Ghost of Zorro 8

Mob Justice
Rita actually saves Zorro this time, and the badguy meets a rather gruesome death by electrocution. The other bad guys decide to pull the old "Zorro is the villain" trick when a federal marshal is coming to town. Suddenly the people turn against Zorro, so the trick works. That's the problem with easily made outfits, everyone can be a masked vigilante.
The way Zorro figures out how to get out of this predicament is pretty impressive.

Wolverine and the X-Men (2009)

This is the fourth X-Men cartoon adaption.  I got it confused with the X-men as kids version, X-Men: Evolution, which I suppose I'll give a shot as well at some point.  This one is different, and pretty good.  Good voice cast and the animation is much better than the Fox show.

Of course, Wolverine is the new Batman, who is now the Silver Age Superman in that they can never be surprised or beaten.  That sure gets old after a while, but since he's now up there with Spidey and Cap as Marvel's top guns, I'm not surprised.  I'll just add right now that I hate Logan's ever changing "true" origins.  I'm so over that nonsense.  It's astounding to me that a team with three powerful telepaths couldn't sort out his brain in no time flat if they wanted to.

Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 26 - Guest Commentator

This is a direct follow up to the last clip. Andy guest commentates with Lance as what looks to be part of the original Midnight Express take on two jobbers- well, one, since Giant Frazier later turns into Uncle Elmer in the WWF. Andy is of course hilarious in his heel role.

Power Rangers... 20 years ago

It was 20 years ago this very day that The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers were first televised on Fox Kids.  I had seen the previews so was intrigued by what I knew would to be the Super Sentai series being shown.  I had no idea what they had done to the series or what it would become.  I thought it would be dubbed into English, like other Japanese imports had been.  I also kind of figured it would last a season if it was lucky, since it was really different than anything kids in the US would be watching or thought was popular.

Karate-Robo Zaborgar International Teaser Trailer

Saw this was available on Netflix... if the rest of the movie is as fun and exciting as the first ten minutes I'm sold. I know it's a "comedy" but hopefully it won't all be idiotic. I believe that most superhero fare these days needs to lighten up, but if it's over the top then it has the probability of just being stupid instead of funny. It will be interesting to watch. I certainly don't have high expectations, having been burned by so many other recent adaptions and remakes.

Best of WCW: The Clash of Champions

Here's a collection of a LOT of matches from WCW's free pay per view, "The Clash of Champions".  It was started in 1988 as a counter to the expensive WWF's pay per views, and it worked really well.  I watched the first one, mostly for the Road Warriors match- a rather short barbed wire six man tag, pretty predictable, actually- but was glad I did, since the main event was the first bout with Sting and Ric Flair.  I hadn't seen that match since, but it's on here of course, as it rightly should be.

Mazinga Z in English (part one)

It is titled Mazinger Z in the cartoon. That's just a hard habit for me to break, since I first saw it as Mazinga and that's what I've always written. This is from the original English dub. Apparently there were 27 episodes dubbed into English back in the day. I've got a compilation movie of the first four episodes. The dubbing isn't bad, but it's not great. Too bad Titra didn't get to do it.

Reality

Calvin has a lot of the same issues we all do.  He might live though.

The Mighty Thor- Enter Hercules

One of the best things about the early Marvel Comics was that they had all these cool crossover and team ups. Since most of their heroes were based in NYC it made sense. It also helped that Stan Lee was writing most of the stories at that time and could keep it together. of course that eventually turns into a big mess when your characters don't age at all, or change, but early on it worked just fine.

Avengers 47

"Magneto Walks The Earth!"

Words:

Roy Thomas

Pencils: 

John Buscema

Inks:

George Tuska

Letters: 

L.R. Gregory

Magneto and the Toad are trapped on a barren planet the Stranger has left them on.  I wonder what they have been eating.  We meet Dane Whitman and his assistant Norris.  Cap quits the Avengers and Hawkeye and Natasha have a row, all within six pages.  That's a lot to do in a short amount of time, and that's just the beginning.

Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 25 - A Victory Party

The quality isn't the greatest, but this is the aftermath of the previous card. Andy ends up doing commentary for the next bout, but that may have to wait til next week. It's interesting to see all the people in the First Family- Norville and Condrey, part of the original Midnight Express, are there. Missing is a very young Jim Cornette, except in video footage.

