The Judge

24 Season 8 - 6 PM - 7 PM

2010-01-31T18:49:00.000-08:00

...chirp, chirp, chirp...the following takes place between 6 PM and 7 PM.

Continuing in the long line of 24 stereotypes, America meet aggressive ball playin' black ghetto youth.

Dead bodies #10 and #11, Ital cop and wife, was there any doubt? And Sloppy Joe leaves cop right next to the window? Come on...

Those former Wire actors are everywhere on TV these days.

CTU is that easy to approach let alone find?

Another fairly padded episode, despite Jack getting captured and beat by a cop while anothers corps rots upstairs the information that needs to get to where it does gets there in just a nick of time. We can hope that dead body #11 is that of Freddy Prinze Jr but that would be silly and wishful thinking.

Chris Reeves SDCC Superman Mystery Solved

2010-01-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

Finally!

Back in July, I posted some mystery images good friend Mar-God took at the SDCC Toynami table of a mystery Superman statue featuring Christopher Reeves. There was no label or price and reps refused to divulge any information. Well today that all changed when Toynami officially released details on the upcoming addition to the Cinemaquette line. No pricing information as of yet, but we have to assume it'll be in the 200+ range...looks pretty nice and makes the DCD stuff look like lead in comparisson.

The world's first and greatest super-hero makes his debut in this newest edition in the Cinemaquette series, capturing the moment as the Man of Steel touches down to Earth. Constructed of polyurethane composite with realistic silicon skin, the SUPERMAN Cinemaquette's head is individually punched with real human hair.

Specifications:

Approximately 29 inches in height
Handsome display base inspired by Superman's Fortress of Solitude
Each certificate bears the endorsement of the Christopher Reeve estate, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, a charitable foundation dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research, and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.

Open for pre-orders in February / March.
Item expected to ship in April / May.

Limited in production to 1,000 units worldwide.

No pricing information as of yet, but we have to assume it'll be in the 200+ range, so start saving...looks pretty nice and makes the DCD stuff look like lead in comparisson. I think I prefer the look of the SDCC 'prototype' when comparing, but we'll see when we get closer to a release date and final product images are made available.

Pics and info Cinemaquette.com

24 Season 8 - 5 PM - 6 PM

2010-01-25T18:38:00.000-08:00

...chirp, chirp, chirp...the following takes place between 5 PM and 6 PM.

Confirmed, dead bodies #8 and #9 Torres and Johnson, the other passengers on the helicopter. The other agent has just sustained injuries.

Man, Katie Sackoff is the mayor of over acting city, her facial expressions and body language...argh. Please kill her off soon, there is no way I could put up with this for 24 episodes. I get that her character is a smug bitch but she's really overdoing it.

This new CTU is pretty crazy, check out the entrance to the interrogation room. Looks like left over sets from the first and third X-Men films.

Horrible reaction to someones wife getting shot in the leg on top of finding out one of your work buddies is a Russian or something.

Man, this hour really let me down pretty boring and not one fresh dead body...next episode better be carnage.

24 Season 8

2010-01-20T20:07:00.000-08:00

So, what started out as an interesting, even arguably innovative hour of television has turned into one of the worst shows on TV in my opinion. Bad acting, worse writing and a show that really should not have lived beyond it's (again arguably) ground breaking inaugural season.

Truth be told, I've only seen seasons one and seven in their entirety and watched about half of two and three before just giving up after losing so much interest I could barely stay awake during an episode. What struck me watching three and seven recently (blame unemployment) is how casually and the frequency at which people are killed off and murdered in any given episode. I even considered keeping count during season three, the last one I attempted to watch, however the first episode had an early scene where two truck loads of bodies were dumped, burned and buried on a Mexican hacienda's grounds...I'd never get an accurate count and as I said I was so bored, I think I somehow inspired the great song by Wavves.

So here we are, season fucking eight...how on Earth can this show still be on the air? How does Keiffer Sutherland simply not have better things to do with his time? Does anyone actually watch this crap and actually get into it and enjoy it for it's writing or taut story lines ripped from yesterdays headlines?

As I admitted, I was unemployed this summer and watched season seven in it's entirety, it was tough but I kind of got the whole action movie on one night a week appeal, but forchristsakes it's twenty four episodes long, and it's only 'interesting' for about four to six of those episodes right at the end, but I felt this need to just finish it no matter how bad, I really could not care less about how it ended, I felt obligated to collect the last Pog and then throw them all away just so I could say I did it.

So out of a combined need to discipline myself into posting regularly and having some fun critiquing bad TV minutia, I will attempt to offer some snide commentary as only the internet can provide as well as keep count of the bodies and paranoid CTU looks while we the audience are trying to figure out who the mole is this season.

So lets begin...chirp, chirp, chirp...the following takes place between 4 PM and 5 PM.

Man that former police chief/city councilman David Asaveda from the excellent FX series The Shield certainly must get better offers than this bit part, and he looks a little old for the CI role. Time for a new agent dude.

Can you really show someone smoking heroin or crack at 8PM?

Dead body #1 - Manny?/Maddy? - Shot in the head and found dead in the shower...we are 1:40 into the fucking show.

Dead body #2 - Mauricio, also shot in the head and found dead on the street - 2:04

We see retired grandpa Jack for the first time, babysitting Kim's kid. I'm always amazed at child actors that are this young, can remember lines and pretend strangers are their parents and relatives. She may be the best actor on the show.

Elisha Cuthbert...how were you ever a star? You can barely act and now that you are losing your looks what are you gonna do? This scene between her and her husband is fucking painful.

Hey, it's that crazy game show host guy from Slumdog Millionaire, still hamming it up.

The guy who plays Ethan is terrible.

