Favorite Bands: 10,000 Maniacs

Remember that John Cusack character in High Fidelity who explained in great detail about the finer points to consider when making a cassette mix for someone? I had a friend named James who was a master in that field. In fact, just about every six months he would come up with a new “mix” for me and my friends to get into, tapes made with care and careful research, featuring both new groups and obscure older groups,both made it onto the mixes carefully orchestrated for a complete “piece” of music!

    I can’t begin to count all the different artists he introduced me to, but one of the most significant groups that he brought to my attention was a new folk / rock unit with the peculiar name of 10,000 Maniacs, with a powerful little tune called “Scorpio Rising”.

  From the very first time I listened to the tape, the song stuck out for me and became a favorite, and that’s saying something when you consider that cassette also featured great groups like TSOL, The March Violets, Naked Raygun, and The Jesus and Mary Chain!

I immediately wanted to know more about them, and on my next visit to James’ house, was introduced to 10,000 Maniacs album The Wishing Chair. For the first time, I got to hear such wonderful songs as “Just as The Tide Was Rushing In” , “Can’t Ignore The Train”, “Back O’ The Moon”, and the incredible album closer “My Mother The War”.

  I was also finally able to see just what the group looked like, and I’ll never forget standing in that living room, looking at the little thumbnail pic of the lead singer Natalie Merchant for the first time! They looked so cool- really like a little Bohemian Beatnik group, a look that fit nicely with the songs they were singing - In fact, I was happy to discover that The Wishing Chair was produced by Joe Boyd, the man who oversaw such artists as Fairport Convention, Cat Stevens and Nick Drake!

   Fast forward a few years later, and I’m reading the latest Rolling Stone magazine, and glancing on the College Album Chart, I’m informed that the Maniacs have released a new album! I hurried down to the record store and picked up a cassette (yes! Cassette!) of their new release, a strange covered album called In My Tribe.

Shortly after falling in love with ABSOLUTELY FALLING IN LOVE with the album, 10,000 Maniacs appeared on Saturday Night Live (guest host: Judge Reinhold), and performed Like The Weather and What’s The Matter Here. Like the Weather was fun and breezy, but it was the performance of What’s The Matter Here that did it for me. THIS WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST PERFS I’D EVER SEEN! There was no going back for me, and I beacme a rabid Maniacs fan from then on!

It was a great time to be a Maniacs fan. Soon came Blind Man’s Zoo, as well as a rather significant release called “Hope Chest”, which contained songs from the Maniacs first two LPs Human Conflict Number Five and Secrets of The I Ching. FANTASTIC!!!

These were SOOOOOO good, and before I could catch my breath, Elektra Records had released a VIDEO collection of the Maniacs!!! I cannot tell you how thrilled I was. There was a while there when Wishing Chair, In My Tribe, Blind Man’s Zoo and Hope Chest were (just about) the only CDs I was listening to, and those songs really remind me about that specific time in my life!

Speaking of the Wishing Chair on CD, When they released that album on CD, I was pleased to find that they’d given three bonus songs for the release, but was horrified to find that they’d actually mixed it into the order of the songs. The Original chonology was already perfect, and It was hard to listen to the songs in this strange new way, and worst of all, they’d placed”Arbor Day” at the end where My Mother The War was supposed to close the album!

By the time 10,000 Maniacs released Our Time In Eden, they had sort of changed into a different group (at least for me)… While I did love the album (and have some terrific live performances from the album, as well), I got a different vibe from the band, and I have to admit I wasn’t too surprised when they broke up shortly thereafter. From that point, Natalie Merchant would go solo, and the remaining maniacs would bring back original guitarist John Lombardo and his new partner Mary Ramsey as a new Maniacs of sorts. Both groups are fine in their own way, and I like that these new ventures are keeping the spirit of the group alive, But for me, the magic time for 10,000 Maniacs was those first few years…that stuff is priceless to me!

Good Girl Art Covers starring those Fighting Force Girls

It’s that time once again where I take a classic GOOD GIRL ART comic cover and remake it, inserting my own FIGHTING FORCE Gals into the excitement! This time we’ve got Issue #40 of FIGHT COMICS with Wendy starring as Senorita Rio, and Monte as a particularly sinister looking German Soldier!

