Favorite Albums: Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera

As a HUGE fan of THE WHO, I can tell you there are very few groups that managed to get the same feeling and sound of The Who during the Quick One/Sell Out period…

But ELMER GANTRY’S VELVET OPERA sure does a great job!

 The first time I heard the opening track “Mother Writes”, I was already awestruck at how much John Ford’s Bass Guitar playing sounded like John Entwistle of The Who. And everyone knows how much of a feat that is in itself!

Listening to this makes me wonder if John Ford was using "Rotosound Strings" like Entwistle, too!

Then the next song “Mary Jane” was equally as catchy, with more brilliant bass playing! Then onto “I Was Cool”, a song that had a real “After The Fox” feel to it…a real zany song. 

Then “Air”, “Lookin’ For an Easy Life”..track after track…they were all so good!  The song “Flames” features some snappin’ drums and killer guitar, and  “Long Nights of Summer” is a winsome song, complete with a David Bowie-ish flair to it! “Now She’s Gone” is a heavy song with a very “Sparks”-ish backing track ! What a driving Bass line!  

And if there was any doubt about the Who influence here, “Dream Starts” even features a VERY John Entwistle flavored FRENCH HORN solo a la “Pictures Of Lily”!

   The arrangement and structure of these songs are what really hooked me, though…they are so darn catchy!!

The CD re-release features some very nice extra songs, faves include the really sweet “Dreamy”, The “Whipping Post” flavored “Salisbury Plains” and the rockers “Volcano” and “A Quick B” (a spoof of the WHO title a Quick One?), which features some San Francisco Jorma Kaukonen style guitar!!

An AWESOME under-appreciated and unknown album!

Favorite Comics: Avengers #53

I began reading Marvel Comics’ X-MEN series during the highly acclaimed Byrne/Claremont run featuring the “All-New, All-Different” team, and so had no real knowledge of the original 1960’s team. But as my love of the “Uncanny” X-men grew, my curiosity of the Lee and Kirby team grew too, til I HAD to know more about them!

This was back in the pre-internet days when access to information of most comics was almost nil. The only real way to get info on any comic you liked was to talk to the local comic shop dealer or other collectors, and in that I was lucky because I had a couple of friends who were BIG collectors of Marvel Comics, and were always ready to educate me about any Marvel History I needed to know.

So one day after telling my friend I wanted to see what the “old” X-Men looked like, he came to class and handed me a comic. It was issue #46 of a Marvel reprint title called Marvel Triple Action, and it was here I got my very first glimpse of the original X-Men: Cyclops. Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman, and right off the bat I was blown away- WOW! How colorful, dynamic and totally COOL they looked!

The comic also introduced me to the Avengers for the first time, and I IMMEDIATELY dived into the story, relishing the interesting dialog and powerful artwork, not knowing at the time that the tale was concocted by two GREATS of the Silver Age  (Writer Roy Thomas and Artists Big John Buscema), only knowing that the story “In Battle Joined!” was the most KICK-ASS story I’d read in awhile! Begun in the pages of X-Men #45, this was a story of the Avengers and the X-Men united against mutual baddie Magneto. The X-Men have been captured by Magneto, and the Angel has escaped to get aid from the Avengers- but they arrive just in time to see Cyclops knocking out former Avenger Quicksilver…

“In Battle Joined!"

Hawkeye, Goliath, Wasp and the Black Panther have come upon X-Man Cyclops standing over the fallen figure of Quicksilver. Not sure of the situation, they tell the youth to freeze. Cyclops, however, suspects they’re only robots created by Magneto, and isn’t taking any chances. He fires at Hawkeye, and when Black Panther jumps down to subdue him, a couple of blasts from his optic visor give Cyclops enough time to get away!

It seems that when the Angel escaped Magneto’s prison back in X-Men #45, he went directly to the Avengers mansion for assistance in rescuing his fellow X-Men. Since Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were last seem leaving with Magneto back in Avengers #49, the Avengers are happy to team up tackling the master of Magnetism.