The set design of the UN is impressive, lotsa nice mid century Scandinavian looking wood furniture. On the other hand, the NY CTU head quarters is just out of control and likely must have been responsible for most of the budget...seriously, when we first see the security entrance, it looked like something from Blade Runner or a Roche Bobois showroom. And whats with all the head sets? Those crazy computer set ups? Lame.

Man this reporter chick who's having the affair with the Pakistani president is weird looking.

I could never really get into BSG because of the bad acting and Starbuck here is still terrible with her pursed lips.

Freddy Prinze Jr. eh?

Oh Chloe...you and your frustrated Peppermint Patty face, why are you in New York anyway?

Someone not knowing who Jack Bauer is, nice touch.

Shameless Sprint promo #1

Dead Body #3 and #4 - a pair of NYC's finest.

Dead Body #5 and #6 - pair of thugs, one by fireman axe(!) and the other goes flying down the center of a winding staircase three to four floors hitting almost everything possible on the way down. Nice stunt and the highlight of this episode so far.

Splosion! Why people watch this show...they blew up a fucking helicopter for real on a roof top in NYC!

Dead body #7 - Victor (the CI). It also looks like the two other passengers of the helicopter and possibly another CTU agent, I'll clarify next episode.

Whew...no way I'll do 24 of these.

Cat Eyed Boy

2010-01-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

Cat Eyed Boy Volume One
Story and Art Kazuo Umezu
$24.99 USD/$29.99 CAN
544 pages
Released Jun. 17, 2008

Finally making my way through the first volume of Kazuo Umezu's wonderful Cat Eyed Boy after sitting on my shelf for well over a year. Man, this is really great stuff and although it cannot top the gonzo classic known as The Drifting Classroom it has the same oddness that makes Umezu's brand of horror so enjoyable. The best way to describe it for the uninitiated is if Tezuka had somehow found work at EC in the 1950's and like the best of the EC output, it's hard to imagine this was aimed at children, young children.

Originally released in serialized weekly form in the mid 1960's and Filled with creepy cool monsters and goblins, the 500 plus pages are made up of several short tales hosted a la Rod Serling by the Cat Eyed Boy, an exiled drifter who because of his appearance (and being a monster/goblin himself) is forced to steal food and squat in peoples homes. Because of his own supernatural origins (briefly shown in one tale) his very presence brings about bizarre circumstances to the poor folks whose attics he's shacking up in and what follows are morality stories with the usual twists and tales surely based on Japanese superstitions and folklore.

With an almost American underground style inspired by early manga artists like Tezuka that almost defies categorization, the art and story are uniquely Umezu and have this "I'm making it up as I go along and I really can't draw everything "charm. Definitely not essential reading, still loads of fun none the less. The book is a bit hampered by some bad reproduction work similar to the blurry reprints that often turn up in many of the Marvel Essential phonebooks, and like Buddah, the editors felt the need to contemporize some of the dialogue (maybe for younger readers?). I also would have loved an essay or some historical background on Umezu and this work in context of what was happening in the world of Japanese comics of the time, as even in this age of information overload, substantial writing on Umezu's work is kind of hard to find. Kudos to Viz's design team for some of the most handsome looking volumes the company has released and for not dividing the work into 10 smaller books.

I have to assume based on the friends that I tried in vain to loan this tome to that younger manga fans will likely be turned off by the antiquated art and simplistic stories. Fine with me, you keep reading your 60th volume of Naruto while I happily seek out Volume Two of Cat Eyed Boy. Recommended 4/5

1966 Cap Cap

2010-01-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

Just picked this up. Never thought I'd ever own any Captain Action pieces until much later in life due to prices and rarity plus you just never see them. Happened across this lot in a forum from a great seller and now Caps yer uncle. Not an original Captain Action body however, had to use my Tonto (sorry Mal) but as soon as I find another body, Kimosabe is back in the case. What can I say, fantastic piece. Love the thickness of the uniform and the condition it's in after all of these years is stunning. everything fits nicely and snugly. Dig that crazy laser pistol and sniper rifle! And the 'mask' captures that Kirby/Sinnot essence very nicely. One thing I did note is the Playing Mantis Cap bodies must have a slightly thicker waist than the original Ideal models, having some difficulty getting the belt to stay on. But this easily rockets to one of the top pieces in my collection.

Now bring on Superman, Baman and Spidey...kidding

UPDATE: Just realized the bitter irony of Captain America usurping Tonto in my display cabinet. We are working towards a peaceful and amicable solution for all parties involved.

SDCC - A Few of My Favourite Things

2009-08-10T11:31:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately for the 40th time in it's history, I again was not able to attend the 2009 San Diego Comic Con (one of these days!). Anyway my very good friend Mar-God was there and gave me permission to post some of my favourite images on this very blog...enjoy!

This first image is a mysterious Christopher Reeves Superman
figure/statue thingy he found sitting on the Toynami table, with a similar in quality and scale Bruce Lee figure (sorry, no photo) with no one at the booth available for comment at the time the pic was snapped and having read nothing elsewhere on any blogs reporting SDCC news, this one remains a real mystery...what is this exactly? Anyone out there know? Looks like it'll be a pricey number if and when it makes it to retail...beautiful, makes the Mattel one look a little silly.

Hot Toys does it again and 2010 may be the year I finally pop my HT cherry. First it was that amazing Thriller Michael Jackson and now these beauts! Wow, what an unexpected license to pick up. Really excited for these, I still have all my original toys from when the film was originally released and never thought I'd see the day when new Mars Attacks! merch would be released.

No, you are not dreaming, this is a Stormtrooper Shogun WarriorBut from what Mar-God gathered from speaking with one of the cool folks working the Super 7 booth, this toy has been a dream piece that has been many years in the making ( I definitely remember seeing images well over a year ago from a HK toy show), they've gone the extra mile to ensure that this Jumbo is as close as possible to the original releases, even going so far as to ensure that the plastic is of that same shampoo bottle quality of the ones we so fondly remember from our youth. The only downside to this is the price, the card on the right reads $280!But from the care involved, it'll be worth every cent.

