finally

This damn year is over.  It wasn't all bad, but still

Bronze Age Brave and Bold v 1

 

I received this fun book as a late Xmas present.  It's chock full of stories that don't quite fit into the established DC continuity, but who cares about that?  You get to see Batman team up with a wide variety of heroes, many of which were not in the Justice League.  Which makes them more fun.  The first story is a Metal Men adventure in which Batman mentions a web slinging "Peter come lately".  It's from 1967, which seems a little late to be using that joke.  Batmania is in full swing for the first few stories, though not nearly as bad as it had been in the other books Batman was featured in.

MOTW- Baragon

Baragon!  The monster that challenged the Frankenstein monster that conquered the world!  This is a burrowing beast, able to dig through solid rock in seconds.  It has the help of some kind of heat beam, though it is never explained in the movie (at least, not the English dub).  It was not the largest monster that walked the Earth.  It is a very popular monster, even though it barely has three movie appearances to it's name.  It's a pretty cute monster, despite it's propensity to eat just about anything it can.

The Five Deadly Venoms

There are actually about eight Venoms in this movie.  It's probably my favorite kung fu movie of all time.  It's ironic, that it's doesn't feature an actual kung fu style in it.  There is no real "Venom Clan".  This is probably a good thing, since the whole gist of the movie is that they actually did a lot of bad things for money.  It works really well, though, and it's even a bit of a mystery.  The ending was a surprise to me the first time I ever saw it (way back in 1984 on WDCA Channel 20).  I kind of miss those Black Belt Theater days, though they also showed a lot of really bad martial arts movies as well.

A Charlie Brown Xmas- changes made

Here's a nifty video showing how the first Peanuts special was changed from the time first aired to the next airings.  I myself don't remember Coca Cola being a sponsor- I remember the tons of Dolly Madison "Zingers: which were always my favorite cakey snack.

MOTW- Black Scorpion(s)

A massive volcano releases several giant scorpions from an underground cavern.  This happens in the heart of Mexico, and eventually the largest scorpion makes it's way towards civilization.  Can the various heroes stop the beast?  It IS a good thing the large one killed all the other smaller arthropods before getting out of the volcano.

Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Reptiles (1966)

I think almost every dinosaur loving kid had a copy of this book or read it at some point in their life.  My original copy is in fair shape- the pages are good, but the cover is disintegrating.  It features the wonderful and evocative artwork of Rudolf F. Zallinger.  Most of this work comes from his painting The Age of Reptiles which is in the Yale Peabody Museum.  He finished this massive painting in 1947.  I had no knowledge of this at all.  I was happy to have this new book in my collection.  Later on I had the small pocket version of the book, but I have no idea where that disappeared to now.

Kamen Rider Super-1

This series started off so well.  I really wanted to love it.  The effects are pretty great and the action hasn't been watered down yet- that was still a bit further away.  The suits look great, and Super-1 is tops there as well. It is just not quite the great show the first set of Riders were. It almost is, though. However, something is missing from the series.

Reptisaurus The Terrible

 

Who would have thought Reptilicus would inspire 9 issues of a continuing comic book?  Not me, that's for sure.  Had I known this series existed when I was younger I would have been searching them out, because, well, giant monsters.  This collection is self published, since these comic books are apparently in the public domain now.  The reprints look like exactly what they are, comic books scanned into a computer and used that way.  While I don't mind that the advertisements have been removed, a few of the pages would have been fun to read.  They do leave all the other stories in there, which are sort of surreal, but fun to read.

Johnny Cypher takes action!

Much like Hawkman, Johnny Cypher is handy with ancient weapons when the Zero fails him, or he wants some more exercise. He ha a choice of many weapons behind him, but he chooses an old fashioned axe.  He had to be quick thinking, since his episodes were only five minutes long.  One had to move fast in that amount of time.  Usually the Zero would suffice, but Johnny was handy with his fists as well many times.

Gammera will Destroy You!

This small ad is really funny.  Even that first movie, where Gammera is the bad monster, he still saves a kid.  It's rather inexplicable, though it's a well shot scene.  Why would a rampaging giant monster save a child after destroying the lighthouse the child was in?  The world may never know.  It does turn out that Gamera is the friend of children, so it made sense some two films later.

Battle Robo

 

Battle Fever J was the first Sentai that featured a giant robot.  It's a cool looking mecha, and the first six episodes it's not even featured in the show.  It's mentioned as a secret weapon, and when it finally debuts it's pretty cool.  It's need to battle Egos giant versions of their monster of the week.

Dropkick Murphy's "Mick Jones Nicked my Pudding"

Here's a fun video (remember those?) by the Dropkick Murphy's.  Oddly enough, I have only become familiar with their work in the last five years or so, with the lone exception of "Shipping off to Boston".  They sure are fun!  I like their paying homage to the Clash and Mick Jones, and I hope he has seen the video.  Enjoy your tasty snack!

The Moose that Roared (2000)

 

Hokey smokes is this a great book!  It's the complete history of Rocky and Bullwinkle, plus the many other shows and advertisements that Jay Ward was involved in.  Keith Scott did a masterful job in telling a great story.  He was friends with many of the artists involved, and has loads of great pictures of pre-production sketches as well as full on drawings.  Since most of the people involved in making these shows have since passed on, this is now almost invaluable to fans.

Young Samson/Space Kiddettes

I finally broke down and ordered the last Hanna-Barbera superhero DVD set.  It's the oddball combination of these two shows, Space Kiddettes and Young Samson.  There are reasons for them being paired together, so I supposed that if you know why, it makes sense.  These were the only two H-B cartoons sponsored by General Mills.  All the rest were from the Jay Ward/Total Cartoons studio, so these two shows got paired with them in syndication.  I had the Samson episodes in fairly good quality from the VHS tapes I recorded in the 90s, and then transferred those to DVDr.  Space Kidettes I was never that interested in, but I am glad to have the set now, as they have gotten cheaper.

That goateed loudmouth...

There's a reason this is here, since it pertains to an upcoming issue of Xenorama featuring my favorite comic book stories.  This was the first comic book or magazine I ever bought that the great Fred Hembeck drew, and it made me a fan.  I laughed then and still laugh now when I read it.  It is truly that funny.  It helps that I was familiar with most of the characters, but having them KNOW they were comic book people is a great touch.  The amazing amount of knowledge Fred has floored me.

The Sign of Zorro 1958

This was a feature culled from eight episodes of Disney's fun series about The Fox.They released it in the 70s, but it was just the first episode.  That was quite the disappointment, I must say.  I was salty about it for years, and never wanted to watch the show at all.  It didn't help when Disney crayonized all the episodes in the 90s, which made them even less appealing.  The original movie runs about 91 minutes which would make for a far more acceptable movie.

Dinosaur Ridge 2015

As part of a special edition of Xenorama, this place will be featured.  In fact, several places like this will be in the issue.  It's a lot of fun to research and many pictures have actually been taken by me.  Dinosaur Ridge is a really cool area up by Red Rocks.  I went to that amphitheater many times in the 80s and never knew this place was here.  Then I saw an advertisement for the local hotel that has dinosaurs all over it, and had to go.