15-Labman Muses

#15 – Labman Muses [7/25/1996]

Rudy Coby — The Labman:

Rudy Coby who took the magic world by storm with his four-legged act and starred in two of his own TV specials for the FOX network has announced the release of his own comic book which will be published by Image Comics, one of the leaders in the industry.

The Comic which is titled “Rudy Coby’s Labman,” will feature the scientific super-hero he created for his live shows and TV appearances, that of a mad-scientist type which does good and triumphs over evil. As with all of Coby’s projects the key ingredient will be his off the wall humor.

The premiere issue is scheduled to be released the first week of November. It will be a monthly and will be available at all of your local comic book stores and newsstands worldwide. The first issue will be a large double sized issue which will give the inside story of how Rudy Coby, a mild mannered science teacher, turns into “Labman.” Rumor has it that it has something to do with an encounter with a four-legged chicken!

This will be a beautiful full-color comic which will be written by Rudy Coby, penciled and inked by Andy Suriano and colored by the computerized graphic designers at Image Comics. Coby promises many surprises for magicians, some characters and cameos will be magicians you know and recognize, these will be surprises even to the magicians themselves. In addition to the wild stories, issues will have scientific experiments you can try at home.

If this picks up, as it is expected to, expect the merchandising of Labman to be all over the place with toys, dolls, cards, magic and science sets, etc… Don’t be surprised to even see a Saturday morning children’s show starring Labman. This coming October Coby will be traveling all over the U.S. promoting Labman, expect to see him all over TV around Halloween.

What I am about to tell you is a secret, please don’t let it get around. The premier issue is guaranteed to be a collectible. It will be released with up to six different covers, each drawn by a very well known artist in the comic book industry. The only way you can guarantee, a first printing issue of Labman is to order it from your local comic book store now, otherwise you risk loosing out.

Angry and Hungry and. . . :

The G-R-Y riddle I mentioned in my last column caused quite a commotion. Several people did a search on their dictionary with no avail and James Foster did a search on the web. It turned out that there were quite a few people discussing it, I checked out some of those sites and felt that most of their answers were far fetched.

The best, most logical, answer I received was from P. C. Swanson it’s the one I am leaning toward being correct. After giving up on the riddle he called Richard Lederer, a well known author and an English language guru. Lederer pointed him to his 1994 book “Adventures of a Verbivore.” On pages 39-40 of that book is a transcript of a “Jim Bohannon Show,” a radio interview Lederer appeared on. One of the callers tried to stump Lederer with the “gry” riddle. Here is Lederer’s response:

“Thank you for asking that, sir. You have given me a wonderful opportunity to perform a great service to the American people because what you are quoting is one of the most outrageous linguistic hoaxes in this country.

“The answer is that there is no answer, at least no satisfactory answer. May I advise anybody who happens on the “angry plus hungry plus what?” poser, which slithered onto the American scene around 1975, to stop wasting time and to move on to a more productive activity, like counting the number of angels on the head of a pin or searching for a way to write the sentence ‘There are three twos (to’s, too’s) in the English language.’

“There are at least fifty -gry words in addition to angry and hungry, and every one of them is either a variant spelling, as in augry for augury, begry for beggary, and bewgry for buggery, or ridiculously obscure, as in anhungry, an obsolete synonym for hungry; aggry, a kind of variegated glass bead much in use in the Gold Coast of West Africa; puggry, a Hindu scarf wrapped around the helmet or hat and trailing down the back to keep the hot sun off one’s neck; or gry, a medieval unit of measurement equaling one-tenth of a line.”

Lederer also mentions a similar riddle which does have an answer, I will leave it here for you to ponder. “Name a common word, besides tremendous, stupendous, and horrendous that ends in ‘-dous’.” Next column will have all the possible answers. If you can’t wait, his book is available at your local book store.

www.uelectric.com/meiryedid:

Well, my website continues to be updated and reengineered. Since the last column, I added six more categories. One page called “One Of A Kind” features books props and tricks which I only have a single copy of. The items will be sold on a first come first served basis and the page will be updated regularly. Other pages include: latest releases, collectibles, videos, etc… hope you plan to visit.

[To visit my magic catalog/mall click on the photo to the left.]

Pit Stops:

Here is where I will be. Come by and say hi.
• July 29 – Performing at The Udder Club @ Holy Cow, New York City.
• August 1 – Performing a dealer show for I.B.M. Ring 113 in Lindhurst, New Jersey.
• August 10-12 – Performing at Tannen’s Magic Camp, Long Island, New York.
• August 19 – Performing at The Udder Club @ Holy Cow, New York City.