The above ad, culled from the back of the Blondie comic examined two weeks ago (the one with stubbly Dagwood in a dress), is the second time in the last few days where we’ve seen a 1940s ad posted in which “honey” is used as slang. Read more…
I don’t play video games, so I can’t get all worked up over pre-order exclusive characters, whatever such things may be. (Being facetious — I think I can muddle through what they are.) But the above promo, announcing Sting as a playable character in the WWE’s next wrestling game, 2K15, is a fine bit of production, a true spine-tingler for men of a certain age. Read more…
Hoist the mainsail and scuttle the jib (and punch people) – Don Winslow of the Navy #52
One of the ad infinitum comic strip heroes of old to have faded into oblivion, Don Winslow of the Navy had more than his share of time to ride the high seas of four color stardom. How many characters had movie serials adapted from their adventures? (Okay, a lot, but still.) How many had the Big Red Cheese, the World’s Mightiest Mortal himself, Captain Marvel, introduce him to readers in the first issue of his self-titled series of all new adventures? Not many. But Don Winslow did. Read more…
The 1940s certainly were a different time. Read more…
All Hail Caesar – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Though I’ve yet to have anyone adequately explain to me how something can rise before it dawns, the new installment in the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise has been one of the most anticipated movies of this summer’s crop. Why? Because Rise of the Planet of the Apes was that rarest of multifaceted things: a reboot/remake that outperformed and was *gasp* an enjoyable watch. You know, not a movie that makes you want to hit yourself in the face with a shovel, i.e. any Michael Bay Transformers installment, take your pick. The new chronicle of Caesar, the intelligent ape who leads his simian kin to planet-wide ascendancy, should have collapsed under the weight of seen-it-before and the unspeakable smugness of James Franco — but it didn’t. It was actually damn good. It’s still a little hard to believe. Read more…
Apes, the old-fashioned way
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the follow-up to the surprisingly entertaining, similarly-focus-grouped-to-death-titled Rise of the Planet of the Apes, opens later tonight. Read more…
Let’s be honest: Is “Speedy Wheeler” truly someone you want to trust with advising your 1940s bicycle purchase. I mean, really. Read more…
This miserable old man with acute scoliosis hopes you like your quiz book, you little punks
We’ve all heard of backs as crooked as question marks, but it’s rare that you see one that actually fits the bill. Read more…
Supergirl channels her inner Catherine the Great and makes out with her horse – Adventure Comics #390
Supergirl’s Silver Age shenanigans are some of the most likely to devolve into profound silliness, and there’s no shortage of fine examples for this tendency in the archival pantheon. Who can forget the time she turned her boyfriends to stone and went to a graveyard in space that was in the form of a huge green dragon, a stupendous tale which was profiled in these very pages? Or when she *gasp* horror of horrors became ugly (in a story which also featured the equine half of today’s subject matter)? Rarely, though, do you come across a comic book that puts bestiality-by-proxy so at the forefront as the one we’re going to look at today. Seriously. And here we go: a giant-size compendium featuring two stories with Supergirl romanced by her horse. Kara and Comet sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Read more…
Bazooka Guy, i.e. the Lord of the Box (of Men)
No one is going to argue with Red Ryder’s old-timey popularity. He was a multimedia star back when it seemed that every young boy wanted to be a cowboy — before the term “astronaut” came along to demolish all other aspirations. Read more…
That show you like is going to come back in style…
By now many have heard that Twin Peaks, possibly the most beloved short-run TV show of all time, is coming to Blu-Ray at the end of this month. For those who haven’t, it deserves to be shouted from the mountaintop yet again: TWIN PEAKS IS OUT ON BLU-RAY ON JULY 29TH. Read more…
Dagwood Bumstead, Transsexual? – Blondie #38
Above we see a nicely preserved copy of a Golden Age Blondie comic, one that survived wartime paper drives and passed through the ravages of time relatively unscathed. It stands before us as an almost pristine exemplar of the early days of the oft-imitated Model Homemaker, who was always overshadowed by her bumbling, giant-sandwich-eating husband. But it’s not the physical quality of this comic’s cover that gives it its eye-catcher status, nor is it the extremely familiar reprinted Dagwood shenanigans found on the inside. Instead it’s the cover’s content, for a couple of simultaneously obvious and subtle reasons. Read more…
Captain Tootsie returns as a mummy and pummels more crooks with his Tootsie Roll fueled fists!
Captain Tootsie, C.C. Beck’s Captain Marvelish Golden Age spokesman for Tootsie Rolls, is no stranger to these parts. We’ve seen him foil grade school shenanigans, clobber a thieving Frenchman, slaughter a poor sweet innocent bear and try desperately to convince us that the nutritional benefits of Tootsie Rolls are integral to paratrooper training. A varied crimefighting career to say the least. Read more…
Jared
blog into mystery 