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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 17, 2023 21:37:41 GMT -5
ps Yeah, I noticed the Adams swiping on the Freedom Fighters; but, it was the best cover of the series.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 17, 2023 21:36:25 GMT -5
Buckler was a great cover artist and he did a few favorites that belied crappy interiors, like this Freedom Fighters cover.... I also loved this one. from the second issue of Mighty Crusaders..... Even at Solson, he had a couple of good ones..... ,,,,though he was swiping from Rambo and other movies, for Reagan's Raiders.....
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 17, 2023 11:25:47 GMT -5
Well, he is recounting the origin story of the Lancelot Strong SHIELD, from The Double Life of Pvt Strong #1; so, there is a certain logic in making it look like Kirby and Kirby's panels. That said, I think he went beyond making it look like Kirby's story to pretty much tracing and pasting it. Maybe he was pressed for time and it was a faster method. Signing his name to Kirby's work is the bigger sin. By the same token, when Lee & Kirby retold some of the original Captain America stories, in Tales of Suspense, Stan was signing his name to a story he didn't write and really didn't change from the original and there was no acknowledgement to Joe Simon. Stan gets a pass for it.
Buckler didn't do things to that level as a regular thing, yet he gets this reputation that he did. I think his ego didn't help matters; but, he has plenty of company there and I think ego factors into some of the criticisms from colleagues, who probably wouldn't admit to their own swipes or "inspirations." The writers were routinely cribbing from novels, movies and tv shows; but, their scripts aren't being laid side by side with Richard Matheson or someone else. I just think it gets blown out of proportion over time, especially in Buckler's case. Working for Archie and, especially, Solson, didn't help his reputation, since the quality was low and the output (at Solson) consisted mainly of rip-offs of other material or themes (lot of TMNT style books, ninjas, and then The THUNDER Agents licensed book). Those people tend to forget he did The Death of Jean DeWolff, which garnered high praise.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 17, 2023 1:14:45 GMT -5
January & February 1990
Betsy Braddock has been turned into an Asian ninja assassin, which I thought was completely badass as a kid but now wonder what the hell Claremont was thinking. On the other hand, Asian Psylocke was more interesting than the Psylocke that ran around in that purple cloak. The Feb '90 cover dates were a big month for me as a fan -- Walt Simonson debuts on pencils on Fantastic Four, Starlin returns to Marvel on Surfer Surfer, and Liefeld takes over as the penciler on New Mutants. The latter is interesting to me as Marvel Age showed off samples from his sketchbook for two months prior to Rob's first issue and there were all these new characters nobody knew anything about. For as much crap as Rob gets, there weren't a lot of new characters being introduced around this time. You'd get one or two decent characters per year. One of Englehart's complaints under DeFalco was that there was no progress. No matter what writers tried to do, DeFalco ultimately wanted a return to the status quo, i.e. the Silver Age books that he loved. I'm not sure how correct that is. I'd wager it depended on how well your books were selling. Whatever the case, Rob's sketches were full of dozens of new characters. They may been straight out of a teenager's head, but at least he was coming up with new ideas.There's a Shadowline Saga limited series designed to put an end to yet another failed imprint. There's also a Master of Kung-Fu one shot that makes me wonder if DeFalco was keen to bring that property back. Some months it feels like DeFalco is trying to resurrect everything Marvel ever published. Despite the fact that G.J. Joe has fallen off most people's radar, the ongoing series is still going strong with art by Mark Bright and Lama finally revealing Snake Eyes' origin. There was a lot to enjoy about this series at the time for readers who were still fans. Was he though? Most of the characters he introduced, either there or in Youngblood, were pretty much carbon copies of existing characters, in interchangeable costumes and interchangeable bodies. Most of his stuff you could put into one of those books were the image is separated on three panels and you can flip back and forth to change one or more segments. He was young and that's what young people do; but, it was hardly better than leaning on established characters, that were better designed or had more rounded personalities. It's all a matter of preference, though. Cockrum had some of the same problems with his Futurians characters, who were mostly copies of the X-Men and Legion characters he created or re-designed. I'll give him credit that it was selling, so he was reaching an audience, regardless of what I think of their tastes. My interests, in that time frame, where in things like The Question, Suicide Squad, The Maze Agency, Grendel, and Dark Horse Presents. With Marvel, my only regular books were Classic X-Men (for the reprints of comics I missed and couldn't afford in back issues), Nick Fury and The Destroyer, plus some odds and ends.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 17, 2023 0:45:26 GMT -5
