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Archive for the nostalgia Category

Cavalcade Comics #7 – Magnus Robot Fighter on Skull Island

Posted in comic books, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, comic covers, Vintage Comic Throwdowns on April 6, 2015 by Paxton

Here we are at issue #7 of Cavalcade Comics’ Vintage Comic Throwdown! This month I’m taking on a different type of comic cover…the painted cover. These types of covers were very prominent in the 60s and 70s. Plus, I used this opportunity to give the logo and the corner box a bit of an overhaul. I may go back to the older version, but I like this new one too.

For the actual cover battle, I decided to use one of my favorite absurd characters from back in the day. He’s just one of those kooky, high concept characters that could have only been created in the 60s. So, without further ado, here’s Magnus Robot Fighter. And he’s trapped on the infamous Skull Island.

In case you didn’t know, Magnus is from the future. He’s from a future where robots have enslaved humanity. He is taught by a robot how to fight other robots and also how to harden his hands to punch and slice through metal. So, Magnus goes on a robot killing rampage to free the future human race. I thought it would be interesting to take this character that’s so identified with fighting robots and place him in a place where there are NO robots. Hello, Magnus, have you met…Skull Island?

Magnus Robot Fighter vs Dinosaurs seemed like a winning concept to me. Plus, I love the tagline I created at the bottom, “Trapped!…In a Land Without Robots!” It was one of the first things that popped into my head and I couldn’t get it out until I finished this cover.

Behind the scenes…I used several different covers to bring this masterpiece to life. Magnus himself comes from Russ Manning’s Magnus Robot Fighter #7 (1963).

As you can see I took pretty much only Magnus from this cover and the laser blast on his back I converted to the fist burst for his punch. The rest of the comic was pieced together from several different issues of Turok Son of Stone with most of the elements coming from issues #35 and #90.

turoksonofstone90 turoksonofstone35

I may have also taken a stray Pterodactyl and a volcano from some other nameless Turok issues. I can’t remember, it all sort of blended together at the end there.

I still have at least three of these covers stashed away for future use. One of those covers is a very special holiday issue. Either Memorial Day or July 4th. I haven’t decided which just yet.

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Rediscovering AC Comics’ Bolt from 1984

Posted in comic books, nostalgia, personal with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, nostalgia, personal on March 4, 2015 by Paxton

I started comic collecting back in the mid 80s. I still have my entire collection in a filing cabinet and a longbox sitting in my garage. I thought maybe I’d go through some of those issues and find long lost gems and sort of spotlight some characters and issues that I’ve always been fond of. Today’s character is the perfect place to begin this quest.

Recently while digging through my comics I re-discovered a comic that I got WAY back in the day. It was called Bolt and Starforce Six #1.

It was published by AC Comics in 1984. AC Comics may not sound familiar but they made a name for themselves publishing Femforce which was a huge indie hit in the 80s-90s. For a while in the early 80s they also had the rights to publish comics featuring Charlton super heroes right before DC bought them out. AC would create the super team Sentinels of Justice featuring Capt Atom, The Question and Blue Beetle.

I happen to love the sh*t out of this Bolt cover, btw, which is probably reason #1 that I had a small obsession with this issue. The cover itself was drawn by industry vets Steve Lightle and Jerry Ordway. Inside the comic was written by Bill Black and drawn by Rod Whigham.

I don’t remember how I acquired this particular issue. I ordered a lot of comics through the mail from Mile High Comics which required you to choose alternate books if one you wanted wasn’t in stock. Also, if you ordered a certain amount Mile High would send you free comics or other comic book related ephemera. That’s one way I could have gotten it. Alternatively, I could have found it in the bargain bins of my local comic shop in the late 80s and decided to take a gamble after falling in love with the striking cover. I honestly don’t remember. But after I had the issue, I sort of fell in love with it. And most of that was with the character Bolt.

The story begins with some astronauts up studying space debris when their “video radar” is damaged. Mitchell Cameron goes out in an experimental radiation suit to fix said “video radar” and is engulfed in what is described as “the enigma cloud”. One of his astronaut colleagues SHOOTS A LASER at Mitchell to try to disperse the “enigma cloud” and winds up causing a reaction that fuses the suit onto Mitchell and turns him into a being of pure energy with incredible light and energy powers. The government would of course see him as a threat (as they tend to do) and send out their best super team, Starforce Six to try to retrieve and capture him.

It’s mostly an okay story but the Bolt character design is kind of awesome. I love the red and blue suit and I’m a sucker for “energy powers” (notice all the quotes? It’s an 80s comic, guys, filled with lots of 80s-ness). And Bolt is pretty cool in the story, unfortunately, as far as Starforce Six goes, they couldn’t be more boring, horrible cliches. Just dumb. Their team uniforms are powder blue jumpsuits. One guy has an eyepatch. It’s just awful.

Well, after falling in love with this issue I looked for YEARS and was never able to find a Bolt and Starforce Six issue #2. Bolt just sort of disappeared from the comic landscape. Never to be seen again. Or so I thought.

