Best sales month ever!

 

This month marks the most sales I have made since the re-launch of Xenorama in July of 2013, just over eight years ago.  I want to thank everyone involved, plus all the readers from all over the world.  Since Amazon started distributing the book in 2019 it's gone all over the world, which is pretty great.  Thanks to a certain global condition, I have been able to write and publish several issues this year alone, with at least one or two more on the way.

monster of the week - Zigra

Much like Gigan, Zigra is a monster in search of a better movie.  It's a cool looking alien, and nearly as smart as Viras.  In my dream of a Godzilla/Gamera team up from 1972, the two heroic monsters would have joined forces against Zigra, Ghidrah and Viras.  That would have been more fun than both Godzilla vs Gigan and Gamera vs Zigra, I must say.  Alas, this was never to be, and probably never will be.  Still, it is fun to think about.

KISS - Hard Luck Woman ( official KISS video )

 

 This is a great song.  Written by Paul and sung by Peter. 

Nacha end card

Na Cha The Great (1974) is a fun fantasy movie from the Shaw Brothers.  It's one of Fu Sheng's early roles, and he proves his star power.  Na Cha is a figure from Chinese mythology.  He is a demi god, but that was kept from him until he started killing obnoxious sea dragons and upsetting the local despot.  He then sacrifices himself for his people and is reborn.  He learns magic and then returns to right the wrongs the dragons and tyrant have done to the people.

The Marvel Lull

 

I have not seen The Black Widow just yet, but I will eventually.  I've known Tasha for years, and she's never been one of my favorite heroes.  I do think it will be a fun movie, though.  I've really not paid much attention to the "next phase" for the MCU, so it's kind of a surprise to see what will be showing up.  I believe an animate "What If..." is on the way, which I have misgivings about.  I collected the first 40 or so issues of the original run, since it was such an interesting idea.  But then it kind of petered out with reruns and dare I say VARIANTS and sometimes sequels that it became almost a parody of itself.  I picked up an occasional issue here and there, but overall my interest wasn't there.

MOTW- Mama Pteranodon

 

When the Friendly Tribe runs out of food, they set out to find some.  After some trials, they find a giant egg.  The Hostile Tribe, on a similar mission, runs into them and takes the egg.  They soon regret that, as the mother of the egg, a wonderful looking Pteranodon longinceps chases them to retrieve said egg.  This is hands down the best stop-motion pterosaur that has ever been portrayed on film.  It just looks magnificent.

Loki 6- For All Time. Always.

In which we go to Milliways to discover the jerk, genius and/or conqueror who runs the TVA.  Loki and Sylvie have to decide if they will kill him or takeover for him.  He also tells them the story of how the TVA was created and run, though not exactly how it was populated all at once.  Like the first episode, it's a a bit dialog heavy, but it is entertaining and thought provoking.  I suppose most fans are going to be pondering Loki kissing Sylvie at the end, but come on, that's Loki.  What else would he do?  But I'm pretty sure I know who.. spoilers-

Ultraman: Episode 1 - Ultra Operation No. 1 (Full Episode)

 

This is the version Shout! released on Blu Ray set they released.  The prints are gorgeous.  I do really wish they had been able to use the US dub, as that would have made the set perfect.

Gamera, Super Monster handbook

 I haven't talked too much about Gamera recently.  I just received this amazing book, though, and it's great.  I'm not a big fan of this movie, but Mr. Furman has made me want to watch the movie again.  This book is packed with information about this movie, the actors and the director.  It's also loaded with reviews from other fans and more.  The commentary about the movie is really good.  I am thinking I would like Mr. Furman (who is a friend of mine, I must say) to write more books like this for other genre movies.  He really knows his stuff.

two headed Monster of the Week- Galligantua

 

The Most Eville Pendragon sends the massive, two-headed Galligantua out to stop Jack and the Princess Elaine from escaping.  All seem lost until the imp of the bottle summons a kraken to battle the duo domed terror.  It's almost an even battle, but the kraken triumphs in the end.   We've seen the kraken here before, and he's one of my favorite monsters of all time.  Galligantua... well, he's a great heel monster for to be beaten down.

