The Music of Jonny Quest

One of the greatest, perhaps THE greatest, action adventure cartoons is "The Adventures of Jonny Quest".

Doug Wildey, working for Hanna-Barbera, created a mature, stylish series that is as thrilling now as when it first aired in 1964. The series is notable for many reasons: the incredible voice over work, the well-rounded characters, exotic locations (drawing Calcutta costs as much as drawing a generic Southern California mountainside or cityscape), the imaginative stories featuring robot-spiders, yetis, mummies, and lizard men.

One of the best things about Jonny Quest is composer Hoyt Curtain's incredible jazz-soaked music. If you watched Saturday morning cartoons in the last 50 years, you know the Jonny Quest theme. The incidental music, which producers Hanna-Barbera often chopped up and tracked into other adventure cartoons they produced, is still thrilling.

One of my most favorite Curtain/Quest pieces of music, with those amazing drumbeats accentuated by horn blasts, can be found at the 1:20 to 2:26 mark below. Another fun piece starts at 4:20 to 5:52.

We can't talk about Quest music without mentioning the amazing, thrill a minute main title theme which just screams "adventure!".

Now He's Voiced EVERYTHING

The movie Virtuosity just ended.  That's the flick where a pre-Training Day Denzel Washington plays a cop who has to take down a virtual reality program which is a composite of notorious serial killers ( played by Russell Crowe) that has escaped into the real world (don't ask).

I spied in the end credits "Special Vocal Effects by Frank Welker."  Frank Welker, the voice of Freddie in Scooby Doo, the source of "Spock screams" in Star Trek III, and the voice of billions (okay, millions) of cartoon characters over the last 40+years.

Frank Welker: the John (he's been in every movie ever made) Carradine of voice over actors.

Gary Owens, Voice of Space Ghost, Passes

"Spaaaace Ghooost!"

If you were a kid who watched Saturday morning cartoons in the late 60s and 70s, you recall the battle cry of the intergalactic superhero, Space Ghost.

The voice of Space Ghost, the great Gary Owens, who also found fame as the announcer on the classic Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In passed away on February 12 at the age of 80. 

Mr Owens had a long career as a disc jockey and voice over actor, lending his distinct smooth baritone to hundreds of commercials and TV series such as Roger Ramjet, Dynomutt and Ren and Stimpy's Powdered Toast Man.

More at Variety.com.

It's A Genre World, We Just Live In It

Lotta things happening in the genre worlds right now:

Christopher Nolan' s Instellar is set to move and thrill us in early November.

The super-cult TV favorite Twin Peaks is coming back, with original creators David Lynch and Mark Frost returning to run things.

Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man is rumored to be the "villain" in the upcoming Captain America 3.

And Warner Brothers is banking A LOT on their stable of DC Comics characters translating into movie blockbuster franchises.

Kirby Glass Beats Google Glass

Google Glass?  I'd prefer Kirby Glass.  Just look at that image.  WOW!  Please, someone out there, one of you amazing prop/model makers, make this thing a reality -- maybe not with the all Cosmic Implications that usually come with a creation of Jack Kirby's, but a nice prop replica would be awesome.

I am so surprised that more movies or TV shows are not using Jack Kirby's incredible, even far-out designs, such as the one above from Captain Victory, as inspirations.  With CGI anything is possible now, so what say you, filmmakers, production designers and concept artists? 

(Image copyright its respective rights holder. No infringement is intended.)

The Batman Is Back In A Bruce Timm Short Film

75 years.  That's how long the Batman has been prowling the streets of Gotham City, delivering his unique, laser-focused brand of two-fisted justice after first appearing in Detective Comics #27, cover dated May 1939.

Legendary animator Bruce Timm - the chief designer and architect of Batman: The Animated Series - returns to the cowl with a terrific animated short film he conceived and directed for DC Entertainment to celebrate Batman's long reign.  It's sepia-toned for a vintage feel, retro-cool and doesn't waste a single frame. 

And, yes, Kevin Conroy voices Batman.