On the Atlantic flight over to Magneto’s island, Janet discovers a miniature bugging device hidden among Angel’s wings. The Avengers now believe he’s in cahoots with Magneto, and is setting them up. While he swears he ‘s innocent, they tie him up and leave him behind when they investigate the fortress. Thus we return to our opening scene where the Avengers have just arrived to see Cyclops flee!

 Magneto is watching the entire drama play out, delighted that his plans are coming to fruition. Of course, it was all part of his plans for Angel to escape and get caught with the monitor on his wings. “ Now they and the X-Men, who might otherwise been allies- will be at each other’s throats!”

  Toad doesn’t like the idea of bringing in the Avengers…they should have been satisfied capturing the X-Men- their REAL enemies! Magneto electrocutes Toad for his doubt, and Toad questions why Magneto always abuses him when he alone out of ALL the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has been loyal. “Because I don’t NEED your Loyalty!” snaps Magneto. He explains that he’s only kept Toad around because it amused him, and now Toad is just angering him. Wanda steps in and begs Magneto to leave Toad alone, and Toad says “One day soon, Magneto shall know who his true friends are.”

  Meanwhile, The Avengers have become antsy sneaking around the hidden fortress, and as usual, Hawkeye and Goliath start to bicker and fight. Soon the Black Panther, who initially tries to STOP the fight, is involved, and it is up to Jan to step in and remind them that there is a task at hand.

This moment of discourse is just what Magneto has been hoping to hear, and he releases a machine that unleashes crackling electronic commands upon the unsuspecting X-Men.  When the sensations vanish, we realize just what the machine has done to their minds when Cyclops states, “There was something we were going to do! Yes- We were going to find the Avengers…and DESTROY THEM!”

  Any doubt that the X-Men are on the wrong side of the good guys is gone when the Avengers confront the angry teen mob and Cyclops orders: “Kill Them! Kill The Avengers!”

  Beast strikes the first blow at Black Panther, and the others follow his lead. After fighting for a while, the Avengers they find they are having a hard time beating them. Then Black Panther realizes it is because they subconsciously think of the X-Men as heroes, not villains. With this change in attitude, the Avengers make quick work of the youths, much to the confusion of Magneto, who thought the X-Men would be the victors!

  His confusion only increases when he turns and finds The Angel has infiltrated the control room! Soon, the Avengers smash in, as well! Goliath knows Magneto must be dying of curiosity to find out what went wrong with his plans, and elucidates. “We guessed the bug on Angel was a plant, and tied his hands loosely! Wasp whispered in his ear our plans, then pretended to quarrel to lure you into an ill-timed attack!”

  Magneto knows the only option is escape, and brings down a wall of metal parts onto the Avengers, giving himself enough time to get away! He orders Toad to get the escape ship, hitting him to get a move on. “He orders me to save him - and strikes me as he does so! Thus has he EVER rewarded my unwavering Loyalty!” thinks the Toad.

  With a quick move, the Toad sets the machine generators to overload- soon the entire island will be decimated by the huge explosion!  He leads the Scarlet Witch and a still dazed Quicksilver to a waiting escape ship. As the ship takes off, Magneto reaches out with his magnetic powers to lift him to the jet, but finds that his powers have no effect! Toad reminds him that he once built an entire ship out of non-metals, just to prove he could do it. As Magneto tries to hold onto the ship, He says, “Toad…Stop!! I am Your Master!” to which the Toad solemnly replies, “No Magneto. The Toad calls no man master- ever again!!”  He steps on Magneto’s fingers and sends him hurtling to the jagged rocks below!

  Meanwhile the Avengers and X-Men (who seem to have recovered from the hypno-ray) have made it back to their ship in time to witness the Toad and his crew leaving.  They quickly shove off themselves, and a few minutes later, the very horizon rocks as the entire island goes up in a fiery explosion! Soon, the ocean is littered with smoking debris and machinery from the fortress, and among the bits of twisted metal floats the remains of Magneto’s once mighty metal helmet!

