The Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 7, 8

chapter 7 is a tiny little bit, so I figured I'd combine the next two parts into one post. Andy goes from promising never to return again to "I will return" which just proves what a master heel he was. he could work any crowd anywhere.

Steel dinosaurs!

Or so they would have us believe...  these are from Vail Lake Resort and apparently there are tons of them, made from scrap metal.  pretty darn cool.

Be My Batgirl video

this has been my favorite new song for a couple months, heck, almost half a year now. Clashing Plaid is a great band and it's really catchy. I was going to make a video of it myself, using pictures of all the various Batgirls that have been around, starting with the original Betty Kane version. never got around to it though.

Firefly (2002)

OK, so I'm 11 years late to this party.  or maybe not.  I like Joss Whedon, watched all of BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and all of ANGEL, even those damn confusing parts with Cordelia toward the end (really, what the hell was that?) and greatly enjoyed THE AVEMGERS.

but I hadn't watched this or any of his other shows when they aired.  there's so much genre stuff to watch now that it's hard to keep track of everything, much less watch it.  so I skipped this.  of course, I saw there was a movie made to wrap up some things, and then have talked to fans of the show. 

still, I never thought I needed to watch it.

Divinyls Live 1984 - Science Fiction

one of my favorite Divinyls songs. Christina really has a stage presence here. RIP Christina.

RIP Christina Amphlett

Christina Amphlett, vocalist for the band the Divinyls, passed away from MS and breast cancer on April 21st, 2013.  she had a great voice and wrote some pretty cool songs as well.  while most people remember her for "I Touch Myself" I always enjoyed the early stuff a lot as well.

Save the Earth Day, via Godzilla and AIP

today is Earth Day, and that always makes me think of GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER, the second Godzilla movie I ever saw. I remember the poster distinctly in the theater, it was pretty scary for a 7 year old back then in 1972. I saw it on TV first though, Channel 7 if I remember correctly. years later I saw it on a one day reissue in the theater. that was a pleasant surprise to see, as who knew it would just show up?

Monster of the Week- Rodan

yes, the long neglected "monster of the week" idea that only I have ever had has returned.  so today our monster is the "samurai of the skies" Rodan.  this is one of my favorite Japanese monster movies, and one of the earliest I ever saw.  Rodan looks magnificent in this one, never better.  and we get two Rodans for the price of one!  plus a third, I think, the baby, which doesn't die at the end of the movie.

Happy 75th Birthday, Superman!

I've never known a world without Superman. he's always been there. the S and the cape and everything. he's one of my favorite superheroes. today marks the 75th anniversary of Action Comics #1, which of course, was his first appearance. there had been other costumed heroes before (Dr. Occult, by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, wore a very similar costume to Superman) and of course, the Phantom, who wore the first skintight costume.

the hottest band in the land...

... HISS!

my tortie does the tongue thing.  sometimes it actually looks like that. 

just a little levity for the day.  it's a cute parody shirt, and I'd might wear it, since it's not like I don't own two cats already.  but maybe I wouldn't...

I doubt I would want to listen to them sing though.  cat talk is only cute in small doses.

Batman vs the Royal Flush Gang

OK, so they are not hearts, but again, there's a reason! I've always thought the use of the word "gang" is unusual. heroes never called themselves a gang, at least not as a name. of course, villains, back in the day, always had to let you know they were evil, or for injustice, or what have you. the recent cartoon versions of the Royal Flush have all been pretty interesting and well done. I notice they didn't use the Super Friends or Super Powers version though!

Avengers #43

"Color Him... The Red Guardian!"

Words:

Roy Thomas

Pencils:

John Buscema

Inks:

George Roussos

Colors:

Stan Goldberg

Letters:

Artie Simek

The Contaminated Cowl

oh there's a reason... this is the first part of the first appearance of Jervis Tetch. this is an interesting episode in one respect- the villain is actually referred to by his real name. I never knew that as a kid, or noticed that the other villains- the Riddler, Edward Nigma, Catwoman, Selina Kyle and the Joker... uh, wait, he's had about 80 "real"names, never mind- were never called by their given names. but the moll calls him Jervis at least twice in these first seven minutes.

