Marvel Characters Inspire Clothing Designers...

Ever wondered if a cape and tights could pass for haute couture?

On Thursday, Project Runway: Under the Gunn viewers will find out.
The four remaining competitors on the reality show will use Marvel characters such as Black Widow, Captain Marvel (shown above), Falcon, Hawkeye and the Guardians of the Galaxy as inspiration for a ready-to-wear challenge.

Jaimie Alexander (Lady Sif on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Thor films) will serve as a guest judge ready to school the hopefuls on all things fierce.

Cort Lane (that name just sounds like a superhero), Marvel’s vice president in charge of animation development and production, will also be on hand as a guest mentor.

Catch it Thursday evening on Lifetime, 9 p.m. ET/PT.

HELL'S KITCHEN'S "Sin City"-Inspired Opening Credits!

Hell's Kitchen has shown credits inspired by giant robots, horror movies, and sci-fi...
...now they're doing comic book movies, in particular, Sin City!
It's cute, but more a mundane's concept than a pro or even serious fan's approach.
(But it is better than the opening for Comic Book Men, supposedly supervised by pro/serious fan Kevin Smith..)

Christmas Comics on RetroBlogs!

Over the past week, the RetroBlogs™ have presented a slew of classic Yuletide-themed tales...

Western Comics Adventures™

Crime & Punishment™

True Love Comics Tales™

War: Past, Present and Future™

Hero & Heroine Histories™

To wind-up the series, on Christmas Day, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™ will present a long-unseen, never-reprinted, Xmas story from the first comic book based on a TV series based on a line of toys!

Which one?

You'll have to visit it on Christmas Day to find out!

YouTube Wednesday: Batman

Last Wednesday, we looked at Superman, so this week let's peek at Batman...

First, the 1943 serial (which predated the live-action Superman serials)...

Note: this is the trailer from the 1965 re-release which identifies the first serial, Batman, by the title of the second serial, Batman and Robin!
Then, the trailer for the 1966 Batman movie produced between the first and second seasons of the tv show!

And, if you're wondering why they did it that way, intead of doing the movie first, then the tv series...
1) Many American households still didn't have color tvs in 1966, so they saw the show in b/w, even though it was broadcast in color!
The movie was the first time many fans saw the live-action heroes in color!
2) The bigger budget enabled the producers to build and film a number of additional vehicles and props including the BatCopter, BatBoat, and BatCycle, and a larger Batcave set, which were then reused for the remainder of the tv series' run!
In 1989 Tim Burton brought a kool gothic feel to Batman..

...which Joel Schumacher destroyed in Batman & Robin!

and Christopher Nolan restored in the reboot, Batman Begins...

..and continued in Dark Knight!

Bonus: though it's not live-action, here's "The Dark Knight Returns" from the 1990s animated series...

...because Michael Ironside as a middle-aged Batman is just too good to miss!

Welcome Back, Flash Gordon! We Missed You!

Besides doing the alternate covers for each issue of the new Flash Gordon comic from Dynamite, Francesco Francavilla is also doing a wraparound cover inspired by the work of Al Williamson for the first issue.
If that's not enough to make you put this on your pull-list...
The year is 1934, a time of two-fisted swashbuckling, of fearsome threats and wild adventure -- and of ever-growing threats on the horizon. Three valiant humans -- Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov -- are plucked from the Earth, traveling to the distant planet Mongo. Their exploits are legendary, battling the machinations and terror schemes of the dreaded emperor Ming the Merciless, the All-Seeing Ruler of Mongo. But they did not fight alone...
And, it's only 32 pages for $1!!

Check out our

Space Heroes

Comic Collectible Store

YouTube Wednesday: GREEN LANTERN

Today we look at various media incarnations of Green Lantern/Hal Jordan...

GL from his first solo cartoon appearance on 1967's Superman/Aquaman Adventure Hour.

Gerard Mohr as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.

Green Lantern also appeared in the Justice League of America shorts.

Hal Jordan/Green Lantern's origin as shown on Challenge of the Super Friends.

Michael Rye is Hal/GL in all his Super Friends apperances.

The first live-action Hal Jordan was Howard Murphy in 1979's Legends of the SuperHeroes specials.

Hal Jordan temporarily takes John Stewart's place in Justice League Unlimited "The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time, Warped" during a dimensional shift.
Hal was voiced by Adam Baldwin.

Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in Duck Dodgers "The Green Loontern".
In addition, Hal has appeared on Justice League: New Frontier, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Green Lantern: First Flight, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, The Batman, Batman: the Brave and the Bold, and Young Justice.
and this little thing you might have heard of...

Happy 100th, Vincent Price

Born this day in 1911, Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was a man of many talents, chef, art connoisseur, writer, and of course, actor.
I'll leave it to other sci-fi, fantasy and horror bloggers to cover his accomplishments in those genres, and mention a category he's rarely associated with, but had an incredible knack for...
Comedy.

His very first film appearance was in a little-remembered 1938 screwball comedy called Service de Luxe, playing the male ingenue opposite Constance Bennett.


After this, he went on to a singularly successful career in films and radio, playing heroes and villains with great aplomb, but not appearing again in a comedy until 1950 (a voice-only cameo as The Invisible Man in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein isn't really an 'appearance')
As insane ad exec Burnbridge Waters, Vincent steals the movie from Ronald Coleman in a performance that can only be classified as "mad", man...

Here's an audio interview from 1990 with both Vincent and Art Linkletter, who played the game show host/toady in the film. They discuss the scene shown in the lobby card above.

And here's the entire film at one shot! (but with commercials)


While most of his roles had humorous aspects to them, these were the only two outright comedies he did until the mid-1960s, when people finally started utilizing his funny side, unfortunately in only mildly-funny films like the Dr Goldfoot flicks.
(Here's the tv special Wild, Weird World of Dr Goldfoot, which was funnier than either of the films!)



