Merry Christmas!

 

Haha, the look of absolute dread on his face in the panel where Lucy is threatening Linus!

Gecko Books Closes Its Doors

 The end of an era, Gecko Books in Kaimuki shuttered its doors this past month.

Gecko's was a mainstay throughout the whole comic-book boom in the 80's and 90's and we spent so much time there!

Really won't be another place like it!

The Who at Woodstock: The Killing Of A Sacred Guitar

 Never has another guitar been given such a poignant death! The gripping show closer for The Who's explosive set at the infamous Woodstock Festival...

 PS: LEgend has it that some poor roadie had to go down into the audience and RETRIEVE the guitar afterwards! Not a job I would hae envied!

My Saiorse Ronan Checklist Updated

I think it's funny how much I love, love, LOVE Irish American Actress Saiorse Ronan and all her works- the first time I saw her in ATONEMENT, I HATED her character SO MUCH that I never wanted to see her face again!!!

But then, years later when re-introduced to her through the Peter Jackson movie THE LOVELY BONES, I found myself quite captivated by her and after that, with each new movie release from her, I've only loved her more and MORE!

More Misheard Lyrics: “Green Air, Now”

 In the era of environmentally conscious efforts all over the world to make the world’s ecosystem clean and nature-friendly, there must be a ton of compaines and agencies calling themselves “Green Air” but when I was a kid, the term Green Air only meant one thing: The refrain to the latest Fleetwood Mac stop 40 single!

The song in question was the Stevie Nicks penned (strange how so many of her songs are featured in my Misheard Lyrics posts) tune “Rhiannon”, which, for SOME reason, instead of the title refrain, my ears heard them drawling ‘Green Aiiiiiiiiir- NOW!”

Later when I learned they were saying Rhiannon, I tried to justify my confusion by saying, “But listen, it really sounds liek they’re saying Green Air!” to which my friend Larry listened for a second and exclaimed, “Oh YEAH!” then, “no.” D’OH

Snotgirl, Vol.3: Is This Real Life?

 Gave up picking up regular floppies of Snotgirl some time ago and switched to waiting for trades. But after this Vol. 3 came out, the series itself seemed to fade off into oblivion.

Not that it matters much, but is this still ongoing?

Peanuts Puzzles!

Back in the day used to go to Walrich and use my allowance to buy these Peanuts Puzzles, this one was my favorite!

Just Star Wars Stuff...

All my original Star Wars action figures are put away in a container in my bedroom closet. All the 'later" movie figures I just stood on the top of a bookshelf... one night, looking at it lit by lamp, they looked kinda cool so I took this pic....

East of West: Complete Run

Back in July of 2016 I had made a trip down to my local used bookstore, and there on the shelves were copies of East Of West trades 1 and 4. I had been lookin for something new to read and so, taking a chance, I grabbed Vol.1 with a plan to purchase the rest of them if the first book grabbed me.

Well to say it grabbed me was an understatement- besides the beautiful art was an intriguing storyline and compelling characters involving an alternate world where the United States was broken up into different factions about to go to war even as the Apocalypse looms. Throw in the rebirth of the Four Horsemen: Death, War Conquest and Famine once again walking the earth, and you had the makings of a MAJOR modern Sci-Fi/fantasy EPIC!

Reading that first book, it was time to get all the rest of the volumes! At the time, East Of West was at Vol.5 of the series , so after running back to the bookstore to grab Vol.4, I went to Amazon and put in an order for Volumes 2, 3 and 5!!

Reading the series from Book One to Book Five, I was completely floored at how good this series was. The promise made at the beginning of the series was fully met, with the story getting more and more intricate even as we got to know the characters better and better!

Image Comics has a history of uneven and even delayed releases and I was often disappointed to learn that a book I was expecting to get would be delayed for weeks and even months at a time! I was not a buyer of the individual ,single issues, preferring to wait for collections, so these stretches of waiting was agony, and you can see by my posts how erratic the releases were:

Vol. 6 October 2016

Vol. 7 September 2017 (almost a whole YEAR waiting!)

Vol. 8  August 2018

Vol. 9 May 2019

But I couldn’t complain because very time I got my hands on the next book, I was in seventh heaven! It seemed like it was just going to get better and better!

Finally in July of last year it was announced that East of West was going to be wrapping things up and the next three issues would be its last! The series concluded in December of last year, but the final trade paperback of Vol.10 would not be released until May of 2020.

Oh MAN, that was almost another whole YEAR of waiting, but I told myself to be patient.

Then Coronavirus hit and suddenly things were up in the air. Diamond Distributors was putting all its deliveries on hold and closing shop. And with that, most COMIC STORES began shuttering as well! We were assuaged that this would be a temporary step and once the pandemic died down, things would be up and running.

Well, I could only hope that that was true, in the meantime, however, my main thought was “WHAT ABOUT THAT LAST VOLUME!!!” And so, in the end, i just went on to ebay and, for a very reasonable price, BOUGHT the last three issues!

Well. those babies came in just a few days ago and, with them in hand, I went back and, starting from Volume One, read ALL the way through to East of West’s final, magnificent, climactic issue!!

HOLY HELL, this series is one of the most AWESOME series I’ve READ!!!! By the time I was getting down to the last chapter, i was reading each page as slowly as I could to prolong the excitement in my heart, and as the characters went through the confrontation, the final wars and the sombre conclusion I was exhausted!

