39¢ Heroes

November 30, 2005 12:10 PM

39¢ Heroes. On January 8, the price of a First Class US Postage Stamp will creep up another two cents. But fear not, True Believers, because 20 of those new stamps will feature costumed crusaders from DC Comics "including Superman, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, Batman, Green Arrow and many more." (Newsarama has more on the story, including the featured cover images for each hero.)
posted by grabbingsand (33 comments total)

I'm sticking with my Muppet stamps, thanks. Miss Piggy can karate chop Wonder Woman's ass any day of the week.
posted by Rothko at 12:21 PM on November 30, 2005

Hey, Carmine Infantino on a postage stamp! Cool!
posted by interrobang at 12:22 PM on November 30, 2005

They should make it 40 cents, then raise it a nickel every three years or so. Stupid pennies.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:23 PM on November 30, 2005

Figures that when it came time for Aquaman to get a stamp, they'd pick the one with him being extremely constipated.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:28 PM on November 30, 2005

This makes me think of the 39¢ Hamburger Stand in Altoona, PA. Anyone else remember that place? They had pierogies, too.
posted by Gator at 12:28 PM on November 30, 2005

The entire postal system is a joke. It's a nationwide system for inefficently delivering paper to recycling mills. I wonder how many barrels of oil the USPS burns every year, delivering all those sales flyers to my door, whereupon I then have it all trucked away again to the recycling center. Oh well, at least the stamps are colorful!
posted by Triode at 12:34 PM on November 30, 2005

Could be worse - in the space of less than 2 years Canada went from 47, to 48, to 49 then 50 cents. Or maybe we skipped one of those - regardless, I have a number of recently puchased but still insufficient stamps around my desk. Damn pennies indeed. I would have preferred a jump straight to 50 cents, but I suppose the bulk mailers would have been less happy about it.
posted by GuyZero at 12:34 PM on November 30, 2005

Plastic Man?
posted by lumpenprole at 12:40 PM on November 30, 2005

Awww, but I only want to use my Buckminster Fuller stamps.
posted by lunalaguna at 12:41 PM on November 30, 2005

and again, for effect: Plastic Man?
posted by poppo at 12:42 PM on November 30, 2005

We Canucks had some Canadian superhero stamps a few years ago, which also included Superman, since one of the co-creators was born in Toronto.
posted by teg at 12:49 PM on November 30, 2005

You have a beef with Plastic Man? You Elongated Man partisans have some seriously bad taste in stretchy DC heroes.

Me, I'm surprised that they'd put a leftist agitator like the Green Arrow on a stamp.
posted by COBRA! at 12:50 PM on November 30, 2005

and again, for effect: Plastic Man?

Oh, haven't you heard? King Art Spiegelman (He who cannot be criticized) has issued a Holy Decree that Plastic Man was actually one of the most important comic heroes of all time.
posted by interrobang at 12:51 PM on November 30, 2005

About the USPS annual fuel consumption: I found my answer - the USPS uses 93.6 million gallons of gas, and 3.4 million gallons of diesel. [pdf] A rough conversion from gal to barrels, figuring 19.5 gal/bbl post-refining, comes out to about 4.8 million for the gasoline. Without conversion figures for the diesel, I'll just round up to about 5 million bbl of oil per year.
posted by Triode at 12:51 PM on November 30, 2005

Where's the Brother Power stamp?
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 12:52 PM on November 30, 2005

If they're going to put comic book characters on stamps, they could at least include Fathom.
posted by rocket88 at 1:05 PM on November 30, 2005

Jeepers, Wally! 39 cents? You can nearly buy FOUR comic books for that! (sorry, flashback)
posted by keswick at 1:10 PM on November 30, 2005

Triangle man hates Plastic Man
posted by kirkaracha at 1:10 PM on November 30, 2005

We Canucks had some Canadian superhero stamps a few years ago,

Captain Canuck? I'm sorry, but that's just sad. You should have used Alpha Flight.
posted by doctor_negative at 1:10 PM on November 30, 2005

Or, Wolverine, bub.
posted by keswick at 1:13 PM on November 30, 2005

We Canucks had some Canadian superhero stamps a few years ago...

From the link: "Fleur de Lys carries a non-lethal weapon shaped like a Fleur de Lys that protects her by producing bright flashes of light."

Oh. My. God. I guess she fights these kinds of bad guys.
posted by GuyZero at 1:20 PM on November 30, 2005

I want sheets of these stamps, for framing. How would a Canadian go about getting them?
posted by Kickstart70 at 1:23 PM on November 30, 2005

Guardian pretty much was a newer version of Captain Canuck, or so I always thought. They should have a really big stamp & put Sasquatch on it, yeah.

Or maybe a Yummy Fur stamp?
posted by stinkycheese at 1:29 PM on November 30, 2005

From teg's link: Captain Canuck emphasized realism, had a complex plot, an all-Canadian content, and contained little violence...another hero without superpowers, he used his strong patriotism to fight the bad guys.

Hee hee. I used to have some of these comics, and come to think of it, it was largely people talking, as I recall. Sounds about right for all-Canadian content.
posted by stinkycheese at 1:33 PM on November 30, 2005

What, market-whores Marvel won't license their heroes to the USPS? Sheesh.

I mean, come on. Captain America would make the best stamp ever. Captain America! And Nick Fury too. And where the hell's a Sgt. Rock stamp, anyhow?

Superman's an ALIEN, facryinoutloud!
posted by zoogleplex at 1:34 PM on November 30, 2005

Guardian was in Alpha Flight, in case that wasn't clear.
posted by stinkycheese at 1:34 PM on November 30, 2005

Major Mapleleaf. Inspired by Jean Chretien?
posted by stinkycheese at 1:38 PM on November 30, 2005

Other interesting data:
All new rates and fees, effictive 8 January 06
History of Postage rates in the United States: 3¢ from 1863 to 1958.
posted by whatzit at 1:48 PM on November 30, 2005

>>> King Art Spiegelman (He who cannot be criticized) has issued a Holy Decree....

I've been wondering if Jack Cole & Plastic Man was actually worthy of the hype.
posted by grabbingsand at 2:57 PM on November 30, 2005

GuyZero:Or maybe we skipped one of those - regardless, I have a number of recently puchased but still insufficient stamps around my desk.

It's worth noting that CanadaPost considers anything within 3 cents of the required postage to be sufficient. So go ahead and use those recent stamps. They'd *like* you to add 1 or 2 cent stamps to them and send them with the full amount, but they don't actually do anything if you don't, they just deliver your mail as expected.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:59 PM on November 30, 2005

Why is the bucket on his head?

Because we're blind to their tyranny!

Shouldn't it be on your head?

Move along, lady.
posted by papakwanz at 3:40 PM on November 30, 2005

Whenever people complain about the price of a stamp, I pose them this question:

How far could you get your letter if you delivered it yourself?

I'd like to see somebody get it from LA to NYC on 39 cents worth of gas.

...of course, few people actually send letters through the Postal Service anymore, but you know what I mean.
posted by Target Practice at 5:31 PM on November 30, 2005

This isn't nearly as cool as the new custom-made stamps you can get...


posted by insomnia_lj at 8:15 PM on November 30, 2005