Buckler was neither fired nor blackballed. He worked at DC until 1981/82 and then was hired to edit the Red Circle line, for Archie, which brought back the Mighty Crusaders and related MLJ heroes. He didn't last long in the job, about a year, with his main artistic work on the Mighty Crusaders book. (EDIT...I would need to do a lot of research to confirm; but, I believe he started out editing the whole line, except the THUNDER Agents stuff, under the JCP banner, for Joe Carbonaro, the owner of the rights; and, then ended up editing Mighty Crusaders and a couple of others). Around the same time, The Comics Journal ran a piece, accusing him of plagiarism, for various swipes. He filed a lawsuit, for libel, but ended up withdrawing it. In TCJ #83, Ted White lloks at The Mighty Crusaders and the new Fly series and focuses on Buckler signing his name and giving himself story credit for what are reprints of early Simon & Kirby Double Life of Pvt Strong, where Buckler was using swipes of panels and chaarcters, while rearranging them slightly, but it was all a copy of Kirby's art and not original art done in the style of Kirby. They present examples of the original Simon & Kirby work and Buckler's copies... TCJ was already at odds with Archie, over bad reviews for Mighty Crusaders #1 and they had stopped sending press releases & art to them and Amazing Heoroes, though they sent their release material. Issue 85 has a piece about them dropping the Red Circle name and Direct Market exclusive and rebranding as Archie Adventure, with newsstand and Direct Market. Buckler responded to the bad review of Mighty Crusaders #1, in TCJ #86, then filed his lawsuit, after #83, with the Journal reporting it in issue 88. The two main points in the suit were Robert Greenberger's review of Mighty Crusaders #1, where he labeled a line of dialogue as racist, and the plagiarism claim by White in #83. At the time, the Journal was being sued by Michael Fleisher, after an interview with Harlan Ellison, where he called Fleisher "bugf@#$," in relation to some of his more gonzo stories. Fleisher lost that suit, which ended up putting co-defendents Groth and Ellison at odds. Buckler withdrew his suit less than a year after filing it. According to an interview with Cary Burkett, Buckler was gone from Archie by the time they switched branding, but his name apepared for a few comics, because they had already been in the works. Buckler returned to Marvel, in 1985, working with Peter David on "The Death of Jean DeWolff," in PP The Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110. he was also freelancing for DC, with credits for Tales of the Teen Titans, Warlord and V (from the tv series). He did some work for David Singer's Deluxe/Lodestone lines, both for Wally Wood's THUNDER Agents and Codename: Danger. In 1986, he became editor of Gary Brodsky's Solson line, and wrote and drew (or wrote and edited and did covers) for several titles, including Reagan's Raiders, a bonkers comic with the president and members of his cabinet as super-soldiers, in a mix of Captain America and Rambo (they were pretty bad, but fun, in a trainwreck fashion, and included an unauthorized appearance by Daethlok). He also did some work for Silverline, which was hardly top tier, suggesting he wasn't making that much from Brodsky. Solson was dead and buried by 1987. That was where he did his How to Draw stuff, including a paperback instruction guide that was of middling value (I picked up a copy from a remainder bookstore, for less than a buck). He continued freelancing for Marvel through 1994 and also did some work for Continuity and Malibu. He then did some work for Topps and Tekno. There are some sporadic Marvel pieces, through 2000, then just reprints. He died in 2017, from cancer and it sounded like he fought it for quite a while. So, hardly blacklisted, as he worked for DC and Marvel into the New Millennium and some indie work, here and there, plus his paintings and he was also involved in some stage productions and amateur filmmaking. Buckler was known to swipe figure poses and panels, though he was