Mystery Movie Night catch-up: Flash Gordon to Coraline

Hey! Here's some Mystery Movie Night episodes I haven't told you about. Back in October, we finished up our run of guest hosts with special guest Jeeg from Nerd Lunch, discussing a trio of '80s movies: Flash Gordon, Highlander, and Revenge of the Nerds. Do they live up to the nostalgia? What's the secret connection that ties them together? Listen and find out!



Then in November, Erik returned from his summer hiatus to help us discuss Midnight Run, Primal Fear, and The Bone Collector.



And finally, last month we all talked about Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981), Damon Wayans in Blankman (1994), and Laika's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline (2001). Even more surprising than the movies' secret connection is which one we liked the best.

Sword and Sorcery Cliche No. 1: The Ming the Merciless Haircut [Guest Post]

By GW Thomas

I am currently re-reading John Jakes's entire Brak the Barbarian saga, and I was struck by an odd thought. Why do wizards in sword-and-sorcery always dress like Ming the Merciless? In "The Unspeakable Shrine," Brak meets his nemesis, Septegundus, the Amyr of Evil and high priest of Yob-Haggoth:

And from the black portal silently glided the Amyr of Evil upon Earth...The man was not of overwhelming stature. He was clad in a plain black robe with voluminous sleeves into which his hands were folded. His pate was closely shaven, his nose aquiline, his lips thin. His chin formed a sharp point, and the upper parts of his ears were pointed, too. His eyes were large, dark, staring, nearly all pupil. Very little white showed. He had no eyelids. Evidently they had been removed by a crude surgical procedure. Light pads of scar tissue had encrusted above the sockets which held eyes that never closed.

Septegundus is far from an anomaly. He is the stereotypical sword-and-sorcery wizard. Bald, weird-looking, powerful, with evil eyes. Compare him to Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings:

An old man was driving it all alone. He wore a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, and a silver scarf. He had a long white beard and bushy eyebrows that stuck out beyond the brim of his hat.

Tolkien derived Gandalf's look from the Scandinavian tales of Odin who traveled in the guise of "The Grey God," a man in a wide-brimmed hat dressed in grey. The Ming stereotype is coming from a different lineage, the gothics.

The horror tradition in fiction begins in England with The Castle of Otranto (1765) by Horace Walpole. These novels, especially those of Ann Radcliffe, feature creepy houses, lost heirs, fake monsters, and a lot of shocks for shock sake. This tradition would eventually dissolve into other forms of storytelling, including detective and mystery fiction and the psychological horror tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Do they feature bald-headed wizards? Not really. Though Ambrosio from MG Lewis's The Monk (1796) is certainly the most influential of all gothic characters:

He was a Man of noble port and commanding presence. His stature was lofty, and his features uncommonly handsome. His Nose was aquiline, his eyes large black and sparkling, and his dark brows almost joined together. His complexion was of a deep but clear Brown; Study and watching had entirely deprived his cheek of colour. Tranquillity reigned upon his smooth unwrinkled forehead; and Content, expressed upon every feature, seemed to announce the Man equally unacquainted with cares and crimes. He bowed himself with humility to the audience: Still there was a certain severity in his look and manner that inspired universal awe, and few could sustain the glance of his eye at once fiery and penetrating. Such was Ambrosio, Abbot of the Capuchins, and surnamed, 'The Man of Holiness'.

So how did the bald look find its way into sword-and-sorcery? You can thank Weird Tales. You have to remember that sword-and-sorcery as Robert E Howard created it was half fantasy and half horror. He had to sell these stories to Farnsworth Wright after all, and WT was a horror pulp. In the stories that Howard wanted to sell to Adventure (Stories like "By This Axe I Rule" or "Kings of the Night") he drops almost all the horror trimmings, writing something closer to a Harold Lamb or Talbot Mundy tale. He was a professional and he wanted to crack more prestigious magazines.

So, Weird Tales is the gateway. Howard introduces Thoth-Amon in "The Phoenix on the Sword" (December 1932) and this evil Stygian priest doesn't bear the look (not yet, later in the Marvel Comics and the L Sprague de Camp pastiches he would get the buzz cut.) Even though Thoth-Amon didn't get much description, his activities are similar to another character, Fu Manchu:

Of him it had been fitly said that he had a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan. Something serpentine, hypnotic, was in his very presence. Smith drew one sharp breath, and was silent. Together, chained to the wall, two mediaeval captives, living mockeries of our boasted modern security, we crouched before Dr. Fu-Manchu.

