Sunday, June 23, 2013

WARP! The FIRST Sci-Fi Epic on Broadway!

In 1971, Chicago's acclaimed Organic Theatre Company produced a trio of plays inspired by Marvel Comics, particularly Dr. Strange and Mighty Thor, under the umbrella title WARP!
Billing the trilogy as "the world's first science fiction epic-adventure play in serial form", the three plays did boffo box office and won numerous Chicago theatrical awards.
It seemed like a no-brainer to take the production to New York, where local talent could enhance both the production values and on-stage talent.
The first of the three plays, "My Battlefield! My Body!" opened in February, 1973.
Unfortunately, it closed that same month.
Considering the talent involved in this project, including original writer / director Stuart Gordon (ReAnimator), NY production art director Neal Adams (Batman / X-Men / Green Lantern & Green Arrow) and actors John Heard (Sopranos, Prison Break), Keith Szarabajka (Equalizer), Stephen Williams (X-Files, 21 Jump Street), it's astounding that it didn't take off like (dare I say) a rocket!
But, it didn't, and all that survives today are some playbills and the incredibly-hard to find poster, illustrated by Neal Adams!
We have one of these posters, acquired in the late 1970s, and decided to make a couple of shirts emblazoned with it for ourselves and friends.
The response has been so overwhelming ("Where did you get that? Can I get one?") that we are now offering it to other pop culture aficinados!
If you're a fan of Broadway theatre, sci-fi, comics, or just like a kool shirt, have a look!
Or, if you'd like a reproduction poster, click HERE!

(Note: there was a spinoff comic book series from First Comics in the 1980s which adapted the trilogy and provided an ending to the story.)

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Slim Whitman (1923–2013): the Man Who Saved the Earth!

Otis Dewey Whitman, Jr. saved the world in 1996...
...when Tim Burton and Danny Elfman used his "Indian Love Call" as the catalyst that destroyed the Martian invaders in the 1996 cult classic Mars Attacks...

Friday, June 21, 2013

Reading Room: SPACE ACTION "Prisoners of the Incredible Plants"

It's the end of the week, so let's "veg out" with some mindless fun...
...like this never-reprinted tale about menacing alien plants from Ace's Space Action #2 (1952)
How else would you deal with alien plants but with defoliants and fire?
Art is by prolific journeyman Lou Cameron, the writer is unknown.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Reading Room: BRANT CRAIG "Hot Money Space Mob"

Counterfeiting will always be a problem, even in the 30th Century...
...as we see in this never-reprinted tale from the final issue of Youthful's Captain Science!
This "hard-boiled private-eye in space" story from Youthful's Captain Science #7 (1951) was probably illustrated by Bill Molno and Rocco Mastroserio.
The writer is unknown.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Reading Room: JET POWERS "First Man in History Who Could Not Die"

Though it has a Jet Powers logo...
...our white-haired hero is only the host/narrator for this never-reprinted tale of men, mortality, and millennia!
Illustrated by Bob Powell, this tale from Magazine Enterprises' Jet #4 (1951) might have been the start of an ongoing series of "Spaceways Sagas"...except #4 was the series' final issue!