An Essential Rat Pack!

Alongside Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse cartoon, I'd love to have a nifty collection of these comics from Marvel, which carried forward the zany self-referential humor of the cartoon series. I think I have the Crisis parodies around here somewhere, but I was not savvy enough to capture most of the issues. The series was actually a revival of sorts, since Marvel had during the 40's published some Mighty Mouse comics (along with about everyone it seems).

The revival featured the art of Ernie Colon, though other fan favorites such as George Perez, Steve Lightle, and John Byrne. Even one of my heroes George Wildman, an artist on Popeye and important editor at Charlton Comics lent a brush to the doings. These look to be some fun fun comics. Admit it, you want one too.

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Mighty Mouse - The New Adventures!

God Almighty! I'd kind of forgotten about Ralph Bakshi's revival of vintage Terrytoons super critter dubbed Mighty Mouse back in the late 80's. Then I chanced upon it on Amazon and a few keystrokes later this nifty DVD was rolling in my direction. I've taken the time to sit down and enjoy these far too few cartoons (a mere nineteen episodes).

Now the project was a bit under the gun and slapdash and frankly that shows in the first season's episodes which are really aspiring to be what the show could become.  A number of old Terrytoon cartoons were dusted off, and integrated into the new stuff to fill time, but with the second season which was incomplete, you can tell what a truly "mighty" endeavor this was going to become.

The satire was sharp and sometimes nasty, and the creators were well steeped in popular culture and made good use of that arcane understanding. As I'm sure almost everyone knows, much of the talent on this show went on to create Ren and Stimpy, another show that made us all think twice about picking our noses. I would be hard pressed to pick just one episode but like most folks I'd likely choose the revival (of sorts) of the Mighty Heroes who like the JSA at DC had fallen victim to the rigors of time. (Why is there not a Mighty Heroes dvd out there for me to buy?) These are really good cartoons, not always great, but sometmes. I'm glad I finally picked up a collection. Now I need to read the comics. More on that tomorrow.

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The Spirit Of Television!

Sam Jones was quite something. He burst into my consciousness with his outlandish but irrepressible take on Alex Raymond's classic hero Flash Gordon in the early 80's movie which attempted to revive the franchise and earned many an admirer in doing so. It has a vintage charm nowadays for me, and I've always thought Max Von Sydow the ideal Ming, but Jones always looked a little bit in over his thespian head in that one. Well with The Spirit, a presumably failed ABC pilot he does a little better in my estimation. There are some pretty big problems with this one, but for the most part they ain't at the feet of Sam Jones.

Being a TV production it seems the problem might have been budget. The highlights of this show are the settings in Wildwood Cemetary and a few othe noirish settings which felt spot on for The Spirit as established by Eisner oily pen. But also on hand were many bright daylight scenes in the heart of suburbia which totally compromised the effect. And let's talk about the Spirit's suit, it's supposed to be black isn't it. I always assumed the blue was the classic blue-for-black conundrum which early comics faced. Having Sam Jones show up in the bright afternoon to Central City in a bright blue suit we know will become the Spirit's togs really created a breakdown in tone. On the plus side is Ellen Dolan who is lovely and sexy and P'Gell who is arguably even more so. I also liked the top thug in this one, a guy dubbed "Bruno". Ebony shows up as a frisky kid who helps the Spirit survive his origin and then mostly disappears.

I wanted to really like this one, didn't expect to do so, but ended more pleased than I expected -- if all that makes any sense.

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The Spirit Of The Movies!

It startles me a little to think it's been a decade since Frank Miller's distinctive take on Will Eisner's class The Spirit hit the theaters. Despite Miller's cache from hits like 300 and Sin City, this movie was deemed by most folks I encountered as a mild flop. I don't know what it did in business, and I'm not that interested, but since we've not seen a sequel I suspect not well. The Central City presented in this movies is sure memorable, eternally washed in a dark and usually storm night, the city is filled with crime and violence and ripe for a hero to take hold of the grim situation. The Octopus is enemy number one and crazy as a bug. He's assisted by Silken Floss in a scheme to get hold of the blood of the mythological demi-god Heracles. In his way is The Spirit and the sometimes the cops of Central City led by Inspector Dolan. Also vying for mythic treasure is Sand Saref and patching up the endlessly injured Spirit is the loyal and weary Ellen Dolan. Lorelei shows up to claim Denny Colt's soul and Plaster of Paris tries to claim his head. As you can tell there are a lot of dames in this one.

