“Those comic convention people need to take their stuff home with them.”
Detective Comics #678
DC Comics (September, 1994)
“Yesterdays Gone” WRITER: Chuck Dixon PENCILER: Graham Nolan INKER: Bob McLeod COLORIST: Adrienne Roy LETTERER: John Constanza ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darren Vincenzo EDITOR: Scott Peterson
Like I haven’t already admitted that’s part of the reason for the style?
More speed than lazy but whatever.
In this week’s Clutter Report I organized the shirts in my closet when I couldn’t find the shirt I wanted this week.
Not really anything to report in BW news. No new article series, no ahead plans of what I’ll be doing this week. Just taking things easy before the re-connection surgery. So how are you today?
English: 2 Gerry Anderson UFO series aliens on a desert planet. The picture’s creator made the image with CGI. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In a recent installment of the Saturday Night Showcase we looked at Space: 1999, a sci-fi series by the team mostly known for “Supermarionation”, Gerry & Sylvia Anderson. While watching Linkara catch up the YouTube version of Atop The Fourth Wall the show UFO came up more than once. I remember seeing part of an episode at my local comic store and this just pushed my curiosity forward. So tonight you get to share in that with two episodes that set up this series.
UFO predates Space: 1999 and was created in 1970, while taking place in the far-off year of 1980. SHADO, the Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defence Organisation, is a secret defense force that protects the Earth from an unknown alien threat. It seems the guy behind their financing, Lew Grade, wasn’t into second seasons, kind of like most Japanese shows. CBS affiliates in the US aired the show and the network itself considered funding a second season but that fell through, and the idea of SHADO moving to a moonbase was then changed into what became Space: 1999.
I’m showing you the first and third episodes. The first introduces you to how SHADO functions. The third goes further into how the aliens operate. (I was going to add the second one to show them recruiting a new member but figured episode three had the other details I wanted and works fine for my needs.) I’m also showing two episodes because this first one…is kind of silly. If it wasn’t for Linkara’s endorsement as well as that of my friend Hube’s when I was Tweeting about the show last night, it might not have been here at all. It was silly for the wrong reasons. Lucky for me I gave two more episodes a shot and they were much better.
Not a crossover with James Patterson’s “Zoo”.
Batman Beyond #9
DC Comics (April, 2016)
“City Of Yesterday” part 2 WRITER: Dan Jurgens ARTIST: Bernard Chang COLORIST: Marcelo Maiolo COVER ART: Philip Tan with Elmer Santos LETTERER: Dave Sharpe EDITOR: David Piña
If all this medical hiatus stuff had any benefit on the BW side of my life is that it helped me rethink a project I failed to finish in time for last year’s Art Soundoff, which would have joined Re-Covered in giving me more art-based articles. In that case I developed a strong cold during the month that slowed me down. Then all the other issues I had delayed it even further. And this was a good thing, though obviously not why it was delayed. The original project was called “Better Heroes”, my strikeback at all the people who claim that characters like Superman are now “better heroes” because he’s now what they like instead of what I like. You know, the “everything for meeeeeeeeeee” crowd.
As I thought about it, though, I came to the realization that this was being petty on my part. Sure, I could change the Punisher (the intended “victim”) into my kind of character but even if most of the internet doesn’t care about what I’m doing…or know I exist it would still be more like “oh yeah, well if you’re going to turn what I like into what you like then two can play at that game” and less positive, which I’ve been trying to get more positivity to balance the negative. I still liked the idea of recreating a classic character, however, but why not make it more of a creative exercise than a “take that” project? So I looked to another problem. The concept of the superhero has been so deconstructed that they’re deconstructing something that barely exists. The time of deconstruction is passe, so it’s time to begin the reconstruction, to make these characters fun yet serious, to bring the joy back to the superhero concept.
I may not be alone in doing this. Some official writers have tried fixing things, but sometimes it requires huge alterations, like Amadeus Cho taking the power of the Hulk away from Bruce Banner…who went insane the last time he was separated from the Hulk, and that was rather recent so I’m betting that storyline doesn’t end well. But for this one I chose a hero that’s the most popular right now…except to the people working on him. Batman has been deconstructed to death, so now let’s rebuild him. We have the technology.
You knew there had to be a sewer level eventually.
Ninjak vol. 2 #9
Acclaim Comics/Valiant Heroes (November, 1997)
“Head Games” WRITERS: Robert L. Washington & Kurt Busiek PENCILERS: Neil Vokes INKERS: Michael Oeming & Rich Rankin COLORING: Atomic Paintbrush LETTERER: Dave Lanphear ASSISTANT EDITOR: Alex glass EDITOR: Jeff Gomez
Title card from the Godzilla intro. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Godzilla cartoon from Hanna-Barbera gets a bad rep as far as I’m concerned. The monsters are unique and interesting, Godzooki IS ACTUALLY HELPFUL TO THE TEAM and they should really release season 2 on DVD (currently only the first one is available over multiple DVDs) because some really good stories came from there. Then you have the series based on Roland Emmerich’s re-imagining that was so good it’s almost worth the Emmerich movie existing. (To the rest of you anyway. While I agree it’s NOT Godzilla the movie was silly fun and the series was fantastic.)
Now comes word that a new animated MOVIE (I’m using a lot of caps in this post) is coming from Toho’s animation department titled simply Godzilla (possibly a working title). The Good, The Bad, And Godzilla has the early news on this new production.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
