he began a company in Metropolis that would become LexCorp.

As an adult, Lex was hailed as one of the richest men in the world and the most powerful man in Metropolis. And then “the alien” came. Superman’s appearance caused people to be inspired by someone else. What’s worse, Superman disrupted many of Luthor’s criminal operations and refused to be threatened, defeated or bought off. Envy and hatred mixed in Luthor and he convinced himself that he needed to destroy the Last Son of Krypton, that people needed to be inspired by a self-made man whose greatest power was his intellect and that hero-worshiping an alien actually hindered human progress. Over the years, he’s dedicated many operations to try and destroy Superman, while also making sure to acquire greater power by any means necessary.

For a time, Luthor served as the President of the United States. But newspaper articles by Clark Kent and Lois Lane proved to the world that he was a criminal not to be trusted and a hostile takeover by Wayne Enterprises took away much of his fortune and influence. After attempts to win back public trust, Luthor dropped the facade and now openly operates as a would-be world conqueror. Whether he’s fighting superheroes directly with his high-tech “warsuit” or whether he’s manipulating people and events from behind the scenes, Lex Luthor is one of the most dangerous people alive.

So that’s the basics. Here are the different styles he’s employed over the years. As usual, we’re sticking with mainstream DC Comics continuity for the most part here. No Earth-3, Anti-Matter Earth, Elseworlds or “imaginary stories.” Those can get their own theme columns later.

GOLDEN AGE LUTHOR

When our villain first appeared in Action Comics #23 in April, 1940, he called himself simply “Luthor” but whether this was his first name or last was not revealed. He was clearly a brilliant man, adept at manipulating people on a large scale and also at creating incredibly advanced technology. In this first adventure, his initial goal was to manipulate major countries of the world to war with each other and then pick up the pieces. Since World War II had just started, this didn’t seem like too far out an idea, making our boy much scarier.

When they first met, Superman found Luthor dressed in robes and seated on a throne, surrounded by loyal followers and agents. This definitely let us know his intentions, while also associating him with the image of someone who commands a cult or secret society. It’s simple but effective. Luthor wasn’t married to one outfit, though. He quickly ditched the robes and strutted about in a purple jumpsuit. (more…)

Most kids would be apprehensive about moving to upstate New York, but Victoria Thompson is at home with the weird, the different — and isn’t even afraid to make friends with creatures of the night. What sets apart the heroine of Matthew Dow Smith’s (Doctor Who, Witchblade) new Kickstarter novel, NIGHT FOLK, is that she’s all about the spooky and unusual.

Which suits Smith’s work just fine. Known for his moody, almost geometric artwork, Smith is shifting gears with this dark fantasy prose project, adding a comic book flair to each chapter with striking illustrations. Who are the Night Folk, and how does the spooky-savvy Victoria deal with them? With just seven days to go on Smith’s Kickstarter project, we caught up with the writer to tell us more about his work.

Newsarama: Matt, just to start off with, can you tell us a little bit about the premise of NIGHT FOLK, as well as touching upon the tone of your novel a bit?

Matthew Dow Smith: NIGHT FOLK is the story of Victoria, a young girl who’s always felt like an outsider. She doesn’t have many friends her own age, but she’s more than happy to spend all her time in her room, reading or drawing monsters in her notebooks. She’s always been drawn to the dark and unusual – scary stories, old Horror movies, that sort of thing – and one night, while she’s drawing the spooky tree next door, she sees something in one of the branches. When she sneaks out to investigate, she finds herself drawn into the world of the Night Folk, a race of strange creatures who inspired all our myths of monsters and ghouls.

It’s a fantasy story with a magical kingdom, strange monsters, and a lost little girl, but it’s all filtered through my sensibilities, so there are lots of shadows, mysterious strangers, and random glowing stuff, all the things I love to write about and draw.

