Southern Knights/Crusaders #1

a cool cover

after recently re-reading these stories, I think they are good and do not deserve to be forgotten.

so I'll be going through them, once in a while.

here we have the origin issue, which is one of the few comics to introduce four new heroes in their own book right away (well, up until the b/w independent explosion happened).  it was very unusual at the time, anyway.

our heroes all meet up in a rainstorm in Atlanta, GA, and yes, they do think the dragon is the bad guy, so there is the fight scene there between the heroes.  then they have a meeting a form a team- The Crusaders.

it's a good first issue, overall.  the dialog needs some work, and the art by Jackson "Butch" Guice is nice, but it improves in the next issue.    the late Sam Grainger inks really helped out there (Sam has always been one of my favorite inkers, a nice clean line).

anyway, it's a good start, and only got better.

space rockers

and here you thought Buck Rogers' disco was bad.


and notice the cast!  I always liked the show, overall.

a mystery solved!

ever have a lifelong mystery solved unexpectedly?  happened to me tonight.

when I was very young, I remember being at the drive in, possibly around 1970 or 1971.  it would have been in the summer time, being in CO, so I would have been either 5 or 6 years old.  I don't remember what movie we saw for the first feature, but I do remember seeing part of the second feature.

why? because one of the characters took out his eye.  I'd never considered that being possible.  now, either we left after that or I fell asleep and didn't see any more of the movie.  in the ensuing years I thought about that scene, and wondered if I would ever know the name of the movie or see it again.  not knowing what kind of movie it was, I thought my chances were slim to none.

tonight, I decided to watch this film.

visiting Tera!

I had heard of it of course, and knowing it was a Gerry Anderson production I was looking forward to if nothing else, the fine miniatures.  I was not expecting to see Herbert Lom remove his eye in the exact same manner I had remembered so long ago!  so now I know what movie I didn't get to watch!

so far, it's a good movie, too.

Ghidrah, the Three Headed Monster

monsters team up to save the world!

nothing incredible to say about the movie, just a cool poster I really like.  I had the 8mm version of the first part of the movie when I was a kid ("Battle of the Monsters") and while it featured Ghidrah on the cover, he was nowhere to be found in the 11 minutes of movie that screened on my parents' living room wall.

I did get over it, as there's a cool battle between Rodan and Godzilla, and then Mothra settles it.

space men, with a mission

here's a rare cartoon intro, released in the US after Astro Boy.  there are some episodes on DVD out there, in the US dub, but not many. our pals at 8thman.com have great copies.

Gomora vs Red King

gotcha in a headlock, whatcha gonna do about it?

I really enjoyed the Ultra Galaxy Big Monster Battle Forever (whatever the title actually is called).  seeing various Ultra monsters fight it out is a lot of fun.

and having Ancient Monster Gomora be the hero is a great thing.  here we see him handing Skull Monster Red King his butt in the first episode battle.

I like Red King, but if it's a choice between him and Gomora, that's an easy one.  I've never understood the popularity of the ol' pinhead monster.  he was easily defeated by Ultraman... twice!

judo throw!

now Gomora on the other hand, actually beat Ultraman in their first encounter.  bad enough that the Beta Capsule was knocked out of him!  did anyone ever explain exactly how that happened, by the way?  I always thought that was a little unusual.

anyway, Gomora rocks, there's no two ways about that.

now if we could only have a return of Light and Heat Monster Keeler (or Kira, or whatever) and my ol pal the crying Ghost Monster Seaboz, I'd be pretty happy.

final blast!

Five Element Ninja (1982)

what a title

so here we have Image Entertainment's DVD of (Chinese) Super Ninjas or as it says on the cover, Five Element Ninjas and then we have the above title. yeesh, you'd think they could agree on the name of the movie! the first one was how it was marketed originally in the US, though I amazed it ever got aired on tv, as bloody as it is.

Lo Meng beats a samurai barehanded!

it's a battle of the martial arts schools for control of the Chinese martial world. when our heroes beat the stuffing out of the other school, their leader brings in a samurai. after the samurai is defeated, but before he commits seppuku, he gives the bad guys a letter bringing in his sempai and master ninja.

the rest is carnage and tons of martial arts, and lots of severed limbs, betrayal and even a bit of self doubt about all the fighting.  the lead hero is Tien-chi Cheng and he does a pretty good job, though he reminds me a lot of Fu Sheng.