Fight Comics #40

Fighting Force #204 Featuring Wendy, art by Z

Electric Company: The Short Circus Rocks!

Growing up, one of my favorite TV shows on was The Electric Company, the Children’s Television Workshop program that taught kids words, phonics and punctuation through skits and songs, much like fellow seventies show “Schoolhouse Rock” did.

   I don’t know if it was the characters that were so funny, or the skits that were so intriguing, or simply the allure of the fabulous songs (written primarily by Jerry Rapozo, he of Sesame Street fame), but I absolutely adored this show.

  I was first  exposed to The Electric Company in first grade, way back in 1971.

I remember the teachers telling our parents that this was a new program and that they were testing out TV as a new “medium” to teach children, with Electric Company (and Sesame Street of course) as the examples.

   In any case, It DID teach me a lot, but the reason I kept watching every day was to see my favorite songs and favorite skits performed daily! They were too funny and too catchy! This went on year after year and even going into intermediate school, whenever I’d be doing something around the house or working on Schoolwork, I would have the show on constantly. I remember friends coming over and laughing, saying, I can’t believe you still watch this show!” And I’d laugh back and say, “Yeah, and I always WILL!” But that came to an end sometime around 1980 or 1981, as PBS finally pulled the plug on my beloved show.

   For the longest time, all I had to fill the void of The Electric Company were the audio cassettes I’d taped of some of my favorite songs. (Remember that, kids? Leaning the portable tape recorder against the speaker of the HUGE-ass wooden TV set!) L:istening to the tapes, It made me miss the show even more, and I wished and hoped for the day some TV station would bless us with rebroadcasting the Electric Company in some way so I could watch these again! But more than anything else, it made me realize how dear these songs were to my heart.

     In particular, the songs I REALLY loved the most were the songs performed by the the teen singing group “The Short Circus”. Those were the songs I loved most of all, and considering the vast amount of great songs the show had to offer, that’s saying something! I didn’t really know which season was which at the time - as the later years of The Electric Company were sort of a mish-mash of all the past seasons put together: repackaged and re-ran - All I knew was that I loved ‘em!

    I think there were about four incarnations of The Short Circus during the original six season run of The Electric Company. My memories of the group were that the original group looked like Sesame Street performers until they sort of changed into a 70’s bubblegum Pop outfit, and later they turned into variety show style dancers so common in the seventies.

The Short Circus 1971-72 :

Douglas Grant  / Zach

Melanie Henderson / Kathy

Irene Cara / Iris

Stephen Gustafson / Buddy

June Angela / Julie

The Short Circus 1972-73:

Douglas Grant / Zach

Melanie Henderson / Kathy

Denise Nickerson / Allison

Stephen Gustafson / Buddy

June Angela / Julie

The Short Circus 1974-75 :

Greg Burge / Dwayne

Melanie Henderson / Kathy

Bayn Johnson / Kelly

Stephen Gustafson / Buddy

June Angela / Julie

The Short Circus 1975-77 :

Rodney Lewis/ Charlie

Rejane Magloire/ Samantha

Todd Graff / Jesse

Janina Matthews/  Gail

June Angela / Julie

The only constant in the ever-changing looks of the group was the lovely June Angela, the sole member who was a part of EVERY version of The Short Circus that came out!

That worked out great for me because I had a pretty severe crush on her! And Still Do!

    Although all variations of the group were good, and all featured June, my favorite line up was the line up from the second season 1972-1973, featuring June, Douglas Grant, Stephen Gustafson and Melanie Henderson with Denise Nickerson (famous as Violet Beauregarde in  the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory movie) taking the place of Irene Cara (who of course went on to super-stardom with “Fame”).

  While I love Irene Cara (Hard, Hard, Hard’s a rocker!) to bits, the definitive line-up of the Short Circus (IMHO) is when Denise Nickerson joined. For some reason, the five voices balanced each other out perfectly, with Denise, Melanie and Stephen harmonizing together and Doug on the lower end with June soaring on the high end. I just LOVED hearing them sing!

