Things we lost in the fire ........

Try as I might over the last couple of years, it is often difficult to find the time to make posts here - no matter how much I would prefer to do so!

On February 6, 2016 a fire at my apartment building cost me my home. Oh, I didn't actually lose anything due to fire damage, but my residence was deemed unlivable due to smoke damage - and yeah, that was pretty bad. At this point, I've easily moved elsewhere and have had a professional company take my household furniture to treat and clean it for smoke damage before returning that stuff to me at my brand new domicile. I salvaged my extensive comic book collection and lifetimes worth of collectible ephemera and can breathe much easier than those who lost everything - whether it was insured or not. I'm just waiting for the final pieces to fall into place, so that I can truly relax.

I was awakened by the smell of smoke early on the morning of the 6th [a Saturday], quickly dressed and grabbed my pug and then simply walked out of my home. I spent the better part of an hour watching others carry out armfuls of clothes and personal effects, and some even took the time to pack suitcases? I have no idea why people act this way, as that rather impressive fire was burning away just a few doors down and the choking smoke that filled my entire two floor townhouse was present in theirs as well?

Needless to say, that although many pop culture news items merited my attention over the last couple of weeks, my time was devoted to a situation that uprooted my life. I feel for those who got it worse than I did, but I will rebound. Take care, one and all! I hope to see you back here in the short term.

In Memorium: Alan Rickman

Aclaimed on both stage and screen as an actor and director, the great Alan Rickman passed away yesterday at the age of 69 from cancer.

His acting career had eventually begun after his original success in the field of graphic design, and even then he first entered the acting profession as a dresser for Sir Ralph Richarson and Sir Nigel Hawthorne. His distinctive voice and mannerisms soon made him a standout in such films as Die Hard; Quigley Down Under; Truly, Madly, Deeply; Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; Sense and Sensibility; Michael Collins; Galaxy Quest; Love Actually and perhaps what will be viewed as his signature role of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films.

The Catacombs extends its sincerest condolences to his family, friends and fans. A sad loss of such a talented man!

"Gal" Friday! Candice Night

The lovely Candice Night is an American vocalist/lyricist, multi-instrumentalist for the traditional folk/rock group Blackmore's Night alongside her husband, legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (Rainbow). After approaching Blackmore as a fan, the pair struck up a friendship over shared interests and then entered into their combined professional and personal partnership in 1997. Seven studio albums feature Night's distinctive vocals on a range of soft-rock and renaissance inspired songs.

I spent most of the post-Christmas period suffering from a rare head cold and turned to her music to while away the hours. I thought perhaps some of you might appreciate my early "gal" Friday post as a nice segue into New Years Eve. Have a great year!

"Gal" Friday! Jenna Coleman

It goes without saying that the BBC’s Doctor Who series is the longest running genre show on television, and although the series conveniently refreshes its cast by having the lead character periodically regenerate into whichever actor is currently cast as the Doctor, needless to say that is not a conceit that has been extended to the vast accumulation of popular companions to the dozen plus official Who’s.

Now, on the verge of the ninth season premiere, comes confirmation that Jenna Coleman will officially be leaving the role of companion Clara Oswald behind.  She has been part of the cast since 2012, one of the longest lasting companions. Both talented and lovely, there is little doubt that Ms. Coleman will continue to impress with her upcoming role as the young Queen Victoria in an ITV production. The Catacombs bids a fond if regretful adieu to Jenna/Clara (you were one of my all-time favorites). You will be sorely missed!

1980's Flashback: The Rocketeer

Pacific Presents #2 (Apr.1983)

The Rocketeer is a fictional character created by writer-illustrator Dave Stevens. The character first appeared as a backup feature in the Pacific Comics series Starslayer in 1982, and is an homage to Saturday matinee serial heroes of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

The Rocketeer was the secret identity of Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who discovered a mysterious jetpack that allowed him to fly. His adventures were set in Los Angeles and New York in 1938, and Stevens gave them a retro, nostalgic feel influenced by the King of the Rocket Men and Commando Cody movie serials (both from Republic Pictures), and pinup diva Bettie Page. The title also uses fictional pulp heroes of the period such as Doc Savage and The Shadow, plus real life horror film icon Rondo Hatton inspired one of the books notable villains.