Avengers Assemble (Via Waffle Iron, If Necessary)

The fine, funny folks at College Humor featured a pic (click here) comparing and contrasting the Avengers circa their 1978 TV incarnations with the big budget 2012 incarnations.  What a difference a couple decades and a few hundred million bucks does to a superteam.

But to be fair, while Thor, Captain America and the Hulk are all from late 1970s CBS TV series/TV movies, CH's '78 "Iron Man" is actually a character called Exo-Man, which is not a Marvel Comics character, but rather a TV movie/pilot that didn't get picked up.  Ok, so it's an Iron Man rip-off, and from what I vaguely recall from watching the thing, Exo-Man used a giant wafle-iron-like device to suit up.  Oh, here it is (thanks YouTube) .

Holy Bootleg Figure, Batman!

We don't feature toys too much on the blog here.  The newer toys enjoy the best manufacturing processes, with things like laser scanning, better sculpting and articulation, and just better materials than toys of old.

There are still places that make toys that are, shall we say, less than of good quality?  Yeah, we're talking about crap bootlegs that look like they were made 40 years ago under the most backward of manufacturing conditions, with lots of poisonous lead-based paint likely used for good measure.

Comics Alliance has a nice post up about bootlegs, specifically a bootleg Batman that has to be seen to be believed.  (photo from WeirdoToys.com)

This is just all kinds of f--ked up, but in a hilarious way.

Star Trek Scribbles From Long Long Ago

My brother M sent me this pic.  It's from an old notebook* of mine from 1982.  Yup, that's a epic Star Trek Federation versus Klingons battle that I drew/doodled. 

Can't recall who won, though (hopefully, the good guys).

* Yes, kids, before blogs and the Interwebs and tablets and lasers you had to draw shit in spiral-bound school notebooks!

Bananas: A New "Canvas" For Art

Two words: BANANA. ART.

Japanese “banana engraver” Keisuke Yamada once again shows that any material can be used in the creation of art.  Even delicious potassium-rich bananas.

Check out his great takes on Homer Simpson, Darth Vader, Marge Simpson, the Alien from Alien, and others at Comics Alliance.

Marvel Comics Shined In The 1980s

In the early 1980s, it was a good time to be a comic book reader.  There was a true renaissance going on in those four-color pages and Marvel Comics was at the center of it.  Under the direction of Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter, writers and artists like Chris Claremont and John Byrne on Uncanny X-Men; Frank Miller working as writer and penciller (then later as breakdown artist for penciller/finisher Klaus Janson) on Daredevil; and Walter Simonson breathed new life into Asgardian mythology in penciling and writing The Mighty Thor. 

These creators, and others with similar passions on other titles, breathed new life into characters that were nearing the end of their second decade of publishing.  Some titles, like X-Men (which had been featuring reprints of earlier tales) and Daredevil were close to being canceled before these young creators took hold of them and revitalized them for a new generation of readers. 

A wonderful blog called Marvel Comics Of The 1980s celebrates that decade of creativity, including those heady early 80s years spotlighting not only the titles and talents listed above, but also gems like Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz's acclaimed run on Moon Knight; David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr.'s seminal Iron Man stories (many facets of which were used in the recent Iron Man big screen movies); and John Byrne's epic run on Fantastic Four, widely viewed as the best run on that title since the 100+ issues from series creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Green Lantern Shines Brightest In 60s Cartoon Series

Ever watch the 2011 Green Lantern movie they made with Ryan Reynolds?  They gave it a huge budget.  Reynolds was certainly a likeable comedic actor.  And they tapped Martin Campbell - who directed the incredible James Bond flick Casino Royale - to helm the film.

The result: total wackness.  Just a dull, boring movie.  Nothing memorable about it, except how unmemorable it was.

Filmation Animation did a Green Lantern cartoon series in 1967.  It was much more fun, faithful to the comic books, and exciting than the big budget movie ever was.  Check out this episode from YouTube.  And yes, the baddie is named Evil Star!