Robert E Howard had written of his own version of Fu named Kathulos of Egypt in "Skull-Face" (October-December 1929):

The hands--but, oh God, the face! A skull to which no vestige of flesh seemed to remain but on which taut brownish-yellow skin grew fast, etching out every detail of that terrible death's-head. The forehead was high and in a way magnificent, but the head was curiously narrow through the temples, and from under penthouse brows great eyes glimmered like pools of yellow fire. The nose was high-bridged and very thin; the mouth was a mere colorless gash between thin, cruel lips. A long, bony neck supported this frightful vision and completed the effect of a reptilian demon from some medieval hell.

Howard, after Rohmer, is clearly working in a tradition descended from Otranto, with men reborn from Ancient Asia, whether China or Egypt, the cradle of mysterious wisdom and evil.

To make this even clearer, there are two major undercurrents in the gothics that truly pin down the evil wizard type. The first is that the underlying plot of gothic stories is about something from the past terrorizing the present. In Otranto, this is the specter of the giant knight who crushes Manfred's heir with a helmet, steps out of paintings, and ultimately destroys him. In later years this can be seen in horror fiction in any story in which an ancient object haunts a family like in "The Stone Idol" by Seabury Quinn, or in ghost stories like MR James' "Lost Hearts." In mystery fiction this is the crime that haunts the perpetrator such as the classic Wilkie Collins story The Moonstone (1868) or Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock tale, "The Adventure of the Crooked Man" (The Strand, July 1893). In the noir branch, it's the unknown crime in Cornell Woolrich's The Black Curtain (1941). In sword-and-sorcery (and other forms of fantasy), this is Bilbo's Ring or the ancient snake worshippers of Set, who harken back to the Snake Men of Prehistory. It can be any object, book, knowledge, god, or monster that returns centuries later. And that's our sorcerer buddy. He is either such a person, or works for such a deity, or possesses such an object. They buy into the idea that ancient power can make them powerful now. It is up to the barbarian hero to thwart such ideas.

The second theme that the gothics give us is the idea that old things are evil and new things are our savior. This is immediately evident when you look at the hero, Brak:

The mendicant seemed to hunch in fright cowed by the figure before him: the bigger man plainly was an outlander, a huge, yellow-headed giant whose hair was plaited in a single long braid that hung down his back. A glossy fur cloak and cowl around the barbarian’s shoulders reflected the torchglare dimly. The big man was naked save for this fur and a garment of lion’s hide about his hips.

Brak is young, well-maned, and virile. The female characters are usually voluptuous, fecund, and available. Villains such as Ariane are usually too beautiful, hinting at their deceit, and often prove to be withered crones or monsters when their magic is dispelled. The wizard is the exact opposite to Brak, old-looking, bald, and with eyes that contain evil powers. The baldness is important, for it is a sign of age, impotence and decay. In gothic texts, the authors often suggested that the Roman Catholic religion was likewise decrepit and oppressive; old, but evil. The gothics weren't anti-religion, just anti-Catholic, for the hero (no longer disguised as a peasant, returned to his true lordship) marries the heroine in a good Anglican church, with a bright future ahead. The evil, old dude gets his comeuppance and if he has time says something akin to "And I would have gotten away with to too, if it weren't for you meddling kids." This kind of shorthand works for all kinds of villains and comics certainly have had their share, such as The Red Skull in Captain America.

Lastly, to cement the point, let's consider Elric of Melnibone. Michael Moorcock created Elric as a kind of anti-Conan. Instead of strong, he is a weak albino. Instead of handsome, he is freakish. In fact, Moorcock uses many of the villain characteristics to create his anti-hero. He is haunted by his sword, Stormbringer, who must be fed souls to keep the weak body going. This sword is the object from the past that haunts his present, dooming his future. In many ways, Elric is the image of the sorcerer, not the swordsman. In some ways but not all. Elric is not bald but has a flowing white mane. He is also resourceful, able to have companions, and is capable of love. Moorcock created a hero who is halfway between the two types. This should not be surprising when you consider one of his influences was Mervyn Peake, who wrote the Gormenghast trilogy, undoubtedly the most gothic of the fantasy sagas. Unlike Tolkien, Moorcock is consciously choosing to work inside the gothic tradition, though bending and stretching it to his own ends. This opening of gothic elements helped allow sword-and-sorcery to evolve past the Howardian formula. Series like Gene Wolfe's The Book of New Sun and Samuel R Delaney's Neveryona play with these elements in fresh ways. (Though read any Conan novel by Robert Jordan, Leonard Carpenter, or others and you will find any number of baldies trying to resurrect ancient gods. Even worse, consider Skeletor from The Masters of the Universe! Alas, some like the formulas as is).

GW Thomas has appeared in over 400 different books, magazines and ezines including The Writer, Writer's Digest, Black October Magazine and Contact. His website is gwthomas.org. He is editor of Dark Worlds magazine.