hardly alone in that. He also morphed his style to approximations of Kirby and Adams and Buscema. Deathlok was probably the closest he came to his own style, in comics, and even that has Buscema leanings. I think he was just one of those guys who needed a crutch, for telling some stories. I loved Deathlok and his work on Black Panther, as well as the Superman stuff, at DC. He drew some of DC's better covers of that era and was a great choice to launch All-Star Squadron, since he could do Golden Age characters well, though he was so-so on period authenticity (that series struggled with that a lot). Personally, I thought he got way more grief than he deserved, about swipes, especially compared to Rob Liefeld and some others. Even Kirby lifted some from Hal Foster and Wally Wood had his share of swipes.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 16, 2023 23:02:55 GMT -5
pps Dominic Cooper, Howard Stark, himself, also played Fleming, in 2014.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 16, 2023 22:55:20 GMT -5
Watching Godzilla (2019) again and I think this is only movie I’ve seen where Charles Dance is a pos. Watching Godzilla (2019) again and I think this is only yet another movie I’ve seen where Charles Dance is a pos. Fixed that for you. I didn't think he ever played anything but a sleazy, snobby, malicious asshat. And really, really well, by the way. Granted, the list below is only of movies and TV in which I've seen him (or heard he was in), but I have a feeling his heroic roles are few and far between. Maxim de Winter in "Rebecca" Tulkinghorn in "Bleak House" Ralph Nickleby in "Nicholas Nickleby" Nazi fifth columnist in "Foyle's War" Another Nazi sympathizer in "White Mischief" Judge who sentenced an innocent man to be executed in "And Then There Were None" Mountbatten in "The Crown" Stockbridge in "Gosford Park" A Brit SIS officer who tortures prisoners in "Michael Collins" Benedict in "Last Action Hero" Burgess in "The Sandman" That Lannister guy who ordered the gang-rape of a peasant girl in "Game of Thrones" Dance did play Ian Fleming, in the 1989 tv movie, Goldeneye, though, since Fleming was a racist and imperialist, and carried on a long affair with a married woman, before she was free to marry him, you can debate whether he played a good guy or bad guy. He also appears as one of the goons working for Kristatos, in For Your Eyes Only, though he had no lines. You see him in the sequence where Bond is attacked at a ski jump and subsequent ski chase. (He appears at 2:21, on the left of the group of thugs, with Michael Gothard, as Locque) Sadly, that clip also features Bill Conti's disco-esque (and badly out of date) action theme, which replaced the regular Bond theme....ugh! Some of Conti's music in it is quite good; but he was way behind the times with that one. ps. Goldeneye (1989) plays up more of the fantasy about Fleming, but not quite as badly as Spymaker, The Secret Life of Ian Fleming.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 16, 2023 22:35:21 GMT -5
Hogan also tried to buy the NFL but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn't want to be associated with him. It took me a while to nail down the evolution of the shoot wrestling side of UFC; mainly after subscribing to the Observer. UFC grew out of basically two things: shoot wrestling in Japan and vale tudo in Brazil. The Gracies were involved in vale tudo (Rickson was a noted fighter, defeating a guy called Zulu and defending the Gracie name against the luta livre (basically, submission or catch wrestling, with some striking) side of things. The Japanese side goes back a bit. Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson greatly impressed the Japanese wrestlers of the late 60s and 70s, with their legit wrestling skills and Inoki invited them to train young boys at the New Japan Dojo. Most of those guys emerged with a strong catch wrestling foundation, though some excelled at it, while others learned to execute the basics of wrestling and make it look snug. By the early-mid 1980s, you had a generation of young wrestlers who had legit martial arts and catch wrestling skills and wanted to do a more realistic style, plus, several of them felt they were being held back, in favor of veterans who were getting a bit long in the tooth. A group broke away, in 1984 and, with backing, formed the first Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), including Akira Maeda, Rusher Kimura, Ruyama GoMach Hayato and Gran Hamada. They were soon joined by Satoru Sayama (Tiger Mask I), Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiku Takada, and Kazuo Yamazaki. They avoided using obviously cooperative moves and stuck more to more realistic ones, with a greater emphasis on martial arts and submissions, and amateur