Patrick Swayze: RIP

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Patrick Swayze died yesterday, after a 20 month battle with pancreatic cancer.  He was just 57 years old.

I first remember seeing Patrick Swayzee in “The Outsiders” based on the classic S.E. Hinton novel.  Later that same year he appeared in “Uncommon Valor.”  But it was in “Red Dawn” that I really took notice of Patrick’s work.  He was excellent as the leader of the young rebels fighting against a Soviet invasion.  Patrick’s next big hit was “Dirty Dancing” and it propelled him to superstar status. Patrick went on to star in such films as “Road House”, “Ghost”, and my personal favorite, “Point Break”.  I also have to mention his appearance on Saturday Night Live and the classic sketch with Chris Farley. 

Patrick Swayzee was a dancer [“Chicago” and “Guys and Dolls”], an actor [nominated for three Golden Globe awards], a composer and singer [he co-wrote and sang “She’s Like the Wind” from “Dirty Dancing”], and even People’s Sexiest Man of the Year.  But was his role as a husband [married for 34 years to Lisa Niemi], humanitarian and conservationist that he would probably most want to be remembered.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans.

Paul Gulacy Week: Day 2

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PAUL GULACY WEEK: DAY TWO and we have Paul’s frontpiece to issue 10 of Marvel’s Vampire Tales magazine cover dated April 1975.  Paul provided the pencils and Duffy Vohland the inks for their rendition of Morbius. 

Tomorrow I’ll share a scan of a pencil sketch of Morbius and a victim that was the first Paul Gulacy sketch that I ever owned.  In fact, if I dig deep enough into the vault, I should be able to find the inked version that John Beatty did for stationary that I used when I regularly bought and sold original art back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

Dick Giordano’s Demo Man 3

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Dick Giordano is a legend. During his fifty plus years in the biz he’s done everything from ink all the greats (including himself) to serve as Editor-in-Chief of DC Comics, to co-founding his own comic company. Mr. Giordano also has a great sense of humor.

I recently had the good fortune to pick up six model sheet headsketches of Sly that Mr. Giodano did before starting work on DC Comics adaptation of “Demolition Man.” That’s the third posted above.

Best of The Beatles

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The Beatles have been all over the news lately. Pretty impressive considering that the band formed nearly 50 years ago, broke up almost 40 years ago, and two of their members have passed on.  Still, no one can argue the impact that Paul McCartney. John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had on the world. I was a Beatles fan, still am. Not a fanatic, mind you, but a fan.

Entertainment Weekly in their September 11, 2009, issue featured The Beatles on the cover and several articles.  One of the articles picked the Top 50 Best Beatles Songs.   You know me and lists, so using just songs from Entertainment Weekly’s 50, here are My Top Ten Beatles Songs:

10. Yesterday [1965]: Who hasn’t covered this song?  It seems to get more melabcholy the older I get.

09. A Hard Day’s Night [1964]  One of their first, and 45 years later, it’s still hard not to sing along when it starts playing.

08. Revolution [1968]  “You say you want a revolution?  Well, you know, we all want to change the world.”  Still do. 

07. She Loves You [1963] Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Nuff said.

06. Hey Jude [1968]  This song has grown on me over the years [after learning that Paul wrote it to help John Lennon’s son after John broke up with his first wife].

05. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away [1965] From the album and movie Help!

04. I Want to Hold Your Hand [1963]  My first intro to The Beatles… getting to stay up late to watch Ed Sullivan.  Thanks mom!

03. Help! [1965] My uncle took me to see the movie and let me play his Beatles albums.  Thanks Jim!

02. Something [1969]  Frank Sinatra called it “the greatest love song of the last 50 years” – who can argue with old blue eyes?

01. Let It Be [1970] From their last album before they broke up… showing us that they were still on top of their game.

All Time 10 Best Marvel Panels

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Recently, in honor of Marvel Comics 70th birthday, CBR.com had a poll opened to their readers to come up with the Top 70 Most Iconic Marvel Panels Off All Time.  I decided to play along, and just using the choices from the survey came up with my Top Ten List.

10.  A Steranko panel from his classic Captain America run which ended way, way too soon.

09.  Thanos turns to stone as the Avengers and everyone else look on.

08.  Gwen was dead, Spidey was ticked and we were shocked!  Of course that was back in the days when characters stayed dead and comics weren’t rebooted every couple of years.

07.  Daredevil was back.  Miller was writing him and David Mazzuchelli was pencilling.  It was good to be buying Daredevil again.

06.  The end of the Warlock series.  Perhaps Starlin’s greatest work.  Ah, seeing Pip, Warlock and Gamora brings back some great memories.

05.  Daredevil — from my favorite run on the book.  Frank Miller and Klaus Janson.  It didn’t get any better than them when they were hitting stride.

