Editorial Diatribe from the Catacombs: Racism

Last night at the VMA Awards show rapper Kanye West opened his mouth in an inappropriate manner. This wasn't the first time that this performer acted out in public, and it won't be the last.

Nineteen year old country music singer Taylor Swift, one of several nominees for "Best Female Video", won her first VMA statue. Literally as she began making her acceptance speech, West appeared from the wings and took the microphone away from her, announcing that Beyonce had made one of the best videos of all time. The insulted and embarrassed Swift was unable to complete her remarks.

In your mind, switch the circumstances and swap West for any white performer and Swift for any black performer and you will have some idea of what this event really equates to. Just imagine the long months of lectures that this country would have to endure for a single idiots bad attitude, and you will be able to put it in its proper perspective.

Now watch as the media and the usual apologists for Mr. West soft-pedal this nasty business under the rug, but make no mistake. Kanye West is one of the faces of racism in America.

And he chooses to be.

September 11, 2001 ... Lest We Forget!

"Gal" Friday! Eliza Dushku

Say it with me and sigh. Eliza Dushku.

Ahhhh!

True Lies, Bring It On, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Wrong Turn, Tru Calling and now back working with Buffy creator Joss Whedon on Fox's Dollhouse series where she portrays Echo.

She is certainly earning some serious action-adventure genre chops. I was somewhat confused when I heard that she had posed for nude photographs after her long time stance against flashing some skin, but then this photo deflated my surging hormones.

Shades of Raquel Welch, another hottie who famously posed a time or two - without actually showing all the goodies.

Oh well, lets take what we're given and keep our fingers crossed that someday a nipple slip will occur that gives us a "true" gander at her unmentionables.

For now that picture is good enough to earn her a spot as this weeks lovely "Gal" Friday.

1980's Flashback: Jonni Thunder aka Thunderbolt

During DC Comic's mid-1980's Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event, the company not only attempted to spin a single cohesive fictional universe out of decades worth of parallel Earth story lines; they also issued lots of mini-series and one-shots devoted to older characters that had fallen out of the limelight and new heroes utilizing familiar names.

Jonni Thunder was a female private detective who appeared in a four issue bi-monthly miniseries from February 1985 to August 1985. The series was written by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, and co-creator Gerry Conway. Veteran artist Dick Giordano handled full illustration duties. A small golden statue gave her the power to turn into a human thunderbolt, while leaving her body behind. Later on while appearing in issues of Infinity, Inc., the thunderbolt entity was revealed to be a hostile alien energy-being, who was defeated by being re-imprisoned in the statue, leaving Jonni without powers. Despite being created by Golden Age expert Roy Thomas and an implied suggestion of a potential connection to the Justice Society of America's Johnny Thunder, that idea was never expounded upon. Jonni Thunder existed on Earth-2 before the Crisis and was only briefly seen on the lone merged Earth resulting from the Crisis finale, attending a detectives convention.

A decade later in DC Comics Kingdom Come continuity, Jonni and Black Lightning have a child who became the anti-hero known as "Lightning", possessing the electricity-based powers of both of her parents. However, in the current DC Universe, Black Lightning's daughter Lightning, who recently joined the JSA, is identified as the daughter of Black Lightning and his ex-wife Lynn Stewart.

Jonni Thunder (aka Thunderbolt) is no longer mentioned.

At the Movies: 9

Nothing is new under the sun in Hollywood, and themes tend to run cyclical. At the moment it seems that audiences are going to be treated to another round of post-apocalyptic films. There is an impending adaptation of author Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning, The Road starring Viggo Mortensen, The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington, the dark-horror comedy, Zombieland, plus a new chapter of George Romero's undead saga, Survival of the Dead, also looms on the horizon (finished, but awaiting a distributor).

Last night I watched a preview of 9, from writer/director Shane Acker and producers Tim Burton & Timur Bekmambetov. The CGI-animated film features an eclectic, yet strong voice cast including Elijah Wood (as "9"), Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly and Crispin Glover

The film takes place in a world parallel to our own, in which a sapient rag doll called 9, comes to life, and finds himself in a devastated world where all humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like himself taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 displays strong leadership qualities and convinces the others that hiding will ultimately do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they'll soon come to learn, they have a connection to past events and the very future of civilization may depend upon them.

