Showing posts with label Monday Madness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monday Madness. Show all posts

Monday, July 14, 2025

Monday Madness RADIO BOY by Chuck Dixon & Jim Engel

In the 1980s, manga finally gained a foothold in the US...
...and American creators began doing their own manga-style material.
Some, like this never-reprinted one-shot title from Eclipse Comics (the first major American company to publish translated manga), were parodies.
This particular spoof was loosely-based on Osamo Tesuka's Astro Boy, which had achieved success in as a translated anime in the early 1960s and opened the door for a flood of Japanese cartoons on American TV that continues to this day.
Note: Though Astro Boy is best-known in the US as a tv cartoon series, it began as a wildly-successful manga in 1954.
The premise of Radio Boy is that the creator himself did the translations for this edition, resulting in a mish-mash of syntax and tenses as well as some literal translations of Japanese phrases.
As a collector of foreign videos (including Japanese and Chinese DVDs and BluRays), I can attest that the English subtitles on them often do read like the captions and copy in this spoof.
BTW, if you don't have a multi-region DVD/BluRay player, get one.
Much of the Asian material released by Dimension (especially their Jackie Chan catalog), Buena Vista, and other mass-market companies is butchered beyond belief, and seeing the originals (even with bad sub-titling) is eye-opening!
I suspect writers Chuck Dixon (yes, that Chuck Dixon) and Jim Engel had also seen some mis-translated films/videos, and wanted to re-create the experience on the printed page.
You'll have the chance to judge for yourself...HERE and HERE!
Next Week
Yep!
They're Back!

Monday, June 16, 2025

Monday Mecha Madness NEUTRO "Captured by 777"

When Last We Saw Neutro...

Two American scientists had reassembled the parts of a giant automoton left in the Southwest over a century earlier by aliens for reasons unknown...for now!
However, unfriendly governments know of the robot, and seek to possess it!













We'll Never Know What Happens Next!
Written by editor D J Arneson and illustrated by Jack Sparling, Dell's Neutro #1 (1967) was meant to be an ongoing series, but never made it past the first issue.
Whether any work at all was done on a second issue is unknown!

Next Week:
Three Times the Mecha Mayhem as Combatra and Dangard Ace Join Raydeen as We Revisit the Shogun Warriors!

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Monday, June 9, 2025

Monday Mecha Madness NEUTRO "Birth of Neutro"

We Have Already Seen...

...left behind in the Southwest US by aliens over a century ago, a disassembled robot is found in the present day and reassembled by a pair of American scientists who discover it is...incomplete!








To Be Concluded Next Monday!

Written by editor D J Arneson and illustrated by Jack Sparling, Dell's Neutro #1 (1967) was meant to be an ongoing series, but never made it past the first issue.
Whether any work at all was done on a second issue is unknown!

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Visit Amazon and Order...

Monday, June 2, 2025

Monday Mecha Madness NEUTRO "Mysterious Flying Saucers"

Yeah, This Isn't Starting Out as a Typical Mecha Tale...

...but, trust us!
It's worth the wait!









So What Happens If Neutro is Used for Evil Instead of Good?
Find Out Next Monday!!!

Written by editor D J Arneson and illustrated by Jack Sparling, Dell's Neutro #1 (1967) was meant to be an ongoing series, but never made it past the first issue.
Whether any work at all was done on a second issue is unknown!

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Visit Amazon and Order...

Monday, May 12, 2025

Monday Madness ANDROMEDA "Klang! Klang!"

Who Hasn't Dozed Off on a Bus or Train...or Trolley?

But what's important is where you are when you wake up!



This never-reprinted Victorian-era high adventure tale from Andromeda #5 (1978) by writer/artist Derek Carter shows a mode of transport that has all-but disappeared from the American landscape except for amusement parks.
(AFAIK, the only city that still has cable trolleys is San Francisco.)
Derek Carter did only four stories in comics, but has gone on to an active career in both commercial and fine art!
You can check out his website HERE.

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Monday, May 5, 2025

Monday Madness ADVENTURE INTO MYSTERY "Conquerors"

As Fascism/Authoritarianism sweeps across the globe, and even infiltrates America...

We have to ask ourselves...is there any way to stop it?


The answer presented in this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Adventure into Mystery #1 (1956) is rather symplistic, and likely wouldn't actually work in the real world!
But it's nice to believe it could work!
BTW, Silver Age comics aficionados might note that the art for this story (and a number of pre-Marvel Atlas tales, was by John Forte, best-remembered today as the first ongoing artist on DC's Legion of Super-Heroes during its run in Adventure Comics!

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