Genre Movie Image of the Day: Attack of the Puppet People Poster!

OK, I should just admit it, one of my favorite kind of cheesy sci-fi/horror movie themes is things that become enlarged to giant size or things that get shrunk down!

The former category was a popular one, from yesterday's Attack of the 50 Foot Woman to the Amazing Colossal Man, to the giant creatures of Tarantula!, Giant Gila Monster, Them!, and so on!

The other side of the coin wasn't much represented... aside from this one, I can think of The Incredible Shrinking Man and Doctor Cyclops, but I know there has to be a few more! Of course, the shrinkees were always humans, because a movie about, say, a shrunken spider or gorilla wouldn't be too exciting, would it?

This movie, Attack of the Puppet People, is one that, regretably, while I've read about it often, I've never chanced to see it that I recall.

Jon

Classic Collectibles of the Day!

Unlike yesterday's Munsters model, these are the kits most people think of when they hear the phrase "Munsters model":



Yes, the Munster coach, seen in pretty near every episode, and Grandpa's dragster, which I know was in "Munster Go Home," the feature-length movie, and maybe in an episode or two. Both vehicles, of course, were designed by the same gent who created the 1960s Batmobile, George Barris.

I think the only cool TV car that he didn't design was the Mach 5, but since that was animated (and from Japan), that's understandable!

Jon

Comic Book Cover of the Day!

This Boy Commandos cover comes from my "Charge!" file, which is full of covers featuring the lead characters charging out at the reader!

Yeah, that's right, I thought I'd uploaded more "Breaking the Fourth Wall" covers than I had... I guess I must've used the others I had for "Cover Stories" (which reminds me, new column on Sunday!).

Jon

Classic Collectible of the Day!

With apologies for the quality of the scan, here's the box art for Aurora's Munsters model kit, which displays the family in the living room of the Munster home!

Apparently, there was no desire to include Marilyn in this kit.

Now, if I was going to create a model based on the Munster home, I think I'd make it a bit more interactive than this... have the centerpiece of the "scene" being the Munsters' stairway, complete with hidden compartment that you could open up to reveal their pet dragon (Spot?), and then have the Munsters themselves designed so you could put them in different places, depending on what you wanted (perhaps with alternative arms and legs, or jointed like the later Prehistoric Scenes figures).

Jon

Genre Movie Image of the Day: Attack of the 50-Foot Woman Poster!

This is one of my favorite sci-fi movie posters of all time... and one that I'd like to someday get a copy of to hang on the wall. Unfortunately, this poster is completely misleading on every level! The 50-Foot Woman, as I recall, looks nothing like the one pictured here, and there's no scene in the film remotely resembling this scene, either!

This has been remade, with Darryl Hannah taking over the lead role, but it was played at least partly as a comedy... I'd love to see someone tackle a second remake, and get this image in that movie somehow! But who to play the lead? I think that the woman who plays Nikki/Jessica on Heroes would be great (or maybe I just want an excuse to see her wearing a short skirt for most of her on-screen time?).

Jon

Comic Book Cover of the Day!

Yes, it's another of the "Breaking the Fourth Wall" covers... you don't often see Superman addressing the reader (much less breaking his logo), but here it is!

This is, visually, a great cover... catches your eye, makes you wonder what the heck is happening, and so you buy the book to see what the story's about!

Jon

Classic Collectibles of the Day!

These Munsters dolls are really freaking me out... I mean, they're part of that subgenre of dolls with huge heads and tiny bodies (maybe this explains the crop of so-called "lollipop women" over the past 10 years... they were exposed to these kind of dolls?), but the colors on 'em are just strange! Herman, the only one who SHOULD be all-green, has that bizarre white forehead! Lilly has green skin and only bears the faintest resemblance to her video counterpart. Grandpa, on the other hand, green skin aside, is an amazing likeness!

I have no idea who made these or when they made them.

Jon

Genre Movie Image of the Day: The Animal World Poster!

For the foreseeable future, instead of stills from movies, I'll be presenting scans of movie posters for genre movies. First up is "The Animal World," which I have to admit that I've never seen... but I suspect that since Irwin Allen was involved, it is probably not as cool as the poster tries to suggest it is (I've got nothing against Irwin Allen per se -- I love Land of the Giants and Time Tunnel, but really dislike Lost in Space... Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea I'm just kind of "bleh" on). Actually, most of the posters I'll be sharing with you for a while probably make the movies look better than they were!

Jon

Comic Book Cover of the Day!

From the "Get In The Picture" files...



I've written in my "Cover Stories" column several times how, on the DC History list, it's been opined that for pretty much any possible cover theme, there's a cover with Wonder Woman on it that fits! And here's the entry for this theme!

"Get In The Picture" was my catch-all name for covers featuring characters being represented in paintings or photographs... and sometimes even on a comics page! This one is a double-themed cover, as a character is "Breaking the Fourth Wall!"

Edit: I just realized that, in fact, this wasn't saved under "Get in the Picture," but is actually in "Breaking the Fourth Wall", which will be the theme for a few covers during the next few days!

Jon

Latest Personal Developments!

