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Remember when my Swamp Thing posts were all like “HEY, SWAMP THING’S HAND IS IN AN ISSUE OF INFINITE CRISIS.”

§ March 26th, 2018 § Filed under justice league, pal plugging, swamp thing, television § 4 Comments

An Addendumdedumdum to My Most Recent Post: it is now The Future, so I may now reveal the truth behind that No-Prize. It is, in fact, a No-No-Prize, a simulacrum, a deliberate reconstruction of what how a No-Prize may have appeared, constructed by a friend (not Rob, as previously theorized) who shall go nameless here lest Stan the Man himself call down the Merry Marvel Marching Society upon him for such perilous perfidy. Anyway, said friend assembled the pics, slapped ’em on envelopes, and sent them to me and at least one other person just for laffs. YOU GOT ME, FRIEND I AM PROTECTING FROM THE MARVEL ZOMBIE HORDE.

• • •

So the only comic news this week is the revelation that Swamp Thing is returning to the funnybook pages (like, again…he’s always up to something, somewhere, since he’s come back to the regular DC Universe). He’s going to be a member of the revived Justice League Dark title, along with Zatanna and Detective Chimp, as God intended:

…yeah, that’s a new look for him. Saw someone on Twitter (can’t remember who, now) commenting that he’s basically been made to look like Alan Moore, which, okay, that’s kind of funny. Anyway, I’m looking forward to this and the other dozen or so new Justice League titles DC is releasing in the wake of that movie’s success.

• • •

What’s that? You want more Swamp Thing news, you say? Well, you’ve come to probably the right place, as there are a couple of new toys, or at least new to me, that just came to my awareness thanks to being pointed out by pals on the Twitter (and images for which I “borrowed” from this good person’s Twitter feed. First up is one based on the Justice League Action animated series appearing on a Cartoon Network near you.


And then this second one is from the “DC Super Friends” line:


Interesting that both feature Swamp Thing with his traditional weapon of choice, the Huge-Ass Club. Anyway, I suppose I’ll have to track these down, too, even though I’m trying to buy less doodads and tchotchkes but there’s always the Swamp Thing Exception Clause in my life contract as I pass through the other end of middle age.

• • •


Here’s a thing I somehow missed back in the toy stores of yore, but now reproduced in the new popular digital format all you kids are into: the handheld Swamp Thing game from Tiger Electronics, in all its emulated glory.

Anyway, while all you nerds are playing your funnybook game, I’ll be over here playing this manly sportsman-like Electronic Quarterback from Coleco (which, all kidding aside, I actually did play back in the late ’70s, as a friend owned it — I had a basketball version, for some reason, though that specific game appears not to be amongst the emulated here).

• • •

So I did watch SyFy’s new Krypton show (as discussed previously) and…yeah, it seemed interesting enough. At first, it seemed like it was going to go the Smallville route of making the Superman story unnecessarily complicated for the sake of getting any kind of compellingly-watchable TV show out of all this nonsense. But of course this pushes everything far enough back that Superman himself, as we know him, while offstage (for now) and the target of some kind of time-traveling threat, is relatively untouched by the proceedings. In Smallville, despite knowing that yes, this was just a different interpretation of the character, it was difficult to draw a line from what we were seeing in that show to what we knew about Superman. Just…too many weird continuity shenanigans. That’s more the problem with my fanboy brain than anything the producers were doing, admittedly. In Krypton, though, actual events on Krypton are enough of an open book that I could theoretically avoid any such issues.

And I say “theoretically” only because I’m way behind on the few shows I do watch, and adding one more to the pile isn’t going to help matters any. I watched this first one more out of curiosity, but I expect I won’t end up watching any more ’til it’s on a streaming service or discs I can rent from Netflix. I will reiterate that directly connecting the events of the show to the “present” of Superman’s time was the gimmick needed to get me at least somewhat interested, more than just giving us A Game of Space-Thrones That Is Sorta Connected to Superman, Eventually.

• • •

Hey, my old pal Brandon is doing a little research for a collector’s guide project he’s working on, regarding “all your favorite giant rubber animals, dinos and monsters […] Toys by Imperial Toy, Chitech, Dor Mei & more!” If you’re on the Twitterers, you can follow that link and direct-message him there. Or if you’re not on the Tweetings, you can email me and I can pass along your contact information. If you can help him out, please do! Thanks!

49 (and change).