   Perhaps it was the Line-Up or maybe the songwriters were simply on a roll, but the fact of the matter is that during this second season, most if not ALL of my favorite Short Circus songs were released!  Yes, as I mentioned above, this is the closest they got to “bubblegum pop”, and I just ate up every minute of it! The group at this point really gave me a “Partridge Family” or “Brady Bunch” feel, and can’t you just imagine the Circus singing “Time To Change” or “Let The Sun Shine In”?

Some of My favorites include:

“BOOM!”

 I remember REALLY liking this a kid! I remember it was featured in the opening credits of The Electric Company every day, so I got to know the “look” of that particular video pretty well!

“Poison”

     Two songs that taught me about poison were Sesame Street Sherlock Hemlock’s “X” song, and “Poison” by The Short Circus…Poison…”It’ll Kill You!”

“Chili”

  In this clip the Short Circus is blue-screened into a bowl of Chili (with crackers on the side!) and I remember my kid going “I want to play in a big bowl of chili, too!”

“The Vampire”

 The Short Circus channeling Scooby Doo here! Special guest appearance by Morgan Freeman as Count Dracula! The Circus really did a lot of Horror-themed songs, didn’t they….Creepy Creature, anyone?

“The Fling”

 Every time I watch this performance,. I have to wonder how long it took them to learn some of the dance moves they had to do on a regular basis. Some of them (like this one) were rather intricate!

 “Sing Out!”

 Aw, another fave song, a real positive encouraging song, and when you add June Angela groovin’ up a storm, that just bumps it up a notch!

“Let’s Rap!”

Melanie and Denise do some duetting together, and when they harmonize together singing, “Rap about something Heavy, rap about something Dumb , Rap about the way you feel Oh Baby , Rap, rap, rap ,rap…don’t be mum…” it just makes the song!

“Dunking Donuts”

I love how the lyrics are almost written like limericks, in that the last line is always humourous. “Dunk it in you soda, dunk it in you tea…if you have a rowboat, you can dunk it in the SEA!” “Dunk it in your fruit juice, dunk it in your soup…get the gang together, you can dunk it in a GROUP!”

“Hamburger”

One thing I always noticed whenever I watch this clip is that Melanie Henderson never actually eats her Hamburger, and I always wondered if she was a vegetarian or something. Humorous line: “Hamburger-if I’m messy, well I beg your pardon… Hamburger eat a piece before the cheese can harden!”

“STOP!”

 Every once in awhile, a member will get a “solo” song -  like Melanie Henderson’s “Feelings are Funny Things” or Irene Cara’s “Hard Hard Hard”…well, this was Doug’s chance to shine, and he gives his performance 100%!

“The Blob”

 I really like this song because everyone gets a chance to show off their singing a bit, and I really like the build up to the end with June’s operatic climax! Not only that, but the lyrics were just great: “It’s such a menace so you’d better stay alert, the way to kill it is to eat it for dessert!”

and my two favorites of all time,

“The Sweet Sweet Sway”

  Denise Nickerson’s showcase song! I like how Buddy and Zach are playing their instruments like they did back when they were a “band” in the first season, and I love the way June really seems to be enjoying herself during the song.

   Another thing I really liked about this clip is that they utilized every single member of the cast for this song. Morgan introduces the song, and Judy, Skip, Lee, Luis, Jim and Rita are at the dance. Add in the Circus, and you’ve got everyone!

 and

“On The Corner”

  Probably my favorite song from the Short Circus!

   Not only does it envoke my childhood with its 70’s poppy sound, it seemed to be a bit longer than some of the other songs, and clocking in at 2:50, I really felt like it could have been released as a “Single”!

   Awesome singing from the gang and I particularly like the choreography. Like when Julie sings about Ices, they all systematically stick out their hands as if to grab one, and when Buddy sings the line about a Parade, they all air-band a procession complete with Julie air-baton leading! 

   Lots of stuff going on in the clip, but what always makes me smile is when Denise and June are doing a fancy little shuffle, and Melanie tries it out for a second before holding up her hands as if to say, “ahh, forget it.”…then she relaxes and puts an arm around June! And in another part, Buddy and Zach high-five each other….really nice, you feel like these kids were actually friends, and that always leaves me with a great feeling! 