moves, like suplexes and control holds. They also had definitive finishes, rather than disqualifications, draws or count-outs. Eventually, a rivalry for control emerged between Maeda, who favored martial arts presentation, and Sayama, who favored wrestling and submission. Sayama had some enemies, who felt he was selfish, as the boss. He and Maeda got into, during a match (though how legit has been called into question) and Maeda was fired. Sayama soon left, though there was a bit of a cloud over financial matters. For a time, they partnered with the WWF and Maeda toured the US with them. The group broke up and most ended up back at New Japan, where they did the first invasion angle, with New Japan vs UWF, which New Japan won. In 1988 a second group broke away from New Japan to form what was called Newborn UWF, which included many of the originals, including Maeda, who was fired by New Japan, after shooting on Riki Chosu and kicking him in the face, breaking the occipital bone. One of Takada's proteges, Yoji Anjo joined them and Fujiwara was later allowed out of his New Japan contract and he brought two promising young boys, Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki. Kiyoshi Tamura would also debut there. They closed shop in 1990, after arguments between Maeda and their new non-wrestling president, over co-promoting with other independents, like Super World Sports (SWS, who worked with the WWF, and Grand Hamada's Universal Lucha Libre, which featured young talent, like Great Sasuke, Ultimo Dragon and Super Delfin). From that spawned a bunch of new promotions. The first was put together by Fujiwara, a Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, which featured him, Suzuki and Funaki, and Americans Ken Shamrock, Bart Vale, and Jerry Flynn, as well as Joe Malenko. They ran from 1991-96, though Suzuki, Funaki and Shamrock left in 1991 to form Pancrase. Fujiwara closed up, then dropped the title to Bart Vale, in a card that Vale promoted, in the US. Karl Gotch acted as a commissioner for the group, for a time, and they got financial backing from the same eyewear company that backed SWS. Also forming out of the Newborn UWF was UWFI (Union of Wrestling Force International), led by Takada, with himself and Tamura as the top stars. They got a bit of rub from Lou Thesz, as the figuredhead commissioner and he presented his old NWA belt as their title (they made a copy). The UWFI became massively popular, for a while, with Tamura on top and they also got people like Big Van Vader, Gary Albright, Pez Whatley and Bob Backlund to do matches there, as well as Norman Smiley. Gary Albright eventually left to join All-Japan and Vader left over a money dispute. They ran into financial problems and brokered a co-promotion deal with New Japan, under the condition that Riki Chosu, the New Japan booker, had full control over the booking. This led to the UWFI vs New Japan feud, which saw Takada win the IWGP title, facing Keiji Mutoh, in front of 67,000 fans. Shinya Hashimoto won it back, for New Japan, in front of a crowd of 65,000. UWFI closed up soon after. A couple of their cards were shown on PPV, in the US, under the Shoot Wrestling name, when the UFC had become a thing. The ads for it featured Jim Duggan and Lou Duva arguing over which sport was better, boxing or wrestling, with Gary Albright interrupting and saying shoot wrestling, because it's real (which was ironic, because they did worked fights. Maeda founded Fighting Network RINGS, in 1995, with Tamura promoted as one of his top stars, along with foreigners Chris Doleman and Dik Vrij (a pair of Dutch martial artists, with Doleman a noted judoka and sambo wrestler). They also recruits Russian sambo fighter Volk Han. Feodor Emilianko fought there. RINGS did worked fights, though they evolved into a mix of works and shoots, then went all shoot, after the UFC became dominant. They lasted until 2002. Pancrase was formed in 1993 by Suzuki and Funaki, who brought along Ken Shamrock. Shamrock's brother, Frank (both were adopted by Bob Shamrock, after living in his boys' group home) fought there, as did other Lion's Den fighters, like Guy Metzger and Jason Delucia, who also fought in the UFC. Bas Rutten came in there and started knocking guys out, left and right, though he was defeated bby submission experts Funaki, Suzuki and Shamrock, before learning to work the ground better. Rutten won the King of Pancrase title from Suzuki, then was out for a bit, with a hand injury and Frank Shamrock won a fight to determine an interim champion. The pair met for a showdown, which Rutten won. After Ken's appearances in the UFC, Semaphore Entertainment, who put on the UFC fight cards, broadcast some older Pancrase events, including the Frank Shamrock and Bas Rutten fight. Pancrase is still