Today’s Comic icover - 303 of 10,000

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on May 15, 2008 @ 11:17, pm

What is a Comic icover?

1989 - Invasion - #2

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Boy, I was pretty surprised to see this cover pop up today. What with the glut of all these massive company wide crossover “big events” that Marvel and DC have been shoving down the throats of comic readers the last decade (or so) I’d almost forgot that I occasionally would check the few they put out in the 1980’s.

This cover is from the middle issue of Invasion, DC’s 1989 aliens attack earth event. I know they put out three 84 page issues that I think stood alone, but I believe they would spin off a few sub plots into other regular DC titles, just to get you to buy them as well. I don’t think I did though. By the end of the 80’s I’d just about had my fill of trying to follow these type of stories from both DC and Marvel.

This cover is by artist Bart Sears. I knew Bart when he worked at Hasbro in the late 1980’s. He was in the R&D department and I’d occasionally hang out at his area, checking out his latest C.O.P.S figure designs (I was working on the artwork for the C.O.P.S packages at that time). I don’t think he stuck around much longer after that and left Hasbro to to work in comics full time.

This issue of Invasion was chopped into four parts. Battleground Earth Part 1 (19 pages) was written by Keith Giffen and Bill Mantlo. Giffen also did the layouts while Todd McFarlane penciled and P. Craig Russell inked it.

Battleground Earth Part 2 (21 pages) was also by Giffen, Mantlo and McFarlane but was inked by Al Gordon.

Battleground Earth Part 3 (20 pages) was also by Giffen, Mantlo with art by Giffen and Joe Rubinstein.

Battleground Earth Part 4 (20 pages) was also by Giffen, Mantlo with art by Giffen and inked by Al Gordon.

The gist of this issue was for all the heroes to react to the invading aliens and prepare to halt the invading horde in the final issue.

Conference Finals, Game #3: Pens smother lifeless Flyers!

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on @ 4:42, pm

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Tonight I’ll be perched on my Lazy-Boy chair and avidly watching Game #4 of the Penguins / Flyers Conference Finals . Because tonight’s also airing a new episode of Lost at 10:00, I think I’ll watch the game downstairs while taping Lost upstairs. I’m looking forward to watch both tonight!

But first it’s hopefully the final game of this series. A sweep over the Flyers would be sweet, especially in their building. Tuesday’s Game #3 saw the typical bloodthirsty fans dressed in orange shirts with the words “Why Not Us?

Why? Because you’re not as good as the Pens!

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Prior to this series all I heard around here, living in “the belly of the beast” as I am, was that it would be Philly in six or seven games. I swear the folks around here, especially the sports media who should know better, seem to think that this is the same team they used to beat around in the 1970’s! It’s obvious that they don’t pay much attention to other teams in other cities, as if hockey began and resides only here.

Anyhoo, thanks to two quick goals by Whitney and Hossa, they quieted down the ravioous fans pretty well in the first period. The Pens then continue to dominate play, even after the Flyers countered with their own goal in that period.

Though I admit I wasn’t too secure with this game as it was still only 2-1 after two periods despite the Pens out playing and out shooting the Flyers 17-8.

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Fortunately, thanks to yet another mistake in this series by the Flyers Downie, a coughed up puck was stolen by Malkin and lead to Malone’s game winning (and back breaking) game winning goal!Which brings me to tonight. The Pens are now 11-1 in the playoffs this year and are the brink of a sweep. But I’m not counting any chickens yet. That dark day in 1975 when I witnessed first hand, the Pens cough up a 3 games to 0 lead to the New York Islanders in the playoffs to get bounced 4-3, is still etched upon my mind.

I don’t see that happening again and even if the Pens lose tonight they could just wrap it up at home on Sunday. But to that, “I say the nay!!!!” Step on thir throats tonight and put’em out of their misery!!!!

Let’s Go Pens!

Thursday ‘45 : THE HUMAN LEAGUE; “Mirror Man”

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on @ 2:26, pm

Want to see the 45’s that have already been posted? Look here.

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In the late 1970’s and early to mid 1980’s when I was buying a lot of music most of what I was into was rock and new wave (with some ska and movie soundracks thrown in). So I’m not too surprised to find several records from this band, The Human League who’s music could best be described as part new wave / part synthesizer / part pop.

Like many I bought their huge breakout hit album Dare! (actually I own the prerecorded cassette) that included the single “Don’t You Want Me”, which by the way is the 25th most successful single of all time in the UK.

