How NOT to do a Superhero Movie: Catwoman (2004)

Halle Berry truly earned a Razzie Award for her turn as something-that-tried-to-pass-itself-off-as-Catwoman; but she failed miserably to achieve that goal.

After assaying the iconic role of Storm in the X-Men films, also to mixed results, the Oscar winning actress seemed more than desperate to channel the Eartha Kitt, version of Catwoman from the campy old Batman television. Apparently nobody thought to clue poor Halle in that the late Ms. Kitt wasn't the best actress to tackle the famed Gotham City vixen. Julie Newmar still owns the role!

Adding insult to injury, Batman doesn't even appear in the film, and I don't recall whether he is even mentioned. I guess I was laughing too hard the only time that I managed to watch this turkey.

Speaking of vixens, the real sad thing about this dumb movie, is that DC Comics had a similar African-American character named "Vixen" who could have served as a nice model for this film, of course then the producers wouldn't have been able to trade on a better known heroic name, but maybe now they are wishing that they had thought outside the "litter" box.

Jo-Jo Congo King vs "The Vulture Birdmen" (Fox Comics; 1948)

[Click to make bigger] Sorry guys, I really had intended to run a Rulah story today, but this particular Jo-Jo tale is far better and more enjoyable than the few remaining Jungle Goddess stories that I have access to. Jo-Jo is cut from the same cloth as the Johnny Weismuller version of Tarzan. He speaks broken English, wears a loin cloth, and rights wrongs throughout the dark continent.

In this exciting story, Jo-Jo's first attempt to take on the winged menace of the title, earns him nothing but scorn and derision from his own tribesmen after his failure to succeed, but he soon gets the hang of flying and then the tables are effectively turned on Sootho (and hey, Jo-Jo gets to canoodle with the luscious Tanee afterwards anyway, so why feel sorry for him?).

Trivia: The "Stan Ford" who is credited at the top of the splash page is nothing but a pseudonym for Jack Kamen, who provides the excellent art on this tale, including several super-nice "good girl" art panels originally published in Fox Comics Jo-Jo Congo King #11 (February 1948). Enjoy!

On the Tube: Virtuality

If you blinked you probably missed Virtuality last night, but this potential series pilot from executive producer Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar: Galactica) and director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Hancock) aired with stellar reviews from multiple sources and ye Catacombs editor heartily agrees. With Galactica gone and Lost returning in January for its final season, genre fans need all the quality shows that we can get (and we've seen how crappy Heroes has become).

Aboard Earth’s first starship, the Phaeton, a crew of 12 astronauts is on the verge of embarking on an epic 10-year journey crucial to the survival of life on Earth. They have reached the “go” or “no go” point, the critical part of the journey where the crew must commit to traveling to a distant solar system millions of miles away. If they “go,” they cannot turn back.

In order to help the crew endure the long mission, a system of virtual reality modules is installed aboard the starship. These modules allow the crew to assume various identities and enjoy a variety of adventures, until a flaw is discovered in the system.

Each crew member can assume adventurous, avatar-like identities as they explore self-created worlds and scenarios, or simply spend quality down time as themselves in the ultra-life-like simulators. From a war hero to a rock star to secret lovers on an island, these are their psychological lifelines, and each module’s unique setting was chosen by the crew member before departing Earth.

But there is a “bug” in the system.

As crew members go in and out of reality, they realize that a virus has entered their private world. Questions are raised, and suspicions fanned: Is someone on the crew responsible? When the interloper’s intrusions cross a violent and disturbing line, the ship’s commander makes a difficult decision to shut down the modules. But before he can, a tragic event threatens the mission. Is it an accident or a crime? Real or virtual? Whatever the case, it’s too late to turn back, so the group ventures forth into space, fearing that they may be harboring a person or presence determined to derail their vital mission. Meanwhile, tensions are heightened even further as surveillance cameras capture their every move for a reality series back on Earth.

Awesome!

Hopefully the positive word of mouth will help send this thought-provoking show to series, but if not, seek out a copy of it in any way shape or form that it can be found. Its that good!

"Gal" Friday! Farrah Fawcett (RIP)

Easy pick this week with the sad news of one of the original Angels passing away. Farrah Fawcett (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) shot to television immortality in the 1970's on Charlies Angels opposite Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith.

She led a storied existence and had numerous ups and downs with her career and personal life, but she held in there and earned her fair share of accolades and awards.

Many condolences go out to her family, friends and fans worldwide.

From the Dust Bin: Jigsaw (Harvey Comics)

Jigsaw was created by Joe Simon for Harvey Comics short-lived superhero line, Harvey Thriller, but the disconnectable "Man of a Thousand Parts" only survived for two issues published between September and December 1966.

The feature was drawn by Tony Tallarico, with the writing credited to Otto Binder. The series had several backup features like "Super Luck" in issue #1 and "The Man From SRAM" (art by Golden Age veteran Carl Pfeufer) in #2. The first issue also featured a science fiction story drawn by EC Comics great Reed Crandall. It has been speculated that some work for a third issue may have existed when the line was cancelled.