Introducing Dragonfly Ripple, or "Hey! I'm Podcasting!"

A few week's ago, GW Thomas' guest post was about passing our passions on to our kids. I always enjoy his posts, but that one struck a special chord because it's something I've been thinking about for most of my life. For as long as I've bought comics and stuck them in boxes, I've imagined one day handing them on to my child. As GW points out, my son may decide he doesn't want them. And that's okay. Because as GW also points out, there are other things we can bond over. David may not share my love for Alpha Flight comics (or he may; we'll see), but he recently discovered Gene Luen Yang comics all on his own and we share that interest. And outside of comics, we enjoy tons of the same stuff, from Doctor Who and Star Trek to Godzilla and Arrow.

As long as I've been a parent, I've thought about how to introduce David to nerdy things. What's the right age to learn about Star Wars? Should you start with the original trilogy or the prequels? How do you get a kid into Star Trek? Into comics? Into fantasy and science fiction novels? I have thoughts. And I've made mistakes. But I've also had a lot of success.

So it's not like I'm some sort of expert, but this is something I'm hugely interested in and my friend Carlin "CT" Trammel from Nerd Lunch and Pod, James Pod is too. David and I have been wanting to start a podcast together for a while now and when I mentioned that to Carlin, I learned that he'd been thinking about the same thing with his daughter, Annaliese. So now the four of us are talking together on Dragonfly Ripple, a show about parenting and sharing nerdy interests with our kids.

In our first episode, I talk to Carlin and Annaliese about their experience of watching the 1980 Flash Gordon movie together, then Carlin interviews David and I about David's introduction to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We're still finding our sea legs, but it's a fun discussion and I hope you'll check it out and give us some feedback. What kinds of things should we talk about, both in terms of things to share with the kids as well as general topics around nerd parenting?

You can listen below or via iTunes or Stitcher. There's also an official blog for the show and a Facebook page as well as places to check us out on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. Please join us!

Hand-Held Thunder: The History of the Blaster [Guest Post]

It's always a pleasure when G.W. Thomas sends in a guest post, not only because I get to share it with you, but also because I always learn something new. Thanks again to G.W. for this history of ray guns and blasters in scifi literature and film. -- Michael

Martian Heat Ray

It made sense when Science Fiction went to the stars that the brave men and women who plumbed the depths of space would need weapons suited to their new environment. A firearm requiring oxygen or air pressure would not work in the vacuum of space, nor could an adventurer lost on a distant planet find ammunition for a conventional gun. As with so many of Science Fiction's standard props, it fell to H. G. Wells to arm the enemies of Man with such a weapon in The War of the Worlds (1898):

It is still a matter of wonder how the Martians are able to slay men so swiftly and so silently. Many think that in some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute non-conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose, by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the parabolic mirror of a lighthouse projects a beam of light. But no one has absolutely proved these details. However it is done, it is certain that a beam of heat is the essence of the matter. Heat, and invisible, instead of visible, light. Whatever is combustible flashes into flame at its touch, lead runs like water, it softens iron, cracks and melts glass, and when it falls upon water, incontinently that explodes into steam.

Garrett P. Serviss can take credit for inventing "The Distintegrator" in his "Thomas Edison's Conquest of Mars" (1898), America's answer to H. G. Wells:

Another soft whirr in the instrument, a momentary flash of light close around it, and, behold, the crow had turned from black to white! 

"Its feathers are gone," said the inventor; "they have been dissipated into their constituent atoms. Now, we will finish the crow." 

Instantly there was another adjustment of the index, another outshooting of vibratory force, a rapid up and down motion of the index to include a certain range of vibrations, and the crow itself was gone—vanished in empty space! There was the bare twig on which a moment before it had stood. Behind, in the sky, was the white cloud against which its black form had been sharply outlined, but there was no more crow.

Barsoomian Radium Gun

While Serviss and Wells slugged it out in fiction, in the real world, Nikola Tesla was working on the idea of actual direct-energy weapons as early as 1900. In his The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media he discourses on charged particle beams. Still, fiction was slow to follow.

The first big writer to consider what a personal sized space weapon might be was Edgar Rice Burroughs in his maiden flight as a writer, "Under the Moons of Mars" (All-Story, serialization beginning February 1912). ERB realized that Martians would not necessarily have the same weaponry as Earthmen and came up with the "Radium" rifle:

These rifles were of a white metal stocked with wood, which I learned later was a very light and intensely hard growth much prized on Mars, and entirely unknown to us denizens of Earth. The metal of the barrel is an alloy composed principally of aluminum and steel which they have learned to temper to a hardness far exceeding that of the steel with which we are familiar. The weight of these rifles is comparatively little, and with the small caliber, explosive, radium projectiles which they use, and the great length of the barrel, they are deadly in the extreme and at ranges which would be unthinkable on Earth. The theoretic effective radius of this rifle is three hundred miles, but the best they can do in actual service when equipped with their wireless finders and sighters is but a trifle over two hundred miles.

