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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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Cavalcade Comics #6 – The return of Chuck Norris and The A-Team!

Posted in comic books, TV shows with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Vintage Comic Throwdowns on February 2, 2015 by Paxton

Here we are, back with another issue of Cavalcade Comics and another entry in my Vintage Comic Throwdowns series. This issue will be a first. It’s the first time I’ve brought back characters for a return appearance.

The Chuck Norris/A-Team issue was pretty popular last time. Probably because it’s kind of an awesome idea, if I do say so myself. So, I thought I’d bring those guys back for a second adventure. And here’s the cover:

The truth is, I actually created two covers for the A-Team/Chuck Norris team up. I wasn’t sure which one to use and instead of just presenting them as variant covers like I did for the Ghost Rider issue, I finally decided to run with the one you saw in issue #5. But that left me with this unused cover. So I thought, why not make it a part 2? And here we go, the first 2 part appearance in Cavalcade Comics history. But it won’t be the last. I’ve already got plans for a return of Billy the Kid.

The covers used to make this issue were mostly Chuck Norris #3 (left) and The A-Team #2 (right).

Chuck Norris 03 A-Team 02

I had to do some manipulating of the page layout and I added a few more unsavory characters to the background. You’ll notice the logos are essentially the same on both of my issues as they came from this issue. However, I took out Amy Allen’s name from the A-Team logo and created some ‘And Chuck Norris’ text to go in its place. That was done on both issue #5 and issue #6. However, you’ll notice Amy does make an appearance this time in the back whereas I cut her out completely last issue.

As I look at them side by side now, I think I personally prefer this cover over the last one. However, issue #5 was the perfect layout to introduce the first team up of these two action legends.

So, yes, I’m still cranking these covers out and having a blast doing it. I have two or three more covers actually finished that I’ve never even posted. One of them will be an upcoming holiday issue. And look for small “updates” to happen in coming issues like changes to the Cavalcade Comics title logo at the top and some modifications to the appearance of the corner box. Just trying to change certain things up as we move along. Keep it fresh. Hope you are still enjoying these covers. I know I still love doing them.

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Nerd Lunch Episodes featuring Muppets and Comic Book Shops

Posted in comic books, podcast, pop culture with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Nerd Lunch Podcast, pop culture on December 16, 2014 by Paxton

I’ve been lax in my Nerd Lunch promoting duties. Sorry about that. So, here’s a two-fer for you. The last two episodes of the Nerd Lunch Podcast were pretty great.

In Episode 158 we were joined by Geeky Kay and we talked about Muppet Christmas specials.

More specifically we discuss one of Jim Henson’s last specials, Muppet Family Christmas, and the very first post-Henson project, Muppet Christmas Carol. Lots of great Muppet discussion.

This week, on the very brand new, Mylar bagged and boarded episode 159 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast we are joined by Shawn Robare and Evan Hanson to talk about our comic book shop memories.

Spider-Man 1 Platinum Edition

All of us grew up frequenting the dirty, grungy comic book shops of the 80s and 90s. We discuss our own local comic shops and our memories of the clientele, the bargain bins and the over priced retailer exclusive comics stored in the glass cases (looking at you Spider-Man #1 Platinum Edition). So download both of these fun episodes of the podcast and then sell them back to a dealer for half what you paid. Then you’ll know what it was like to have shopped for comics in the 80s.

Download these episodes from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to them on Feedburner.

OR:

Listen to episode 158 online right here.

Listen to episode 159 online right here.

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Cavalcade Comics 05 – The A-Team Meet Chuck Norris

Posted in comic books with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Marvel Comics, Vintage Comic Throwdowns on December 10, 2014 by Paxton

Greetings, everyone. I’ve been a bit absent the last month as I’m in heavy training for my marathon and amidst preparations for the holidays…or should I say, Holley-days?

Today’s post was originally planned for Ninja Day this year but I really dropped the ball on that one. But, I wanted to get it out there, so here is issue #5 in my ongoing Cavalcade Comics Vintage Comic Throwdowns series.

The A-Team Meet Chuck Norris.

I think CT should get a kick out of this one. How cool would it have been if Chuck had actually joined The A-Team? Amazing to think about.

This cover was contructed mostly from two Marvel Comics issues. Yes, Marvel had both an A-Team comic and a Chuck Norris comic. Similar to the previous Godzilla vs The Shogun Warriors, why this particular crossover never happened before now is beyond me.

A-Team (1984) 01 - 00 - FC Chuck Norris 02 - 00 - FC

The A-Team come from the first issue of their comic (left) and Chuck comes from the second issue of his comic (right). I also used logos and a few extra ninjas from other issues of each of these series.

For some reason Chuck Norris and the Karate Commandos was under the Star imprint, which was Marvel’s line of kids comics featuring things like Alf, Thunder Cats and Star Wars: Droids. This was most likely because the Chuck comic was based on the cartoon of the same name.

Hope you guys are having a great holiday. I do have some stuff planned for before the end of December, so stay tuned!

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