*    *    *    *    *

What a STORY!! I loved and re-read this issue so darn much that not only did I eventually collect all the back-issues of Marvel Triple Action featuring The Avengers (as well as Triple Action successor Marvel Super Action) but immediately began subscribing to the current issues as well -and what do you know- John Byrne was the artist HERE, too When I got older, I made it a priority to get my hands on all the ORIGINAL Avengers issues, and I was simply beside myself the day I got my very own copy of AVENGERS #53, the issue where that X-Men/Avengers story originally ran and the very issue you see scanned here!

Besides the overwhelming “pride of ownership” that came with obtaining this piece of Marvel history, there are several other good reasons to own the actual copy, and not just that they got the COLORS of Beast, Angel and Goliath right(!) in the original comic-I was ECSTATIC when I read the original issue and found there were TWO EXTRA PAGES that Marvel Triple Action had cut out! HOLY TOLEDO! This was like the Modern-Day equivalent of a DVD bonus! If I thought I loved that story BEFORE…MAN! Now it was BEYOND LOVE!!! Ahahahaha!

To this day, those Avengers issues from around issue #46-60 are still some of my favorite stories ever; Roy Thomas is still one of my favorite writers, and John Buscema one of my very favorite artists… When you consider that back then I was simultaneously reading both Thomas/Buscema stories AND Byrne/Claremont stories, there’s no wonder I call this my own personal “Golden Age” of comic reading in my life! 

For The Love of Charmian

There isn’t a single thing I can add about having a crush on Liesl in The Sound Of Music that hasn’t already been uttered by countless generations of guys ever since the movie debuted in 1965!

But for the record: I saw Sound Of Music. I set eyes on the oldest daughter Liesl, played by Charmian Carr. Developed Crush. Wheee!

In fact, out of all the wonderful songs featured in the Rodgers & Hammerstein soundtrack, my favorite just has to be “Edelweiss”, simply because I always waited for that scene where she sang it along with her father, playing his guitar.

Growing up I would hear “The Sound Of Music” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” regularly sung on TV variety shows, regarded as the braodway classics they are, and in elementary schhol, we sang songs like “Do Me Ri” and “My Favorite Things” during assemblies, but until I saw The Sound Of Music (and fell in love with Liesl), I never noticed Edelweiss!

When The Sound of Music got the “Special Edition” treatment on DVD back in 2000, there was a terrific addition for us Liesl fans! Included in the bonus section was a little-seen documentary short called Salzburg Sight and Sound, which was basically a 36 minute little featurette they shot during the taping of The Sound Of Music of Charmian Carr wandering around the beautiful city of Salzburg!

She narrates the short, and besides taking in the beautiful scenery, we get glipses of the cast behind the scenes as the work on the moive, we even get to see Charmian getting lesons with her vocal coach! Ah, what a great bonus!

Life after Sound of Music, Charmian Carr became an interior designer for upper-class home-owners, ans she said that one of her clients was Michael Jackson! In fact, she said that he hired her to do his house, simply because he loved her so much as Liesl!

Well, If I had

1. MONEY for an Interior Designer and

2. A HOUSE in WHICH to redesign,

I’D hire her, too!

Favorite Songs: "My Finest Hour" by The Sundays

Man, if there ever was a hall of fame for  "Feel Good songs of the 90's", The Sundays ultra-catchy song "My Finest Hour" surely gets my vote! The penultimate track off of the band's debut LP "Reading, Writing and Arithmetic", one feels that they only tacked on "Joy" after it because the end would have been too uplifting for the album to end!

A melody about the eternal hope of finding that special someone in your life, tinged with the self-deprecating bitterness (a la Morrisey) all Sundays tracks seem to have, happy or not!

And who can resist the winsome Harriet Wheeler cat-calls at the end?

The Sundays / My Finest Hour

Favorite Songs: "Scarlet” by Lush

“Gala” was the first album I ever owned from 4AD shoegazer band Lush, and though I would go on to love anything and everything the band would subsequently put out(see my blog rantings here), my heart will always hold a special place for that first album.

