The Serial Super Sensation

This is from Comics Feature #53, cover-dated March 1987.

Have you seen this, the first live-action appearance of Superman on the silver screen?  It's boffo, despite the silly FX.  Kirk Alyn was a great Man of Steel, and a very manly Clark Kent.

See you Monday!

  

Super Clothes Number 9

Insert your own "Number Nine, Number Nine" audio as needed ....

The above set of PJs bears the JC Penney brand.

Sad to report, this set has no tag, hence no merchant info.

This is labeled "PCA."  Note that Superman is crashing through an "S" made of bricks.

Here's another set of PJs labeled PCA.

My biggest regret is that all the grandkids have outgrown these jewels!  See you Thursday.

  

Tasty Scrapings with MA-173

 

Have fun with this hotch-potch of songs from the 1980s!

01 - Roach Motel - Bound & Gagged - 1980  (3:16)

02 - Livin' in the 80s - Zero Boys - 1980  (2:18)

03 - Looking Sidewise - The Young Professionals - 1981  (3:56)

04 - Cold as the Rain - The Signals - 1984  (3:03)

05 - Napalm Springs - Vivabeat - 1982  (4:30)

06 - Advertising Girl - Phil 'n' the Blanks - 1981  (2:33)

07 - Boyfriends/Girlfriends - The Silencers - 1981  (2:06)

08 - Body Buildings - Transport - 1982  (3:51)

09 - Garden of Sin - Eyes of God - 1985  (4:26)

10 - Dream of Sand - Smog - 1986  (3:08)

11 - Hate the Girl - Marine Girls - 1981  (1:30)

12 - Trendies Everywhere - The Finishing Touch - 1981  (1:55)

13 - Sometimes Memories Return - Primary Colours - 1985  (3:29)

14 - Unable - Suburban Lawns - 1981   (1:24)

15 - The New Age Elite Corps - Home Service - 1980  (2:51)

16 - The Twin - Tru Fax and the Insomniacs - 1982  (2:51)

17 - Disposable Girl - Young Moderns - 1981  (1:41)

18 - Sunshine Anytime - These Are Houseplants - 1987  (4:03)

19 - Don't Reduce My Heart (to Beating Meat) - Bikini Atoll - 1981   (2:49)

20 - There's Something in the Air - Susan Rhee and the Orientals - 1983  (4:33)

21 - Cool World - Karla Devito - 1981  (2:57)

22 - Is There Life After Breakfast? - Los Microwaves - 1981   (3:42)

23 - Run with You Tonight - Defectors - 1984  (3:33)

24 - Born to Be Sold - Transvision Vamp - 1989  (3:44)

25 - I Can't Find You - Prodigy - 1985  (3:18)

THIS LINK GOOD FOR THREE DAYS.

https://www.filefactory.com/file/330ksu6rbnxs/MA-173.rar

These may have been left on the cutting-room floor of pop-music history.  But they’re definitely NOT the bottom of the barrel!

See you Monday!
  

Why Wait?

Last week I wrapped up my latest fun compilation of songs from all over.

And I figured, why save things up?  Let's have some auditory fun NOW.

01 - Don't Push Me - Flirt - 1978  (3:13)

02 - Record Burnin' Party - Eighth Route Army - 1985  (2:42)

03 - One in Ten Words - The Spoons - 1982  (4:09)

04 - Any Old Time - Artie Shaw (vocal Helen Forrest) - 1939  (3:06)

05 - Condition Red - The Goodees - 1968  (2:52)

06 - Kill Kill Kill (live) - Painters and Dockers - 1985  (4:02)

07 - Three Chord City - The Cold - 1980  (2:12)

08 - The Damned Don't Cry (In Hollywood) - PVC - 1984  (4:07)

09 - Shame - The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black - 1993  (2:37)

10 - Fuchsia Rayon - Westside Lockers - 1980    (2:04)

11 - Raggedy Ann - Finders Keepers - 1966  (2:59)

12 - Patience - Mannequin Pussy - 2019  (2:14)

13 - Dream of the West - Yip Yip Coyote - 1984  (3:05)

14 - Middle Age Hippie Blues - Moe Averick - 1987  (3:21)

15 - Captain Kangaroo - Suburban 9 to 5 - 1967  (1:57)

16 - Shoot for the Heart - Karen Lawrence - 1986  (4:03)

17 - Is She Your Girlfriend Now? - Rosie Future - 1980  (3:04)

18 - Space Invaders - Player (1) - 1979  (3:32)

19 - It's Been a Long, Long Time - Keely Smith - 1959  (2:04)

20 - Abbey Road Medley (edit) - The Beatles - BRG - Mark A - 2024  (16:10)

This Silver Anniversary Anthology (number 25, doncha know) has a super-broad spectrum of songs I love.  Comments on a few tracks:

Track 5:  When “Condition Red” talks about the girl’s parents not liking that scraggly long hair, that’s probably the way my own parents (and Joyce’s) felt about me!

