Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle in "Fishmen of the Congo" (Fiction House; 1940)

Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle returns to the Catacombs today in a previously untitled tale that I’ve dubbed “Fishmen of the Congo” from Jungle Comics #11 (Nov.1940); originally published by Fiction House and credited to writer Robert Lewis and artist Charles Sultan. The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: the copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belongs to the original publisher and/or creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes. Enjoy!

Danny Dreams of "Gulliver Isle" (St. John;1954)

"Danny Dreams" was a regular backup feature in the St. John Publishing series Tor. This previously untitled sequence from Tor #5 (Oct.1954) was illustrated by Joe Kubert and Mort Meskin and gets a groovy new title courtesy of yours truly. This early silver age story was later reprinted during the bronze age (DC, 1975 series) Tor #3 (September-October 1975). The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belongs to the original publisher and/or creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes. Enjoy!

"Gal" Friday! LizMaree

Continuing my March Madness Month of nearly nude "gal" Friday's. This weeks eye-popping beauty isn't slathered in body paint, but she just can't be summed up in a few measly words either, so stare away to your hearts content. I found this lovely photo in an open public gallery on Facebook, so I guess it's not a problem to identify this luscious "gal" by the name she posts under there. Marvel (please click to embiggen) at "LizMaree"; cold showers or other forms of therapy are recommended. Yikes!!

In Memorium: Sid Couchey

Harvey Comics artist Sid Couchey passed away at the age of ninety-two on March 11, 2012 after recently being diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma cancer. Couchey began his long career in comics serving as an assistant to Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. He produced a steady and largely uncredited body of work on a number of comics through the 1950s, and then worked on various Harvey titles like Little Lotta, Richie Rich and Little Dot during the 1960s and 1970s. Later he began a second career as a local-interest cartoonist, drawing comics about "Champy", Lake Champlain’s answer to the Loch Ness Monster. Trivia: He is credited with being the first artist to embed a real-life marriage proposal in a comic. The Catacombs extends its sincerest condolences to his family, friends and fans.

Rayboy's Review: Mass Effect 3 [Spoilers Possible]

The controversy over the Mass Effect 3 ending(s) is growing to become the largest backlash a game has ever earned. Sadly, the response of Bioware personnel hasn’t helped much either; there’s only so much damage control to be gleaned by intentionally being vague in the wake of unintended beta story leaks or by offering ridiculous spin that flies in the face of known facts that the company itself clearly established in the lore of their popular universe-smashing game franchise. And for a trilogy that was specifically marketed to reach an actual conclusion (this is the end of Commander Shepard’s tale after all), Mass Effect 3 still leaves fans with major cliff-hanging questions that truly come out of left field: Why was there was a god-child on the Citadel that looked like the child from the beginning of the game, how did the squad-mates that you took with you on the final mission to Earth end up back on the Normandy, where was the Normandy going when it leapt through that Mass Relay before the big blowout, and just how did Joker survive the crash or avoid serious injury with brittle bones disease????

Customers paid real dollars [$80 for the Collector’s Edition and $60 for the Mass Effect 3 standard edition] not to mention the heavy emotional investment through interactive choices made over five years and three games, all to see how those gut-wrenching decisions and romance options affected the finale. Bioware engaged fans in that discussion, and at least tacitly promised through ongoing media promotion, regular online forum management, and teasing Twitter feeds to tell what would happen now that the trilogy was over. This was massively advertised as their big 'take back Earth' ending that everyone had been waiting for. Well, at the conclusion it is simply "forget that", just push one of three buttons for minor variations on the same theme. The  end! The whole universe is boned regardless, the relays are kaput, fleets of every description are stranded without life-sustaining provisions far from home, newly formed and fragile stellar alliances prove to be pointless, and let’s say that you managed to amass sufficient assets to get the most beneficial outcome – yes go ahead and laugh out loud – a post-credit sequence of mere seconds shows the injured torso of Commander Shepard taking a breath.  What was that all about??

Originally meant for holiday 2011 release, Mass Effect 3 was publicly delayed until March 2012, which begs another question; for what purpose? To enhance the games multi-player component (really impressive), but that is certainly secondary to the grassroots outcry over the severe limitations placed on the whole concept of choice that this franchise is well known for. Why, why, why?

Most egregiously of all, the controversy overshadows a terrific game that the Bioware team obviously put a tremendous amount of work into. The sounds of weapons are intensified for the first time, the environments are opened up in a dramatic way that allows for more fluid movement of your character to take full advantage of, and don’t rest on your laurels during a play-through. Enemies aggressively come after you, and you had better fight for your life and take nothing for granted. Plus, the introduction of  a default official Female Shepard was great. Surprisingly I’m finding that the diminished roles of Mass Effect 2 squad members didn’t ruin the new game for me (I had worried about that). Each gets their moment to shine, often for extended periods, so other than if they were your sweetheart of choice, this isn’t too off-putting in ME3.

