It's Starting to Come Together Now -- um, What??

Superman?  The mobster known as "The Wheel"?

It can't be . . . but that's what "Clark Kent's Great Superman Hunt" has revealed. 

Or has it?  Oh, now we get it!  This was all a desparate ruse by Superman (and by Clark Kent nudge-nudge-wink-wink-say-no-more) to get Herb Farr's gang to THINK the Man of Tomorrow was Farr, so they would show him the way to safely release Lois from her booby-trapped hiding-place.

Man!  But Farr has escaped, and just as Superman is going to key the remote-control detonator so he can rescue Lois, the REAL Farr shows up, and smashes the control!

Now Lois is doomed.  She can't be released by the crook's method, and, we've all been told, she's in a location that will explode if Superman tries to break her out.

Look at Farr's evil face as the cops drag him away.  He's the epitome of Snark, ain't he?  But he's given Superman one clue, direct from the reporter in the 1951 film The Thing:  Keep Watching the Skies!

Sure enough, Lois is in a robot plane.  But how can the big guy get her out?

Well, if it worked in Superman Returns, why can't it work now?  Super-Breath, to the rescue!

Whew!  Now Lois is saved, barely, and all Superman has to do is explain his ruse to the world. 

Since the heavy media coverage of this plan was pitched by Clark to Perry White as a circulation booster, I wonder how many, if any, new subscribers are going to cancel because Clark and Superman LIED TO THEM?!?!?

Anyway, we'll wrap up this story and see what's next in Superman 180 next time!

Separate Blog for Music and Stuff

Starting today, you can visit a separate Blog for various uploads.  We will start with the items previously listed here, and go on from there.  I hope to post one-a-day of the "older" links, and we will go from there. 


The new Blog is named after my first pet, my wonderful friend Spock, 1978-1991.

http://spocksrecordround-up.blogspot.com/

Back to Our Story

Here are the next three pages from "Clark Kent's Great Superman Hunt," the first story of Superman 180.

Here we see that, at least, the stated goal for Clark's wild crusade has come to pass -- The Daily Planet's circulation is skyrocketing!  Meanwhile, our reader stand-in, Jimmy Olsen, is worrying about "that skunk," Clark Kent, ruining Superman's life by exposing the Secret Identity.

I like the depiction of Clark's mental image of Lois in captivity.  She's holding out her arms, pleading for her hero to rescue her.  And he's doing the best he can!  If only she KNEW how hard he's trying.

Meanwhile, building on the staged autograph collection of the days before, Clark has isolated the letters F and H as the probable initials of that Secret Identity.  (We, the readers, can't help but wonder what the heck is going on.  We know, of course, that Superman's initials are CK.)

Therefore, Clark has announced that since Superman has super-teeth, maybe he doesn't need a dentist.  So Clark, using super-speed, cross-references dentists' records and the phone book to narrow down "FH" guys who haven't seen a dentist recently.  Clever, huh?  Of course, the super-speed stuff gets done off-camera...

Well, Clark announces that four guys fit the criteria he has manufactured.  Trailing a camera crew, he goes to each man's address, building the suspense.

(When I read the couple of panels about Fang Hogan, I first wonder about the marketability of the trade name "The Human Beaver."  Human TERMITE, maybe.  Secondly, I wonder that, even in comic-book land, somebody could make a living by biting into telephone poles.)

With three "suspects" eliminated, we now turn to "FH" Number Four.  Herb Farr, come on down!

Now things begin to come together for us.  Herb Farr, the guy fingered by Clark Kent's investigation, is also "The Wheel," the guy who kidnaped Lois Lane and has held her under a death watch while telling Clark Kent to expose the Man of Steel's identity.

(In Creative Writing in college, our professor Val Thiessen summed up this turnaround plot twist by naming it "the biter, bit.")

So when Farr, "The Wheel," shows up at his mob hideout, his cronies are wise to things -- they think!  But consider the absurdity of the situation.  They think their boss, a big-time mobster, is Superman.

SO THEY PULL A GUN ON HIM.

Is it just me, or does this seem a bit silly?  Especially when his skin bends a pinprick, and his hair breaks a pair of scissors.

What is up?  Obviously either Superman has had a third identity all along, or he is pretending to be Herb Farr.  But why?

Come back next time to learn more!

The Man from O.R.G.A.N.

In 1965, virtuoso keyboardist Dick Hyman ventured into the spy business with his LP, The Man from O.R.G.A.N.

Here is my version of that album.

If you like it, leave a comment and say so!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IW55JV8W

Note that this version of the "UNCLE" theme copies the first season's use of 5/4 time.  Enjoy!

Words from Our Sponsors

The next three pages of Superman 180 are ad pages.

The first of the three features a half-page Cocoa Puffs ad.  In case you didn't know what to call him, he is "The Cuckoo Bird."  Now, I don't know about "a laugh a minute," but the Bird's crack to his Gramps about picking on a guitar not the Bird is at least as funny as some of my jokes. 

Most of my jok --

OK, OK!  ALL of my jokes.  He's as funny as ALL OF MY JOKES!  Anyway ...

The bottom half of the page features an ad for send-away blueprints for various wheeled contraptions.  Man, in my opinion it would be really bad to build a unicycle and not be able to ride it.  That would be just about my speed.

I bet the put-put motor bike uses a lawn-mower engine.

Our second page of ads is a public-service announcement.  I think this character had a name, Pee-Wee, but I'm not sure.  Whatever his name is, the point certainly comes across effectively.  (Now if about a zillion percent of the people who read the thing would actually change their behavior.)

The next page from our 1966 comic features a familiar ad for that world-famous amusement park.  Good Ol' Whats-Its-Name!  (just kidding, with a riff on an old Peanuts gag)  Do you recall that song from the 1960s with the line "You'll never know how a kiss can feel 'til you're stuck at the top of a ferris wheel, that's when I fell in love, doan at Palisades Park!" ?