§ March 16th, 2018 § Filed under jack kirby, obituary, old, smallville, superman, television § 13 Comments

So one of the victims of my part-week blogging break was no birthday post. Yes, that’s right, your pal Mike just began his last year of his forties this past Tuesday…the warranty’s long expired, the creaking frame continues to bow, and the decay continues apace. I did mention the occasion on the Twitters, however, and received some very kind response there (as well as wishing birthday-and-blogging-brother Andrew a happy day).

The Bullest with the Mostest, Bully the Little Birthday Bull, worked up a bit of magic:


You can find the original image he used on this page of nightmare fuel. Oh, and by the way, now that I can make GIFs I may need to revisit that last pic.

Oh, and Tom Spurgeon over at Ye Olde Comics Reporter also noted the occasion, as he does every year. Thanks, Tom!

Another reason I kinda skipped out on the birthday post this time around is that I had my heart set on a particular panel, but could not find the thing, which has me wondering if I’m remembering the right comic, or if my age-addled brain has it confused with another comic, or if I didn’t just make up the whole thing out of thin air. Anyway, I’ll mention it here in case it rings a bell with any of you fine folks:

What I’m remembering is a panel from a Star Trek comic, maybe in the first DC series, or possibly the second run, where mention is made of Captain Kirk’s 49th birthday. However, and the reason this has stuck with me all this time (assuming I’m remembering it correctly at all) is that the “49th” in the comic had very obviously been relettered just prior to going to print, and almost certainly read “50th” originally. I mean, that was my presumption, in that they probably wouldn’t be making any kind of big deal out of a 49th birthday for story purposes. I remember guessing they were likely saving a 50th birthday story for some bigger event, or someone at the main Trek headquarters decided that they didn’t want Kirk to be that old, or some darned thing.

I hunted through my Trek comics for the scene, and couldn’t find it…I still have full runs of both series (didn’t give ’em up to my store!) plus all the specials and minis and whatnot, so if it actually exists, it’s in there somewhere. But, like I said, at this point I’m even sure it was in a Trek comic and involving Kirk. If you know, please share your knowledge!

• • •

So this week, DC released a freebie funnybook tying into the imminent Superman-prequel Krypton series appearing on the SyFy cable channel:


My immediate reaction to seeing that cover is “…Tom? Tom Welling?” but that’s likely because I watched all ten seasons of Smallville and I’m still recovering. But it didn’t help when I looked inside the comic at the “meet the characters” section and Superman’s grandfather is dressed like this:


…which all the world looks like the get-up Clark was wearing in the latter seasons of Smallville:


I mean, that has to be deliberate, right? Aside from all that…despite my initial skepticism regarding the show (“It’s about Superman’s grandpa?”) I’m actually intrigued, particularly now that I know about the time travel element and the inclusion of DC’s classic space hero Adam Strange. I may be one of those “wait to binge it on streaming” guys, since I’m way behind on everything as it is, but I’ll at least try to catch the first episode. …There better be at least one Thought-Beast on the show, that’s all I’m saying.

This tweet from Twitter pal Joe sort of got me thinking about that Smallville-esque comparison, though Joe’s point of contention/admiration was more for the “Fight Like El” tagline, which is admittedly both amazing and appalling. And if you’re wondering, yes, the entry for the Zod family character has a reference to kneeling, because that’s just a Zod thing now and you better be used to it. (“Fight Like El” reminded me of these somewhat confrontational DC bookmarks from a while back.)

Oh, that World of Krypton comic, by the way, is a reprint of the first issue of the mini-series of the same name from the mid-ish 1980s by John Byrne and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. If you’ve never read it, it’s not bad…and if you like it, the entire series has been very conveniently reprinted in a World of Krypton trade paperback released just a week or two ago (along with other Krypton-based stories).

• • •

Oh, and there’s going to be a live-action New Gods movie…you know, no big deal. That of course means…LIVE ACTION SLEEZ:


Well, okay, maybe not. But the director of A Wrinkle in Time, Ava DuVernay, is signed on to direct, and given what I’ve seen of the visuals for that film (which I haven’t had a chance to see yet, despite really, really wanting to) gives me a good feeling about her take on Kirby’s Fourth World. Also, to quote my hopes for this film from Twitter, only with the stupid typo in the original corrected:

“I want this New Gods movie to be the Kirby-est thing that’s ever Kirbied. I want to SEE the quotation marks around assorted words in actors’ dialogue.”