   Because Gala was more a collection of their EPs Mad Love, Scar and Sweetness and Light than an “album” proper, several songs appeared more than once on the tracklisting, among them two versions of Thoughtforms and two of SCARLET.

 While the “newer” version of Thoughtforms became (to me) the ‘real” version of said song, Scarlet’s two version both had different things to offer for me. The newer version was more polished and dreamy (and bears a slight resemblace to “Monochrome”) while the ealier one was more “raw” in sound, almost live.It was THIS version that I slowly found myself attatched to, especially during the choruses where Emma’s Guitar chords sound positively sonic follwing the lines “But What’d you Say” and “When nothing’s meant ”, “What’d You Do” and “When all is Spent”.The tone of the guitars have this “british” feel to it and I for some reason, it reminds me of “Instant Party” by The Who on their “My Generation” album.

  In fact, the huge, dreamy guitar washes during the lines “No one to fall…in love” and the subsequent spirally guitar picking behind the lines “Faceless, faithless night…vanity’s delight” all have decidedly Townshend-ish flavouring, at least in my opinion, and that’s a major Who fan talking here!

Super-Vixens: Aleta

The next two entries into my personal “Super-Heroine Hall Of Fame”

I’ve dubbed “Super-Vixens are the two leading ladies of the original 1970’s  futuristic heroes, THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.

  When Gene Colan and Arnold Drake created The Team in Marvel Super-Heroes, the group was strictly a boy’s club, it wasn’t until the Guardians got updated in the hands of Steve Gerber in titles like DEFENDERS and MARVEL PRESENTS.

Seeing an obvious void in femininity in the team, Steve a couple of heroines to join the team, first with Aleta along with her  counterpart Stakar in the pages of DEFENDERS, the duo of course would unite to become the Guardian member Starhawk.

Aleta is one charcter who has been revamped in recent years so far from her original look as to be unrecognizable! Nowadays she sports the modern “pin-up” look of most heroines in the biz, but back then she was portrayed as a more serious character, only occasionally appearing to chew out Starhawk and confuse Vance! I’m not sure if she was supposed to be a “sexy” heroine, but she definitely had that appeal to me, although she always seemed to remind me of Cathy Lee Crosby! And that’s whether Al Milgrom OR George Perez was drawin’ her! Ahahaha

Aleta

First appearance Defenders #29

by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema

Super-Vixens: Nikki

Nikki was created by Steve and Al just one issue after debuting the Guardians of the Galaxy in MARVEL PRESENTS, a Mercurian who became sort of the “juvenile Sidekick” kind of charcter, the voice of laughter and playfulness in a gang of somber grumps! There was (at the time) even a sort of side-story of Nikki and Vance growing closer, but that storyline seemed to have been phased out.

 Nonetheless, she remained the sole firecracker in the group, and one of my favorite portrayals of her is in an issue of MARVEL TEAM-UP , where Nikki , Martinex and Yondu team up with Spider-Man in New York. The Pencils are done by Bob Mcleod, and His rendition of Nikki ranks up there with his “Ororo as White Queen” cover in X-Men!

Nikki

First appearance Marvel Presents #4

by Steve Gerber and Al Milgrom

Favorite Actresses: Katharine Ross

Although The Graduate is one of my favorite movies of all time, this was NOT the movie in which Katharine Ross stole my heart (though she IS so pretty here).. and it wasn’t her OTHER blockbuster hit movie, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid that did it for me, either! (Though I’d certainly pack her on MY bicycle anywhere she’d like to go…)

No, strange as it may seem, the movie that I first fell for lovely Ms. Ross was in the 1978 horror movie, THE LEGACY! Yes, that sinister movie where Roger Daltrey, lead vocallist for The Who. dies by choking on a chcken bone! For some reason, this movie was on TV an awful lot, and each time it was on, I watched it for the pretty “Natalie Wood-ish”actress with the heavy fake eyelashes, whom I later found out was named Katherine Ross!

Then came the aforementioned movie like The Graduate, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, and her OTHER famous Horror movie, THE STEPFORD WIVES, all featuring Katharine at her best!