"X" Marks the Spot .... maybe!

I haven't been able to buy any of the X-Men books in so long that it is with great trepidation that I find myself finally picking one up, and even anticipating another.

Veteran writer Chris Claremont, who originally penned the popular teams adventures for 16 years, recently returned as scribe for the merry mutants with June's X-Men Forever #1. Claremont was a guest at this years Heroes Convention, and I happened to be in line while he was verbally jousting (in a nice way) with fans over what happened to Wolverine in the new series first issue, and the relative merits of replacing the adamantium-laced mutant in the X-Men with the villainous Sabretooth. As Mr. Claremont put it, following little effective repartee from the folks gathered in his long line, "Wouldn't you rather read something that you haven't seen before, than just another rehash of the same old thing?" Well, we'll see, Chris!

One other big draw for X-Men Forever is the artwork of Tom Grummett, which gives the book a solid penciller with proven storytelling skills & a pleasant style that appeals to fans of classic Marvel imagery.

July hopefully brings another "X" book with promise, Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1, written by Scott Gray with art by Roger Cruz. This one is supposed to cover the early days of the X-Men’s "Second Genesis" group of Cyclops, Storm, Banshee, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Phoenix; all sporting their classic, original (and sorely missed) superhero costumes!

Each of these comics appeals to ye Catacombs editor because of certain classic elements (like the spandex super suits) which hearken back to the days when comic book professionals weren't embarrassed to be writing superheroes-who looked like superheroes, so if you're like me, keep your fingers crossed and give these books a shot.

The "real" Guardians are here!

I'm still recuperating from Heroes Convention, thinking about Dragoncon and mulling over attending my first Baltimore Con. We'll see!

Here for your amusement is a look at a small portion of the swag that I purchased in Charlotte, NC. I actually found a nice, mint copy of Marvel Presents #3 last year, but I managed to locate a near mint run of Marvel Presents #4-12, so now I have the entire Guardians of the Galaxy series which was published between April 1976 and August 1977. I paid $2.50 apiece for these gems by writer Steve Gerber and artist Al Milgrom.

I will probably post a Rulah story tomorrow, so head back over and check it out.

Heroes Convention (Day 3) .... Sunday

Overall, this years Heroes Convention was just as fun, exciting & cool as usual. I picked up the entire run of the original Guardians of the Galaxy series in Marvel Presents and three issues of Ms. Marvel, all from the 1970's - in high grade for cheap (in fact, I believe these books were warehouse copies, since they appear never to have been read). I got them for $2.50 apiece. I also picked up a small stack of other late 70's and early 80's books to plug holes in my collection, for about a buck each.

I scored a few commissions from David Wachter (Scar Tissue, Guns of Shadow Valley), Stephanie Gladden (Cartoon Network Block Party), Joe Staton (Scooby Doo, E-Man) and Guy Davis (BPRD, Nevermen). Arranged a few interviews which will be upcoming in the Catacombs (tease).

Stood in lines from hell to get stuff signed by Ed Brubaker, Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz and spent most of Sunday tracking down all of the eclectic guests who contributed art pieces to the convention program book, so that I could get their autographs. Managed to locate all but three, and they had apparently left early.

I really appreciate those shows where the organizers establish limits on autographed items. Both Claremont and Brubaker showed up long after the con got underway each day of the show, and each time dozens of fans had been patiently waiting for at least a few hours to see these guys AND then these gentlemen blithely signed "everything" that a limited handful of folks brought. I do NOT at all care for the occasional fan who brings a stack of 50 to 100 comics (or more?) to be signed. Let's face it, nobody is that big of a fan and most of those signed items will be going up for sale on eBay. I see no reason to help them out to that extent, particularly when its hot and many other people are patiently waiting. Brubaker seemed particularly oblivious to how long people were waiting. On Friday he had people waiting for 3 to 4 hours as he signed books for TWO people. Each had a stack of no less than 100+ items. Claremont struck me as the kind of guy who likes to hold court, waxing on and off about this subject and that subject to amuse his audience. We weren't amused! I don't mind a pro taking a rest here and there, its hard on the hands signing so many things. I understand that a guy will need to eat, go to the bathroom and visit with old acquaintances, but when people are sweating to death and fading right before your very eyes, shut the hell up and sign stuff, buddy. He at least, apologized for the delays every so often, but he too, signed mile high stacks of comics & books without end for a few miscreants.

Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction and Jeff Smith had lines that were equally as long - or longer than the two mentioned above - but they went above and beyond the call to get their fans through the lines quickly. Bendis even brought cookies to pass out to those people who were waiting. It makes standing in line so much more tolerable, when the guest is mindful of the crowd. Bravo, gentlemen! You each earned my respect.

Some of the photos that I snapped with my cell phone fouled up, the two up top are from the Sunday quick draw contest. One sheet of paper, a pencil and twenty minutes and a chance to win a nice prize. My 10 year old nephew earned third place on the final day of the show in his age division. Congratulations Jackson, you did a good job!

