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Spending my kid’s college tuition on Hake’s Auction #209

Posted in Batman, comic books, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman, TV shows with tags Batman, comic books, LEB, movies, pop culture, Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, Wizard of Oz on July 12, 2013 by Paxton

This week’s assignment for The League is to browse Hake’s Auction #209 and find all the cool stuff we’d buy if we were rolling in dough like P-Diddy. So I spent my fair share of time at work this week perusing the enormous auction catalog and came up with some stuff that I would like to buy. Assuming, of course, that money is no object.

There were several awesome Star Wars items I found interesting. Firstly, the C3POs cereal lot featuring a full size C3PO standee and three box flats. I have always had a fascination with this particular cereal and the ephemera it created. These are particularly good examples of that. The seven Star Wars Coca-Cola promotional posters are also pretty awesome. Four of them are from Burger Chef/Burger King giveaways in 1977 and feature Del Nichols artwork. Three of them feature Boris Vallejo artwork and were to promote the release of Empire Strikes Back. Finally, I am in wet, sloppy love with the full size Return of the Jedi Burger King glasses Darth Vader standee (1983).

There were lots of comic book and super hero related items that I want. Tops on that list would probably be The Great Comic Book Heroes book from 1965. It’s signed by several comic luminaries like Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Shelly Moldoff and Will Eisner. Yes, the creators of both Superman AND Batman signed this thing. Plus, I’ve looked at this book before and it’s pretty awesome.

Speaking of Superman and Batman, I found several items featuring those heroes that rock my Casbah. The boxed Mego Superman doll from 1977 is particularly awesome because I’m kind of in love with the packaging art. And the art on the 1954 Superman metal lunchbox is pretty close to melting my eyeballs out of my head and that’s only the picture. And these Mego Comic Action Heroes figures from 1975 (in package!) are also incredible. And speaking of incredible, check out the awesomely weird and bizarre cover to issue #33 of the comic World’s Finest. Why the hell is Superman spinning Batman and Robin in the air WITH HIS FEET?! I love the Golden Age. I also would buy Flash #147 featuring the second appearance of Reverse Flash with a great cover homage to Flash #123. I actually already own Reverse Flash’s first appearance in Flash #139. And what will I put all of these comics in when I own them? That’s right, my very own g***amn comic spinner rack from the late 70s. I’ve wanted one of those retail spinner racks ever since I started collecting comics in the early 80s. Continue reading →

Nerd Lunch Episode 93: Pop Culture Eraser 2

Posted in Batman, movies, podcast, pop culture, TV shows with tags Batman, Karate Kid, movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, pop culture, TV shows on July 9, 2013 by Paxton

This week JEEG IS BACK and we are joined again by Brian from Cool and Collected. This week we do a topic that I missed the first time out, The Pop Culture Eraser.

We are each allowed to erase 1 person and 1 thing from existence. But we also have to envision how that would affect the pop culture landscape. Jeeg was pretty bold with his choices but some of the things that get erased are the 60s Batman series, Jay Leno and Christopher Nolan. The fun in this discussion is how this would affect pop culture in general after these things have been erased.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.

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6 undeveloped movie scripts that were turned into comic books

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Batman, Bionic Man, comic books, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Jason Vorhees, movies, Six Million Dollar Man, TV shows with tags Batman, Bionic Man, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Jason Vorhees, LEB, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Six Million Dollar Man on May 2, 2013 by Paxton

This week the topic for The League is “comic books”. Yep, just “comic books”. I recently did an article about comic book covers that homage famous movie posters, so that idea was already burned. Fortunately, my draft articles are deep with ideas so I pulled this one out of the depths and fleshed it out a bit.

I love movies. I love comic books. I love comic book movies. We have tons of movies coming out BASED on comics books. But how about comic books based on movies? There are plenty of those as well. But what about comic books that are based on movies that never were made for whatever reason. Ahhh, that could be interesting.

Today, I’m going to talk about six undeveloped movie scripts that were turned into comic books.