Despite the range, most of the fighting on Mars takes place with swords. So much for logic. Still, it paved the way for other writers to think outside the box.

Buck Rogers

The term "blaster" was coined in April 1925 in Weird Tales (Amazing Stories and Astounding did not yet exist!) in "When the Green Star Waned" by the obscure Nictzin Dyalhis:

"Well, it was for me that, in obedience to Hul Jok's imperative command, I was holding my Blastor pointing ahead of me..." 

Another Weird Tales alumnus was Edmond Hamilton who wrote most the SF in the magazine. He had the Blue Ray of Death in "Across Space" (Weird Tales, September 1926) and the Cold Ray in "The Atomic Conquerors" (Weird Tales, February 1927) and the De-Atomizing Ray in "Crashing Suns" (Weird Tales, August 1928).

Buck Rogers, who was still Anthony Rogers when he appeared in "Armageddon 2419" (Amazing Stories, August 1928) by Philip Francis Nowlan, found the future Americans at war with invading Asians and using rocket launchers called Rocket guns and the following:

I took the weapon from his grasp and examined it hurriedly. It was not unlike the automatic pistol to which I was accustomed, except that it apparently fired with a button instead of a trigger. I inserted several fresh rounds of ammunition into its magazine from my companion's belt, as rapidly as I could, for I soon heard, near us, the suppressed conversation of his pursuers.

In the same issue, in an equally monumental tale, The Skylark of Space by E. E. Doc Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby goes back to the Burroughs' method:

They found that the X-plosive came fully up to expectations. The smallest charge they had prepared, fired by Crane at a great stump a full hundred yards away from the bare, flat-topped knoll that had afforded them a landing-place, tore it bodily from the ground and reduced it to splinters, while the force of the explosion made the two men stagger...The pistol cracked, and when the bullet reached its destination the great stone was obliterated in a vast ball of flame.

"The Girl from Mars"

Hugo Gernsback published "The Girl From Mars" by Jack Williamson and Miles J. Breuer in a pamphlet in 1929. This was the one thing he published in between owning Amazing Stories and his new set of magazines which included Wonder Stories. This tale features three Martians raised on Earth, children sent in capsules like Superman would be in the comics four years later. The two males fight a super-hero proportioned battle for the female using an array of weird weaponry most the size of a coin:

The ultramundane man thrust a hand into his pocket and pulled out one of Worrell's little instruments. I did not see the shape of the thing, but as he clasped it in his hand, a vague green fire flowed out of it and flashed across to Fred. What that force was, I do not know - some form of electric energy, or of ions, perhaps. The green radiance condensed about my son. His brave advance was abruptly checked. An expression of agony came over his face. He tottered and began a scream that ended in a rattling sob. For a moment his body was outlined sharply in the curdling green incandescence. Mason relaxed his grip of the tiny device and calmly returned it to his pocket as my son, burned and distorted, fell heavily to the floor.

"The Crystal Ray" by Raymond Z. Gallun (Air Wonder Stories, November 1929) features another racist war between America and the Yellow Menace. America survives with a final desperate weapon, the Blue Ray:

From the bow of one of America's ships a faint beam of bluish light stabbed out and struck an enemy craft, sweeping it from stem to stern! It passed through the vessel as though she had been made of glass, instead of thousands of tons of metal. Immediately the dreadnaught began to blunder oddly as though completely out of control. What had happened to her occupants? A grim smile passed over Pelton's lips, for he knew!

Brigands of the Moon

In Amazing Stories, November 1930, it was John W. Campbell, still writer, not yet all-important editor, who really figured out how such a weapon would actually work in "Solarite":

“Imagine what would happen if we directed this against the side of a mountain—the entire mass of rock would at once fly off at unimaginable speed, crashing ahead with terrific power, as all the molecules suddenly moved in the same direction. Nothing in all the Universe could hold together against it! It's a disintegration ray of a sort—a ray that will tear, or crush, for we can either make one half move away from the other—or we can reverse the power, and make one half drive toward the other with all the terrific power of its molecules! It is omnipotent—hmmm—” Arcot paused, narrowing his eyes in thought. It has one limitation. Will it reach far in the air? In vacuum it should have an infinite range—in the atmosphere all the molecules of the air will be affected, and it will cause a terrific blast of icy wind, a gale at temperatures far below zero! This will be even more effective here on Venus!