The Sci-Fi Boys (2006)

This was kind of a frustrating viewing experience.  They talk to a lot of great people here, which is fun for sure.  However, it kind of meanders around a lot, like there was no real direction to it.  The best parts are the archival footage talking to Forrest J Ackerman and a young Rick Baker, then seeing them in present day.  I like that a lot, and some of the clips of the home movies these monster kids were making back then.  Kids having fun, that's just great, despite the fact that only friends and family would ever want to watch most of these movies ("say, we don't wanna watch my movie again, do we?") more than once.

Ghost of Zorro 7

"Tower of Disaster"
Zorro and Rita survive. Obviously not Clayton Moore's voice under that mask. The villains sure have a lot of fancy weapons at their disposal to keep throwing at the telegraph line. They are pretty inept though. The boss is always mad at them for some reason or another.

Adam 12 (1968)

After the success of DRAGNET, Jack Webb developed another series based on the police.  Adam 12 followed the adventures of beat offices Pete Malloy and Jim Reed.  It's a little more relaxed and less preachy than DRAGNET, but it follows the same formula more or less.  Reed is the rookie cop partnered with Malloy in this first season.  Both cops also appeared in DRAGNET 69 for the episode "Internal Affairs".  I don't remember them, but I may go back and check it out.  I watched it, I know it, but danged if I remembered them showing up.  Of course, I hadn't seen either shows in ages so I'm not surprised I didn't remember who was who.

J.A.K.Q. "Four Cards!! The JAKQ Trump Cards"

It's too bad that G.U.I.S. only subtitled this one episode (and the final movie) since this is one sentai show I want to see. It's the second one, full of action and adventure. These days I prefer less special effects and more practical ones, and this show delivers.

Dragnet 1970 episode 22 D.H.Q. Night School

Finished watching the final season of Dragnet the other day.  I know it's fun to put the show down as "square" because, well, it IS really square, but it's a good show.  Certainly it has it's own view point, but it's not nearly as one dimensional as some people would point out.  I mean, it's a show about cops busting bad guys, no one should think it's really going to be that sympathetic to law breakers.

So this episode Joe is going back to school so he can get his masters degree.  He's in a "sensitivity" class where none of the other members know what each other does.

The KISS Albums Revisited: KISS

Here's an interesting series on youtube. It's got a lot of cool facts about the band, some performance video and lots of neat pictures from the time period when this first album was released. For some reason I always thought this first album was released in '73, but it was early '74.

Review for Marine Boy: Underwater Adventure

The book is out and for sale now, and I've gotten a few reviews.  I'm going to be posting them on occasion so this doesn't seem like so much spam for readers to go buy it.  Pretty sneaky, huh?  Be sure to use the coupon MXARFHS5 for a 10% discount, it still applies.

Prince Planet Theme Song

This is a great little song. Wouldn't it have been cool if the B-52s, circa 1980, had covered it? Would have been right up their alley, too. This was the one of the first Japanese cartoons I ever remember seeing, mostly because of the pendant.

Justice League: Doom (2012)

Watched this movie today.  Never read the comic book story it was adapted from so I can't compare it to that.  From what I read about the differences between them, it sounds like the cartoon is the one to watch.  It's always a good thing to see that Plastic Man was left out of anything.

I just don't get his appeal.  I'd really appreciate it if someone in the "know" could fill me in on why he's used at all.  Aside from the comedy, since he did get one of the best lines in the Avengers/JLA crossover.  I'll admit that.

Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 24 parts 1 and 2

This is the battle of Jerry vs Andy and Jimmy. Andy is doing his best worst boxer ever, while Jimmy does a pretty good manager wrestler. They have learned the art of stalling really well. Makes the crowd think they are getting a lot more action than they really do.

The Captains (2011)

Started watching this a while ago.  It's fascinating.  It's all the captains (I think they even have fake Kirk from the remakes) except for Jeffrey Hunter but that's understandable since he passed away long ago.  A case could be made for Captain Spock as well, but he's been interviewed loads with Shatner. So it's five other captains he talks to.  I wish they had all been together at once, but the logistics of the actors and where they are in their lives at that moment.