Dave Stevens passed away in 2008 at the age of 52. I’m glad that I had a chance to meet him in person back in the early 1990s.

STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT [2015]

Hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving, or in lieue of participating in the traditional holiday feast, a decent day off (or something)?

I've been playing Star Wars: Battlefront this week and since I celebrated my own feast a day early, to allow my grown children to spend time with their significant others and their families, for me yesterday was a marathon day of blasting enemies and/or getting the living hell blown out of myself in return. So far, I'm pretty happy with the new SW game and while there are umpteen dozen blogs, video chats and reviews by the usual assortment of egocentric gamer nerds slamming the new release from EA Games/DICE, to me there is really nothing wrong with turning off your brain for a while and simply immersing yourself in the world of Star Wars for some good old fashioned horde mode slaying. I do wish that some of their alien races were available earlier in the game, but most won't unlock until at least level 40 and I am currently only at level 22 (alas).

With the imminent release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens boasting record setting ticket pre-sales, this is another great way to pass the time and get in your Star Wars fix before December 18 lures you into the nearest movie theater. The Catacombs recommends Star Wars: Battlefront 2015 for everyone who wants to have a good time (and just ignore those dumb bigmouthed geeks who lost their fun gene about the time that someone opted to listen to their pitiful little complaints).

1970's Flashback: Giant-Size

1974 and 1975 saw Marvel Comics introduce their popular Giant-Size format where for $.35 (soon $.50) fans were treated to 52 pages of pure magic from the House of Ideas. Often these annual-sized volumes were filled with reprints, but many ran original stories expanded to take full advantage of the extra story pages. A small handful presented new characters and concepts, such as the retconned WWII team-up of The Invaders featuring Captain America and his sidekick Bucky, the original Human Torch and his partner Toro, and the Sub-Mariner. Another revealed the story behind the transformation of Greer Nelson, formerly known as The Cat, into her more familiar role as Tigra. I seem to recall one that revamped the old x-Men team into something all-new and all-different as well? There were several standalone one-shots focusing on a single hero like Thor, the Hulk, or Power Man and a select few ran for several issues such as those starring Conan, the Avengers or the Man-Thing. If you happen to find affordable copies at conventions in great shape, my suggestion is to snap them up and enjoy much more bang for your buck!

1980's Flashback: Xenozoic Tales

Mark Schultz celebrated series Xenozoic Tales is set in a post-apocalyptic future where Earth has been ravaged by pollution and natural disasters. Humanity has built vast underground cities in which they have lived for approximately 600 years. Upon emerging, they discovered that the world had been reclaimed by previously extinct lifeforms including dinosaurs. In this new 'Xenozoic' age, technology is extremely limited and those with mechanical skills command a great deal of respect and influence.

 The two main characters are mechanic Jack Tenrec and scientist (and love interest) Hannah Dundee. Tenrec operates a garage in which he restores cars, particularly Cadillacs. Given that the post-apocalyptic world no longer possesses the ability to refine oil, Jack modifies his cars to run on dinosaur guano. These cars, of course, are frequently chased by rampaging dinosaurs in pulp style action-adventure stories. Publication began in 1986 with a story in the comic anthology Death Rattle. This debut was shortly followed by Xenozoic Tales #1 in February 1987. The comic series ran for 14 issues from several publishers including Kitchen Sink Press, Marvel Comics and Dark Horse Publications.

The series proved moderately successful and under the title “Cadillacs and Dinosaurs”
spawned an animated TV series on the CBS Network, arcade games from Capcom and Sega, action figures, trading cards, candy bars, and a role-playing game. The title "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs" and likenesses of classic Cadillac automobiles were used with the consent of General Motors, who holds the phrase "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs" as a trademark and has licensed it for the comic, the videogame and the animated series.

1980's Flashback: Warp

I'm going to close out this months outer space theme with another oddity that sort of blends into Halloween in a minor way [*see below].

