It's all fun & games until there's a Marvel Comics shoot (the wrasslin' kind).

Good Saturday to you AMOC regulars and guests! Only a few days left until (God willing) Manly Matt Dow returns from the pleasant climes of the South to reclaim what his.  

Here's a pic he sent to us assistant interim editors a couple days ago.

I believe that is Cape Canaveral in the distance. Click for bigger.

Hope our fearless leader, his wife, and the two Mouseketeers enjoy the rest of their trip. 

Yesterday Rolly sent me new T8 art from Dave. Here is that. 

You most definitely should click for bigger here.

Be sure to check back here often to get the word on when the TMNT 8 Remastered Kickstarter by Waverly Press, in cooperation with Aardvark-Vanaheim, will go live. Should happen in late winter/early spring 2023.

It's somewhat intimidating to man the blog. So, I am thankful to receive such tremendous support from Manly, as well as the rest of the regular contributors here. Eddie Khanna was kind enough to send the following article from the Kingston Whig-Standard from August 1980. 

Click for bigger.

That is an article written by none other than Gene Day. Reading the above, as well as the unsigned editorial inset on the same page, got me to asking some questions. 

What was the "caper" the editor(s) referred to?

Where did the thank you to Canada from Marvel Comics come from?

What was the comic FUN & GAMES about? 

So, that last question was easy to find online. From 1979 to 1980, Marvel published a monthly magazine which had all kinds of games and puzzles called FUN & GAMES MAGAZINE.  Since there were only 13 issues ever published. I was able to narrow down the issue that Gene Day and the editor(s) at the Whig-Standard were discussing to the following issue. 

FUN AND GAMES MAGAZINE #12 (AUGUST 1980)

I dug a little deeper. Performed a google search and found the following layout from this issue of FUN AND GAMES MAGAZINE. 

A thank you from the Marvel Comics Bullpen to the Dominion of Canada, from FUN AND GAMES MAGAZINE #12 (AUGUST 1980). 

So, I had hunch that the spread above, and the article from the Whig-Standard, were related to the Iran Hostage Crisis. The timeline seemed to match what was written in the newpaper article.  However, what I did not realize was that there was a rescue attempt done on behalf of the few diplomats who were able to flee from the American Embassy in Tehran while it was being overrun by students who were sympathetic to the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Those diplomats were able to flee to the Canadian Embassy and hide there for sometime before the CIA, with cooperation and assistance of the Canadian government, were able to extricate the diplomats from Iran and send them back home to United States. 

Hollywood did a big screen treatment of the CIA's involvement in what became known as "The Canada Caper." Ben Affleck was in it. 

So, not having seen the movie or having any familiarity with the history of the caper itself I asked Eddie about it. He relayed that he had no knowledge of it. That took me to faxing Dave today about what he knew and what account, if any, he thought told the history of the caper best. 

Fax one.

Fax two.

Sent Dave the materials you have seen already here. A couple hours later I received this considered response. 

Okay. That seems like enough moments to last thru what remains of the evening. Hobbs will be here tomorrow and I will man the helm for one more day after that, before (God willing) Manly returns.

Thank you for your time everybody.