I hadn't initially been interested in seeing this movie, but free passes will coax me into watching just about anything and afterwards I was very glad that I went. 9 was riveting from the start, easily pulling the audience into its narrative. I sat in a fully packed theater that ran the gamut in age, race and gender, and the movie was so good that not a single smart ass talked, snorted derisively or even commented back to the screen. That ain't bad in a packed house folks. I won't say anymore about the movie, so as not to spoil it, but please take my recommendation and go see this cool flick.

For family's with small children, let me say that the film is rated PG-13 for violence and scary images, but there were younger audience members in attendance, and I believe that the film doesn't go overboard in this respect. I believe that today's savvier kids can take this type of thing in stride, plus the story has a good message or two mixed in, and the characterizations are clever, funny and entertaining enough for a wide range of viewers.

Rulah Jungle Goddess in "Death Image" (Fox Comics; 1949)

Today's post marks Rulah's swan song in the Catacombs, and at the same time serves as a nice homage to the 1942 film, Tarzan's New York Adventure, directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Sheffield.

Somewhat like the premise of that classic "fish out of water" story, Rulah finds herself forced to leave her familiar jungle realm and travel to the big city to take on a thieving vixen who has stolen her identity in order to bilk the public out of donation dollars - supposedly earmarked to help needy natives back home. This time the mob didn't realize that they had a tiger by the tail until it was too late.

This tale is taken from Rulah Jungle Goddess #24 (March 1949). Thanks to everyone who has posted comments on these neat Fox Comics stories and also to the unidentified person who originally scanned them into Wikisource the Free Library. I wish that there were more available, but I've run through all that they had for the time being.

As I have now run out of material, I doubt that I will be hosting any more golden age comics stories in the Catacombs, but I encourage all of you to whet your appetite for old comics stuff by visiting some of the blogs in my links section. In particular, Karswell continuously posts topnotch tales of terror in his "The Horrors Of It All", and Pappy's Golden Age Comics blog features a wide variety of comics material that is suitable for all tastes. You are bound to find something to satisfy your need for comic book stuff over there, so check them out.

Dragoncon Report (aka I Survived a Day at Dragoncon!)

And I have the aches and pains to show for it. Ouch!

The posts that I made about last years Dragoncon were built around how irked I was about the handling of certain aspects of the convention. This year was a whole different story, with over 500 guests and an army of 1800 volunteers to help shepherd the celebs and thousands upon thousands of fans through venues strung throughout four different downtown Atlanta hotels, I have to tip my hat to the Con organizers and express my gratitude to the volunteers who were nothing less than helpful and courteous.

I've seen large crowds in attendance at Dragoncon over the years, but I do believe that the Saturday crowd was the biggest assortment of humanity that I have ever been amongst at this show. It was crowded everywhere virtually all day long.

The show moved registration to the Sheraton, about a ten minute stroll from the Atlanta Hilton (where the celebrity "Walk of Fame" was located), and the processing of thousands of guests moved much smoother than ever. Even though there were portions of the programming tracks held in the Sheraton, my party of five spent the bulk of the day meandering between the Hilton, The Hyatt and the Marriott hotels. After a full day of plunging through the dense dealers rooms, the vast art contest ballroom (where the comic book artists alley was also located), waiting for photo ops with my daughter & her best friend with actor Tom "Draco Malfoy" Felton, and another ultimately being cancelled for my brother and me with the Babylon 5 hotties (Tracy Scoggins and Claudia Christian; who couldn't be located -DAMN) and enjoying lunch at the nearby Durango Steak House (yummy), we all had a great time, and then drove around downtown Atlanta for about an hour that evening, before munching out at The Varsity burger joint and finally heading back to South Carolina. An eighteen hour day that really left our tootsies dog-tired!