Well, that song referred to this place.  Also, did you know that the Gong Show guy, Chuck Barris, wrote that song?!?! It's true!

Now, this kid from Oklahoma never made it to Palisades Park.  Whenever I would read these ads, I would wonder why somebody would cut up a perfectly good comic book, just for a coupon.

Now, the George Barris features in the bottom half of this page IS NOT the same Barris as the Palisades Park guy.  He was a famous car customizer, and has been hired to help shill some car models for AMT.

The only models I ever owned by AMT were the Star Trek ships.  Everything else for me was the Aurora Monsters, Man!

See you later on in the week for the continuation of our story, "Clark Kent's Great Superman Hunt!"

1966 - Swingin' Sounds for Secret Agents

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7TNOOP36

Need it be said that, by the standards of the time, "Swingin' " was in the ear of the beholder? 

If you like it, let me know.

Ze Plot, She Thicken

Here are the next three pages from Superman 180 and "Clark Kent's Great Superman Hunt."

Clark Kent, giving the reason of boosting Daily Planet's circulation, has taken to the TV airwaves in his attempt to discover Superman's secret identity.  He's asked TV viewers to send in their sightings of Superman in the hopes of coordinating dates and flightpaths for a clue to the areas Superman frequents.

Jimmy Olsen (correctly) points out that revealing Superman's identity to the world *might not* be that friendly a thing to do.  Clark's boss, Perry White, simply brushes aside Jimmy's protests with a breezy, "We won't reveal Superman's identity without his permission."

And Lois?  Well, she's on an overseas assignment, and isn't around to boff Clark on the back of the head with a rolled-up copy of yesterday's paper to express what a doofus he is.

So, Clark takes to the airwaves, and responses start flooding in.

But, why exactly is this even happening?  There must be a plan we don't know about, because we know Clark is Superman!

With this page we not only learn WHY Clark is doing it, we also learn that we nine-year-old readers have been drawn in to the story by a milennia-old literary device.  It's been commented on since Roman times. (The literary device, not this Superman tale!)

It's called in medias res, which is Latin for "in the middle of things."  Such storytelling brings the reader into the midst of the action, and them, once the reader is hooked, we "flash back" to the events that STARTED this whole ball rolling.  Homer used this trick in the Iliad and the Odyssey, friend.

The most extreme example of the in medias res technique in my recent memory is the pilot of NBC's The Event, where almost every other scene was subtitled "one hour ago" or "zix months ago" or "fifty-three years ago" or some such.

Now that our World Literature lecture is complete, let's simply observe that NOW WE KNOW why Clark is (to all outward appearances) trying to expose his own Secret Identity.  It's to save Lois's life!

Yes, this creepy thug, "The Wheel," kidnaped her on her way to that overseas assignment, and is holding her hostage.  She'll die unless Clark, known friend to Lois and Superman, exposes that Big Secret.

Look at Jimmy Olsen's face in the second panel of the above page.  Now, story artist Al Plastino might not have the most technically refined art style, but it accomplishes his goal.  Jimmy is HOT under the collar!  As a narrative stand-in for us, the readers, we don't get WHY our friend Clark is betraying our other buddy, Superman.

Now, on the next page of our tale, we see Superman's actions to steer his own investigation.  We knew Our Hero would save the day!  The fun is in seeing just how the Caped Wonder will outsmart "The Wheel" and save Lois's life, while preserving his TRUE alternate identity.

On TV, Clark asked local Metropolis viewers to get Superman's autograph and mail them to the Planet, in the hopes of finding a commonality.

QUESTION:  If you got the personalized autograph of the most powerful being since Jesus -- would YOU get rid of that autograph?  I know, I know, it's just a story.  Still -- I bet the Planet had a heck of a postage bill mailing all of those autographs back to their senders.

On the third page of this instalment we finally see Lois.  Buy, even though she's crying her eyes out, she sure looks pretty.  Note the box helpfully labeled "FOOD."

In the old style of cliffhanger serials and continuing today in the (very artless) smash-cuts of recent "action" movies, we are shown the heroine in peril lamenting her situation, and the efforts of the hero to find her, bouncing back and forth in a familiar storytelling trope.

In Clark's next step in his Superman Hunt, he's analyzed the thousands of Superman autographs and come to the pre-arranged observation that -- due to the style of writing the F and the H in the various autographs, Superman's civilian initials are probably those two letters.

So, we're treated to a couple of panels featuring the logical playing out of these possibilities.  My favorite is the last panel of the page, where a bum and a cop square off, each daring the other one to be Superman, because of their names.

See you again in a few days!

PS -- I've rearranged this Blog a bit.  Now you can access my various music downloads on a separate page that shows the covers of the albums.  You can flip between this page and that in the white strip at the top of the blog, just under the "Mark's Super Blog" header.

We Interrupt Superman 180 . . .

Welcome to my visiting friends from over there at Channel D, the Yahoo! chat group for anybody who loves The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Here is Al Hirt's album, The Horn Meets the Hornet, ripped from mine very own vinyl copy.  Here is the link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9TGP57R0

"Uncluded"  (get it, UNCLE fans?) are front & rear CD insert art & the above-shown disc art for use on a printable CD.

In another day or so we will return to Superman 180.

Clark Kent's Great Superman Hunt!

Here we are with the first three pages of Superman 180, October, 1965 (I was nine years old at the time).  Our first story is "Clark Kent's Great Superman Hunt!"  According to the DC wiki, this tale, illustrated by Al Plastino, was penned by Leo Dorfman.

This fine splash page lays it all out for us.   Clark Kent is on TV and triangulating Superman's flights to narrow down the hero's locale.  In the splash page, as throughout the story, his Pal, Jimmy Olsen, also stands in for us, the reader.  Why is Kent, one of the Man of Steel's closest pals, back-stabbing Superman this way?