As a consolation for the messed up photos, here are two more snaps from Saturdays art auction (I don't know the artists names, sorry). The Heroes Convention has a history of helping out charities ranging from the local burned children's fund, to assisting comic creators on hard times like the late Sam Grainger, but since most of the major publishers scaled back from underwriting costs of the show, the auction helps earn money to cover the costs of bringing each years massive slate of guests to Charlotte. All of these endeavors are worthy causes and everybody has a great time too.

That's it for this year, hope you all can join us next summer.

Heroes Convention (Day 2) .... Saturday

The second day of the show started early (we got onto the convention floor at 9:30 am), and ran late (the annual Charity Art Auction was still in full swing when we bailed at 11:35 pm), for some much needed rest.

This year the bargains were a bit more difficult to find, but they were there (you just had to look harder). Strangely, some of the best deals to be had were on original art. I guess that the economy could be credited with this situation, as several artists were offering their pages for affordable prices. The commissions for name artists still seemed par for the course, but Heroes Convention featured "Indie Island" for the fifth straight year. Indie Island is a mini-pavilion within the larger show that is primarily devoted to small press, self-published and independent comics and books. Original artwork and sketches could really be gotten here for money that wouldn't bust your wallet, and the quality of these pieces was very high indeed.

Your photo glimpses into Day 2 of the show offers talented costumers as members of the Green Lantern Corps, Zatanna of the JLA and the Scarlet Witch, and if my hands hadn't been shaking so bad when I snapped these pics of "Z" and Wanda, you would have been better able to appreciate just how smoking hot these gals were. Long legs, curvy figures and bodacious bosoms were the order of the day. There were about a dozen really cute young women decked out as genre characters throughout the show (and somebody else, preferably female, can blog elsewhere about the guys in costume). At least I've shown one photo to represent them, too.!

The last couple of photos were taken at the art auction, with one showing a portion of the dozens of art pieces that were done live at the show by artists like Cully Hamner, Marcus Hamilton & Allison Sohn, or donated by the guests. The highest bid was earned by Frank Cho's incredible illustration of Medusa (au naturel) of the Inhumans. It fetched a whopping $4750.00. I will touch on the art auction more tomorrow when I will be back with a final photo wrap-up of the last day of the show and some of my personal thoughts of Heroes Convention 2009!

Heroes Convention (Day 1) ... Friday

The Heroes Convention kicked off in Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday, June 19, 2009 and for those of us who've been to more than a few of them over the last 26 years, the organizers brought back an old perk - letting the advanced ticket holders in a half hour before the general public.

Despite the rush to take in all that the event had to offer, I managed to snap a few photos as I strolled around the floor of the Charlotte Convention Center on day one.

The first shot is a generic view of the floor, followed by the DC Comics booth, the table for Amelia Rules creator Jimmy Gownley, and two of the big guests Frank Cho & Chris Claremont.

I am not the photographer that many of you are, and my focus was a bit split, so be glad that you at least get these quick glimpses into Heroes Con's inaugural day.

I will be back with a few photos for Saturday shortly.

"Gal" Friday (Double Feature)! Lucy & Michelle

Lucy Pinder and Michelle Marsh are two of my favorite British pin-up queens. While the lovely blond Michelle got the drop on her frequent pictorial partner, in the full Monty department, thankfully both goddesses pretty much show off the "goodies".

I've featured both chicks in past posts, but since these "Gal's" are going up a bit early (due to Heroes Con), I thought that it would be a good time for a return visit.

Enjoy!

(And ladies I really do LOVE you both, don't be so shy next time!)

Rise of the Black Lanterns!

Newsarama had a post which linked to the above image, teasing certain elements of DC Comics upcoming Blackest Night mini-series event. I wish that I could say that this promo excited me, but the overall impression that I was left with after viewing it was sadness.

This brought my karma down quite a bit.

The characters that are pictured as likely "Black Lanterns" are as follows: Aquagirl, the golden age Atom, Sue Dibny, the original Firestorm, Captain Boomerang, Blue Beetle, Max Lord, Black Condor, Phantom Lady, the Human Bomb, Psycho-Pirate, the Question, the Elongated Man, Jean Loring, Doctor Light and the Martian Manhunter.

Terrific supporting characters, classic villains and big name super heroic icons who've all perished over the course of recent story lines or over the last several years. And there are even more mentioned in the far left panel, plus others spoiled elsewhere such as Aquaman.

I felt like screaming libel or slander or infamy after seeing it and I do know that lots of folks are happily anticipating this event. The artwork that is shown is topnotch, but to me these great characters are being dragged through the mud. I don't know if I will have the stomach to check this book out or not.

If I thought for one minute that this was going to be the mechanism for reviving a big chunk of them, I could get on board, but I don't think that will be the case at all.

Thankfully, there isn't too much time remaining before this Blackest Night thing all plays itself out. [I am open to spoilers if anyone has the inside track.]