Thanks for the memories, Vincent.
When you didn't have us screaming, you had us laughing!

YouTube Wednesday: the FIRST Cowboys and Aliens...

Long before Cowboys and Aliens (but after Space Western Comics), aliens invaded the Old West on Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel.
The series started off with almost all the episodes taking place in the past and the heroes ending up in situations like the sinking of the Titanic or the siege of the Alamo, trying to warn people about what would happen and being treated like lunatics until the disaster happened, at which point they'd be transported to another era.

All that changed with this mid-season episode, "Visitors from Beyond the Stars".

Our heroes, Tony (young, impetuous, green turtleneck) and Doug (older, cautious, suit n' tie) are transported to Arizona in the year 1885.
Or rather, they're transported over Arizona, to an alien spacecraft, facing silver aliens (a standard Irwin Allen look for extraterrestrials)!
The aliens have come seeking protein for their starving world, and they've found it...the fauna (including humans) of Earth!
With Earth of 1885 technologically-unprepared to fight off an alien invasion, the two scientists from the future must somehow stop the invaders from the stars from decimating the home of Mankind!
To complicate matters, more of the aliens have appeared in the Time Tunnel itself, preventing the present-day support team from sending help to the timelost scientists!

Enjoy!

After this episode, anything could (and did) appear on the show, from ghosts, to Merlin the Magician, to lots more aliens!
Despite the infusion of additional fantasy elements, the series was canceled at the end of the year.

We're offering a new line of Space Western collectibles, perfect for summer wear at the beach, or the movie theatre when you go see Cowboys & Aliens. (C'mon, you know you're going!)

Check out the

Comics Collectibles Store

and have a look below at some Cowboys and Aliens movie tie-ins from Amazon!

Fantastic Femmes--Wende Wagner

Navy brat Wendy Wagner was an expert scuba diver, swimmer, and surfer. She also looked incredible in a bikini.
So, naturally, she became both a professional model and underwater stunt-double for two tv series.
When producers realized she could also act, Wende began doing guest appearances on tv series and secondary characters in features, usually scantily-clad.
In 1966, Batman tv series producer William Dozier offered her a co-starring role in his new series Green Hornet as the hero's secretary/confidante. Though the show only ran one season, Wende made an indelible impression on fanboys then and since.
After the show's cancellation, she returned to doing guest appearances, until retiring from acting in the late 1970s.
Wende passed away in 1997 from cancer.

Genre appearances include...

Bait (Victim)

Rookies "Prayers Unanswered, Prayers Unheard"

Guns of the Magnificent Seven (Tina)

Rosemary's Baby (Rosemary's Girl Friend)

It Takes a Thief "Get Me to the Revolution on Time"

Mannix "Skid Marks on a Dry Run"

Green Hornet[1966] (Lenore "Casey" Case)

A Covenant with Death (Rafaela Montemayo)

Destination Inner Space (Sandra Welles)

Perry Mason "Case of the Feather Cloak"

Flipper [1965] "Flipper's Monster"

Sea Hunt (stunts)

Aquanauts (stunts)

Check out...

The Private Life and Times of Wende Wagner

Other actresses to play Lenore "Casey" Case include...
Cameron Diaz in The Green Hornet [2011]
Anne Nagel in The Green Hornet [1940] and The Green Hornet Strikes Again [1940]
Lenore Allman in The Green Hornet [1936-1952]

A special treat: Wende's appearance on What's My Line while she was doing underwater stuntwork for Sea Hunt and Aquanauts...

Design of the Week--Green Hornet & Kato vs the Rockets of Death!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
Well, The Green Hornet collectible series had proven to be a major success, so why fight it?

With the upcoming big budget movie due out this week, we're proud to present our own contribution to the growing buzz (obvious joke) over the revival of the classic character...a kool sci-fi cover from 1945's Green Hornet Comics #24 featuring The Green Hornet and Kato battling Axis poison-gas rockets about to kill everyone in the city!

Available on t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs, and other kool kollectibles, this particular cover isn't on our main product line of Classic Green Hornet collectibles.
But it's the perfect Secret Chic sweatshirt, t-shirt or bag to take to a screening of the new flick, so pick it up now, before it goes back into the nest!

Design of the Week--Green Hornet's Coming At Ya!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
Well, The Green Hornet collectible series had proven to be a major success, so why fight it?

With the upcoming big budget movie due out in a couple of weeks, we're proud to present our own contribution to the growing buzz over the revival of the classic character...a kool symbolic cover from 1946's Green Hornet Comics #31 featuring The Green Hornet and Kato charging towards the reader!

Available on t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs, and other kool kollectibles, this particular cover isn't on our main product line of Classic Green Hornet collectibles.
But it's the perfect Secret Chic sweatshirt, t-shirt or bag to take to a screening of the new flick, so pick it up now, before it goes back into the nest!

Dead Set...Reality TV Meets Zombies!

Britain is in trouble (or, at least, more than usual).
The dead are returning to life and attacking the living.
The people they kill get up and kill – and it’s spreading like wildfire.
Curiously, there are a few people left in Britain who aren’t worried about any of this – that’s because they’re the remaining contestants on the reality series Big Brother.
Cocooned in the safety of the Big Brother House set, they’re blissfully unaware of the horrific events unfolding outside. Until an eviction night when all hell breaks loose...
Currently running on IFC, the five-part miniseries originally aired in England in 2008 to rave reviews.

Besides the usual kool classics on TCM (including previously unaired uncut Hammer Horrors , Val Lewton and Roger Corman flix, and a Vincent Price tribute), it's the best scary stuff on tv this Halloween weekend. (The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" won't air until November 6th!)
Watch it!