Geek TV: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs!

Concept: Based on the comic book Xenozoic Tales by Mark Schultz, this animated series takes place in a future where dinosaurs exist again, while humanity tries to rebuild.

Total Episodes: 13

Original Air Dates: September 18, 1993 – January 28, 1994

Original Network: CBS

Characters:

Jack Tenrec (voice of David Keeley): A garage mechanic who is a member of the ecological freedom fighters known as the Mechanics. He has a passion for restoring old cars, mainly Cadillacs.

Hannah Dundee (voice of Susan Roman): A foreign ambassador from Wassoon, and Jack's love interest.

Mustapha Cairo (voice of Bruce Tubbe): Jack's companion who often helps Jack out.

Kirgo (voice of David Fox): A ferryman associated with the City in the Sea.

Hermes: An allosaurus raised by Jack. Gentle with Jack and Hannah, he can be fierce.

Council of Governors – Wilhemina Scharnhorst (voice of Dawn Greenhalgh), Dahlgren (voice of Kristina Nicoll), and Toulouse (voice of Philip Williams): The council that rules the City in the Sea. Scharhorst is corrupt and power hungry, and has hired Hammer Terhune and his gang to do her dirty work and deal with Jack. Dahgren is the voice of reason. Toulouse is the public relations man.

Noc (Voice of Don Dickinson): Captain of the Guards, dislikes Jack.

Dr. Fessenden (John Stocker): Mad scientist who invents technology for Scharnhorst to use.

Hammer Terhune (voice of Ted Dillon): Burly poacher and leader of a gang that mostly is comprised of his younger brothers.

Geek Pedigree:

Steven E. de Souza, who developed the series for TV, was previously a writer of three episodes each of Gemini Man and The Six Million Dollar Man, two episodes of The Bionic Woman, 22 episodes of The Powers of Matthew Star, the movie The Return of Captain Invincible, an episode of V, the TV movie of The Spirit, the movie the Running Man, seven episodes of Supercarrier, and an episode of Tales of the Crypt. He later wrote the movies The Flintstones, Street Fighter, and Judge Dredd (1995).

Marv Wolfman, who wrote one episode of the show, is best known for his comic book writing, which included many Marvel comics such as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, and creating Nova, as well as creating Night Force and The New Teen Titans at DC, and writing Crisis on Infinite Earths. Among his TV credits are writing episodes of Superman (1988), G.I. Joe, Batman: The Animated Series, Spider-Man (1995), Godzilla: The Series, Teen Titans, and Blade.

Colin O'Meara voiced Wrench Terhune, and previously voiced Tintin in the English version of The Adventures of Tintin. He also voiced Andrew in nine episodes of Sailor Moon. Susan Roman voiced Lt. Kelsey Carver in Starcom: The U.S. Space Force, Officer Anne Lewis in RoboCop (animated), and provided additional voices for Captain N & The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. She was the voice of Snowy in The Adventures of Tintin, and later voiced Callisto and the Scarlet Witch in the 1993-1996 X-Men, Virgo, Vertigo and others in Avengers: United They Stand, Lita/Sailor Jupiter in Sailor Moon, and provided voices for Beyblade.

Tedd Dillion voiced Overmind in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future and Commandant Lassard on Police Academy: The Series. Don Francks, who voiced Girth and Hobbs, had guested in single episodes of The Wild Wild West and The Man From UNCLE, as well as two episodes of Mission: Impossible. He also provided the voice of Boba Fett for The Star Wars Holiday Special, did a few voices for Heavy Metal and Rock and Rule, voiced Dr. Claw and others in Inspector Gadget, a few Ewoks in Ewoks, Jann Tosh and Boba Fett in Droids, Adm. Franklin Brinkley in Starcom: The U.S. Space Force, Lacchi in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, voices for A.L.F. (1987-1989), Police Academy: The Series, and The Legend of Zelda, Dr. Arcane in Swamp Thing (1991), and later voiced Sabretooth for X-Men (1992-1996). After voicing Mikla on this show, Lenore Zahn would later voice Rogue on X-Men (1992-1997), Tigra in Avengers: United They Stand, and other voice parts.

David Fox was another The Adventures of Tintin alumni, voicing Captain Haddock on the English version, and he later voiced the Sentinels in X-Men (1992-1995).

Geek Guests: None.

DVD Release: None, although the series can be downloaded through Amazon.

Website: None that I could find.

Notes: I was a fan of the original comics, which featured great art, but only got to see one episode of the animated adaptation. I enjoyed it, but wasn't able to watch it regularly.

Book and Record: Star Wars!

This book was previously posted in "Children's Book Theater," here's your chance to hear the record along with the story!

