who you gonna call?

 

I remember watching Ghostbusters in the theater for the first time.  This was in the summer of 1984, and the movie quickly became the "go to" film to see if you have a bad day.  I saw it ten times that summer.  This is probably only second to Star Wars (1977) for the movie I have see the most times in the theater in my life.  I saw it on it's 40th anniversary  as well, even if I was forbidden to say any lines from the movie that time.  That was not easy, I'll tell you what.  Somehow I managed to keep it together for those two hours.

Saucer Crab

Those dang villains from Rob-Corp!  They sent a deadly saucer crab that attacked Space Ghost and nearly defeated him.  It took all his powers to destroy the ship.  The narrator assured us our heroes would hear from Rob-Corp again.  We never did, as there was no third season of Space Ghost.  Which is kind of sad, though it is always better to leave 'em wanting more rather than wearing out a welcome.  It has happened to many other shows that go on far too long.

LAND OF THE LOST 🌟 THEN AND NOW 2021

                              

This is NOT a cult classic- it's well regarded and loved by a generation of kids.  Anyway, this is a fun look at the cast now.  Many of the cast members do conventions nowadays.

Lobby Cards

 I think an issue of Xenorama will be dedicated to lobby cards.  It will be in the same mold as the one about 8mm movies.  There are a lot of really cool lobby cards out there.  Many of them have images that don't appear in the movies at all.  I don't even think lobby cards are made any more.  I remember spending as much time as possible pouring over the lobbies for Godzilla vs Megalon when it was released in 1976.  I'd never seen pictures of the monsters in color like that before.  These preview cards were way more interesting than the re-release of Bambi, I'll tell you what.

green MOTW from Hell- giant wasps

 

Regular sized wasps are sent into space via rocket ship.  They are pelted by cosmic radiation and when the ship returns to Earth, they grow into giant monsters.  The scientists responsible for this head to Africa to destroy the insects, but have to rely on a handy volcano to take care of the bugs.  Those darn volcanoes sure do take care of many things that man can't, don't they?

the science lab

 

This is a cool shot of the standard 50s science lab.  It could come from about any movie, but this time it is from Monster from Green Hell (1958).  This is a great looking shot, and knowing how Green Hell was made, it could have come from just about any other movie the filmmakers could lay their hands on.  The labs look so cool, art deco futuristic stylings and all.  You just don't get cool looking buildings very much these days.

King Kong Escapes... again!

 King Kong Escapes (1967) is being aired on Svengoolie again tonight.  It's been over five years since the last time it was one (as far as I know) and I am looking forward to it.  I have watched the movie since then, which should surprise absolutely no one.  It's really a fun movie, and I have enjoyed it since I saw it in the theater around the age of 8 or 9.  Those summer kiddie matinees were so much fun.  I like being able to watch nearly any movie any time I want to, but there sure was something fun about seeing these rare (at the time) gems on the big screen.

Exotic Adrian Street and the Pile Drivers - Imagine What I Could Do To Y...

  

Adrian Street is even more amazing than this song, and that is saying something!

MOTW- Big Alice

 

Across the chasm in the Land of the Lost is the Sleestak city.  It's guardian is Big Alice, an immense female Allosaurus fragilis.  I never thought she actually cared much about the Sleestak, more like she thought this was a good place to hang out.  Since she had a baby in the third season it makes sense.  She probably snacked on more than on errant Sleestak now and then.  She was never quite the same menace Grumpy was, since the Marshalls had to go to her territory, rather than co-exist with the large Tyrannosaurus rex who's land they lived in.  All of us viewers were waiting for the inevitable clash between the two titanic theropods, but couldn't quite figure out how it would happen.  It was great when it finally did.

Attack of the Dino-Puppet!

I went to the San Diego Museum of Natural History several times while I lived there.  They had several different exhibits about dinosaurs, so I didn't need much more than that to get me down there.  It was also in beautiful Balboa Park, and that was always a fun thing to do any day.  This is my friend Becca who went with me in 2010.  I am not exactly sure what new exhibit was there, but we had a great time.  We also ate at the wonderful Old Town Mexican Cafe and Cantina after that.  A good time was had that day!