It wasn’t until the Electric Company’s mighty revival on the cable station NOGGIN that I finally got to put all the seasons and performances into a cohesive order. I was able to watch my beloved songs again (or at least the ones that NOGGIN decided to show), and I found my obsession return with a vengeance! This time, via the internet, I was able to enjoy a kind of Electric Company renaissance, where I could hook up with other nostalgics like me who’d never stopped loving the show either! I found that I wasn’t alone in my strong love of The Short Circus, and with every new clip I get to hear, or new skit I get to see, I continue to love them even more!

Postscript:

June Angela is still active in recording and performing, and has a terrific CD collection featuring songs from some of her stage shows as well as some Electric Company hits that you should check out!!

  When It originally came out, It wasn’t in a lot of places, and I actually had to have The Tower Records in New York stock transfer a copy to a Tower here in Hawaii! But now I am happy to report that June’s CD is available at Amazon.com! June fans can now rejoice!

  Personal Faves are “Sayonara Love Song”, “Time To Choose” and the sweet “Cha No Yu”. She even revamps her performance of  “I Have Dreamed” from The King and I (which also is a must-own for June fans) and wait til you hear her updated version of “The Electric Company!”

Super-Vixens: Bethany Cabe

Gorgeous Bethany Cabe: a kick-ass no-nonsense chick who has no problem doing what needs to be done, even if it requires taking on the US Navy in only her bra! (as seen in Iron Man #120)!

Although the later world would always remember her as the woman who helped Tony stark kick his alcoholic habit, the issues where she really made an impact were the “Hammer” storyline issues, where she emerged as probably the strongest character in the book, even finding time to chew out Tony’s “Bodyguard” Iron Man from time to time!

And ooh, in those Monaco issues, she looks just like a dream!

Bethany Cabe

First Appearance: Iron Man #117  by David Michelinie and John Romita Jr.

PS: It may seem to some that I'm featuring an awful lot of babes from the IRON MAN strip, and i'm not even gonna bother trying to deny it...one of the GREAT perks of reading Iron Man was the abundance of gorgeous women! Tony Stark WAS supposed to be a multi-million dollar playboy, after all!

Green Lantern #76 Another Side

Everyone knows that famous scene from the Denny O'Neil / Neal Adams' run on Green Lantern / Green Arrow, but I had to chuckle when I saw what the Madmen over at Apokolipse Werks  posted up this past week- A decidedly un-PC (and yet, they may have a point!) take on the classic exchange of words between man and superhero...

Green Lantern 76

Super-Vixens: Jocasta

  Up next we have the lovely bride of Ultron, gorgeous iron maiden Jocasta, the Do-It-Yourself Mail Order bride if there ever was one!

  Created by Henry Pym’s frankenstein creation Ultron, It was only natural that Ully would want his bride to be infused with the life-force of Janet Van Dyne-Pym, Hank’s wife (as well as the nimble WASP)! Using advanced technology, a kidnapped Wasp, and a brainwashed Henry Pym, and a Brainwashed Henry Pym, Ultron hoped to transfer Janet’s soul into the metallic shell of his mate!

    Alerted by Hank’s trustworthy ants, the Avengers intervened just as Janet’s life-breath was almost completely absorbed by Jocasta, and the sudden separation resulted in two-two-two girls in one! And although she did start off with her hubby’s diabolical bad habits, Jocasta quickly saw Ultron as the crumb he really was, and crossed over to the side of the Angels!

    George Perez really knew what he wa doing when he created the visuals for this character. It was like he’d been studying just what was so attractive about TINa, the platinum kitten of the METAL MEN, and added MORE curves and general sexiness, and came up with Jocasta…Sexy? heck, he even got her a sexy-as-hell Metal GARTER BELT as part of the design, or at least that’s what I always thought it was!

   But it was her potrayal in the later issues under the care of David Michelinie and John Byrne’s hands where I really felt she could branch off into a multi-dimensional character, as they depict her as a naive, curious girl very observant of the “human interplay” between her fellow Avengers. There’s this great scene where Tony Stark’s putting the moves on Ms. Marvel, and Jocasta is bored of the bland chatter. She tries to connect with the Vision, whose off-standish attitude only made her look more warm and human in contrast!

