Sunday Spookies

You were promised Spirit this time, and we're going back to the beginning, to Denny Colt's origin as The Spirit.
Not very Halloween, is it? I mean, yeah - The Spirit is a spooky based name, but...
There must be some greater reason to visit this story at this time. Let's see if we can part the mists to peek into the future to illuminate our path...

Ah. I see. You all remember that time that he and Vampirella crossed paths, right?
If not, it would be good if his origin story was fresh in your minds, so let's look at a nice re-presentation of the original tale from Warren's 1970s Spirit Magazine-

Okay. Now you're all ready when we get to Vampi's tale. On Halloween.
Hang in there -
Next time, we'll get a little more Sunday Morning Funnies-ish

The Spirit by Will Eisner from The Spirit #10 (1975)

Sunday Funnies - Extended Version

Bet with that title you thought you'd be getting a big batch of funnies in this post, eh?

Nope. That's not what's happening. One is all ya get. We're extending our funnies over Time!

What is happening is All Hallow's Eve - Halloween - a personal favorite holiday. So to celebrate the imminent occasion, we'll be running a variety of themed funnies, comics and cartoons throughout the next few days.

Let's kick it off by visiting Mad (the comic, not the magazine) #3 with Wally Wood bringing us a classic tale of...

Y'know - back in 1953 the whole werewolf vs. vampire bit was probably a fairly fresh idea.

Join us later today to get in the Spirit of the Holiday!

V-Vampires! by Wally Wood for Mad #3 (1953)

Dear Gods (All 6 Of 'Em), Let Him Say His Name!

I don't know if you heard yesterday's casting announcement for the "other" Captain Marvel - He Who Cannot Use That Name.* We've known for ages that Dwayne Johnson will be playing Black Adam - for so long that they had to give him his own movie while he waited. (Good call there - let things build)

Friday they finally cast the part of the adult version of Billy Batson in the upcoming Shazam! movie - Zachary Levi.

That's a bit of casting that seems like a natural fit. He's shown his ability to play a boy in a man's body as Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, and over the course of the series, and continuing as Fandral The Dashing in the last two Thor movies, he's built himself up to handle the action roles. This could be a mighty fine thing. I can see a potentially excellent onscreen chemistry between The Rock and he when the inevitable meeting with Black Adam comes.

Hopefully, they'll come up with something (Captain Thunder?) that will let him say his name and avoid the ridiculous Freddy Freeman situation. Seriously - did decades of people mocking Captain Marvel Jr's inability to say his name without changing not factor at all when it came time to name our hero? Or is callng him Shazam another case of the modern comic editors hating heroes and intentionally having a laugh at his expense?


On a completely unrelated note - another news item caught my eye at the same time. Southwest Airlines is talking Live In-Flight Bands. Blasting music at a captive audience unable to escape or avoid it.
Didn't we read that was one of the ways they tortured prisoners in Guantanamo Bay? I guess it's only a natural evolution. Isn't this the airline that beat a passenger they didn't want recently?

How i imagine the press announcement, with a little help from Alex Ross

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*(When DC comics bought the rights to the old Fawcett line, including Captain Marvel, they didn't register the accompanying trademarks. Marvel decided they could find a use for that name and filed registration papers. So, even though Captain Marvel existed first, they haven't been able to use his name in publication titles for decades. Transitioning to movies only complicates things, and the name cannot be used at all. So they've taken to calling the character Shazam, inlcuding a promotion from captain to wizard. So now he needs to wear a name tag since he cannot speak his name without transforming into Billy Batson. D'oh!)

...This Funny Thing Called Spock

Before we proceed to our Tale of Trek, let's pause to take a look at Star Trek comics in the USA at that time. The year was 1973. Star Trek had been cancelled for 4 years, but the audience was continuing to grow around the syndicated show. The first movie was a half decade away, an animated series was in production from Filmation, and everybody was ramping up to sing Money!*
At Gold Key, we were getting new Star Trek adventures, but something seemed just a bit off about them...

You might notice that Captain Kirk looks rather un-Kirk-like. This is no fault of the artist, as he had never seen the show and the reference photos sent to him were of Jeffery Hunter - Captain Pike from the first pilot. This was a problem that undercut the book on a routine basis, even when playing with concepts like this which would not come into play until The Next Generation aired over a decade later.

Meanwhile, over in the UK...

Yeah, that Enterprise might spark more than a bit of concern. Inside, however, we find Eisner Award winner Jim Baikie is on, as far as i can determine, one of his first professional gigs. And he has clearly seen the show and knows the actors.
Even if the colourist is unaware of certain little things, like the meaning of tunic colours and the curse of the Red Shirt...

...but not even a red shirt can stop Captain Kirk. (Though Spock is doing all the heavy lifting)

Meanwhile, 10 years later, back at StarFleet...

Yeah...    This is gonna get confusing.