I have to give lots of credit to the visiting celebrities for just how much they put themselves out there for their adoring fans. Most of them were scheduled to participate in multiple photo opportunities for anyone willing to shell out varying prices to have their picture snapped with the famous. Patrick Stewart topped the list with a $200 charge, it would only set you back $160 to sit between William Shatner AND Leonard Nimoy or you could sit among the attending Battlestar: Galactica cast members (Mary McDonnell, Kate Vernon, Michael Trucco, Kandyse McClure, Luciana Carro, Michael Hogan, Alessandro Juliani, Aaron Douglas) for another $240. Despite those prices, most of the photo ops were very reasonably priced. My daughter Stacy's dream photo only set me back $30, and the one that I "almost got" would have been a mere $55.

I truly appreciate and respect the actors for taking the time to sit for these one-of-a-kind mementos, the folks who bought them were really thrilled to receive their photographs, but organizer Froggy Productions should have found a way to minimize the long wait time to get the pictures developed (four hours or longer in many cases), they had previously done this and were familiar with demand. Us single day attendees were left out in the cold with that kind of delay for their late afternoon & evening shoots.

The Walk of Fame was handled much better this year, with less gestapo tactics than the year before and having the actors themselves served by individual volunteer "handlers" for the autograph sales at point of contact was much easier and a nice throwback to how the show used to pull this off. Salute!

I picked up a Tom and Jerry sketch from Stephanie Gladden, an original page of Yanick Paquette art from the Terra Obscura mini-series from inker Karl Story, two signed Nocturnals graphic novels from creator Dan Brereton, finally got a chance to have Ken Steacy sign his old Famous Comic Book Creator card and picked up a celebrity autograph or two myself. This year I focused my attention on the casts from the late lamented Babylon 5 (Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Peter Jurasik, Tracy Scoggins and Stephen Furst) and the recently ended Battlestar: Galactica [see list above]; a cooler bunch of people, you would be hard pressed to find and that's saying something with other fun, famous folks like Karen Allen, Malcolm McDowell, James Marsters, and cast members from all Star Trek series, Star Wars, Stargate, Heroes, Buffy/Angel, The Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, etc. [The chauvinist in me has to mention how beautiful all of the genre ladies in attendance were, they each deserve their very own "Gal" Friday recognition in the Catacombs, so look for them throughout the coming year.]

You would not believe how long the lines were, outside the Marriott hotel, for The Venture Brothers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Joss Whedon tracks. Phenomenal! Costuming, gaming, panels, film festivals all took a backseat position for us. Dragoncon is simply too huge a show, with just to much to see and do, in a single day. We are already talking about breaking this cut-bait & run tactic and taking the multi-day plunge next year.

Hope to see you there in 2010!

"Gal" Friday! Jennifer O'Dell

I'm off to Dragoncon in Atlanta, but lest I forget, here is today's "Gal" Friday!

Jennifer O'Dell starred on the syndicated television series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World as Veronica, the jungle-clad female lead. This “exposure” elevated Jennifer to a different level from her previous career doing guest spots on shows like Beverly Hills 90210, Diagnosis Murder, Pacific Blue and The Profiler; and ultimately opened doors to appearances on today's most popular television shows including Angel, Scrubs, Las Vegas, Charmed, CSI: Miami, The Closer, Nip/Tuck, Shark & Two and a Half Men.

She has also appeard in two independent films, The Man Who Came Back and Nevermore and has been cast in the upcoming feature, The Redemption of Sarah Cain.

You would be hard pressed to find a more fetching jungle girl than O’Dell as Veronica Layton. Blonde, buxom, sexy (yet believably strong) in the role, Jennifer was pretty much the only good reason to tune in the Australian produced series during its two season run.

Dragoncon starts today in Atlanta!

Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US. Dragon*Con 2009 kicks off today and runs through until Labor Day (September 4 - September 7, 2009) in Atlanta, GA.

I will be there bright and early tomorrow morning representing the Catacombs. Considering the dramatic costuming that is always on display at Dragoncon, my party of peeps and I have decided to dress as aging fan boys in order to get into the spirit of the show, so I doubt that you would recognize us anyway.

