Chariots of the Gods (1970)

When I was young I really wanted to see this movie.  I never did, nor did I read the book all the way through, though mom had it in the home library.   I did like a lot of the pictures.  As a kid, I wanted to believe in these things.  Seeing it now older eyes, I am more annoyed by it than anything.  It send the trend for all the "In Search of.." movies that followed, mostly from good ol' Sun Classics, in which they talk a lot about sea monsters, yeti, UFOs and the like and NEVER once find any real evidence to prove such things existed.  By age 10 I  think I knew everything any of these types of movies would say, as most of them covered the same ground as the rest of them.

Everything Or Nothing trailer

This is a very good documentary on the greatest spy of them all, 007, James Bond. I'm not a huge Bond film fan, but this doc is really well done, talking to almost all of the actors who have played the character. There really aren't that many of them.

Iron Man and Captain America: Heroes United (2014)

Captain America and Iron Man team up to battle the Red Skull and the unimproved Taskmaster as well as the Skull's Hydra forces.  Steve thinks Tony never has a plan, and Tony thinks Steve is too rigid in his thinking, so naturally our heroes don't always get along, but in the end they have figure out a way to stop hordes of giant Cap clones that will help the Skull take over the planet.  Fortunately Iron Man has a large green ace in the hole.  I kind of figured this might happen, and it's a nice touch.

MEGO Worlds Greatest Superheroes

Does this bring back memories, but man, whoever wrote this sure didn't have much of a basic knowledge of comic books. There's some stuff that's just embarrassing now. And I'm not talking about the Falcon. I don't know if I saw this commercial, but I would have been outraged at age ten. Good ol' 1975 marketing.

Young Justice

This is a series about several of the "sidekicks" of the major DC heroes.  It is definitely not the Teen Titans, though it sure starts out that way.  Speedy, Robin, Kid Flash and an Aqualad I've never seen before are teamed up with Artemis (not Arrowette) and Miss Martian and the clone Superboy.  Speedy, I mean Red Arrow, shows up occasionally so far.  At least he got rid of that dumb name. The show is about them becoming more than sidekicks, true heroes in their own right.  Naturally, they fight various villains along the way and have personality struggles with both their adult counterparts and each other.  The JLA is seen occasionally, and J'onn's all black costume... can we be over everyone wearing black these days?  It's a pretty classic lineup of the JLA, Hal, Katar and Shayera, Green Arrow and even Captain Marvel... this is Earth-16, so I guess that can make sense.  I still think Cap is best used in a humorous hero vein, rather than as a "serious" hero, but no one asked me, did they?  In season 2 more young heroes show up, including one that's obviously missing from this mix, Wonder Girl.

Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992, English)

I remember seeing this trailer for the first time. I'd already seen a camcorder copy of the movie, but the thought of seeing it dubbed into English was exciting. It's not a great Godzilla movie by any stretch, but it's enjoyable. I really should watch this again some time.

Batman Returns (1992)

So I'm watching this movie for the first time in probably 15 years or so, and wow, it sure looks like a what's now known as a Tim Burton movie.  That's not exactly a good thing.  I liked it fairly well when it came out, more than the first movie since it had more action and we didn't have to go through all that origin nonsense, though we had to get through the origin nonsense for the Penguin and Catwoman.  At least Catwoman looks better here than in the last Nolan Batman movie.  Stupid "enhanced" realism.

The People that Time Forgot trailer (1977)

I haven't seen this movie in probably 30 years, when it aired on KWGN Channel 2 back in the day. It's probably my least favorite Amicus/AIP movie, but it's a lot of fun, despite that. This trailer is great, and if only the movie had more dinosaurs...

B/W Xenorama #15 is go!

As mentioned two whole days ago, I've redone Xenorama #15 in black and white.  It's available here, directly, and on Amazon here.  I expect most everyone that wants #15 already has it, but hopefully some people who didn't want to pay $8 or whatever it is on Amazon (usually considerably less these days) will decide to try it.  It's a good start issue.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

I never saw the movie growing up, just the wonderfully fun TV series. As a kid, I loved the wild monsters and action that the color episodes had, and watching the first season I appreciate the more serious tone of the first season as well. Good thing David Hedison starred in THE LOST WORLD remake, so Irwin could reuse some of his "dinosaur" footage in the series.