What Is This Thing Called Spock? by Jim Baikie for TV21 (1973), Star Fleet by Mike Noble for Look-In (1983)

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*(

) 

Saturday Solutions 015

Well, yesterday's Friday Fun & Games quiz was a particularly evil little quiz. As the ever astute MindBender pointed out, some answers were just wrong. In this case, however, they were wrong intentionally to thin out the contenders.
You see, this quiz comes from the 1974 Famous Monsters Of Filmland Convention at the Hotel Commodore in New York City. I say it was an evil quiz because 9 of the 46 questions were Trick Questions, with either wrong, misleading, or multiple answers. NINE! And a tenth with two correct answers from which to chose. Evil, most certain. But, evil to a purpose when thinning things out for cash prizes and 10 Years subscription.

Our listing of the questions, and answers, comes from the following year's Famous Monsters con program booklet:

Answers to "The Great Quiz":

On the previously noted (in comments) answer to #37 - i was a huge fan of The Night Stalker, The Night Strangler, and The Night Stalker series, especially McGavin's take on the character, which led me to reading the Jeff Rice books. So much so that i never even looked at an episode of the 2005 remake series. They didn't much seem like fans of the original.

Tune in later today as we seek to answer the question: Could Classic Kirk survive in a Red Shirt?

Quiz from ...weren't you reading?... Famous Monsters Convention book (1975)

Friday, the 201st

As one might deduce from the postings this week, my instincts have been trying to drag me to the dark corners of the cave and disconnect from the outer world. But this is the Friday before Halloween, which was a fairly important holiday around here. Hell, it was damn near a religious holiday for the First Church Of The Great Bull Gopher. So i'm latching on to that and going to try to double down in our regular ceremonial woos-out of Friday Night Fights, so we're going for both the F & G in this week's

In keeping with the upcoming holiday, we've got a Monster (& SciFi) Quiz and a Creepy Game. Not surprisingly, i won't be crediting the source of the quiz today. Not making it that easy. But, do note that this quiz comes from the long lost days of 1974, so answer accordingly. (And that explains why certain yet-to-be genre celebrities go un-noted in some questions)

As usual, tune in tomorrow for the answers to the quiz.
In the meantime, here's a game for you to play while you wait:

This game was designed by Bill Dubay, a name you should recognize. Right?
This was originally done for Creepy #55. They promised us a Giant Color Poster inside, but they snuck this game in unannounced, with the playing board serving as the inside front & back covers:

Of course, you'll need playing pieces:

...some cards...

...and, of course, rules by which to play the game:

You'll also need a random number generator. If you can't find a six sided die, this cut-out spinner is provided:

But really. The six sided die is much easier.

Oh, and that Post Title?
This was the 201st post.
(Those weird things up there do make sense, if one has the context.)

Escape From The Creepy Castle by Bill Dubay for Creepy #55 (1973)

It's After Midnight...

...deep beneath the Halls Of Power, a new religion was incubating...

It's Dark Inside

Do you ever have those times when you not only feel invisible, but also prefer it that way?
Times when the only point you feel comfort is when disconnected from the outer world?

How disparate is your will from your desire?

Is the dark a terrifying place, concealing all manner of unseen dangers and horrors?
Or is the dark a liberating place, removing all confines and barriers?

Nyctophile is a loverly* word, no?

How much of you will outlast you?
Thinking on my artworks, i've come to realize that a great deal of my best works will go unseen, much already wiped from existence. The vast majority of work done on paper/canvas/walls/etc.,. is long gone, possibly fragments in the hands of old friends, acquaintances or fans. A handful of convention sketches in back closets and basements. Xeroxes in old APAs. Some ancient game manuals tucked away under layers of dust.
Work survives, of course, in the form of games, videos, graphic novels, old magazines, and whatnot. But those were digital creations, never seeing paper until print, if at all. 
I switched over almost entirely to computer for my artwork nearly a quarter century back. 
There's nearly nothing left from before that time, and the early days of the digital work is lost to old media - ancient floppies, zip disks and WangDat data tapes. Cartoons never released and experiments unshared with the world already long gone.

And what work i do these days, while far superior to anything created during my professional career, is the modern equivalent of painting on my cave wall. I show them to a few, and a small percentage gets dragged out to be seen in the light outside the cave - but most is already pixelated dust in the wind.

Created unseen, and likely vanished unknown.


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*(I can't believe i still haven't checked out NPH's version yet!)

If You Insist...

Wasn't going to emerge from the cave today ... just didn't feel like i should. Hermit me gets that way.
But apparently a bunch of you showed up looking for it, so here's

If You Insist, our post title, actually sounds like it could be the title of one of today's creator's collections:


NOTE: The images for this post contain nudity and have been moved to our back room for adult content. The text remains that you may make a fair guess as to whether or not you wish to look at the pics.
For text reference, the titles of the book covers presented here are: Where Do You Want To Go?, We're Going Farther?, Have You No Shame?, and Are You Interested?
Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive of the original post to view the artwork.


Much of these volumes are collections of Dany's comic Grin & Bare It!, with new work as well, as near as i can tell. Both style and material range widely from cartoons to paintings, from light teasing to interspecies romance, from social commentary to pure indulgence.

This late in the day, let's just take a quick peek for now.
Here's some cartoons to open up:



Those last two segue rather well into somewhat more painterly works, though we'll see more realism of style later...




Act 3 brings us a short strip...

(the poor translation is mine. I'm sure he said it better)

Dany done it