Been a while since I've posted anything about what's going on in my life, hasn't it? I know I've referred you to the new "Building Our Family" blog, and honestly, that is what's taking up most of my time lately... but there are a few other things going on, too (in case you're not interested in our foster parenting)!

To wit: Next week, I begin training in paper planning at the newspaper. This basically means I'll be learning how to figure out how many pages the paper should be for the next day, as well as where all the ads will go. My hours during that week will run from 6 a.m. until usually about 2:30 p.m.... although I'll likely be there a bit later than that helping to catch things up with ad building! I'm looking forward to expanding my knowledge and skills, but not so much getting up all that early (although to be honest, I've been getting up pretty early these days as it is!).

What this means to you is that I'll probably be doing my daily blogging around mid to late afternoon next week, since I'll be going to bed way earlier than usual!

Also, yesterday, through FreeCycle (a great concept - a mailing list where you offer stuff for free, and people respond if they're interested in that item, and the exchange is made), Jessi arranged for me to pick up nine boxes of old records, which were leftovers from a garage sale. They basically didn't want to figure out what else to do with them! I haven't had a chance to look them over yet... I'm not a record collector, but for quite a while I was selling my late wife Barbara's collection on eBay, so Jessi figured I might be able to sell some of these. Since I no longer have a record price guide, I'll likely either look to see what sales have been on similar records, or just start the bidding on all of them at 99 cents and see what happens!

There'll probably be a few that I'll offer directly to some bloggers who post MP3 files of out-of-print novelty and children's records... but again, I haven't looked at 'em yet!

Jon

Classic Collectible of the Day!

You know, I really dig this Munsters Card Game box... so many board game boxes either depict the characters the game is based on in action or comedic scenes which have little or nothing to do with the game, or it shows kids playing the game. This one shows the Munsters playing their own game!

What's even more interesting is that, instead of Eddie joining his family here, the box art appears to have the presumed owner of this particular game (i.e., a generic kid, who bears a faint resemblance to Pugsley Addams) in with the Munsters!

Jon

Genre Movie Image of the Day: The Frankenstein Monster!

Here's a "bonus" Frankenstein Monster photo... which I realize I missed because I misnamed the file, so it went out of order!

I'm not sure who's portraying the Monster here.

Jon

Comics Cover of the Day!

Cat-Man is a superhero I know pretty much nothing about... except that later on, in imitation of Batman, he gained his own sidekick, a teenage girl I believe went by the name "Kitten"!

Jon

Early Multi-Post!

Getting this done now, while I have a chance, since I'm not feeling well, and will likely go to bed early tonight...

Comic Book Cover of the Day!

From the "sports" files...



...did these kids really think Superman couldn't jump over as many barrels as he felt like? I guess he's trying to not use his flight power here, and rely on super-skill alone.

Genre Movie Image of the Day: Dracula!



Last of the Dracula images... and I think this is actually from a painted piece used in poster, and not a still itself!

Classic Collectible/Comic Book Ad of the Day!



Here's the classic (in my mind) GI Joe comic book ad, with the two boys playing with their Joes... I wonder how many parents had a fit when their boys tried to imitate what they saw in this ad, but in their own backyards?

Jon

It's Catch-Up Time...

...and that means a big - Big - BIG - BIG post for you guys!

There'll likely be some details as to all that's going on in the "Building Our Family" blog in another day or so...

Saturday's Comic Book Cover of the Day!

From the "catching a ride" files...



What a bizarre cover image... GL "piloting" a giant white sandal with (presumed) criminals on it???

Sunday's Comic Book Cover of the Day!



A different kind of "catching a ride" here - these days you just don't see the little acts that heroes perform on the covers, do you?

Today's Comic Book Cover of the Day!

Even Superman gets into the act... catching someone's undersea "ride"!



Genre Movie Images for Saturday Through Today: Dracula!

Three-in-one here, and a bit smaller than usual for me (but you should be able to click on 'em to make them bigger):



Am I the only one who thinks Dracula looks odd in a top hat? I know when John Carridine played him in the "House" movies, he wore a top hat, too...



Van Helsing realizes that he doesn't see a reflection of Dracula... game over, man!



Nice shot of Bela as Drac!

Classic Collectibles



This Batmobile looks a lot like the blue Batmobile from the other day, doesn't it?



And aren't these some funky-looking Three Stooges puppets?



Remember the Monkees tiny dolls from a week or so ago? Don't these similar Beatles dolls make them look like amazing likenesses?

Other Stuff

Sleep continues to evade me for more than seven hours... and usually much less! Sunday night we actually went to bed about 8:30 pm, only to be awakened at 9 by the police, who were checking on our neighbor at the request of her mother! Basically, what we think happened was our neighbor was out partying somewhere, somehow her flip cell phone got opened up and speed-dialed to her mother, her mother answered, heard some screaming, then the phone disconnected, she called back but didn't get an answer, so she called the police.

Our neighbor is a woman who's around my age, if not a bit older, with two daughters, one of whom just graduated from college, and the other's 13, and is on her way to visit relatives out of state.

Anyway, it took us an hour or so after that to get to sleep!

Jon