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Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet – These first two entries are probably the most high profile examples of unused movie scripts becoming a comic book. In 2004, Smith wrote a screenplay for a new film version of The Green Hornet. Much like the next script in this list, it was a reboot of the characters and the concept. Smith even announced that he intended to direct the feature as well. The project, however, died after the poor box office of Smith’s Jersey Girl. Dynamite Comics purchased the unused script and had Kevin Smith adapt it into a new Green Hornet comic series.

Kevin Smith’s Bionic Man (2011) – I talked about this series in my Bionic Reviews feature a month or so ago. Kevin Smith wrote a screenplay for a new Bionic Man movie back in the 90s. It was a reboot of the characters and concept of the Six Million Dollar Man TV series. It ultimately went unused. However, after the success of Smith’s Green Hornet title they asked if he had any other unused scripts to adapt. Smith pulled out the Bionic Man script and Dynamite loved the idea. They tapped Phil Hester to adapt the screenplay into a 10 issue story arc to launch a new Bionic Man comic series that is still being published to this day. It has also spawned a Bionic Woman comic series.

fm_robocop
Frank Miller’s Robocop (2003) – During initial production of Robocop 2, there was a first draft script by one of the original Robocop screenwriters, Edward Neumeier. However, due to a writers strike he dropped out. One of the producers contacted Frank Miller to write the script as Miller was still riding the success of his Dark Knight Returns graphic novel. Miller wrote a draft that producers and studio executives labeled “unfilmable” and the studio had the script rewritten into what eventually became Robocop 2, the movie. In the early 2000s Avatar Press acquired the Robocop comic license and the publisher William Christensen, who owned a copy of Miller’s “lost” original screenplay, contacted Miller about adapting it into a comic story. Miller was enthusiastic and worked with Steven Grant to adapt his unused screenplay (which included notes for Robocop 3) into a story. Due to scheduling conflicts, Miller was only able to contribute some of the covers and not actually write or draw the interiors. The nine issue adaptation was published in late 2003.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 53: Drilldown on the Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy

Posted in Batman, movies, podcast, pop culture with tags Batman, movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, podcasts, pop culture on September 18, 2012 by Paxton

Welcome to episode 53. This week we are joined by Christian from the Atomic Geeks podcast. Christian is here to discuss the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy now that it is all done and finished.

(Via itno.co.uk)

Since we are discussing this trilogy, Jeeg had to bow out since he has not seen the last movie. And believe me, that was a wise decision because we spoil the HELL out of this trilogy. So if you haven’t seen any of these movies, don’t listen because we don’t hold back. And Christian makes sure to say SPOILER ALERT after he says his spoiler. So, caveat emptor.

Download this episode from iTunes or Feedburner.

Or, listen to the show from within your browser here.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 52: Strategic Plan for the future of DC Comics’ movie franchises

Posted in Batman, comic books, movies, podcast, Superman, The Flash with tags Batman, DC Comics, movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, podcasts, Superman, The Flash on September 12, 2012 by Paxton

This week on the podcast we are joined by William Bruce West, a fellow pop culture blogger. Our discussion? We finally talk about DC Comics and the current situation they are in with their movies.

DC/Warner Bros movies
(Via The Playlist)

We talk about what they’ve done right and what they’ve done wrong. We talk about why we think nearly every one of DC’s major comic character movies suck (besides Batman). We discuss weaknesses and opportunities. We discuss what we want to see out of them moving forward. Essentially we’ve come up with a strategic plan for Warner Bros/DC for moving forward with movie adaptations their comic book franchises. I think we pretty much figured it out.

See how by downloading this episode from iTunes or on Feedburner.

Or just listen to the show from within your browser by clicking here.

8 Comic covers right before/after a famous first appearance

Posted in Batman, comic books, pop culture, Superman, The Flash with tags Batman, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman, The Flash, vintage on June 4, 2012 by Paxton

First appearances of famous comic book heroes/villains are highly sought after in the comic book world. Who wouldn’t love an Action Comics #1 or a Detective Comics #27? But what about Action Comics #2? Or Detective Comics #26? Are anyone seeking these titles out?