Our tale begins with an often-repeated opening scene, set in Perry's office.  Clark and Jimmy are there; Lois, we're told, is on a foreign assignment (not to Qurac, I hope!).  How can the staff increase circulation?  Give away statuettes of our Super-Friends?

It's Clark the idea man who comes up with the winner.  Investigate Superman's secret identity.  Go on TV with it.  Involve the public.  That's the ticket!

Now let's see how Clark will go about such a thing.  As shown on the splash page, he's asking TV viewers and Daily Planet readers to send in where, and when, they saw Superman fly overhead in Metropolis.

As you can see, it's a pretty clever idea, morality aside.  Something tells me that this mysterious gangland czar is going to be seen again in this story.

When I see the call letters on the TV camera, "CWZ," I wonder why Plastino and Dorfman didn;t use the already established WMET-TV name.  Oh, well. Down, Fan-Boy!

Wait a minute!?! Why would Clark (who is Superman) want to expose his own alter-ego's identity!?!  We'll have to see why, next time.

Let's Read Superman 180

Superman 180 is cover-dated October, 1965.  We're going to read through it together, but not at a page-a-day.  A little faster this time.

First off, feast your eyes on that gorgeous artwork by Mr Swanderful.  Just look at these (Caucasuian?!?!?) island beauties.

It simply astounds me that the women's faces drawn by Curt Swan were not considered beautiful enough, sometimes, by the DC powers-that-be.  For certain "presigious"-type tales, Lois Lane main artist Kurt Schaffenberger was drafted to provide faces for Swan-drawn figures of Lois and Lana.  For a prime example of this, scope out the classic tale of Superman Red/Superman Blue in Superman 162.

As you can see on this cover, Mr Swan was perfectly capable of drawing beautiful women "all the way up."  Va-va-VOOM! as they used to say.

Here we see our luscious unadorned (except by clothing, darn it! -- just kidding) island girls looking fresh from San Francisco, complete with flowers in their hair.

Let's read the cover text box.  It really seems to be a lot of words, huh?  But I think all that verbiage is consciously used for dramatic effect to lead up to the boffo title, "The Girl Who Was Mightier Than Superman!"

The dialogue tells us the name of this mere slip of a girl who has knocked Our Hero cattywampus, and that, due to this single judo throw, the Mighty Stranger is now obligated to marry Orella.

But read Superman's comment.  Is he concerned that he is now engaged?  Is he worried that Lois Lane's lock on his affections has been snipped with bolt-cutters?

No.  It's the SHAME of it all.  He's been beaten by a girl.  Man, don't you know -- that's when the FUN begins!

All seriousness aside, take a look at the staging of this dynamic cover.  Our cover girl Orella is swinging Superman around like a shot-put.  She's got an appropriate stance, with has feet planted, her hip turned one way and her shoulders slanted like a Louisville Slugger.

But look at Superman.  It's a dramatic pose, but in your mind's eye, try to "rewind" from his current supine position.Was Superman standing next to her when Orella grabbed his arm?  If so, then her grip would be reversed as she reached down to grab his wrist.  About the only way she could grab ahold of him with this grip is if she were standing on a ladder above him, or if  he were already flat-out on the ground, simililar to the sequence in the Superman II film when Crhsitopher Reeve spins Terence Stamp (Zod) into the Coke sign.

To quote Yul Brenner, "Tis a puzzlement."

Still, just from the cover alone, it's no wonder that this is an issue of the "World's Best-Selling Comics Magazine!"

On the inside front cover we have this great GI Joe ad.  Who among us remembers the GI Joe TV commercial jingle?  To the tune of "The Caissons Go Rolling Along," a mighty male chorus sang, "GI Joe, GI Joe, Fighting man from head to toe!" and I forgot the rest.

Yes, the original "Action Figure" was a big draw for boys who wanted to play army.  Also, he was way more rough-and-tumble than those girly Barbies.  I mean, GI Joe had ball-and-socket wrist-elbow-shoulder assemblies.  Not for him those wimpy, plastic-covered "Ken joints."

I never had a GI Joe myself, my army men were always the three-inch-high injection-mold plastic kind.

However, I DID somehow acquire a GI Joe footlocker.  I still have it.  I use it to keep my model-building stuff in:  my Testor's paint and brushes, model glue, and old Aurora instruction sheets.  Some of those little paint bottles are forty years old.

The Dead Travel Fast

This book is something like a pop culture history of the vampire.

It’s light and breezy, readable and engaging, but definitely not a “history.” Don’t read this book if you want trustworthy information. Read it for something like your goofy brother’s tale of a vacation. It’s lots of fun, but not really trustworthy.



Nuzum decided to investigate the proliferation of the vampire image in our modern world. He met with lots of “pretend” and “pretender” vampires, who come across as mostly either pathetic fanboy wannabes, or creepy (possibly sociopathic) intendees.



He talks about his Dracula tour of Eastern Europe, and it is loads of fun to read. The emphasis throughout the book is on fun and wry commentary, which is the intent of the book I suppose.



Here are three things that stuck out like bloody necks to me – mistakes of a sort. (Or mis-STAKES, bwah-ha-ha!)



1) In Nuzum’s quest to understand vampires, he decides to watch every vampire movie he can. In his comments, he says that although Dracula’s Daughter (1936) is a sequel to Universal’s 1931 Dracula, it doesn’t say what happened to the King Vampire. I guess Mr Nuzum must have missed the five-minute-long sequence where Gloria Holden burns her father’s body, hoping to give his soul peace.



2) Mr Nuzum says that there’s no evidence that the Countess Elizabeth Bathory bathed in blood trying to stay young. Umm, yes, those little things called court documents, they do say that, along with other descriptions and testimony contemporaneous with her trial and conviction on murder charges.