I mean…right? Yes, yes, I know Thor: Ragnarok was very Kirby-ish, but New Gods was straight out of Kirby’s head, no Stan Lee required. I want everyone in their original costumes (yes, even…especially…Black Racer), I want dialogue quoted from the comics, I want that opening bit preserved in its entirety (“THERE CAME A TIME WHEN THE OLD GODS DIED!”), everything. I don’t care if movie audiences are ready for it. Let the studio paraphrase Jack himself on the movie posters: “DON’T ASK, JUST WATCH IT!”

Alas, it comes too late for the Don Rickles cameo:


…though it was suggested having one of his old movies/TV appearances on a television screen might be a good reference for those in the know.

But…c’mon, a New Gods movie. I can’t wait.

• • •

Mark Evanier reports that comics writer Michael Fleisher passed away last month at the age of 75. He was probably most famous for his Spectre and his Jonah Hex (and, ’round these here parts, the amazing Hex), but this is what I’ll remember him for the most:


I wrote a bit about that book a couple of years back…man, I spent I don’t know how many hours perusing that tome. And there it still sits on my bookshelf today, nearly forty years after I first acquired it. Thanks, Michael, for all that entertaining information you provided a young me, just beginning to learn about Superman’s history.

Bringing up the possibility of a Misfits of Science: Season 2 comic didn’t really fit in the body of this post, so here it is in the title.

§ August 8th, 2016 § Filed under indies, television § 1 Comment

So when I was talking about the black and white boom books a while back (1 2 3) there’s one I totally forgot about and was reminded of when Zack Soto brought it up on his Twitter: MacKenzie Queen!

macqueentpb
Yeah, that’s the cover of the trade instead of one of the issues of the actual series, because if I’m going to “borrow” a pic from the Grand Comics Database, let it at least this time be one that I scanned for that site myself.

Anyway, I’ve written here before about MacKenzie Queen, mostly about the fact that it took me what seemed like forever to track down the last issue of the series. In fact, I found it after I bought the trade, because it figures. And you should go to that link for the ultimate punchline about the whole MacKenzie Queen #5 thing.

I definitely did want to point out this comic, even if it’s a bit after the fact of my black and white funnybook discussion, because this was the first time I was exposed to the work of Bernie Mireault, and just loved it to pieces. Beautifully detailed art delineating crazy magic and aliens and even music, with a great sense of humor…this was right up my alley. The Jam is a later series of his that’s just as great, and even just typing out that name makes me want to pull those out of the boxes and give ’em a reread. …Man, if only I had time to reread all the comics I want to reread.

So, in conclusion: MacKenzie Queen and The Jam…two more positive results from the black and white boom of the 1980s. ASK FOR THEM BY NAME.

• • •

In other news, the long-running Wild Cards anthology series that took comic book superheroes and turned ’em into prose (and then people would occasionally turn them back into comic books, for some reason) is apparently just about to get a live-action adaptation, apparently. Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long, kinda sorta, especially now when people are scrambling for superhero stuff to turn into movies and hopefully get some trickle-down from that enormous pile of Avengers movie bucks.

I’m only “kinda” surprised because, as has been brought up in the occasional discussion I’d get into friends with this, the sheer number of different writers and characters they’ve created for the series might complicate any media adaptation deals, though I have zero idea what kind of agreements were in place for this very thing. And it might have been the cost…a superhero TV show means lots of special effects, and while those are probably cheaper to do now than they ever have been, it still ain’t free, and multiply the number of different effects they’d have to work out by the number of characters that could be involved. I mean, there are ways to work around this, of course.

On the other hand, given that George R.R. Martin was one of the instigators of this particular book project, I’m not surprised someone finally pushed this project forward. Seems like I remember a long time ago, reading in Comics Scene, that this was a possible Disney project at one point, maybe?

But whatever. I do look forward to it, as a Wild Cards fan since that first paperback came out way back in 1986 (thirty years? good gravy…and I know it has a 1987 copyright, but I’m about 98% certain it came out in late ’86). I’m trying not to get my hopes too far up, given my reaction to another adaptation of something I greatly enjoyed, but if they can sell me on a live-action version of The Great and Powerful Turtle, I think I’ll be okay with it.

And speaking of comic book TV adaptations…is Dreadstar still in the works? Oh Lordy I hope so.

