dolphins wear glasses?

I recently found out there was a Marine Boy coloring book out when the show was being aired originally.  I learned of it from Toy Ventures, and then was able to purchase a copy as a PDF from Retro Reprints, who do loads of such things.  It is pretty decent, and I would have loved having it at the time.  I may get some more in the future, and see about printing them out. Or not.  They are never as much fun as I remembered, though.  Some coloring books are better than others, though.

Gulliver's Gigantic Goof

 

What, did Stan Lee write that alliterative title?  Green Arrow guest starred in that episode from the first season of Super Friends.  A well meaning but misguided scientist,  Dr. Hiram Gulliver, invents a way to shrink all humanity down to two inches tall.  This will solve the population problem.  He is not wrong, but he didn't figure in all the damage it would cause, plus people would turn into food sources for larger animals now.  Or perhaps he did?  Green Arrow is called in to help rescue the main members of the Justice League, and they manage to get Gulliver to see the error of his ways.

Uptight (Everything's Alright)- David McCallum

            

HOTW- Mary Marvel

 

From WIki-

Mary Marvel was introduced into Fawcett Comics' Marvel Family franchise a year after a young male counterpart, Captain Marvel Jr., made his debut. Artist Marc Swayze based Mary Marvel's design and personality upon American actress Judy Garland.^[4] Mary was introduced in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 as Mary Bromfield, a girl who discovers she is the long lost sister of Captain Marvel's alter ego Billy Batson.^[5]

RIP David McCallum

 

David McCallum, best known for starring as Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and many other shows, passed on yesterday.  He was 90 years old.  I never saw U.N.C.L.E. growing up, but knew who he was due to his two appearances in The Outer Limits and the mid-70s Invisible Man teleseries.  I was reading whatever sci-fi mags and TV Guide so they mentioned that he was in that very popular series.  He had also done voiceover work and been in many many more shows and movies that I could list.

Marine Boy 4th Edition

 

Back to where it all started... I am going to do a new edition of Marine Boy, like the very first one.  It will ONLY be Marine Boy.  It has been updated since even the last edition two years ago.  This time will be in color, though, and have some more information about the show.  Toy-Ventures has an issue about Marine Boy and the wide variety of merchandise that was available in both the US and Japan.  There was even a coloring book here in the US.  I have also corrected a few typos here and there.

Sven- Return of the Vampire (1943)

 

Dracula Armand Tesla is stalking WWI London.  He gets "spiked" but does not turn to ash (like that ever stops vampires).   In WWII, workers unspike the vampire after a blitz and Tesla returns to power.  He also has an assistant, and werewolf named Andreas.  He can speak in his lycanthropic form, which is really unusual.  Lady Jane goes after Tesla.  However, it is Andreas who stops the vampire, along with another blitz.

Challenge of the Masters (1976)

From Wiki- After his father refuses to teach him kung fu and he is constantly being beaten by rival school students, a young Wong Fei Hung (Gordon Liu) must train under Luk Ah Choy (Chen Kuan Tai) to avenge the evils being done by the rival school.  It takes Fei-Hung a minute to figure out all the exact teachings of his sifu, since being kind to your enemy is not an easy thing to.  Especially when that enemy is the talented Ho Fu (Lau Kar-leung).  But he does learn, and turns that enemy into if not a friend at least someone that admires the Wongs.

The Return Of The Vampire (1943) - Official Trailer

                   

The Lost World screening

Way back in the olden times I went to see two movies.  I read about them in the local newspaper and could walk to the theater.  I think I still have the program guide to this somewhere, and I may search for it for an upcoming project.  They screened both The Lost World and King Kong, which was just great.  They had a few of Willis O'Brien's silent movies to show as well.  A live orchestra played during The Lost World.  That was amazing as well.

HOTW- The Elongated Man

 

From WIKI- As a teenager, Ralph Dibny was fascinated by contortionists, or people who displayed feats of agility and suppleness. He learned that all of the body-benders he spoke with drank a popular soda called "Gingold". Ralph set to work learning chemistry and developed a super-concentrated extract of the rare "gingo" fruit of the Yucatán, which gave him his elasticity.^[10] In his first appearance, the Flash suspects Elongated Man is behind several crimes, but he helps capture the criminals, who reveal they used a helicopter to frame him.

Drives Us Bats - Adam West Batman Version

            

Xenorama #58

 

Here is the cover for the newest Xenorama!  It should be on sale shortly.  There will be a black and white version on the way as well.  The Road Warriors became a team forty years ago in Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS.  To say they changed the business might be a bit of an understatement.  They were part of the Legion of Doom, until Black Saturday.  Then they went to the AWA and got so popular they turned babyface against the hated Russian team.

Godzilla vs Megalon poster

Here is a nice textless poster for Godzilla vs. Megalon.  It is the US poster.  One can tell easily since it was based on the King Kong remake.  That poster was pretty misleading in the first place, since that Kong could barely jump from one tower to another.  Be that as it may, I thought about using this for the cover of Xenorama #54, but went with the actual US poster, since it had the title of the movie contained, plus the great "giant against giant" tagline.  There is also a lot of empty space at the bottom of the poster, where all the words would go.

Sven- Mr. Sardonicus

 

In 1880, Baron Sardonicus is a crazy sadist.  His face is frozen in a rictus grin, even worse than the Joker's.  He experiments on many people, terrorizing the village with his sadism.  His newest wife tells him about her former paramour and his success with paralysis.  The Baron sends for him, and then forces him to do more experiments.  Finally, one of them works, and the Baron is cured.  Or is he?  Turns out his issue is psychosomatic, but since the Baron has tortured everyone, no one tells him.  Maude and Sir Robert leave, Krull neglects to tell his master about the other news, and presumably, Sardonicus dies.