Track 6:  “Kill Kill Kill” is a song from a 1968 Get Smart episode, recorded in 1985 by Painters & Dockers.  Don’t try it at home, or anywhere else!

Track 7:  I been to Three Chord City, but I can’t live there forever!

Track 11:  A real-life “Raggedy Ann” was the one for me, too!  Though she was much spiffier than me, kind of opposite from the gal in this song.

Track 13:  “The Dream of the West” tickles me as only a wannabe Western song can!  (Yip Yip Coyote’s from the UK.)

Track 15:  Why can’t we all be like Captain Kangaroo? Always kind, never too hurried!

Track 17:  Man, I love the insouciance of Rosie Future’s singing!

Track 19:  Even if the swaggering orchestra is a little too too, Keely Smith’s strong, sultry voice can make me wait as long as she wants!

Track 20:  I edited the last track from several resources, including from the Beatles Remixers Group.  I always wondered what the medley would sound like with “Her Majesty” in its intended place, between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam."  I mean, When Mean Mr Mustard shouts at the Queen, he must be yelling “Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl,” right?

THIS LINK GOOD FOR THREE DAYS.

https://www.filefactory.com/file/6nkl8h794r3c/MA-213.rar

Hope you find a little ear candy!  Let me know if the medley is crunchy enough.

See you Thursday, fellow pop fans!

   

Prepare to Be Re-Invaded!

Yup, that's what was in store for us in 1995, when the Beatles Anthology discs were first released!

I sat in my car in the parking lot of the Best Buy near Crossroads Mall in OKC, waiting for them to open at midnight so I could buy Beatles Anthology 1 just after the stroke of the clock!

And I think it very interesting that on the release of the OTHER two volumes, nobody seemed to care.  Stores didn't open early or ANYTHING.  At least, the stores I enquired with, like the aforementioned Best Buy.  They just shrugged as if further releases of Beatles music wasn't a big deal.  Shame on them!

See you Monday!

I’ve Got a Super Secret!

            Yes, that’s what we kids loved, after reading this story from Superboy #90, cover-dated July 1961.  We knew that Pete Ross knew Superboy’s secret identity.  But Pete, like the best friend we wished we could be to the Boy of Steel, vowed never to reveal the accidentally learned knowledge.  It was written by Otto Binder (yes, the sci-fi Otto Binder) and penciled by George Papp.

            It was the third of three stories in this issue.  Yes, youngsters of the modern age of ever-running serial tales, in the Sixties nearly every comic-book story was SELF-CONTAINED in ten or less pages, unless it was a “three-part-NOVEL,” which filled an entire issue. 

            This implications of this tale, cranked out (I assume) as one of dozens to fill the publication schedule, were more far-reaching than any of us pre-teens could have imagined when we gulped the story down.  The twist of Pete Ross’ Super Secret came when later tales showed him protecting Superboy’s identity by creating a diversion for Clark’s quick-change act, or whatever further angle could be wrung from the idea.

            Much later, we learned that Pete had a son named Jon. A storyline in Superman #457, cover-dated March 1976, showed Superman revealing his identity to Jon Ross, only to be scorned as a liar. 

            And in 1986, knowledge of that secret cost Ross his life.

            Yes, as part of Alan Moore’s deaths-travaganza, the two-part conclusion to the life of the Silver Age Superman, we find that Toyman and Prankster teamed up to learn Superman’s SI.  So they tortured and killed Pete in learning it. 

The preceding is just a prologue to these pages from the original comic.  Now you too can learn “Pete Ross’ Super-Secret!”

            You can learn about Bertillon and his identifying system at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Bertillon

            Growing up, I had a best friend, and we were this loyal, but his family moved to California due to work before we reached the teen ages of Superboy and Pete.

            Jazz on the radio!?!  Here’s a reminder for us kids that Superboy’s adventures occurred in the long-ago time BEFORE we came along to terrorize the radio airwaves with rock ’n’ roll.

            Before we get to the big revelation, note in Panel Two that Pete and Clark are wearing the same dang clothes for hiking and camping as in school or at the roller rink.

            We have to give credit to Pete for being able to lie still after THAT lightning flash.  Could he believe his eyes? Dare he?

            You can’t blame Pete for thinking he might have dreamed up the image of Clark switching to the dynamic Boy of Steel.  Still, the ensuing stalking and home invasion is a lot more worrying to a grownup than an eight-year-old.  I mean, kids are USED to sneaking around, especially spying on siblings to catch them doing something Mom and Dad have proscribed.

            And the whole let’s sew-a-costume schtick is super transgressive!  But the silly “I’m temporarily blinded” trick is something us young readers accepted as totally plausible.  Whether it makes sense to build an observatory next to a cliff is a different argument.