1931 seems to be an important year for ray guns. At Teck's Amazing Stories, April 1931 Nat Schachner and Arthur Leo Zagat came up with the Disruptor in "The Emperor of the Stars". That same month in Hugo Gernsback's Wonder Stories, The Annihilation Beam appeared in Leslie F. Stone's in "The Conquest of Gola," and Clark Ashton Smith had his Zero Ray in "An Adventure in Futurity". Jack Williamson offers another form of weapon, the Matter Annihilation Ray in "Twelve Hours to Live" (Wonder Stories, August 1931).

In wasn't any different over at the Clayton Astounding. Ray Cummings must have had Wells in mind when he created the pencil heat ray in Brigands of the Moon (Astounding, March 1931) :

My pencil ray was in my hand and I pressed its switch. The tiny heat ray stabbed through the air, but I missed. The figure stumbled but did not fall. I saw a bare gray arm come from the cloak, flung up to maintain its balance. Or perhaps my pencil ray had seared his arm...

Flash. Ah-ahhh.

Of all the spacemen to appear in the Clayton Astounding, Hawk Carse was certainly the most famous. In "Hawk Carse" (Astounding, November 1931) he is described as "... Hawk Carse the adventurer, he of the spitting ray-gun and the phenomenal draw, of the reckless space ship maneuverings..." In the story there is little or no explanation of how a ray gun works for by this time none was necessary. The Hawk Carse stories were modeled on the Western and how the gun worked was no longer important, only that the hero was lightning fast. The ray gun had arrived.

C. L. Moore's Northwest Smith in his first appearance "Shambleau" (Weird Tales, November 1933) shows he knows his way around a weapon in the opening scene:

"Smith, lounging negligently against the wall, arms folded and gun-hand draped over his left forearm, looked incapable of swift motion, but at the leader’s first forward step the pistol swept in a practiced half-circle and the dazzle of blue-white heat leaping from its muzzle seared an arc in the slag pavement at his feet..."

By 1934 in Triplanetary (Amazing Stories, January-April 1934), E. E. Doc Smith replaced his X-Plosive with the "Standish", a beam weapon of immense power. Smith would later coined the word "Super-Weapon" in "What a Course!" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1939:

Going up to a blank wall, he manipulated an almost invisible dial set flush with it surface, swung a heavy door aside, and lifted out the Standish - a fearsome weapon. Squat, huge, and heavy, it resembled somewhat an overgrown machine rifle, but one possessing a thick, short telescope, with several opaque condensing lenses and parabolic reflectors...He set his peculiar weapon down, unfolded its three massive legs, crouched down behind it, and threw in a switch. Dull red beams of frightful intensity shot from the reflectors and sparks, almost of lightening proportions, leaped from the shielding screen under their impact.

Pew! Pew!

Disappointing as Buck Roger's initial weaponry in the Pulps, he didn't really get going until he became a comic strip character in January 1929, leaving Earth for outer space. Once out there, Buck's futuristic weapon inspired the generations that followed. The XZ-31 Rocket Pistol appeared at the February 1934 American Toy Fair and sold for 50 cents.

And of course, right on Buck's tracks came Flash Gordon in January 7, 1934. With Buster Crabbe playing him in the serials in 1936, everyone now knew what a space gun was supposed to look like.

The events of 1945 and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki mark the end of fun, futuristic weapons. The real thing had arrived and they weren't so fun. For a while Science Fiction focused on bombardments as everyone worried that the Russians would fill the skies with death. But TV gave us new men in silver underwear and the ray gun became the province of Children's entertainment or the stuff of jokes such as Chuck Jones's brilliant "Duck Dodgers in the 24 and 1/2 century" (Warner Bros., 1953). Daffy whips out his Disintegrator Pistol and pulls the trigger. The gun, of course, disintegrates. But eventually TV shows like Lost in Space, Star Trek, Space 1999, and of course Star Wars would bring these glittering hand-held weapons back into our consciousness. Call it a ray gun, call it a blaster, it doesn't matter. As Han Solo says, perhaps erroneously: "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

Additional resources:
Kurogawa's Virtual Ray Gun Exhibition
Technovelgy's Weapons in Science Fiction

 G. W. Thomas has appeared in over 400 different books, magazines and ezines including The Writer, Writer's Digest, Black October Magazine and Contact. His website is gwthomas.org. He is editor of Dark Worlds magazine.

The LXB recasts awesome movies

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers has finished recasting their favorite movies and there are some great ones in the bunch. A few of my favorites:

• Beastmaster starring Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Biel [The Lair of the Dork Horde]
• Flash Gordon starring the cast of Avengers [AEIOU and Sometimes Why]
• Krull starring Chris Hemsworth and Jennifer Lawrence [Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks]
• Masters of the Universe starring Matthew McConaughey and Mila Kunis (I guess they can't all star Chris Hemsworth, and McConaughey's an awesome, surprising pick) [Shez Crafti]

Brian has the whole round-up at Cool and Collected and there are lots to look at: from Three Amigos and Anne of Green Gables to Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Shoot to Kill. Check 'em out!

