Saturday, February 14th, 1976

We didn't get a paper again today.

I called Terry with determination not to change my plans to suit his and I didn't. I went ahead and saw GOODBYE, BRUCE LEE by myself! Got the free poster and saw a Tae Kwon Do demonstration live on stage. The film itself, on the other hand, was another rip-off.

The most redeeming feature of the day was that, besides getting all the new books including HOWARD THE DUCK # 3, I also finally finished my CAPTAIN AMERICA collection by shelling out two bucks for Steranko's # 113. But seeing as how I haven't seen it anywhere at any price during all the months I've searched for it, I guess it was worth it. So CA is now the first extensive (not counting DOCTOR STRANGE) collection I've finished! Yay! FF or Spidey should be next. Also got an interesting issue of VAMPIRELLA--first I've even looked at in a year or two--in which all the individual stories tie together and revolve around "The Thing in Denny Colt's Grave!" I'm in THE SPIRIT of things again! Ah-hah!

NOTES: As previously mentioned, the movie GOODBYE BRUCE LEE was just one of many martial arts films of the seventies that ripped off what was then known of the plot of Bruce Lee's last, unfinished movie, GAME OF DEATH. All anyone knew was that Bruce's character wore a cool jumpsuit and had to fight his way to the top of a pagoda where different martial arts experts guarded each floor...including super-tall US basketball player (and one of Bruce's students) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem appears here in brief interview footage only. Turns out Bruce had shot more footage than most folks knew and many years later AMC managed to piece together what's probably a close approximation to what Bruce had wanted using the actual scenes shot. It aired as part of a documentary on Bruce Lee.

The free poster, by the way, was also a rip-off--a badly printed black and white version of the film poster picture on green paper.

I loved my CAPTAIN AMERICA collection and once took key issues in to work at Waldenbooks to display for a comics-related promotion we were doing. As with most of my other comics, I had to sell 90 percent of the collection within the past decade. Sigh. Marvel put out a DVD-rom set with hundreds of issues a few years back, however so I have tons of "virtual" copies.

You'll note there was no mention at all of it being Valentine's Day. Not a "holiday" I particularly relished. I loved it in grade school when all the kids had to get for all the other kids and you got nifty cartoon character valentines and candy and decorated bags. But when it got to the point where folks actually gave valentines to people they wanted to...I never received one.