Warp #1 (Mar.1983)

“Warp!” was originally a science-fiction play created at Chicago in 1971 co-authored by *Stuart Gordon. Gordon later became a film director, writer and producer of popular genre fare such as Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, and Dagon, as well as acclaimed episodes from Showtime’s Masters of Horror anthology series. His science fiction films: Robot Jox (1990), and Fortress (1992) have both become cult classics and he co-created Honey, I Shrunk the Kids for Disney Studios.

First Comics published a comic-book version of Warp, which ran 19 issues between March 1983 and February 1985. While other creators eventually worked on the title, the trippiest stuff features in the first nine issues illustrated by Frank Brunner.  David Carson, an everyday bank teller, learns that he is Lord Cumulus, "avenger of the universe". Suddenly transported from an annual employee-awards dinner to the mystical realm Fen-Ra, he finds himself battling for the destiny of the universe against antagonist Prince Chaos. In this world, he encounters the sage Lugulbanda who sends him on his quest aided by the leather-clad Amazon warrior Sargon. They battle Valaria the insect sorceress and Chaos' henchman, the purple ape Symax.

1980's Flashback: Nexus

Introduced in 1981, Nexus is a combination of the superhero and science fiction genres, set 500 years in the future. The series created by writer Mike Baron and artist Steve Rude has been published by Capital Comics, First Comics, Dark Horse Comics and Rude Dude publications.

Nexus #25 (Oct.1986)

Calling himself Nexus, Horatio Hellpop received vast powers from an alien entity called the Merk to seek out and kill a certain quantity of human mass murderers per "cycle". When a target has been selected, Nexus experiences strong headaches and maddeningly anguishing dreams (whose extremely intense episodes caused physical injuries to Hellpop's body that emulated the dream violence) of his target's victims until he did his duty. Horatio was reluctant to act as the Merk's enforcement tool, but continued seeking out mass murderers to maintain his power and his sanity so that he could defend his homeworld, the lunar refuge of Ylum (a shortening of the word "asylum," thus pronounced "eye-lum"). As Horatio grew up, the Merk first influenced him through apparently imaginary friends named Alph and Beta. However, when Horatio's mother died (becoming lost in the tunnels of the planet), Horatio blamed them for her death and killed them in the first use of his power. Shortly afterward, Horatio began to dream about his father's crimes, causing himself inescapable torment. In this agony, Alph and Beta mysteriously appeared to reveal the duties of Nexus necessary to end the ordeal: the execution of his own father. With considerable personal agony (and unaware that his father was already on the verge of suicide), Horatio carried out the execution.

 

"All-New, All-Different?"

Marvel Comics is currently utilizing the above header in their latest attempt to force their intellectual properties into something that an aging fanboy (and willing sychophants) will accept for another quarter of a year before they shift things around yet again.

Of course that wording was originally used back in the late bronze age for the classic revamp of the popular Uncanny X-Men by Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne and many other talented creators. I miss those guys, both the creators and the recognizable team members. At this point, I would be more than willing to sacrifice everything that came later just to get this line-up [pictured, with art by Alex Ross] back in the saddle!!

Asheville Comic Expo (October 24, 2015)

I spent a nice day in Asheville, North Carolina yesterday scoping out the tattoo shops for the best price on a combined design of two images that I'm finally committing to soon, and since the Asheville Comic Expo event was underway; I decided to check that out while I was in town. Among the guests of this small venue one day affair were the legendary artists Mike Grell and Steve "The Dude" Rude. I had seen each man before, but it had been a while, so I picked up a few signatures on a couple of items and also treated myself to a small stack of bronze age gems (and trust me the photos do them no justice; I pinched these images off of the Grand Comics Database). My own hastily acquired copies of Fantastic Four #118, 125 & 128 are spiffy near mint marvels with crisp white pages and the Skull the Slayer #1 looks brand new. The pair of Warlock [7 &8] issues are equally awesome! Thanks to Dave Shankle, who always manages to cut a me sweet deal on things that I horde. I also ate way to much at Early Girl Eatery and Farm Burger, plus drank copious amounts of Turkish tea at Dobra Tea with my daughter, since it's one of her favorite places in town. I much preferred the double-decker coffee bus that we hit while waiting on our brunch reservation at the former restaurant (but all the food joints were great)!