Just a few years ago, while randomly searching comics I discovered THIS:

Bolt Special #1.

Discovering this sort of stopped me dead in my tracks. My brain hitched. It was like discovering Noah’s Ark in my local Wal-Mart. I was like, “WHAT. THE. F**K?!” Before my brain could melt out of my ears, I grabbed the comic and greedily hid it away like I was Gollum in LoTR. NO ONE was going to get this from me (I didn’t really stop to think and realize that NO ONE was looking for this comic which is why it had been sitting where it was since Reagan was President).

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Nerd Lunch Episode 167: Drilldown on Infomercials

Posted in advertising, nostalgia, podcast, pop culture, TV, TV shows with tags advertising, commercials, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, pop culture, TV, TV shows on February 24, 2015 by Paxton

This week we are joined by frequent guest Tim Lybarger from the Neighborhood Archive to talk all about infomercials.

We discuss some of our favorite products, some of our favorite pitchmen and then we spend a moment discussing some of the more ridiculous products we remember seeing info ads for. Also find out if any of us actually bought any of this crap. You’ll be surprised.

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

Or listen to it online here.

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Nerd Lunch Halloween Extra Helping: KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978)

Posted in 80s, movies, music, nostalgia, podcast, pop culture with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast on October 31, 2014 by Paxton

I have an extra special Halloween treat for you. Jeeg and I recorded a Special Helping of Nerd Lunch for this spooky day and we recruited Jay, a Lieutenant in the KISS Army to talk about the legendary 1978 KISS movie, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (aka Attack of the Phantoms).

We spend time talking about our history with this movie as well as some of the awesome 70s-ness of the clothes and dialogue and how incredibly stupid-awesome KISS comes across in the movie. There are like 5 or 6 musical interludes and some awesomely crazy-weird concert footage featuring Peter Criss playing air guitar on carnival rides and Paul Stanley walking on laser beams. And expect to see KISS vs Frankenstein at one point. Seriously. This movie is BONKERS.

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

Or listen to it online right here.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2014: Fangoria’s Video Eye of Dr Cyclops VHS reviews

Posted in Fangoria, Genres, Halloween, holiday, horror, magazine, movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2014, Elvira, Fangoria, Halloween, magazines, movies, nostalgia on October 30, 2014 by Paxton

Today I’m going to take a look at a couple of examples from Fangoria‘s video review column, The Video Eye of Dr Cyclops. Dr Cyclops was a VHS video review column and it was a fixture in the magazine for years. It was one of my favorite places to check because I’d see movies covered in the column that I’d never heard of or that I’d never seen because they’d never showed up in my local video store.

At first, like most of the magazine content, the column was in black and white. Below is an example of the column from Fangoria #67 (1987). It’s still in black and white and you get reviews of two of my favorites; Troma’s The Toxic Avenger and Hammer’s Curse of the Werewolf. Also check out reviews for the bizarre Italian horror flick The Horrible Dr Hitchcock as well as the awesomely named And Now the Screaming Starts.

Next up is a color version of the article from Fangoria #81 (1989). In this column you can see reviews for the Lyle Alzado serial killer epic, Destroyer, the fourth Jaws film, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, Cheerleader Camp and Joan Collins in The Devil Within Her.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the movies in this particular article. I actually have chosen tomorrow’s Fangoria Movie Friday review from here. Like my other Fangoria Movie Friday choices, I have been fascinated by the movies in this article for years. That Destroyer cover with an oiled up Alzado and a jackhammer looks amazingly bad, but I’m in LOVE with the Cheerleader Camp cover. And the Devil Within Her cover looks like it could be a porno film. Plus, I’ve never watched any of the Killer Tomatoes movies. So they’re all fair game. HOW DO I CHOOSE?! I’ll give you a hint, I’ve already seen Jaws the Revenge.

More hints. for much of the time I was having trouble deciding, I was going back and forth between Cheerleader Camp and Destroyer. The latter stars football all-star Lyle Alzado as a serial killer who comes back from being electrocuted as a “half dead” monster who stalks the crew of a horror movie that is filming in his old prison. Oh, and it also stars Anthony Perkins. Sounds awesome, right? The former stars Leif Garrett and Lucinda f**king Dickey, my friends. Yeah, Cheerleader Camp has Lucinda Dickey three years after she starred in the most awesome ninja movie in the world. That alone would be enough to choose Cheerleader Camp, but if you look at the cast list, you’ll also see other cult 80s names like Betsy Russell, Lorie Griffin, Teri Weigel and Rebecca Ferratti. It’s a veritable cornucopia of 80s ladies awesomeness. So, after days of deciding, I actually wound up picking the no brainer and decided finally to review Cheerleader Camp. But it was close.

As you saw, the cast of this movie was too good to pass up. Plus it’s a slasher movie at a camp for cheerleaders. Oh, and mascots. Lucinda Dickey is actually the mascot. *shakes head* Yeah, I need to see this insanity.

Catch you tomorrow, friends.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.