The Man With the Golden Gun Mini-Poster

Back in the seventies, one would ocassionally find flyers, posters or even program books in movie theaters as a sort of souvenir of the movie you were seeing. It was always a pleasant surprise. This nifty, slick paper mini-poster is, of course, from the second Roger Moore James Bond film, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. I always felt as though I should have liked this film more than I did. After all, it was directed by Guy Hamilton who had done my two favorite 007 pictures, GOLDFINGER and DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER and it co-starred one of my favorite actors, Christopher Lee. Nevertheless, it was (and remains. Saw it again recently on cable) disappointing. Strangely enough, the film seemed to strongly influence my favorite comic book of just a few years later, though--Marvel's MASTER OF KUNG-FU. As writer Doug Moench veered into more outlandish spy territory, even Herve Villachaize kind of crept into the comic! In the meantime, one can hardly fail to notice in the poster seen here the style that would soon (along with Jim Steranko) become a major influence on MoKF artist Paul Gulacy!

Random Panels of Comic Book Weirdness # 37

Challenger of the Unknown. Hah! That's right, Rocky. Laugh it up while you can. The day will come when your expensive new computer doesn't recognize its own burning software and you find out that your favorite photo-editing software is no longer manufactured at all and its replacement sucks (as well as would set you back another small fortune!) and your screensaver never even comes on! Windows Vista! Challenge THAT, buddy!

Strange and Stranger-The World of Steve Ditko

Today's NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW presented a review of Facebook pal Blake Bell's new book, STRANGE AND STRANGER-THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO. Or did they? Their piece barely mentions the book itself, preferring instead to go on at length (nearly a full page) about the well-known eccentricities of Ditko as a man and as an artist. In so doing, the reviewer all but parrots the book itself rather than reviewing it.
STRANGE AND STRANGER is itself an anomaly in a way. It's a book that Ditko would probably prefer didn't exist at all and yet it is, in fact, the most flattering and fair-minded celebration of his unique place in comic book history that I've ever seen. On the one hand giving lip service to Ditko's insistance on his privacy and yet on the other revealing photos and encounters heretofore uncollected.
Putting aside the inevitable question of should the book have been written at all if Ditko didn't want it to be, Bell's text is straightforward, well-researched and as knowledgeable as one would expect from the man who's run the biggest Steve Ditko fan site on the web for many a year now (http://www.ditko.comics.org/). The art is a well-chosen mix of classic pieces, rare illustrations and astonishingly reproduced original pages.
Ditko the artist is well-served and every aspect of his career is touched on in chronolgical order, much of it familiar and yet always amazing. Ditko the man, on the other hand, is someone whom I had never really encountered previously and I was fascinated to do so at last. His passion for Ayn Rand's writings and philosophies is laid out in such a compelling fashion that I've actually considered reading THE FOUNTAINHEAD since I finished Bell's book. What emerges overall is a portrait of a man with values that he cherishes above all else. No compromise! What comes across as his endless eccentricities are actually his standing ground for his own convictions, something very few of us do these days. One could argue that the artist shows more than a hint of mental instability but don't all great men look insane to those who disagree with them?
STRANGE AND STRANGER is backed up by extensive footnotes documenting every little comment by and about Ditko and the whole thing is wrapped up in a classy Fantagraphics package. Ditko has always said his work should speak for him. It does and it always has but there's a natural tendency for fans to want to know the person behind the work and Blake Bell has succeeded in introducing him (kicking and screaming perhaps) admirably. This is a long-overdue volume that belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who has ever considered himself (or herself) a comic book aficionado.
Thank you, Mr. Ditko, for sharing your work with us all these years and thank you, Mr. Bell for sharing Mr. Ditko with us at long last.

New PC

Sorry posting is light at the moment but things should get better soon. The main reason this time is that the Library updated its computer system earlier this week and so now, of course, nothing works quite right! In the end, though, it should be SO worth it! As we mentioned recently, we came into enough money to finally get ourselves out of debt. Along with that, there was plenty to save and a little left to play with. We opted to update our 32 GB PC to this 750 GB PC! Here's the system we got and we got all the bells and whistles including a 24 inch flat widescreen monitor! WOW! What with continuing work issues, it's going to take some time, however, to hook up the old PC elsewhere and get all the good stuff off of it. Then there's the problem that my pre-existing HP printer and digital camera software are incompatible with Windows Vista (as is the ROLLING STONE on DVD set we purchased recently with our incentive check). On the other hand, we've already been able to get ahold of some nifty old movies we've always wanted to see and the quality is excellent. As the tech guy who installed our high end anti-virus program said (and we'd already bought the computer), "This machine will not be obsolete in three years. More than likely, this will be where other PC's are striving to BE in three years!" Now if I can only get it to do what I want it to do sometime soon.