She was recently credited in the cult classic “Donnie Darko’, I say “credited” because I have to say the morose psychiatrist lady in the movie didn’t look ANYTHING like the adorably girly Katharine Ross I knew and loved!

Oh Elaine Robinson, won’t you please come home?

Super-Vixens: Shrinking Violet

From Wikipedia: Shrinking Violet is a fictional character, a superheroine and Legion of Super-Heroes member in the DC Universe's 30th and 31st centuries. Her real name is Salu Digby and she comes from the planet Imsk. She has the power to shrink to tiny size, as do all Imsk natives.

 Growing Up, Shrinking Violet (or  “Vi” as the kids called her) wwas never one of my favorite characters, and I really didn’t much care for her Cockrum-designed costume (This one that looks like Marvel Comics’ Polaris’s Shi’ar oufit), but I did like how he drew her features, and boy, when Mike Grell was pencilling the Legion Of Super-Heroes, she sure was pretty! Plus, she seemed to be one of the more “serious” characters, and when the 1993 Legion portrayed a grown-up Salu working for the military, that really seemed to fit, for me!

Shrinking Violet

First Appearance:Action Comics # 276

by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney

Favorite Songs: "Funeral In His Heart" by October Project

I fell in love with October Project from the first time I heard the strains of their first single “Bury My Lovely” all the way back in 1993, and have been a rabid, manic fan ever since! The vocals, the music, the lyrics… all of it blended together so well to create a whole canvas of dreamlike music that defied categorizing!

In 1995, the group released their second album Falling Further In, and to promote it, they appeared on a few radio programs and talk shows, and one fo the songs they chose to sing at these events was the awesome Funeral in His Heart. It was an “unplugged” version of  that really caught my ear and made me really start appreciating the song- Mary’s powerful voice, Marina’s crystal harmonies, Emil’s piano and harmony vocal…throw in David’s guitarwork and Urbano’s toms, and you had a tight-knit combo that really kicked butt!

   Later I was to acquire a performance they did for a Sony Records expo while promoting their first album, and was surprised to find they’d done “Funeral In His Heart” even back then…I guess the song wasn’t as new as I thougth It was! This live version, however, had a different ending to it than the album version- at the last chorus, the music ceased, and all four vocallists (Mary, Emil, Marina and David) all harmonized accapella:

“The World is falling apart…

He’s getting older

and there’s a funeral in his heart”

 They repeat the lines as Mary adlibs around the refrain, and the song comes crashing to its end- to the overwhelming applause of the audience! Awesome!

Super-Vixens: Kari Limbo

There was this Green Lantern issue where (at least judging by the cover ), Hal Jordan was going to die when his Power battery exploded as he recharged it. But in DC Comics’ tradition of “faking us out with a misleading cover”, it ended up being not Hal himself, but rather a gent named Guy Gardner, a substitute GL filling in for Hal at the time.

 With Guy Gardner’s body presumably vaporized by the exploding lantern, it was up to Hal Jordan to inform Guy’s fiance about the accidental death, and she turned out to be this gypsy girl named Kari Limbo who was not only drop dead gorgeous, but was also gifted with Psychic powers!

 This was around 1978, and I have to say that me and my friends really fell for the Kari Limbo character. First off, she was a character that was introduced in the stories we were reading, so maybe we connected to her more readily. Second, as I ‘d already mentioned, she was sultry and sooo exotic (she’s a GYPSY, for chrissakes!),  and third, everything Kari did seemed to emanate “SEXY”, at least to our 6th grade minds.  Every issue would find her kissing Hal for whatever reason, she appeared (quite innocently enough) in her nightgown to  greet him (see pic above), and most importantly: She rocked some seriously low-plunging blouses! Take a look at that pic in the lower left hand corner. It may not seem like much in the world of Image Comics and the like, but back then, that was some SERIOUS cleavage! Totally rocked our worlds, I tell you.

 In later issues, she would join Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary in tracking down villains, and soon fate found Hal and Kari falling for each other (all in three issues! MAN that is fast!) and planning to get married!

