Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short

This is one great homage to the greatest superhero ever. It's got most everything you'd imagine, though (probably understandably) Superboy is nowhere to be found, but the Super Pets are there. I'd have liked to see some World's Finest covers, but perhaps that was in that "nut from Gotham"s 75th anniversary cartoon.

Blue Beetle #22

One of the greatest things about FaceBook is being able to meet and interact with various professionals you may never have met otherwise.  I'm friends with Will Muegniot who did the artwork for Mavel Chillers #3, Tigra's first four color story, the splash page I have tattooed on my right arm now.  I was kind of afraid to show it to him at first, but he liked it.  Never in a million years would I have ever thought he'd see it, unless it was at Comic Con some year.  To top it off, he's a great guy as well as a great artist, and has worked on so many cartoons it's not funny.  The stories he's told about the projects that could have been are fascinating.  It's been a real pleasure to get to know him.

MOTW- The Invisible Man

Yes, here's our monster of the week in a long time:

GekiRanger Opening

Since I saw a clip of DaiRanger where one of them used some drunken style kung fu I began thinking of GekiRanger and how much I loved that show. Guess what I'm watching now? And danged if it doesn't hold up quite well. It's hard to believe it has been almost ten years since it aired. So this is the opening of the show, though it comes from later in the series, since it started out with only three Gekis, and there's five in this opening.

Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (1963)

Ever since I saw this peplum movie in the early 90s I've wanted to see a print with the proper aspect ratio.  The opening titles were in scope back then when TNT showed a slew of peplums so I figured there must be one floating around out there.  Once again Warner Home Archives comes to our rescue with a great looking print of the US release.

Lensman (1984)

I just got a subbed/dubbed copy of this movie based on E.E. "Doc" Smith's long running series of the same name.  I've only ever read one of the stories, "Dragon Lensman" or something to that effect.  If I recall correctly I enjoyed it, but never have found more of the books.  And of course, I would have wanted to read them in order, thinking there would be a lot of continuity between the stories.  So glad I am over that sort of thinking these days.

Avengers #58

"Even An Android Can Cry"

I wish I had been able to read the Marvel Essentials back when I was so into these comics.  This really did need to be read after the first Vision story, even though it didn't quite answer all the questions of the Vision's origins, it did clear up some of them.  I don't remember when I got to read this story, but I loved it then.  Of course, it also sets up the seeds for Hank's troubled sanity later on (the less said about that, the better) and even then Roy was laying groundwork for who the Vision turned out to be.

The Master Killer (1978)

This movie is as nearly mistitled as GODZILLA'S REVENGE or GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND and that's saying something, I'll tell you what.  Anyone who knows anything about basic Buddhism or Shaolin knows turning someone into a "master killer" is pretty antithetical to the core tenets.  Still, it is the US title, so one can blame World Northal for that, more than likely.  They really liked squeezing "killer" or "death" into any possible movie they could.  I'm happy to have this movie on a great looking DVD with all kinds of extras.

gimme gimme Shock Treatment (1981)

I heard music from this pseudo-sequel to Rocky Horror in about 1981, on the Dr. Demento show (where all great music could be heard).  This is a repost from Facebook, since I couldn't find it here on this blog, but perhaps it has been here, I don't rightly recall)

the good Dr didn't talk too much about the plot of the movie, and as it was presented as a sequel (it does star Brad (a**h*l*) Majors and Janet (sl*t) Weiss) but as such it would sure disappoint fans of Rocky.  however, it's got great music, some would say even better than Rocky.  singing about Denton, Texas, how unusual! (I'm not sure it's actually set in the town of Denton, TX (home of the von Erichs) but that it's just a generic town, USA for the sake of the movie.  I'd have to watch it again, eh?)

A Batgirl Music Video

Since I've already posted both videos to Clashing Plaid's excellent "Be My Batgirl" song, here's another swinging video set to some really groovy tune. If anyone knows the name of the song let me know, it's pretty great.

RIP Yvonne Craig

Yvonne Craig passed away yesterday.  She was 78 years old, which surprises me, I guess I never figured Barbara Gordon would really age.  I never knew just how many shows she had acted in growing up; heck, she was in Star Trek as one of those green skinned girls that populated the show from time to time.  The only show I wanted to see her on was Batman.  The more superheroes on a show the better I would think back in those halcyon days of youth, and when that bike roared across the screen I was happy to see it.  I'm pretty sure this is where my love of purple started.