If only the kneejerk visceral reactions of the most vocally outraged fans would lessen and if Casey Hudson/Mac Walters//Bioware would step up and forego the degree of disingenuity that’s been on display at their end, perhaps this unfortunate stain on the Mass Effect franchise could come to an acceptable end. Without equivocation!

Auro, Lord of Jupiter in "The Eye of Cykka" (Fiction House;1943)

Hey, “John Carter” may be undeservedly struggling at the box office (unfortunate too, since it’s a great movie); so here is a sympathetic and similar post in honor of the ERB hero’s debut on the big screen – courtesy of the Catacombs. Auro, Lord of Jupiter returns in a story from Planet Comics #24 (May 1943); originally published by Fiction House. Since there was no official title for this golden age classic, I've christened it "The Eye of Cykka". The Grand Comics Database attributes the artwork on this tale to Rafael Astarita; plus Dan Zolnerowich is the cover artist. The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belongs to the original publisher and/or the creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes. Enjoy!

At the Movies: John Carter

It saddens me to mention that “John Carter” will likely go down as one of the biggest box office flops of the year, the $250-million-plus "John Carter" debuted with a disappointing $30.6 million this weekend. It’s funny that last weekend's No. 1 film, "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax," claimed the top box office spot again. That animated tale collected an additional $39.1 million and has now grossed a robust $122 million in just 10 days of release. [Current domestic total: $122 million. Current international total: $1.8 million.] By contrast, “John Carter” earned a $30.6 million domestically and an additional $70.6 million overseas in 55 foreign markets in its opening weekend; so only Hollywood-style math can determine that a new release is already a “failure” with such a small overall margin difference. Of the two films based on popular literary icons, “Carter” is the most clearly faithful of the pair, with “Lorax” diverging most from the simple story it adapts, with tons of padding to flesh it out for the big screen. Go figure?

Fanboys supposedly failed to gravitate towards Walt Disney Studios' "John Carter," a fantasy epic that has been plagued by bad buzz for months. Based on a century-old character created by author Edgar Rice Burroughs, "John Carter," is about a Civil War veteran who is transported to Mars. Whether "John Carter" was meant to appeal to young males or not, it appears that an older crowd of “fanboys” actually turned up to see the movie this weekend, as 59% of the audience was over age 25 and those who saw the film - a 64% male contingent - assigned it an overall positive rating. The film was doomed to fight an uphill battle after most recognized genre properties strip-mined the original ERB source material over the last seventy years. Many critics and the general audience were highly likely to assume that they had seen this all before. That simply proves the efficacy of stealing/borrowing/mimicking the best. Bias of select critics is also on display, when director Andrew Stanton is justifiably praised for his previous Pixar efforts “Finding Nemo” and “Wall*E”, but not so much here. Look, his fine storytelling strengths are definitely on full view in “John Carter”, it is a clearly delineated action epic with spot on dialogue delivered by a topnotch cast, backed by outstanding production values, awesome special effects, a strong music score, and again an exceptionally well chosen cast. “John Carter” may ultimately receive less real dollars than some shit on a shingle pabulum like "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island", but in hindsight “Carter” will most likely be viewed as nothing less than a triumph. I didn’t just like “John Carter”, I loved it. Its eventual Blu-Ray release is pre-sold to me, even if the larger audience weaned on dozens of ongoing reality TV clones, and moronic cable fare didn’t respect it enough to view this terrific genre flick over their soporific “happy meal” staples.

In simpler terms, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND “John Carter”, and hope that some of you will give it a chance. I give much respect to director/writer Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrew & Michael Chabon for an excellent screenplay adaptation, the amazing cast of Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins (totally love her as Dejah Thoris), Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Samantha Morton, James Purefoy, Bryan Cranston, Polly Walker and Daryl Sabara; and all the Disney team for realizing this long hoped for movie-going experience. Ignore the critics folks, decide for yourself, and go see this great movie!

In Memorium: Jean Giraud

French comics artist Jean Giraud who gained worldwide fame not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, passed away this morning at the age of seventy-three in Paris. Following his long-running and acclaimed work on the western Blueberry, in 1975 Métal Hurlant (a magazine which he co-created) introduced the famous serial The Airtight Garage and his groundbreaking Arzach. Other notable works include The Incal, The Long Tomorrow, Silver Surfer: Parable, and Little Nemo. Giraud also brought his revolutionary design sensibilities to films such as Alien, Tron, Masters of the Universe, Heavy Metal, Willow, The Abyss, The Fifth Element, and aspects of his work served as major inspiration to other genre films like Blade Runner and Star Wars. The Catacombs extends its sincerest condolences to his family, friends and fans.

