William Friedkin's Spirit

Here's an article from 1976 about EXORCIST director William "Billy" Friedkin's planned TV movie version of Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT. If anybody could do the classic strip--then enjoying its great re-discovery via Warren's reprint magazine--justice, it was presumed to be Friedkin. The director's own Oscar-winning THE FRENCH CONNECTION had shown scenes almost literally lifted off of Eisner's pages. Speculation in the fan press of the time is that James Garner would be ideal (if a tad too old in retrospect) in the lead with possibly commercial kid Rodney Allen Rippy or later Gary Coleman as Ebony. One reason we never saw this fanboy dream pic is mentioned right at the end of the article. SORCERER. Although critically acclaimed in some quarters, it was a long, tough shoot and the box office did not indicate that it was worth the wait. Throw into the mix the fact that STAR WARS debuted the following summer and suddenly everyone wanted sci-fi films or nothing. THE SPIRIT would have to wait ten years before finally turning up as a forgettable TV pilot starring FLASH GORDON's Sam Jones. More recently, of course, we've had the almost universally panned Frank Miller version which seems nonetheless to have done reasonably well for its makers. Maybe they can get Friedkin to direct a sequel?

Random Panels of Comic Book Weirdness # 59

This one looks like it might be more at home over in the "Subtext? What subtext?" department of a site like the always enjoyable http://www.postmodernbarney.com/.

Neal Adams' Tarzan

Once again back to the old CBG clipping archives and we find this absolutely lovely Neal Adams TARZAN image that I estimate to be circa 1980.

Movies That Fell Through the Cracks # 52

Back to 1979 again for THE PASSAGE, an under-the-radar blip of a movie that's largely forgotten even by those who saw it except for Malcolm McDowell's performance as a "Nazi Caligula." Made the same year as his performance of the real thing in Penthouse Magazine's infamous X-rated CALIGULA, the actor's performance in this one is described as brutal and nasty but also camp and over-the-top. In fact, his performance is pretty much all anyone DOES talk about when discussing THE PASSAGE. Never mind that top billing went to veterans Anthony Quinn and James Mason. It had been more than 40 years since Quinn and Mason had made their first appearances on film--a much rarer feat then than now!--and here they were still getting above the title billing! Legendary actress Patricia Neal had one of her final big screen roles here, also and Christopher Lee appeared in a change of pace as a nice guy gypsy. Don't ask me how she got involved in this but David Cassidy's wife at the time, Kay Lenz (so good in Clint Eastwood's BREEZY) appears also. The plot had something to do with Quinn trying to rescue Mason's scientist from McDowell's sadistic Nazi. The direction was by A Minus director (or maybe he should be termed B Plus) J. Lee Thompson (no relation). Thompson's earlier triumphs had included THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and two of the PLANET OF THE APES pictures but after this he descended into the hell of bad Charles Bronson vehicles.

Happy 4th of July

Okay, so today is only the 3rd of July but that doesn't prevent gazillions of Americans from starting their celebrations early. For you, we offer this vintage early 1940's fireworks ad and, from the early 1960's, proof that some things DO change. According to this recipe card from Covington, Kentucky's Parkview Market--where we used to shop when I was a wee lad and which was torn down circa 1964--the appetizing red and yellow concoction you see here...is a CHEESEBURGER! I dunno...Lolcats probably wouldn't go so gaga over 'em if this was still considered a cheeseburger! So cook out, blow things up and get wasted to show your patriotism. Me, I think I'm gonna pull all the curtains and just hope the North Koreans don't attack in the next couple days. If my car gets hit by an ICBM, I'm more likely to blame it on my neighbor. You should SEE the fireworks this guy gets!

Telephone Numbers-1962

Telephones have long had a place in pop culture. Since Don Ameche invented the telephone, we've had Hitchcock's DIAL M FOR MURDER, Charles Bronson's TELEFON, the 1980 horror movie DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE right up to Miley Cyrus's supposedly racy cell phone pictures. Sometimes we forget, however, that telephone NUMBERS weren't always all number! In fact, up until the early 1960's, American telephone numbers all began with letters! The very first phone number my parents drilled into my head was HEmlock-0479. There was, for some reason, a presumed "1" after the H and the E. What you see here is part of the telephone company's marketing efforts to ease the transition. There's no year date on the flyer but 1962 was the only year that actually had May 20th fall on a Sunday during that decade so that must be correct for it. I don't know. In these days of pre-programmed numbers, automatic one touch dialing and all of the other conveniences this still looks complicated! No wonder my parents continued to use the letters until we finally got a new phone toward the end of the seventies that didn't have letters anymore !

Craig Yoe Reads and Discusses Joe Shuster's Kinky Work

What's that? You don't have your copy of comics historian Craig Yoe's recent book, SECRET IDENTITY-THE FETISH ART OF SUPERMAN'S CO-CREATOR JOE SHUSTER! Maybe it's because it was a little hard to find in stores. Not to worry, fanboys! Amazon has it reasonably priced at http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Identity-Supermans-Co-creator-Shuster/dp/0810996340/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246466150&sr=1-1 so your despair is over. Whilst you're waiting for your copy to arrive, enjoy this recent clip of Craig reading/discussing and showing art from the book. Great Caesar's Ghost, indeed!