I forgot to mention Gotham – I’ll get around to that eventually, too.

§ May 15th, 2015 § Filed under sir-links-a-lot, television § 4 Comments

So, in short: the Supergirl TV show looks like it’ll be plenty enjoyable; the Legends of Tomorrow trailer finally gives me at its end something I’ve been waiting to see on Arrow all last season; the Avengers sequel has some entertaining bits and some awful bits and never really feels like it adds up to a whole movie, as well as giving us a climactic battle that feels like a palette swap of the previous movie’s conclusion – I liked it overall, but it’s not a patch on the first one; and Flash sure has been good, hasn’t it? No meandering about in that show’s throughline.

I still need to catch up on the Marvel side of TV things, and I still need to sit down and watch Constantine (yes, I know it’s cancelled, but it could live on, maybe!), but…it’s hard to grasp sometimes that there are almost more comic book related TV shows and movies than one can easily keep up with. All it took, I guess, were a couple of billion-dollar superhero films to get us from this to getting a telepathic supergenius gorilla on our flatscreens.

In other news:

The devil made me do it.

§ April 13th, 2015 § Filed under blogging about blogging is a sin, television § 4 Comments

So the big hoohar over the last couple of days is the new Daredevil TV series, all thirteen episodes of which were unleashed on Friday and, apparently, everyone on the planet except yours truly somehow managed to burn through every one in the first couple of hours they were available.

Okay, perhaps I exaggerate slightly, but while I was workin’ hard for the money at my store (that would be Sterling Silver Comics, located in the shining heart of Camarillo, CA), all the rest of youse guys were relaxing in your easy chairs, a cool drink in one hand and probably another cool drink in your other hand, using your toesies on your smartphones to Twitter and Facebook at your pals to let them know what episode you’re on and to spoil the shocking cameo appearances of Odin and Squirrel Girl in the last episode.

Phooey sez I. I’m going to spoil the end of Frank Miller’s Spirit movie, and see how you like it! (And I know it’ll be a spoiler, because none of you had the good sense to experience this masterpiece.)

…Ah, okay, I’m not as bent out of shape about it as all that. Some of y’all are all excitable-like about this Daredevil show, which has turned out to be pretty good, so I can’t blame you for your enthusiasm. I’m only through episode 4, but this is shaping up to be an interesting, if surprisingly violent (for a Marvel product) program. I saw one of my Twitter pals describe it (or retweet someone describing it) as a 13-hour superhero movie, which I’m sure is certainly the effect generated by grinding through every episode one after another. I’m experiencing it with long-ish intermissions, but I suspect I’ll have a similar opinion by the end.

At the very least, it’s likely better than whatever the end product of that other Daredevil show might have been, as seen in this PROGRESSIVE RUIN FLASHBACK! Though, on second thought, that show could have been fantastic in its own right.

• • •

In other news: sorry about the Low Content Mode lately…turns out working a shop (that shop being Sterling Silver Comics, still located in the still-shining heart of Camarillo, CA) by yourself seven days a week can take a lot out of you, so I haven’t had a lot of energy to generate content here. I’m not going away…as I promised you all a while back, barring my surprising demise in a shocking deep sea diving accident, I will give you advance warning if I’m shutting down the blog. Which, by the way, I have no intention of doing. I’m just letting the batteries recharge a bit.

You can usually find me annoying anyone who made the mistake of following me on Twitter, so feel free to check in on me there if you somehow believe I’m more tolerable in smaller doses. But I promise, I’ll still be here on this site doing whatever it is I think I’m doing. Thanks to all of you for still reading.

A live-action Syzygy would be pretty cool looking, I’d think.

§ February 18th, 2015 § Filed under pal plugging, television § 7 Comments


So probably at the top of my “least expected comic book news” list, right beneath “Steve Ditko Joins Andy Kaufman for Dancing with The Stars,” is “Dreadstar to Become TV Show,” and yet, here we are. Doesn’t mean it’s absolutely 100% going to happen, but that this is even an announcement in Variety is pretty amazing. I hope it does make it to air, at least long enough for the scene in the panel presented above to appear directly and faithfully translated to screen.

And as I noted on the Twitterers, I would like the first season to be an adaptation of Metamorphosis Odyssey (the Epic Illustrated serialized series that introduced Vanth Dreadstar) if only to enjoy the television viewing public’s almost inevitable reaction of “…what did I just watch?”

