Want Action?-A DC House Ad

This early fifties (I think) house ad is a bit misleading. Not only does it ask if you want ACTION and then advertise WORLD'S FINEST instead but isn't that the single blandest cover you have EVER seen?? I mean seriously! Superman is taking a photo of Batman taking a photo of Robin taking a photo of...well, Superman. Yawwwwn! Sorry. Excuse me. It's just... I mean... THERE ARE NO FREAKIN' BACKGROUNDS EVEN!!!What the...!!?? I guess the message is obvious. If you ARE looking for action...In any sense of the term...THIS ain't it!

"Christa Helm Is Jackie Broke!"

That's what the ads touted back in 1974. Now, thanks to Christa's daughter Nicole, we have this pristine look at that cool but grainy image from the ads for the unreleased movie LET'S GO FOR BROKE that we ran some time back here at the Library! Also, if you're interested, hit your local Public Library for STARSKY AND HUTCH season one on DVD and look for Christa in a small but showy unbilled role in the episode SILENCE guest-starring the great Chuck McCann. Thanks, Nicole!

2007

We spend a lot of our time here at Booksteve’s Library living in the past. The books, the music, the movies, the comics--the sounds and smells and looks of our childhood and even our parents’ childhoods. When you look around and see all of the hatred, the war, the poverty, the cruelty and the disasters that make up our present, the grass definitely looks like it USED to be a lot greener in that black and white world. What we forget is that that touch of innocence we’re all wishing we hadn’t lost was in ourselves, not our environments. And that’s just it. It’s still there. It’s just that as we all get older thoughts of sex and money and power and sex and money and more sex, etc. drown it out.
As we enter the new year, take a quiet moment to reflect on delight. The kind of delight you haven’t felt since you were a kid. Then go do something to feed that long-neglected need. Play with a puppy, make a child laugh, read some Disney duck comics, watch new cartoons, write a story, discover something you missed along the way and cherish it the way I cherish almost everything that happened when I was seven. That’s delight!
Remember that a new year is a new opportunity for creating delightful new memories for you and those close to you. It’s your choice, though. Of all people, I understand that stress is never easy to deal with. I also know, however, that it’s essential that you DO deal with it. Life is a series of pressures and wrong turns that somehow, if we’re lucky, gets us to where we need to be. Like the TARDIS, 2007 is bigger on the inside than on the outside. There’s plenty of room to take all that cool stuff from the past along with us but for right now…let’s go paint this new blank canvas with delight! C’mon! I’ll beat ya!

My Name is Christa Helm

This is a piece written by Christa's daughter Nicole. I had seen the piece before but would not have presumed to post it without permission but Nicole herself just posted it as a comment under an earlier piece I wrote about her mother. I thought it might get noticed a bit more as today's post. MY NAME IS CHRISTA HELM The early 1970's were a difficult time for the women of the day. Their moms were of the 50's, housekeepers, held against their will, by the "Right thing to do'. Those divorces hadn't much in the line of options either. Then there was the incoming age of peace, rock and roll, and the newfound sex, drugs and freedoms that no generation of women before had the pleasure, and pain of experiencing.My mother was one of these women, finally finding power in her sexuality, as opposed to the shame her earlier experiences had taught her. Her beauty was undeniable, and once she mastered the art of manipulation and charm, she found her way onto the path of her dreams. She was going to be a Movie Star!A few years of modeling and "Faking it" paid off when she moved to Hollywood and changed her name to Christa Helm.Living in a mansion, driving a new Jag, rich men falling all over her. Movie stars, sports figures, rich producers, politicians and musicians. They were all hers for the taking, and she took, and she worked, until she found herself on on the Yellow Brick Road of fame.Guest starring in Wonder Woman, Starsky and Hutch, making B rated movies, lathering in the Coppertone commercial of the day with Tarzan, and finally starring in her own debut film that was never released, all introduced her to the thrills and dangers of stardom.The lifestyles of Hollywood starlets of the time were filled with drugs, sex, murder, and money. My mother gained it all, and lost it all in a very short time.Down to her last dollars, waiting on a prime role and desperate to survive, she logged all of her escapades in a journal. The journal is rumored to have been filled with lovers, events and details of her private moments.Her affairs, beauty and strength enraged many who knew my mother, but those same attributes also brought respect, career growth, and an array of people who truly loved and respected the beauty within her. In the end those who loved and hated her would all become scrutinized under an investigation that remains open today, almost 30 years later.In the early morning hours one February morning in 1977, my mother was murdered. Stabbed over 30 times. beaten with a blunt instrument and left to bleed to death under a parked car in an upscale Hollywood neighborhood.The case remains unsolved. She was born Sandra Wohlfeil. She died Christa Helm.

All-Star Companions

Yet another cool Christmas gift I received, this one from my lovely wife, was Rascally Roy Thomas's ALL STAR COMPANION 2, the new book from the always reliable Twomorrows. This is, as you might guess from the title, a follow-up (one of two expected!) to 2000's unnumbered ALL-STAR COMPANION. Roy, along with the late Jerry Bails, is on record as a huge fan of the 1940's DC heroes, particularly those of the Justice Society of America. Both of these lovely volumes cover the JSA's appearances in ALL-STAR and beyond in obsessively minute detail and depth, something we greatly appreciate around here. Hundreds of pieces of rare and sometimes previously unpublished artwork dot each volume as Roy and friends weave the tale of each individual canonical appearance of the JSA in the forties and, in Volume two, Roy's own WWII era ALL-STAR SQUADRON from the eighties. Irwin Hasen, Arthur Peddy, Harry Peter, Mart Nodell, Joe Kubert, Bob Oksner and Beranard Sachs are given their due along with a dozen more as writer Gardner Fox is rightly lionized as one of the best comics writers of his day. Later, Jerry Ordway leads the way in coverage of the ret-conned Squadron series. Volume two even has a feature about the ads that appeared in ALL-STAR COMICS. You know, the same ads we've been running from time to time here at the Library! Captain Tootsie, Sam Spade and those guys! Hours and hours of great comics info and trivia in both of these fine volumes from one of my all-time favorite comics writers. Another great geek gift this holiday season!

WWII Timely Comics Ads

Since we were scouring through the archives just yesterday for Stan the Man's early text story, thought we'd also share these nifty early 1940's house ads featuring Cap, Subby and the Torch! Also present are the Patriot, the Angel, the original Ka-Zar and the original Vision,
the Young Allies, some thoroughly obscure characters...and a monkey. As they say, everything's better with a monkey.

Broken Trust by Stan Lee-1941

As you may have noted, today was Stan Lee's birthday. Stan Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man, the Hulk, Stripperella and WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPER-HERO? began his writing career doing the postally mandated filler stories in early Marvel (Timely) comics. Here's a rare bylined early text piece from CAPTAIN AMERICA # 11, published in late 1941. The contents page describes it as "An ace G-Man brings down the king of the underworld." Enjoy BROKEN TRUST.