3) In his discussion of the long, sad decline of Bela Lugosi’s personal and professional life, Mr Nuzum mentions “During Lugosi’s lifetime, only one other actor attempted to portray Dracula in a film (John Carradine in 1945’s House of Dracula).” Mr Nuzum has evidently missed the 1944 House of Frankenstein, where Carradine FIRST played Dracula; as well as the 1943 film Son of Dracula, in which Lon Chaney, Jr played the King Vampire (reversing the name to present himself as Count Alucard).



So, as I said, this is a breezy and fun-to-read book, but read it for its atmosphere. Don’t use it as a fact-check reference. The $5 price I paid at Half-Price Books was about right.

World’s Finest 115 – The Mighty Arrow Army!

The third story of three in this February, 1961 issue of World’s Finest Comics features Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy. According to the DC Wiki, a staff writer named Ed Herron came up with this tale of intrigue in South America.

Yes, Oliver Queen and Roy Harper are flying Queen’s private jet on an impulsive round-the-world air tour when their plane develops trouble somewhere south of the border.


It’s my suspicion that the “SPUT-SPUTTER” we see in the lower left panel is supposed to be a sound effect, and not the name for the plane.


I don’t quite follow the logic of protecting their secret identities by PUTTING ON their costumes, but what do I know?

At any rate, as soon as Queen has effected their emergency landing, the pair comes under attack from some native bowmen. Native as in, South American Indians of mixed Indian-Hispanic descent. These fine fellows are in a terrible predicament. An evil dictator named Bracato is attempting to invade “our peaceful kingdom” (later named Luania) with his array of modern weaponry. The unnamed Freedom Fighter had mistaken Speedy and Green Arrow for minions of Bracato, but that misunderstanding is soon cleared up. The Luanians can’t defend themselves without anything but bows, arrows, and spears, because “Modern weapons have long since been banned by our friendly people!”

Green Arrow and Speedy quickly vow to help the unnamed leader against the evil, high-tech incursions of Bracato. Their fancy arrows make sound and smoke enough to convince Bracato’s tank crew that the opposition is a strong one.

Round One to the Freedom Fighters.

But when Bracato finds out that his hand-picked crew of strong men have been outflanked by a bunch of “primitive” bows and arrows, he vows to stomp those two American Archers flat.

Why, he’ll sail his destroyer downstream to destroy the Luanian capital. Little does he reckon with Green Arrow’s ability to use a grappling arrow as a zipline and bring himself, Speedy, and the defenders aboard.

Now that the oppressive dictator, shown all dressed up in an official European-style pompous military uniform, has been thwarted, Speedy and Green Arrow have only one request of their brave hosts: to fix his plane so they can get out of there! Since this is easily enough done, we’re treated in the last panel to the comic-book equivalent of “Who was that masked man?”

Now for a bit of an observation, comparing this 1961 comic-book story with some of the real-world events of the same era…

Liberal darling Fidel Castro led his successful revolt to take over Cuba in 1959. He’d been glamorized by some American educated types who had a high regard for their own education. And it cannot be denied that the Batista regime in Cuba was corrupt through-and-through, being propped up by American companies, the rich US entertainment industry, and the Mafia. When Castro’s “people’s revolution” threw the fat pig out of power, it was viewed by many as a victory for the overburdened, oppressed people of that country, especially since Castro had proclaimed himself an anti-Communist.

As we all know now, that anti-Red orientation lasted only a brief time. Just as bad news for the Cuban people was the evidence that Castro and his cronies weren’t any more interested in helping them in the “individual freedoms” department.

Now, this comic came out in the fall-winter of 1960, after the beginnings of disillusionment with Castro’s “people’s” government, and a few months before the USA’s failed invasion called the “Bay of Pigs.”

Am I crazy to see a resonance between this comic-book story and the actual events of those days?

Just think about it. You could align the unnamed Freedom Fighters with the Cubans who the US was assisting to overthrow Castro at the Bay of Pigs. Or you could see in the Luanians a reflection of the Castro forces whose self-proclaimed task was to throw the corrupt foreign influences out of Cuba.

Roy and Speedy just “happened along” in their world travels, and got “sucked into” a tribal conflict, which they were able to solve with their modern American inventions.

True to the style of the comic-book tale, the Luanians are assumed to be telling the truth to Queen and Harper, and Bracato is really-truly the bad guy of the story.

Just imagine how this kind of beginning scenario might have played out – for example – on an episode of The Unit a couple of years ago! Members of The Unit crash-land in a small South American country and are asked to help some jungle fighters. 

 As today's story might tell it, maybe the freedom fighters were lying, and trying to get foreign aid for their own revolution against their country’s lawful rulers.

Our maybe Snake Doctor Jonas Blane’s men would agree to support the Luanians and successfully overthrow the dictator Bracato, only to find out that Bracato had been put into power by the CIA!?!

Regardless, the impression I take away from this tale from World’s Finest 115 is that while Americans don’t go around looking for trouble, they are willing to step in and help the downtrodden who may be unfairly oppressed.

Boy, if only real life were that simple!

The Age of Sex Crime

In this 1987 book, author Jane Caputi blames men for everything bad.

Not only is this her philosophy in a nutshell, it is a summation with which she would probably agree.


The book caught my eye in a used bookstore because of my “whodunit” interest in Jack the Ripper’s crimes, and indeed Caputi takes Saucy Jack as a template for “the Patriarchy” – i.e. the world today, “The Age of Sex Crime,” which self-evidently victimizes all women and intentionally denigrates, murders, rapes, and objectifies women, who are thereby exonerated from any and all sin or guilt for any evil, ever.

That’s Caputi’s viewpoint.
When talking about black people, the author always (except in a quotation) capitalizes the “B.” She does NOT capitalize the word “white” when it is used as a race-descriptive word. I assume this is done to somehow retroactively bestow power or honor to the millions of black people who, in the past, have been put-upon and victimized partly or totally because of their race. In my opinion, this selective “naming” doesn’t honor – it simply trivializes the troubles of black people by implying that merely the capitalization of the letter “B” makes up for everything black people have suffered.


