Charlton Colorization!

Here for your viewing pleasure are some utterly fantastic renderings of comics which might have been. These are two unpublished Steve Ditko masterpieces originally scheduled for the end of his runs on Blue Beetle and Captain Atom, but which didn't see publication until the good folks at CPLGang showcased them in their publications celebrating the Derby publisher.

Scott Dutton of Catspaw Dynamics is responsible for taking this raw Ditko art and making some blazingly beautiful "what if" covers, some blasts from the past-which-was-not-but-we-wish-had-been.

Love seeing the "Big Red C" glowing again in all its over-sized glory, if only in the grand fan creations. If you'd like to read the complete Blue Beetle adventure go here. To check out the story behind the Captain Atom cover go here.

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all! As 2013 disappears and 2014 comes upon us, I have to say my spirits are generally up personally. Life is pretty darn good, by and large, and for my loved ones it was a successful year. My family seems well spiritually, physically, professionally, and for the most part financially.

What the next year holds for this blog is an open question. I don't want to make a lot of pronouncements then not follow through on them, but I do hope to get back to some detailed comic book analysis, especially of some key Charlton comics. I've done too little of that these past few years.

Lots of fantastic Charlton stuff has been getting reprinted, so much so that it's difficult to stay current. Every story Steve Ditko has ever done has been reprinted, sometimes several times over. Other specialty stuff shows up here and there with wild abandon. There's a greater appreciation of talents like Pat Boyette, Pete Morisi, Jim Aparo, and other Charlton regulars and material by these guys is finding its way onto the book stands.

As with every new year that springs upon us, we all strive and resolve to do better. I'm no slacker on that front. I'm in the midst of a campaign to improve my health a bit by dropping a few pounds and I might even be convinced to eat some vegetables and fruits before long. So with better eating habits, my mind should be clear to read more Sherlock Holmes stories, watch more Irwin Allen TV shows, and maybe even slip in some choice Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The back room spills over more each day and I've been pretty successful trading some choice back issues off. I intend to continue down that road, clearing out old collections to make room for better stuff.

I'm still mulling whether this blog will remain a daily event. Likely it will, but the grind gets me at times, so don't be startled if a day or two slips by with no new content. For those who stop by regularly thanks, and for those who only stop by once and while thanks too. It's all appreciated, and I hope to make the stops at least momentarily diverting.

Once again, have a  Happy New Year and be safe out there.

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The Time Of The Doctor!

Finally got around to watching the Christmas special for Doctor Who. This one was a whopper, as it not only offered a smidge of a Christmas story, but yielded the finale for the Eleventh Doctor himself. Typically for this series of Doctors, the plot smashes along at machine-gun pace, dollops of back story and pinches of revelations dropping like snowflakes, look quick or you miss them. If you like Daleks, they are here of course along with Cybermen, the Silence (who are explained), the Weeping Angels (I am getting really tired of them), and other unnamed aliens, even a few Sontarans make a cameo.

The Matt Smith Doctor has been a huge success for the franchise, there's no denying that. And the new guy will have a time living up to what fans of the series have come to expect. I anticipate a wave of negatives as Peter Capaldi slides into the role, as many fans of this Doctor seem exceedingly fused to Smith's youthful vigor. But Smith was smart to dash away from the role that threatened to swallow him up, and may still do. His silly Doctor needs a rest, and I hope that Capaldi's Doctor is a tad more restrained and somewhat less goofy.

A stern and grumpy Doctor would be a neat break after a decade of dashing types have reconfigured the role to an extent, not always to its benefit. I'd also like to see the series become more story driven and less character controlled. You have to care about people to care about a story, I get it, but it seems too many newer Doctor tales are sappy, not crisp.

I hope for the best, as we enter a new time of The Doctor.

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Godzilla - Final Wars!

With a new Godzilla movie getting talked about, I thought it might be finally time to watch the last one. Godzilla - Final Wars from 2004 was the last Godzilla movie made by Toho and after this one, the character has been left to rest for a decade. It's been a quick ten years.