100 Things I Love About The Movies

Inspired by Cinema Fanatic and Jason.



1. Raul Julia and Angelica Huston as Gomez and Morticia Addams
2. Harrison Ford's caving to Gary Oldman in order to save his daughter's life in Air Force One
3. Grumpy the dwarf
4. Nick and Nora
5. Disney's version of Captain Nemo's Nautilus
6. Mr. Whitmore and Helga in Atlantis: The Lost Empire
7. The five notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
8. Both performances of Peter Pan in Finding Neverland
9. Ernest as the snake farmer in Ernest Saves Christmas
10. Bowing to the Hobbits in Return of the King

Quotes of the Week: Robert Wagner fighting with an octopus

This Is Very Much the Droid I Was Looking For.
--Rob Bricken, referring to the image above.

Let it be stated now: I am not down with octopi. I am not a fan of slithery 8-armed critters from the depths of the seas. My parents took me to see the movie Beneath The 12-Mile Reef when I was a kid, and Robert Wagner fighting with an octopus made up my mind for me. I let the octos stay where they are, and I stay away from them. I can't even look at them in an aquarium.
--Pappy, preaching it loud brother.

I clarified: "There is Flash Gordon, and there is also The Flash, and they are different."

"It is as if," he said, "you were saying to me, 'Wait, there are dogs, but there are also cats, and they are different?'"
--Linda Holmes, who's usually much more pop-savvy than this.

Superheroes are not comic-book characters. They're characters in movies and TV shows. If superheroes or superhero-like characters appear in a comic, that's cool, but it's not what comics are generally about. The Umbrella Academy, for example, is a fantasy story, kind of a goth Harry Potter, about a group of kids born with strange powers who are trained to use those powers at a private school run by a mysterious old man. It's not a superhero comic. The X-Men? Oh, I used to love that show!
--Shaenon K. Garrity, on the future of comics.

Art Show: A Golden Princess Who Ruled with Singing Whip!

Tiger Girl



By Joe Doolin. [Illustrateurs]

Sheena



By Nicola Scott. [Pink of the Ink]

After the break: Red Sonja, a school-girl monster-hunter, the JLA, Aurora, a giant flying monkey, and Al Williamson tributes.

Comics News Roundup: Al Williamson RIP

Re-looking at The Last Phantom



I'd pretty much dismissed Dynamite's take on The Phantom after seeing the above "costume" and hearing how the new series is essentially a reboot. I like the current Phantom enough that I don't really want to see him rebooted. But then I read this interview with writer Scott Beatty in which he said that he wants to explore a question that's always sort of itched the back of my mind for years: "Is [being the next Phantom] choice or predestined? And can one simply walk away?"

I'm not totally caught up with Moonstone's series, so maybe they've touched on it, but I've never read a Phantom story in which the hero struggled with whether or not he wanted to accept the role. I still hate the new look, but I am interested in seeing Beatty explore this aspect of the character.

Jesse James vs. not-exactly-Machine Gun Kelly



If you've followed this blog for a while, you know that I co-wrote a story in which Jesse James and Machine Gun Kelly meet during the early days of the gangster's career. The fate of that story is still being determined, but my interest in the subject matter means that I automatically love this post by Snell about a different kind of meeting between Jesse and some gangsters.

After the break: the return of Vampirella, the mystery of Captain Marvel, and the passing of Al Williamson.

Two Flash Gordon publishers

After I posted about Dynamite's adding Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician to their publishing roster, Ardden Entertainment left a comment announcing that they still also have the Flash Gordon license and are planning a new volume for the Fall. Here's the press release:

Ardden Entertainment LLC is excited to announce the launch of FLASH GORDON: INVASION OF THE RED SWORD for an Autumn 2011 release.

Coming off the heels of Ardden’s critically-acclaimed FLASH GORDON: THE MERCY WARS mini-series (called “good, old-fashioned fun, freshly polished” by Publishers Weekly), Ardden plans on continuing an expansion of the characters and situations created in the first story arc, which was directly inspired by Alex Raymond’s groundbreaking comic strips.

FLASH GORDON: INVASION OF THE RED SWORD chronicles the invasion of Mongo by a splinter group of the CIA, as first introduced in FLASH GORDON: THE MERCY WARS #1. The group’s name, “The Red Sword,” was first created by Alex Raymond.

