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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 12, 2023 22:46:18 GMT -5
RE: JLA/Avengers. Those stories had negotiated plots; you can do this with , say, Wonder Man, but no one can beat Superman and the same with Spider-Man and some others. The big guns were not allowed to be part of the fan voting, in DC vs Marvel and the crossovers had to have approval from the editors on both sides. That is what killed the original JLA/Avengers and the other projects that were in the pipeline behind it (X-Men/Legion); Jim Shooter kept shooting things down, after initially approving the plot; but, the work was being done by a DC crew (Gerry Conway & George Perez), as part of the rotation in these projects. It seemed like Shooter had personal issues with Conway, as he kept throwing roadblocks into things, until Perez had to move on, because nothing was happening. It soured him on working for Marvel, until after Shooter was pushed out. I sometimes wonder if Shooter was messing with Conway as a payback for Conway's short tenure as EIC, or something, though I can't recall if Shooter was working for Marvel full time or not.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 12, 2023 22:39:32 GMT -5
At least they didn't sell their love to Mephisto. Maybe Satannish? I think he only offers time shares.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 12, 2023 22:34:11 GMT -5
There is some definite Captain Marvel in there, as he traversed time and space, via the Rock of Eternity. I would ad there is also some of EE Smith's Skylark Duquesne, one of the earliest space opera heroes, who builds his own rocketship. Some Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, as well. Basically, that early space opera hero, but with a non-linear method of travel, to match the rest of the series. The art design is very much that pulp sci-fi/space opera style of the late 20s and 30s. I think the name is probably more of a nod to Flash and Buck.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 23:02:14 GMT -5
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 22:05:56 GMT -5
ps The first couple of seasons are great; after that, it gets kind of silly. Once they let him sing, they were in trouble.
Also, moustache = awful; space probe or Bigfoot = awesome!
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 22:03:58 GMT -5
Just watched an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man for the first time in...probably 35 years at least! I loved this show as a kid, but it turns out it's utter tosh! Obviously, sah, ya'll is sufferin' from some form of optical mallady...eye problem, that is. The Six, I say the Bionic Man is pure de-light and an exemplary display of sartorial splendor...... Tha likes of which you would find in only the finest of homes...... I bid you good day, sah!
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 21:55:20 GMT -5
I've seen it reported on Facebook, by his son, that Ian Gibson has passed away. One of the mainstays of 2000 AD, I know Gibson best for his work with Alan Moore on The Ballad of Halo Jones. Gibson had been battling cancer and reportedly went in to hospice a few days ago. That's a shame; really enjoyed his work on Halo Jones and also on Mister Miracle, for DC.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 21:53:23 GMT -5
So I watched Bambi this weekend. I was looking for a film from 1942 to watch and it was the only one that was readily available on the streaming platforms I have (without paying extra). And I didn't want to have to try to find the remote for the blue-ray player. I haven't seen this one in a very very long time. I know that we did have it on VHS when my boys were little, but it wasn't a favorite of theirs. It's a gorgeous film. And it's interesting in that there are a ton of differences between it and the other Disney films surrounding it. There are no humans in the movie. "Man" is always off-scene and is definitely the villain of the movie. It's also the only Disney animated film until Tarzan where none of the songs are sung within the film, but only in the background. While it's not in pantomime, there are only about 1000 words spoken in the entire movie. I was also not aware that Bambi's father's antlers were rotoscoped on to the film because they were too hard to animate properly. The movie was a box-office failure when it was released. Not because of anything intrinsically wrong with the movie, but because World War II cut the number of screens available (it wasn't released in Japan until the mid 50s). That release in Japan led to a major shift in both the manga industry and the developing anime, in the form of Osamu Tezuka, who was greatly inspired by the expressiveness of Bambi's eyes which he then used in his own work, for heroic characters. His work became massively popular and everyone began to imitating it, leading to what modern manga readers believe is traditional manga styling, rather than Tezuka's idiosyncratic stylings.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 21:47:38 GMT -5
I was today years old when I discovered that Dana Andrews and Steve Forrest were brothers. George Sanders and Tom Conway, too. Conway took over the role of the detective, The Falcon, from Sanders, making him the earlier version of Gallagher II. Also James Arness and Peter Graves.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 21:44:25 GMT -5
Either that or the Bowery Boys will save the Invaders or something. It would have been the East Side Kids at that point. The transition to the Bowery Boys happened in 1946. Time travel. Maybe Kang and the Grandmaster have a rematch.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 21:40:32 GMT -5
I wonder which one of those villains was evil enough to put that apostrophe in the wrong place. Probably Kull! He is very bad! Or R'as Ras R'as... That Al Ghul guy! You mean Roz Algol? She's not evil; just misunderstood.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 21:39:31 GMT -5
So this is a gallery belonging to... How tough is it to notice a misplaced apostrophe?You mean aside from the fact that the people doing the proofreading were usually 20-something wannabe writers or editors, who were quite probably stoned? It was the 70s.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 11:26:03 GMT -5
