ROGER CORMAN 1926-2024

Roger Corman and Vincent Price

One of the most influential filmmakers from the 1950s onward, Roger was one of the greatest "hyphenates" (writer/director/producer/occasional actor/etc) in history.

He gave career-starting jobs to numerous future cinema icons from Francis Ford Coppola to Pam Grier to James Cameron to Jack Nicholson to Martin Scorsese to Peter Bogdanovitch.

He revived the slowing careers of numerous 1920s-1950s performers, and made some of them (like Vincent Price and Joan Crawford) pop culture icons!
Plus, Corman brought numerous foreign movies to America that no other US studio wanted to invest in, like Fantastic Planet, The Tin Drum, and Cries and Whispers.

Roger's works are a major part of the entertainment side of my life...and always will be.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go rewatch Gas-s-s-Or-It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It, Corman's final film for AIP!

You'd be surprised how timely it still is!

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How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime
(Roger Corman's Autobiography)

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "Monster Men of Tropica!"

Probably the Last Artist You'd Think of Illustrating Flash and Dale on Mongo...

...would be sword and sorcery/gothic fantasy artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones!

But, Jones was a serious Alex Raymond/Flash Gordon fan, so this work in Charlton's Flash Gordon #13 (1969), while a bit rough, showed enormous love and enthusiasm for the character.
And Charlton's notoriously-bad printing didn't help showcase Jones' art!

Written by Bill Pearson. Penciled and inked by Jeff Jones (as they were known then).

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Jeffrey Jones

A Life in Art

Friday Fun ABBOTT & COSTELLO "Money-Mad"

We've covered the Golden Age comic book adventures of the multi-media superstars HERE, HERE, and HERE...

...now we continue with Lou in a situation which all of us can sympathize with!

Though the scripter is unknown, the art for this tale from St John's Abbott & Costello Comics #8 (1949) is clearly by the team of Lily Renee and and her husband, Erik Peters.

It was reprinted once, in 1955, and hasn't been seen since!
We felt almost 75 years was too long a period to keep this from Lily Renee admirers, Abbott and Costello fans, comic book afficionados, and any combination of them!

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Abbott & Costello Story

Sixty Years of "Who's on First?"

Simian Reading Room: Before you see KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES...

...now in theatres...

......why not go back and read the original tale which inspired two different film series, a standalone film, and two TV series (live-action and animated)?

Note: none of the movie/TV series or the stand-alone film are continuity-linked to each other, but are considered part of an Apes multiverse much like the Marvel, DC, or Star Trek multiverses!

But the original five-film series and the current four-film series (including Kingdom) are internally-linked within their respective canons.)

Here it is in a graphic novel that most Americans have never seen...

Part 1

Part 2

Conclusion

Enjoy!

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Planet of the Apes

by Pierre Boulle

The novel (Monkey Planet) that the movie (and the graphic novel) were based upon!

There was never a prose novelization of the movie itself, though there have been several comic book/graphic novel versions!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ATARI FORCE Part Four "Part 1"

We Return to the Atari Universe, where in 2005, we started travelling into other dimensions...

..including some where humans definitely aren't welcome!

To Be Continued...

Next Wednesday!

As of this tale in the 1982 fourth cartridge insert comic by writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, Penciler Ross Andru and inker Dick Giordano, it's clear that the pioneering crew of Scanner One finished their initial assignment, returned home, provided vital intel to Atari and helped organize and train a second wave of explorers!
Besides this digest-sized mini-comic, the story was also published as a bonus comic-sized insert in DC's DC Comics Presents #53 and New Teen Titans #27 (both 1983).

That version had some differences...

...starting with a retitling from "Phoenix" to "Code Name: Liberator"...

...and a new subtitle"Liberator Mission: Freedom or Death!"

Plus, every reference in the captions, dialogue and signage is altered from "Phoenix" to "Liberator"!

In addition, the alien Malaglon are altered from brutish, fanged extraterrestrials to...

...frogs, albeit armed and armored frogs!

I'm uncertain if the Comics Code Authority pushed the alteration of the aliens for the mass-market comics version...

...though it is so much more satisfying to see them getting blown up as hideous monsters than cute frogs.

But, that's just me...

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Art of Atari