Saturday, August 20, 2011

Listen to a Lost Hero on National Radio Day

August 20th is National Radio Day, celebrating, among other aspects...
old-time dramatic radio, which presented an astonishing number of action heroes including those created for radio...
Green Hornet

Captain Midnight
  Lone Ranger
Mysterious Traveler
Mr District Attorney
Big Town
and those adapted from other media...
plus
classic one-time presentations like
War of the Worlds
 Enter the "Theater of the Imagination!

Check out the
Atomic Kommie Comics
storefronts featuring
Big Town
Captain Midnight
Blue Beetle
Green Hornet
Green Lama
Mr District Attorney
Mysterious Traveler
War of the Worlds
Kool Kollectibles!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Golden Age Comic NEGRO ROMANCE on PBS' "History Detectives"

Our "sister" blog, True Love Comics Tales™ is running a classic romance tale from the very HTF 1950s comic Negro Romance, which was recently featured on PBS' series History Detectives!
One of the few pre-1960s comics that didn't feature stereotyped Black characters, and there are links to the History Detectives website and the complete segment from the show.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men? Alex Ross!

Yep, that's The Shadow, as rendered by Alex Ross.
Dynamite Entertainment, who've already done successful revivals of The Green Hornet (despite the awful movie), Lone Ranger, Zorro, and the various Golden Age heroes of Project SuperPowers, now has the rights to the Man with the Power to Cloud Men's Minds!
If they do half as good a job as they've done with the characters listed above, I'll be a dedicated buying customer!
And, now a word from our sponsor (us)...
for

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

YouTube Wednesday CONAN THE BARBARIAN

Yeah, there's a new Conan in town, but will he really make us forget Ahnuld the Barbarian, even three decades later?

(BTW, the narrator is Orson Welles...The greatest of the actors to play The Shadow on radio!)
While I have nothing against Jason Momoa (I liked him in Game of Thrones and StarGate: Atlantis)...

...can he deliver a line like this?

I'll wait for Conan the Musical...

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Whatever Happened to The Lone Ranger?

The budget had been approved.
The script was written (and approved) by all concerned.
The stars, including Johnny Depp as Tonto, were cast.
Sets were being built in New Mexico.
Pre-production was well underway.
Then, someone at Disney yelled "STOP!"

The producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, was told he would have to cut $40 million from his already-approved budget of $250 million.
Was it because of the less-than-stellar box office for Cowboys & Aliens?
According to the LA Times: "Cowboys & Aliens made them (Disney executives) start quaking in their boots over big budgets," said Brandon Gray, creator and president of BoxOfficeMojo.com, a website that tracks worldwide ticket sales. "It was High Noon at Buena Vista."
Oddly enough, The Lone Ranger also would've been a cross-genre western, this time with werewolves (which makes sense, since silver can slay lycanthropes, and the Ranger uses silver bullets)!

Besides the location shooting in New Mexico, The Lone Ranger had reserved several soundstages at  Albuquerque Studios which, ironically, are currently being used for another big-budget Disney film; The Avengers!

Let's see what develops...

Monday, August 15, 2011

Reading Room: VIC TORRY & HIS FLYING SAUCER "Catastrophe!"

Ace test pilot Victor Torry and his aviation-enthusiast girlfriend Laura are bequeathed a flying saucer by a dying alien.
Operating on automatic pilot, the spacecraft returns to it's home on Mercury, where they discover a civil war under way against the tyrant Szzz, who has plans to conquer the entire solar system!
Vic and Laura manage to commandeer another ship, override the controls and leave.
But now, they are returning to Mercury...
Art by Golden Age great Bob Powell.

The tale has been reprinted twice, in Vic Torry & His Flying Saucer (2000) and
Mr Monster's Hi-Voltage Super-Science (1987)
Vic himself appears in a cameo in the SkyWolf back-up story "Bachelor Party" in AirBoy #36 (1986)