Retro-Review: The Demon #14!

It's time once again for another Retro-Review, in which I grab a comic more or less at random from my collection and read it, reviewing it as I go! This time around, it's Jack Kirby's The Demon #14! It features a great Kirby Kover, showing Klarion the Witchboy casting a spell to make Etrigan disappear, with his cat, Teekl, in the foreground.

The issue opens with a splash page showing Etrigan, the Demon, being called by beasts of the pits, inviting him to join them in the pool of flame, and promising not to harm him. Etrigan, for his part, does not believe them. Obviously, we are in Hell, and Satan's forces are trying to stop the Demon on his mission, whatever it is! The next two pages are a thrilling spread, showing the Demon menaced by Gargora, a she-beast that's mostly comprised of a giant head with snake-like hair, each snake ending in a different horrible head of its own with long tongues. The body of Gargora is comprised of other heads. All of these heads are from Gargora's previous victims. The Demon tries to escape Gargora, but he finds himself clinging to a rock. Suddenly, from a hole in the rock wall, a Shambler comes out. The Shambler looks like an evil Mr. Potato Head with spidery limbs. He opens his jaws and gets ready to bite, causing the Demon to scream in terror!

Fandom Library: Batmania #20!

The Beatles Cartoon, Episode #14!

The first segment of this episode is titled "Don't Bother Me," which was a song written by George Harrison and recorded by the Beatles for their second album, With the Beatles, and was also the first song George wrote that the Beatles recorded.

The story opens in Rome, where a black-cloaked character and someone who appears to be Oddjob from the Bond movies is lurking outside the Hotel Roma. Oddjob throws his razor-lined derby at one of the rain drains, cutting one part of it through. The derby flies back and hits the cloaked figure before the drainpipe falls back and hits Oddjob! The two climb the pipe to a window, open it (not before the window slides down and crushs Oddjob's fingers first), and enter stealthily. They turn on a flashlight to spy on the Beatles, who are sleeping peacefully in their beds (Ringo's got his feet where his head should be, and vice versa, with rings on his toes). The flashlight beam searches until it comes upon a book titled "New Beatle Songs - Top Secret." This is the target, and Oddjob sneaks over to take it, but Ringo awakens, and alerts John!

Comics They Never Made!

This time around, my faked-up comics covers for licensed comics that never existed is all about two good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm... That's right, The Dukes of Hazzard!




Sometimes, when I'm searching for photos to use to create these covers, I'm lucky to find one picture with a high enough resolution to serve my purposes... and then other times, there's an embarrassment of riches! This was the case with my previous CHiPs covers, and is also the case here. I could easily have mocked up even more covers, but I figured four was enough!

I wasn't really a fan of The Dukes of Hazzard, apparently I wasn't the target audience they were shooting for. Oh, I watched a few episodes here and there, but as I said, I wasn't a fan, and saw no reason to get honked off when the main characters of Bo and Luke Duke were replaced by two previously un-mentioned cousins!

Government Comics!

Comic Book Ads: Pepsi, The Pepsi-Cola Cop!

Okay, I guess we're done with the miscellaneous ads, now it's time to focus on some grouped ads, and this time around, it's the adventures of "Pepsi" the Pepsi-Cola Cop! Enjoy!

This N That Time!

So, On The Job Front...

I don't recall if I wrote about this or not, but about a month ago, I was contacted by my former supervisor at the newspaper. These days, she's running a clinic for a major medical company in this area, and they had an opening for a Medical Assistant that she thought I'd be perfect for. As you may recall, it's been about a year and a half since I graduated with my MA degree, and I didn't have any luck getting hired as an MA, which is why I had my year-long try with truck driving, and my current position at a major retailer. Now, I had high hopes for this interview, as you might understand, although after the interview, I learned that my strategy of replying to questions using more recent examples than older examples of how I dealt with things wasn't the best way to go. This same company had a job fair going on at another facility the following day, and I received an invitation for that as well. It wasn't long before I heard about the job fair results -- no dice there -- but it took about another week or two before I heard about the first job. As you may have guessed by now, I didn't get that job, either. As it turned out, they had an applicant with 13 years of experience and excellent references (I found it odd when my former supervisor told me that latter part, given that she's been one of my references in my job hunt, but whatever). I think this pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin so far as trying to ever get work in the MA field, although I've applied for one or two positions since then. As I see it, I have a couple of strikes going against me: 1) I'm a man, and there just aren't very many facilities comfortable with having a male MA on staff; 2) The length of time since I graduated, meaning that my skills and knowledge have been unused for a long time... saying they're "rusty" would be an exaggeration; 3) When people meet me for the first time, I often come across as intimidating, because let's face it, I'm a big guy! I'm 6 foot 6, and until someone gets to know me a little, it's easy to just assume that I'm a big scary guy.

