You have to respect a villain who worked his varsity sweater into his costume. That takes effort.
Blue Beetle #51
Charlton Comics Group (August, 1965)
“Mentor The Magnificent”
WRITER: Joe Gill
PENCILER: Bill Fraccio
INKER: Tony Tallarico
no colorist, letterer, or editor credited…sucks to be those guys!
The 1950s are not loaded with narrative songs. At least most of the ones I’ve heard were more moments in time, usually involving some teenager seeking love, losing at love, or learning some weird named dance. It was also a decade where the parents and the entertainment code got stricter. Teen movies usually had some rebel punk either getting his horrible end or fighting giant irradiated animals and blobs. The 1950s are kind of weird.
The Shangri-Las were a quartet of two groups of sisters, Mary & Betty Weiss and Marge & Mary Ann Ganser. One of their two most well-known hits, “Remember (Walking In The Sand)”, was about a girl whose boyfriend was suddenly leaving and she couldn’t figure out why. Their most famous song, and one that was even covered by Twisted Sister of all groups, was “The Leader Of The Pack”, the title single from the 1965 album.
In this tale, Betty takes the lead and is even namedropped in the story as her friends try to learn whether or not she was dating a local bad boy, a motorcycle rider that lead…supposedly a biker gang, but isn’t stating that from what we hear in the song simply making the same mistake as her parents?
They gave Wonder Woman a sword and shield, and now all the superheroes want them.
Heroes Unleashed #2
PD Comics (the date is missing from my digital copy, the downside of using layers in a PDF file, perhaps)
Captain Midnight: “The War To End All Wars” part 2
WRITER: Bryan Augustyn
ARTIST: Jay Piscopo
Commander X: “Allies”
WRITER/ARTIST: Jay Piscopo
Sword Of The Blue Scarab
WRITER/ARTIST: Jay Piscopo
Here at BW Media Spotlight, giant monsters are more interesting and fun than any vampire or werewolf, probably because we’ve never seen them romance a vapid teenage girl. From Godzilla to Gamera, from the Power Rangers to just plain old dinosaurs, the giant monster has been part of our movie and fictional history for as long as there have been movies. Some are warnings of the dangers of nuclear radiation, some an allegory of past sins, and some just fun to watch smash buildings and fight other giant monsters and robots. Godzilla has been all three!
In the following video hosted at Elvira’s Vault on YouTube, and produced by AMC back when that stood for American Movie Classics, sci-fi actor Billy Mumy narrates a discussion of giant monster history from Hollywood and beyond, and their various inspirations with the real “monsters” of the decade, with opening and closing commentary by the Mistress Of The Dark herself. Is your favorite monster here, or are there movies you didn’t even know existed?
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
BW Media Spotlight 
What Today’s Disney Could Learn From Walt Disney
Recently History Channel had a miniseries as part of their “Built America” franchise going over the history of Walt Disney’s early years, how he turned a small animation studio into one of the biggest animation studios of all time. While “Uncle Walt” would make live-action movies, he never forgot his animation roots, and despite almost spending too much money to stay in business, he took risks that mostly paid off. The films under his tenure and multiple years after up through the “Disney Renaissance” are some of the most beloved pictures and even TV shows in pop culture history.
Then you have the current Disney period, where costs run wild, the end results aren’t worth it, buying all the competition and pop culture avenues they see as profitable, then forgetting why they were profitable and blowing tons of money for little reward. That’s ignoring the culture war crap that’s more a symptom of a larger problem than anything else, but it’s a problem as well.
So where did Walt Disney succeed and Disney fail? I actually took notes while watching the miniseries, and the first five episodes were quite an eye opener into why current Disney is doing so bad that two different Film Theory hosts on YouTube were able to put their business up as how Disney and it’s absorbed subsidiaries could stop screwing up. Maybe they should watch this miniseries and see what they’re doing wrong? For example:
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on July 26, 2024 in Animation Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged Bob Iger, commentary, Corridor Digital, Disney, History Channel, The Corridor Crew, The Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney.
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