Devil Dinosaur

I hear Devil Dinosaur is getting a new book in the near future.  I hope it's as fun as the original, and doesn't worry much about the "realism" that tends to ruin most comics these days. The art looks pretty good, though since the new "moon-girl" can't wear armor or have an utility belt her backpack has to look ridiculous.  It's as big as she is!  That aside, I may give the book a chance.  I mean, it's got a dinosaur as the lead, there aren't many comics that can say that.  And really, what more could anyone possibly need?

Prince Planet vs "Dinosaurs"

Since the next issue of Xenorama is featuring a Prince Planet episode guide I'm watching the episodes again to review them.  I haven't seen the entire run yet, but it's kind of a violent show.  Granted, it's of it's time period and I keep that in mind, but really, if it was starting to rain dinosaurs out of the sky (as it does in this here episode) you would think someone from an advanced society like Bobby would want to keep a few of them alive.  But no, it's just all in a days work for our hero to beat the crap out of them and save the town.  Of course, I've never seen dinosaurs like this anywhere outside of television shows, but still...

The Green Dragon Inn (1977)

Since there was a great review of this movie in Xenorama #18 by Blake Matthews I thought I'd search it out. Lo and behold the entire thing is on YouTube now. It's very entertaining as well, so I'm thankful to be able to see it without much trouble. There's loads of martial arts movies on there I'd like to see now!

the Globe Meter #12

(I used to write for G-Fan magazine on a regular basis.  This was the name of the column, from Starman's magic watch.  I think this is from the middle of 2006.  And yes, I still like Final Wars, sue me.)

GODZILLA: FINAL WARS (2004): I know you all have been waiting with bated breath (now go brush your teeth) for my review and comments on this movie. Well, wait no more and you can also go ahead and breathe now.  If you stop, it may make you blue, and that would be bad.

Avengers #57- Behold... the Vision!

Behold... the Vision!

Yeah, I'm skipping ahead a bit to get to this story.  Probably should have done it when the Avengers vs Ultron movie was in the theater, but alas, I seemed to have missed that one.  I'll review it soon enough, I reckon.  I'm glad that the Vision is in the movie, though he actually made a cameo in the first Captain America movie.  That is, if they are allowed to keep at least that much of his origin.  I know someone else actually owns the rights to the H*m*n T*rch (and look what they just did to him) so perhaps my wish is a little too much to ask at this point.  Guess I'll find out later.

The Way It All Began - The Fantastic Four

Still the best adaption of "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" that's been done. I don't know how such a simple concept can be so easily and quickly screwed up, and yet they do it time after time. It's also baffling that this hasn't been released on home video either, though I reckon it has something to do with the rights or something.

The Green Hornet

Boy I went through quite a serial phase back in the old Xenorama board days.  Kinda miss that place a bit, but save for a few, message boards have died out (no real surprise, since everyone and their brother had one for a while.  Still, it's kind of fun to go back there and see what I was watching six or more years ago.  Kind of like a time machine, if you will.  I post there occasionally so someone thinks people stop by, but I can't recall the last time anyone posted anything new.   Here's the link to the serial.  All the chapters are reviewed there, along with commentary from me and others.

Rodan (1956) - US Trailer

I've posted this trailer before, but it's gone now, so here it is again. I've had the great fortune to see this great movie on the big screen, and seeing it on any TV screen just can't compare. It's one of my favorite monster movies of all time, especially with that ending.

humorous heroes

When I was younger I didn't like "funny" heroes.  I realize now that what I didn't like were the stories where the "heroes" only succeeded in spite of themselves, or through another agency such as a cat sidekick (yes Hong Kong Phooey, I'm looking in your direction).  Since I've gotten older I know that I like fun heroes, such as Atom Ant, The Impossibles and Underdog, since they still did all the super stuff and fought villains, even if the fourth wall got broken to bits by all the characters.  Now I am amazed to find out just how funny some of them were.

Na Cha The Great 1974

This is a fun movie, one of Fu Sheng's early roles.  Here he plays a mischievous young man who doesn't respect his teachers and is often punished for it.  Sound familiar?  It was a movie made by Chang's Film Co and distributed by the Shaw Brothers. Chang Cheh did a few of these movies, but seems to have done far more under the Shaw bannner.

Roddy Piper saves Gordon Solie

The magic of the internet and youtube. I had no idea the late Rowdy Roddy Piper had been a face before coming to the WWF. Once I got a little further into reading the mags, I did find out he and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine had a feud in 1983, culminating in that bloody chain match at Starrcade that year.

RIP Roddy Piper

Yesterday the legendary Hot Scot, Rowdy Roddy Piper passed away from cardiac issues.  He was 61 years old.  I'm sure a lifetime of being on the road had something to do with it, but he was far more than just a "wrestler".