Today’s picture sleeve single though, is from their work right after the enormous success of Dare!, it’s the 1982 single “Mirror Man”. A Motown influenced tine filled with synthesizers is about the best way to describe this song. If the video means anything, “Mirror Man” follows the ghost of a dead performer who inhabits a theater, hanging around to reveal himself to new bands.

If you liked any of the songs from Dare! then you’d like “Mirror Man” since the sound isn’t too much different then any of the four hits from that LP.

I don’t believe that “Mirror Man” was initially from an album, maybe an EP. This particular copy that I have is I think an import. If you’ll note the ‘45 slides out from the right hand side and not the top like most singles did. Kind of a cop-out image wise, since the cover is just repeated on the back.

The “B” side is a song called “Non-Stop” that I don’t remember at all.

Today’s Comic icover - 302 of 10,000

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on May 14, 2008 @ 9:03, pm

What is a Comic icover?

1982 - Ghost Rider - #73

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Today’s cover comes from the “final stretch” from the original run of Ghost Rider. As much of a fan of the character as I was, even I was surprised that the book lasted as long as it did (it would be cancelled with the 81st issue).

The title took a lot of twists and turns, quality-wise, including lame runs and interesting ones. By this point of the book though, writer Roger Stern and artist Bob Budiansky were hitting on all cylinders (ouch).

“Tears of a Clown”, by Stern and Budiansky, continued Johnny Blaze’s (Ghost Rider) involvement with a traveling circus/carnival. So it was no surprise that the “cycle riding flaming skull” would eventually meet up against Marvel’s villainous Circus Of Crime (featuring Fire-Eater, Live-Wire, Luigi and Ernesto Gambonno, Strongman, Cannonball)

I really like this issue’s cover (pencils by Budiansky with inks by Dave Simons) and it’s one of my favorites from this run of Ghost Rider. The skull burnt into the circus poster is an effective and eye-catching design.

And unlike some fancy ideas that are forced onto covers, this particular design not only looks good but also gives a reader a clue to what’s inside. Well done!

Only one week and 9 hours to go!!!!

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on @ 2:58, pm

Tonight, before I head to the volleyball courts, I’m stopping by my local theater and picking up my ticket for next Wednesday’s midnight show of ……Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!!!!

Since it’s a day after my 47th birthday, I’m considering it as a birthday gift to me.

The studio just released some new photos from the film, which among others, include a shot of Indy:

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And one of Marion. Geez, Karen Allen STILL looks good!:

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100 Days in a row…… and counting!

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on @ 1:49, pm

No, these are not my legs. I’m just using this picture as a point.

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I’m sure like many, at the beginning of each year, I try to come up with things that I’d like to accomplish within the upcoming 12 months. Whether it’s work projects or personal improvements, you jot down these ideas and try to make these decisions stick — well, at least until the end of January.

I guess the most attempted resolution, for want of a better word, is to lose weight.
In that I’m not much different since by the end of 2007 I was tipping the scales at 249 lbs!

I’d go to the gym for a few days, then miss a few days, go for one day then miss three, etc… I couldn’t get into a consistent work out routine. As for diets, no thanks. I would improve what I was eating but IMO you need to exercise to get your self in shape, not just a diet alone.

So, all that was left me was to get into a work routine and make it stick.

On Sunday, February 3rd (which just happened to also be Super Bowl Sunday) I went to the gym and did 20-25 minutes on the tread mill. From that day forward I’ve started a streak of running/jogging either at the gym on the treadmill or, once the weather got better outside, around my neighborhood or at some of the local parks.

On Monday, May 12th I reached my 100th consecutive day of running/jogging. Everyday I put in the time, starting at 20-25 minutes a day and am now up to 50-55 minutes a day, non stop. A couple days during this streak I thought about giving it a miss, but quickly changed my mind (and am glad I did).

I’m now at 230 lbs, which isn’t bad considering I haven’t radically changed my diet. During those 100 days I also put in 2 hours of volleyball every Wednesday.

I’m not sure how many more days in a row I’ll keep this going. I’d really like to get my weight as close to 200 lbs as I can and considering my mindset, my new goal is to see if I can keep this streak going to at least 365 days in a row!

Today’s Comic icover - 301 of 10,000

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on May 13, 2008 @ 10:12, pm

What is a Comic icover?

