Sunday, March 31, 2024
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON: THE GREATEST ADVENTURE OF ALL
Before Flash Gordon the Movie came to movie screens in 1980...
...another Flash-related project came to fruition!
No, not the animated TV series!
A self-contained, feature-length, animated movie!
It was conceived and written by Sam (Classic Star Trek "Where No Man Has Gone Before") Peebles as a prime-time live-action feature, not a Saturday morning animated kiddie series!
But the budget required for the script would've been $30,000,000 (almost $100,000,000 in 2024 dollars!)!
So, it was decided to do the project using classic cel animation, including rotoscoping for both character movement and spaceship action!
Note: Heavy Metal; the Movie, in production at the same time, utilized the same approach!
But they had to use several different studios, working together, to complete their feature film!
Though a lot of the footage from Greatest Adventure of All was recycled, over half is exclusive to the feature, including Flash in a Doc Savage-style torn shirt and jodpurs for the first 2/3rds of the film!
That footage was re-drawn for the series with Flash in his red and blue Mongo uniform.
It's the way Flash was drawn in the first few weeks of the newspaper strip, and Buster Crabbe followed suit in the first couple of chapters of the first movie serial!
But the budget required for the script would've been $30,000,000 (almost $100,000,000 in 2024 dollars!)!
So, it was decided to do the project using classic cel animation, including rotoscoping for both character movement and spaceship action!
Note: Heavy Metal; the Movie, in production at the same time, utilized the same approach!
But they had to use several different studios, working together, to complete their feature film!
Though a lot of the footage from Greatest Adventure of All was recycled, over half is exclusive to the feature, including Flash in a Doc Savage-style torn shirt and jodpurs for the first 2/3rds of the film!
That footage was re-drawn for the series with Flash in his red and blue Mongo uniform.
It's the way Flash was drawn in the first few weeks of the newspaper strip, and Buster Crabbe followed suit in the first couple of chapters of the first movie serial!
BTW, the film starts out in Warsaw, Poland at the beginning of World War II before heading to Mongo, and all the Earth-based technology, including Zarkov's ship, are contemporary to what was shown in sci-fi magazines and flix of the era!
Now, with pardonable pride, we present the complete feature film which is unavailable on American physical media sources and only aired once, on late night TV in 1982.Note the cameos by Adolph Hitler, to whom Ming is supplying weapon and rocket technology!
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Friday, March 29, 2024
Friday Fun RIOT "Mother Goosepimple's Nursery Rhymes" Parts 1 & 2
Atlas Comics' numerous 1950s MAD comic clones...
...gave the company's creatives a chance to flex their artistic muscles in ways rarely-seen by their readers!
This never-reprinted short from Atlas RIOT #5 (1956) gave amazingly-versatile artist Joe Maneely a chance to show his rarely-seen humorous side.
The second, final, also never-reprinted installment in this series features an artist who already had a rep doing humor, John Severin, best known for his serious Western and War comics work at Harvey and EC!
He was also brother of EC Comics colorist Marie Severin, who later became Marvel's resident caricaturist (among her many other talents)!
I suspect this was going to be an ongoing series featuring rotating illustrators, but since Riot was cancelled as of this issue (6) in 1956, we'll never know!
BTW, if the writing style for both stories feels "familiar", that's because it was by snarky Stan (the Man) Lee!
I suspect this was going to be an ongoing series featuring rotating illustrators, but since Riot was cancelled as of this issue (6) in 1956, we'll never know!
BTW, if the writing style for both stories feels "familiar", that's because it was by snarky Stan (the Man) Lee!
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Thursday, March 28, 2024
Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Jack Rabbit and the Beanstalk"
The only thing even vaguely Easter-related in this Walt Kelly-written and illustrated story...
...is the fact Jack Rabbit is selling Easter Eggs to make ends meet!
Accept it, and enjoy the obvious adaptation and the guest characters from other nursery rhymes and fairy tales!
This never-reprinted tale from Dell's Four Color Comics #220: Easter with Mother Goose (1949) winds up our holiday-themed posts for the season.
Hope you enjoyed reading them as much as we did producing them!
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WOLFF "Lair of the Witches"
...to begin his final quest...to discover what had become of his tribe...and his wife!
Next Wednesday...
The Fateful, Fearsome Finale!
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