   But the best is perhaps when general fly-in-the-Avengers-ointment Government Official Henry Peter Gyrich realizes she’s “alive”, and demands to know if  she’s cleared for security. She then shames him, asking him if the government is so paranoid now they’re screening the machines!

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes

Just dug out my DVD copy of Walt Disney’s Seventies Teen Comedy THE COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES the other day…MAN, how I love this movie!

You know, the first movie I ever saw at a Drive In Theater (the long-gone Waialae Drive In, for those keeping track) was THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD, a movie I was to later find out was the THIRD in a series starring a VERY young Kurt Russell, or the FIFTH in a  series if you count Fred MacMurray’s two movies “Absent Minded Professor” and “Flubber”, as they all happened at the same college.

We kids of the Seventies were blessed with not only great live action Disney flicks like ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN, FREAKY FRIDAY and all those HERBIE movies, but also a television program called “The Wonderful World Of Disney” on Sunday nights that would show older Disney flicks as well!

 I religiously watched this show (and it still hold a dear place in my heart, as many of you may have guessed by the NAME of my blog!) and as it happened, a few months after I had seen “The Strongest Man In The World”  at the Drive In, they aired “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” on television!

I was like ‘HEY! It’s that same kid from Strongest Man In The World…at the SAME College! And he’s involved in ANOTHER kooky experiment! COOL!”

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes(1968) was the adventures of a student named Dexter Riley (Russell) who attended Medfield College, a kid who always seemed to be in the middle of some zany scientific experiment that would give him and his school fame and fortune. It was followed by “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t”(1972), and then the aforementioned “Strongest Man In The World”(1975). In each movie, Dexter is involved in some experiment that gives him out of the ordinary abilities like super-strength or invisibility- well, in this one, he gets electrocuted by the school computer and absorbs all the knowledge, becoming a walking memory bank!

  Yes, the movies all had a similar theme, but something about Computer Wore Tennis Shoes always seemed to ring a little bit truer...It seemed to have more heart. There was actual attempt to flesh out his friends and teachers, and you always felt like his friends really loved him, and his teachers (especially Mr. Quigley, played by super TV Dad William Shallert) really had his best interests in mind. Throw in Joe Flynn as the insufferable Dean Higgins and the extremely over-the-top Cesar Romero (he of Joker fame) as the dastardly A.J. Arnau, and you had a top notch comedic cast of well-thought out characters, each who made the show even better in their own way!

There were a couple of scenes that come immediately to mind which really show that “heart” I mentioned in them:

After Dexter becomes the walking computer, he becomes a media sensation, and the fame attached to it find him beginning to ignore his colleagues, but when he is involved in a casino bust, his friends raise the money to bale him out, and a humbled Dexter realizes what true friends his pals are.

The College has sent Dexter to compete in a College knowledge/trivia debate, and since they need 4 students to enter, Dexter brings along his not-too-bright buddies to round out the team. But towards the ending of the debate, Dexter’s powers are starting to wear off, and he is having a difficult time answering. Finally, it is down to the last question, but Dexter just cannot get the answer out. His knowledge is gone!  But his pal Schuyler  pressures Dexter- “But Dex, You KNOW this one! Remember?” then they all realize that it doesn’t matter if Dexter knows it- SCHUYLER knows it! Schuyler answers the question and wins the tournament, a sweet victory for the kid who never had confidence in himself!

Of course, it wouldn’t be me it I didn’t mention the attractive young ladies in the movie as well, and there were a couple that really caught my eye- first up was Dexter’s infinitely patient girlfriend Annie, played by cutie Debbie Paine:

And the stoic leader of Medfield’s challengers the Springfiled Rockets, Ms. “J”  Reedy (what did the J stand for? I’m betting it was Jane) played by pretty actress Hillyard Anderson:

Nothing much has been reported on either of these fine actresses after The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes…whatever happened to them? I’d be really interested in knowing what they’re up to nowadays!

Over the years, although the allure of THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD and NOW YOU SEE HIM NOW YOU DON’T have diminished and they really seem like zany kiddie fare to the 40 year old me, THE COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES just keeps getting better and better! The characters and the good-natured theme just shine brighter with each viewing,  and that’s why I’m proud to say that even to this day this movie remains an all-time favorite!