I think many people never bothered to investigate the character and just assumed he was a pale imitation of the Punisher. As a result,those who didn't like the Punisher didn't bother to read it, and those who did like the Punisher either didn't read it because they were already reading the Punisher, or did and quickly abandoned it on learning the Vigilante wasn't a conscienceless mass murderer like their hero and the book didn't have the gun porn they like to geek out over. And who imitated whom? The first issue of the first Punisher mini (where the character as we know him today was really defined) came out in December 1985. The first issue of Vigilante is dated November 1983. Upon its release, readers really thought "Oh, a clone of the Punisher!"? Then there would be the interesting question of why the Punisher succeeded (editorially) where Vigilante failed. Well, if you want to go down that route, they both are imitations of pulp and crime vigilantes, like Mack Bolan, from the Executioner paperback series and Paul Kersey, from the Death Wish novel and film series. You can take those back to pulp characters, like The Spider, and then back to the Victorian Era, with gunfighter characters, like Doc Holliday and Billy the Kid, in Dime Novels, or the Penny Dreadfuls of the UK, or characters like Fantomas and The Count of Monte Cristo, in France.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 10, 2023 22:56:48 GMT -5
Invaders #30The Nazis have themselves a revolving restaurant! Creative Team: Don Glut-writer, Alan Kupperburg & Frank Springer-art, Jim Novak-letters, George Roussos-colors, Roy Thomas-editor Synopsis: After a bit of recap, we get back to Der Fliegentod attacking London, with the Invaders reacting to falling buildings and then smashing their way inside the thing.... and unleash some seriously amateurish looking action upon the Nazis.... "Oh, Frank Robbins' art is hideous; why can't we get someone else on the book?" "Frank Robbins is too rubbery-looking?" "I can't stand the art." Be careful what you wish for, True Believers! The Two-Tonic Knight (so-called because of how many gins he has every half hour) sends some more goosesteppers to get their butts handed to them, then, when that doesn't work, holds a gun to the head of Dr Barrow, the inventor of the engine that drives the weapon. He makes them stand down, while gloating that he is about to kill Churchill and Gen Montgomery, who is in town for a secret meeting. Go ahead....might save a lot of lives and then maybe they will put Brian Horrocks in charge. He reveals that Boaron Strucker's Blitz Squad is in the village to try to assassinate Winston and Monty. Oh, well, no worries there, then. It's back to punching and kicking and Cap whomps the 4,000 pound Knight on the head, with his shield and Dr Barrow tries to pull them out of a dive. Spitfire and Human Torch try to create and updraft vortex, to reduce their rate of descent, while Namor tries to stop their momentum. It works, they land safely and the Two-Tone-ic Ska Knight is arrested by Captain Mainwairing and Cpl Jones. The Invaders then go after Strucker and his band of German stereotypes who look like these guys..... ...but with machine guns! They have little trouble in rounding up the morons and this issue mercifully ends. Thoughts: Ugh! Someone has been reading Jack Higgins (The Eagle Has Landed), but never got past the copy on the back cover. Skip this and watch the movie, where you are asked to buy Michael Caine as a German fallschirmjager officer and Robert Duvall as an Abwehr colonel. Not to mention Donald Sutherland as an Irishman. Still a pretty good movie, despite that. Next issue, we are told that the Invaders will meet Frankenstein and Roy even brings up Abbott and Costello. Roy has apparently given up on this book. I suppose next they will introduce Shirley Temple as some sort of secret weapon......she makes the Nazis choke on their own vomit when she starts singing sugary songs or something. Either that or the Bowery Boys will save the Invaders or something.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 10, 2023 21:45:07 GMT -5
November & December 1993The X-Books hadn't even finished the Fatal Attractions storyline when Bloodties began. Ostensibly, this was a crossover event to celebrate the 30th Anniversaries of both the X-Men and Avengers (Marvel was big on anniversaries in 1993), but I suspect it was an effort by Avengers writer, and X-Books overlord, Bob Harras, to raise the level of the Avengers to the same status as the X-Men at least in the eyes of Marvel readership. Harras had been trying to write the Avengers like an X-book for quite some time now, and now was his chance to get more eyeballs on it. Miraculously, Avengers West Coast made it to issue #100. Marvel celebrated by killing off Mockingbird. But don't worry, it turns out she was a Skrull just like Alicia. Those pesky Skrulls. Avengers West Coast was cancelled two issues later, paving the way for Force Works the following year. Making their return to Marvel were The Transformers. The original Transformers book had been cancelled in 1991, which more or less coincided with the cancellation of the toy line. The toys returned in 1992 as Generation 2, and Marvel produced a 12-issue limited series that span out of the pages of G.I. Joe. This was a grim and gritty, Transformers for the 90s series. Writer, Simon Furman, didn't face any restrictions from Hasbro and was able to kill off as many characters as he liked. The cover for issue #1 proclaimed "Not Your Father's Autobot." You do the math! A book that still generates some interest from this era are the Stephen Platt issues of Moon Knight. Platt was a total McFarlane clone: However, he blew up when Wizard magazine got behind him. Marvel inexpiably cancelled the Moon Knight book just as Platt was getting hot. They tried to get him to draw Cable, but Rob Liefeld lured him away to Image to work on Prophet. He eventually had a falling out with Liefeld and left the comics field altogether, but for for 15 minutes he was the hottest thing since the Toddster. Conan the Barbarian #275 marked the end of one of Marvel's longest running titles. The official excuse for ending the series was to concentrate on Savage Sword of Conan, however sales had been flagging for a while, and since SSoC sold marginally better, I suppose the decision was made to continue with that book. Pinhead vs. Marshal Law takes the prize for the coolest book on the stands! Kirby knows why....that is just hideous excess! Agreed on Pinhead vs Marshal Law, the comic with the most skin punctures!
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