There are over 400 guests in attendance ranging from science fiction & fantasy authors, tons of motion picture and television actors, directors and writers, and many cool bands that will be performing into the wee hours each evening. Since I maintain a comic book blog, I thought that it would be nice to highlight the comics industry folks who will be in Atlanta. You will be able to meet and greet this large list of comic book professionals (but some others that I am unfamiliar with will also be at the convention):

Avatar Press, Dan Brereton (The Nocturnals), Mark Brooks, Bob Burden, Matt Busch, Tommy Castillo, Amanda Conner, Darwyn Cooke , Peter David, Desperado Publishing, GW Fisher, Francesco Francavilla, Gaijin Studios, Stephanie Gladden, Michael Golden, Sanford Green, Everette Hartsoe, Bill Holbrook, Rich Larson, David Mack, Jim Mahfood, Nathan Massengill, Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Dean Motter, Ted Naifeh, Jimmy Palmiotti, George Perez (w/Hero Initiative), Brandon Peterson, Eric Powell (The Goon), Brian Pulido, Humberto Ramos, Don Rosa, Andy Runton, Ken Steacy, Studio Revolver, Wayne Vansant, Loston Wallace, Greg “Dark One” Williams and Renee Witterstaetter

Whew! That's not too shabby,even with Paul Dini's cancellation. Wish me luck as I attempt to line up a few interviews for the Catacombs, and fair warning, if you are a hot chick (or if you are bringing a hottie with you); and IF you or they are wearing something revealing or sexy - all bet's are off. Inebriated or not, I'm squeezing some flesh.

Rayboy's Review: Archie #600 (Part I of VI)

In this age of endless mega-crossover-marketing events, it's nice to know that every now and then something outside of Marvel and DC occurs that also grabs a bit of the industry's attention. This week's review covers a non-superhero event that may just end up drawing comparisons to Gemstone's classic 1990's-era 'The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'.

Archie Comics new release, Archie #600 is the first of six entertaining issues that will reveal how perennial teenager Archie Andrews came to propose to Ms. Veronica Lodge, ending the decades long love triangle between the two of them and the perpetual girl-next-door, Betty Cooper.

Written by film and TV producer Michael Uslan (the Batman films, National Treasure, Swamp Thing, Catwoman, The Spirit and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego) and illustrated by Stan Goldberg & Bob Smith, "The Proposal" begins with the Riverdale gang celebrating their impending high school graduation and then Archie goes for a long walk down Memory Lane, not only a stroll of reflection mind you, but an actual street in Riverdale. Rather than spoil this neat story, I will caution readers to pay very close attention to the artwork of the opening four page sequence for some potential clues to how this tale may play out.

Needless to say, there is some hope for those of us who may have been a bit flummoxed to see Betty get the cold shoulder in this surprising media event. The remainder of this introductory chapter follows the graduation that is depicted [hint] of young Mr. Andrews who quickly pops the question, unaware that Betty and Jughead are witness to the scene. The ripples of the impending nuptials spread throughout Riverdale and Archie finds himself pressed into working for the wealthy Mr. Lodge; he does have to provide a satisfactory income for daddy's dearest after all and the die is cast for next issues wedding (perhaps of the century).

That's all for now, kiddies. I don't want to ruin anybody's fun, but the story is worth checking out and Goldberg's always dependable artwork is perfect for something like this. Archie Comics has offered their signature characters in manga style and in a more realistically drawn style in recent years, so its comforting to see things looking the way one would expect here, even if looks turn out to be deceiving.

Great Sci-fi Movie Lines: Star Wars Trilogy

Today I'm offering a lecherous twist on my superhero movie line posts, by dipping into the science-fantasy universe that is located far, far away ... and then tilting a bit towards indecent. Check out these lines of risque dialogue and see if you think the original screenwriters intended for this funny stuff to be taken somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Take your pick! They are all hilarious (my favorites are 'highlighted' in boldface):

A NEW HOPE (1977)

'She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.' 'Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!' 'Look at the size of that thing!' 'Sorry about the mess...' 'You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought.' 'Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?' 'You've got something jammed in here real good.' 'Put that thing away before you get us all killed.' 'Luke, at that speed do you think you'll be able to pull out in time?' 'Get in there, you big furry oaf, I don't care what you smell!' 'She's fast enough for you, old man.'