 Well, as we all know now, Guy Gardner did NOT die in the explosion, he’d been taken to the Phantom Zone, and was none too happy about finding his Cherry Poptart about to marry his “business associate”! So much for those plans!

Years later, Guy Gardner would have a new life (so to speak) in Justice League and his own solo stuff, catapulting him to fame and BIG popularity! But I never did read those issues, and am not sure if Kari Limbo EVER made another appearance after the wedding disaster of GL/GA #120.

Where are you , Kari? Can SOMEBODY please revamp her character for the new millennium? C’mon, she’s got the Psychic Powers and the good looks- who could ask for anything more to work with?!

Kari Limbo

First Appearance:Green Lantern / Green Arrow #117

by Denny O’Neil and Joe Staton with Dave Hunt

Favorite Artist: Alex Savuik

Favorite Songs: "Vanilla" by Tanya Donelly

Granted, I've loved everything Tanya has done since her days back in the Muses, from Green through Not Too Soon, her work with Kim Deal in both Breeders and This Mortal Coil, and her own projects including Belly and her self-titled albums,

but 'Vanilla" is really a rare gem, one of those hard-to-find songs that are worth every minute and penny of your searching, because the reward of getting your hands on the tune is SO heart warming, catchy, full of Tanya Donelly goodness.

  Just the other day I was telling my friend Gerg that I consider Tanya one of the finest songwriters out of that whole Alt/Rock movement, in MY opinion , anyway!

The pic on the side isn't the cover for Vanilla, by the way, as most fans will recognize it as the cover to "The Bright Light", but the blurry cover of the Pretty Deep 7" isn't so great, and Tanya looks just fantastic on this cover, so I opted for this one instead!

Tanya Donelly / Vanilla

Favorite Comics: Captain America #253-254

“Should Old Acquaintance be Forgot…"

Roger Stern and John Byrne pay respect to the Legacy of Marvel Comics' Golden Age featuring Captain America and the Invaders in this awesome story that appeared in the pages of Captain America 253 and 254.

In England, a series of terrible slasher murders are being committed. People are being killed and having the blood drained out of them. Everyone believes it to be the work of some insane serial killer, but elderly Lord Crichton of Falsworth Manor suspects something a bit more sinister. He believes the culprit to be a VAMPIRE named Baron Blood, and he has good reason to suspect it, because Lord Crichton was once UNION JACK, the heroic leader of the Invaders, who battled Baron Blood countless times during the war.

   His accusations fall upon deaf ears, however, because he is old and unwell, and everyone believes him to be getting senile. But Lord Crichton feels in his heart that he is correct, and calls upon the only person whom he knows will believe him: Captain America.

  

 I love this scene where Captain America reunites with his former team mate Spitfire, Miss Jacqueline Crichton. During the war, she was the teenage girl who had a crush on Cap, but to her sad realization, she sees that because of his years in suspended animation, he has remained young, while she has aged many years.

   I love this passage because the story reflects so much about time, how it steals strength and energy from people who were larger than life in their youth. More than this, though is the story’s underlying message of respect and friendship. It’s never clearer that when Cap has a chance to talk to Lord Crichton alone..…

Unlike everyone else in the house, Captain America is the only one who still gives  Lord Crichton the respect and dignity the former leader of The Invaders deserves. Both men are true heroes here.

Lord Crichton tells Cap that his half brother is back from he dead and will be coming to take his life. He states that his brother will continue to return from the grave until he is killed the only way to properly kill a vampire: beheading.

All suspicions are laid to rest that night, however, when Baron Blood descends upon Falsworth Manor to take out meddling Captain America.

But The Vampire is in for a surprise, when he finds Captain America wide awake and waiting! Ouch! That’s gotta hurt!

The Vampire flees as morning breaks, and thus the manhunt begins to locate the body of Baron Blood before he can strike again. All paths come up dry, however, and the group is forced to change their tactics. They must bait Baron Blood and draw him to THEM!

   They use the bait they know Baron Blood cannot resist: Having old Lord Crichton dress up again as his old foe Union Jack will be too much for the vampire to take.