More later!

Song of the Day - The Dream Academy - Life In a Northern Town

2009-07-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a really good live performance from a 1985 episode of SNL introduced by the lovely Teri Garr. Is it necessary to introduce them as 'from England'? Wow, how exotic and unusual!
What ever happened to these guys anyway?

I remember loving the artwork for the second album so much that I bought it on vinyl back in the day, but after that poof! This song is definitely one of my fond memories of the 80's and a rare 'one hit wonder' track from the era that still sounds GREAT today. I actually hate that term, there is no such thing in my opinion, any band labeled as such usually has another 'hit' single, usually right after the first one and in this case I fondly remember The Love Parade being played heavily on the radio even if it was for just a few weeks. My good friend even informed me a few weeks back that a New Country version is tearing up the charts and is his wife's current favorite song. She had no idea it was a cover.

Definitely ahead of their time, missing the later 80's and early 90's fascination with all things 60's by just a few years.

As is always the case, I'll likely look them up to find they're still active in some form and released an album last year.

UPDATE - Not the case but find out what the members of the band have been up to here
and here.

The Inflatable Bat-Man

2009-07-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

Unlicensed Inflatable Bat-Man - $1.50 USD

Found this lovely item for sale in the park for a mere buck and a half after talking the vendor down from the much too steep $2.00. Standing about 18'' high, this obvious bootleg looked much better than the Spidermans and Power Rangers that were also for sale along side Bat-Man here. Looking like he came free with a signed version of Chip Kidd's Bat-Manga, this unlicensed inflatable toy shows much more quality than is usually associated with these nefarious knock offs. I have to assume that this design has been around a long time, as most Chinese bootlegs are based off of Michael Keaton in the black leather 1989 Bat-suit and this is definitely inspired by the '66 100% pure West version, evidenced by the Bat symbol on his chest. I Love the off model Red cape, gloves and silver tights as well as the ruby red Zoltarish lips. I've also seen variation around town with solid baby blue from the waist down and a similar model with a slightly different face and a longer red cape. God bless quality piracy.

My Very First Pair of Slip Ons

2009-07-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

Vision Street Wear - El Vision - $28 USD

As a fan of cartooning, comic book art and Lucha Libre (especially involving hoods) it was a given that I HAD to own these. But having never owned a pair of slip ons before, I was a tad weary thinking I might buy them and never actually wear 'em. I collect lots of things, but when it comes to clothes, they are meant to be worn and used. Happy to say I don't regret the purchase at all wear them often and might even have to grab another pair for when these eventually wear out. Anyone have any idea when these were released?

COMIC ART NERD ALERT - Garcia Lopez/Nowlan Do Batman Confidential

2009-07-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

Sheer Quality, it really gets no better than this

Thanks to Todd Klein's post about these three issues over at his amazing blog, (do yourself a favour and check out some of his thoroughly researched comic book logo studies) I found out about this nice little run. While I'm not crazy about the story so far (confession: only read issue #26 at this writing) the art team is an 'old school' comic art lovers dream. Two incredible individual artists representing two bygone eras, pair to create some of the best comic pages you're likely to come across this year. Jose Louis Garcia Lopez draftsman extraordinaire, best known to fans my age as the DC control art guy who's designs from the early 1980's STILL turn up on licensed merch in 2009 and is famous for the wonderful card art on the beloved Kenner Super Powers line from the mid 80's. Kevin Nowlan, a fantastic penciller who made his mark in the late 80's as a fan fave cover artist, with memorable work on Dr. Strange and more recently as a reglar artist in the pages of Alan Moore's ABC line. The two have teamed as penciller/inker on a three issue arc of this series that focuses on the post Year One activities of The Dark Knight. What can I say, the art is spectacular with beautiful page layouts that remind us what truly great comic art is. Nowlan shows respect and restraint, not inking too heavy handedly with his distinct Batman scowl only showing up in a few panels and Garcia Lopez has not lost a step with no indication of his 61 years and over four decades in the industry. Sheer quality and I only wish that Mattel take a note from Hasbro and get these guys together to do some individual card artwork for their DC Universe Classics action figure line.

Spider Poll, Spider Poll

2009-07-07T19:28:00.001-07:00

Who is your favourite regular Spiderman artist of all time?(polls)

Digging the Destroyer

2009-07-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Destroyer #1-3

Story by: Robert Kirkman
Art by: Cory Walker
Colors by: Val Staples
Letters by: Rus Wooton
Covers by: Jason Pearson

Wow, I'm actually really enjoying this title. Kind of a throw back to one of my earliest guilty pleasures when I first started reading Undergrounds. Dark Horse used to publish a book called The Mask that eventually became a movie starring Jim Carrey, but the comic, for all it's silliness and slapstick humor was a dark and incredibly gory comic book full of wonderfully creative violence with meticulously detailed artwork, but most of all it was fun and I have to assume that The Mask comic must have been some sort of inspiration for Kirkman and co.

