12 Solid Facts About “Pumping Iron”

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Jake Rosen and Mental_Floss present 12 Solid Facts About Pumping Iron.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. THE MOVIE ORIGINALLY CO-STARRED A WIMP.
When photographer George Butler was dispatched by both Life magazine and The Village Voice to cover the burgeoning bodybuilding scene in the early 1970s, he was fascinated with its abundance of charismatic participants. Feeling one of the sport’s star attractions, Arnold Schwarzenegger, could carry a full-length film, Butler decided to pursue a feature-length project with collaborator Robert Fiore that he began shooting in 1975. The problem was that Butler was focused on the mass monsters of the Mr. Olympia scene; to balance it out and offer audiences a more relatable subject, he enlisted slightly-built actor Bud Cort (Harold and Maude) and shot a lot of footage of him working out and marveling at the well-developed bodies all around him. The footage wound up being cut from the finished film.

2. NO ONE BELIEVED ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER COULD CARRY THE MOVIE.
While Butler was trying to raise funds, he shot a 10-minute test sequence of Schwarzenegger making a guest posing appearance in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Screening the footage for investors in New York, Butler was dismayed to see that they seemed more horrified than intrigued by the sight of the massive Austrian flexing his deltoids. After the footage ended, playwright Romulus Linney stood, turned to Butler, and said, “I think I speak for all of us when I say that if you make a movie about this Arnold person, we will laugh you off 42nd Street.” (Butler turned to another approach, piecemealing his budget together by petitioning more than 3000 separate financiers until he got the money he needed.)

5. LOU FERRIGNO PREDICTED HIS OWN FUTURE.
The nature of raw footage means that hundreds of hours of film were left on the cutting room floor, but according to Butler, one sequence in particular has never left his memory. Talking to Ferrigno about his future hopes, the actor told the director that “all I want to be is the Hulk.” He got his wish just two years later, starring for five seasons on CBS’s The Incredible Hulk.

Kurt Russell: 3 Essential Films

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Neil Mitchell and BFI present Kurt Russell: 10 Essential Films.  (Sadly the original post is no longer available.) Using just their choices, here are my top three…

  • Escape from New York. Could anyone else have been Snake Plissken?  The correct answer is, “No.”
  • Tombstone.  One of the most re-watchable films of any genre.
  • Bone Tomahawk.  A cult classic.

 Kurt Russell movies that didn’t make the cut, that I through would have:  Big Trouble in Little China, Breakdown, Backdraft, 3,000 Miles to Graceland and of course, Tango & Cash.

RIP – Bernie Wrightson

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It was announced today that Bernie Wrightson has passed away after a long battle with brain cancer.  Mr. Wrightson was 68.

Known best for his drawings and paintings in the horror genre, Mr. Wrightson was a humble and soft-spoken man who appreciated his fans.  Wrightson was an artist’s artist.  Not only was his work loved by fans, but professional artists were also in awe of his talent.  Best known as the co-creator (with Len Wein) of Swamp Thing, Wrightson was also known for…

  • Being one of the young upstart talents of “The Studio” (along with Barry Smith, Michael Kaluta, and Jeff Jones)
  • His horror work at Warren Publishing
  • His Frankenstein project (beautiful pen and ink illustrations for Mary Shelley’s classic tale)
  • His work with Stephen King – creating the poster for the movie Creepshow and illustrating King’s Cycle of the Werewolf novella, illustrations for The Stand (restored version), and art for the hardcover editions of From a Buick 8 and Dark Tower V.
  • His comics at Marvel (Punisher, Spider-Man), DC (Swamp Thing, Batman) and IDW (The Ghoul and Doc Macabre – both with co-creator Steve Niles)
  • His conceptual art for films such as The Faculty, Spiderman, and George Romero’s Land of the Dead, and The Mist.
  • So much more

I was fortunate enough to meet Berni Wrightson a couple of times at HeroesCon.  He was kind and humble and appreciative of the praise fans (myself included) gave him.  On the first occasion, when my wife learned that Mr. Wrightson was a guest at the con she came into the show to meet him.  She wasn’t a real comics fan, but she did love Mr. Wrightson’s art, appreciated his talent and wanted to meet him.  When she spoke to him, he seemed genuinely touched. As we were leaving his area other fans were coming over to share their appreciation.  I’m glad Bernie Wrightson was aware of how much his art positively impacted so many people.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Berni Wrightson’s family, friends and fans.

 

The 12 Greatest Giant Monster Movies

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Owen Gleiberman and Variety turn their sights to their choices for the 12 Greatest Giant Monster Movies.

Their list contains excellent choices.  My top three today would be…

  • King Kong (the original Kong)
  • THEM!
  • The Amazing Colossal Man

My most controversial pick would be The Amazing Colossal Man.  The argument could be made for several other (better?) movies but TACM has always been a favorite since I was a kid.  It’s hard to beat the nostalgia factor.

I was also glad to see Mysterious Island made the list.  It’s not normally a movie listed for horror, but it did have some giant monsters so I won’t nit pick.  Plus Mysterious Island is a fun movie.

Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 45: Sinnott, Eisner, Ditko, Harvey, Black and More!

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If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains.  Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…

I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!

For Ink Stains 45, Ken took a look at Collector #29 from 1974 from Bill G. Wilson.

Collector #29 is a huge issue and features –

  • Color Star Trek cover
  • Very cool cowboy drawing by Joe Sinnott (dedicated to Bill – Black?)
  • An interview with Walter Koenig (Chekov from Star Trek)
  • Star Trek art and articles
  • John Byrne Star Trek art
  • Captain Marvel art and articles (full pager by Bill Black)
  • C.C. Beck art and articles
  • Ken Barr full pager
  • RC Harvey story and art
  • Kurt Schaffenberger full page with Captain Marvel, Superman and Lois Lane
  • Steve Ditko comic story
  • Two full page drawings of The Thing from Another World
  • Art and articles about The Shadow
  • Art and articles about The Spirit
  • Bill Black full page Spirit piece
  • Additional art by Bill Black, Clyde Caldwell, John Byrne, Steve Ditko, Will Eisner, Steve Fabian, R.C. Harvey, Don Newton, Joe Sinnott and more.

I’d never seen Collector 29 before but would have really been blown away back in the day seeing so many pros and fans coming together in a fanzine.

Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines.  Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!

SUPERMAN: THE GOLDEN AGE – a free FAN COMIC by Adrien van Viersen

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Adrien van Viersen  is storyboard artist (X2, X3, Game of Thrones, and The Flash) and self-proclaimed life-long fan of Superman.  His favorite Superman is that of the Golden Age.

van Viersen has created a Superman story that’s a love letter to that earlier, more innocent age. In the free fan fiction download (that is as good if not better than most published comics) we learn how Clark Kent discovered bullets didn’t hurt him, that a simple pair of glasses could be a great disguise and where he got the Superman persona.

All in all great fun!