            This part of the tale reminds me of a story in 1983’s Superman Annual #9, in which Curt Swan (greatest Superman penciler of ALL TIME) gets to fly with the Caped Wonder.  It was all a dream … or WAS it? https://comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2008/06/the-highlight-reel-i-flew-with-superman.html

            What a STRANGE TWIST OF FATE it was that Pete had entered the exact correct branch of these very certainly deadly-unsafe mine tunnels as the bank robbers!  But, wait!  Should Superboy be … clanking?

            And the bit about Pete’s switch to Superboy cosplay is the hardest thing to swallow.  Nobody could switch clothes and rub in hair dye and all that jazz before the bank robbers got hungry and left, or passed out from boredom. 

            But, that’s the way it was in the Silver Age, kiddies!  Come to think of it, maybe the problem with us was that we grew up thinking behavior like Pete’s was perfectly fine! 

            See you next time, friends.  But before then I might be peeking into your windows or snagging some of your clothes to steal your identity!

  

I've Seen the Saucers

... So says the 1974 Elton John song.

But long before that, I was fascinated by the idea.  As seen by my juvenile saucer blueprints, or first attempts at fiction.

But I had fun faking saucers, too!  This one isn't a mothership over our street in Bartlesville, it's (natch) a red Frisbee.  Still, I did a good job of snapping the photo after tossing the thing!

Here's an even closer encounter!  Fellow sixties kids will recognize this landed saucer as the primary hull of the U.S.S. Enterprise model from AMT, with some added "landing gear."  At the right is a very hard-to-see Matchbox vehicle I wanted to pass off as an alien landing craft.

Here's someone else's photo of the same toy.

Well, what do you think?  Weren't my kiddie pix -- umm, childlike?  At least you gotta give me points for fun!  See you Monday.

  

Leading to Utter Rune

Here is an article from the January 1969 issue of Science Digest.

As you can tell from the first image, I liberated this article from the Sooner High library.  I can only hope that I did it with permission!

As you might imagine, the idea of runes was interesting thanks to ole Tolkien, darn him!  See you Thursday.

  

A Good Survey, a Few Slips, but Inaccurately Titled

Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious, by Barna William Donovan

 As the subtitle promises, it’s a survey of “dark places” in American thought. Donovan not only narrates the production and reception of fairly recent films (the 1960s onward), he tries to illumine thought processes, worldviews, and audiences for the kinds of beliefs narrated in films like JFK, Hangar 18, or the Rambo series.  That is, the idea that great forces are working together to preserve their own power by deliberately misrepresenting reality.  An elite, this concept says, is running things for their own benefit.

HOWEVER—and this is where the book’s title is misleading—only MOST of this book’s content is about movies.  About 30%, in my estimation, is a survey of the milieus, mindsets, and history of belief in conspiracy in modern culture.  To my estimation, this is way too much verbiage to background any conspiracy theory covered in the films.

            Most goofs in the book were small.  The computer of 2001: A Space Odyssey is HAL 9000, not HALL.  It’s Darth Sidious, not “Siduous,” in Star Wars. In Star Trek VI, Gorkon is murdered on the Klingon ship, not on the Enterprise.  In his discussion of the Watchmen comics miniseries, Donovan never once mentions artist Dave Gibbons.

            A bigger mistake comes as Donovan summarizes (both comic and film) From Hell.  He wrongly says that Stephen Knight’s Ripper theory, the basis for From Hell, holds that Jack the Ripper was Prince Eddy.  No, no, a thousand fallen women no!  The Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution proposal is that coachman John Netley and Sir William Gull were the murderers.  They were trying to hush up the “crime” of Eddy impregnating and then secretly marrying a verboten Catholic girl.

            Overall, this is a competent survey, but too wordy.  As were many pulp writers, was Donovan paid by the word?

 See you Monday, fellow anti-conspiracists!

          

Ya Just Can't Trust AI

... even in the comics!  and here's proof:

In Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #69, cover-dated June 1963, we've got a story in which Jimmy and Superman return to Kandor, re-assuming their Nightwing and Flamebird identities, created just a few months ago in Superman #158 (cover-dated January 1963).  Both dynamite, action-filled tales are chockful of Kryptonian and Kandorian lore, and both written by the great Edmond Hamilton.  You can easily tell by the beauty, economy of line, and just plain RIGHTNESS, that the pencils are by the inimitable Curt Swan!

This page is just kind of thrown into the story in passing:

Believe me, when we have the example of Krypton's Machine-King to learn from, why would you let a computer drive your car?

See you Thursday!

  

Have You Been Silenced?

After checking out these book covers, you might not want to report that light in the sky you saw last night!

The late Jim Keith was big on warning people that some creepy stuff was really going on ... and you don't need to invoke aliens to explain a lot of the weird stuff.

It's been a while since I read this one, but I don't think that the (possible) existence of intelligent life on other planets is threatening to Christian faith.  I do agree with those who point out that a possible evil supernatural entity might pose as a space guy as part of an attempt to deceive pore old gullible humans.

Beckley's pretty sensationalistic, but it's really hard to go wrong IMO when the topic is those MIB.

See you Monday!