  When the Baron arrives as expected at sunset, however, it is Lord Crichton’s nephew’s friend who is waiting in the suit. Together with Captain America  the two battle Baron Blood to a standstill! Time is running short for them though, because as the sun goes down, the Baron gets stronger. Quick action MUST be taken while they have the vampire against the ropes, and Cap remembers the advice Lord Crichton gave him a few days ago:

The story ends with the group destroying all the remains of Baron Blood. After the ceremony, they find that Lord Crichton has also passed on. They are satisfied though, knowing that Lord Crichton died with the knowledge that his evil half brother’s reign was over.

A terrific story full of history and respect for the legacy of the Golden Age of Marvel Comics.

More Fave Kid Books: Encyclopedia Brown

Another Children's Series I remember really, really liking was Donald J. Sobol’s juvenile mystery sleuth ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWNbooks. The first book I read in the set was ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN AND THE CASE OF THE SECRET PITCH, (a book I found buried within three filled spindles of paperbacks at the back of the school library as part of the honorback system) and at the time I wasn’t really aware that it was part of an ongoing series. But I liked that one book so much that I went down to the local library to see if there were any more, and was excited to find that there were about ten books in that set, and even now, I can’t  find the words to describe how COOL all those books looked together on the shelf! In any case, I immediately made it my mission to borrow each one, two at a time…til I’d read ‘em all!

One of the things that made Encyclopedia Brown stories so much fun was the way you were given all the clues to each case (read: chapter) and was given a moment to try and “figure it out for yourself”. Though some solutions were based on knowledge no average 3rd grader would know, (Ambergris floats? Who Knew?!) most of them were based on plain common sense, and these were the ones you could either solve yourself or at least go “Oh, yeah!! I shoulda known that!” (Like that story where the guy claimed to have hit his leg on the table, where there was a delicately stacked house of cards…!)

Besides Donald J. Sobol’s smart and fun storytelling, one of the BEST things about the book was the fantastic artwork by Leonard Shortall. Shortall illustrated in a very 1950’s suburban family style, perfectly suited for depicting Idaville, the “average American Town”. In the early books he drew with thick brush strokes, but as the series went on, Shortall’s work took on a very thin, spindly style (somewhat akin to  Roald Dahl’s drawings in his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory books.) and these were my favorite illustrations of them all!

And while we’re on the subject of Shortall’s artwork, a kind of a funny thing, but back when I was obsessively and voraciously reading and re-reading the Encyclopedia Brown books, I developed this strong attraction for Sally Kimball, Encyclopedia Brown’s tomboyish second in command!! Something about how Shortall was depicting Ms. Kimball invoked images of the my ideal American sweetheart a la Lisa Whelchel or Maureen McCormick in my mind, but unlike Marcia Brady, all I got from my friends when I made this confession was strange looks!!

I once mentioned to Car about my childhood attraction to Sally Kimball, and she looked at me like I’d gone off the deep end! “But she was only a drawing in a BOOK!” she exclaimed, and…well, I really didn’t have anything to back me up! To me it didn’t seem so weird, but then again, I’m the guy who regularly posts about crushes he’s had on comic and cartoon characters, so my opinion’s probably not that great!

For me, the “Golden Age” of Encyclopedia Brown was the books I grew up with, that is, from Book 1 (Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective) through to Book 12 (The Case Of The Dead Eagles), and It had always been my wish to someday get all those books so I could reproduce that wonderful sight of the complete set with matching spines that I’d seen back during those early library visits!! Alas, the paperback versions for sale at the bookstore had entirely different covers (and some not even illustrated by Shortall!) so it seemed an impossible task.

As I got older, I’d occasionally see stray copies of Encyclopedia Brown books at rummage sales and book fairs, and on those rare occasions one of the editions from the library turned up, I grabbed it up, and with the arrival of EBAY (great at finding ex-library copies of books you remember reading as a kid, I tell you), I was finally able to complete my 12 book series with the covers I remembered from the library- the same covers I've uploaded here...! I even came across some of the paperback editions that I remember seeing growing up, which I ALSO bought! Can’t have too much nostalgia!