The Destroyer is likely most familiar to seasoned comic fans as either the weirdest and certainly most distinct looking Super Hero of the Golden Age or as the most popular war time creation of a writer by the name of Stan Lee, maybe you've heard of him.
The Destroyer made his premier in 1941 in a Timely title called Mystic Comics and from what I've read was a very popular character at the time and the most published character after Marvel's Golden Age heavy hitters (Cap, Subby, Torch and The Angel). The interesting twist with The Destroyer is that he, like Captain America he too owes his powers and abilities to the Super Soldier Serum but decided to fight behind enemy lines. He is also human, despite his goblin like head...it's a mask. And unlike most, if not all patriotic heroes of the time, no red, white or blue can be seen anywhere on his costume. This Marvel MAX series picks up in the present day with an elderly but still quite nimble to say the least Destroyer hell bent on taking out as many of his adversaries he can to protest his family when he's gone before his bum ticker gives out. Kirkman says he's envisioning the series as if The Destroyer title was never canceled and he had a nice long run with this mini being issues #700-705. As I said,it's alot of fun, but definitely a gore fest, with more ripped or punched off body parts and blood than you'll likely see in a regular mainstream title, check out the last few pages of issue three to see what I mean. The kills and violence are fun and creative (if that can be said) with a bit of unnecessary mean spirited dialogue that could have been trimmed, an example of this is after destroying a half naked female robot adversary by ripping off her head, Destroyer stands over her and punctuates the already gratuitous scene with an uncalled for 'Bitch'. I like the naturalistic dialogue but think it might have been a bit more interesting to have Keen's speak peppered with 40's slang and written phoenetically closer to the way Ben Grimm's dialogue has been delivered since the 1960's. The art is fantastic, clean but full of detail. Keen actually looks his age when out of costume. Nicely designed panels, costumes, vehicles and villains make this a book pleasureful page turner. Also of note is the the great coloring job by Val Staples. One small complaint are the computer generated sound effect fonts, they just look out of place here. This book definitely does not feel like a Marvel title, and maybe due to Kirkmans involvement seems like it would be a perfect fit at over at Image and having never read more than a handfull of both The Walking Dead and Invincible, I'm really pleased with this book and may have to go back and see what all the hub bub is with those two titles. I hope this book does well enough to merit another mini or better yet a monthly. So if you like fun comics with a healthy dose of over the top violence, blood, gore, stray teeth, eyeballs and torn off limbs you should give this title a try. 5/5 Highly Recommended.

Jesus...how can you not dig this?!?

Podcast Episode 1 - Summertime Rolls

2009-07-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

In this inaugural podcast, my very good friend Dan and I discuss the Summer movies so far starting with Watchmen...we know it came out in March but was really a summer movie at heart. We move on to Wolverine, Star Trek, Drag Me To Hell, Terminator:Salvation, The Taking of Pelham 123, Up, Year One, The Hangover, Public Enemies and more as well as some smaller films like Duplicity, Whatever Works and Moon.

Additionally we discuss the second season of the great AMC series Breaking Bad, with spoilers and briefly talk about practical effects vs CGI, video rentals, the films of Sam Mendes and Michael Mann, True Blood and Deadwood.

Technical note, we lost 15 minutes of recording while discussing whether Jesse Pinkman was a good person or not and why the junkie with the ATM in her apartment should play Janis Joplin if they ever get around to making that bio pic. Apologies.

Enjoy and hopefully this will be the first in a series. In the future we plan to do comic reviews, more film talk, professional wrestling and fast food...stay tuned!

2009-07-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

I was a bit late in finding out about these 70th Anniversary Specials. Through some creative mathematics combining the Timely and Atlas years, Marvel is celebrating a 70th birthday with all sorts of special product scheduled for release this year. Kudos for the artwork used for the headshots on the Anniversary logo, but with these Golden Age Specials planned they could have included at least one piece pf 40´s art.
Always a sucker for Golden Age characters and reprints (despite their always awful modern recolorings) I plunked down the cash and picked up all of them so far.

Human Torch Comics Special #1

Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Scott Wegener
Color Art: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Cover Art: Adi Granov
Variant Cover Art: Marcos Martin

Normally I like both of these cover artists, Martin even more than Granov, but I think it was a poor editorial choice to have either of these guys doing covers for this series of specials. Martin at least gets the sentiment, but the design is just a bit too flat, I understand what he´s going for but it just doesn´t really work in my opinion. Granov´s is a nice piece or work but again, he totally missed the point and it looks like a fairly generic cover that could have been used for any modern book. Hey it could be worse, at least Alex Ross was either not available or didn´t return their calls.
On to the Comic, the main story is a really good one. I have to be honest, I have no idea who Scott Snyder or Scott Wegener are and didn´t bother looking them up to find out. The Original Human Torch, Jim Hammond at the peak of his popularity, hero of the masses. One day he heads out to save the day sans his fleshy skin which is being repaired by his creator Phineas T. Horton and the good citizens turn against him thinking that he himself is some sort of monster. It´s an interesting parable of equality, racism and tolerance mixed in with some red scare paranoia and ends with the Human Torch finding love in the form of a Black woman who loves him for who he is on the inside. Like most of the new stories in these specials, a melancholy mood permeates throughout but I was satisfied and even slightly moved by the tale. The only problem is the art by Wegener, which is really not suited for this kind of story, another poor editorial choice. I tend to not like this sort of stylized comic art that the kids are into these days and it looks especially out of place in a story set in the late 30's. But at least the story was good. I didn't bother with the back up tales, the colors were just too garish and bright. I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 and recommend it only if you are a completist and plan to buy all of these Specials.