In this spectacular, featuring in some way or other nearly every Kaiju Toho ever put onto screen, Godzilla is often absent. He is buried by the ultimate fighting sub The Gotanga in the opening shots then the movie lingers over its new cast and mileau. The future is protected by a high-tech military especially geared to fight monsters and bolstered by a new species of mutated humans who form their own force within the larger military units. Then monsters reappear and wreak havoc across the world, and eventually we find it's the shenanigans of some aliens called Xilians, who have a connection not only to the monsters but to other things as well.

Things I liked about this movie was the wonderful pacing, almost frenetic which didn't linger for long on any one scene, but left you hankering for more. The exceptions are some overlong human martial arts sections, but the monsters are well handled. These are fast monsters, moving both thanks to practical effects and computer graphics. Rodan looked especially dangerous, when often he/she doesn't.

Without spoiling much of this story I'll only say that eventually Godzilla does re-emerge and when he does, it's most impressive. His moves are evocative of classic Godzilla flicks, but kept barely within the range of modern interpretations of the great monster. The battles have a real rhythm and if anything are over too quickly sometimes. It was fun seeing some monsters I haven't glimpsed in a very long time, especially the wacky razor-chested Gigan who gets a lot of great screen time in this one.

And as apparently one of five people who actually enjoyed the often-abused American version,  I still have to admit it was fun seeing the classic "Big G" dispatch his doppleganger "Zilla" with little trouble. Fun moment!

It's far from a perfect movie, often making limited sense, but I found myself properly diverted by this last Godzilla movie, the last that is until the next one.

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We Are The Mysterons!

Just spent a few wonderful days before and after Christmas enjoying the classic Gerry Anderson "Supermarionation" adventure show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. This is one from my childhood, a classic TV entertainment which seared a spot in my noggin and never left. The classic opening has reverberated in my imagination for decades. 

The show followed quickly upon the success of Thunderbirds, but offered up puppets with more lifelike proportions and a storyline with a darker, sometimes even adult tone. It's this latter aspect which I think made this show stick with me. This was grim stuff at times. The premise is that in 2068 an Earth expedition led by Captain Black of the Spectrum organization happens across the alien Mysteron base on Mars and wrongfully attacks it. The Mysterons though have technology which can recuperate from destruction and death itself and do so, pledging at the same time to wage an unending "war of nerves" on the Earth in general and Spectrum in specific.

What makes their attacks so grim is that they use revived humans and equipment to wage their war. The invisible Mysterons first kill you (usually with vehicular homicide), then revive you and have you serve them slavishly. That's rough stuff. I was reminded this time of the ludicrous movie Plan 9 From Outer Space which sought to revive the dead to wage war on the Earth, and thought to myself how Captain Scarlet sort of actually follows through with this plan.

The first Mysteron agent is Captain Black himself, who looks zombie enough most of the time, a pale grim figure shown weekly lurking in a graveyard. He plots, then Spectrum blocks or not. The good guys don't always win on this show, and that's rugged territory for what is supposed to be a kid's show.

Captain Scarlet himself is something of a rogue Mysteron agent. In the first episode he is killed and revived, but circumstances cause him to revert to his heroic pose but armored with an indestructible nature. He dies more than a few times during the series, but always returns to fight another day. He is assisted by Captain Blue and the other agents of Spectrum, all led by Colonel White. Beautiful women called Angels are a constant flying circus protecting Cloud Base, a giant airborne aircraft carrier. From this high-tech location the unending Mysteron war is waged.

It's a tight premise, and the half-hour episodes are told with skill and supreme craftsmanship. The editing on a show like this is crucial and the story is rarely muddled and a great deal is jammed into a small space. This makes for brisk and enjoyable entertainment. I will admit that in certain moments the show does resemble Ken and Barbie playing spy, but most of the time, the creators are able to avoid that pitfall. This is a smart snappy show with more than a gram of wit.

It's a precursor of sorts to the later Anderson live-action show UFO which also has Earth engaged in a battle with mysterious aliens, this time led by the secret SHADO organization. There are more than a few similarities between these shows, almost making you think UFO is Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons done in the live-action format.

If you haven't seen Captain Scarlet, I heartily recommend it. It's pure entertainment.

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Doc Goes The Dynamite!

