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.

Marvelzilla, 1976

 

In 1976 Godzilla attacked America.  Sort of.  He was later just shown to be wandering through the countryside, causing accidental damage while battling monsters, villains and various superheroes.  A misunderstood monster, if you will.  Fortunately writer Doug Moench gave him a personality, or, as Damon Foster used to say, a monsterality.  Thus he was more than an mere animal, which makes for a far more compelling character to be the star of a comic book series.  This picture never actually appeared in a story, but I am glad they included it in the introduction note from the late Archie Goodwin.

Enter the Dragon's Fashion Sense

Some friends of mine were talking about the 100 movies their teenage boys should see before they got too cool for such things.  These tend to be the classics from at least 30 years ago. One of my many fine suggestions was for Enter the Dragon (1973).  I named many other fine movies, Casablanca, The Muppet Movie, Zorro and more.  Most of them were unjustly disregarded but the philistines, but this one was not.  I was grateful for that small favor.

Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977)

I just watched this for the first time ever last night.  I'm glad I did not pay money to see it back in 1977.  I love the first two Peanuts movies, and many of the television specials, but this movie a mess.  There are many fun parts to it, but it lacks any kind of logic, even in world of Peanuts.  The animation is good, and the music, for the first time not done by Vince Gauraldi is adequate, though the songs are not memorable at all.  The voice cast is good, but that is generally a given for anything with the Peanuts name on it.

Emerald Sage

Emerald Sage- the torbie cat in front of Thuvia Jane- entered our lives on 12-10-2018.  It took a little while, but the cats at least tolerate each other now.  She was born 12-04-2018 and will be five years old soon.  She's a very sweet and very vocal girl, and has her own individual personality.  She's not quite a tortie, so her tortitude is somewhat muted, but she does have a bit of sass to her when she needs it.

a micro menace!

This is short story from My Greatest Adventure #76, February, 1963  A scientist accidentally gets involved in some Middle Eastern intrigue and creates a large microbe.  It grows to a gigantic size and menaces the area.  The scientist must find a way to stop the bacterium from taking over the world.  Spoilers: he succeeds!

Abraca Pocus! I'm a bat!

I'm a little surprised that Bugs Bunny has not been mentioned, since, well, he's ubiquitous these days.  Here's a clip I love and still sing the song.  I haven't tried putting a video in here in ages, though, so it will be interesting to see how this works.

Godzilla vs the Smog Monster lobby card

Back in my day, lobby cards were almost as important as the movie poster.  I vividly remember trying to memorize every detail of any lobby card for a movie I wanted to see.  Funny thing, though, I really don't remember too many of them, other than the three that were up for Godzilla vs Megalon when it was released in 1976.  I wish I had asked the manager if I could have bought them, since they probably just trashed them after the movie was in town for a week or so.  This is a common lament of many monster kids.  It never even dawned on me to ask what would happen to the promotional material once the movie was done.

Astro Boy 32 Dinosaur Dilemna

Professor Al Chemy figures out a way to bring dinosaurs back to life.  These are supposed to be gentle thoughtful dinosaurs.  Naturally, this goes all sorts of wrong.  Kids are visiting Stone Age Park, which is populated by robot dinosaurs.  Miss Anthrope, the teacher, has some issues controlling one student, the hip talking Disco Teck.  The real dinosaurs show up and take Disco hostage.  They are hungry and want some food.

Xenorama #29

The last issue I posted on here was #23, about two years ago.  This is the newest issue, which is live on Amazon now, along with all the issues from #15 on, plus the Marine Boy book, version #2 (and that's a spoiler- there will be a version 3 in the near future, as soon as I put the final touches on it). I know I should have published more about the other issues recently, but life does happen, and I have found I much prefer the physical books than reading online.

Pachycephalosaurus

 

This is an image from a project I am working on now.  It's more of a long term thing, so it won't be out any time soon, but I'm having a great deal of fun writing about it.  It's about the various dinosaur parks I have visited, plus a few more parks I want to visit.  The history of the parks is one of the most interesting things I am learning about.  There are so many of these things in nearly every state (except perhaps Hawaii, since the islands are only about six million years old and thus wouldn't have fossils at this point in time.

Mazinga Z

 

    Who knew there would be so many classic Japanese cartoons available on home video, either DVD or Blu Ray now?  I had those Hong Kong DVD sets of both Mazinga Z and Devilman with their wonderfully off English subtitles.  Now they are both available, along with several other shows.  It's just amazing.  I've got the entire run of Gatchaman shows to get through now, and several other sets that I haven't opened yet.

Aqua Cave

It has been quite a while since there were any posts here.  I am writing the Xenorama books these days, which takes up most of my free time.  I loved the blog, but I'd really rather hold physical printed material in my hands when I read.  Call me old fashioned.

I'm currently working on an issue of Xenorama dedicated to some of my favorite comic books.  I have about 10 issues in various states of completion, and this is by no means done.   It's full of mostly Marvel and DC stories from when I was growing up, but there are some other surprises in there.

One of them is Aquaman.  I'm glad that his movie was a little successful, and I quite enjoyed it when I saw it in the theater.  I wrote about him about ten years ago, before the Brave and Bold cartoon made him outrageous and liked him then.