going, though they changed their rules from the basic shoot wrestling rules to the MMA rules, used in the UFC and Pride. One other group came out of UWF and that was Shooto, which was founded by Sayama, in 1985. It was originally an amateur association, promoting catch wrestling, as a sport, but developed a professional league. Shooto hosed the Vale Tudo Japan tournaments, won in 1994 and 95 by Rickson Gracie. The professional division began in 1989 and Enson Inoue won their heavyweight title in 1997 and then left, as champion in 1999. However, the main activity occurred at lighter weights. Yorinaga Nakamura began training Americans in Shooto, at Dan Inosanto's academy, including Eric Paulsen, who fought in the striker division of the World Combat Championships, losing to former IBF World Cruiserweight Champion, James Waring, when Paulsen took repeated punches to the face, while Waring held onto Paulsen's ponytail, which was legal. Paulsen cut his hair before fighting, in the future. Paulson won the light heavyweight title, in 1996 and held it until his retirement, in 1998. Pride Fighting Championships came along, in 1997 and soon became the dominant MMA promotion in Japan, with many marquee fights, including a large number of UFC veterans and former champions. Pride is where Kazushi Sakuraba built his reputation as the Gracie Hunter, defeating Royler, Renzo, and Royce Gracie in fights there. In 2006, a scandal arose about Pride's parent company, Dream Stage Entertainment, and their ties to the Yakuza. They lost their broadcast partners and fortunes fell. Dream Stage sold the promotion to the Fertitta Brothers, who owned the UFC. They were supposed to run as separate brands, with champions facing each other later, but it never materialized and Pride shut down in 2007. A group of the Fujiwara Gumi bunch formed BattleArts, after PWFG shut down. Joe Malenko did some matches for them, as did Bob Backlund. Minoru Tanaka worked there, as did Carl Greco, aka Carl Malenko. Sho Funaki, who worked in the WWF as part of Kaientai and solo, worked there a bit and BattleArts co-promoted with Michinoku Pro and WAR, Tenryu's group that included Ultimo Dragon, defending the International Junior Heavyweight Title (part of the J-Crown) and the World 6-Man titles (since Tenryu had held the NWA belts, with the Road Warriors). Kingdom was another shoot-style that started in 1997 after UWFI folded. Takada brought along his proteges, including the young Kazushi Sakuraba. Sakuraba also won the UFC Japan Ultimate Japan tournament, in 1997, while representing Kingdom. Takada, after realizing that shoot style was no longer popular, due to the real fights in Pride and the UFC, started Hustle, doing a style more akin to the WWF, which FMW eventually evolved to, as well. That same period that saw the birth of Newborn UWF also coincided with the explosion of independent promotions in Japan, like FMW, Big Japan, IWA Japan, W*ING, Wrestle Dream Factory, Michinoku Pro, Universal Lucha Libre (from which Michinoku Pro evolved) and several women's groups, like Gaea and ARSION, as well as saw the demise of All-Japan Women. You basically got stars leaving the big promotions to run independents, with themselves on top, often drawing big houses initially, then quickly tapering off. Many fell apart when the star ended up at odds with management, like when Aja Kong left ARSION, soon followed by Ayako Hamada, after Lioness Asuka took over.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 15, 2023 22:41:15 GMT -5
I've never gotten over my disappointment about the made-up word "Jedi". I thought they were saying "Jet-Eye Knights". Still sounds more intriguing to me that way. It's not entirely made up; it's a bastardization of the term, "jidaigeki," meaning the genre of period dramas in Japanese cinema. Lucas picked it up from watching Kurasawa and other Japanese samurai movies. That is where those influences come into the Jedi Knights, bringing a supposed martial code, ala bushido. The basic template of the Jedi was the Galactic Patrol, of EE "Doc" Smith, who were the galactic peacekeepers. Within their ranks were the elite warriors, the Lensmen, the chosen few who bonded with their lens, which amplified their physical and mental abilities. The samurai add the more militaristic components, while also giving them a philosophical under-pinning, with the Force being a sort of zen state. He then added influence from Carlos Castaneda, as to what the Force is, being something generated by all lifeforms. Of course, it could also be that Lucas was a fan of the Beverly Hillbillies and did it as an homage to Buddy Ebsen and held back on giving us a character who ran around yelling "Jed....Jed....Jed-i!" You know, Yoda does kind of look like Granny....................... Mountain Jedi!
