Yes, today's featured cover is Fantastic Four #48, with the coming of Galactus, as drawn by Jack "King" Kirby! And naturally, it's one of my favorite FF covers of all time!
Jon
Jon's Random Acts of Geekery is your five days a week destination for old-school geekery!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Comic Book Cover of the Day!
Yes, today's featured cover is Fantastic Four #48, with the coming of Galactus, as drawn by Jack "King" Kirby! And naturally, it's one of my favorite FF covers of all time!
Jon
Genre Movie Image of the Day: This Island Earth Poster!
Have I mentioned before that the only time I've seen This Island Earth was in Mystery Science 3000: The Movie?
I suspect it may have been edited for that purpose...
This is one of those movies that I've already done a Comic They Never Made of!
Jon
Classic Collectibles of the Day!
Remember the H.R. Pufnstuf theatrical movie? Here's some lobby cards from it:
Jon
Jon
Friday, July 27, 2007
Genre Movie Image of the Day: Them!
Here's another scene from Them!, and it appears I only had two stills to share, so tomorrow it's back to posters!
Short posts tonight because it's been a long day!
Jon
Comic Book Cover of the Day!
As promised, here's the first of some of my favorite Fantastic Four covers!
Classic Collectible of the Day!
As with the other board games I've featured, I have no idea how good this Pufnstuf game was!
Jon
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Comic Book Cover of the Day!
And today's cover is yet another "Sneak Peek" at a cover I'll be using in a near-future "Cover Stories" column... don't you feel special?
Starting tomorrow (or Saturday, if I end up not getting a chance to post), it'll be some of my favorite Fantastic Four covers in the Comic Book Cover of the Day for a while!
Jon
Classic Collectible of the Day!
OK, hands in the air, anyone who knew that someone actually produced a working Freddie the Flute from H.R. Pufnstuf????
I mean, sure, it would've been an obvious toy tie-in... but I know I never heard anything about it until I came across this image...
Jon
Genre Image of the Day: Them!
Yes, today (and for a few days) the genre images will be from Them!, that classic sci-fi flick about huge ants!
And yes, you know I love this movie, because it features enlarged creatures... but did you know that I featured "Them!" as Comics They Never Made not just once, but twice? Follow the first link there for the Cover Stories column with "Them!" as an issue of Drive-In Movie Classics, my faked-up Charlton title, and the second one for the first issue of the faked-up "Them!" series!
Now, you know you've got to check those links out, don't you? Unless, of course, you remember reading those columns when they first went up...
Jon
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Why No Post Tuesday, Jon?
Well, Jessi and I are on vacation this week, and we had a very busy (and tiring) day on Tuesday, hence, no posts... but I've tried to make up for it with some double-posts today, as you'll see below!
Hopefully, I won't have to skip a day the rest of the week, but one never knows...
Jon
Hopefully, I won't have to skip a day the rest of the week, but one never knows...
Jon
Classic Collectibles: Double-Dose!
Pretty funky Pufnstuf black light posters, aren't they?
And the Pufnstuf dolls here are hard to come by... I've heard that Witchiepoo doll is the most coveted Pufnstuf stuff there is!
Jon
Comic Book Covers of the Day: Double-Dose!
Here's Bob Hope #1... the first ten or so issues of this title used photo covers... maybe fewer, I'd have to double-check... but once the photo covers were gone, I think the book looked much, much better!
Most of the Bob Hope comics covers were drawn by the talented Bob Oksner, if I recall correctly... although there were probably a few Neal Adams covers towards the end of the series! I don't know if Bob drew Bob in the interiors or not, though.
And here's a preview image for a future "Cover Stories" column:
Jon
Genre Images of the Day: Double-Dose!
Let's begin with the poster for Tarantula, eh?
Now, I don't have to tell you why I like this movie, do I? And it is one that I've seen several times. Probably one of the best of the giant bug movies ("Them" would be up there, too... been too long since I've seen "The Preying Mantis" or "The Black Scorpion" to compare), even if the SFX was just blowing up an actual tarantula (I don't even think there were any puppets used... maybe one leg was mocked up).
Definitely one of those movies that helped set the trend for giant monster flicks for some time, though!
This movie, on the other hand, followed a trend:
I've never seen "Teenage Monster," nor have I seen "Teenage Werewolf" or "Teenage Frankenstein", which I'd imagine preceeded it. (I think I saw "Teenage Caveman" on MST3K, however)
Jon
Now, I don't have to tell you why I like this movie, do I? And it is one that I've seen several times. Probably one of the best of the giant bug movies ("Them" would be up there, too... been too long since I've seen "The Preying Mantis" or "The Black Scorpion" to compare), even if the SFX was just blowing up an actual tarantula (I don't even think there were any puppets used... maybe one leg was mocked up).
