Sci-Fi and Fantasy from A (Artoo-Detoo) to Z (Zardoz)
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Han Solo: Space Pirate or Something Else?
Why is Han Solo often referred to as a "space pirate?" Ninety-nine percent of the pirates I picture are of the Long John Silver variety, often swilling cheap rum and dressing even cheaper. The definition of pirate is "one who attacks and robs ships (at sea)." Can you see Han and Chewbacca blasting some unsuspecting freighter, Corellian or otherwise, then boarding it to rob it and load up the cargo on the Millennium Falcon? I can't.
Han is a smuggler as in he illegally moves spice for Jabba. That is plausible (and of course what got Han into trouble). When the hell did Han do any pirating, unless he was dealing in black market CDs and DVDs for the Hutts and we just never saw it.
#StarWars #hansolo
General Chang Wags War...in Comfort
"Cry havoc, and let us slip into sensible slacks to wage war!"
#startrek #christopherplummer #theundiscoveredcountry #TUC #TOS #generalchang [from my Twitter feed]
Saturday, November 2, 2019
John Byrne's Covers for Avengers West Coast (Some of them anyway)
John Byrne is my favorite comic book artist of all time, with his sleek pleasing style and strong sense of composition and storytelling, he can make virtually any superhero tale a pleasure to read.
However in the late 1980s I was focused on other things and started to drift away from the hobby of buying and reading the funny papers.
Mister Byrne was drawing and writing The West Coast Avengers (later retitled Avengers West Coast) and I never found an opportunity to pick them up. I missed quite a bit, so here are several covers of AWC I am not overly familiar with, unlike his work on, say, The Uncanny X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and Superman.
In no particular order:
(I must say, I am truly digging that image of Iron Man bursting through the wall. A Byrne specialty!)
Copyright 1989 and 2019 by Marvel Entertainment. No infringement of those copyrights is intended with this publication.
However in the late 1980s I was focused on other things and started to drift away from the hobby of buying and reading the funny papers.
Mister Byrne was drawing and writing The West Coast Avengers (later retitled Avengers West Coast) and I never found an opportunity to pick them up. I missed quite a bit, so here are several covers of AWC I am not overly familiar with, unlike his work on, say, The Uncanny X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and Superman.
In no particular order:
(I must say, I am truly digging that image of Iron Man bursting through the wall. A Byrne specialty!)
Copyright 1989 and 2019 by Marvel Entertainment. No infringement of those copyrights is intended with this publication.
Batwheels - An Alternate Take on the Batmobile
Back in the Dark Ages, we're talking early 2000s, the Batman film franchise was going nowhere after the cringe inducing box office failure of Batman and Robin, released 1997. Here is one project which almost saw the light of day.
Darren Aronofsky, director of Pi and Requiem For A Dream, and comic book artist/writer Frank Miller collaborated on a new script for a fresh look at Batman, which used Miller's acclaimed tale Batman: Year One as a jumping off point.
The pair wanted to do an ultra-gritty, realistic take on Bruce Wayne's origins and Batman's beginnings, more in line with a bleak 1970s crime drama like Taxi Driver or The French Connection than the colorful Adam West TV series. They really pulled out all the stops: after Bruce's parents are murdered he becomes a street orphan, taken in at one point by Big Al, a mechanic. The Batcave is an old abandoned Gotham City subway station.
What really got my interest, as if these wholesale changes weren't mind-blowing enough, is that the Aronofsky/Miller Batmobile was to be a black 1960s Lincoln Continental with two bus engines to power it. That image stuck with me so I had to do something about it. I am no mechanic like Big Al but here is my version.
The powers that be at Warner Brothers studio thought Aronofsky and Miller went too far off the mark and chose to work with Christopher Nolan and his team to bring Batman to modern audiences with the crowd-pleasing Batman Begins. We got Nolan's killer Tumbler update on the Batmobile, among other things, but I sure do wish we could have seen some production or concept art on this crazy "realistic" take of the Batmobile.
We can dream can't we? (We can also Photoshop.)
Darren Aronofsky, director of Pi and Requiem For A Dream, and comic book artist/writer Frank Miller collaborated on a new script for a fresh look at Batman, which used Miller's acclaimed tale Batman: Year One as a jumping off point.