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 15, 2023 22:26:52 GMT -5
Now, they all shall pay!
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 15, 2023 22:20:43 GMT -5
Dammit, that stupid Red Lobster on-line system messed up and I ended up with cajun chicken linguini!
Cue Lesley Gore......
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 15, 2023 17:30:12 GMT -5
57 today and, lately, I have been reminded of a different anniversary (go back to posts a year ago, if you are curious). Birthdays stopped having any real meaning, after the days of parties with schoolmates and birthday cakes and just kind of became road markers. Last year's sucked beyond belief. This year, it is just me and the kitties and they already gave me their well wishes, by waking me up to attend to them and Aja has delivered her birthday bites.
So, since I can't get Claire Grogan to do it in person (preferably in a similar manner as Marilyn Monroe and John F Kennedy, with all that allegedly entailed) I will settle for the Scottish pixie delivering one from the past....
There, that's better.
Now, for some crab linguini!
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 15, 2023 17:08:52 GMT -5
"Landscape" was reprinted in Les Daniels' book Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, where I read and re-read it a dozen times (like the rest of the stories in the book). Maybe Orlando's best job (and I'm counting his EC work). It was also reprinted by Apple Comics, who were publishing Vietnam Journal, at the time. They did two issues of Blazing Combat: Vietnam/Korea, reprinting those stories, and two issues of Blazing Combat: World War 1 & 2, reprinting those stories. I had one of those, but I can't recall from which set of comics. I think it was more likely one of the WW 1 & 2 issues. Warren also did a book collection, in 1978.... and Fantagraphics did a nice hardcover collection, in 2009.....
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 15, 2023 16:56:29 GMT -5
I disagree about the visionary part of it. I think he had a good visual style, but really only had two good stories in him, as a filmmaker. THX 1138 is a visual feast, but is terribly obtuse storytelling, too indebted to the French New Wave, in style, but lacking substance. It is the one film I thought was improved by tinkering, as he was able to expand the scope of the underground city. It didn't really do anything to the story, as there wasn't really one, apart from THX escaping the city to find the outside world.
American Graffiti is a great coming of age story and is extremely personal to Lucas and his clearest story, and not coincidentally, the best acted of those he actually directed. It helped that he had some seasoned young actors and some damn good ones, all around.
Star Wars is Lucas throwing in everything he loved in adventure, with modern effects. It is a great whiz-bangs swashbuckling story, centered around old fairy tale structures. It isn't especially deep, but it is fun, exciting and delivers adventure. It also doesn't answer a lot of questions, but throws out some background detail that fired the imagination of the young fans who saw it as the most exciting film to come along. I was 11, when it hit theaters and that is the perfect age. I had seen ray Harryhausen stuff, but not the old serials and not many swashbucklers, yet. Just enough to recognize the form, plus the Western tropes and the war film dogfighting. It ticked all of my boxes for exciting stories. The Marvel comics, though, did more to expand the possibilities of it than Empire did. Empire had a better script and a better director, from a character and acting standpoint and ILM was now experienced enough to deliver the visuals. It is a better film, from a story and character point, but doesn't quite have the same thrills as Star Wars, certainly not in a way that felt wholly new (even if they weren't). Jedi seemed more a rehash of what went before and an awkward resolution to the war. It didn't really feel like it should be the final battle in things, which is one of the things I liked about Zahn's novels, as they took that premise and showed that the structure of the Empire wouldn't totally collapse, especially as Star Wars demonstrated that the regional governors were fairly autonomous.
Star Wars was just the right vessel for repackaging old adventure material, in a new way and was a great gateway to exploring that older material, if you had a mind to do so. I don't get the worship of things, especially the Jedi religion nonsense; but, then, as an atheist, I can extend that to other belief systems. It is no worse an idea than many out there.
It didn't take much to realize that Lucas was very poor at directing actors and that his strength was in the visuals and in building and running an organization to support his films. In the end, I think he proved a better producer and studio head than he did a director.