‘This was a freakin’ MASTERPIECE!!!

PS: East of West’s collected volumes don’t have anything in the way of bonus material like most other series do, still, when that last volume DOES come out, I’m STILL going to have to get it, if only to complete my set!!!

It has been one HELL of a ride!!!

Otter Pops

The original Otter Pops before "Poncho Punch" et al entered the scene! These flavors were the OG Otter Pops

A Trip To My Childhood With GODZILLA Classics!

Think I mentioned this before, but one of my first big passions as a kid was for the famous TOHO tokusatsu series starring GODZILLA and the other monsters of Monster Island.

The very first movie I saw was Godzilla VS Mothra and my earliest memories are of the huge egg and the subsequent caterpillars that came out and gave Godzilla and Rodan a run for their money, and from there I was enraptured and needed to see more!

Fortunately for my 8 year old self, one of the local stations decided to have a MONSTER WEEK and amidst movies of mushroom people and killer crabs I was able to see a bunch of Godzilla flicks like GHIDRAH THE THREE HEADED-MONSTER and re-viewings of the original Mothra movies as well!

Next was the theaters and I managed to see “Godzilla’s Revenge” (what I called the “Son Of Godzilla” movie) for the first time along with a screening of Ghidrah, and I have fond memories of walking down to the old Kapahulu Theater for a viewing of GODZILLA VS MEGALON, the latter of which I saw twice! 

Back then my bedtime was 9:00 (with special allowance to stay up to 9:30 on Mondays to watch “All In The Family”), but whenever a Godzilla movie would show up in the TV guide on “Nite Owl Theater”, I was allowed to stay up to 11 to catch it!

This was back in the days when the town turned off after 9 (24 hour convenience stores like 7-Eleven were years away) and it seemed like when I would be watching those movies that I was the only one alive! Gave me a magical feeling which is partially why those movies still hit me so hard with nostalgia whenever I think of them!*

I hadn’t seen ANY of those old classics in YEARS, and so I was thrilled when my friend Jas picked up a whole bunch of Godzilla classics on DVD!

The original GODZILLA, GODZILLA VS MOTHRA, GHIDRAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER, GODZILLA’S REVENGE, GODZILLA VS MEGALON and the all-star DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, he had ‘em all, and once he let me borrow them, I wasted no time checking them out!

Diving in, the first thing that hit me was the backgrounds and clothes. Oh MAN, did this take me back! As a 70’s kid, there is something about Japanese flicks from the 60’s and 70’s that seem so nostalgic- like I grew up there!

Also didn’t realize how damn FUNNY the original flicks were- VERY fun and witty! Like, whenever the Faries (the Peanuts) would speak with their tiny voices, one character would turn to the other and say, ‘Hey, stop speaking in funny voice!” “Huh? That wasn’t me!”, the other would say, and then they’d see the girls.

And probably the biggest surprise of ALL while watching the two Mothra-related flicks is  realizing that the cute and genki actress performing was none other than YURIKO HOSHI!

 

What!  Had no IDEA she had tokusatsu history! I've always known her as an older lady, as introduced to me as the dominating Mother-in-Law to poor Agri Mochizuki in the excellent 1997 NHK Asadora AGRI which I generally consider my favorite J-drama of ALL TIME!

Yuriko Hoshi had passed away only very recently, in 2018, and it was such a happy THRILL seeing her so young, spritely and CUTE! I don’t know HOW I didn’t know this cool bit of pop-culture about her!

 Below: With Akiko "You Only Live Twice" Wakabayashi

The liner notes say that GODZILLA’S REVENGE was the first Godzilla movie aimed towards children, and maybe that’s why I loved it so much as a kid. The tale, told from the point of view of a bullied boy who fantasizes about being friends with the Son of Godzilla against his bullies, really hit home for me and it still holds up rather well!

GODZILLA VS MEGALON was, as mentioned about a particular sentimental fave as it was the one that I saw in the theater when it was new, additionally, as a huge fan of Japan Heroes, it was an added kick to have Godzilla teaming up with  heroic robot Jet Jaguar, and just seeing him again brought back such memories!

Now, about DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. This was the one movie I never saw on TV or in the theaters as a kid. The first time I ever knew about it was through an ad in the back of STARLOG magazine selling 8MM reel movies, along with other monster/hero flicks like THE BEAST FROM 20,00O FATHOMS, INFRAMAN, and GORGO, seeing the poster for Destroy all Monsters with the image of ALL those classic Godzilla monsters slugging it out had me in a DAZE! How I wished I could have seen it back then- Now I finally had my hands on it!

Gotta say, this movie didn’t disappoint, and seeing all the Thunderbirds-style spaceships, Secret Agent Space Cops, and ALL those terrific Monsters gathering up to take on King Ghidorah knocked me out, even as a jaded adult!! I can’t begin to imagine how BLOWN AWAY I would have been if I saw it as a KID- would have ROCKED MY WORLD!

WELL! It has been quite a week full of nostalgia and for a brief time I was transported right back to my childhood!

 An aside note: I remember staying up to watch a Godzilla movie, and right before it started, I saw the ending credits to the movie before it, which was the Roger Moore James Bond flick “Live and Let Die”, and the image of the flaming skull REALLY creeped 8 year old me out!!! Being the only one up in the whole household didn’t help! 

Ah, those innocent days of youth....