Prehistoric Blue Monday

Recently i've been teasing an upcoming focus on cavemen in comics. Let's get a jump on that for today's edition of

Today in our adult content back room we're looking at the artwork of Budd Root and his Cavewoman -
Head on back to view this post on The Other Voice Of ODD! 

artwork by Budd Root from Cavewoman-The Mature Version and Cavewoman Prehistoric Pinups #s 2, 4, 5, 6 & 7 (1998-2010)

Saturday Solutions - Part I

Answers? We got answers.

Here's the first batch - the solutions to yesterday's Doctor Who quiz collection:

puzzle pages from Doctor Who Funfax and  Doctor Who Battles In Time #s 2, 25 & 26 (2005, 2006, 2007)

Yes, My Child, It Was A Galla Event...

One of the many great things that came out of the '80s comic expansion was Matt Wagner and his two big concept books - Grendel and Mage. I was one of them geeks buying everything published in those days, and Comico Primer #2 had this odd little strip from this new kid that somehow managed to convey the polish and subtle craftsmanship that would come with time and experience in those first raw, but confident, pages of his moody comic. His artwork on Grendel was so well suited to the black and white that it didn't seem like a limitation as it did in so many books. and the writing conveyed a sense of a greater world waiting to be revealed from the very beginning.

While Mage was a very personal title that only Matt could create, Grendel was a concept that he allowed to grow beyond him, to terrific effect at times. The ever changing creative teams suited the nature of the ever evolving character/concept, and they often pushed both expectations and limits. When Matt chose to follow his elegantly clean work with artists like the Pander Brothers and Bernie Mireault, the change was jarring - to great effect. The dramatic shift in visuals reflected the story, and made it almost brutally obvious that things had indeed changed, and were going to continue to do so. Each time, the shift was drastic enough to make the viewer unsure if this was a good thing, then won us over after every forced change to our expectations.

I have to admit, i've fallen behind and have yet to view the more recent incarnations of Grendel. While dwelling upon the need to catch up, i thought i'd mention a fabulous book on the subject from ten eleven years ago:

If you've tragically missed this intermittent title over the last 35 years, this is a fine way to get a feel of the many excellent artists who have contributed to the mythos. Old fan or new discoverer, the book is a beautiful collection, with text covering the evolution of Grendel  while offering artwork showing both behind the scenes production work and full page reproductions of gorgeous finished works.

The book runs over 200 pages, but we're only going to tease 13 of them here.
Eddie would have wanted it that way.

pages from The Art Of Matt Wagner's Grendel (2007)

Living The Live

I just finished re-watching Cutie Honey: The Live - the 2007 live-action TV series adaptation of Go Nagai's Cutie Honey. I mentioned the show on a previous Blue Monday installment, but as mentioned then it doesn't really qualify for Blue Monday. There is one bare breast in the show, a girl in a mob boss's bed - and they show it twice. (It's a 25 episode series, but they still managed a "clip show" featuring segments of past episodes. I believe it was after a mid-season break, used to draw in new viewers. That would also be why they inserted the bare breast shot again, repeating the lure from the first episode.)

As we saw in the comic, when she Flash!es, Honey's clothing disappears as it's reconfigured. On the TV show, they kinda/sorta hid that she was wearing a body suit in the beginning with the special effects, but along the way they just decided those details must be getting reconfigured, too, and stopped worrying about it. The crowds, of course, certainly appreciated it - as when Honey leads a group of homeless and unfortunates who have been assessed with an "Existence Tax" by Panther Claw...

One of the fun aspects of this incarnation of Cutie Honey (my favorite of the 3 live-action versions to date) is the way the embrace the spirit of cartoons at times. In that same scene, the crowd (including several of Honey's homeless friends) are unwilling to let Honey fight the battle alone. Gen-san steps up with the support of some of the gang...

And they even come together to give him some "powers" in the fight...

The 2004 Cutie Honey movie embraced the anime heritage more openly and deeply, but Cutie Honey: The Live embraced the spirit in a way i found most appealing. 2016's Cutie Honey: Tears... had some nice effects. I'll stand by the TV version.
How can i not love a hero who wraps up a fight like this:

But don't get the wrong idea. By the end of the series, half the cast (including heroes) is dead, some of them twice. Parts are light and bubbly, parts are silly, and parts are much more grim than anything in the dark & gritty reboot. But they always try to remember it's supposed to be fun. What a difference that makes.
This was one of those shows that i was watching 1 or 2 episodes a day as part of my viewing routine, but wound up watching the last 6-8 episodes in one sitting. We'll come back for a deeper look, as well as a peek at the movies after i re-watch the 2004 film. But, you know how it is at the end of a series..?
One often wants to milk the enjoyment a little longer, and so you wind up with this post.

stills from Cutie Honey: The Live (most from s01e20) (2007)

A Lesser Orange Horror

Have you taken a look at that new version of The Tick?

I kinda like it. Once you get past Patrick Warburton being behind the camera instead of in the suit, it's a pretty good interpretation. They're taking things fairly slow, building up the world as we follow Arthur's immersion into the Tick's reality with his own fractured grip on a shattered life.

We haven't seen the hero parodies that populate this world yet, because there aren't any here. Heroes have been gone from the city for a while, and The Tick (and Arthur) are the first new heroes to arise. Who might join them over the course of the series is a matter for speculation. Previous hero parodies on the show have often been tied to the individual incarnation of the show, and i've no clue what previous characters may be contractually available, assuming they don't want to use new characters to satirize the modern market. Generally speaking, i don't go looking, either. If i already know i'm going to watch it, then i'll avoid as much foreknowledge as possible. (And quite a bit is possible if one works at it. I didn't know who the villain was in Spider-Man: Homecoming until i heard the name Toomes spoken while watching the film.)

ANYWAY....   I like the Tick. I like Halloween. Oh, look! We've got both!

Arthur and The Tick have gone pumpkin hunting for Halloween, unaware the pumpkin hunt is about to change dramatically...

The pumpkins are soon driven off with the help of Extension Agent (of the USDA), and explanations are provided-

 It doesn't take too long for the Tick to realize that if "the city is filled with pumpkins juiced to the gills with virulent puma genes," tonight when the pumpkins wake "HALLOWEEN WILL MEAN THE END OF LIFE AS WE KNOW IT!"

All havoc erupts throughout the city, overwhelming our heroes as they struggle through the chaos with little hope of slowing, much less stopping, the orange horror. Eventually, they realize that it's time to use their brains - "It's all that separates us from the pumpkins." A brief pause to think, a bit of vandalism, and...  A-Ha! At the Vegetable Expo-Rama farmers claim to have grown the King Pumpkin!
Quickly, to the Tri-Town Fairgrounds!

Messy fighting ensues, with the Tick trapped in pumpkin goo, while the others (now joined by The Spectacle) fall prey to the tendriled terrors...

And nobody got chocolate.

(Don't worry - we'll talk about Peter Serafinowicz on another day)

The Orange Teeth Of Horror by Clay & Susan Griffith, art by Dave Garcia (2000)