Hey, found this on the 'Net today. It's an obvious companion piece to the CAPTAIN AMERICA portrait we ran the other day!
A LOOK AT COMICS, BOOKS, MOVIES, CARTOONS, TELEVISION SHOWS, MUSIC AND MORE POP CULTURE GOODNESS FROM MY VAST AND VIRTUAL PERSONAL LIBRARY!
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Monday, July 07, 2008
Random Panels of Comic Book Weirdness # 35
From a late 1962 issue of SUPERBOY, here we have the delightful image of Jonathan and Martha Kent mistaking a hand grenade exploding in Superbaby's tummy for Supergas! Excuse me, indeed!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam
All I have to say is how the HELL did THIS get published in today's comics market??!! That said, why are you still sitting there? GO! BUY IT NOW! This is my new favorite thing! And go visit creator Mike Kunkel's art blog at The Astonish Factory's Center for Babbling and Scribbles.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Mutual Radio Theater
Barney Beck, the great radio sound effects man, once told me that I’d missed my calling and had I been born a few decades earlier, I could have been big in radio. While this was undeniably a great compliment, it also serves to play up the fact that radio…even dramatic radio, is not what it used to be!
Every time some well-meaning folks have decided to try dramatic radio since the early sixties, it hasn’t quite worked. It’s hard to put your finger on why but in spite of the enthusiasm and occasional technical expertise that far surpassed that of the "golden age," modern age radio dramas and comedies just seem to be missing that magic.
THEATER FIVE in 1965 came close with Fred Foy announcing and lots of veterans on air and behind the scenes but it still—starting with its oh-so-sixties theme music—missed the mark. Himan Brown’s mid-seventies CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER hosted by EG Marshall was enjoyable and I often put it on late at night as I was discovering OTR but it still seemed slow and often dull by comparison. BRADBURY 13 was wonderful but still seems kind of sterile. The same with Carl
Amari’s recent radio TWILIGHT ZONE. The Canadian NIGHTFALL was adult, gory fun and may be the best of the lot but even it can be slow going at times.
Various one-off productions over the years have made the same mistakes, taking months sometimes to write, produce and perform a dull one hour radio play that forty years earlier would have gone from concept to air in less than a week and been better paced and more enjoyable. Even Canada and the BBC, where the concept of dramatic radio never really died off, often turn out the most boring pieces! Have you ever tried to listen to one of the BBC’s interminable DOCTOR WHO radio serials of recent years? How do you make DOCTOR WHO seem dull?
Then we come to the MUTUAL RADIO THEATER. The most potential and yet one of the biggest offenders of all. Like most of the latter-day attempts, MRT was an anthology series but this five day a week series offered a different genre and a different celebrity host for every night of the week.
Monday was Western night hosted by BONANZA’s Lorne Greene (himself a veteran of Canadian radio). Tuesday was Comedy night presented by Andy Griffith. On Wednesday, Vincent Price—a radio man from way back—offered Mystery. Thursday featured Cicely Tyson with Romance and Friday perhaps incongruously offered Leonard (I AM NOT SPOCK) Nimoy with Adventure night.
An immediate inherent fault in this format was the fact that if you liked mysteries and adventures, you would only listen on Wednesdays and Fridays. If you only wanted a few laughs, you’d only tune in on Tuesday. Since listening to radio in the evenings was hardly a regular habit for most folks by 1980, more than likely you wouldn’t even
remember from week to week.
It might have helped if the series had gotten listings, reviews or other publicity in newspapers but quite frankly if the MUTUAL RADIO THEATER even played in the Cincinnati market I was never aware of it.
Seen here is a box of LPs I picked up used in the mid-eighties and this was the first I had even heard of the series! As you can see by the notes that came with the box, the entire set was supposed to have been contractually destroyed "to avoid accidental rebroadcast" but somebody at some station chose to just sell them… at least for the week of April 21, 1980.
To say I was excited was putting it mildly but I have rarely been so disappointed. Take a look at the episode listings and you see the names of the legendary Arch Oboler, the great Elliot Lewis and one of the great rad
io writers, Fletcher Markle. Sigh. Maybe it’s just that "you can’t go home again" thing but even these great radio creators prove to be…here’s that word again…dull!
Add to that performances from folks such as Toni Tennille who just don’t have the right "vibe" for radio and each of these episodes comes across as a pointless attempt to recapture lightning in a bottle. The hosts, the truly big name celebrities, probably recorded all of their intros at once to be edited in as they often seem not to have even heard the episodes. Seriously, I’d bet Cicely Tyson in particular was a little too busy during that period to run to a Mutual studio once a week for just a few minutes work. Maybe Vinnie could squeeze it in between HOLLYWOOD SQUARES episodes but…
THE MUTUAL RADIO THEATER didn’t last very long. I hate to sound so cynical as I dearly love the amazing power of radio at its best and maybe it’s just me pining for what might have been but…sigh. I keep listening whenever there’s a new radio production but it’s hard to convince folks in this fast-paced world that this art form is actually one of the best because it all takes place in your own head. As I once wrote elsewhere, I’d hate to see dramatic radio go the way of Sanskrit to be studied only by scholars in dusty listening rooms.