Definitely one of those movies that helped set the trend for giant monster flicks for some time, though!
This movie, on the other hand, followed a trend:
I've never seen "Teenage Monster," nor have I seen "Teenage Werewolf" or "Teenage Frankenstein", which I'd imagine preceeded it. (I think I saw "Teenage Caveman" on MST3K, however)
Jon
Monday, July 23, 2007
Classic Collectible of the Day!
No, I don't know what the heck a "Pressout Book" is supposed to be, either.
Jon
Comic Book Cover of the Day!
Here's the Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis #1... and sadly, I don't think I've read a single issue of this title, either in the original name or after it was just Jerry in the lead. Or at least, if I have, it's been way too long since I did, because I don't recall it.
Too bad there's probably not enough of a market to try to get the rights cleared for DC to produce Showcase Presents volumes, eh?
Jon
Genre Movie Image of the Day: The Incredible Shrinking Man!
Ah, one of my favorite sci-fi movies... which should come as no surprise, since it features something or someone being enlarged or reduced in size, eh?
It's been way, way too long since I've seen this movie, and more's the pity. I don't think anyone's even come close to matching at least one of the SFX sequences in this (at least, without using CGI).
Which sequence am I referring to? Remember where there's the water droplets dripping down on the Shrinking Man, and how the droplets actually looked like proportionate droplets? These were a live effect, and they didn't superimpose him over the dripping water, or vice versa.
How did they do it? I recall reading somewhere (I forget where, exactly) that the effect was maintained by filling up condoms with water, and dropping them into the camera view!
Who'd have thought?
Jon
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Regarding Legal Guardianship...
Thanks to "The Keith" for his comment regarding what a legal guardian is. Honestly, I wasn't aware of the specific legal definition there!
This does, of course, put the question about why Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne would've been named legal guardians of Roy Harper and, especially, Dick Grayson, respectively.
Since I don't recall the specifics of Roy's becoming Ollie's ward, let's look at Dick Grayson's case, as regards what I'm familiar with as well as what I recall has been presented in the comics.
I'm sure you all know how Dick got orphaned... he performed with his parents as the Flying Graysons in the circus, his parents knew too much, and their trapeze was altered so they'd be killed in what would appear to be a performance-related accident.
Somehow, it's decided that Bruce Wayne would take whatever form of legal custody was decided upon (which is rather bizarre, on the face of it... Bruce has no background other than having his own parents killed that would make him qualified for this, and I can't see that the Graysons would've had enough money that they'd need Bruce to use his business acumen -- which, so far as the public is concerned, is zilch -- to take care of Dick's financial decisions.
We also know that Dick had at least one living relative, post-Crisis... Aunt Harriet. At least, I'm pretty sure it was established that she was Dick's aunt, anyway. A quick stop at Wikipedia confirms this.
A cross-reference in the Dick Grayson entry for "legal ward" comes up with this:
In law, a ward is someone placed under the protection of a legal guardian. A court may take responsibility for the legal protection of an individual, usually either a child or incapacitated person, in which case the ward is known as a ward of the court or a ward of the state.
A famous ward from pop culture would be Dick Grayson (Robin), who was first introduced as the ward of Bruce Wayne (Batman). After his acrobat parents were killed, Dick was not adopted by Bruce Wayne but rather placed under his care.
Now, this does kind of muddle things up, because it is specifically noted there (as it was probably in the comics) that he's Bruce's ward, but not specifically that Bruce was Dick's legal guardian. It's entirely possible that, inded, that is the case.
But I'd make the argument that, under the circumstances, no judge would possibly okay such a placement. After all, Bruce is a wealthy playboy who lives in a big mansion by himself with his butler, Alfred, and he's pretty much turned the day-to-day operation of Wayne Enterprises (or whatever it's called at various times) to other people, such as Lucius Fox. Perhaps this was mentioned in a specific story somewhere that explained why this happened... we do know that Bruce Wayne has never been one to let legal difficulties get in the way of doing what he needed to do; indeed, when he was a young lad, not too long after his parents were killed, he got hold of the paperwork concerning his being orphaned and destroyed what was necessary to prevent him from being placed anywhere.
But I think it'd be more likely that, instead of saying that Bruce bribed a judge to allow him to take custody of Dick, that perhaps he managed to place the necessary paperwork in the system overnight (because he's that good) that would make him appear to be a qualified foster parent, which I'd imagine would clear the way to at least temporarily place Dick in his care.