Super-Vixens: Maskara

And Now for something completely different…!

My friend Gerg turned me onto this innovative yet disturbing comic awhile ago called MARSHAL LAW. Created by Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill, this was the futuristic tale of “Hero-Killer” Marshal Law, a very “Judge Dredd”-ish  vigilante hell bent on cleaning out the super people of his world. You see, in this future, the entire world is populated by super-heroes, born or genetically created, and they have taken over civilization, and Marshal is the sole person to keep the Heroes in check.

  The great kick out of these issues is that every Archetypical Super-Hero is portrayed/skewered in the stories, and there have been spoof groups of everyone from the Justice League, The Legion Of Super-Heroes, The Avengers AND the Golden Age Justice Society. In between,  Mills & O’Neill built up a the most interesting and colorful supporting cast, and it is just fascinating to see what new concoction they come up with for each new “Hero”!

   In later years, many other series would follow this trend, great comics like The Authority, The Pro, and even Waid and Kingdom Come. Whenever a storyline employed a gaggle of archetypical heroes and villains, Gerg & I would always describe them like “Oh, you gotta check out this comic…the characters are like Marshal Law!”

   Anyway, In one of the earlier issues, Marshal Law has to attend the wedding of a high-profile super-hero. He brushes with a few heroes who are outside the wedding, watching a fight, and one of these was a very sexy doll named Maskara, whose costume gave new meaning to the term “underboob”! She and her cohorts try to unmask Marshal and are baffled when the face underneath is some joe schmo that no one knows! While they are pondering, Maskara puts on Marshal’s police hat, a truly sassy move if there ever was one, and that just killed me!

   Ultra short-skirt aside, I don’t know why she stood out for me, since almost all of O’Neill’s girls were pretty sexy, plus the chick is wearing a MASK, and it’s not like I could see her face! But affect me she did, and even years later, I would be comparing Maskara to the later Super-heroines in the Marshal Law series!

Maskara

by Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill

[Marshal Law #4]

Super-Vixens: The Huntress

I remember my friend showing me his copy of the latest issue of ADVENTURE, one of the many DC titles he collected. He showed me the cover and said "Check this out!"

On the cover, it showed Batman in a coffin, and the blurb simply read "Death Of Batman!" I skeptically waved my hand dismissively, saying, "Aahh, He ain't really gonna be dead!" to which  Jas replied, "No, for real!...It's the Batman of Earth 2!"

"Earth 2?!" I exclaimed. "See, I told you it was a fake! I knew it wasn't the real Batman!"

Jas shook his head and had to explain to me that while it was true that this wasn't the "real" Batman, it was still a significant story, and that was the first time I heard of the "other" Earth of DC, and the incredible Justice Society. It was reading the Death of Batman issue that I came to know them, and that was how I first set eyes on the gorgeous Huntress!

   She was the first character I asked "Ooh, who's that?", and found out she was the daughter of the Earth II Batman and Catwoman (!). From there I always took notice of the svelte vigilante, and thrilled to her appearances in comics like Batman Family!

The Huntress

Real Name: Helena Wayne

First Appearance: All Star Comics #69 by Joe Staton and Paul Levitz

Super-Vixens: Tara

I wasn’t a huge reader of DC Comics’ strip the WARLORD, but the two scantily clad sidekicks the former Travis Morgan carried along with him was enough for me to purchase the DC Digest reprints back in the day when reprinting comics in that form was the happenin’ thing.

The main one of the two (the other, of course, being redhead Mariah) was the striking queen of Shamballah, Miss Tara, the vixen whom was Morgan’s partner until he hitched a ride on a super train that left poor old Tara in the dust! Morgan’s grief over losing Tara must surely be akin to the sadness Keifer Sutherland felt when he lost Sandra Bullock in The Vanishing! :)

But it’s all good, because he’s happily re-united with her a few issues down the line!

Tara’s another fine example of Grell Babe Goodness!

Tara

First appearances:

First Issue Special #8 and Warlord #1 by Mike Grell

Super-Vixens: Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Another gal that is probably on a whole lotta silver-age super-heroine fan favorites list, the Contessa Allegra De Fontaine, or simple “Val” to close friends.