Chitra on Let's Go For Broke

A lifetime ago, Manoshi Chitra Neogy made a movie that hardly anyone saw, that quickly disappeared and was forgotten by nearly everyone. As regular readers know, I found what may be the only remaining 35MM print of the picture, Christa Helm's LET'S GO FOR BROKE, and, through the courtesy of original producer Stuart Duncan, secured a DVD copy (thanks CBS!) under the agreement that I do not copy or distribute it in any way. I did, however, feel that Chitra--who didn't even realize that the film had ever had a final edit!--should get to see it. Recently, I mailed her my precious copy of LET'S GO FOR BROKE and she was able to revisit a time and place from deep in her own past. Imagine seeing yourself 35 years after the fact dealing with people and situations you barely remembered and yet, like everything we do, helped define the person you are today.

I asked Chitra to jot down a few lines of her memories after she saw her performance as the evil villainess in this would-be crime/spy movie spoof. Herewith, her comments:

COMMENTS ON GO FOR BROKE…….
WHEN STEVEN THOMPSON SENT ME AN E MAIL ASKING IF I WAS THE CHITRA NEOGY IN A FILM CALLED GO FOR BROKE I WAS BOTH TAKEN ABACK AND SHOCKED. AFTER COMPLETING THE FILM AND MANY FAILED ATTEMPTS AT FINDING OUT WHAT HAD HAPPENED, THE WHOLE VERY STRANGE EXPERIENCE JUST FADED AWAY. THE ONE THING I OFTEN REGRETTED WAS THAT I HAD NEVER SEEN THE FINAL PRINT AND HAD JUST WATCHED SOME DAILIES WHILE SHOOTING. WHILE FILMING, I WAS ASKED TO HELP COACH CHRISTA HELM AS SHE WAS APPARENTLY NOT WILLING TO LISTEN TO A HIRED COACH. I TRIED. I ALSO IMPROVISED MUCH OF THE DIALOGUE SPOKEN BY ME AS THE WRITTEN SCRIPT GIVEN TO ME WAS QUITE VACUOUS.

WATCHING THE FILM I HAVE TO SAY THAT IT WAS MUCH WORSE THAN I HAD EXPECTED. KNOWING WHILE IN THE PROCESS THAT IT WAS GOING TO BE A SORT OF FUN EXPERIENCE, I HAD NO IDEA HOW BAD THE FINAL PROJECT WOULD BE. I FEEL THAT A LOT COULD HAVE BEEN BOTH SAVED AND IMPROVED IN THE EDITING PROCESS. WATCHING MY OWN PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVELY WAS NOT EASY AS IT WAS SO WEAVED INTO THE BANALITY OF THE REST. I DO BELIEVE THAT THERE WAS AN UNDERLYING THEME WHICH IF EXECUTED WITH SOME KIND OF DEPTH AND VISION MAY HAVE MADE AN INTERESTING FILM.

I DO NOT CRITIQUE FILM WITH A HEAVY HAND AS CINEMA--TRUE CINEMA--TO ME IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL MEDIUMS OF EXPRESSION, BUT HERE I UNFORTUNATELY HAVE NO CHOICE.

Superboy Says: Give Your Town a Present

We're down three people at work and scrambling to get bookdave ready for his new school (which starts tomorrow!) as well as looking at upgrading our PC so just time today for a new PSA.

The Mad Morality

Hey, it’s time for another random book off the shelf here at the Library. Well, actually today’s book is from Signet, not Random (lol! Book humor!). Following in the tradition of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PEANUTS, THE MAD MORALITY--OR THE TEN COMMANDMENTS REVISITED came out in 1970 and makes a valiant effort at finding Christian values (in spite of the obvious Jewish background) in late sixties issues of MAD. Given permission by Gaines and Feldstein to use examples to prove his contentions, the author provides literally scores of significant reprints by the Usual Gang of Idiots. In fact, if not for the official MAD foreword denying it, one would have to say he proves his case very well indeed! Similar to the recent spate of philosophy books based around the Beatles, THE SIMPSONS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and Monty Python (as well as the brand new STAR TREK AND PHILOSOPHY-THE WRATH OF KANT), the pop theological trend of that period was short-lived but may well have changed some folks’ thinking when it came to MAD. MAD was most kids’ first look at anarchism and questioning authority. Many parents (mine included) thought it was subversive (it was!) and should not be permitted in the home. In fact, until I was in my mid-teens, my copies stayed under the pillow of the big chair in my bedroom along with my illicit copies of STAG. To have a theologian like author Vernard Eller point out the positive side of all of this was significant and probably accounted for the book’s multiple printings. Originally a hardcover, the Library’s copy is a later mass market printing (with a buck fifty price) but we borrowed a scan of a 95 cent copy from the net as ours has been defaced with a pasted on $2.00 garage sale sticker! Ugh!