04.  Another classic Steranko image from his run on Cap!

03.  Who didn’t fall for Mary Jane when she told Peter [Spider-Man] Parker: “Face it, Tiger… You just hit the jackpot!”  Of course I was about 7 years old at the time.

02.  Another classic panel from Miller and Janson’s run on Daredevil.

01.  A classic panel from Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin’s run on The X-Men.  It’s a great shot of Wolverine sneaking in through the sewers to save the day.  Fans [me included] couldn’t wait for Wolverine to be showcased solo.  Of course this was in the days before Wolverine had his own book, his own movie series and was known throughout the world.  Back then he was just the runt who tried to hold in a rage that sometimes got away from him.  Of course he was still the best at what he did… and what he did wasn’t pretty.  LOL.

“Plan 9” on 09.09.09

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What are the odds that on 09.09.09 that I’d post about a movie called Plan 9?   Surprisingly, I’m not talking about Ed Wood’s cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Although some have called Plan 9 from Outer Space the worst movie ever made, I’m more in the camp of it’s so bad, it’s good.   Anyone that says Plan 9 from Outer Space [written and directed by Ed Wood, starring Bela Lugosi in his last role, Tor Johnson and Vampira] is the worst ever made must not have seen Highlander 2 or Seven Pounds or anything starring Carrot Top.

Anyway… if I’m not talking about Plan 9 from Outer Space what am I talking about?

I’m glad you asked.

Apparently there is a reboot of the original Plan 9 from Outer Space in the works.  No, I’m not kidding.  Check out this trailer for Plan 9 and then pop back.

So what did you think?  Me?  Actually, I kind of liked it.  Well, up until that fireball came out of the sky and hovered over the little girl.  It was cool how they had Criswell’s opening playing on the radio as the zombies were attacking everyone.  I’m thinking the remake could work as a low budget drive-in type movie.

Here’s a link to the Plan 9 website.  This will be one to keep an eye on.

Al Hirschfeld’s “The Honeymooners”

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While digging through the ZONE vault yesterday I came across a folder containing clippings of Al Hirschfeld art. Hopefully, you’re familiar with Mr. Hirschfeld’s genius. [If not, click here, and then come back after you’ve looked around. We’ll meet back here in, oh, say about 2 hours — you’re going to want to spend some time enjoying Mr. Hirschfeld’s talent.]

Al Hirschfeld was born in 1903. By the time he was 17, he was the art director at Selznick Pictures. In 1924 he moved to Paris to “lead the Bohemian life.”  In 1943, he married Dolly Haas, a famous European actress and together they produced a daughter, Nina.  After her birth Mr. Hirschfeld would hide Nina’s name in his drawings and a number by his signature indicated how many were hidden.  Mr. Hirschfeld passed away in 2003 just a few months shy of his 100th birthday.

That’s Mr. Hirschfeld’s take on Jackie Gleason and cast of the tv classic “The Honeymooners.”  You can see much more of Al Hirschfeld’s art here.

More Neal Adams Conan

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After posting the Neal Adams Conan piece yesterday, I decided to dig around in the ZONE vault and I came across this cool Neal Adams Conan sketch that was used as the cover for Grymaklin #2. Like yesterday’s piece, this was also done in the late 70’s.

Stuff like this makes me nostalgic.  Of course that’s never been hard to do.

Neal Adams Conan

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I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day holiday. Although for most, it’s been a 3 day weekend, I worked Saturday after a long work week and today my mind has been on all that is quickly approaching deadline in the next couple of weeks. The good news is I love what I do and the folks I work with are great.  But enough about work.

Today’s post is a classic Neal Adams Conan piece from the 70’s. Back in the day, Neal was THE MAN. His work on Batman, Green Lantern / Green Arrow, The Avengers… let’s face it, ANY thing   Neal Adams touched was gold.  It was our loss when he left comics for advertising work.  At least we can still go back and check out some of the great work he did back in the day.   Which sounds like the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Mike Torrance’s “Nighthawks”

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Mike Torrance is an artist who does it all — he pencils, inks and colors. Mike has been running a regular contest at Retro Cowboy Productions and his Deviant Art site. Each week he posts a subject and the first one to make request which fits the theme is the winner! I was one of two lucky winners for “Detective Week.”

Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable. Check him out.

You Could be Off to See the Wizard

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“The Wizard of Oz” is my all time second favorite movie; so I really wish I could make it to one of the first ever high definition showings that are taking place around the country on September 23rd.  Unfortunately for me, the nearest theater showing it is 40 miles away… if it was a weekend…

If you’re interested in learning about the special hi-def showing of “The Wizard of Oz” and the location nearest you, then click here.  [A tip o’ the good witch’s tiara to Otis Frampton for the heads-up!]