Coming Soon... Xeno #15- in black and white!

I've decided to upload a black and white version of Xenorama #15, and it should be available as soon as the cover gets approved.  I've corrected a couple typos inside as well, but it's the exact same zine, just without the color.  It's also $2 cheaper.  This is mostly an experiment to see how it will sell.  Oh, and the back cover is different as well.  You'll have to check it out now to decide!

the "missing" Mask of Matches Malone

As noted, I've been watching the Brave and Bold again, and while doing so I realized I hadn't seen this episode. I looked through all five sets and it was not to be found. This is just enough to annoy the completist in me, so of course, I have to do some research about it. How vexing!

MOTW- Ebirah

The giant shrimp only appears in three movies, but it's a cool monster.  At least, I think that's supposed to Ebirah in FINAL WARS, been a while since I've watched the movie.  And yes, Ebirah's second appearance was all via dream sequence/stock footage in GODZILLA'S REVENGE, but that was the first time I had ever seen the colossal crustacean (dang that Stan Lee and his alliteration) so it was "new" to me when I was about 8 years old.  No video tape back then, don'tcha know.

Aizenborg - Koseider

It seems to be dinosaur month here at Xeno, so I'll just go along with it. Here are two clips from fun Tsuburaya shows. The first one is from Aizenborg and features the jumbo hero from the later episodes. Most of us know this show from the compilation movie ATTACK OF THE SUPER MONSTERS, it's a shame they never used any more of the footage.

The Dinosaur Filmography (2002)

How in the name of the countless alternate Earths did I ever wait 12 years to get this great book?  I mean, for someone who has written about dinosaur movies and TV shows and comic books and regular books, it's inconceivable that I didn't own this titanic tome until now.  Time sure has a funny way of sailing on by when you are living. I'll make up for it now, with this here review.  Since I am Facebook friends with Mark, I hope he sees this and enjoys it as much as I am enjoying this book.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure trailer

I just watched this movie again after about... oh, twelve years. It holds up pretty well, though it's sure not the laugh out loud funny it was when I first saw it in 1989 or so. I saw it in the theater which was a lot of fun back then.

Not Nessie’s ancestor

Here's a recent discovery of a rather large Jurassic sea predator from Scotland.  Read more about the beastie here.  I'm not a huge fan of ichyosaurs, but since this is the first one from Scotland it's pretty cool.  It's not the largest of the ichyosaurs, but when you stop and think about it, 14' is larger than most cars, aside from those whomping big 70s tuna boats that menaced people back then.

Cool dinosaur art

Here's some fun comic book art by Russ Heath, I believe.  If not, I'll edit and correct it in the near future.

This is from Joe Kubert's "Tor" book, which I've sadly never read any of.  I'd like to, though I'm sure it features lots of dinosaur deaths.  These were meant to help educate the kids reading the book.  There have been a few of them posted to Facebook, which is where I nicked this one from, without remembering exactly who drew it.

Mystery Incorporated Theme & Credits

Since I got a month of Netflix for free I'm watching the rest of Mystery Incorporated, which is still just as fun as the first 12 episodes. I'm about 18 episodes in now, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. I'm quite surprised that I would say that about a Scooby show, aside from that very first season.

to BW or not to BW

So I was doing some shopping on Amazon (Xmas gift card and all, don'tchaknow) and saw a zine called Monster! on sale.  Same publisher as Xenorama, and a smaller format, but in black and white on the inside.  I read a few issues of Monster! International back in the day, it was one of the main inspirations for me starting Xenorama.  It only cost $5!  That got me to wondering if I should start making Xenorama in b/w to lower the price.  So that's the topic of the day.

MOTW- King Kong (1967)

King King is one of the greatest monster movies ever made, arguably one of the greatest movies ever made.  He's had sequels, ripoffs, homages and even some movies have been licensed to use his image and name from whoever owns it now.  Toho made a movie based on the most fun Rankin-Bass King Kong cartoon, using two of their creations, Mechani-Kong and Dr. Who.  I saw this movie several times in the theater during the 70s, as it was part of the kiddy matinees they had so parents could get rid of their children for a few hours.