Ed Wood’s “The Day the Mummy Returned”

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Ed Wood the (in)famous director of Plan 9 From Outer Space  is credited with creating some of the worst movies ever.  I find his films more watchable than many, but mainly because they’re bad in a fun way.

Did you know that Ed Wood also wrote short stories?  Wood did.  They mostly appeared in, uh, men’s magazines that last about as long as Wood’s movies did in theaters.

BoingBoing recently posted Ed Wood’s The Day the Mummy Returned.   It should give you an idea of Wood’s writing style.  As for me, I prefer his movies.

SCOUT by Tim Truman – Comics That Deserve a Second (or First) Look

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SCOUT by Tim Truman – Comics That Deserve a Second (or First) Look 

Scout was created, written and drawn by Tim Truman and concerned the story of a native American named Emmanuel Santana aka Scout.  Set in the near future, Scout started out as the story of Santana’s quest to kill several monsters but along the way turned into the story of a widower with two young sons and their attempt to survive in an apocalyptic world.

Mike Torrance Provides The Cure!

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Mike Torrance aka The Krayola Kidd is back and he’s brought Marion Cobretti with him!

Over the coming weeks/months I’ll be posting more of Mike’s sketch card commissions.  My goal is to eventually get a card for every character Sly has played.  We’re well on our way!

You can see more of Mike’s art at his Deviant Art site. Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.

 

New Billy the Kid Photo Discovered

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Ray John de Aragon claims that he has found a new photo of Billy the Kid.  This is not the first time de Aragon has done so, but this time  de Aragon has famed forensic art Lois Gibson in agreement.

Gibson says the picture is Billy the Kid.  If true the photo will be worth thousands of dollars.

Chron.com has an excellent piece by Heather Alexander that details with photos the evidence pointing to the Billy the Kid photo being legit.

Sable by Mike Grell – Comics That Deserve a Second (or First) Look

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Jon Sable, Freelance by Mike Grell.

Jon Sable was an Olympic athlete who married and moved to Rhodesia to become a game warden.  After his family was murdered by poachers, Sable tracked them down and killed them all.  Sable then moved to the United States where he became a freelance mercenary and, under the name BB Flemm, a best-selling children’s author.

Sable, with the writing and art of series creator Mike Grell was one of my favorite series.  When Grell left the series faltered.  Still, those issue written and drawn by Mike Grell deserve a second (or first) look.

Master of Kung Fu – Comics That Deserve a Second (Or First) Look!

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Master of Kung Fu.

Shang-Chi was raised to become a weapon.  Trained from an early age, Shang-Chi became a master in the martial arts.  When Shang-Chi discovered that his father was a truly evil man,  Shang-Chi reluctantly became an agent for the British government — think Bruce Lee working with James Bond — and found himself in adventures just as wild as in any 007 movie.

I’m particularly found of two teams that worked on the series.  Both teams featured writer Doug Moench. My favorite artists who worked with Moench were Paul Gulacy and later, Mike Zeck.

If you’ve never read Master of Kung Fu, consider giving it a chance.  If you’ve read the series, perhaps it’s time for a second look.

Original “Star Trek” in Cinerama

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Star Trek,  the original series, is a favorite of  many of my regular readers.  Click on this link to see the photo above in all of it’s widescreen glory.

So I wonder how many of you have ever seen Star Trek  in Cinerama widescreen like in the photo above?

Admittedly, that’s a trick question since Star Trek  was never filmed in Cinerama.  That photo above sure looks like Cinerama though thanks to the dedicated work of Nick Acosta.  Click over to Nick’s site and see more widescreen Star Trek  photos and learn how he did it.

Well done, Mr. Acosta.  Well, done, sir.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD – Comics That Deserve a Second (Or First) Look!

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Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD began as a series that ran in the comic Strange Tales starting with issue #135.  Each issue featured a Nick Fury tale along with a Dr. Strange adventure.

Fury had transitioned from a soldier in WWII to a government spy working for SHIELD (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) in the 1960s.  Many of the characters that fought alongside Fury in WWII were now spies under his command.  Like James Bond, Nick Fury found himself dealing with criminal organizations set to destroy the world.

With issue #151 of Strange Tales, Steranko came on as inker over Jack Kirby’s pencils.  With #154, Steranko become the penciler, inker and co-plotter of the series.  Then with issues #155 – 161, Steranko wrote, pencilled and inked the tales.  With issues #162 – 168, Steranko continued to write and pencil the issues, but was joined by different inkers.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, spun off into it’s own comic after #168 of Strange Tales.  The series lasted 18 issues, although Steranko’s contributions ended with issue #7.  Steranko was given complete control of the series, but he had trouble meeting the monthly art deadlines.  Steranko wrote issues 1 – 5.  He provided the covers for issues 1 – 7 and the art for issues 1 – 3 and 5.  Those Steranko issues are classics.  Adult (for comics) stories plus art that has stood the test of time.

If you’ve never read Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, you should give it a glance.  Or perhaps it’s time for a second look.

Or maybe Marvel should consider reviving Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.

Can you imagine how cool a new comic series set in the the 1960’s starring Nick Fury would be?  That’s right, set the series in the 60’s.  Make Fury the cigar-smoking, ex-war hero who is now America’s answer to James Bond.   

Can you imagine Fury fighting to keep the USA safe from Hydra, the Red Skull, Scorpio and other menaces out to destroy our way of life.  No longer a soldier, Fury is now a secret agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D. [not yet the head of the top secret organization].

Think how awesome these stories could be.  Heck, they’d be worth the price of admission for new Steranko covers!

Comics That Deserve a Relaunch: Sin City

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Recently Newsarama did a piece on The Top Ten Comics That Deserve a Relaunch.

I thought that was a worthy idea so for the next seven days I’m going to present a comic series a day that I believe we deserve to see again.

Today’s choice is a bit different from the other comics I selected for relaunch.  Both Black Cross and Black Terror were published years ago [with as far as I can tell] no thought about new stories in years.

A new Sin City series has been talked up for years.  Both Miller and Dark Horse have said a new yarn is forthcoming.  Although neither says exactly when.  If Frank Miller came in tomorrow with a completed Sin City  story there’s little doubt Dark Horse would prep it for publication as quickly as possible.

So what’s the hold-up?

Perhaps Miller was so involved with getting the Sin City movie that he didn’t have time to work on a new comic yarn.  Maybe it’s a health issue.  [I certainly hope not and wouldn’t be calling for a series if that was the case.  I’d want Miller to work on his health before all else.]  However, since I don’t know the reason for the delay and these posts are about comics I’d want to see get a relaunch…  Sin City is high on my list.