Captain America Comics Special #1

Writer: James Robinson
Penciller: Marcos Martin
Inker: Marcos Martin
Colourist: Javier Rodriguez
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Artist: Marcos Martin

Note to whom ever is working on the screenplay to Captain America: The Last Avenger, this might be a good place to start. I really nice retelling of Caps origin...well sorta, this is like the day or so between when puny Steve Rogers is refused entry into the Army due to his physical shortcomings and is then approached by the military to tale part in the Super Soldier program. On his way home from being rejected, Rogers encounters a Dying man in an alley who gives him an amulet that must be delivered to the Sinnot building (nice touch) but some Nazi agents have other ideas. What follows is a harrowing chase through 1940's New York that thanks to the always capable art of Marcos Martin just leaps off of the page, awarding the reader with some nice twists and thrills. The really nice part is this tale is framed with narration by a pistol toting Bucky, as he Cap and a plane full of troops prepare to embark on a dangerous mission attempting to thwart Hitler and his Sleepers project. All the while admiring Steve Rogers as a man for being a great American, Super Soldier Serum or not. Yeah it all sounds a bit sappy and patriotic, but it worked on me...and I'm Canadian. Robinson does a wonderful job capturing the essence of Captain America in 23 pages, paying homage to Simon and Kirby and adding a nice bit of Year One originality to the oft told origin. It solidified my love for the character and immediately made me go out and buy a few trades to catch up on the Brubaker/Epting run. Fantastic stuff, I just wish this Cap had a monthly book featuring this creative team. Fun back up story where Cap pitches and bats in a Baseball game, and yeah he wears the uniform over his Cap suit...classic. 5/5 and Highly Recommended.

Podcast coming soon

2009-07-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

I'll be posting a Podcast recorded yesterday between myself and very good friend Dan discussing the 2009Summer Movies as well as a good long talk about AMC's Breaking Bad. Also working on another this week featuring Comic Reviews, more TV talk, Wrestling and Burgers. Stay Tuned!

Hey!! Kids Comics

2009-05-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

Baby Huey #19, August 1959

Strange, when looking for cover art for this post on the GCD, I couldn't find it, they had another cover posted for issue 19 so not sure if this is their mistake or I have some weird Canadian edition. This issue is also missing an indicia so the only way I can date it is by an ad for Funday Funnies, a block of Harvey Toons set to air on ABC in October 11, 1959.
I've always had a thing for Baby Huey, something about his shape and the voice of the cartoon character I used to see in the mornings before school back in the days of syndicated cartoon blocks that stuck with me. Then in the 90's, there was a really well animated and very funny new animated series produced by some of the Spumco vets syndicated locally. But until now I've never read any of his comic stories. As a kid I stayed away from both Richie Rich and Archie comics gravitating more towards Super Hero books barring a few coverless issues every kid some how acquires as a young collector. Through the years while digging through quarter boxes I always found the uniform look, bright colors and designs of the Harvey stable of characters strangely appealing and became curious to pick up a couple after reading a Daniel Clowes story in Eightball that was an asthetic homage. I was definitely expecting more, the art in the three Baby Huey stories is pretty crisp but nothing special and reminded me of the lame Bugs Bunny comics Whitman published in the 80's. There a pretty poorly drawn Buzzy two pager and a Catnip tale with some good looking human characters but in all pretty average, rounded out with two text stories I skipped. All the stories are really tame and Code friendly and there were no chuckles to be had. The stories are all uncredited so I have no idea who drew anything and have no knowledge of any of the artists that were working on the funny animal titles at Harvey. Saw the second harmonica ad in a 10 center this week, was there a 50's harmonica craze I'm inaware of? I'll try some earlier issues if they can be had for cheap in hopes that the art might be a bit more interesting but this ain't Super Duck. Rating 2/5

Captain Easy #14, October 1948

Now this is a comic! Like many collectors I know, I'm a hoarder and definitely buy way more

comics than I will ever have time to read. My friend, whose cursed with the same problem and I used to joke that we were like Burgess Merediths' character from the Time Enough At Last episode of The Twilight Zone, saving all these books for the inevitable end of the world, luckily neither of us need glasses. Confession, I've never read Wash Tubbs before this issue even though I own at least two of the three issues of Big Fun Comics Magazine in a pile of comic sediment somewhere. Like Steve Canyon, I fell in love with the art bought some samples and planned to get around to it one day. I picked this issue up cheap off eBay and finally cracked it a few nights back after sorting through a pile of books. I'm no expert on the strip so I have no idea where these three stories lie in the greater body of work, I assume that Crane himself drew it but it could have been ghosted or drawn by assistant Leslie Turner.

I'll also assume that the strips have been ever so slightly cut and rearranged to look more like a comic book than a newspaper strip but for the most part they just look like they've been blown up a bit and colored.

Nice title pages have been added at the beginning of the chapters that are definitely drawn by another uncredited artist based on panels within the chapter.

Great title pages, but who drew them?

Some really, really wonderful art on display here and the use of tone paper or zip a tone in some panels add to some great dramatic moments in the story.

A fine example of some of the beautiful dramatic art.

In a nutshell Easy is asked by his boss J.P.McKee to head down to Crab Inlet solo to investigate some seemingly worthless marshland he's getting an offer on before he decides to sell. Turns out there's oil on the land and some locals try to keep Easy from getting the news back home. Along the way Easy meets up with the lovely Mattie Burns (a red head not a blond as depicted on the cover), who's grandma has some 'worthless' oil stock she's trying to sell. The locals leave a trail of bodies, killing anyone who tries to get the truth to the good Captain and do their best to try and kill Easy and Mattie by drowning (see dramatic cover) and burning them alive, twice! The main story is well paced and action packed and reminds us of how great newspaper strips used to be, it's no wonder the strip is so revered by historians and ran for over 60 years. Two humorous Wash Tubbs strips round out the issue and actually follow the continuity from the main story. I definitely want to read more of the Captains adventures. This series published by Standard ran only seven issues, and while I'll likely pick up the up coming fantagraphics collection I think I may prefer them in this format. Highly Recommended! Rating 5/5

*spinner rack image from CalamityJon's photostream

Song of the Day - Mazinkaiser OAV - end song

2009-05-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Passion of Tarantino

2009-05-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

According to a recent New York Times Magazine interview, Director Quintin Tarantino is currently writing a 20 page review in defense of Superman Returns, a film which polarized fanboys and average movie goers alike. Tarantino is quote "quite passionate and protective over" Bryan Singers reboot. Nice to hear as I am in the minority as a fan of the film. Sure there were things I didn´t like (I´ll save that for a future DVD review) but for the most part I was thrilled by the results and actually got goosebumps when the John Williams score began to play in that dark crowded theater back in 2006. For me Superman The Movie is my Star Wars, my comic book collecting was in it´s infancy but I was taking baby steps towards being a full blown fan boy. With Super Heroes consuming 100% of my thoughts, Superman The Movie was released and to say I was blown away by what I saw as a kid on that huge screen in 1979 would be an understatement, the film changed my life that day setting me on a course that has been a life long voyage into fantasy, fandom and four color dreams.