Caputi makes a capital error (pun INTENDED) by stating several times that “There are no known serial killers that are female” (p 203). Not only is this a specious argument (arguing a positive point from a lack of evidence), it is downright wrong. Simply Google “female serial killer” and you will find articles, and books, on the subject. Serial murder as a classification of human beings, knows no gender on either end of the killing.


However, her INCORRECT identification (serial sex murderer = MALE) is important to Caputi’s central thesis (that men are by definition evil). For that matter, it is implied throughout the book that sex = crime. In other words, there can be no heterosexual intercourse devoid of intended violence.

While this book is a valuable catalog of the popularity of male violence towards women and its lamentable place as a centerpiece of popular culture and media marketability, it fails because of its basic worldview: that ALL women are voiceless victims, and that ALL men are, because of their maleness, oppressors and would-be violators.


If all women are victims, who did the Patriarchy happen to give this book the chance to be published? If men are by definition potential serial murderers and racists and rapists, how does Caputi justify using the words and research of such MEN in her book alongside the it-goes-without-saying righteousness of female researchers and writers?

My response to such a characterization is similar to my reaction to being accused of being a racist, simply because I am white (note the lack of a capital “W”): If this is true – if all men are part of an oppressive Patriarchy which intentionally oppresses women – then why do most men (me included) fail to show the benefits of such a supposed oppressive regime? I mean, if “white men” are running everything to their benefit, where’s my harem? Why am I still looking for a job?

It is a sad truth that judging people by their skin color or sex or what-have-you IS NOT a terrible attribute of ONLY white males. Now, my observation of this sad truth (which should be common sense!) NEVER excuses such behavior. MOST of the myriads of examples of male oppression and violence against women are, as Caputi says, a sad reflection on a society which spends money on them and makes these products popular enough to be emulated by valueless people eager to make a buck.



BUT, every man who has sex with his wife IS NOT harboring a secret desire to gut her like Jack the Ripper did to “Long Liz” Stride in 1888. Every teenage boy who feels frustration after a petting session with his date IS NOT in imminent danger of becoming a sexual murderer.


Similarly, capitalizing the letter “B” when talking about a black person is no more helpful to actual victims of racial prejudice than buying a pink jacket for your daughter is a meaningful statement of your support for women’s rights.


Please understand that I am not in any way trivializing actual injustices. I don’t sympathize with the creeps who enjoy “snuff films” or other nasty things. But I believe that labeling anybody as “bad” or as a victim (either way) by something as simple and basic – and potentially divisive – as gender or race or ANYTHING BUT BEHAVIOR – is really not helpful.


I accept it as a truism when the Bible states that every individual is a sinner who needs an individual encounter with the person God provided to pay for that sin – Jesus Christ.

The problem of human sin is not something that can be believably blamed on gender, or race, or society, or any of the other convenient whipping-boys of the world. This book makes a basic error in its denigrating of all women as victims. It justifies this error by its balancing-act of “naming” all men as would-be rapists and sex-murderers.


Such finger-pointing, especially about such a serious issue as showing the depressing salability of violence against women in modern society, only lessens the validity of this main point. The problem isn’t MEN, it’s MAN.


And I mean that in an entirely gender-neutral way. Evil and wrongdoing and sin know no gender boundaries. Or any other boundaries.


This is an interesting book, containing an extensive listing of many ways that “sex sells” and “violent sex sells more.” But the problem isn’t in the crotch. The problem is in the heart – male and female.

Merry Christmas to One and All

In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Dr McCoy says that, by scuttling the Enterprise, Kirk has turned death into a fighting chance for life.

In the case of man's confrontation with the spectre of nuclear annihilation, many songwriters and performers turned possible death into a fighting chance for art -- or, or least, record sales.

My Christmas gift to you, my friends, is an anthology I've put together called The A-Bomb B-List.  None of these songs is on the soundtrack to The Atomic Cafe film, or in the wonderful 4-disc-and-book set Atomic Platters.

Most of these songs, in fact, are from the 1970s and later.  Here is a track list:

1 - Atomic Bomb Blues - Homer Harris 1946

2 - Atomic Baby - Amos Wilburn 1950
3 - Fujiyama Mama - Wanda Jackson 1957
4 - God's Gonna Turn Us To Dust - Johnny Tyler 1960
5 - A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan 1962
6 - Eve of Destruction - BarryMcGuire 1965
7 - So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III) - Tom Lehrer 1965
8 - Electric Funeral - Black Sabbath 1970
9 - Damnation Alley - Hawkwind 1977
10 - Your Love Is Like Nuclear Waste - Tuff Darts 1978
11 - Nuclear Attack - Gary Moore 1980
12 - Fylingdale Flyer - Jethro Tull 1980
13 - Einstein A Go-Go - Landscape 1981
14 - Manhattan Project - Rush 1985
15 - If the Bombs Fall - Larry Norman 1986
16 - Christmas at Ground Zero - Weird Al Yankovic 1986
17 - Watchin' Joey Glow - Steve Goodman 1989
18 - Workin' at the Nuclear Power Plant - Penny File 2002
19 - Radiation Song - The Aquabats 2002
20 - Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile - Heather Noel 2003

In a line from Emerson, Lake & Palmer's live 3-LP set, Greg Lake quotes an earlier King Crimson song "Epitaph":  "If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh."

My hopes for you and me is that, despite the last bit of nuclear sabre-rattlings by North Korea and Iran, eventually we too can look back and laugh.  Not at the worries of folks who really thought a nuclear winter was on the way, but in relief that it didn't happen!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5Y8S8T5U


Included are disc art and front & back CD liners.

The Hunter and The Hunted, Part II !

So here we are with the conclusion to "The Hunter and the Hunted!" by Cary Bates and Andru/Esposito, from World's Finest 181.

In this post, I will prevent ample evidence that young Mister Bates (he was 20 when this story saw print) was a keen student of pop culture when he crafted his tale.