"Gal" Friday! Yvonne Strahovski

Exercising blogger privilege this week by featuring a repeat "gal" Friday selection. Yvonne Strahovski starred as government agent Sarah Walker on "Chuck" for five seasons on the NBC television network; plus she reprises her popular voice role as Miranda Lawson in the EA Games/Bioware video game, Mass Effect 3 (which went on sale this very week). Following the series finale of "Chuck" on January 27, 2012, the fetching Aussie posed for a major campaign ad for SoBe Lifewater drinking products. It is from this excellent photo session that I've culled two nice pics as part of this months nearly-nude series. It's a bit of a misnomer too, as Yvonne is actually fully nude here, wearing only body paint. The painting of bodies is really beginning to win me over, but I will have to insist on manning the air gun for the next session, particularly if Ms. Strahovski can be coaxed back. I just can't get enough of this stuning "gal"; oh, and Google an image search for even more of these revealing photos (plus there's even a video feature of the shoot available on the SoBe website).

Samar in "The Stone of Death" (Quality;1941)

Samar stars in a golden age adventure called "The Stone of Death" from Feature Comics #46 (Jul.1941); originally published by Quality Comics and with art by Al Bryant. The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belongs to the original publisher and/or creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes. Enjoy!

Tangi in "The Evil Heart" (Star Publ.;1952)

This rebranded story called “The Evil Heart” is from Terrors of the Jungle #20 (Dec.1952); from Star Publications, but it was originally presented in Jungle Jo #2 (Fox; July 1950); simply as "The Temple of the Moon God" starring the lesser known jungle girl, Tangi (both titles are prominent on the splash page). Unfortunately, there are no credits listed for creators for either issue in the GCD. The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belongs to the original publisher and/or creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes. Enjoy!

Mass Effect 3: "Take Earth Back!"

The battle to end all battles has begun!

"Go weapons-hot in a fully immersive sci-fi epic that reacts to every decision you make.

Not everyone will survive. An ancient alien race, known only as “Reapers”, has launched an all-out invasion leaving nothing but a trail of destruction in their wake. Earth has been taken, the galaxy is on the verge of total annihilation, and you are the only one who can stop them. The price of failure is extinction. You are Commander Shepard, a character that you can forge in your own image. You determine how events will play out, which planets to explore, and whom to form alliances with as you rally a force to eliminate the Reaper threat once and for all. How you wage this war is completely up to you: go into combat with guns blazing or use cover to plan a more tactical assault. Utilize your squad to full effect or take a lone wolf approach. Rain death from a distance or go toe–to-toe with enemies using devastating melee attacks. Mass Effect 3 will react to each decision you make as you play through a truly unique experience of your own creation.

A rich, branching storyline: Experience a sci-fi epic with multiple endings determined by your choices and actions throughout the game. Massive in scope: Battle on many worlds across the galaxy as you unite the ultimate force to take back the Earth before it’s too late. Large-scale and intelligent enemies: Battle enormous enemies and take on a smarter type of foe that will consistently challenge your best combat tactics and put you on the edge of your seat. Unlock a customizable arsenal: Tailor each weapon with devastating upgrades including scopes, grips, barrels and dozens of other unique attachments. Each weapon boasts its own powerful impact and visual flair. Unleash death from afar or go toe-to-toe: Customize your soldier and squad to engage the enemy on your terms. A huge variety of weapons, abilities and equipment allow you to combat the enemy in your preferred style of play."

I would probably tell you how I felt about this game on a more personal level, but I'm the victim of truly Amazonian indifference. I pre-ordered my Mass Effect 3 [N7] Collectors Edition for Xbox 360 from Amazon back in August of 2011, but despite the credit card charge from this past Sunday evening,  my copy has not even shipped yet. Supposedly, supply and demand issues are at fault. Irritation does not even begin to describe my thoughts on this gaffe. Usually game companies cut-off sales for special editions at least a month or more before the scheduled release date, but Bioware/EA Games continued to solicit sales for all formats across a variety of venues right up until the very end; SO, I get to wait until hell freezes over to actually get into the battle against the dreaded Reapers. This is the third and final act in the best-selling ME franchise, and if you haven't played any Mass Effect game before, there are built-in ways for the new game to get you up to speed for what is bound to be an intense RPG experience. Hey, if you have grown somewhat tired of the endless spin going on in the world of comic books, this is a nice way to enjoy epic storytelling with heroic characters on a galactic scale, plus based on your in-game decisions, you will even decide how the action plays out. Irritation notwithstanding, recommended!