To me Superman The Movie is a masterpiece and still THE comic book super hero movie to top with only Spiderman 2 and The Dark Knight coming close to it´s accomplishment.

Superman Returns was a really fun and enjoyable film and being such a huge fan of the original film it was hard to find fault with it´s sentiment. And knowing of all of the proposed, botched and stalled attempts that preceded it we were all better off with Singer´s version. I hope Warner has the good sense to hire Singer back for the inevitable sequel because in any other hands I really fear the results. Looking forward to what QT has to say...

Song of the Day - Joy Zipper - Check Out My New Jesus

2009-05-13T06:29:00.000-07:00

Best.Cover.Ever - Flash Comics #1

2009-05-12T06:35:00.001-07:00

Flash Comics #1 January, 1940

Luckily growing up as a kid in the 70´s we had something called Famous First Editions, tabloid sized comics published by DC (Marvel never jumped on the bandwagon sadly) reprinting...well famous first appearances by DC´s biggest stars in all their crude golden age glory. But this was not ordinary reprint, this was a page for page facsimile complete with all the the content and ads, with the only modern interference being the cardboard cover with the $1.00 price tag. They even went so far as to have the interior cover printed on a slicker glossy stock with the pages all newsprint. And unlike the modern reprints they didn´t completely retouch and recolor the comic, it looked just as it had the year it was published. These look so good that I´ve even heard tale of some folk being swindled into buying these (sans the outer cover) as originals back in the 80´s! I could go on about how great these edition are but I´ll save that for another post, back tot he cover in question, it just screams action...The Flash is saving a girl...by catching a bullet in mid air and we´re witnessing it! And it appears as though he came along just in time, another nanosecond and it would have been lights out for the dame (one, Joan Williams).

Famous First Edition F-8

The cover art is credited to legend Sheldon ´Shelly´ Moldoff and it´s really ahead of it´s time when looking at other covers from the era (have a look at the cover for #2) the

figures are nicely proportioned and very well drawn. The Flash actually looks like a real person, compare this to the art seen on the covers for Superman #1, Whiz #1 or Batman #1 from around the same time and it´s hard not to see how much better a draftsman Moldoff was when compared to his piers.

I wish I could say the same for the interiors, read the lead story last night and a half of the Hawkman tale. Harry Lampert pencilled the Flash origin story, it definitely has it´s charms but with a cover like this selling the book, I´d have expected a bit more form the interiors.

Lamperts art actually reminds me quite a bit of Michael Kupperman (Tales To Thrizzle/Snake n´Bacon) and not to take anything away from Kupperman, I love his stuff but it has a very conscious stiffness that adds to the odd humour of his strips...in fact if I were an editor at DC I´d consider a new line of Famous First Editions reprinting key issues in their entirety except have current indie comic start redraw the interiors. Kupperman could do the Flash story, Paul Pope would be perfect for Hawkman, get Sammy Harkham on Johnny Thunder and Chris Ware could be the art director and re draw all of the ads!

One can dream...

Oh yeah, this beats the Alex Ross Overstreet (?) recreation hands down, I hate Alex Ross´art...there I said it.

Song of the Day - Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Down From Dover

2009-05-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

Puppy Power?

2009-05-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

Are you like me, do you sit up nights wondering who created one of the most hated cartoon creations of the 80´s Scrappy Doo? I read through Mark Evaniers four entries last week and just had to add a link (which is a link to the page with the fourth entry linking to the other three entries), scroll down a bit, definitely recommended reading and I hope he finishes it one of these days. And as a bonus another link from Mr. Evanier´s site to some tales of his days working on one of my favorite cartoons from a few years later, Marvel/Sunbows´ Dungeons & Dragons

I have no love for Scrappy, but don´t loathe him as much as the masses. I definitely watched the show (didn´t hurt that the first episode was set in the world of comic books), I had to share my Saturday mornings with siblings and one color TV. At that age a Cartoon was a cartoon even if I hated it, I´d watch pretty much anything animated (even produced by Filmation) besides it would be a few years before I got my own Black and White TV for my room.

I remember when the new Fall season would start it was a pretty big deal, it started with ads in the comics which were really exciting because there was no internet, this is how the networks reached the kids and then on the Friday before the network might even host a 30 minute preview show with clips from all of the new shows. What I also loved was the networks were considerate(?)enough to stagger the premiere dates (likely a ratings ploy and not always the case as the years went on) so a kid could check out the new shows each week before making commitments and missing any of the premiers. I was really no different back then and Super Heroes took priority over anything, and Fall 1979 was a good time for cartoons based on comic book Super Heroes.

CBS had Mighty Mouse, Tarzan/Batman (Loved that Tarzan and the Lone Ranger cartoon that was on either a few years before or after) and Freedom Force which I loved despite being produced by Filmation and starring no REAL comic book heroes unless you count ISIS which was only a comic tie in with the live action series from a few years before, but it had Sinbad, Hercules and Pegasus...close enough (I actually barely remember this cartoon from that time but saw it many years ago on VHS tape I rented from a local video store, except it was called Super 7, it was pretty bad). And a live action series called Jason of Star Command, again I barely remember it but I think Boomerang was airing it a few years ago late at night, saw a few minutes and it looked pretty awful.

