Starman vs the Atomic Rulers!

I first saw Starman (or Super Giant, if you prefer) early in the morning on KWGN Channel 2 in Denver.  it was listed as "Atomic Rulers of the World" with "sci-fi" as it's designated genre.  that was all it said.

so I set the alarm for 2 or 3 A.M. and duly woke my brother Eric up so we could watch the science fiction movie.  we had no idea it was an actual Japanese superhero movie!  for years I remembered Starman bending the gun the gangsters were using to menace the children in the movie.

Starman

we had never seen anything like him before, and it took years for me to find out there were three more movies starring this hero.



the opening was even more iconic and surreal. it's really cool. who knew one day you could buy all four movies for about $20? for more info, look at the Blacksun blog on it!

Fighting of Shaolin Monk AKA Killer Priest (1981)

I enjoy Netflix movie viewer, since it allows one to watch movies from the comp and all, but trying to watch some of the lesser known kung fu movies like this one can be a trial.

one of many titles

the picture is not good and the sound is non-existant.  it gets decent reviews, but the first 30 minutes are pretty boring (after a good start).  it supposedly tells the story of Da-mo (Tamo, whatever) the priest who travelled from India to China and developed the five animal styles of kung fu.

I didn't think the fights were that good either, and it's full of the US style of "chop-edit" so you don't actually see much real fighting. meh.

crabs have teeth!

well, giant martian crabs do, anyway! they also drool.

crab vs crab

there is nothing that isn't improved by any kind of giant monsters, crabs or not.  this is from

Pinocchio in Outer Space (1965), a really cool movie that  Fred Ladd produced. hmm, I have no idea what I did with the font! LOL. here's  your clip!

Devilman opening and closing

this 1972 cartoon series is pretty cool, and has great opening and closing theme songs.



I like that this version is still pretty demonic, but not overly gory or bloody like the 90s cartoon version was.

Devil Wing!

and yet also very superheroic looking.  Go Nagai is something else.

Mecha-posters

while I am on a MechaGodzilla kick, let's have an informal vote.  which poster do you prefer?

this is the original Cinema Shares poster complete with the "Bionic Monster" title.  I watched the show, I know it was a big hit, but it's not nearly as exciting as this movie is.

this one shows you everything the movie is going to offer you, three giant monsters and one giant robot version of Godzilla.  it leaves out one very cool Interpol Agent played by Shin Kishida.  there's also a great score by Masaru Satô.


I also really like the inclusion of a new mystical guardian monster in King Shisa who has some neat powers of his own, reflecting MG's eye rays.

hmm, I seem to have gotten a little off tangent here.  OK, onto the next poster, which is very famous!

this one showed up on Famous Monsters #135, which I immediately purchased.  there were never enough Godzilla articles in that magazine for me back then (though when I look back, there were more than I thought, though bt the 70s most of them were reprints of older articles).

the cover is by the great artist Basil Gogos, and it's really good.  one would never know there were two other monsters in the movie, but it looks pretty exciting, and the monsters themselves are well represented.  this didn't happen in a lot of US Godzilla posters (DAM, Megalon, etc).

FM #135 also stated that King Ghidorah was in the movie, as one of the GOOD monsters!  back then, mistakes like that were understandable.  but really, who would make a movie with the villain's villain Ghidorah as a hero? 

no one would buy that.

rare MechaGodzilla (1974) trailer

probably the best Godzilla film from the 70s:



this is sourced from a Finnish rental tape, must be the "international" trailer.  I had never seen it before.  amazing what you can find on youtube!

Italian lobby

there will be more on this movie later.

they slimed us

just a shot of the title card of a cool movie that deserves a proper US DVD release.

Southern Knights #2

in our second issue we meet the first super powered villain the Knights will face... Dread!

after rescuing millionaire Johnny Barl, Barl wants to sponsor the "Crusaders".  meanwhile, the girls don't want to wear costumes or have codenames, and Electrode/David finds out some team in NYC already is using the "Crusaders" moniker (that would be Archie Comics Group, "The Mighty Crusaders" protecting their rightful trademark).

Dragon has a great aside about the original Crusaders as well.

Barl hosts a party for the Knights, but moves their police scanner (wow, no cell phones or anything back in 1983) so no one can hear it.  that's when the mutant Dread makes his starts using his fear power to rob banks.  finally the Knights find out about the crime spree and go into action against the villain.

it's a better issue than the first, the personalities come out more, especially Kristin and David.  Kristin is the one who names the team at the end, with the comedic comeuppance of Johnny Barl.

Thunderbird 2 is go!

Thunderbird 2 is an awesome ship.  that is all.

Johnny Cypher opening

one of the rarer cartoons I saw as a kid. didn't see it again for many years. here's the intro:

lots of familiar voices. Johnny has a cool power, I think. nice looking toon, as well.