Having escaped from their captor Kralc, who has kidnaped them and brought them to this egg-shapped world called "Orr," Batman and a powerless Superman are trying to find a place to hide.  Even though the citizens are merely standing around and watching them run past, they figure that Kralc, having caught them, probably wants to keep them.

So they duck into the house shown above, which seems like the most Earthlike place they've seen.  Umm, Mr World's Best Detective, why aren't you suspicious that this place is a trap BECAUSE it looks like home?

And, wouldn't you know it.  As soon as they get inside, all of a sudden a bunch of menaces pop in by the same transporter-type technology that brought them here as captives.  The first is the weird robot-guy seem at the bottom of the above page.  As soon as Batman dispatches it, then another threat appears, one only Superman can foil -- which he does, of course.

Then Kralc reappears, with a couple of new faces and a few cracks about how these menaces were "a little test" for our heroes.  The girl's name is Yllas, and she continues the walking tour of the city Azib that was begun by Kralc.

As they wander the streets, Yllas mentions that the heroes are legends to her people.  But why are they considered legendary beings, creatures of myth, when they are real and walking down the streets of Azib?

Well, here's the answer.  In a circus-arena-type setting, the world's finest heroes are introduced to the citizens of Azib (and, presumably the rest of the planet, by video maybe), as "the founders of our race."  Whose citizens promptly don;t believe their eyes, and Supes and Bats have to put up with more tests of their mettle, which they pass with their usual aplomb.

Then comes the award ceremony, where the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel are given awards as the Founders of the Orrian race.  Hmm, think the heroes.  They don't remember having done such a thing.  So, they do a little investigating into "the Sacred Excavation," where the Orrians have just "discovered their roots," and -- PUNCH LINE -- the oldest objects show clearly that they are remnants of the Bizarro World!

(For some reason, the planet's name, Htrae, is not mentioned.)

OK, now that they have at least some crazy idea of where they are -- some strangely mutated Htrae -- then WHEN are they?  Evidently these wild-n-wacky galaxy hoppers brought Orr to the present (1968) by swapping places with Htrae, which is evidently in the future, in Orr's Orr-bit (sorry, I couldn't resist the chance for the pun!).

So, as the proverbial WWII prison camp Allies would say, "Listen closely.  I HAVE A PLAN ..."

The plan makes perfect sense, in a refreshing way.  Both Superman and Batman woo Yllas, but in a bass-ackwards sort of way.  With a bouquet of weeds.  By starting a fight to the death over this girl they've only just met.

Whew!  Thank heaven that Kralc shows up to send these embarrassing Neanderthal-type creatures home!  And also, by the way, he takes Orr home, replacing it with the Htrae, whose inhabitants kindly tell Superman and Batman to vacate the galactic premises.

Now, as to the topic of author Cary Bates' close observation of the current entertainment scene.

Who could read the story's mention of "sacred excavations," and the twist-ending revelation of the artifacts, without thinking of the same kind of revelation in the movie Planet of the Apes, which was released in February, 1968.  Given the "lead time" of comics production, Bates might well have seen the movie a few weeks before weaving that plot point into this tale.

Likewise, in November 1967 Star Trek had aired the second-season episode "I, Mudd."  In it, the ever-resourceful members of the Enterprise crew escape their super-logical android captors by behaving anti-logically.  That's exactly the kind of behavior exhibited by Superman and Batman to get themselves thrown off the planet Orr.

And who could forget Spock's declamation that "Logic is a beautiful flower . . . that smells BAD."  Of course, the space-hopping Kralc's "space hops" are reminiscent of the Star Trek transporter.

See you at the end of the week with an atomic Christmas present.

The Hunter and the Hunted!

According to the DC Wiki, the cover for World’s Finest 181, cover-dated December 1968, was by Irv Norvick. Cary Bates was the writer, and Adru-Esposito were the artists.

MAN – Superman looks downright haggard, doesn’t he? I mean, what in the world could make him look THAT scared? Maybe it’s all cover-art hype. Maybe not.

Our story begins as Clark Kent is being feted for a Reporter of the Year award. Isn’t it interesting that every award we ever encounter, seems to be won by one of our character cluster? I mean, nobody ever consoles Perry White for coming in SECOND in the North American Cigar-Chomping Competition.

Anyway, we learn that Clark (Superman) Kent has a strange device secretly built into his glasses. When his super-computer at the Fortress of Solitude detects an emergency situation, the glasses emit an ultra-sonic signal.

Another interesting thing about these glasses, if you’ll look at the art, is that while emitting this sub-audible signal, they also flash bright yellow! Right, -- WHAT?

At any rate, the big emergency detected by the Super-Computer can be avoided if Superman leaves Earth for 24 hours. Which he does, but not before leaving a warning note for Batman in the Bat-Cave – because the danger, whatever it is, is to BOTH of the World’s Finest Heroes.

And that note left by Superman (which is also drawn as emitting an eyeglass-like glow) is the reason why Robin, in the Batcopter, sees from the air a red-headed STRANGER driving the Batmobile. Yes, it’s Batman. He is on his way to the time-travel equipment of good ol’ Professor Nichols. Since he can’t fly away like Superman to avoid this threat – whatever it is – then he will escape into a randomly chosen time.

The Caped Crusader’s rationale for wearing a disguise is, according to Batman: “I can’t tell him who I am! If Robin has the slightest clue to my whereabouts, that mystery hunter Superman’s computer warned about might force him to talk.”

Umm, Batman, if you really wanted to sneak away – the disguise is just fine. But why not drive a 1965 Dodge if you want to be inconspicuous? If you’re driving the Batmobile, aren’t you kind of announcing to the world, “Hey! I’m Batman!”

And Batman’s escape is a good idea, for the next morning, a strange guy dressed like a Mod, but coiffed like Richard Harris in Camelot, shows up at both the Daily Planet and in the Bat-Cave, looking for them. He’s got a strange jackal-seeming dog in zebra pajamas, that he calls “Zyr-2.”