The Black Widow

She was supposed to be so good at what she did.  She failed all the time when she was a villain trying to foil Iron Man.  The only thing she succeeded at was making Hawkeye fall in love with her during that time frame.  She had help from everyone!  I know it's the way things are in the comic books, the villain has to be defeated, but sometimes they can get overused.  Of course, her country was finally done giving her chances and she defected to the US.  This book covers all those stories, plus her solo series in Amazing Adventures.  It shows her character development quite well.  And thankfully, they got rid of her rather bulbous bouffant hairdo when she sort of joined the Avengers.

Loki 5- Journey into Mystery

 

Loki and the other Lokis are still in the Supremacy, and it's so great to see "Classic" Loki in a spot on comic book costume.  He's also great, though the others are fun.  Heck, even Alligator Loki is fun.  Then we meet several more Lokii, though they all turn on each other and a massive brawl happens. Eventually, Mobius and Sylvie show up.  Oh, there's also some energy eater monster that is Sylvie thinks she can enchant.  There's also other stuff going on in Gallifrey The TVA.  Ravonna wants to know exactly how it started.  I suppose she's been brought back from the dead in the comic books, but I haven't read those stories if so.

Happy Ultraman Day!

 

It's been 55 years since the Birth Of Ultraman special aired on television.  The series premiered the following week.  The rest really is history.  It's one of the most successful franchises that has ever been created, and the series has been aired around the world.  It really is that popular.  Well, at least in most of the world.

The Good, the Bart, and the Loki

 

Since I'm late on my Loki review, this will do for a moment.

MOTW- the deathless honker!

 

This was the first Turok comic book I ever bought.    I'm sure the cover is what drew me to it, but the story was pretty interesting.  I think it would also have been the first time I had read a Turok book, but that actual knowledge is lost to time at this point.  The beast had been immersed in some kind of tar coating, rendering it impervious to any penetration.  Except for it's ears, nose, eyes and mouth.  Aiming their poison arrows at those targets never occured to Turok or Andar while they ran from it.  And it was single minded- it wanted to eat our heroes.

Shock Thriller!

 Who knew this existed?  This was a one shot digest published when the movie came out, or more likely, right before the movie was released.   It fleshes out the movie quite a bit.

Xenorama #32

Here's the next cover! This is the biggest issue ever, at least in page count.  It's over two hundred pages and nicely illustrated by comics from my own collection.  Some of the covers show the wear and tear from over 50 years of age.  It features many of my favorite heroes and monster from that same range of time.  I included a few runs of the various books that flowed together, but usually I picked one story from whatever subject I was talking about.  The biggest problem I had was in limiting my selections to just a few stories, and saving some for the next time I want to write about comic books and comic book accessories.  Because I am almost sure that this will happen again.

X - 4th of July

  

A certain genius friend of mine mentioned listening to this song yesterday.  I will admit to not knowing much X music after Billy Zoom left the band.  His stunning guitar work was such an important part of the sound of the band I couldn't imagine how they would sound without him.  This song was written by Dave Alvin of the Blasters fame.  It's no knock on either Alvin or Tony Gilkyson (former guitarist of Lone Justice), they were great, but Zoom was the guitar sound of the band.  He returned to the band in 1998. 

Loki 4- The Nexus Event

 Loki sees a Revision and ends up in the Supremacy.  Sort of.  This was an interesting episode.  We find out all sorts of things about the Time Lords, which leads to the greater question- who runs the TVA?  There will be spoilers (I should have said that at the beginning, if anyone knows what I meant).  I lost count of how many people got de-rezzed, I mean pruned.  Mobius and Loki both got zapped.  But this episode has a mid credits sequence, which has been pretty rare for the last two series.