I hope at the very least we get out of this, if not new Dreadstar comics, then relatively inexpensive and complete reprints of the older comics. There aren’t really that many issues: 64 in the original comic series, plus 6 in the follow-up mini from Malibu, and all the Epic Illustrated stuff plus the two graphic novels fit into that one hardcover from a few years back. Oh, and that cameo in ‘Breed III as well. And that First Comics crossover thing. …And I’m probably missing something else, but honestly, that’s not a whole lot. Let’s get some books of these things, even if you have to slap “FROM THE CREATOR OF THANOS” across the tops of the covers.

• • •

In other news:

  • Pal Dave just wrapped up a year’s worth of entries in his “I Had That!” series, looking back at all the toys and games and media tie-ins and what-have-yous that most of us accumulated through our formative years. Interesting reading, as Dave examines these artifacts mostly not just through romanticized nostalgic filters but through an after-the-fact understanding of what it was that made us want to possess via plastic tchotchkes whatever passing cultural zeitgeist that caught our attention. He and I are about the same age, so I promise you, I declared “I had that, too!” with a disturbingly large number of each of the series’ installments. Highly recommended.
  • Pal Andrew’s most recent Nobody’s Favorites covers a comic featuring a characters that, given my love of the original Saturday Night Live, should have been entirely within my wheelhouse, but man, I just couldn’t do it. I don’t even think I ever saw more than a few minutes of the film.
  • Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull who is strong in the Force, is presenting 365 Days of Star Wars in his own inimitable little fuzzy way. Probably should have mentioned that sooner, as he’s quite a few segments in. You’d better go catch up before he comes after you with the cutest little lightsaber you’ve ever seen.

 
 

image from Dreadstar #14 (October 1984) by Jim Starlin

In which Mike talks about things you’re already sick of hearing about.

§ May 14th, 2014 § Filed under superman, television § 3 Comments

So there’s the trailer for that Constantine TV series, based on that little-known Swamp Thing supporting character, and…it looks pretty good, I think. To be honest, I had no idea they were this far along in producing the show. I thought it was more along the lines of “well, yeah, someone got the rights from DC and we might see a pilot or something that may or may not be picked up in a year or two,” but nope, there it is, in living technicolor and lifelike stereo sound.

John Constantine certainly looks like John Constantine, the character seems to have the right tone in what little we see of his personality, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how his name’s pronounced:


I was asked by quite a few folks on the Twitterers and in what passes for my real life if I was looking forward to any possible Swamp Thing cameos. It’s my understanding, and I could be wrong on this, that the Swamp Thing media rights are still fairly well locked down by whoever was responsible for the movies and cartoons and whatnot. Doesn’t really matter, I guess; nothing’s necessarily missed from the Constantine concept by not having that Swampy tie-in. In the comics, Swamp Thing was more of “yet another weird adventure for ol’ Conjob” than “A VITAL PIECE OF CONSTANTINE’S BEGINNINGS” so if all we get in the series is maybe a vague reference to having to “deal with some plant creature in Louisiana” that’ll be okay with me.

Employee Timmy wants to see Etrigan and Zatanna in the series, and I have to agree that would be amazing. But not as amazing as if they’d put this special Constantine moment into the show:


• • •

Oh, and then there’s this, posted by Zack Snyder on his Tweetery:


Looks okay to me. Definitely looks like a Batman. Some have noted it’s Dark Knight-ish, which fits with what seems to be Snyder’s concept of an older, been-around-the-block-a-bit Batman for the next Man of Steel movie. As one of the few people in online fandom who didn’t absolutely hate the first film, and have generally enjoyed Snyder’s other films, I am looking forward to the follow-up, even as the film’s DC character pile-on seems to be more a reaction to The Avengers making all the money ever than as an attempt to tell a story. It’ll look nice and be action-packed, though, I’m sure. The theater will probably be air-conditioned, too, and you certainly can’t discount that.
 
 

images from Swamp Thing #73 (June 1988) by Rick Veitch and Alfredo Alcala; Constantine #5 (September 2013) by Ray Fawkes and Renato Guedes

In which I basically just describe what’s going on in the Arrow TV show along with some facile commentary.

§ February 14th, 2014 § Filed under television § 8 Comments

(Some minor SPOILERS for Arrow ahead.)

