Xenorama #41 in color!

 

This issue is now live on Amazon!  It is a full color edition, featuring Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and Shazzan.   I have used some earlier articles about these shows, but have added a lot more information and pictures about the said shows.  The color really does make the pictures stand out.  These are the big three Saturday morning shows from Hanna-Barbera, though perhaps Shazzan is colored by my memories.  I do plan on doing a full color Jonny Quest issue in the near future.  That will be a lot of fun, since I love the show.  This issue just features the original series, so don't expect much talk about anything past the 60s (except for comic books).

Shazzan DVD set

I am slowly but surely replacing all my Hanna-Barbera bootleg cartoons with the legit sets they sell through the WB archive.  I've got the Herculoids and now the Shazzan DVDs.  Both look great, as I have noted before.  I've read some complaints about the way the cartoons are preserved here and there, but I can't see anything wrong with these, considering they are almost 50 years old and HD was something that was never even a dream back then, much less having them for sale for home viewing.  I think they are amazing and am really happy to be able to ditch my other, less than perfect copies, as happy as I was to get them back then.

Shazzan intro

I'm kind of in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon hero mood these days, so here's another intro that hasn't been posted here yet, though I have talked about Shazzan quite a bit. I think I've said I knew of this word/hero long before I ever heard the magic word "Shazam" (and lora mercy, the stupid idea of calling Captain Marvel that... I'm sure there's a rant about that in here some time).

Big Little Books

I first talked about them here, and decided to read a little more about them.  however, there isn't a lot of information about the ones I had as a kid (and still have some of them).

I liked them because they had different stories than the comics I was reading, and the format was pretty cool.  I had the FF story here, but was too young to quite understand what was going on.  by the time I was, the book had begun falling apart.  I'd like to get another copy of this one some day.

I do own several of them, still, including two copies of the Space Ghost story "The Sorceress of Cyba 3".  it was cool to have as a kid, so that I could remember all the names.

however, it's not a very exciting story inside, all things considered.  not once does Space Ghost use his power bands!  really, what kind of story is that?  but the art is pretty cool and it's a neat story.

I also had this one with Frankenstein, Jr.  I didn't ever remember seeing his cartoon, but the story was fun.  I'm a much bigger fan of Franky now that I am older.  I wonder if they did an Impossibles book?  that would have rocked.

I also have now a Spider-man, a Hulk, the Shazzan story where he gets a sword in the back and dies (sort of, talk about tramatic) and the Aquaman book.  I'll be posting actual pictures when I find them from the bins I moved in.  I had the Batman one, and read a bunch more as kids (the Popeye and The Road Runner ones didn't do much for me).