His peers talk of him being the best; but, given their own middling successes, I think you have to take that with a grain of salt. Milius was a better writer, even if he wasn't the stylist that George was. Walter Hill was a better storyteller, but tended to falter unless he was pretty much redoing an old story. Spielberg was a much better director, all around, but especially with actors and getting performances out of them. Lucas was better technically and was more at home working with the camera. In many ways, I think the others were more in awe of his technical skill and business acumen, rather than his directing skills.
Personally, I rate Star Wars as two great films, one good one and the rest as, at best, okay. I don't really count the post-Lucas stuff as being the same thing. Of that, Rogue One and some of the Mandalorian are the only things that I have really enjoyed (Mandalorian gets repetitive, though I only watched the first season and part of the second). I haven't watched the other Disney+ material. The Clone Wars animated stuff looked nice, but was just endless action, without much plot and wore thin after two episodes. I've even tried skipping to the later segments and still end up bored 5 minutes into it. I didn't bother with the CGI animated stuff. Even Rogue One, which I mostly like, has some big flaws, like the disjointed running around, in the middle and the need to have some kind of pseudo-Jedi, rather than let it be just a group of soldiers trying to get their hands on the plans, to try to destroy the Death Star. The end battle is exciting, but, in trying to make it lead into Star Wars, it so undercuts the fight in it,, if you watch in that sequence. At least you didn't find out that someone was a second cousin to Luke, or something.
Solo I hated, with a passion, especially making him a ground pounder, instead of an Imperial Naval officer, as was always stated. It was a bad caper film, a bad military film, and just a dull film. I couldn't see that Han ending up as the one we meet in the cantina, in Star Wars.
That's part of why I prefer Alan Dean Foster and Archie Goodwin. They took what Star Wars gave you and built exciting and interesting tales with those characters, expanding things, without trying to make it seem like it was supposed to be high literature or great cinema. it was just damn good storytelling, within that world, without trying to jerry-rig a saga or find some deeper theme. I'd have much rather seen a figure like Baron Tagge in Empire and Jedi, and someone like Valance, rather than Boba Fett. Valance had a personality and Tagge made a unique villain, who hated both the rebels and Vader. It also set up the idea of competing powers within the Empire, which is generally true under any dictatorship.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 15, 2023 16:24:18 GMT -5
ps The sponsor of UFC 1 pulled out of future deals, after the card was so brutal (mostly Gordeau vs Tei Tuli, where he knocked his tooth out, but also Zane Frazer vs Kevin Rozier).The UFC was around a few years before John McCain went on a crusade and got them kicked off of some PPV outlets (and McCain was a boxing fan who ignored boxing's far greater number of injuries and multiple deaths). New York banned MMA style fights; but, ultimately, once the UFC got sanctioning in Nevada, New York and other states followed. The promotion who had the worst time of the political battles was the rival Extreme Fighting Championship, who had venues pulled out from under them and had to switch one card to a native American reservation, where a state ban had no jurisdiction.
There were a few rivals, but the EFC lasted the longest. The most ridiculous one was the World Combat Championships, which was co-promoted by Chris peters, son of Jon Peters, of the Superman and Batman films. They had a striker and a grappler division, then the winners of each division met for the final. The idea was to give strikers a chance to have more exciting fights and the strikers were not allowed to grapple, on the mat and no submission, even though grapplers were allowed to fight on their feet and ground-and-pound. Renzo Gracie won that one, without too much of a sweat, though he rubbed it in on Dutch fighter Ben Spijkers. Spijkers had vowed to rape Renzo, at a press conference and Renzo took it personally and decided to show up the arrogant Dutchman and then stepped on his neck, as he was declared the winner, to show his contempt. Spijkers had a reputation of being a thug and he was true to form. Peters had actually gotten a couple of K-1 fighters to agree to fight, until K-1 learned that it was a No Holds Barred tournament and blocked their participation. Rickson Gracie was too costly, which led Peters to Renzo, who had appeared in Black Belt magazine, in an ad. Kathy Kidd, who had been involved romantically with Art Davie, of the UFC, was involved in promoting this and was dating the editor of Black Belt magazine, who helped promote it, featuring Renzo and Bart Vale on the cover.