My earliest memory of the Contessa was sometime in the late 70’s. During that time, me and my friends were major X-Men fans, but here’s a shocker - back then, the X-men weren’t as popular as they are now, and the books and toys tended to feature the more prominent Marvel heroes like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. In fact, I had a lunch box featuring the “Marvel Super-Heroes” that seemed to feature everyone EXCEPT the X-Men, leading us to believe they were a strictly “second-tier” group.

Anyway, one day my friend Jas was out shopping with his mom, and in the department store book section of our neighborhood Liberty House, came across a glossy oversize item called the “Marvel Pin-Up Book”, featuring beautiful reproductions of great splash pages from past issues as well as new illustrations done up just for the book.

The X-Men’s pic was the Cockrum opening splash page from X-Men #107, but what was more interesting to us was that the bio that came with the pin-up listed Wolverine’s real name, “Logan”, which up til that point we never knew!

Anyway, as we excitely read that Pin-Up book from cover to cover, I came across the Pin-Up for Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., featuring the all-time classic Steranko cover for Strange Tales #167. Now, I didn’t know anything about S.H.I.E.L.D. except what I knew from my beloved GODZILLA comics, (In fact, I recognized Godzilla’s main pursuant Dum Dum Dugan right off, and Nick Fury, of course) but I was instantly struck by the GORGEOUS and scantily clad agent to Nick Fury’s right…WOW! Who WAS that gal?

At the time, I wasn’t old enough to recognize Val as the “Emma Peel” archetype she was, but once I was old enough, I realized she was almost completely inspired by Diana Rigg, in looks, style, and even her name rings similar to “The Contessa Teresa De Vicenzo”! Heck, no wonder I was so taken back then! Because you know:

Diana Rigg=Hotness

Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

First appearance

Strange Tales Vol. 1, #159 (Aug 1967)

Created by Jim Steranko

All In The Family-Remembering You

When I was in the fourth grade, my scheduled bedtime was 9:00, but on Monday nights  I was allowed to stay up a half an hour later to watch ALL IN THE FAMILY, since it started at Nine and ended at 9:30. This was considered special treatment for me, and I totally appreciated it!

I remember my dad remarking what a weird kid I was, being probably the only fourth grader whose favorite shows were All In The Family and MAUDE. But they weren’t the ONLY shows I liked, it was the only ones I got to stay up later to watch! Daytime syndicated shows were Brady Bunch, Family Affair and Gilligan’s Island, but nights were for One Day At A Time, Jeffersons, Maude, and yes, All In The Family!

  I’m not sure what made the show so interesting for me, but I watched it diligently every week. The stories were always great, even if most of Archie’s racial slurs were above my head! The Jeffersons, the Lorenzos, Mike, Gloria and ever-suffering Edith...they all had to sit back and watch Archie learn the hard way about being bigoted and hard headed!

 The Bunker household became as well known to me as my own house, and I never dreamed that it was a set I was watching. I remember years later, watching MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, and thinking, “Hey! It’s the Bunkers’ House!” because it had the same layout. In fact, I sometimes wonder if that was supposed to be a sly joke.

 Come to think of it, I remember having the same reaction when the show “IT”S YOUR MOVE” came out, and thinking they were living in the apartment where ONE DAY AT A TIME was shot! But I digress…

One part of the show that I always HAD to watch was the ending credits, because I just LOVED the ending song “Remembering You” , that jazzy piano piece by Roger Kellaway with lyrics (added later) by Carroll O’Connor. I remember they would usually cut off the song before the first chorus would end, so I would wait in anticipation for the odd times the song played “complete”, so to speak. Plus, back then they had TV announcer voice-overs talking during the song, and that just drove me mad.

 Searching on Youtube, I came across the ending credits someone had uploaded, and sure enough, it cuts off before the piano gets to the “re-mem-bering-you” line…SHUCKS! 

Searching further, I discovered this wonderful video of SOMEONE playing the entire song on the piano! It was just amazing…first thing, I’d never HEARD the ENTIRE song before, and it was done with such gusto! I have to say I probably watched and re-watched this video five times that first night, it’s so good!

Signs You're In a John Byrne Comic!

