VIRUS!

I've got a virus on my dang computer. I'll post when I can.

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Jungle Girls!

Here are some great Sheena images by Dave Stevens!

Zombies From The Stratosphere!

This is the third of the Rocketman serials from Republic. It was made at about the same time as a proposed television version of the series (more on that later) and stars the same guy as Rocketman. It's another invasion, this time from Mars and not content to merely take over the Earth, this time they have to destroy it to make way for Mars to assume its orbit.

Judd Holdren plays the Rocketman this time, and he's called Larry Martin. He has the same team as last time mostly with Aline Towne repeating her role as girl assistant. They are asked to help with a potential alien threat and they get right on it.

Marex is the leader of the Martians and he has another Martian with him played by Leonard Nimoy. They land on Earth and immediately hook up with some thugs and an Earth scientist to plot the Earth's destruction. There's much running about, a lot of it in the water. In fact this serial has a really aquatic theme with many of the cliffhangers involving boats or water of some kind. The Martians can hold thier breath for a really long time and they have their secret headquarters in a spot which require them to trudge though water, a neat trick if somewhat slow for the film.

Again it seems that the plot depends on bank robbery for funding and there is a lot of that stuff, even a quasi-Western moment with some very unconvincing stock footage getting used. You sometimes get the feeling they forget about the rocketpack from time to time in this one.

The big highlight of this one is the Republic Robot getting a call. He's in several chapters and it used by both sides. It's pretty incredible watching this lumbering hunk of metal take on the heroes and lots of fun.

All in all this is a fun high-speed serial, but the speed of production shows in spots. Good fun.

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Radar Men From The Moon!

This is the second of the Rocketmen serials and because it's in public domain, I've owned a copy forever. It's probably in fact the first serial I ever owned aside possibly from Flash Gordon. This one features the Rocketman again, but he's dubbed Commando Cody this time out.

George Wallace leads the cast this time with Roy Barcroft as the Moon leader Retik who leads an invasion of Earth and Clayton Moore as Graber the lead henchman who helps the Moon Men with their schemes. This one offers up the Rocketman again with some of the same stunts repeated and it adds a rocketship which gets Commando Cody and his team to the Moon twice during the run of the serial.

There's much running around, lots of great fights, and some dandy high-pitched acting from all involved. The serial gets a little ragged with some time-wasting moves now and again and I was surprised to find out that Moon Men need to rob banks and whatnot to fund their invasions of Earth.

Lots of classic serial moments are in this one. Getting a copy is dead easy as practically every collection of serials offers this one. The atomic raygun is a fun toy and while you never really feel these guys from the Moon really are a threat the battle is a hoot.

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King Of The Rocketmen!

This 1949 serial is a pretty entertaining movie. Much has been written about the more mature characters in this one, from Tristam Coffin a regular movie heavy who gets the nod as Jeff King, the hero and nominal Rocketman of the movie to Mae Clarke who at forty seemed a bit old for the classic damsel-in-distress role. But while Clarke seemed a bit subdued throughout, I found Coffin quite good in his role as both scientist and action hero.

The plot is pretty standard serial, in that Science Associates is losing members to violent death left and right. One scientist named Dr.Millard is seemingly killed but instead hooks up with fellow egghead Jeff King and they relocate to a cool cave lab where he pretends to be dead while King as himself and as Rocketman (using the Millard invention of an atomic backpack rocket) tries to solve the mystery. There's a young sidekick and the usual gal reporter. All the other scientists are suspects but as they themselves continue to be killed the list gets shorter and shorter.

The flying stuff is outstanding as Republic really knew how to do this as ably demonstrated years before in Captain Marvel. This is a pretty decent whodunnit and an above average actioner. The climax involves nothing less than the near total destruction of New York City and that actually tends to undermine the tone of the previous chapters, but taken as a whole I really like this serial.

I've seen it twice this year and I don't think it will be all that long before I screen it again.

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Hotties With Heaters!

Above is a luscious gallery of some of the best comic covers by the late great Dave Stevens. He offers up some delectable dishes each clutching a gat!

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Serendipity On The Planet Of The Apes!

I've been on a Rocketman kick in the last several weeks. I have been finding and getting the Rocketman/Commando Cody serials. I all ready owned King Of the Rocketmen and have long had a copy of the ubiquitous Radar Men From The Moon, but recently picked up copies of both Zombies From The Stratosphere and Commando Cody Sky Marshall Of The Unviverse, the later serials/TV episodes with the classic Rocketman suit. This got me to researching and I learned of the Innovation comics based on the original King Of The Rocketmen and as previously reported found those issues for very sweet prices just last week.



That read got me to hankering to refresh my Rocketeer knowledge and I dug those out. I found my copies but discovered while I did have the complete saga, I didn't have the original comics anymore. I traded away my Rocketeer stuff from Pacific long ago, but had since picked up the Pacific Presents issues again. I needed the two issues of Starslayer in which the character debuted and I needed the Rocketeer Special Edition that wrapped up the original storyline. I do own all ready the Comico and Dark Horse chapters of the second story in NYC.

So what has all this to do with the Planet of the Apes? Stay with me.

So a friend calls me up and wants to go prowling some bookstores. I happily volunteer to tag along. This guy spends ten times what I do on back issues and it's fun to go to shops with him and watch the owners gleefully ring up his purchases. I on the other hand was looking for only those Rocketeer books. I found the Special Edition right away in the first store priced at $12 but in a dollar box. I raced to the counter, but not before finding the dvd collection of the animated series Return To The Planet Of The Apes. I've been wanting to get this for some time and the price and circumstances were just right. What I saved on the comic I happily applied to the dvd. Later in two other stores I found the Starslayer issues for small money and so I'm now able to read the whole Rocketeer saga in the original. It should be fun.

Here's the serendipitous part.

I got the Apes cartoon because I adore the work of Doug Wildey. He and Mo Gollub did the designs for the cartoon and while the animation is limited the cartoon itself is very mature in tone and content and actually adapts Pierre Boulle's novel more accurately than any of the movies. The society of the apes has 20th Century technology, so it's a very different Apes experience.

That said, I'd forgotten something very curious about The Rocketeer and Dave Stevens. He was an apprentice with Doug Wildey, and in fact Wildey is the inspiration for the character Peavy in the story. So ironically in seeking a comic inspired to some extent by Wildey and featuring a doppleganger of him, I found just by chance a wonderful cartoon developed by him.

As I said, serendipity.

I love collecting for just these kinds of offbeat connections. If you've stayed with my long-winded story this far, I thank you.

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