The pair wanted to do an ultra-gritty, realistic take on Bruce Wayne's origins and Batman's beginnings, more in line with a bleak 1970s crime drama like Taxi Driver or The French Connection than the colorful Adam West TV series. They really pulled out all the stops: after Bruce's parents are murdered he becomes a street orphan, taken in at one point by Big Al, a mechanic. The Batcave is an old abandoned Gotham City subway station.
What really got my interest, as if these wholesale changes weren't mind-blowing enough, is that the Aronofsky/Miller Batmobile was to be a black 1960s Lincoln Continental with two bus engines to power it. That image stuck with me so I had to do something about it. I am no mechanic like Big Al but here is my version.
The powers that be at Warner Brothers studio thought Aronofsky and Miller went too far off the mark and chose to work with Christopher Nolan and his team to bring Batman to modern audiences with the crowd-pleasing Batman Begins. We got Nolan's killer Tumbler update on the Batmobile, among other things, but I sure do wish we could have seen some production or concept art on this crazy "realistic" take of the Batmobile.
We can dream can't we? (We can also Photoshop.)
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Move Over Lt Arex, It's Chester Cheetah!
The reason the Bridge of the USS Enterprise was always covered in Cheetos dust.
Baskin Rogers and the 25 Flavors of the Century
Viewers of a certain age may fondly recall the NBC sci fi series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century which ran for two season (1979 - 1981).
Created by the soon to be legendary Glen A. Larson, the first season was mostly a very watered down James Bond in Space, where Buck would woo the hottie of the week while fighting the bad guys, which wasted the charm and talents of the lovely Erin Gray as Col. Wilma Deering.
Network audiences weren't ready for a female in charge of things in the disco era so Wilma had less and less to do. It got so bad that in the second season, new producers junked the first season's template and tried to copy Star Trek by having Buck, Wilma, and Twiki team with some new friends on a mission to find lost Earthlings. Think of it as Battlestar Galactica (same producer) in reverse.
Remember I said they wasted Erin Gray. Look at this season two cast photo. They ditched the black and white military uniform (and pants) for what looks like a sailor suit or the person behind the counter at an ice cream shoppe. Baskin Rogers, anyone?
Created by the soon to be legendary Glen A. Larson, the first season was mostly a very watered down James Bond in Space, where Buck would woo the hottie of the week while fighting the bad guys, which wasted the charm and talents of the lovely Erin Gray as Col. Wilma Deering.
Network audiences weren't ready for a female in charge of things in the disco era so Wilma had less and less to do. It got so bad that in the second season, new producers junked the first season's template and tried to copy Star Trek by having Buck, Wilma, and Twiki team with some new friends on a mission to find lost Earthlings. Think of it as Battlestar Galactica (same producer) in reverse.
Remember I said they wasted Erin Gray. Look at this season two cast photo. They ditched the black and white military uniform (and pants) for what looks like a sailor suit or the person behind the counter at an ice cream shoppe. Baskin Rogers, anyone?
Miami 1999
This is what happens when you watch episodes of Space: 1999 at night and then listen to the Miami Vice soundtrack during the day.
Who Wore It Better: Zardoz vs Vartox
The cover of Superman #281 (Nov 1974) popped up on a Twitter account recently, featuring the introduction to a hirsute, mustachioed villain named Vartox.
If you thought he looked just like Sean Connery's character of Zed in the trippy sci fi flick Zardoz (released in Feb 1974) you win the Golden Thigh High Boot.
Now the question is, Who wore it better? And why was this deemed appropriate for young boys of the 1970s?
If you thought he looked just like Sean Connery's character of Zed in the trippy sci fi flick Zardoz (released in Feb 1974) you win the Golden Thigh High Boot.
Now the question is, Who wore it better? And why was this deemed appropriate for young boys of the 1970s?
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Godzilla: King of the Job Seekers
Godzilla: King of the Monsters opens in theaters May 31, 2019. Whatever supplies you may have accumulated for the zombie apocalypse...DOUBLE THEM.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Harm to Ongoing Matter - Some Parody Memes
original images copyright by their respective rights holders. no infringement of those copyrights is intended with this work of parody.
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