On the Subject of the Original Titles:

As I’ve mentioned before, I got into Encyclopedia Brown when it was on its tenth or eleventh book, and one thing that I really liked were the ambiguous titles that presented Encyclopedia Brown as the neighborhood “Ally of Justice”, with names like “Encyclopedia Brown Shows the Way”, “Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day”, or “Encyclopedia Brown “Gets His Man”. The only one that was unlike the others was the second book entitled, “Encyclopedia Brown and the Case Of The Secret Pitch” which, for some reason, was named after a random case in the book.

It always bothered me, as it was SO unlike the other titles. Then I was to find that “Secret Pitch” was initially entitled “Encyclopedia Brown Strikes Again”, an appropriate title for his second outing, and very much keeping theme of the other 11 titles. Why was it changed? I guess the term “Strikes Again” sounded a little sinister, and not at all like the “Encyclopedia Brown: Ally of Justice” themes the other titles have.

Ah, but it all became a moot point when book 12 in the series came out, as that one was named after a case, too: The Case of the Dead Eagles. Then all the books after it followed suit, i.e.: The Case of the Midnight Visitor, etc… Why I’ve even noticed that they’ve gone back and changed some of the OTHER original titles into “case” titles; books like Encyclopedia Brown Lends a Hand have been retitled “The Case of the Exploding Plumbing”, proving nothing is sacred as far as childhood nostalgia!

Not that this has anything really to do with Encyclopedia Brown, but the same thing happened to Gary Larson’s FAR SIDE collections. The original books all had titles like “It Came From The Far Side” “Bride of the Far Side” and Beyond The Far Side”, etc, etc. Then one day, the seventh or eight book came out, and it was called “Night of the Crash Test Dummies” or something like that. I was like “WHAA!!”Ahahahaha!

Super-Vixens: Hela

Hela…WOW! What can you say about Hela that will do her justice?

 Borne out of Thor's Asgard mythology, Hela’s the mac-daddy of goddesses- the otherworldly embodiment of DEATH!

  I wasn’t a keen reader of Thor, and for most of my life, Thor was the one major Marvel comics that I hadn’t gotten into. For one, the stories were, for a kid, REALLY grown-up, and it was hard to follow along, and TWO, Nobody I KNEW was into it, so there was no one to “turn me onto” Thor. But I knew the characters well enough, and the spectre of Hela was always known to me, along with the other major players of the comic such as Loki, Odin, Balder, Sif and Ulik.

The first Thor story I read was printed in a Marvel book called “THE SUPERHERO WOMEN”, read while sitting on the floor of our local Waldenbooks. It was a paperback collection featuring Marvel Comics' roster of Super Heroines such as the Invisible Girl, Black Widow and Medusa, among others.

In it, they had reprinted what was one of Thor’s most well-known and heralded HELA stories, culled from issues featured in THOR #186-190, called “The Icy Grip of Death”, where Hela comes to earth to hunt down Thor and take his life.

When Stan Lee came up with this story where Hela was going to don a “human” physique and appearance a la Donald Blake, It was up to Big John Buscema to come up with how she would look, and WHOA, did he deliver!

  Hela’s mortal form, in my opinion, is SPOT-ON PERFECT! Looking at her, my first thought was, Oh my God, YES! Adopting a sultry Greta- Garbo-ish outlook ijust has to be the PERFECT container for her, for if anyone has to imagine what Hela’s voice would sound like, Garbo’s husky swedish voice ABSOLUTELY fits the bill! I was BLOWN AWAY!

Besides that, even Garbo’s PERSONALITY was akin to Hela, with her “I Vant To Be Alone” mythos…imagine the swedish Sphinx uttering Hela’s lines “Why speakest thou to me of...Love?"

It would be many, many years later til I collected the actual issues in that impressive THOR run, but even back then I knew what I had read was a classic story that would continue to shine as one of the great cornerstone THOR tales for years to come!

Hela

First appearance: Journey into Mystery #102 (March, 1964)

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby