Cavalcade of Awesome

Archive for 2010

10 Awesomely vintage comic book ads

Posted in advertising, comic books, pop culture, Rubik's Cube with tags advertising, comic books, pop culture, Rubik's Cube on April 20, 2010 by Paxton

I collected comic books from about fourth grade through high school. And even into college a bit. So I’ve got a pretty big collection of comics in my garage right now. I had dipped into the collection the last few months to look for any comics having to do with werewolves as that will be this year’s Halloween theme. While I had some of my favorite issues out, I started scanning the covers and putting them up on my Flickr Photostream. I also started scanning some of the advertisements found within the comic books. Many times, these are even more memorable than the comic book itself. Many of the toy and video game ads are awesome, but you also see many other ads that showed up for decades within many different comics. Many of them are pretty crazy awesome, if you know what I mean.

Here are some of my favorite comic book ads that I’ve come across in my collection. Click any of the images to make them BIGGER.

Charles Atlas – One of the most famous comic book ads in existence.This ad introduced the “98 pound weakling”, named Mac, who birthed the cliche of having sand kicked into his face by a bully. It’s a classic ad that also got a sequel where a new “weakling”, Jack, is bullied at a school dance instead of a beach.

Sea Monkeys – Another ad that EVERYONE on Earth knows about because it was just that popular. Sea Monkeys. On the left you see your normal Sea Monkeys ad from 1972. On the right, however, you can see a 1978 ad for Super Sea Monkeys. These aren’t your average, every day Sea Monkeys, these bitches are SUPER. They grow twice as fast (and probably die twice as fast, too). I bet the inventor of the Sea Monkeys is right now livin’ the good life in Tahiti drinking umbrella drinks and partying with butt-naked freaks.

Cube Lube – This ad is like a flaming hot supernova of AWESOME. Cube. Lube. “We’ve got what it takes to really move your cube!!!” I’m speechless.

Spalding Street Ball ad – Originating in the ’70s, this ad could be found in comics all the way into the mid ’80s. One of my favorite ads that’s on the back of at least 75% of my comic book collection. I also love the artwork. Probably because it’s drawn by Mad Magazine superstar Jack Davis. Check out Davis’ awesome Back to the Future cover for Mad Magazine #260. I don’t want to burst Mr Barry’s bubble, but there is NO WAY that jump shot was a 30 footer. It doesn’t even look like it’s a 3-point shot. He’s lucky if it’s a 20 footer. A 30 footer would be from almost half court.

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Review of Clash of the Titans: Old vs New

Posted in movies, pop culture, reviews with tags movies, Mythology, pop culture, reviews on April 16, 2010 by Paxton

I saw the new remake of Clash of the Titans with my buddy Dr Mike last week. After watching it I got jazzed to watch the original 1981 version, so I queued it up on Netflix streaming and watched it this past weekend. Here is a review and comparison of the two movies.

Clash of the Titans (1981) – I loved this movie when I was a kid. I also hadn’t watched it since I was a kid, so, as happens very often, it’s entirely possible that my 7 year old self didn’t know what the hell he was talking about so I decided to watch this classic again. How does it stand up? Not bad. I was surprised how much of the movie I actually remembered. Like in the new remake, the Gods are played by awesome and well respected actors; Sir Lawrence Olivier, Ursula Andress and Maggie Smith. There’s also an awesome role played by Burgess Meredith, and Julie Bowker, who plays Andromeda, is gorgeous. So the casting, so far was great. Except for Harry Hamlin. I’ve never been a huge fan of him, and this movie did nothing to change that perception, but the movie worked despite me not really even liking the actor (I didn’t mind Perseus as a character). And I love the Harryhausen stop motion effects. Medusa, Calibos and the Kraken just rule in this movie. I don’t know what it is, but the stop motion just works for me in a throwback/vintage way. And the whole “hero’s journey” that is setup for Perseus to save Andromeda really works as a story. There were some slow parts yes, but on the whole the movie rocks. Calibos, the giant scorpions, the battle with Medusa, Bubo, the Stygian Witches. It all just worked. I really enjoyed it. This is one movie that really could have aged and been terrible on a modern viewing, but it is fun, the effects are great and the story is interesting.

Clash of the Titans (2010) – Okay, now let’s talk about the remake. On paper, this looks to be very similar experience for me. Lots of mythology and the Gods are played by awesome and well-respected actors. Alexa Davalos as Andromeda is gorgeous and, again, I’m not a big fan of the actor playing Perseus. However, I didn’t like Hamlin in the original either, and it worked, so it shouldn’t be a big deal. First, the good things in the movie. EVERYTHING with the Gods. Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades work on every conceivable level. They came with their game faces on and everything with them and the entire design of Olympus just works…period. I’m a little confused that they cast the great Danny Huston as Poseidon and he only gets one line. ONE LINE!? Anyway, all of the action scenes and effects are exciting and visually spectacular. The Kraken looks awesome as do the Stygian Witches, giant scorpions, Medusa and Calibos. Actually, Jason Flemyng as Calibos is FANTASTIC. He’s not used enough and is dispatched way too easily. But when he’s there, he’s bad ass. The set design for this movie is ridiculous. They really went nuts with the environments.