1982 - Batman - #350

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I hadn’t planned on this, since I pull these cover images out at random, but today’s cover comes from another book done by artist Gene Colan.

By 1982 Gene “the Dean” Colan had left longtime employer Marvel (along with Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, etc… the fleeing of Shooters’ Marvel had begun) and was working for DC Comics. His run wouldn’t be near as memorable at DC, in my opinion anyway, but he still produced some nice work. And his penciling got me to buy some titles I normally wouldn’t, like Batman.

Written by Gerry Conway (another Marvel castoff) with art by Colan and inker Tony DeZunga, “Nightmare In Crimson” was in the middle of a story line continued from and into Detective Comics. In the early 1980’s the Batman and Detective Comics were “joined at the hip” as it were, the stories would flow into each other, you couldn’t follow what was going on unless you bought and read both titles.

This issues’ story dealt with Batman trying to capture the character called the Monk. He’s knocked unconscious by Robin who’s under the spell of the evil Dala.

Recently Seen Movie (Theater): Speed Racer

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on @ 1:54, pm

This is the 21st movie I’ve seen in 2008. Here are the others.

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When I was 11 years old, in the summer of 1972, I had a newspaper route. Every week day afternoon (it was an afternoon paper) I’d walk my route, usually taking my time to finish it. That summer though, a local UHF channel (UHF! Yeow, talk about ancient history), channel 53, began showing two cartoon shows every day at 3PM that prompted me to “haul ass” so I could finish my route and get home before they began. Oh, those days of yore, long before the VCR or Tivo.

At 3:00 ran the Marvel Superheroes Show. This was the collection of the late 1960’s limited animated series featuring The Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Sub Mariner and Iron Man. Say what you will about the animation, but these stories were GREAT! Now they were basically the same stories from Marvels comics in the late 60’s but since I hadn’t read those yet, these cartoons were my first introduction to them.

Following that, ran one of my first exposures to a Japanese animated show. Unlike today when you can’t flip the remote without coming across one of the zillions of Japanese animated cartoons, or Anime as they insist on being called, back in the day they were few and far between. Prior to this show I’d only seen Astro Boy, Kimba The White Lion and Marine Boy. While I ldid like all of those, hands down my favorite was channel 53’s 3:30 offering…. Speed Racer!

Which is my extremely long winded way of setting up my reaction/review for the movie I just saw, the big screen live action Speed Racer film. (and to let you know that I had certain expectations going into this).

The Racer family, Pops (John Goodman), along with Mom (Susan Sarandon), and boys Rex and Speed (Emile Hirsch) are a racing family. Unlike most racers on the circuit, who are backed by large corporate sponsors, Rex and later Speed have only the family on their side. Thanks to his recent racing success, Speed is offered a lucrative deal by multimillionaire Royalton of Royalton Industries.

While deciding to accept his offer, Speed learns of Royalton’s dirty secrets of fixing races and cheating to gain profit and by rejecting his offer Royalton ensures that Speed will not win any further races.

The Racer family are then approached by Inspector Detector of the C.B.I. and his top agent, the mysterious Racer X, to race in a dangerous cross country race called the Crucible. This is the same race that took the life of Speed’s older brother Rex, several years ago.

Now I’ve seen many, many movies over the years that are adaptations from TV shows, comic books and cartoons and in my opinion, this film, Speed Racer is one of the best adaptations of all time!

Now I’m no fan of the directors/writers Andy & Larry Wachowski. I found the film The Matrix to be amazingly boring, so much so that I avoided the sequels. But, boy, they got this one right.

From the cast (who are just about dead on perfect) to the feel, look and focus of the story, they took me back to those summers in front of the TV in 1972. They took the core of the original material, the small Racer family battling against the big, evil corporations and kept the over dramatic dialogue, actions and of course, the races. All of which made the Speed Racer cartoon what it is.

Their use of incorporating flashbacks I feel were quite effective too. By sliding in these flashbacks, they never stopped or got in the way of the ongoing story and told just what you needed to know of what went before. And while they overdid the fancy “frozen pose” shots in The Matrix, it works great here, emulating those frozen action shots (with the action lines in the background) from the original cartoon.

You know, that’s what really works here. Unlike film producers of the past few decades who would adapt comic or cartoon work and ignore EVERYTHING that made the original material work, the Wachowski’s here embrace it. They get everything right, even the music. After I sat through the end credits (and no, there is no extra scene) I wanted to buy the soundtrack.