Ghost of Zorro 6

"Deadline at Midnight" 

The shots in the mine are pretty murky. I'm not complaining, since I'm watching it for free. Rita and Ken have some nice interplay about Zorro being a ghost. Then she gets annoyed at him for not seeing the villain's next plan.

Road Warriors: Danger, Death, & the Rush of Wrestling

Hard to believe I've had this for over two years and haven't reviewed it.  Of course, I never reviewed the DVD set either, so I'll have to fix that at some point as well.  Animal wrote this book and did a great job of it.

I was introduced to the Road Warriors a little after the rest of WCW's fans were,  perhaps in late 1983.  This is due to my cousin Tuck being a big fan of the program, and we watched it Saturday evenings when I was in West Virginia for college.  Yeah, there wasn't that much to do in Keyser at that point, especially if you didn't have a car.  I sure wanted to make a road trip to the Omni and see a card there, they always looked really great.

Kaufman Lawler Feud: Ch 23 - I'm Going to Knock His Lights Out

I wonder if the Memphis fans really believed Andy was training with Muhammad Ali. It doesn't matter, since a heel is supposed to brag and lie about his accomplishments. That's one of the things that makes them heels. This is a great set up for the handicap bout. Jerry seems so angry at the two weasels.

Southern Knights #11

"Synergy"

Henry Vogel (Script), Chuck Wojtkiewicz (Pencils), Bill Neville (Inks), T. R. Davidson (Letters).

(I can't believe it's been well over a year since I wrote about this series.)

Our heroes are out patrolling Atlanta.  They have a fun discussion of how the odds don't apply to them, which is very true in comic books about superheroes.  Things just work out the way they do.

So on their patrol, they run into a group of quadruplets.  Being a comic book, they immediately get into a fight and lose to these girls.  They can't really hurt the Knights, but they get away.  Everyone is a bit put out by this.

HERCULOIDS: The First family of planet Amzot documentary

Here's a fun little look at the original run of the Herculoids (forget the tame Space Stars series). They talk to many current animators who know what they are talking about. It's interesting they mention "One Million Years, BC" since I think that was a huge influence on several stories and designs for many of the H-B shows.

Ultraman 28: Human Specimens 5 & 6

If I were ever in Japan, and monsters and aliens were known to be around, I would never get on a bus.  Ever.  This always happens to them, and then you get taken as a specimen or an experiment or something awful.

Ghost of Zorro 5

"Gun Trap"
I can understand why they redubbed Zorro. Clayton's voice is very distinct, and everyone would wonder why Rita and friends were too dense to realize he was Zorro. Can't have the Lois Lane situation going on here! The villains in this serial don't like each other. HA! These criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot that think Zorro is a real ghost. Nice scene with Hodge here.

Marine Boy: Underwater Adventure is GO!

I can hardly believe I am typing these words right now... but the Marine Book I started on a whim some 12 years ago is finally finished and on sale!  Order it here and use the coupon MXARFHS5 for a 10% discount!  I'm still a bit stunned it's done.  I was starting to think it would never happen, and yet, here it is, in living color (well, most of it).

Here's a little history of the project:  By 1999 or 2000  I had acquired several volumes of the Marine Boy series.  These were all on VHS and took up a lot of space in my collection.  The internet was still beginning, and while there were several sites that mentioned the show, there were no real images or anything like that.  While I was watching the episodes I decided on a whim to take some notes.  Handwritten notes, mind you.  At first they were pretty indepth reviews. Then, as I started thinking about what I was going to do with them, they got shorter.  There was no real need to talk about how many times Neptina said "Marine Boy watch out!" in an episode.

Kimba 19: The Mystery of the Deserted Village

I did not remember the beginning of this episode at all.  Claw pretends he is remorseful about his past actions and wants to make up friends with Kimba.  of course, Kimba goes to meet him and naturally it's a trap.  Speedy Cheetah warns Kimba just in time and Cassius injures him.

Marine Boy opening theme

Ever wonder who wrote this song? It's in the book. The book that now has an amazing cover and is being proofed and is almost ready to go. After talking about it on this blog for nearly seven years, and working on it since 2001 it's done. Good thing I changed the focus of this blog or I'd have to end it now. Yes, I'm afraid that does mean we will be hearing about the book for a while now here.