Coded Messages Say,"The Fat's In The Fire"

Captain America #253

Alpha Flight #27

About “Signs That You’re In a John Byrne Comic”:

Like many of you out there, I am a HUGE fan of John Byrne, and have voraciously read just about every title he’s done over the years, from Marvel to DC, Dark Horse, and Beyond!

And as any fan of Byrne can tell you, there are many things that are BOUND to happen in a any given tale of his, and the “Signs That You’re In a John Byrne Comic” entries are just fun captures of similar links between his wonderful stories that give you a sense of Deja Vu!

Super-Vixens: Penny Century

I guess It’s about time I started tossing in a few of Comics’ lovely women civilians, and a smooth transition might be to feature Jaime Hernandez’s Penny Century, the regular gal whose one sole wish is to BECOME a real-life Super-Heroine!

Born Beatriz Garcia, Penny Century is one of the Love and Rockets characters that Jaime has constantly been fleshing out, so much that she has gone from being a one–dimensional bubble-headed blonde to one of Love and Rockets more endearing characters.

Although probably the finest Penny Century Story is the classic “Bay Of Threes” issue (where we finally get the back story of how Penny grew up and married Tycoon H.R. Costigan), the story that had us all howling and rolling on the floor with laughter has to be “Ninety-three Million Miles from the Sun”, when Ray and Maggie were invited to stay at Penny’s house. They are thrust into the world of Penny Century where the heiress spends the day dressing up like a super-heroine, duking it out with paid actors dressed as villains, and hitting on Ray mercilessly! This was the height of her loopiness, and she would slowly be tamed down and brought back to earth.

Penny Century

by Jaime Hernandez

[Love and Rockets]

Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins

The first Beverly Cleary book I read was “Ribsy”. This was because in 4th grade, I was only interested in stories that featured animals in it, books like Charlotte’s Web and Trumpet Of The Swan or funny ones like Olga Da Polga. This book was displayed at the “featured titles” table, and upon seeing a dog on the cover, I snatched it up!

I was introduced to Ribsy, his owner Henry Huggins and the whole Huggins family for the first time. Ribsy had gotten lost, and this story told of the adventures he experienced as he tried to make his way back to his home. Generally speaking, Henry has only a supporting role in it, but I could feel how much he loved Ribsy, and I immediately wanted to read more about them.

The next time I was at the library, I checked out more of Beverly Cleary’s titles and was pleased to see another one called “Henry and Ribsy”!

The story is about Henry’s dream of going salmon fishing with his father.

   Henry’s father tells him he can come along if he can keep Ribsy out of trouble! Henry thinks this is a good deal, but things don’t work out as planned, and Henry finds keeping Ribsy out of trouble turns out to be an enormous task!

  The latter half of the book is about the fishing trip that they just barely are allowed to attend. Henry has high hopes of catching himself a salmon like older boy Scooter McCarthy always boasts about, but it is dashed when Ribsy disrupts the boat, and the boy and his dog are deposited back on the shore. Henry decides to make the most of it, and enjoys himself playing with Ribsy at the beach.

  At some point he hears Ribsy barking at something, and Henry discovers it is a huge Chinook Salmon, struggling in the shallows of the river leading to the ocean. With Ribsy frantically barking, Henry wades in and attempts to catch the fish with his bare hands!

 This book just totally captivated me. I’d never read a book that was so exciting to read.

The scene with Henry struggling with the Salmon just blew me away! I remember reading and re-reading that chapter over and over! This was it for me, and I knew I had to read EVERY Beverly Cleary book featuring Henry and Ribsy!

 Next came the book that I guess I should have STARTED with, the first book in the series, simple entitled “Henry Huggins”. It was really cool to read this, though, because I knew Henry and Ribsy so well by now, and it was neat to actually read in “real time” about Henry just finding Ribsy as a stray for the first time! By the time I finished reading this one, I loved every one in the neighborhood, including Beezus and of course Ramona!

This led to me reading ALL of the Cleary books about Henry Huggins, including Henry and The Clubhouse, Henry and Beezus, Henry and The Paper Route, and even Ramona The Pest and Beezus and Ramona, which Henry makes brief appearances.

From then on I progressed to all of Beverly Cleary’s other wonderful series like The Mouse and The Motorcycle…but that’s for another post!