NBC started their morning with The Bay City Rollers Show which I totally remember sitting through, I was a TV freak as a kid and would sometimes be up at 5:30 feverishly flipping for ´toons and would watch anything obviously. Super Globetrotters which were the Harlem Globetrotters as Super Heroes(!) there must have been something in the air and Super Hero cartoons must have been hot because I also remember a re imagining of the Three Stooges that was on Sundays where they were robot Super Heroes (!!). Fred and Barney also met The Thing...yes The Ever Lovin´Blue Eyed Thing from Yancy Street this was a disaster and the solo Thing cartoon from the next season where he was a teenager who changed into The Thing with a Thing Ring was almost as bad...what were these execs thinking? For a Filmation cartoon I have very fond memories of the Flash Gordon cartoon which was an homage to the old serials with each episode ending with a cliff hanger, it was pretty exciting from what I remember. I even recall NBC airing the entire series as a movie one Saturday night in my market (Detroit). Godzilla was also on NBC sched with a Scrappy like Godzookie as a sidekick/son. It was dreck but I tuned in every week. Finally after all that rubbish, a Jonny Quest rerun was welcome, even though the series was a little over 10 years old, it looked better than anything else on any network in those days.

ABC started the mornings with the beloved Challenge of the Super Friends which featured...real villains, from the comic books...what a novel idea. We all ate that on up and it´s usually the season most adults today remember. Plastic Man was another fave and he too would not be immune to the Scrappy curse adding Baby Plas the following season. Also Woozy Winks was replaced by a Hawaiian side kick, some guy called Hula Hula for some reason. The Plas show also featured some pretty weird Super Heroes created for Saturdays, Mighty Man and Yukk which was about a tiny Super Hero with a perm and his side kick a giant dog who was so ugly he wore a dog house on his head...I´m not making this up. I actually saw an episode on Boomerang a few years ago along with the forgotten Goldie Gold and it was interesting to say the least, I would love a few episodes on DVD just for parties, the WTF factor is pretty high. Another feature on the Plastic Man show was Fangface and you guessed it Baby Fang who had his own show a season before. Total Scooby Doo rip off made by the same folks but instead of a talking dog, one of the teens became a sorta Werewolf with a baby Werewolf sidekick...again not making this up. Finally of all Marvel characters to get a cartoon, Spider Woman was among the first a forgettable cartoon that has really faded into obscurity, I´d be surprised if even comic fans remember it...great costume though, hard to believe she´s still wearing it today.

Wow, the late 70´s early 80´s were certainly an interesting time for cartoon despite the usually shoddy quality. But for young comic book fans there sure was a lot to choose from. The worst part was most of these shows would disappear or get totally retooled after only one season, so it was hard to get attached. Within a few years I was more interested in riding my bike to the comic store on Saturday Mornings after getting my stipend for mowing the lawn and doing the dishes than wasting an entire morning in front of the tube watching piss poor cartoons. Oh well still some fond memories and at least we had Saturday Morning Cartoons, apparently they no longer exist.

For a great collection of comic book fall preview ads among other cool stuff head on over to Branded in the 80´s

Song of the Day - Deerhunter - Strange Lights

2009-05-11T05:40:00.000-07:00

Song of the day - M83 - Skin of the Night

2009-05-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

Best.Cover.Ever - U.S.A Comics #7

2009-05-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

U.S.A Comics #7, February 1943

It really don't get much better than this!

Seriously, look at that action, how could you as a kid (or adult for that matter) of the era no matter how tough times were not want to part with a hard earned dime for this comic?

U.S.A Comics issue number 7 has it all jerky:

Patriotic hero - check
Young side kick with guns a blazing - check
Parachute - check
Jap battleship - check
Jap/Yank dogfights
Explosions, bombs, torpedos, gun fire, blazing glory, kamikazes - double check!

All that and a whopping 68 pages! The cover is credited to Al Avison followed by a question mark according to the GDC, whom I'm a little embarrassed to say I've never heard of especially if he can produce works of art like this.

Looks a bit like Schomburg to me, perhaps they shared a studio or maybe a pseudonym?
USA ran only a paltry 17 issues before it's demise. Cap didn't even become the cover star until issue #6 preceded by a rotating cast of Cap wannabes like The Defender, Captain Terror (two covers), Major Liberty and The Victory Boys who looked like a gang of enthusiastic Bucky fans. I guess Timely seeing the success of Cap figured anything in Red, White and Blue battling the Axis would be a hit but despite major contributions from Simon and Kirby nothing stuck and to my knowledge none of these cover stars ever appeared again but I have yet to read the entire The Twelve series Marvel is currently (?) publishing so maybe some of these guys cameo as interior character Rockman figures heavily in the 12 issue series. Ironically non cover stars The Whizzer (love that costume) and Jack Frost would later be revived in the 70's as members of The Liberty Legion in Marvel Premiere #'s 29 and 30 (see a future instalment of Best.Cover.Ever). Love how this classy Cap logo is still featured on the Brubaker/Epting series of today.

Favourite Lois Lane Covers

2009-05-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was a kid I loved older Silver Age comics more than the modern stuff being published. I think this may have it's roots in The Great Superman Book and the DC Blue Ribbon Digests published in the 80's. As kids in my generation the big two often reprinted stories from the silver age as filler for many 80 and 100 Page Giants and regular reprint titles like Superman and Batman Family, Marvel Tales, Marvel's Greatest Comics and Marvel Triple Action (great title eh?).

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson are definitely perennial faves and occupy a good portion of my long boxes. I've always been a sucker for those Imaginary Tales that usually filled Action, Worlds Finest and Superman titles in the 60's and paved the way for the bizarre stories of the LL and JO books published simultaneously which usually weren't Imaginary Tales at all just oddball predicaments the two supporting characters would find themselves in that made for great covers. Even today when I attend conventions looking for low grade moderately priced issues to fill my collections the covers are the main selling point and make me feel 10 again, I usually can't wait to get home and find out how Lois became a Jungle Girl or Jimmy a Turtle Boy.