Bart Vale was built up as this legendary fighter, in Japan, who had wins over Ken Shamrock and was the World Shootfighting Association champion. What they failed to point out was that the wins over Shamrock were in worked fights, in Fujiwara Gumi (after the second UWF broke apart) and that his "world title," was the old Fujiwara Gumi title, held by Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who ran Fujiwara Gumi. He dropped the title to Vale, in the US, on a card that was promoted by Vale, in a worked fight, which was done under the World Shootfighting Association name. The organization was just a marketing brand for Vale to promote fights and sell videos and other stuff, to gullible idiots. Vale was exposed as a fraud, when he had trouble submitting a kid from Hawaii, with no real fight experience beyond tough man contests (which was Shamrock's experience, before Pancrase, besides training and working in pro wrestling, under Nelson Royal, as Vince Torelli). Vale had the kid in a keylock, but was unable to get a submission out of him and finally, after several minutes, got an arm triangle choke on him and he tapped. Vale was banged up and exhausted and pulled out of the tournament, so Gracie fought a substitute. Vale later entered the EFC and got his @$$ handed to him by Kazunari Murakami, who had trained in MMA and pro wrestling. He lost another fight to Dan Severn and a K-1 bout to Andy Hug. His defeat of Bitonio, the kid in the WCC, was his only real victory in professional fighting.
A lot of us who watched and learned more about his background felt Vale pulled out of the tournament not because of lacerations to his head, as claimed, but to having seen Renzo defeat Spijkers so easily and his inability to submit Bitonio, until he got the choke.
Renzo Gracie was the best all-around fighter of the Gracie family (he's the son of Carlson Gracie, brother of Helio, who is the father of Roycke, Rickson, Rorion and Royler Gracie). Rickson won vale tudo matches in Brazil and two Japan Vale Tudo tournaments; but, in fights that were set up to favor grapplers and he still had problems with wrestler Yuki Nakai. Rickson ducked challenges from several fighters, most notably Kazushi Sakuraba and ony fought in Pride against pro wrestlers, with no shoot experience, like Nobuhiku Takada. He defeated Takada and they had a rematch, where Takada was better prepared, but still lost. He ducked fights with Sakuraba and Akira Maeda; and, instead, signed to face Maskatsu Funaki, of Pancrase, but demanded headbutts and elbow strikes be banned. He got his way, but had problems with Funaki's grappling skill, but an injury gave Rickson the advantage and he was able to ground and pound Funaki.
Pride did some worked fights, particularly to build and protect Takada. The Gracie's, outside the UFC, requested special rules for their fights, except Renzo, who would fight under tournament rules. Helio's side was very protective of their name, as they used it to promote their schools and brand, while the Carlson side was more willing to fight on equal terms and prove their mettle. Renzo also won the Martial Arts reality Superfight, defeating Oleg Taktarov, a former UFC champion, to win. Renzo knocked Taktarov out with a heel kick to the face, after a takedown attempt. You could see Taktarov's lights go out and then the ref stopped the fight. Renzo also fought in Pride, against Sakuraba, without special rules and lost, but was a good sport about it. When Royler lost to him Rorion and the rest of the family made a big deal of the ref stopping it, as Royler proved unable to escape from a Kimura armlock, which can snap the elbow. Renzo also got submitted by a Kimura, but had a visibly broken elbow. The Gracie's demanded special rules barring ref stoppages and time limits, to favor the defensive style, in the Pride Gran Prix, leading to the 90 minute fight between Royce and Sakuraba, where Sakuraba dominated and frustrated Gracie, with unconventional tactics. Sakuraba used the gi against Royce, using it to pull him off the mat, when he would go into the guard and get him to open his arms and allow Sakuraba room to strike to the head and face. He then pulled it over Royce's head, in the corner, in a clinch. Sakuraba threw repeated kicks to Royce's legs, when he would lie on the mat, trying to goad Sakuraba into the guard. Royce eventually couldn't stand for the bell and Helio threw in the towel. Sakuraba went on to be competitive against Igor Vovchanchyn, but was exhausted and his corner threw in the towel. Renzo didn't submit, but the ref stopped the fight and Renzo got on the mic and praised Sakuraba, accepting the loss with dignity and humility.
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