Happy Birthday, Dacya Clementine

Dacya Clementine, my tortoiseshell cat, turns seven years old today.  we've been together for about six and a half years now.  she has taught me the meaning of the word "tortitude" which as we all know, is a real thing. she's awesome, and a pretty good judge of character.

Joe Dante on IT CONQUERED THE WORLD

this is a fun site, and here's a clip why. Joe Dante speaks on why he enjoys IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, as well he should. I agree with just about every one of his points, including the awful remake. bet they'd call it a reboot now. I'm kind of surprised I've never featured the actual trailer on this blog. I'll have to keep that in mind.

Giant Monster Gamera

just some cool shots from the great DVD release of Daiei's premier monster, Gamera.  the first movie has some really wonderful effects shots, and boy, do real miniatures look great these days or what?  that is a huge set there, if you think about it.  you can see little animated people running from Gamera in this shot.

Space Ghost and Batman: Space Safari

here's the full five minute team up. how I wish there had been a full episode, but this is the time a normal Space Ghost episode took, so it's pretty great. all that's missing is the classic Hanna-Barbera music cues from JONNY QUEST. they adapt the Space Ghost theme, and it works really well. at least all the sound effects are there! as well as a lot of the classic monsters. there are pictures here on the blog if you want to see them.

Ninja girl

They had to do this on purpose.  there's no way.   usually II try to be above such shenanigans, but this one was too funny to let go.

THE FLASH in "THE CHEMO-CREATURE"

in tribute to the late Carmine Infantino, here's one of Filmation's superhero cartoons, featuring two of his characters, including one he at least co-created, the wrongly colored Kid Flash. super speed in cartoons would seem to be a much easier thing to animate, and Filmation did a pretty good job here. the menace isn't that great, you'd think this was the 1950s, but it fits in well for a 6 minute episode.

RIP Carmine Infantino

the legendary comic book artist and all around nice person Carmine Infantino passed away yesterday. 

I have read so many of his stories, I couldn't pick a favorite, so I chose probably the most iconic one, the one that had the largest impact on DC Comics.  two Flashes in one story?  how is that possible?  easily possible, and soon we would meet another Green Lantern, Atom, even a Batman and a Superman from another Earth.  though why the original Earth was Earth 2 is beyond me.  that's one of my favorite bits in the Avengers/JLA crossover- which Earth got to be "number one".  apparently the DCU doesn't have as much ego for their Earths.  heck, even the supervillains of Earth 3 didn't even mind being third!

but I digress.

Kamen Rider 1971 Opening

here's the original Kamen Rider theme, which is rightfully a classic, subtitled in English. now you can sing along with the song! well, sort of, they don't have the Japanese words there. still, it's a great song.

Movie Monsters #3

I saw a post somewhere today that asked "when did you first see GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956)?" which got me thinking about that.  I think I was at least 10or 11 by the time I saw the first movie, which was at least the 4th or 5th Godzilla movie I saw.

however, thanks to this magazine I knew the story of the movie, as they published it as a "filmbook" back in 1975.  this magazine was published by the short-lived Atlas line of comics, designed to compete directly with Marvel Comics.  I read several of the comics, but most of them never got past three issues.  the monster magazine lasted four issues, and they were pretty good.  this cover was especially memorable, since no Phantom of the Opera ever looked like this when the mask was removed!

Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 6 - Kaufman vs Lawler

this is it! the match everyone in Memphis had been waiting for! Andy finally steps into the ring with the King, and everyone is sure that Andy will get what is coming to him. this is the recap of what went down, and they were wise to record it, since the whole nation was pretty much talking about it the next day. this happened on April 5th, 1982. I remember waking up and listening to the local DJ show talk about what happened. they were sure Andy had been seriously hurt and thought a lawsuit was definitely going to happen.