YouTube Wednesday: THE SPIRIT (1987)

Considering it's cinematic style, it's remarkable there wasn't a Spirit movie or tv series before 1987!

Starring Sam (Flash Gordon) Jones as Denny Colt/The Spirit and Nana (Col. Kira Nerys) Visitor as Ellen Dolan, it's an interesting take on Will Eisner's classic character, updated to the then-present, and putting the hero in a neon-blue suit instead of the black ensemble from the awful Frank Miller film!

Best of all is the new artwork done by Eisner for the credits sequence!
It's not a perfect flick by any stretch, very tongue-in-cheek and just short of "camp", but I enjoyed it more then the Miller flick.

Trivia:
Bumper Robinson, who played Eubie, has performed voices for numerous animated characters including Cyborg in the current Justice League: Doom, Rhodey in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Rhodey/War Machine in Marvel Super Hero Squad [VG], Black Lightning in Batman: Brave and Bold [tv show & videogame], Bumblebee in the current Transformers animated series, Dwight Conrad in Futurama,  Star Boy in Legion of Super Heroes, Carter in the 1990s' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Philo in Flintstone Kids.
The executive producer is William Beaudine, Jr, son of b-movie/tv director William ("One Take") Beaudine who handled, among others, the Bowery Boys, Lassie, and The Green Hornet tv series!

Ant Invasion

Dealing with an earlier than usual invasion of ants in the living and bedrooms due to the unnaturally-warm spring.
Tomorrow: YouTube Wednesday presents The Spirit!

Kaare Andrews on Why He Can't Draw as Fast as Jack Kirby

In a recent Bleeding Cool column, illustrator Kaare Andrews sez...

Let me admit that I’m not the fastest artist in the world.
It can take a long time to draw a page.
In the olden days, you had inkers basically ‘finishing breakdowns’ over Jack Kirby.
"Breakdowns" like this, which was typical of Kirby's "2-4 page a day" period (and he was writing the book as well)...?

From Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™

That’s how he could push through 4-6 pages in a day.
Kirby’s art was bold.
It was beautiful. 
It was awesome. 
But I’m not sure he would have as much success in today’s climate.
Which explains why Jack Kirby's art is used on so much of Marvel's licensed product output, and why sales of reprints of Kirby's work equal or exceed a large number of Marvel's new-material titles!
The truth is that the level of detail demanded on a page has risen dramatically.
Comics aren’t 10 cent disposable newsprints anymore.
They are a legitimate art form.
They always were a "legitimate" art form.
Ask any European or Asian art aficionado.
Paper stock is slick, coloring is high tech, and you can now print as many tones, in as many shades, with as much detail as you can imagine.
It’s expected from the fans.
Which "fans"?
Not me!
Must be the same "fans" who aren't buying the current output of Marvel and DC at even the same sales levels as five years ago, and not like 15 years ago, when I was working on-staff, and sales at 50,000 or below were a reason for cancellation, not celebration!

One other point, Andrews is an illustrator, not a comic book artist.
He's a decent cover artist, but his interior work is average at best, mediocre at worst.
Curiously, it also appears to be uncollectable or unwanted.
Every gallery I see online features his heavily-photo-referenced covers or pin-ups, not his panel pages!
Want proof?
Google "Kaare Andrews", then Google "Jack Kirby".
How many interior pages or panels do you see in each case?

Flash Gordon #8 Cover Preview

There's no Flash Gordon like a "classic" Flash Gordon.

Have you noticed that all the attempts to "update" the character modify him so much as to be unrecognizable?

(Remember the Smallville-ized Sci-Fi, er, SyFy version? YUK!)
Thankfully, Dynamite's current series goes back to the basics, combining the best of Alex Raymond's (and successor Mac Raboy's) original strips with the movie serials, 1980 feature film, Filmation tv series, and Al Williamson's contributions in the '60s and '80s, to make a kool pastiche almost on the level of the Dini-Timm-McDuffie DC Animated universe.
Top it off with superb covers like this one for #8 by Francesco Francavilla, and it's a must-have package for high-adventure fans of all ages.
Sadly, this is Francisco's final Flash for the foreseeable future. (Say that five times fast!)
But, considering he's doing covers for The Shadow, The Spider, and other classic genre characters, I think I'll still be getting a hefty dose of Francavilla art every month!

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1950s Space Heroes!

Discussing Major Inapak made us reflect back on the sci-fi tv shows of the early 1950s...

Space Patrol (1950-1955)

Rocky Jones: Space Ranger (1954-1956)

 Tom Corbett: Space Cadet (1950-1955)

and the original space hero...

Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949-1955)

Ironically, Captain Midnight, who ran on tv from 1954 to 1956, making him the last survivor of the genre, didn't have a comic book adaptation of his tv series! (His original comic book, based on the radio show, ended in 1948!)

Our "brother" blog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™ has been running the comic book adaptations of both Captain Video and Rocky Jones, and will shortly be adding Space Patrol and Tom Corbett to the lineup!

Don't miss 'em for a dose of kool retro sci-fi action with art by greats like Mort Meskin, George Evans, Dick Giordano, Bernie Kreigstein, and Norm Saunders!