Junko makes a mistake...

the weapons used are all authentic, but there's no defined kung fu style.  all the ninja weapons are pretty dead on as well, but none of the martial arts on display is presented with any kind of realism.  which is perfect for this movie, as that's the last thing it needs!

the DVD looks spectacular and sounds good.  there are a few extras on it as well, including an interview with everyone's favorite doomed "Venom", Meng Lo (or Lo Meng, as we know him) which is fun.  there is a Mandarin language track as well as the original English dub which made so many of us fans back in the day.

I guess technically this isn't a Venoms mob movie, as there was some kind of disagreement with Director Cheh Chang and some of them left to make the very similar Ninja in the Deadly Trap (1981). yes, I see the date.  don't ask me.

Planet of Dinosaurs

cool title sequence

I love dinosaurs.  with a name like this, you'd think I'd love this movie.  well...

I bought the VHS tape of it years ago, and aside from the dinosaurs, I really didn't like it much.  the acting ranges from adequate to subpar, and the hair styles date it immediately as do the clothes (despite them trying to make the styles look futuristic).

however, watching the DVD (sadly, not Retromedia version) it's not nearly as bad as I thought it was.  the concept is cool, and as mentioned the effects are quite nice, especially considering the budget this feature had (or lack thereof).

rex attack

the score is almost all electronic, which is a plus and minus. it's not very rousing at all, but it's not horrible.  mostly.

the pace needs some help.  there's a lot of marching in the first quarter of the movie, makes it seem like they are headed to Mordor, but with cooler creatures in the way.

the dinosaurs look great.  the animation is very smooth, though somewhat "matter of fact" in the way they move. and for the most part, they are actually dinosaurs, save for the one gigantic spider.

and of course, the guest appearance by the rhedosaurus is a nice plus.  I saw this clip on tv in 1978 or so, and couldn't wait to see the movie.  sadly, it never played ANYwhere except maybe in LA.

a gruesome death

and of course, this being a 70s movie, there have to be squabbles amongst the survivors, especially as to who will lead them.  had there been better thespians in the movie, this would have been tolerable.  with this group... it could have been worse, I suppose, and been another 20 minutes longer.

I was going to include a shot of the giant spider, but bleah!  that certainly can be left in the movie.  you watch it.

I could have sworn we saw the head of the water monster that kills the first girl (darn, I liked her, she was pretty), but it wasn't in this version.  maybe I just imagined it.

Akumaizer 3

This is one cool show, a bit different than the usual "henshin boom" heroes, as the costumed forms are the actual forms.  indeed, the heroes are actual demons, instead of humans battling demons.  Zabitan, the lead hero, rebels against the Akuma Clan, and eventually Evil and Gabura join him.

instead of the usual amount of Asian martial arts on display here, we get a lot of fencing and weapons fighting.  it rocks.  as does the theme song!

Gamera's War (1966)

b/w Gamera

Shout Factory is releasing Gamera movies, as has been reported extensively elsewhere.  this is the second movie, Gamera vs Barugon, or as it is/was known in the US, War of the Monsters.

like the first DVD, it looks amazing.  also, like the first DVD, there's a great commentary track to go along with it. another similarity is the lack of a dubbed version or the US cut.

which is a shame, since the US cut is about 20 minutes shorter and actually improves on the movie, as it's a bit ponderous and has precious little monster time onscreen.

Barugon vs Gamera

it's like, let's make Gamera a serious monster and see what happens.

which is an interesting experiment, but not really doesn't quite work at this running time.  of course, it was tried 30 years later, and fanboys all over the world slobber about how great that movie is as well.

me, I prefer my giant monsters with some sense of fun to them.

anyway, here's a comparison to the Japanese laser disc version of the movie and it's new US DVD.

this is from the LD

this is the new DVD

yeah, that's quite a difference.  despite the lack of a dubbed version, I am quite happy to be able to buy this and all the rest of the Gamera movies these days. oh, and Ragone, where's my copy I won answering the trivia question? LOL!