Friday, June 30, 2017

Friday Fun BIG APPLE COMIX "Hi There! I'm Paranoia!"

As I ride the subway to various events this long 4th of July weekend...
...I fondly remember Big Apple Comix's back cover by Ralph Reese, personifying the response we New Yorkers tend to have to even the most outrageous occurrences!
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Thursday, June 29, 2017

The Forgotten Silver Age DC Comic!

...and asked if anyone could identify what DC comic it was from.
Nobody could!
The answer is this...
DC's Teen Beam #2 (1968)!
Yeah, it doesn't look like a comic, but it was comic-sized, and DC produced it!
From '66-'69 several comics companies took a shot at doing mixed-format comics/teen mag titles...
Tower's Teen-In
Charlton's Go-Go
Harvey's Pop Comics
Warren also tried their hand with two b/w mag titles...
Freak Out, U.S.A. and
Teen Love Stories!
Oddly, Marvel, once noted for their tendency to jump on trends, didn't do one of these!
DC advertised their attempt with this...odd...ad...
...featuring the mascot character Teeny and, presuming it would appeal to the target teenage girl audience, a grungy hippie!
The first issue featured Teeny introducing articles about various heart-throbs...
...but no other comics-type material!
The incredibly-popular mag they based the title on...
...immediately threatened a trademark infringement lawsuit!
So, DC hastily-altered the title in their ads and the book's logo to Teen Beam...
...and added comic pages along with the articles!
It didn't help, since distributors, unwilling to anger the insanely-hot Tiger Beat, refused to rack the title!
(as the ad points out, you had to ask for it,since it was now, as they used to say "under the counter" along with porn magazines!)
The second issue was the last!
You'll be seeing the other comic strips throughout the summer.
Watch for them!
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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Space Treasure"

What's it like to be just another working stiff doing his job...but in outer space?
This tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #5 (1952) offers some insight...
Lovingly-rendered by Murphy Anderson, the story was created between his stints on the Buck Rogers newspaper strip, and certainly has the "look" of the legendary comic!
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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Reading Room SKATEMAN COMICS "FutureWorld"

Here's a "lost" tale by a talented artist nobody remembers...
...from a 1980s comic most people would rather forget!
With story and layouts by Jack Arata, inks by Andy Kubert, this never-reprinted tale from Pacific's SkateMan #1 (1983) is one of three sci-fi stories from Arata's brief comics career that spanned less than two dozen tales from 1982 to 1986.
A graduate of the Kubert School, he worked mostly for DC before returning to his farming roots in California, where he passed away in 2013.
As to why SkateMan the comic is so...well...reviled...this synopsis may explain it to those who didn't, like myself, live through it.
Oddly, despite its' reputation, the book is now extremely Hard to Find...and pricey!
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Monday, June 26, 2017

We're GLOWing this Summer...

With the success of GLOW on Netflix...
...we thought we'd look back at the original version, via their short-lived, (and very HTF) magazine from 1986-87!
(Try finding it on eBay or Amazon!)
Lord, was it 30 years ago?
I feel so old...
 The mag featured both in-character pieces and behind-the-scenes features as well as lots of pix!


BTW, Jackie Stallone is Sylvester's mother!
She played the manager of the "good" wrestlers!
We'll be doing a mini-marathon of the best of the magazine's features and photo spreads on our "sister" RetroBlog Heroines! (when fighting women in tights are the very reason for the blog's existence) during our annual RetroBlog Blogathon in July and August!
It'll be Hot...Hot...HOT!
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Note: this is a VHS, but unlike the DVD-R produced from it, the VHS is complete!