Doc Savage The Man of Bronze has hit the comic book shelves once again. Despite a highly successful and influential run in the vintage days of pulp and a legendary rebirth in the days of of paperback, Doc Savage has never been all that successful in comics. Street & Smith tried him out for several issues, substantially redesigning him for all that, Gold Key did a one-off, Marvel briefly ran both a color and black white version, and DC has recently finished the second of two runs of the character. Others like Millennium and Dark Horse have dabbled with the character too. But Dynamite is the most recent and their debut issue dropped a few weeks ago.

Despite a wonderfully evocative Alex Ross cover (inspired by Steranko's iconic SHIELD #4 ) and a very pulpy and action-filled John Cassady cover, the comic itself was pretty listless. The artist, Bilquis Evely, seems typical of the modern breed, and offers up a fragile lined image which doesn't to my mind evoke much of anything heroic. Doc appears actually smaller than he should, not large larger than life, and larger than his peers. He and his aides appear to be more or less real men among other rather typical looking folks. There's no power or punch to the presentation of layouts, and certainly no one scene in the story is especially memorable.

This story by Chris Roberson is the beginning of a saga which will span the eighty years since Doc's creation, beginning in the heyday of the 30's and moving forward in time. The mystery Doc and his Fantastic Five confront is a peculiar zone of beserker-madness which overcomes New Yorkers then passes. The zone of influence seems to increase and we watch and Doc analyzes the problem stoically and responds in ever-increasing severity to the growing threat. The mystery in the issue itself seems unimportant really, save for what looms in the future as we are told this story is far from over. Doc himself seems oddly disengaged from the events, too clinical by half to make the reader care about what is happening. The threat seems strangely intellectual and remote despite its antic nature.

The sad truth is, this story lacks both the blood and thunder which informs good pulp adventure. It's a failed effort at a Doc story, and sadly makes me disinterested in future issues. I likely will stay with this first storyline just to see how it resolves and to see if it improves, but afterwards it's anyone's guess.

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Thunderbirds Are Go!

I've been under the weather lately. When you're not feeling well, it's a great time to break out material you've had a hard time finishing before, because I find in a weakened state, your mind might be sufficiently patient to work through the slow parts of movies and such which have gotten to you earlier. That's pretty much the case with Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6, two big-screen renditions of the classic British sci-fi tv show. I found them for tiny money in a discount store somewhere I now forget, and tried to watch them, but the pace of the opening scenes of Thunderbirds Are Go, which is measured even by the admission of the director, always did me in. I just got bored in the first fifteen minutes or so and bailed, choosing to do something else, then forgetting about the movies completely.

But being in a diminished state, I hung in with the slowness, even began to relish it as the spaceship dubbed the Zero-X slowly and relentlessly assembled itself in the opening moments of the movie. The story then begins to dabble out, the International Rescue team is called in after a disaster to supply security months later. Months later still the Zero-X arrives at its destination of Mars and runs into trouble. Months later still it returns home and runs into still more trouble requiring the intervention of International Rescue yet again. There are some great big explosions, some handsome model work, and an interesting sci-fi scenario.

But ultimately the movie is so uneven, it defeats its own good qualities. I was slightly stunned by the inclusion of a dream sequence which featured the music of Cliff Richard and The Shadows, a totally weird and totally 60's moment. The movie though in the final analysis was entertaining after I got into its flow, though it could've been better.

I really began to appreciate the relative seriousness of Thunderbirds Are Go when I saw the sequel Thunderbird 6. This one is played for more laughs and features a handsome biplane which dominates way too much screen time in my estimation.

The weaknesses of the first movie are amplified in the second. It essentially is a world tour via anti-gravity airship which gives the model makers the chance to fashion a Statue of Liberty, the Great Pyramids, and other notable iconic items. That stuff is the highlight as the plot makes little sense. Villains (who are never really identified) are trying to lure International Rescue into a trap and take the most elaborate and complicated way imaginable to do that.

These are diverting movies, curiosities of a time when special effects really seemed special. I can appreciate them and even enjoy parts of them, especially the first one which as I learned actually has a connection to my favorite Anderson production Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons.

But ultimately it's not hard to see why these movies didn't yield additional sequels. They are limited entertainments, fun but uninteresting in important ways. On the upside, they did allow me pass some time agreeably while I generally felt miserable. That's no small feat.

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