“When preparing to write the first four six-issue arcs we have planned for FLASH GORDON,” says FLASH GORDON writer and Ardden Co-Publisher Brendan Deneen, “I re-read every single one of Alex Raymond’s original comic strips. There was a treasure trove of material in there, including an arc where Flash, Dale and Zarkov end up back on Earth. While there, they battle a mysterious group called ‘the Red Sword.’ I thought that was the perfect name for the invading force in our second arc.”

“Like everyone else,” Deneen added, “I’ve heard about Dynamite’s plans to launch their own FLASH GORDON series. I look forward to some healthy competition. I hope they’re ready, too.”

This sounds like the Phantom scenario all over again, so I'm curious to see this story develop.

Comics News: Defenders of the Earth and Space Dock 7

Together Again: The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake the Magician



I got an email from Dynamite Entertainment last week about their now having King Features' top three characters. According to the press release, this is the first time that Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake have been under the same publisher in 43 years. Which makes for some cool crossover possibilities.

I'm mostly curious to see how they handle Flash. I know nothing about Mandrake, so they can do whatever they want with him, but I'm not at all excited about their version of the Phantom. I've heard good things about their Buck Rogers though, so maybe Flash will be okay. I hope so, 'cause I'd really like to read some new, good Flash Gordon stories.

It sounds like they'll be starting with a faithful re-telling of the origin story:

Dynamite's comic book story begins as Earth is bombarded by fiery meteors. Dr. Zarkov believes the meteors are from outer space and invents a rocket ship to locate their place of origin. Half mad, he kidnaps Flash and Dale, whose plane has crashed in the area, and the three travel to the planet Mongo, where they discover the meteors are weapons devised by Ming the Merciless, evil ruler of Mongo.

Space Dock 7



The webcomics portal that was teased back in February is live and full of awesome scifi comics including some I've mentioned here before and some I'm brand new to.

Elsewhere on the Internets: Lincoln's Assassin, Kids vs Nazis, and June's Adventure Comics

It's been a while since I've done one of these updates, so I'll split it into two sections. Today is just the Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs columns from the past month.

Along with Jane Yolen's Foiled, we talked about four First Second books in a row.

Booth



I thought Booth was an informative, but flawed - mostly in regards to its storytelling, but I also thought the art could've been more dynamic - look at Abraham Lincoln's assassin. CC Colbert is the pseudonym for historian Catherine Clinton and Booth is not only her first graphic novel, but her first fiction work as well. That shows, but it's still an interesting account that made me curious to learn more.

Comic Book Resources also interviewed Clinton about the book and her research on it.

Resistance, Book 1



I enjoyed the first volume of Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis' Resistance a lot more. It's the story of some kids who get caught up in the French Resistance and learn to work effectively against the Nazis. There are at least two ways you can tell this story. You can either make it a fun, adventure-filled romp or you can realistically highlight how scary it would be for real children to be put in that situation. Either of those choices could make for a great story, but I was surprised and pleased that Resistance chose the second of them. And even more pleased that it did it so well.

The other choice (and a whole bunch of other adventure comics) after the break.

Art Show: The Dark Swamps of Barsoom

Cursed Pirate Girl



By Katie Cook.

Carrie



By Ryan Cody. [Hey, Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin Time!!!]

Richard Sala, John Carter, Flash Gordon, giant robots, more Katie Cook, and 3D Giant Hippos after the break.

Flash Gordon Meets Bono (and Other Stories)

I feel kind of bad that I haven't had any Christmas-related stuff on the blog this year. My original idea for an Adventureblog Christmas became Plump Sister and I never got around to a solid plan for replacing it. Ironically, Christmas busyness got in the way, but I do hope everyone's having happy holidays if you celebrate them.

Captain Splint's Hairy Helper



The other day we got pirates and a jungle girl. This time 10c Dreams brings us pirates and a gorilla. Oh, if only someone could combine all three into one marvelous tale...

Princess of the Sea



It's not often we see mermaid comics, but the mermaid experts at Never Sea Land have come through.

Know what would be cooler than a pirate-jungle girl-gorilla comic? A pirate-jungle girl-gorilla comic with mermaids in it. Good thing Jess and I are working on one.

Rulah vs the Ape Women of Antilla



The keepers of all things Rulah at the Comic Book Catacombs have the whole story.

Rulah and the Whispering Wires of Death



This one too.

Steps of Doom



Maybe Flash doesn't meet quite as cool a Bono as he could have, but it's still a nifty story. [Comic Book Catacombs again]

Elsewhere on the Internets...

I've been fighting a cold the last few days and unfortunately I'm losing. The Friday Night Art Show will have to be a Saturday Night Art Show this week. In the meantime, lemme catch up with a couple of other things, like what else I've been up to online lately. (Not much, actually.)

