Wow, it's been a while since I did any "By the 10's," hasn't it? So let's have lots of 'em in August, and let's see how many series I can cover!
This time around, it's Leave it to Binky, one of the many teenage comics put on the market in an attempt to get some of the Archie market!
Here's issue #10... nice Dagwood hair, Binky!
Notice just between issue 10 and issue 20, the art style's actually gotten a little more realistic... rather unusual, if you ask me!
Issue 30, and the cover gags aren't getting any better, are they?
OK, issue 40's cover gag is pretty good!
So is issue 50's cover gag... although what would've made it even funnier would've been if it had been Sugar and Spike there!
Issue 60's cover, and there's something seriously wrong with Binky if he doesn't know the difference between kissing a fish and kissing a girl!
As with all the other teenage humor comics, it seems, sooner or later the style went more towards copying the Archie style completely, as we see with Binky 60! You'll also note the fashions have radically changed, too!
Even after a quick Google search, I still have no idea who Frank Demme is, other than a musician.
Binky didn't last much longer... then again, the spin-off book "Binky's Buddies" only lasted 12 issues all together! The original Binky series lasted 81 issues, from 1948 to 1971... and then in 1977 issues 82 and 83 were published!
OK, so I've decided not to start on any series of movies forthe MotW... not yet! Instead, we'll look at a few George Pal movies the first three weeks of the month, beginning with 1953's War of the Worlds!
The story is updated to the 1950s for this film, and the setting is moved from the environs of London to southern California. Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), a world renowned physicist, is on a fishing vacation in Pine Summit when a giant meteorite lands in the hills above the small town. Along with the residents, he goes to investigate. At the impact site, he meets Sylvia van Buren (Ann Robinson) and her uncle, Pastor Dr. Matthew Collins (Lewis Martin). Finding the meteorite too hot to examine closely, he decides to wait in town for the meteorite to cool down.
Later, after most of the people have gone home, the meteorite unscrews and opens, disgorging a Heat-Ray device from Mars. When the three men who remained behind approach in friendly greeting, it kills them without warning. Forrester and the sheriff are also attacked when they return, but survive.
The meteorite deploys three of the floating war machines, as the military is summoned. Pastor Collins approaches the Martians in peace, but they kill him with their Heat-Ray without attempting to communicate.
The full force of the United States armed forces, up to and including an A-bomb dropped by a "Flying Wing", is unleashed against the invaders, but, even more so than in Wells' book, human weapons prove to be totally ineffective; the Martians are protected by an impenetrable force-field. Meanwhile, there are reports of other landings all over the world.
Forrester and Sylvia flee, along with the rest of the civilians. Their plane crashes and they take shelter in a nearby abandoned farmhouse. They are trapped in the basement when another meteorite crashes into the house.
The couple comes in contact with an actual Martian, when the creature leaves its war-machine to look around. They manage to fight it off and escape to Los Angeles, eventually linking up with Forrester's co-workers, who are trying to find a way to defeat the aliens.
However, widespread panic among the general populace scatters the research group and their equipment is wrecked. In the confusion, Forrester and Sylvia become separated.
All seems lost, with humanity helpless before the onslaught. Forrester frantically searches for Sylvia in the burning ruins of a Los Angeles under attack. He finally finds her with other survivors awaiting the end in a church.
Then, suddenly, they see an approaching Martian war machine crash. Upon investigating, Forrester realizes that the seemingly all-powerful invaders are dying – they have no defenses against the "smallest and humblest of Earth's living creatures": viruses and bacteria.
OK, I'm writing again... and while I realize that the plot summary there is pretty sparse, the movie is an acknowledged classic, and one it's been too long since I've had a chance to see it.
But it's not my favorite George Pal movie... that one is still yet to come!
Yes, this morning, the family and I are on our way to Pennsylvania on vacation.... but as I've promised, you'll see no interruption in posts either here or on the Give-A-Show blog!
Well, hopefully you Give-A-Show fans haven't given up on the Random Acts entirely since I started with Lefty the The Give-A-Show Blog, on which there's at least one post per day, and that's usually one of the slides... after all, it hasn't caught up with this blog's Give-A-Show Fridays posts!
Wow, this is a double Cool Stuff day here on the Random Acts of Geekery! Let's commence with the Batman stuff, shall we?
Batman oil can puzzle from the 1970s... with Neal Adams artwork!
I don't care how simple the box promises it is, I'm absolutely, positively certain that if I were to get this Batman Paint-By-Numbers set, and I tried to paint it, it would end up only vaguely looking like the sample!
I'm guessing this Pencil Sharpener was a bootleg item!
Here's another of those items that, if I were to somehow get my hands on it, I promise you I would absolutely scan the pages in and post them here, so you guys could save the scans to your hard drive and print them out on card stock, so you could do your own press-out toys for your own personal use!
Pretty cool puzzle here, considering it's a Playskool item, eh?
This is a pretty cool record album... this same company did other records with other DC characters, including Official Adventures of Green Lantern and The Flash that told the Golden Age characters' origins!
I don't care how safely these cut, once you take 'em off the card, how are you to know that they're Batman Scissors???
Oh my goodness... check these out! From Ideal, it's Shaker Maker Batman Bobbleheads!!!!
OK so they just look like Bobbleheads...
I'm pretty sure this Batman pencil sharpener was an authorized item, unlike the last one I posted a photo of!
Yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you... those are, indeed, Batman slippers.
I'm sure many of you will remember seeing this poster offered for sale in the comics... eventually, I'll post photos of all the other posters offered at the same time!
These Batman and Robin figures apparently were part of some kind of Batmobile or Batboat toy.
This Batman watch is cool... not as cool as the Superman watch my wife gave me, but still pretty cool!
These Batman wrist radios have been manufactured by Remco as Dick Tracy radios, and probably many other licensed character radios, too!
Next time around, Cool Stuff looks at some stuff that I know Plaid Stallions will enjoy... it's Big Jim stuff!
So, let's see if there are, indeed, enough pages of Daredevil art in my files to make this an all-DD installment, shall we?
First up, here's page 19 from DD 14, by John Romita Sr.
Next, page 12 from DD 23, by Gentleman Gene Colan!
Page 17 from DD 93, again by Colan!
Well, I could've sworn I had a fair amount of Daredevil pages in this folder of scans... but oh well! Here's page 19 of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu 19, by George Perez! This would be from a Sons of the Tiger story.
So... I didn't have the promised Daredevil pages... but how about some Defenders pages?
Here's page 19 of Defenders 107, by Don Perlin... outside the usual range of stuff I like to showcase here, comics-wise, but still a nice page! Click for super-size options.
Now, this is right smack in the range of comics I love to showcase... it's John Romita's cover for Defenders 12, as Xemmu, the Living Titan, returns!
Next up is page 31 from Defenders 16, by Sal Busema... the next-to-the-last page of this two-parter story!
Bouncing back a bit, here's another Sal Buscema page... page 5 from Defenders 6! I believe this just preceded the Avengers-Defenders War!
Bouncing forward again, this is page 30 from Defenders 77, art by Herb Trimpe, but I'd bet Don Perlin did inks on it! And I'd lose that bet, wouldn't I? Steve Mitchell inked this part of the book!
Yep, we're bouncing backwards again... to issue 8, page 11, by Sal again! I seem to have a mess of pages from this issue in my files...
Here's page 5...
And here's page 21 from the same issue! The dude with the medallion is the Red Ghost, believe it or not!
I've also got a picture of page 24, which would be the first part of the Avengers-Defenders War for certain!
And we'll leave it at that, but there's at least one more Defenders page for the next time around... and it's from the Avengers-Defenders War, too!