Shaw Logo

 

Normally I move this right or left, but this logo is too good to do that.

Danhausen Theme Song by Two Minutes to Late Night Host Gwarsenio Hall

 

This is the very nice and very evil theme song to a wrestler I enjoy watching on YouTube. The music may sound a bit familiar, though.

cowardly MOTW- Gigan

 

Gigan has, sadly, always been a great monster in search of a great movie.  His first one, Godzilla On Monster Island (Godzilla vs Gigan, 1972) is my least favorite of the first series of Godzilla movies.  I saw it when it was released in the theaters in the US (and again, it was uncut except for the credits).  This was in 1978, and by then I had seen most of the movies all the stock footage had come from originally.  I was also starting to be more discerning about what is a good movie.  While I like the movie far more now than I did then, it's still pretty dreary.

Xenorama 31- Sci Fi Flicks

 

This issue is now available!  Well, once it is reviewed and all, don'tcha know.  This is sort of the cover.  It's my first attempt at making one myself.  It's not bad, I think.  The issue has all kinds of aliens, robots and monsters from space that battle and war all over the place in it.  Barring any unforeseen circumstances it should be available on Amazon in the next day or two.  I like that I have added two new titles in two days.

Xenorama #30- Marine Boy!

At long last, the third and (hopefully) final edition of my Marine Boy book is available on Amazon.  This blog started in 2007, and became the official Marine Blog in September of that year.  I had just spoken to the late Peter Fernandez about the show.  What a great guy he was!  I wish I had finished at least one version of the book before he passed on.  I think he would have enjoyed it.

The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Collision [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

 

And celebrate the irony!

The Blue Leopard... wait, BLUE?

 

I loved Atlas Comics' short lived series of Tiger-man.  The second issue, which was the first one I bought, featured what probably would have been a foe turned friend in the future.  Well, that's what I would have done, anyway.  This rival is called The Blue Leopard and was given his powers by his tribe's shaman, who blamed Dr. Lancaster Hill for the deaths in his tribe. I figure this would end up being a story that was not quite true, causing the Blue Leopard to reevaluate the reason for killing Tiger-man.

MOTW- T Rex (Godzilla)

 

Godzilla and the crew of the Calico were sent back in time via what I remember to be something radioactive.  This is in the episode "The Time Dragons".    Somehow they must get back to the present.  In the meantime, they also have to stay alive in the past, and a deadly Tyrannosaurus rex is the main impediment to this task.  It is not red, and there is no Moon Boy to mellow this beast out.  It's also really large- it looks Godzilla in the eye.  Good thing this Godzilla is as tall as the story needs him to be for any given episode.

It's not May the 3rd and it's not May the 5th...

 

...but this is still pure money grubbing crap.  I don't even like the cartoon sequence that introduces everyone's favorite worm food, Boba Fett.  Everyone in this must have known it was rubbish right away.  I mean, musical numbers, comedy bits and a Wookiee family with terrible names.  No wonder the Ewoks replaced them in Return of the Jedi (1983).  They really didn't deserve to take down the Empire after this mess.

Outlaw Robots!

I think I have read a whole two Tommy Tomorrow stories.  It's a fun space opera story, and no matter what Jonah Hex says, I miss the spiffy fashion sense of Tommy and his Space Ranger pals.  You just don't get a lot of short pants in comic books these days.  Tommy was later retconned into Kamandi, or vice versa, in the ill-conceived Crisis on Infinite Earths back in the 80s.  This has probably changed a near infinite amount of times since then, but I don't care any more.

Beyond Foreshadowing

 

There's been a bit of stop-motion animation being mentioned these days in this blog, and there is a reason.  A future special issue of Xenorama will be an homage to the art.  It is going to take a few more minutes here, but it's been fun to get it started.  There will be more about it later on, but keep in mind anything you see here about this subject is in preparation for the issue.  It will also be an homage to a certain book that was purchased in 1978.  Yep, I'm that old and I own it.  It is autographed by both me and one Mr Ray Harryhausen, so it will never get sold or thrown away.