And that's fine, because there are a lot of dames in Eisner's classic comics as well. But the brew here is perhaps overly full with not enough attention being paid to some of these very intriguing characters. There's no Ebony, but we do have Wildwood Cemetary. We also have an endless gang of cloned thugs with names like "Ethos", "Pathos", "Logos", and ultimately "Adios" and "Amigos". These are all played by the same guy and is just one of the visual gimmicks which populate and eventually dominate this movie. It's a classic instance of style over substance, and in trying to manufacture a new kind of film noir, a type with worked pretty well in Sin City, Miller falls short. The visual splendor invades the story and often seems to be the point. The Spirit ain't terrible by any means, but it could've been so much better.

I fished this movie out to view again because I just got hold of the 1986 TV version of The Spirit. I'll be taking a gander at that one tomorrow.

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A Belated Mike Check!

After I'd finished composing my list of my sixty favorite artists, I found some that I'd overlooked or had to replace and they worked their way onto the nearly-made-it list. Some I think of as inkers primarily and they will show up in a separate list coming to a Dojo near you soon, but even after all of that, there was one artist who suddenly came to mind. He was one of the greats, but like so many an artist with a distinctive style and as many detractors as fans -- the one and only Mike Sekowsky. I didn't like Sekowsky all that much when I first started reading comics, but as additional reading experience began to color my opinions I began to treasure his work more and more. He did some great work on the Justice League of America before handing off the reins to Dick Dillin.

He then produced what I think is still his most consistent and fascinating work -- The New Wonder Woman. Partnered with Denny O'Neil, Diana Prince borrowed style from Diana Rigg and really became something quite different -- a heroine, not a super heroine and that made all the difference.  I've always liked his offbeat take on The Metal Men though it didn't save that series from ultimate cancellation. Later still he went to Marvel on The Inhumans and elsewhere and did some key work for the failed Atlas-Seaboard outfit.

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A Day In The Anti-Life - Criminal Behavior!

"I am not a crook." said Richard Milhouse Nixon, the President of these United States who left office in disgrace when he was faced with imminent removal by dint of impeachment. Turns out he was a crook. That said, the current Dotard-in-Chief has been sort of cleared of committing out and out actual crimes by the early interpretations of the Mueller Report, but it was not for lack of trying. Like the collusion or more properly conspiracy charges which have been so much discussed, the campaign seems to have skated because there was no quid pro quo, just giant gobs of quo. So I have learned that my morally-depraved, ethically-indifferent President is at once a "useful idiot" for the mavens of the former USSR, and too incompetent to actually commit a crime he desperately wants to commit. That  sounds about right.

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The Other Captain Marvel Movie Review!

(Last week I took a lovely spring break day and spent it in the local theater. First I watched Captain Marvel with a chum and later that afternoon I caught the new Shazam movie with another friend. Today's post is the second of two which are spoiler rich so tread gently.)

What an absolute hoot of a movie this is! It's enormous fun and is enormously funny! I've long ago lost track of how "Captain Marvel" now dubbed "Shazam" sits inside the detailed continuity of the DCU, but I found plenty old-fashioned echoes here to keep a smile on my face throughout.

I went to the movie with one profound worry, that Captain Marvel (I will insist on calling him that throughout this review just to keep my head on straight) was somehow existing apart from Billy. But I pleasantly surprised to find the "kid" in all the promos was Freddy Freeman. And let me say the byplay between Cap and Freddy is hilarious. I was bugged that Cap's wisdom of "Solomon" seemed to be slow to waken, and that Billy appeared almost always to be more adult in many ways than Cap, but there is no denying the highlight of the movie is the way Freddy's desire to make Cap his friend, hero, protector, and eventually brother was the core of this one. Even Billy quest for his Mother was less significant it seemed to me. And that we get not only a Captain Marvel, but also a Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel and some assorted Lieutenant Marvels was outstanding.

Now on the villainous side, we have the dastardly Sivana and while his physical skills seemed at odds with the vintage mad scientist I know, I'm down with it for the sheer need to keep the movie on point. The ending with Mr. Mind leaves large room for the sequel and I can only hope we get at long last some version of the Monster Society into the popular culture yet again. Maybe DC will take one more stab at publishing it, but I fear that will not be the case.

Loved this movie and the comrade I watched it with, not a student of comics by any means, loved it as well. Lots of big big laughs!

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