Boomerang

Hmmm...Maybe I should start a new series called "Badly Costumed Heroes" because here's yet another one. This one's called BOOMERANG and comes from TERRIFIC COMICS (which was a bit of a misnomer). While admiring his sartorial splendor, note also his sidekick, the fearsomely named...DIANA! Why do I suspect that ol' Mister Boomerang designed her costume for her? "Come on, honey. It's hep! It's stylish! Having so little of your flesh covered will HELP us in our crimefighting by distracting the enemy and so what if it's a little tight in the rear? It looks good on you! Heh, heh, heh!" Of course, one look at him should have told her that this guy's no Mister Blackwell either!

V For Vendetta

Finally got around to seeing V FOR VENDETTA yesterday and I was quite impressed. I followed the original Alan Moore/David Lloyd comic series in the late, lamented UK magazine WARRIOR as it originally came out in the eighties and for the most part enjoyed it. I must admit that I felt it bogged down quite a bit in the middle and the later DC ending was a bit of a disappointment. One little-remembered aspect of the original was the rampant fan speculation that V would be revealed to be MARVELMAN! Since Alan Moore was busy rewriting comics history elsewhere in WARRIOR with that now-controversial series it almost made sense! Surely he would eventually tie the two series together! While that was probably, in retrospect, never to be his intent, the very possibility was derailed when Marvel comics began complaints about MARVELMAN just because of the title. The immensely popular strip was eventually dropped from the lineup and left to be continued later in the US as MIRACLEMAN. Meanwhile V FOR VENDETTA continued. I began to think of it as similar to Moore's take on Marvel's NIGHT RAVEN (also drawn by David Lloyd) via THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO and THE SHADOW.

When it comes to the film, I thought they did an excellent job of translating the strip, streamlining some of the slower moments and emphasizing that Evie is the hero--not V, a fact that was often obscured in the originals. Alan Moore, as is his nature, refused to allow his name on the film. More incredulously, no one in the Making Of documentary seems able to mention Moore's contribution, either. IT's as if Lloyd, who DOES appear, just spontaneously illustrated the story with no writer involved at all. Alan (May I call you Alan?), as a creative artist, I very much understand your desire to distance yourself from other media interpretations of your work but to leave your name completely out when discussing the genesis of the project seems akin to rewriting history...much like they attempt to do in the story itself.

Rick O' Shay

I believe I've written about RICK O'SHAY before but the 1996 book seen here is new to the Library this week. Stan Lynde did this comic strip for several decades before switching to the more serious LATIGO and writing a couple western novels. Beginning in 1958, Rick O'Shay stumbled on a stranded gambler named "Deuces" Wilde and then the pair stumbled on a ghost town where they decided to settle. As the town grew up again, the readers learned that this was not, in fact, the old west but a sort of left behind corner of the modern world. Soon enough, "Hipshot" Percussion, the oh-s0-cool gunfighter with the heart of gold (picture Fonzie as a cowboy with a string mustache) joins the cast and almost steals the show. Early stories went back and forth between semi-realistic western melodrama and pop culture parodies such as the one in this volume featuring Dr. Franklinstine's robot. Made up of leftover television parts, the robot spoke in then-topical (and now horribly dated) TV commercial catch phrases. Over the years, Stan added assistants and the art style became much more realistic. The modern elements mostly faded and RICK O' SHAY became one of the last of the great cowboy strips, continuing long past the heyday of the TV westerns that spawned it.

In the 1990's Lynde began reprinting the series. I'm not certain how many volumes eventually came out but they're all choice examples of a comic strip done right. I got this one at a Borders yesterday. You probably won't find these on a shelf in your neck of the woods but obviously your local bookstore can get this and other volumes for you. I'd have them do it right away if you're a western fan or just a fan of classic sixties comic strips!

Merv Griffin's Book of People

A bit late but I wanted to note the recent passing of Merv Griffin. Because of his later success in game show creation, Merv’s long stint as a talk show host seems almost forgotten but he was one of the best. Originally with haughty actor Arthur Treacher (later of fish and chips fame) as his Ed McMahon-style sidekick, Griffin pioneered a lighter style than Johnny Carson that would eventually lead to a feeling that one was just sitting in on some folks talking. His comfortable style even got favorite guest Orson Welles to make up on TV with his long estranged partner John Houseman in one memorable episode! The book seen here, FROM WHERE I SIT, is one of several books by Merv Griffin but this one is made up of reminiscences of some of those pleasant interviews. Orson is here but you’ll also find Jack Benny, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Warner, Henry, Peter and Jane Fonda, Henry Kissinger, Burt Reynolds and Richard Burton. If you only know Merv Griffin from the fact that he brought the world JEAPORDY and WHEEL OF FORTUNE, go to a used bookstore and look for FROM WHERE I SIT-MERV GRIFFIN’S BOOK OF PEOPLE and settle in for a treat.

