Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Fantastic Femmes--Zhang Ziyi

Equally-adept at comedy, drama, and action, Zhang Ziyi (or Ziyi Zhang, depending on the translation) isn't a martial arts expert, but, like Michelle Yeoh, uses extensive dance training to learn the needed choreography!
Trivia:
Didn't know any English when she did Rush Hour 2! She learned her dialogue phonetically and star Jackie Chan translated the director's instructions for her! (She has since learned English.)
Genre appearances include...
Sophie's Revenge (Sophie)
HorseMen (Kristen)
TMNT (Karai)
House of Flying Daggers (Mei)
Hero (Moon)
Musa aka Warrior (Princess Bu-yong)
Purple Butterfly ( Cynthia / Ding Hui)
Legend of Zu aka Zu Warriors [2001] (Joy)
Rush Hour 2 (Hu Li)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Jen Yu / Xia Long / Jiao Long)

Check out...
Her Official Site
Other actresses to play Karai include...
Karen Neill in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2003]

Monday, June 8, 2009

The Best of Simon & Kirby

Before Lee & Kirby...there was Simon & Kirby!
As we mentioned in our entry on The Blue Bolt, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were the first "super-team" in comics!
In fact, their names on the cover were a selling point at a time where most creators labored in anonymity!
Yes, I know Siegel & Shuster came before them, but their fame was based totally on Superman. (Admittedly one hell of a creation [and multi-media sensation], but still, a single character!)
On the other hand, Simon & Kirby created dozens, if not hundreds of characters and series, many of whom had astonishingly-long runs for the mayfly-lived comics business! A number of them (particularly Captain America) are still going strong today!

The new book about them, The Best of Simon & Kirby, certainly lives up to it's title!
Edited by Joe Simon himself, and with intro and info from Mark Evanier, a tv / film scripter, comics historian, and both close friend and co-worker with Jack Kirby from the late 1960s until his untimely passing, the book is a must-have for anyone with...
1) interest in comic books (particularly the Golden Age)...
2) a need to know how sci-fi / fantasy creators come up with all those nifty ideas...
or...
3) a burning desire to gaze at page after page of lovingly-restored and reproduced comic stories (Many of which have NEVER been reprinted!)

Best of all, it's the FIRST in a projected series of S&K tomes, each one covering a different genre (And S&K hit ALL of them, so there's A LOT of material to re-present!)

The Best of Simon & Kirby would make a helluva Father's Day or graduation (elementary, junior high, or high school) gift!
And to make it even better, why not combine it with a kool Atomic Kommie Comics™ kollectible like a mug or t-shirt featuring classic cover art from one of the featured books (including The Blue Bolt himself)?

Even if you don't go with one of our kool kollectibles (why you wouldn't is beyond me...), BUY The Best of Simon & Kirby!
It's a "must-have" for ANY "pop culture" fan!
Good Lord! I'm doing "Kirby Quotes"!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Pushing Daisies--Watch it Tonite!

Tonite, the unfortunately-cancelled tv series Pushing Daisies is airing it's next-to-last episode "Power & Water".
The main guest-star is Fantastic Femme Gina Torres as Lila Robinson, the mother of private eye Emerson Cod's estranged daughter.
(I'll use any excuse to run a couple more pix of Gina!)