Space Ghost Designs

Hanna-Barbera produced a nifty adventure cartoon in the 1960s called Space Ghost. It ran in syndication for a number of years in the 70s which is when I eventually caught it.

Space Ghost was designed by now-legendary comic book artist Alex Toth.  I found these early Space Ghost designs at a blog called Rip Jaggers Dojo. It's always interesting to me to see an artist's design process (that early sketch would have been more cumbersome to animate).  That first sketch with the boots and the underwear on the outside would have made Space Ghost just another standard superhero costume knockoff. 

Mr. Toth's overall creedo of "less is more" prevailed and he nailed it with his amazing final minimalist Space Ghost costume design (among other refinements, no boots, no undies on the outside).

Superman's 75th Anniversary Tribute Video Short

Superman turned 75 this year.

So uber-animation god Bruce Timm and Zack Snyder, director of this summer's Man of Steel, put together an amazing tribute video, which can be found at Entertainment Weekly's site.  (I originally got wind of this at Comics Alliance.)

So many decades, so many great artists; Additionally, it's nice they also included the most famous TV and film versions in there too.

Up, up and away!

Now we're cooking with dilithium!

Star Trek is Copyright 2013 and a Registered Trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. No infringement of those rights is implied with this parody.  Screencaps from Trekcore.com. 

The Simpson's "Treehouse of del Toro Horror"

The Simpson's annual "Treehouse of Horror" (the 24th edition!) is airing on Sunday, October 6, and they have enlisted celebrated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to create the opening credits sequence.  Del Toro is a true, dyed-in-the-wool genre fan as he includes a wide range of references, everything from Universal Studios' classic 1930s horror creatures, Ray Harryhausen and Hitchcock, Godzilla, the Shining and even Blade II (which he directed - in fact, all of GdT's films get the animated nod), to Bradbury, Poe, Lovecraft and Rod Serling, for starters.

The helpful folks at Screen Crush put together this helpful primer so we don't miss any of del Toro's ghoulish fun.

Errand Of BBQ

If you're hungry and out and around Organia on Labor Day, make sure you stop at Ayelborne's for the best in out of this world BBQ.  Tell 'em Bad News From Outer Space sent ya.

Get 50% of any "Piece Threety (3-piece) Meal" when you mention this blog.

Star Trek is Copyright 2013 and a Registered Trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. No infringement of those rights is implied with this parody.  Screencaps from Trekcore.com. 

This Is How Planet Of The Apes Got Started

Here are three alarms you NEVER want to see go off simultaneously. (However, they do make for the most interesting of days.)

Star Trek is Copyright 2013 and a Registered Trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. No infringement of those rights is implied with this parody.  Screencaps from Trekcore.com

Phaser Phrasing!

We love all things Star Trek here, so when some mad geniuses combined the animation from the 1970s' Star Trek: The Animated Series with audio from current FX channel cartoon-for-grown ups series Archer, the result is, STARCHER TREK!

It's goofy, it's silly, but most importantly, it's funny.  And it was posted by the good folks of IO9.

(Also, love the shou touts at the end to Red Letter Media's Mr. Plinkett.  I too wonder sometimes, "What's with all the Ricks," but I am still waiting for Rick Berman's tell all book about his time at the helm of the Star Trek franchise.)

When Classic TV Shows Collide

Ain't It Cool News correspondent Quint has posted a really cool photo in his ongoing Behind The Scenes feature.

This time around the space time continuum was seriously messed with because a comic book icon meets a couple of scifi TV stars.  We're talking none other than Batman's Robin the Boy Wonder (Burt Ward) and Lost In Space's Will and Penny Robinson (Billy Mumy and Angela Cartwright).

It's truly awesome that all three are in their costumes (too bad the Batmobile and the Robot aren't also in the shot).  It's also funny that they are obviously on some studio backlot as there is a building behind them but a giant boulder is on the street in the shot with them.

Hollywood magic at its best. (from AintItCool.com)