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)

'I must've hit it pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh, kid?' 'That's okay, I'd like to keep it on manual control for a while.' 'Hurry up, golden-rod..' 'I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me.' 'There's an awful lot of moisture in here.' 'Possible, he came through the south entrance.' 'But now we must eat, Come...good food, come...' 'Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?' 'And I thought they smelled bad on the outside.' 'Control, control, you must learn control!'

RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983)

'There is good in him, I've felt it.' 'Hey Luke, thanks for coming after me, now I owe you one.' 'You're a jittery little thing aren't you?' 'In time you will call me master.' 'A little higher, just a little higher.' 'I never knew I had it in me.' 'Grab it, almost..you almost got it. Gently now, alright, easy, easy...' 'Hey, point that thing someplace else!' 'What could possibly have come over Master Luke?' 'Back door, huh? Good idea!'

Retro-View: The Zero Patrol #3 (Continuity Comics)

The Zero Patrol #3 (Apr. 1988; Continuity Comics) begins on the planet, Beriree, where successive missions by the inhabitants to investigate their important magma lines (the source of the worlds life support); result in seventy-eight people being institutionalized in an induced state of blind panic. Madam President X’Adral appeals to the mysterious “Zero” for aid, and he dispatches two of his agents, Dr. Altar Lane and Dr. Lanie Dark to assist with this dilemma.

Lane and Dark are brought up to speed upon their arrival and they immediately set out for the caverns that house the all-important magma lines. However once they enter the affected region, they detect atmospheric anomalies and both experience feelings of dread. Suddenly the image of a malevolent giant appears and despite their attempt to fight against the regions potent environment and the likelihood that this beast is nothing but a weird manifestation, the pair tumble over an abyss.

Quickly activating his anti-gravity belt, Altar Lane arrests their fall and he is then placed under the mental thrall of the alluring Dr. Lanie Dark, in a test to see if this will allow them to overcome whatever is responsible for the “fear effect”. Lane succeeds in passing through the area, but he is separated from Dr. Dark, who is shown to have been captured by the villains responsible for this crisis. It seems that guild hijackers had intended to blackmail the planet by controlling the vital magma, and after Dr. Lane is later reunited with his comely female companion, they jointly hatch a scheme to trick the hijackers into allowing the Zero Patrol members to “assist” with a scientific problem that the dastardly villains haven’t quite been able to lick.

Damak, the primary boss, isn’t so gullible and he moves to kill Lane and Dark, but Altar Lane leaps at the last moment and activates the fear beam, turning it upon the hijackers, and effectively ending the planetary crisis.

There is also a five page “Shaman” backup feature, which is somewhat like a post-apocalyptic Conan-style adventure; all written and drawn by Neal Adams. Shaman was originally introduced in a 'New Heroes' portfolio issued by Adams, but he was never a major Continuity property. Still the issue does have twenty-nine pages of story and art for $2, and that was in 1988.

That's the breakdown of this issue, but it's not the end of the story. Regardless of Neal Adams important impact on the comics industry upon his arrival in the 1960's, his Continuity Comics were a cluster-fuck from the very beginning. This issue is typical of the line, with numerous misspellings throughout and adding insult-to-injury, the apparent touch-ups by Mr. Adams on the original artwork tend to muddy up whole portions of the book.

'Zero Patrol', was originally published in the European series, Delta 99 in the late 1960's; written and illustrated by Esteban Maroto as 'Cinco por Infinito', The Zero Patrol was a team of five people from Earth, collected to protect the universe by the mysterious being known as Zero. The Continuity Comics version had first run for only two issues in 1984 & 1985. Then those issues were reprinted and the series ran for a total of five issues in 1987-89, before Continuity Comics eventually closed down. This repackaged material had Neal Adams supplying some new story and artwork elements, but with the usual rushed efforts of Continuity Graphics, it is difficult to determine just how much the storytelling on this title was the result of poor translation from the original source material or just deadline-induced sloppiness. Maroto's older series may have made some kind of sense, but this effort falls barely within the tolerable reading range.

Like most of Continuity's books!