Today My focus is on great Lois covers (many thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database):

Lois Lane #29, November 1961

To this day nothing sets my heart a flutter more than covers like this. Aquaman, Batman and Green Arrow all appearing in the same issue and this ain't the JLA?!? Even as a youngster I was pretty sure that this scene would not amount to more than a few panels but this cover is just beautiful! Nothing more lovely than Swan with Kaye inks, just look at Lucy's face. Why on Earth would anyone want to read an Archie comic when National were churning out quality like this?

Lois Lane #21, November 196o

Like most normal comic fans, dopplegangers (especially with slight variations in costume), impostors and regular characters suddenly endowed with super powers are the stuff that make the most memorable covers, so imagine two ladies that happen to be rivals for the affections of one Kal-El endowed with powers in a catfight for a cover. Great simple super suits with great subdued tones on the lovely ladies complete with 'LL' logos emblazoned on their chests and capes. Who will win the love of Superman? Looks like Shaffenberger inked just the Lois face and Stan Kaye did the rest. The Superman figure is a bit weak but maybe it was intentional as to not take anything away from the impact of the Action in the foreground. As much as I hate the Adams covers that eventually would grace both Jimmy and Lois's titles (and just about every DC comic published for the next few years) in starting in 1967 (for Lois issue 79) and not that Adams is a bad artist (by no means), it just symbolised an end to the beloved era for me replacing the picture perfect art of Swan and Shaffenberger with ultra realistic figures just removed the magic from these great titles and is usually when I stop flipping and move on to another dealer when I'm at a Con. I'd actually like to see this dynamic scene rendered by Adams.

Finally this is all aboth the gams, I mean seriously check out Lois's legs! Beautiful rendering paired with a jungle loin cloth. Wonder what Crumb would make of this! Also notable is a rare depiction os Lois with unkept flowing hair making her look like a completely different character. I am officially turned on. Thank you Swan and Kaye!

Lois Lane #11, August 1959

They're all really great covers (except for the Adams ones lol) and if you have not had the pleasure to read a Lois Lane comic or story do yourself a favour and find a cheap 80 Page Giant and enjoy. Comics were never this much fun!

Sad, really...

2009-05-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, been almost a year since my last post...no excuse, lazyness, depression and a move to a new far off land. In case you are keeping score I did manage to complete the first season I have notes and will be revisiting TZ in the near future however don't have the TZ Companion with me so I will not be able to compare our notes. I hope to fill subsequant posts with the promised TZ mini reviews and thoughts as well as quick movie, TV, toy and comic book reviews etc.

...and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summet of his knowledge

2008-07-31T01:07:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of people, Rod Serling's Twilight Zone has left a life long impression on me. For as long as I can remember I 've loved the show, not even sure when I first saw it but it was definitely on Detroit's WXON TV 20 back in the late 70's early 80's. The show was an afternoon mainstay for what seemed like about a decade. Spending my summers in muggy Windsor, Ontario; Television was a highlight of our family vacations from Montreal where no VHF channels existed and all we kids had were the major network affiliates of the time. Saturdays were a smorgasbord of Cartoons but to catch any of the more unusual (i.e. 'old') shows, one had to be in front of the set at 6am and the only treasures to be had were The Bay City Rollers variety show or the Hair Bear Bunch. Sure the '66 Batman show was on in French(!) and the Gantray-Lawrence Spiderman cartoon was on every lunch hour with the Flintstones (and later Battle of the Planets)...shows we were allowed to watch in elementary on gigantic black and white public school televisions that where wheeled into the cafeteria every day. But I had no idea what was in store for me until that first fateful summer I came across TV 20 and the wonderous slew of vintage shows that aired for hours every day starting at 2pm and finishing around prime time when it switched to an ON TV pay television service (ours was scrambled, had to go to the neighbours to watch Heavy Metal), Ultraman, Gomer Pyle, Leave It To Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show, Johnny Sokko were all shows I was exposed to for the first time in those tender years and all remain absolute favourites till this day. I can honestly say my mind was completely blown back then and I remain a TV junkie to this day due to this exposure. While they all have left huge impressions on who I am and what my interests have developed into over the years, The Twilight Zone remains at the very top of the list; whether it scared the shit out of me, expanded my thinking or simply made me bust a gut laughing The Twilight Zone is without a doubt one of the finest hours or half hours to ever grace the television screen. Having recently purchased some of the definitive collections on DVD and slowly making my way through the first volume, I thought it might be fun to post some...er post episode commentary. While I am a huge fan of the series some episodes are fresher in my mind than others and some I have not screened in a number of years, you know how it is when you get over thirty and get stuck in a full time job...years feel like months and before you know it you haven't seen A Stop At Willoughby in almost ten years. And we all change and grow and what may have seemed insignificant the last time I watched may come across a a tad more profound, or at least have nicer camera work or composition than I remembered. Where episodes like The Big Tall Wish are as powerful as the first time I watched it and now I see how it may have in some small way inspired the boxing scenes in Scorcese's Raging Bull.
As usual, I always follow the viewing of an episode with a thumb through Marc Scott Zicree's Twilight Zone Companion, a tome sadly a lot thinner on substantial information about the actual episode than I remember ( I have my original 1992 edition)with more space devoted to a plot synopsis than insight. I also am finding his capsule critiques of the episodes way off from my own, hense the whole reason for this portion of the blog. So please come back every few days where I hope to make my way through season one in no order with some screen grabs and thoughts among other things...

Welcome

2008-07-31T01:05:00.001-07:00

I hope to make this interesting and worth a peek at least once a week...enjoy.