So I’ve sort of binge-watched Arrow over the last month…well, it’s a lazy example of binge-watching, in that I watched the premiere episode on Netflix a couple of months back, and then got cracking on the rest of the series a few weeks later. I streamed the rest of the first season, and I’m nearly caught up on Season Two via iTunes.

My initial impression of the Arrow series was based on a brief viewing of an episode sometime during the first season’s initial broadcast, and that fifteen minutes or thereabouts felt to me like it was a narrative assembled on a framework of comic book in-jokes, and I made my Supreme Nerd Judgement based on that exposure. “BAH, THIS IS JUST COMIC BOOK IN-JOKES,” said I, and I went about my business, using that time not watching Arrow to, oh, I don’t know, cure all disease and create world peace or something.

Eventually I decided to give it another go, and once I started actually watching the series, I began to appreciate it for the fun action/adventure/melodramatic serial that it is. Yeah, there are comic book in-jokes (a character says she’ll be back in Central City “in a flash” because in the comics the Flash lives in Central City don’cha know), but there is plenty of straight-up DC Universe stuff going on in this series, too. Back stories, abilities and relationships are all altered a tad, but I still got to see live action Green Arrow fighting side-by-side with live action Black Canary, and that’s okay with me.

During the first season, with Green Arrow…excuse me, the Hood or the Vigilante…offing dudes left and right, I was reminded of a G.A. comic I read long ago, where Ollie accidentally killed a guy who was about to shoot him. Yeah, it was probably justifiable self defense an’ all, but Green Arrow is a Superhero, and not supposed to kill the bad guys, and he ends up, I don’t remember exactly, hiding out in a monastery or something to pay penance for his deeds. I suppose I could Google it (or, if I were a character on Arrow and absolutely nobody else, I could Bing it) and find out the correct story details, but that’s the general gist of it. He killed a guy, felt terrible about it, had to come to terms with it.

In a way, the show is taking the long-term view of that particular character development, by having Ollie eventually realize that he can’t keep killing the bad guys, and trying, in the current season, to transition to less lethal outcomes in his conflicts. He does slip once or twice…his killing a villain who was threatening Felicity is shown as weighing upon him; the apparent deaths of multiple Russian prison guards a couple of episodes earlier, not so much. But still, it’s nice to see a heroic character attempting not to take lives, rather than stabbing them or blowing them up and following it up with a clever quip.

Another slow transition is the introduction of superpowers into the series. Characters that traditionally have superpowers in the comics have had less paranormal replacements for those abilities in the TV show (Black Canary has a device that emits a sonic screech, Count Vertigo deals drugs that cause severe disorientation), but now there’s a serum in the series that gives people super-strength. Special guest star character Barry Allen has, in an episode I haven’t seen yet but know about already, his Flash origin (if not yet demonstrating any Flash powers, which is presumably being saved for that spinoff Flash TV show if it’s picked up). Allen even gives his backstory (in an episode I have seen) his encounter with a being that, if not specifically described as such, obviously has super-speed powers. I suspect with the popularity of superheroes in mass media now (you know, TV shows and movies), Arrow suddenly dealing with super-powered guys ‘n’ gals probably won’t be a traumatic experience for the general non-comic reading audience. A Flash guest-appearance will be the test of that, I suppose.

But I’m all for that, filling the series with more super-characters from the funnybooks. Funny that Arrow is becoming the go-to TV show for superhero action, with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., spinning off from the most successful series of superhero movies of all time, being generally a disappointment to fans expecting more of what they saw on the big screen. It’s more of the “street-level” superheroing, not so much the “flights ‘n’ tights” eschewed by Smallville, but Good Lord there’s live-action Deathstroke in this TV show. There’s the League of Assassins. There’s the Bronze Tiger. There’s Deadshot. There are mentions of Nanda Parbat, which plays heavily in the backstory of the Deadman comics, though I’ll eat my hat if Deadman shows up in this series. (I mean, actual dead-spirit-possessing-live-people Deadman…I’ll eat a hat for no less.)

In short, I like the show, and I expect to keep liking it so long as it doesn’t become the meandering-yet-running-in-place exercise in futility that Smallville became during its forty (or thereabouts) season run. That the lead character is already in costume, and that the thrust of the series is fine-tuning that character’s purpose in that costume, is already a vast improvement on the “is he Superman yet?” predecessor.

I’m also pretty sure there are some Kurosawa films I haven’t seen yet.