Given the close relationship Bruce and Dick developed, it's not hard to imagine that Dick's social worker would've been impressed with how well Dick was doing there, and would naturally okay it being a permanent placement, even if Dick was never officially adopted (something I recall Dick asking Bruce when Jason Todd was introduced in the comics, but I digress).
As always, differing viewpoints are welcomed!
Jon
This does, of course, put the question about why Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne would've been named legal guardians of Roy Harper and, especially, Dick Grayson, respectively.
Since I don't recall the specifics of Roy's becoming Ollie's ward, let's look at Dick Grayson's case, as regards what I'm familiar with as well as what I recall has been presented in the comics.
I'm sure you all know how Dick got orphaned... he performed with his parents as the Flying Graysons in the circus, his parents knew too much, and their trapeze was altered so they'd be killed in what would appear to be a performance-related accident.
Somehow, it's decided that Bruce Wayne would take whatever form of legal custody was decided upon (which is rather bizarre, on the face of it... Bruce has no background other than having his own parents killed that would make him qualified for this, and I can't see that the Graysons would've had enough money that they'd need Bruce to use his business acumen -- which, so far as the public is concerned, is zilch -- to take care of Dick's financial decisions.
We also know that Dick had at least one living relative, post-Crisis... Aunt Harriet. At least, I'm pretty sure it was established that she was Dick's aunt, anyway. A quick stop at Wikipedia confirms this.
A cross-reference in the Dick Grayson entry for "legal ward" comes up with this:
In law, a ward is someone placed under the protection of a legal guardian. A court may take responsibility for the legal protection of an individual, usually either a child or incapacitated person, in which case the ward is known as a ward of the court or a ward of the state.
A famous ward from pop culture would be Dick Grayson (Robin), who was first introduced as the ward of Bruce Wayne (Batman). After his acrobat parents were killed, Dick was not adopted by Bruce Wayne but rather placed under his care.
Now, this does kind of muddle things up, because it is specifically noted there (as it was probably in the comics) that he's Bruce's ward, but not specifically that Bruce was Dick's legal guardian. It's entirely possible that, inded, that is the case.
But I'd make the argument that, under the circumstances, no judge would possibly okay such a placement. After all, Bruce is a wealthy playboy who lives in a big mansion by himself with his butler, Alfred, and he's pretty much turned the day-to-day operation of Wayne Enterprises (or whatever it's called at various times) to other people, such as Lucius Fox. Perhaps this was mentioned in a specific story somewhere that explained why this happened... we do know that Bruce Wayne has never been one to let legal difficulties get in the way of doing what he needed to do; indeed, when he was a young lad, not too long after his parents were killed, he got hold of the paperwork concerning his being orphaned and destroyed what was necessary to prevent him from being placed anywhere.
But I think it'd be more likely that, instead of saying that Bruce bribed a judge to allow him to take custody of Dick, that perhaps he managed to place the necessary paperwork in the system overnight (because he's that good) that would make him appear to be a qualified foster parent, which I'd imagine would clear the way to at least temporarily place Dick in his care.
Given the close relationship Bruce and Dick developed, it's not hard to imagine that Dick's social worker would've been impressed with how well Dick was doing there, and would naturally okay it being a permanent placement, even if Dick was never officially adopted (something I recall Dick asking Bruce when Jason Todd was introduced in the comics, but I digress).
As always, differing viewpoints are welcomed!
Jon
Comic Book Cover of the Day!
Here's Adventures Into the Unknown #1, from before the covers started getting real funky (and subsequently, more fun, too!).
Jon
Genre Movie Image of the Day!
Here's the poster for Revenge of the Creature, which was the middle chapter of the Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy... and I think I've seen it once before, but can't be certain. I know I've never seen the final installment, The Creature Walks Among Us!
Jon
Late Classic Collectible of the Day!
Here's an H.R. Pufnstuf belt buckle, and I'm not quite certain when it came out or who made it... but it's a good excuse to let you know that there'll be lots of Pufnstuf Stuff the next week plus!
Jon
Late Comic Book Cover of the Day!
Here's Adventures of the Fly #1, which was one of the few Archie titles that the Simon & Kirby team worked on... there's been quite a bit of controversy over the past 15+ years about the Fly, given that apparently it was a concept that evolved from C.C. Beck's "Silver Spider" (at least Beck worked on the presentation art), and somehow gave birth not only to the Fly here, but also to Spider-Man!
Jon
Delayed Genre Movie Image of the Day: Planet of the Apes!
This was going to be posted yesterday, but I've been so tired lately, it all caught up with me on Saturday, and I ended up sleeping. A lot.
Anyway, the original POTA is one of my favorite movies of all time, and the scene above is from near the end of the film.
Jon
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