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Quick Shots: Reviews of some stuff I’ve seen and read…

Posted in movies, reviews, TV shows with tags movies, reviews, TV shows on April 8, 2010 by Paxton

I should do this more often, but I don’t. However, I will try to get an article like this out more often.

Today, I’m going to give a bunch of quick reviews of movies and TV shows I’ve seen and watched the past few weeks.

Hot Tub Time Machine – Saw it two weeks ago. HILARIOUS. It’s every bit as good as I wanted it to be. I will still say that they gave away too many jokes in the trailer and the ridiculous amount of clips they released online. However, this movie is still funny. Rob Corddry nearly steals the whole shebang. Also, look for a VERY covert appearance by none other than the Kobra Kai himself, William Zabka. I swear you won’t recognize him. For me, this movie is NEARLY as good as The Hangover.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans – Watched this last night. It’s terrible. Nic tries to relive his Leaving Las Vegas performance. He must have succeeded because I hated this movie every bit as much as I hated Leaving Las Vegas. At least LLV had some decent boobie scenes. F**k this movie.

Predator 2 – I’m gearing up for the new Predator movie in July. I watched the first Predator on Blu-Ray and that movie still holds up. It’s awesome. Just listening to Arnold scream “GET TO THA CHOPPA!” gets my adrenaline pumping. So I finally watched the sequel, Predator 2 with Danny Glover. I’m sorry, but there’s no way Murtaugh is gonna kill a Predator. NO F***ING WAY. And you rarely get to see the Predator, which, in this movie is bad because there’s absolutely nothing else going on that is interesting. NOTHING. Instead of Jesse Ventura we get Bill Paxton. Instead of Arnold’s Dutch we get GARY F***ING BUSEY. Yes, Gary Busey’s character was originally written as Dutch. WTF?! I want to cry. For straight up bad ass Predator action, I prefer the first Alien vs Predator movie, even though, as a movie, it’s horrible. HORRIBLE. I love Predator based on the original movie, but there has yet to be another movie anywhere near as good as the first. Hopefully, that gets rectified in July with Rodriguez’s Predators.

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Hope you have an AWESOME and Zombie-less Easter

Posted in Easter, holiday, zombies with tags Easter, holiday, zombies on April 4, 2010 by Paxton

Here’s hoping you have a great holiday devoid of the walking dead. However, if you are attacked, and you start shuffling across this Earth looking for braaaaaaaaaains, I’ll, of course, hunt you down and send you back to the bowels of Hell from whence you came.

But I’ll feel reeeeeeeeeeally bad about it. I may even tear up.

Well, maybe not tear up, but I’ll look sadly at your decapitated zombie corpse for a few seconds. You deserve that much.

Happy Easter everyone!

Paxton

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The 10 Strangest and Most AWESOME Choose Your Own Adventure books

Posted in books, pop culture with tags books, Choose Your Own Adventure, pop culture on March 31, 2010 by Paxton

At the end of last week I talked about the genesis of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Doing that research I stumbled across a bunch of my old books as well as a bunch of other books from Demian’s Gamebook Website that were, to say the least, wacky. I had forgotten some of the books even existed. It is amazing all of the different zany and offbeat stories and book covers you can find in all of these books.

Today, let’s take a look at 10 of the strangest and most awesome Choose Your Own Adventure books.

(via Demian’s Gamebooks)
#63 Mystery of the Secret Room (1986) – Could they have come up with a more boring or generic name? How about Secret of the Mystery Room? Room of the Mystery Secret? And is it just me or does this cover look familiar? Maybe JK Rowling borrowed this title for her second Potter book and the artwork for her third Potter book. Generic mystery/secret + noun titles abound in this series. Check out #141 The Secret of Mystery Hill.

#155 Ninja Cyborg (1995) – Yes, AWESOME! I don’t see how the story could live up to the bad ass title and cover but I give Jay Leibold credit for totally going there. A cyborg that is also a ninja. This exists and it is bad ass. Question: Am I the ninja cyborg or am I fighting the ninja cyborg? Points taken away if I’m fighting the ninja cyborg, but points given back if I’m also a bad ass ninja master. Who’s the dude in the blue tights in the background?

(via Demian’s Gamebooks)
#41 Search for Mountain Gorillas (1985) – When I’m grabbing a book for a choose your own adventure, the last thing I want to read about is the majestic mountain gorilla. Unless, of course, said gorilla is a super strong mutant gorilla that has gone insane and started murdering a bunch of campers and/or scientists. THAT is a gorilla I want to read about. Unfortunately, this is not the case here. This is, essentially, the novelization to the movie Gorillas in the Mist starring Sigourney Weaver. And I cannot fathom ever wanting to read that. EVER.