QUESTION: If this is “the next morning” after the evacuation of our two heroes – THEN 24 HOURS ARE OVER! Isn’t this oddball a little late? Why didn’t the Super-Computer tell Superman, “You don’t need to leave until tomorrow morning”?

And dig how the otherworldly search team simply “beams in” and out. Definitely sensing a bit of STAR TREK bleedover here.

Turns out that the otherworldly pup Zyr-2 is also a cosmic bloodhound. He makes short work of finding both Superman and Batman.

Somehow, he also exerts a kind of hypno-eyed compulsion.  When he says, "You are coming with me," people believe him!

Even if he's hidden out on the Planet Toron . . .

Or in Earth's own past, like Batman.

Now, is it just me, or does it look weird to anybody else how Batman is shown removing a full-head red-haired face mask . . . WITH THE BAT-MASK UNDERNEATH!?!?!   Sweaty much?

Meanwhile, take a look at those psychedelic backgrounds in the two panels depicting dimensional/time travel.  I just think they are pretty neat.  Well-drawn and way out.

So, here we are on what we now know to be the planet Orr.  The stranger's "mind-domination" has forced the World's Finest Team here, to the planet's capital names Azib, where they are sentenced to live . . . FOR THE REST OF THEIR NATURAL LIVES.

What will happen next in this weird tale?  Is their captor a stalker?  A hero worshipper, an enemy?

In the last page of Part I of this tale, Batman Kayoes their captor and Superman grabs him, to learn . . . his powers don't work on Orr!  So the heroes are forced to hoof it on shank's-mare, fleeing through an alien city for shelter.

See you next time for the conclusion! And just like those depctions of our hero's transworld travel, it will BLOW ... YOUR ... MIND.

Book Review: Vampires, Burial, and Death

The subtitle of this fine book by Paul Barber, "Folklore and Reality," explains the contrast which is the subject of his research.

With admirable storytelling skill and a dry sense of humor, Mr Barber sets out to look at the folkloric depictions of vampires and other returnees-from-the-dead, and then compare those images with the realities of what happens to a body after death.

It turns out that, many times, the attributes of a dug-up, suspected vampiric body are the kinds of things familiar to fans of CSI -- in other words, these things are usually what SHOULD be happening to a body that's been buried for a month, or whenever.

Usually, in the cases from 500 years ago, which undoubtably were influenced by folkloric expectations -- as well as to influence folklore in the future -- the descriptions of the body included things like this: 

--body swollen;

-- body flexible and not stiff;

--hair and teeth seen as having grown since death;

--old nails shed and "fresh new ones" seen;

--blood around the nose and mouth;

--a sigh or gasp of protestation if the body is staked or otherwise violated.

Well, nowadays we know that putrefaction causes bodies to swell; that rigor mortis is a temporary state; that the skin shrinks around the teeth and hair, causing them to look longer; that the nailbeds of finger- and toenails look like "fresh new" nails if left untouched; that the gases of decay force blood from orifices like the nose and mouth; that these same gases will escape audibly if a new path for their release is made; and so on!

As told in these historic accounts, often in a village one member will die unexpectedly.  Soon afterwards, several other citizens will also die.  Eventually the people will decide that something unnatural is causing this perceived "rash" of deaths.  so the first person in this "string" is exhumed, at which time, three months later, the body is found NOT rotted away, but in a condition summarized above.

So, obviously to the horrified town members, the body has prolonged an unnatural life by causing the deaths of the others!

In several of the cases, Barber quotes lists where several bodies are dug up at once.  It is heart-rending to read how many of these bodies were of young women and their babies only days old.  Nowadays, when "everybody" expects to live a long life, it's sobering and bathetic to be reminded of the low life expectancies and lack of basic medicine and hygiene that were so common only a century or so ago.

This book is fascinating, if you have ANY interest in the "real" topic of vampires -- as opposed to the tarted-up version inspired by Interview with the Vampire and carried on by Underworld, Twilight, and such tripe.

Call me a purist or a traditionalist, but this sort of book is a much more worthwhile investment of a thinking person's time than gobbling down a dozen of those --uggh -- "romance vampire" books.

Barber does a really fine job of lining up folkloric expectations of vampires, with the findings of the digger-uppers.  Finally he comes to the conclusion that the vampire tradition is a part of the living's fear of the dead.  The RECENTLY dead.  Until we see final proof that the body has decayed -- bones are all that's left -- then, it is possible that the body may be reanimated.  Reanimation shows that not only might a "demon" be walking around in Uncle Joe's body.  Even worse, it's possible that Uncle Joe himself might be ambulating.  Even more so than what "he" might do to us, that means that UNCLE JOE IS NOT AT REST.  We have not done our familial/societal duty by ensuring that, as part of the process of things, Uncle Joe's body decays.  Once his body has decayed to bones, then his spirit is at rest.

All kinds of post-death natural processes are covered here, and the influence of burial environments, time buried, and all these things are discussed.  There's a lot of stuff in here!

Two comments:  In his discussion of a murderer's attempts to discard a dead body (through burial, disposal in water, or what-have-you), Barber discusses the perceived heavy weight of a corpse.  I am amazed that he did not mention the common phrase "dead weight," since this situation is the origin of the phrase!

Secondly, on page 187 and later, Barber discusses the concept of a person's shadow as a representation of their soul.  If you catch their shadow, they might be forced to return as a ghost.  This time, I'm surprised it did not seem to appear to Barber to mention the common parlance of referring to a ghost as somebody's "shade"!

If you have an interest in "true" vampires and not pretty-boy angst-ridden eye-shadow types, then this book will raise your eyebrows, broaden your perspective, (maybe) touch your heart, and elevate your knowledge level.