Five for Friday



In honor of Veteran's Day, last weekend's Five for Friday assignment was to Name Five Good Characters With A Real Or Fake Military-Style Rank. I almost missed the "Good" qualifier and had to redo a couple of answers before sending them in, but here's who I ended up with:

1. Lt. BD
2. Captain America
3. Col. Steve Trevor
4. Sgt. Frank Rock
5. Cobra Commander

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs



Taking a break from Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, this week I spent some time with Al Williamson's version.

I grew up reading Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson’s Star Wars strips and I was always impressed with how real Williamson’s characters looked without looking exactly like the actors. His use of models sometimes meant that figures looked posed and static, but it also leant credibility to the fantastic stories he and Goodwin were telling. As did his talent at creating lush, detailed worlds. It was almost like these were the real adventures of my favorite Rebels and Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford were just actors playing the parts.

I’d never read Williamson’s Flash Gordon stuff before this collection, but the same traits are all there. If you like his Star Wars stuff, there’s no reason you won’t enjoy this too, especially with Archie Goodwin joining in on some of the writing. But what surprised me about the book was its diversity. All the stories share some common Williamsonisms (giant mushrooms and alien animal life decorating the landscapes, for instance), but it’s interesting to see the different ways of doing things that Williamson employed depending on the particular project.

More here.

Elsewhere on the Internets...

Here's what else I've been up to online lately...

Five for Friday



I didn't participate in last weekend's Five for Friday, which was about Halloween costumes (a topic I suck at), but the weekend before that we were instructed to Name Five Comic Characters You'd Want As Your Friend. I thought that was particularly sweet.

Mine were:

1. Flash Gordon
2. Wonder Woman
3. Abe Sapien
4. Steve Rogers
5. Alfred Pennyworth

Amazon Princess



I had a couple of posts on the Wonder Woman blog. One shared the above drawing by Cownt artist Jessica Hickman; the other was about a Wonder Woman Jack O'Lantern.

Plump Sister



I finally updated the Christmas Carol blog again after unintentionally taking Halloween (all two months of it) off. This post is about the opening of Albert Finney in Scrooge. I should be able to stay on track with it now that Christmas is already in the air.

David's Dinosaur Blog



My seven-year-old son has decided to start a blog and I couldn't be more proud. It's a dinosaur blog and it's awesome. I've added it to my sidebar under Online Writing, but my involvement ends at suggesting topics and taking David's dictation of his thoughts about those topics. I'm giving him first shot on dinosaur (and dinosaur-related) material from here out, but he has final say on all content for his blog. Anything he doesn't want to talk about will get re-routed back here. I hope you'll check it out.

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs



As I say at the beginning of my review of Hunter's Fortune #1, "It's comics like that this that are the exact reason I started this column."

Seriously, this is a fantastic start to what promises to be an unbelievably cool new series. The only reason you should not read it is if you absolutely, positively cannot stand awesome comics.

Elsewhere on the Internets...

Here's what else I've been up to online lately.

Five for Friday



Last Friday's assignment was to Name Five Of Your Favorite Hats Or Other Pieces Of Headgear Worn By a Comic Character. My answers were:

1. Bill the Cat's Billy and the Boinger's wig
2. Dr. Midnight's mask
3. Kroenen's mask (Hellboy)
4. Dr. Doom's mask
5. The Baroness' glasses (GI Joe)

What Are You Reading?

In Robot 6's weekly feature, I talked about first impressions of Al Williamson's Flash Gordan and Agents of Atlas.

Amazon Princess



I don't typically link to my posts on the Wonder Woman blog, but I can't tell you why that is. Recently it's been about Wonder Woman Reeboks, Wonder Woman Shelf Porn, and Katie Cook.

Horror Is...

Over at Alex Ness' poplitiko blog, I joined Alex, Mike Carey, Joe Monks, and Anne Freakin' Rice in trying to define what horror is.

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs



This week's column covers three convention comics: The Cowl, Super Maxi-Pad Girl, and The Visible Rooster Jack.

Elsewhere...

Here's what else I've been up to on the Internet this past week:

Five for Friday



I contributed to Tom Spurgeon's Five for Friday again. The assignment was to Name Your 5 Favorite Funny (And Not-So-Funny) Animals. Mine were:

1. Cerebus
2. Foghorn Leghorn
3. Snoopy
4. Hong Kong Phooey
5. Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

What are yours?

Plump Sister



This week we finally got to my favorite Christmas Carol adaptation: 1951's Scrooge with Alastair Sim.

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs



A look at interesting new adventure comics coming out in November. There's some Dracula, some Flash Gordon, some musketeers, some dinosaurs, and a ton of Sherlock Holmes.