Monday, April 16, 2012

Francesco Francavilla's the Black Beetle Cometh...

Our old friend, Francesco Francavilla, has a new series out this week...
...with a decidedly retro-kool flair!
Note that the cover above is one of two for the anthology title Dark Horse Presents #11.
But, of course, we'd want the Black Beetle cover...

Sunday, April 15, 2012

The Battle of Riverdale!

All is not peaceful in Riverdale...
Art by Mark Matcho
...as fighting among the second generation of owners of Archie Comics hits new highs in nastiness even as Archie Andrews and his ensemble hit new heights in popularity, as seen in a feature New York Times article HERE!
(Ironically, I was on-staff at the only other family-run comics company, Harvey Comics, during their final collapse and dissolution in 1988-91, and while it didn't hit quite the levels seen in this article, it was lively as the children of the three founding brothers fought and squabbled among themselves while the staff [myself included] kept our heads low and produced the books.)
Read the article, it's wild!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

YouTube Wednesday on Saturday: TItanic on the TIME TUNNEL!

The pilot episode of the short-lived Time Tunnel (1966) featured...The Titanic!
 ...with guest star Michael Rennie (Klatuu in the original Day the Earth Stood Still) as Captain Edward Smith!
 There's lots of Titanic miniature footage but there's debate as to whether it's from 20th Century Fox's Titanic (1953) or Rank's A Night to Remember (1958)

SPIKE
The Time Tunnel - IFILM Exclusive: The Titanic: Rendezvous with Yesterday
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Rennie had performed the previous year on another Irwin Allen series, Lost in Space, in the series' only two-parter "The Keeper", as the title character!
It's two of the best episodes during the show's first season, before it went to color and became the "Will & Dr Smith & Robot" show!
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Friday, April 13, 2012

Reading Room: HAND OF FATE "Night of Friday the 13th"

For centuries, this date was 24 hours of sheer terror...
...amazingly, there are relatively few comic stories about it, and most of them are humor tales!
But not this one...
This bit of pre-Comics Code fun is from Hand of Fate #22 (1954), illustrated by Lou Cameron, who did over 200 stories and covers in every conceivable genre during his time in the comic book business!
His best-known work is a number of genre tales for Classics Illustrated including War of the Worlds, Time Machine, and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde!
He gave up illustrating and became a Western novel and non-fiction writer.
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Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Titanic!

Exactly one hundred years ago...DISASTER!
From Funny Pages #V2N3 (1937), this is the first of a number of comic book features and stories about the legendary tragedy, probably written and drawn by unknown creators who were probably children or teens when it occurred 25 years earlier!
The quality's not great because this is a scan from microfiche rather than a printed page, but it's a historically-important piece of pop culture, so...
BTW, I've never seen a copy of this comic book that wasn't "slabbed" (encased in lucite!).

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