Essays on Comics Characters: Batman!

Okay, it's time I got around to the Caped Crusader himself, Batman. Hold on to your seats, gang, this could be a doozy, as I feel like I've got a lot to say about the Dark Knight!

My first exposure to Batman was probably Filmation's animated cartoons of the late 1960s, with the comics following very shortly after that (it's possible I may have read a Batman comic before that, but I don't know for certain). I don't believe I ever saw the Adam West version when it originally aired, although I do recall seeing the movie on TV fairly frequently. Later, I did get to see it in syndication (I was probably seven or eight at the time), and of course, also saw the Dynamic Duo on Super Friends, as well as Batman's appearances on The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

I don't specifically recall the first Batman comic I ever owned... the earliest one I know for sure I had was a 100-Page Super-Spectacular that reprinted the original Golden Age appearances of Two-Face... oh, wait, there was one that was before that which reprinted the story with the vampires that Batman shot from his autogiro! It's likely that I'd read several issues of Justice League of America with Batman in them before my first Batman comic!

Comic Reading Library: Nature Boy #3!

The Indexible Hulk #59

Issue: The Incredible Hulk #102

Title: --This World Not His Own!

Credits: Written by Gary Friedrich, penciled by Marie Severin, inked by George Tuska and Syd Shores, lettered by Artie Simek

Supporting Cast: (in flashback) Rick Jones, General Ross

Villain: The Enchantress, the Executioner, Trolls

Guest-Stars: Odin, Oldar the Oracle, Warriors Three, (in flashback) Thor, Silver Surfer

Plot: In Asgard, while going with the Warriors Three to see Oldar the Oracle, the Hulk jumped over a bottomless chasm, being changed back to Banner partway across by Loki, causing Bruce to plummet ever downwards! Now, as he falls, he's spotted by the Executioner and the Enchantress, who happen to be walking along a narrow path on the wall of the chasm. Recognizing Bruce as a mortal, the Enchantress chooses to save him, as he may have news about Hercules, whom Amora has fallen in love with. The Executioner isn't happy about this, as there's an invasion of Asgard planned and he wants to keep it on track.

Above, the Warriors Three fear Bruce is dead, but decide to continue on to Oldar, and when she's summoned, and spends a few pages narrating the Hulk's origin in verse. At the Executioner's camp, the Enchantress questions Bruce about Herc, but of course he knows nothing. The Executioner is about to behead Bruce when the stress changes Bruce back into the Hulk! The Executioner recognizes Greenskin from their encounter in Tales to Astonish #77, and the two start to fight! Just as the Hulk uses one of his standard ground-shaking blows to knock the Executioner off his feet, the Enchantress orders their troll army to attack, but the Hulk still escapes them.

Now, the roles are reversed, as the Executioner wants to go after the Hulk, while th Enchantress is ready for the invasion of Asgard! The troll legions are ordered to begin their attack on Asgard. Meanwhile, Oldar warns the Warriors Three of the invasion, and rush off to warn the city. Elsewhere, the Hulk makes his way back to the chasm, and starts climbing up.

The troll armies attack, and the call to arms is sounded in Asgard! As the Enchantress casts a spell to aid the trolls, the Hulk emerges from the chasm, and shortly comes upon the scene of the invasion. The Hulk leaps into the troll army, and the Hulk soon starts to open a chasm in the ground to swallow up the troll army, unknowingly aided by Odin. Angered by this, the Enchantress casts a spell on the Hulk, intending to kill him! Downed by this spell, the Hulk is doomed, but Odin decrees that the Hulk shall live, using the power of his scepter.

The Hulk awakens, sees Odin's scepter pointed at him, and assumes the Asgardians a also his enemies. Odin is about to destroy the Hulk in response, but Fandral and Hogun talk Odin into sparing the Hulk! Odin decides instead to send the Hulk away from Asgard... But to where?

Invention Exchange: None

Reprinted In: Marvel Super-Heroes #56, Essential Hulk #2, Warriors Three: Dog Day Afternoon (unnumbered 2011 series)

Notes: If you recall, the previous meeting of the Hulk and the Executioner took place on a future Earth after the Hulk had been struck by Banner's T-Gun and time traveled. We can only assume that at some point in the past, the Executioner himself traveled to the future, and returned after his defeat. This is not mentioned in the comic at all.

Fandom Library: The Monkees Crazy Cartoon Book!

Puzzle Time!

Solutions after the jump!

Julie Newmar Appreciation Post #2!

Time for another parade of photos featuring the beauteous Julie Newmar, my favorite Catwoman of all time!