Fantastic Voyage (1968)

 

Here is the opening narration for the cartoon:

Headquarters: CMDF--Combined Miniature Defense Force.  Project: Fantastic Voyage. Process: Miniaturization.  Authority: Top Secret, highest clearance.  Team: Jonathan Kidd, Commander.  Guru, master of mysterious powers.  Erica Lane, doctor, biologist.  Busby Birdwell, scientist, inventor, builder of the Voyager.  Mission: In their miniaturized form, to combat the unseen, unsuspected enemies of freedom.  Time limit: Twelve hours.

Mr. Sardonicus (1961) Original Trailer

The Road Warriors on VHS

 

This was one of the first videotapes I ever purchased.  The AWA was on top of releasing affordable VHS tapes in the 80s, which is kind of surprising.  They had several which featured their top stars.  The tapes were all about 30 minutes long, and released by Kids Klassics.  There were 8 tapes in the series, and two of them featured the Road Warriors.  The first one was when they were heels, and the second one was when they were ostensible faces.  The tapes usually featured three matches.  It was a fun way to see the team more than once.  I got the second one several years later, in the 90s, which featured the LOD losing the AWA titles.  The other tapes sometimes had the stars fighting the Roadies, but these were the only ones that had their names in the titles.

HOTW- The Thing

 

Benjamin J. Grimm, the blue-eyed Thing, the idol of millions, has not always been the wise cracking superhero he is now.  His skin looked rather hippo like, and he resented Reed for causing this to him.  According to Reed, Ben's skin started mutating constantly (in the first 15 or so issues, anyway) and became more and more rock like.  Ben has changed his look a few more times, but always seems to return to the rocks.  His amazing strength seemed to stay about the same, except once when he got Hulk level strength.  Ben is a great pilot and good friend.

The Unforgiven-All Is Quiet

               

A... Scoobyverse?

 

This is not a real thing, but I kinda wish it was.  I enjoyed the Titans crossover with the Titans movie, they did some really clever bits, though I wish they had acknowledged all the other Titans that have been in the group.  Oops, I have digressed yet again.  Be that as it may, once again, this does not exist.  It could really work, though, since the two big bads would pretend to work together at first and cross universal boundaries.

Gamera vs. Viras magnet

 

Forgot I had this little gem.  Carl Craig himself sent it to me nearly twenty years ago.  I can't believe it has been that long.  I was corresponding him via email back then.  He was really nice and sent that magnet and a business card to me.  I wish I had kept in contact with him.  He was great.  I just checked, and the website is still active!  How about that?  You can still get magnets there.  I may have to order his DVD with commentary.

"Frankenstein Conquers the World" U.S. theatrical trailer

                

Green Arrow and Aquaman

 

Everyone knows the Trinity from DC Comics.  Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman were all published continuously from the start.  However, there are a few other heroes that were in the comics from that time frame as well.  Aquaman and Green Arrow are two of them.  You can also tell because they never got new origins or suits when Earth 1 began.  OK, sure, GA got a bit of an upgrade, especially in personality in the early 70s, but he kept the same look for ages.  Aquaman has gone through some changes, but I don't even know if an Earth 2 twin was ever acknowledged.  I wish I had asked Roy Thomas when I met him several years ago.

Gargantuas trailer line comparisons

                 

Yellowbeard (1983)

 

Yellowbeard the Pirate got imprisoned for tax reasons, but no amount of coercion could make him reveal where he hid his treasure.  Yellowbeard escapes, with authorities following him on his way to said treasure.  Many adventures and much silliness happen on the way there.  There is betrayal, sex, booze and more adult nonsense as well.

HOTW- Space Ghost

 

Space Ghost is Hanna-Barbera's premiere superhero.  He patrols space with his twin wards and their almost useful mutant monkey, Blip.  He has vast powers provided by his arm bands.  He also has the amazing Phantom Cruiser.  His spaceship has self repairing abilities, but also lacks seat belts.  Space Ghost also is very strong, even without any powers.  His suit provides an air pocket so he can survive in space easily.

Split Enz - I Got You (Official Video)

            

Movie Monsters #3

 

This was one of the first monster mags I ever bought.  I was not a fan of the cover at ten years old (it is still rather gruesome, isn't it?) but it had those eight letters I couldn't ignore on it... GODZILLA.  Batman and the Wolfman are also on there, so that certainly didn't hurt.  I learned about Batman's early filmed appearances, and a lot about The Forbidden Planet.  I loved the movie when it finally aired, and still love it.  I have not looked through this issue in a while.  The Godzilla article was a filmbook of the original movie, but loaded with pictures from the entire franchise.  Oh, and it had a pretty fair article about Jack the Giant Killer, which was fun to read.

The NEW Fantastic Four

 

I have now watched two episodes of this show.  When you know more about the history, it isn't that bad at all.  I am still baffled by adding a robot, instead of changing Johnny Storm to Donny Storm and making him the Living Flame or something like that.  Or use a Hydro-Man type of character.  Water is allegedly safer than fire, most of the time.  I mean, I get that robots were ever so popular after Star Wars, but HERBIE could have been used as the HQ staff, or whatever.  A secondary character.

Boat Drinks - Live from Key West (2015)

          RIP Jimmy Buffet. 

Fist Of Fury (1972) - Trailer