§ November 8th, 2013 § Filed under television § 17 Comments

So a long time ago, I missed one episode of the Flash TV series when it was preempted, at least in our area, for some news coverage, if I recall correctly. I never did catch a repeat of it during its original 1990-1 run, nor did I ever see it rerun during any of its sporadic syndicated showings. If it had any, that is…I’m sure it must have turned up on the Sci-Fi Channel or something, he said, not even bothering to type it into the Google search bar in his browser.

Anyway, 23 years later, I’m browsing Netflix looking for something to watch, and instead of finally getting around to Blade Runner, just on a whim I decided “hey, no time like the present to finally complete my watching of the Flash TV series.” Thus was disc 5, with said episode (#16, “Deadly Nightshade”) rented and, a day later, in my home.

I didn’t think this through very well. First, it’s been 23 years. Every episode of The Flash at this point is going to feel like an episode I haven’t seen. All I can recall from my original viewings is a hazy remembrance of Mark Hamill hamming it up as the Trickster, and some vague disappointment that Barry Allen’s science lab partner, played by Alex Desert, never put on a Kid Flash costume. (He might have in the one-shot tie-in comic, like in a dream sequence or something. ALSO A HAZY MEMORY.)

And thus, my second point: I’m not even sure if this was the episode I missed way back when. I’m fairly sure it is, but man, who knows. But here I am, a rented Netflix Flash disc in hand, and by God if it’s here, I’m going to spend some of the precious few moments I have left on Earth to watch it.

Of course, I was immediately reminded of the crazy muscle suit that star John Wesley Shipp had to wear, in that glorious Tim Burton Batman movie era where superheroes needed the super-padded treatment:


The “Deadly Nightshade” episode featured a (sorta) post Star Trek The Next Generation Denise Crosby:


…and a pre-Star Trek Voyager Jeri Ryan:


…as well as series semi-regular THE BELZ:


Good ol’ Richard Belzer, in a rare TV appearance that isn’t Detective Munch. And that’s the Deadly Nightshade (or someone claiming to be him, wink wink) on the right, there, a sort of pseudo-Shadow vigilante. In fact, listening to the D.N.’s dialogue in the pre-credits opener, I wondered to myself if this was one of the episodes noted Shadow storyteller Howard Chaykin cowrote, and when the credits rolled, well, sure enough.

Ultimately, it’s still a lot of goofy fun, even if the whole production screams “1990s” so much I half-expected Parker Lewis to synchronize his Swatch with the Scarlet Speedster.

Also on this disc: the episode where David Cassidy plays the Mirror Master. I know it’s a drastically different version of the character, but c’mon, it’s David Cassidy. Not a bad disc to get based on a completely irrational Netflix rental decision.

About that time, them Duke boys were on their way to have afternoon tea and crumpets with the Queen….

§ February 25th, 2013 § Filed under television § 5 Comments

So on Sunday, a lady brought by a pile of stuff to sell to the shop, and I went through the cards, the toys, the magazines, and came up basically empty…except for this:


The British hardcover Dukes of Hazzard annual…I had no idea them Duke boys had enough of a following in dear old Blighty to warrant a series of annuals, but there were apparently at least six of them. I hoped and prayed it was a comics annual, but alas, it was just short stories and puzzles and at least one article explaining CB radio jargon, all copiously illustrated with color photos of the cast:


There’s also an article at the beginning of the volume with sort of a FAQ, explaining what kind of car the General Lee is (“The General Lee is what is known in the USA as a ‘muscle car'”) and whether or not Hazzard County is a real place (well, there’s a town in Kentucky named Hazard that has some ties to the show).

Oh, and did I mention there’s a page of jokes? There’s a page of jokes:


There’s also a two page board game, with the unfortunate name of “The YeeHaa! Game,” page one of which may be seen below:


…in which players, when landing upon the “Yee-Haw!” square, must balance out the advantage of being able to interfere with another player’s progress in the game by bearing the indignity of having to shout out “YEE-HAW!” while doing so.* No, really, it’s in the rules:


Now we’ve had this book in our possession for all of about a day and I’ve already sold the thing via the Internet, so I’ll have to ship this sucker out when I’m back in the shop on Tuesday. I’ve gone from not knowing this even existed to already missing it within in a matter of hours.


Oh, I’d hold onto you like a limpet if I could, Dukes of Hazzard Annual.
 
 

* Maybe you can mix things up a bit by shouting out “Manara!” instead. …Or maybe not.

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