“I bet I get blamed for this one, too.”
Robotech: Return To Macross #30
Academy Comics, Ltd (March, 1996)
“Gloval’s War”
WRITER: Robert W. Gibson
ARTISTS: Michelle & Frances Birchfield
2019 sees a huge flood of books, movies, and music entering public domain. These products were never re-copywrited under the extensions certain studios and publishers keep making to extend their works forward. These items come from 1923 but there are some interesting ones on the list, like the first of the Alice In Wonderland books, numerous classic music pieces, and the original Cecil B. DeMille version of The Ten Commandments. The article also has a list of a few places you can find these works or a larger list of newly free-to-use content for creators and educators. You can also try the Internet Archive and various other online book, film, and music distributors and streamers. That doesn’t mean a certain printing is free mind you, so don’t think that Charlie Chaplin DVD you’ve had your eye on over at Amazon is now free. It cost the same it did on December 31st unless the price changed by the seller.
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Ever since the Marvel Cinematic Universe showed a comic-like shared continuity was possible other movie studios have tried to jump on the new hot thing…and failed miserably. From the DCEU to the monster-filled Dark Universe, they’ve been all about setting up this extended universe not realizing that Marvel succeeds by not doing that as their primary mission. Each movie can be enjoyed individually, with teasers drawing you to the next movie or a later movie you might be interested in. It also helps if the movies are good, and failing that is why the Dark Universe never got out of the parking garage.
And yet, some studios are still trying to get up the building. Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures are trying that with their own “kaijuverse”, a reworking of Toho’s monsters, dropping the suits and models for CG. There’s some debate as to which is better when they should work together. However that’s a debate for another time. It started with 2014’s Godzilla, which I already covered. It was okay but the big problem was that we never got to see the monsters fight since Garth Edwards focused on the people…who weren’t all that interesting. The next movie in the series is Kong: Skull Island, a 2017 reboot of King Kong. While Kong isn’t a Toho creation he and Godzilla have tangled before. Legendary is banking on a rematch after the upcoming King Of Monsters movie. This will also feature Mothra and Rodan, who I think should get their own movies first (poor Rodan hasn’t had his own movie since the original) while the threat is going to be King Ghidorah. Since that is coming out in a few months and I have Kong on the DVR (during a HBO free preview week), it was time to check out movie two and see if it shows promise for this continuity.
RELEASE DATE: 2017
RELEASED BY: Warner Brothers & Legendary Pictures
RUNTIME: 1 hour. 58 minutes
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman and John C. Reilly
SCREENWRITERS: Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, & Derek Connolly (story by John Gatins)
DIRECTOR: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
GROSS REVENUE: $566,652,812 ($168,052,812 domestic) from an estimated budget of $185,000,000
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“Oh right, I can fly.”
Transformers: The Reign Of Starscream #5
FINAL ISSUE
IDW Publishing (August, 2008)
WRITER/LETTERER: Chris Mowry
ARTIST: Alex Milne
COLORIST: Josh Perez
EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton
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December 19, 1942 – January 2, 2019
Well, I see 2019 didn’t take long until we got our first celebrity passing. Of course the first one depends on what your interests are but for me it’s Eugene “Mean Gene” Okerland, famed interviewer for the AWA, WWE (back when it was still the WWF), and WCW, who passed away on Wednesday at 76 years old. The name was given to him because he wasn’t afraid to ask the hard questions, although he was one of the nicest people in the business. He had a long career of celebrating pro wrestling through various other works outside of his in-ring persona. He even tag-teamed once with Hulk Hogan. Okerland is survived by a wife and sons. Please pray for them.
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Oddly enough this is the only train image I have in the library right now.
A long time ago (or so it feels) I showcased James Farr’s Trains-Formers, a fun mashup of Transformers and Thomas The Tank Engine. Farr created it for his son Vector, who was a fan of both at the time. However, the people behind Thomas wasn’t too thrilled about it and had it taken down. While this led Farr to other mash-up and original projects (oddly some of them not for kids), we assumed the combining robot trains were long gone.
New Year’s Day 2019 showed that not to be the case. By taking out all of the Thomas references (and Transformers just to be sure I guess), a new generation of Trains-Formers made their debut. In a Christmas special. And I thought the last Captain Yuletide was late. Still, I hope this is a preview of things to come.
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“You can’t be a party crasher. I’m not throwing a party.”
Doctor Who Classics Series 2 #8
IDW Publishing (July 2009)
“The Stockbridge Horror” part 1
reprints the strips in Doctor Who Monthly #70-72
WRITER/PENCILER/CO-INKER: Steve Parkhouse
CO-INKER: Paul Neary
EDITOR: Alan McKenzie
IDW COLORS: Charlie Kirchoff
IDW EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton
IDW DESIGNER: Amauri Osorio
