Wednesday, February 16, 2011

YouTube Wednesday: CAPTAIN NICE

Continuing our weekly feature "YouTube Wednesday"...
Yes, this promo art was by Jack (King) Kirby!
In January 1966, Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward debuted on ABC.
This set off a wave of Bat-Mania, and all three TV networks scrambled to add superhero programming to schedules already crowded with science fiction and fantasy programming ranging from Man from U.N.C.L.E. to My Favorite Martian!
While one or two, like The Green Hornet, were done seriously, most of the new shows were not even campy tongue-in-cheek like Batman, but flat-out comedies!
The best of the new shows was the brainchild of Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry, who was asked to to to superheroes what he had done to spies, hopefully with similar ratings.
"My mom made my costume!"
Broadway actor William Daniels was cast as police chemist/mamma's-boy Carter Nash who gained short-term super-powers by drinking a formula he accidentally created.
Along with veteran performers Alice Ghostly (Carter's overbearing mother), Liam Dunn (annoyed Mayor Finney), Bill Zuckert (inept Police Chief Segal) and newcomer Ann Prentess (police Sgt/Carter's girlfriend Candy Kane), the show tried it's best to capture the style and flavor that made Get Smart a hit.
It didn't.

It was amusing, and Daniels tried his best, but a limited budget caused a lot of the super-stuntwork to misfire, ruining the jokes.

After only 15 episodes, Captain Nice was cancelled.
Maybe if they had done a crossover with Get Smart...

There was some merchandising including a one-shot comic book, a novel written by the same author who did the Get Smart books, and a limited-distribution batch of trading cards, all of which are HTF.
It's not out on DVD, and unless you videotaped it when it ran on Comedy Channel around 1993-94 (like I did), the only place you'll find it is on bootleg dvds or YouTube.
Here's the pilot/origin episode "The Man Who Flies Like a Pigeon".
Enjoy!


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The FIRST Black SuperHeroine!

Who was the FIRST Black superheroine?
Most people say the X-Men's Storm...
...and they'd be wrong!
Four years before Ororo Munroe made her first appearance in 1975's Giant Size X-Men #1another costumed Black superheroine flew across comic pages (in her own strip) for two issues!
If you want to know more about her, and read her premiere appearance, go HERE!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Design of the Week--XZ-31 Ray Gun!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...show those aliens you mean BUSINESS with this classic Buck Rogers XZ-31 Rocket Pistol from the 1930s!
While there are numerous XZ-31s available on eBay and other sites, finding one MiB is one of the Holy Grails of sci-fi collecting!
It was the very first metal toy ray gun produced in the US (by Daisy, the people also responsible for A Christmas Story's Red Ryder BB Gun)!
And, in a reverse-merchandising twist, the XZ-31 didn't look like the weapon Buck was actually using in the comic strip, but once it came out, the strip introduced the XZ-31 as Buck's "upgraded" weapon!
(And you thought the Walther people had a great deal when James Bond adopted the PPK!)

The Astounding Artifacts blog has a more detailed history of the XZ-31 HERE!
And Toy RayGuns has an overall history of Buck Rogers weaponry HERE!

Buck re-armed with new designs several times in the 1930s-40s, and we'll be introducing those designs, as well, over the next few months.
Available on an assortment of goodies from clothing to collectibles,  and the best thing of all...you won't shoot your eye out!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Hero(ine) History Retro Edition: Captain America 1966!

With the new Captain America movie filming, we thought it time to take a look at the original 1940s movie Cap.
And, to make it even more fun, we'd look at it from a Silver Age perspective...
Specifically, an article from the HTF 1960s magazine On the Scene Presents: Super-Heroes!
 (Click on the pix for larger images)