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It’s pretty much required to precede the name “Neal Adams” with a term like “the legendary,” and for good reason: the artist had a huge hand in defining the visuals of DC characters like Batman and Green Arrow in the 1970s. Though his Marvel work was less extensive, he did illustrate crucial stores including Avengers #93-#96 — part of the classic “Kree-Skrull War” storyline.

Adams, whose 13-issue Batman: Odyssey for DC Comics saw release of issue #6 in February, is returning to the Avengers with New Avengers #16.1, as announced by Brian Michael Bendis on his Twitter account earlier today. With new Avengers #11 out earlier this month, that puts #16.1 at somewhere around — September? Yup, stay tuned to Newsarama for more details.

I admit it; it’s probably schadenfreude that makes me love this excerpt of conversation with the producers of Spider-Man: Turn off The Dark, Michael Cohl and Jerermiah Harris. While the show has been kicked around in the press and online since long before previews first opened, both producers had developed a tendency to keep quiet about the trouble behind the scenes… until now, it seems. Here are some of the highlights.

Cohl on whether the budget for the show is now up to $70 million as rumored:

We’ve always talked about $65 [million]. We’ve never talked about 70. Today we call it 65 plus plus. We’re not going to talk about the number anymore.

Cohl on whether rumors are true that Arachne, Julie Taymor’s creation, will be less important in rewrites:

Fewer lines and spots in the show, yes. But maybe it will be a more important role, because this time it’s going to work.

Harris on whether Taymor resisted feedback or suggested changes:

We’re not going to comment on it. We’re still in settlement negotiations.

Cohl on whether the show will hurt their reputation:

It might. It’s a matter of the respect of those whose opinions I care about. Most will recognize that Jere and I stepped in dog poo and are trying to clean it up and pull off a miracle. We might not.

It’s like a wonderful bitchfest that suggests just how badly things were going behind the scenes. I just wish the full conversation surfaces online at some point.

Rich Johnston is reporting over at Bleeding Cool that John Constantine is going to be brought back into the DC Universe, a la Swamp Thing’s re-emergence as the last-minute McGuffin in Brightest Day. Apparently, Constantine will “be appearing as a major character in upcoming DC Universe titles, post Flashpoint,” although Johnston adds that “I don’t know where. I don’t know when. I don’t know how” he will appear.

Firstly, this can’t come as a massive surprise to everyone paying attention: Not only has Swamp Thing made the jump back to the DCU, but Hellblazer writer Peter Milligan is writing the Flashpoint: Secret Seven mini-series, which stars Shade the Changing Man, who most recently has been appearing regularly in the pages of… Hellblazer. I admit to cynically expecting a least a Constantine cameo in Secret Seven since Swamp Thing’s Brightest Day appearance was revealed, and I doubt I was alone in that.

Secondly, Rich doesn’t know where or when Constantine will become a major character in upcoming DC Universe titles? Really?

That figure at the front could definitely be a guy in a trenchcoat, if you ask me, and if any DC character would be skeptical of Swamp Thing, surely it’d be Constantine…

New season, old story for the DC Bullets in the 2011 season opener. On a cold, blustering afternoon, the top of the first inning, always a thorn in the comic book makers’ sides, got the better of the team again, as the Bullets fell behind early and couldn’t rally back to make up the difference in a 6-5 loss against The Nation.

The Nation came out aggressive against DC’s pitcher Jeff Boison, driving a series of hard line singles over the infield to take a quick lead. DC had a chance to minimize the damage to one run when Mike Lorah fumbled a routine grounder at third base with two outs registered. Four successive hits followed, and the Nation tallied five runs for the early lead.

In the bottom of the first, second baseman Brian Walters flared a single into right field, but the momentum quickly turned when shortstop Nel Yomtov scorched one of the hardest hit balls of the evening – right to The Nation’s third baseman. Brian, moving on contact, was easily doubled off first base. Mike, looking to make up for his error, launched a solo home run into right center field to get the Bullets on the board, but right centerfielder Vince Letterio flew out to left, ending the first.

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