Every time some well-meaning folks have decided to try dramatic radio since the early sixties, it hasn’t quite worked. It’s hard to put your finger on why but in spite of the enthusiasm and occasional technical expertise that far surpassed that of the "golden age," modern age radio dramas and comedies just seem to be missing that magic.
THEATER FIVE in 1965 came close with Fred Foy announcing and lots of veterans on air and behind the scenes but it still—starting with its oh-so-sixties theme music—missed the mark. Himan Brown’s mid-seventies CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER hosted by EG Marshall was enjoyable and I often put it on late at night as I was discovering OTR but it still seemed slow and often dull by comparison. BRADBURY 13 was wonderful but still seems kind of sterile. The same with Carl
Amari’s recent radio TWILIGHT ZONE. The Canadian NIGHTFALL was adult, gory fun and may be the best of the lot but even it can be slow going at times.Various one-off productions over the years have made the same mistakes, taking months sometimes to write, produce and perform a dull one hour radio play that forty years earlier would have gone from concept to air in less than a week and been better paced and more enjoyable. Even Canada and the BBC, where the concept of dramatic radio never really died off, often turn out the most boring pieces! Have you ever tried to listen to one of the BBC’s interminable DOCTOR WHO radio serials of recent years? How do you make DOCTOR WHO seem dull?
Then we come to the MUTUAL RADIO THEATER. The most potential and yet one of the biggest offenders of all. Like most of the latter-day attempts, MRT was an anthology series but this five day a week series offered a different genre and a different celebrity host for every night of the week.
Monday was Western night hosted by BONANZA’s Lorne Greene (himself a veteran of Canadian radio). Tuesday was Comedy night presented by Andy Griffith. On Wednesday, Vincent Price—a radio man from way back—offered Mystery. Thursday featured Cicely Tyson with Romance and Friday perhaps incongruously offered Leonard (I AM NOT SPOCK) Nimoy with Adventure night.
An immediate inherent fault in this format was the fact that if you liked mysteries and adventures, you would only listen on Wednesdays and Fridays. If you only wanted a few laughs, you’d only tune in on Tuesday. Since listening to radio in the evenings was hardly a regular habit for most folks by 1980, more than likely you wouldn’t even
remember from week to week.It might have helped if the series had gotten listings, reviews or other publicity in newspapers but quite frankly if the MUTUAL RADIO THEATER even played in the Cincinnati market I was never aware of it.
Seen here is a box of LPs I picked up used in the mid-eighties and this was the first I had even heard of the series! As you can see by the notes that came with the box, the entire set was supposed to have been contractually destroyed "to avoid accidental rebroadcast" but somebody at some station chose to just sell them… at least for the week of April 21, 1980.
To say I was excited was putting it mildly but I have rarely been so disappointed. Take a look at the episode listings and you see the names of the legendary Arch Oboler, the great Elliot Lewis and one of the great rad
io writers, Fletcher Markle. Sigh. Maybe it’s just that "you can’t go home again" thing but even these great radio creators prove to be…here’s that word again…dull!Add to that performances from folks such as Toni Tennille who just don’t have the right "vibe" for radio and each of these episodes comes across as a pointless attempt to recapture lightning in a bottle. The hosts, the truly big name celebrities, probably recorded all of their intros at once to be edited in as they often seem not to have even heard the episodes. Seriously, I’d bet Cicely Tyson in particular was a little too busy during that period to run to a Mutual studio once a week for just a few minutes work. Maybe Vinnie could squeeze it in between HOLLYWOOD SQUARES episodes but…
THE MUTUAL RADIO THEATER didn’t last very long. I hate to sound so cynical as I dearly love the amazing power of radio at its best and maybe it’s just me pining for what might have been but…sigh. I keep listening whenever there’s a new radio production but it’s hard to convince folks in this fast-paced world that this art form is actually one of the best because it all takes place in your own head. As I once wrote elsewhere, I’d hate to see dramatic radio go the way of Sanskrit to be studied only by scholars in dusty listening rooms.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Captain America For Independence day
Here, from the early 1940's, is a more traditional and yet rarely seen look at the Star-Spangled Avenger and his trusty sidekick.
Random Panels of Comic Book Weirdness # 34
What would July 4th be here in the Us of A without baseball, hot dogs and...CAPTAIN AMERICA? Here, in art credited to Carl Burgos and Al Gabriele in GCD, is Cap from 1948's MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #88. The girl with him is Bucky's little-known replacement (seriously!) Golden Girl (AKA the patriotically named Betsy Ross). Sometimes, as in this particular case, the panel may not have been all that weird in its original context but becomes weirder due to then-future events. In this case, Cap was searching for a missing soldier but...due to events of a decade later...seems now to be anxiously looking for his favorite singer--CHUCK BERRY!!!
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Super Socks
Just spent a couple hours helping a young lady friend clean her room and was amazed at just how many socks she had! Socks with skulls, socks with kitties, socks with candy canes, socks with glow-in-the-dark stars...still, she didn't have THESE!
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