Get Crazy

1983’s GET CRAZY was, in a very real sense, the follow-up to the great ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (as opposed to that too little, too late ROCK "N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL FOREVER with Corey Feldman). It may look like a Roger Corman film but actually the Executive Producer was Herbert F. Solow, one of the men who brought us the original STAR TREK! ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL’s director, however, carries over and brings his unique style of hip, in-joke comedy to the fore. Now the darling of NBC’s HEROES, director Allan Arkush does a great job here on an obviously low budget, most of which probably went to pay for top-billed Malcolm McDowell. The ensemble cast is led by Daniel (HOME ALONE) Stern as the everyman hero and Gail (IT’S A LIVING) Edwards as his female counterpart. The great character actor Alan Garfield (here in his Goorwitz phase) appears as a Bill Graham type. Ed Begley (when is he old enough to drop the "junior?") is surprisingly slimy as the villain with former pop idols Bobby Sherman and Fabian hilariously cast as his fawning assistants! Throw in the Turtles’ Howard Kaylan looking like Mike Love in his guru period, the Doors’ John Densmore, Lou Reed amazingly fun as a Dylanesque folkie, the wonderful Bill Henderson (my favorite performance here!) and Malcolm McDowell’s conversation with his own penis and you have a winner! I was going to write a basic plot synopsis but in looking up production details, I note that someone named "Dudeness" has a lengthy and detailed one on IMDB so I refer you to his Get Crazy (1983) - Synopsis for more on this wacky picture.
Not a forgotten film but it wasn’t a hit and is not always the easiest to find. I actually had never heard of it at all until a former employee of mine told me about it and then later gifted me with her own pre-viewed VHS copy circa 1989. There’s some pro-drug humor in the FREAK BROTHERS style and anarchistic views but at it’s heart it’s an old-fashioned "Hey, let’s put on a show and save the old theater!" plot! Find it, watch it, laugh at it!

Random Panels of Comic Book Weirdness # 11

I know , I know. It's kind of cheating to find a random panel of weirdness in a golden age WONDER WOMAN story 'cause they're everywhere! Still, this COMIC CAVALCADE panel was too good NOT to present here out of context. Make up your own jokes, folks!

Bob Hastings the "Overacting Extra"

Everyone’s still talking about Jonathan Ross’s entertaining BBC documentary IN SEARCH OF STEVE DITKO. Something I personally found to be a nice touch in it was the scene where they were showing clips from various SPIDER-MAN projects. In the bit from the seventies American version, Ross makes reference to "overacting extras" whilst we see on-screen a near-hysterical guy saying he’d just seen Spidey. Well, that guy, the anonymous overacting extra in question, happens to be none other than my long-time friend from the Cincinnati Old-Time Radio Convention, Bob Hastings!
Here’s a photo I took of Bob at the 2006 OTR Con (with everyone’s favorite award-winning re-creation actress, Karen Hughes). Having grown up enjoying MCHALE’S NAVY on television, It was a bit of a shock to me a few years ago when I realized that this man that I watched on TV as a small child now knew my name! Bob first came as a guest at the Con twenty years ago now! In his initial year, he shared the spotlight with the great Parley Baer and told great stories of Joe Flynn and Walt Disney movies. He also directed one of the re-creations of OTR scripts that year and proved himself a frenetic taskmaster as a director.
Almost every year since then , I have been lucky enough to perform onstage with Bob including twice as Jughead to his Archie. Bob has told me several times that he enjoys working with me because unlike some amateur performers, I don’t just stand at the mike and read the lines. I look at the other actors and play off of them. I learned this from watching Bob with actor/director Ezra Stone. Sitting next to him onstage, he taught me how to mark a script and how to silently turn the pages so the sound isn’t "broadcast."
Bob began as a singer on radio way back in the 1930’s! He became the definitive radio ARCHIE ANDREWS right at the initial height of the comic’s popularity. In the fifties, his familiar voice was heard in several memorable episodes of X-MINUS ONE. In the sixties he occasionally spelled Mel Blanc as the voice of the raven in the cuckoo clock on THE MUNSTERS (and in the later TV reunion film played the clan’s cousin, the Phantom). Besides MCHALE’S NAVY, Hastings also appeared in soap operas, Disney comedies and guest roles on everything from WONDER WOMAN and THE ROCKFORD FILES to THE NIGHT STALKER. Bob was "Kelsey" who ran Kelsey’s Bar on ALL IN THE FAMILY for several seasons (the "token conservative" on the show as he says). In recent years, he was the voice of Commisioner Gordon on the already classic Paul Dini BATMAN cartoons and spinoff features as well as doing video game voiceovers in games such as JAKK AND DAXTER. Earlier this year, he appeared on the cast reunion film shot for the MCHALE’S NAVY season one box set and, now age 81, gave a memorable performance as THE CANTERVILLE GHOST onstage at Cincinnati.
Okay, Bob may have been an overacting extra in that SPIDER-MAN clip but he’s a solid, professional performer and I’m proud to have been able to work with him over the years. Thanks, Bob!