To me, it’s fascinating to look at very famous comic titles before or after they’ve debuted a very famous character. They may not look like even the same title. It’s weird to see an issue of Detective Comics with Slam Bradley or the Crimson Avenger on the front and not Batman. You feel like you’re in the Fringe universe. Let’s check out some of these fun comic covers and you can see how strange and foreign they look to you.

Action Comics #1
Action Comics #2 – Action Comics is probably one of the most iconic titles of all time. Who doesn’t know that Superman debuted in issue #1 of Action Comics (left) in 1938? Well, interestingly enough, Action Comics was originally meant to be an anthology adventure comic with several other adventure characters. So even though Action Comics is now strictly a Superman title, back then, Supes was just one of the featured characters. Therefore, issue #2 (right) didn’t feature Superman on the cover at all. Issue #3 didn’t feature Superman either. As a matter of fact, Superman wouldn’t make another Action Comics cover appearance until issue #7 (SIX MONTHS later).

Detective Comics #27 Detective Comics #28
Detective Comics #26 and #28 – Detective Comics is as intimately associated with Batman as Action Comics is with Superman. However, Batman didn’t debut until issue #27 (middle), so there were 26 issues of Detective without Batman on the cover or in the book. As you can see, in the issues before (#26, left) and after (#28, right) Batman you get standard covers of police officers and gangsters that you would normally appear on crime comics of this time. While Batman would return to the cover for issue #29, he would be absent again for issue #30.

All-Star Comics #3 and #8 – All-Star Comics is a very famous Golden Age title. It features the first appearance of The Justice Society of America in issue #3 (middle) which is the first team-up of super-heroes into a single team in history. In issue #2 (left), you can see they still feature the heroes on the cover, but not collected together as one team as designated by issue #3’s giant round table with the team name embossed on the top. All-Star Comics #8 (right) is an interesting issue also. You wouldn’t know it by the cover, but that issue is the first appearance of Wonder Woman in an 8 page insert that was used to test the interest of Wonder Woman as a hero. Wonder Woman would join the Justice Society in issue #11…as their secretary (but she would make the cover!). She would prove popular enough to headline her own book, Sensation Comics, a year later.

Showcase #5
Showcase #3 and #5 – The debut of The Flash in Showcase #4 (middle) was one of the defining moments of the Silver Age. Showcase was a tryout book by DC to determine who would get their own series. As you can see, the issue before The Flash debuted (#4, middle) featured a story about deep sea divers called The Frogmen (#3, left). And even though The Flash was a huge hit, he wouldn’t appear in Showcase #5 which featured Manhunters (#5, right). The Flash would reappear on the cover for Showcase #8. The Hal Jordan Green Lantern would debut in Showcase #22.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Batman vs Dracula

Posted in Batman, comic books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Batman, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, DC Comics, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters on October 7, 2011 by Paxton

This the is final day of AWESOME-tober-fest 2011 comic book week in which I look at comic books featuring the character of Dracula. Today I’m going to look at the epic battle between the Lord of the Vampires and the Dark Knight Detective.

Today’s comic is Batman & Dracula: Red Rain from 1991. Yes, Batman vs Dracula in an Elseworlds tale. How badass is that? The book was written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Kelley Jones. This was a very popular graphic novel and spawned a cartoon movie that was loosely based on the story.

This graphic novel has Batman investigating a series of murders affecting Gotham’s homeless population. Batman discovers that the murders are by a family of vampires led by Dracula himself. Batman recruits a female vampire named Tanya who recently left Dracula’s family to help lure the vampire legions to the Batcave. Batman is accidentally bit by a vampire but still manages to destroy the majority of the vampire family except Dracula. Dracula kidnaps Gordon and Batman goes after him. Dracula and vampire Batman battle and Dracula is impaled on a broken tree trunk. Batman laments that Bruce Wayne is dead but states that now, vampire Batman can continue forever.