Talking to the Author of Kennedy Must Be Killed

Well, I've chatted a bit online with Chuck Helppie, author of the book just reviewd in the previous post.  Here are my notes, then his, then mine, then his reply.  As you can tell, he seems like a fine, insightful guy.  You should read the book for yourselves!

I wrote,
On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 5:51 PM, Mark Alfred wrote:







Dear Mr Helppie,


I just finished your book, and enjoyed it. If you would like to see my review, please check out my blog entry that I just posted, http://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-review-kennedy-must-be-killed.html






You did a good job of making the story believable as having happened in one guy’s life story. Darn it, in my review I forgot to mention that I liked the surprise revelation of who the Preacher was!


Anyway, I just wanted to share with you that I enjoyed the read. My copy came in the mail Monday afternoon, and I just wrapped up the last pages.


So, how many assassinations books do YOU have? Probably a lot more than my 81.






Thanks again for the thought-provoking read,


Mark Alfred


He replied,
Hi Mark,



I am more than a little embarrassed that you were able to read my entire book AND write a terrific review in forty-eight hours and yet it took me almost sixteen hours to respond to your very kind note! (I didn't get home until late last night.)






I'm glad you enjoyed my novel so much. Your review was outstanding in terms of delving into some of the themes I wanted readers to recognize and ponder. There was not only a power struggle between the Yankees and the Cowboys but also between the Kennedys and the Eastern 'Old Money' power establishment. (When you peruse the roster of the CFR over the decades you are struck by how few Kennedy insiders are represented.)






I'm also extremely pleased that nothing in the novel "rang false" for you. I tried to be painstaking in my approach for that very reason. I wanted my readers to finish my story and then decide (as you did) whether or not this explains many of the assassination's mysteries and contradictions.






I don't know if you've been to my website (www.kennedymustbekilled.com) but my complete bibliography can be found there. I haven't counted my assassination books recently but I would guess the number to be 250+. You can compare my list to yours and if I'm missing something you recommend, please let me know.






As far as your "pet peeve," I wanted to say that although I'm disappointed I didn't get a perfect 100, I'll happily take a 98. (That's still an 'A+' in my opinion.) That "pouring" mistake on page 421 vexes us as do a few others. My publisher told me no book is perfect, and as hard as we worked in proof-reading it prior to publication, we still found a few errors that slipped through. My wife is a retired AP English teacher and with the assistance of a former colleague, they "pored" over the novel in the editing and copyediting process. I gave them a manuscript with 326,000 words and they did a phenomenal job as they managed to whittle it down to only 258,000. (My wife said that if there is a Hell and she ends up there, the Devil will undoubtedly give her an un-ending pile of manuscripts to copyedit for eternity.)






I plan to spend time this evening going back over your previous blogs to see your other reviews. Once again, Mark, thank you very much for what you've done. My best hope for other readers to discover and enjoy my story is through readers like you.



Best wishes,




Chuck






P.S. - Patrick's story spans the period from 1947 to 1978 (not 1976 to 1978). However, I'll still give you a 100 out of 100! CH

My reply,
Thank you for your friendly and fun reply. I graduated with an English Bachelor’s, spent two years as a proofreader/copy editor for an educational publisher, and DID proofread my review before hitting “publish post” -– and as you can see, was shown up by human frailty! (mine that is, on the dates covered in the book)



Yep, any kind of possible explanation for the murder has to cover the bases you did: organized crime; doubles of Oswald; military/CIA displeasure with a certain “reckless youth;” and, KEY in my opinion, the fact that insiders in several government agencies did so much, AFTER the crime, to push the covers over the heads of America (vide Horne’s books).


An example of that would be the (probable) disassembly of the “murder rifle” and taking part of the barrel assembly (I think it was) into the funeral home to place Oswald’s dead palm print on a part of the gun that is covered up when assembled.


Anyway, although there is no justification for the murder (or any flat-out murder), you did a bang-up job (pun intended—JFK “banging” lots of gals) of depicting a pretty creepy personal life for the guy in the limo, and his ilk.


And I seethe that smug, self-justifying folks (in any generation) think they have the right to decide facets of other folks’ lives because the Upper Crust Knows Best. Or the Dirty Neck, if you want to use the Cowboy-Yankee allegory.


Although (as you can tell from my blog) I am more of a DC Comics guy than a Marvel guy, Stan Lee summed it up well in an early issue of Spider-Man when he said the now-clichéd words, “With great power comes great responsibility.” The moral choices that for you or me might involve cutting somebody off in traffic versus letting them in front of you, to another might mean pulling a trigger or dropping a bomb. Or cheating on your wife, or giving up drinking (to characterize two recent presidents).


I could rant for hours, but let me just say that I liked your book and was disturbed by it too (some of the thoughts or ideas) –- as you intended! (smile) Thanks for the kind reply.


In the long run, we must have faith in God’s eternal justice, while we do our best to do what is right in our own lives.


Thanks again for your time,






Mark Alfred


And Mr Helppie's final note,
I LOVED this response from you! Your passion really comes through in a very engaging way and I can see why your blogs are so popular with your readers.







I grew up a DC Comics guy 100%. My favorites were Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and the Flash. (Though I also did enjoy Justice League of America.) Add in Mad Magazine and I was a pretty happy kid. That's undoubtedly where my strong sense of justice and fair play were formed. I always root for the good guys to win.






Patrick's story has a strong sense of justice and morality in it. I drew upon many elements of Shakespeare and Greek tragedy to craft the plot and the characters. Iago certainly can be seen in Grant.






I meant the story to be disturbing for the reader on many levels so the reader could question what they thought they knew versus what really happened. Lyndon Johnson's background was profoundly disturbing in many ways, but JFK's callous treatment of Jackie was almost too much to deal with. That's why I wanted to juxtapose Pam and Patrick's loving marriage with the contrast of JFK and Jackie.






Stay in touch - I enjoy your insights.






Chuck


So, whatdo you think about the JFK murder, friends?  It still DOES make a difference.