Besides keeping the original songs that ran through the cartoons we also are treated to the same sound effects too, especially that of the catapulting Mach 5 and perhaps most importantly actor Emile Hirsch keeps those distinctive grunts, gasps an “uhhhh” that Speed would utter during the cartoons. Oh, and I nearly forgot, at the end of one of the races the Wachowski brothers give us that exact scene of Speed leaping from the Mach 5 and dramatically posing that we got after the main credits on every episode.

Along with the main characters, music and look, everything else is here. The unique, strange looking fellow racers like Snake Oiler and Cruncher Block and new Thor-like drivers are along for the ride too. (sorry about the pun) And of course, what would be a Speed Racer story without a ridiculously dangerous cross country race? Taking the drivers through the arid desert over mountainous terrain and inside an ice cave of death!

Now I’m stating what I liked about the film, because how truthful it is to the original source, but what about someone who has never seen the show. How would they like it? I thought the gist of the story was perfect for a family film, without stepping over the line of typical family film insipidness. The story here is the strength of the family, about staying truthful to yourself and your dreams. Yes, it’s very colorful (capturing the color of the cartoon) and very kinetic, but not so that it bothered me or distracted me from the story.

So, was anything wrong with it? Well, it is a bit long, over two hours, but I never felt the film sag or grow tedious.

Wow, two summer films first, the excellent Iron Man and now Speed Racer, and they’re both very good.
Something tells me the next one I see (starring a certain hat wearing adventurer) will keep that streak alive.

I give Speed Racer a “Go, Go”:

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Today’s Comic icover - 300 of 10,000

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on May 12, 2008 @ 10:49, pm

What is a Comic icover?

1981 - The Avengers - #206

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There’s been the sad news going on around the internet that long time penciler, Gene Colan is in poor health (Here’s a more detailed piece by Mark Evanier about Gene).

Many of my favorite comics I bought and read while growing up in the 70’s included artwork Gene. His work was both dynamic and unique whether telling stories about a talking duck (Howard the Duck), the Lord of the Undead (Tomb of Dracula) or superheroes. Like today’s cover of The Avengers.

The Avengers series was going through a bit of a transition in the early 1980’s. Long time penciler George Pérez had left the book (he’d gone to DC to co-create The New Teen Titans) and Jim Shooter was about to take over the writing and steer the book into an “odd” direction. (Hank Pym/Yellowjacket a wife beater and criminal??? Huh???), but until that happened, several one-shot stories took place.

This issue, “Fire In The Sreets” was written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Colan. The current Avengers roster of Iron Man, the Beast, Wonder Man, Captain America, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch took on Pyron the Thermal Man.

Not a particularly memorable issue of The Avengers and I’d seen Colan do better work, but for 50¢ you couldn’t beat the value for your money.

Conference Finals, Game #2: Talbot Tallies Winner!

Filed under:The Baboon Bellows — posted by admin on @ 10:26, pm

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Settled in front of the TV Sunday night to watch Game #2 (while my VCR upstairs was taping the FOX animation lineup. Can’t miss King of the Hill, The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad). I expected a tougher game for the Pens, though I didn’t expect the Flyers to lose their second best defenseman with a puck to the head! *ouch!* Right above Braydon Coburn’s eye!

So, without their two best men on defense (Kimmo Timonen was out for the series) you’d think that the Pens would have an easier time in this game, right? For the second straight game the Pens looked sluggish at times. Crosby gave the Pens a 1-0 first period lead.

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Crosby SHOULD have been gotten credit for a second goal (before Hossa scored his) but the referee missed it and the video replay didn’t back it up. Though you can see in this picture above, it clearly crossed the line.

Still, the Pens had a 2-1 late in the second period and was on the power play when Malkin made a BLUNDER of a pass, that was intercepted and fired past Fleury for a short-handed goal, tying the game 2-2.

Late period goals can be back breakers, but fortunately for the Pens they hung around still tied at 2-2 when their fourth line of Talbot, Roberts and Laraque worked the puck in the Flyers end and capped off their hard work with a Talbot rebound goal! All that was left was Jordan Staal’s empty netter to put the Pens up 2-0 in the series!

Now they head cross state to Philadelphia (and no, I’m not going to the game. I’ll watch it in the comfort of my home on TV). Here’s hoping for a big win in game three, so they can be just one step closer to the cup finals!

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The Artwork, Comics, News, Rants & Raves of Richard Marcej