Man, I miss the Wally West Flash. Yesterday I was going through the various books DC did for the 75th anniversary of some of their characters and I´m really tempted to get the FLASH one because it has one of the issues I´m still missing on my Flash collection, issue one of volume 2.
Since I have not been to the International Comic Salon in Erlangen this year my only other option will probably be the new Comic Con in Stuttgart and since it´s the first that convention will be held I don´t know if they even have comic dealers with american comics or US back issues there. The thing is that while the Flash book will cost me at least 30 bucks ( I think the regular price is 40 dollars ) that´s around what dealers charge for the first issue alone now thanks to all the popularity of the tv show.
And while buying the book would be the better option most of the 75 year celebration books have gotten negative reviews because DC has been very arbitrary in their selection of stories. Which probably comes from the fact that the people doing these books are neither fans of the respective characters nor do they know much about their history. The Flash book got some good reviews online ( at INFINITE COMIX and SPEED FORCE ) but you never know until you hold it in your hands. So maybe someone who bought the Flash book can tell me if it´s worth buying.
Coming back to THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD this was pretty much their monster issue as Wally West and Linda Park take their kids Iris and Jay ( God, don´t you miss those days when Wally was the Flash and he and Linda were married and had kids ? I wonder why the new DC has done away with all of the married heroes and heroes with kids ? Are they just against marriage and having kids or do they think heroes with these burdens are boring or don´t appeal to a brighter audience ? Just saying. ) to Niles Caulder to help them with their unstable powers. So the West family meets the Doom Patrol - who all could have starred in their own bad 50s horror flick - in a creepy castle right out of a Hammer production movie and the usual hijinks ensue. And on top of the monster madness we have a great character moment for Wally when he is faced with an impossible choice. So enough introduction and let´s get to the story.
So what´s the deal with this " Megistus " thing ? Sorry, but you´ll have to wait seven months before you can find out more. Or get the second THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD collection ( I recommend getting the hardcover ).
Usually I try to include some original art in these posts but this time I couldn´t find any from this issue´s interior pages. I did however find some of the cover which I present here in various stages of production.
Today´s first birthday kind of ties in with the Flash as Arthur Darvill turns 34. He is best known for playing fan favorite Rory Williams on Doctor Who and Captain Rip Hunter on the Flash spin off show Legends of Tomorrow.
The show just wrapped up its season finale and let me tell you, it´s going to be a long wait until season two kicks off. If you haven´t seen it you should probably skip this part. Like River would say : Spoilers, sweetie.
Paulina Rubio who celebrates her 45th birthday got her first record deal with 7 and she´s one of the biggest stars in Spain and Latin America. The rest of the world only discovered her during the last decade and right now she´s probably best known for being one of the judges on The X - Factor. While I could have posted any of the bookmarked audition videos from the show I went for one where you can see her spectacular performance.
Two superstars from a totally different part of entertainment culture are pornstar Tori Welles who turns 49 and Christy Canyon who turns 50. They were both at the paek of the mountain top in the 80s and I could have sworn I already did a post on Tori Welles´ classic Out For Blood flick.
And it´s back to comics with 53 year old Greg Kinnear who played Captain Amazing in one of the best superhero movies EVER Mystery Men based on Bob Burden´s Flaming Carrot comics. The reason why I think this is one of the best superhero movies is that the heroes in the movie are like the Legion of Substitute Super - Heroes : they are not the popular heroes with the convenient or trending super powers but they still are fighting the good fight. It´s easy being a super hero when you have super strength, x - ray vision or invulnerability. But it takes a bit more cojones to be a hero when your super power is to be invisible when nobody is watching you.
Apropos super hero movies : Thomas Haden Church celebrates his 56th birthday and his multilayered portrayal of Flint Marko a.k.a. Sandman was one of the few good things in Spider - Man 3. Thomas has quite a range which he proved in Sideways, George of the Jungle where he played the dastardly villain but most important as Ned Dosey in Ned and Stacey.
If you haven´t seen it, don´t worry, it´s only one of the best sitcoms EVER. The premise of the show is that Stacey ( played by Debra Messing from Will & Grace and the Mysteries of Laura Diamond abomination ) and Ned ( Thomas´ character ) get married because Ned has to be married to get promoted and Stacey has to be married to get the apartment she wants. Since they are only married on paper they don´t really have to try to get along and they get to treat each other like crap. It´s hilarious.
Today we really have an eclectic group of birthdays full of super stars and our next candidate is another throwback to the 80s. Ninjas were big and one of the most prolific martial arts actors was Sho Kosugi who turns 68.
There were hundreds of ninja movies and Sho Kosugi was in the best of them. He also did the fight choreography on the ninja tv show The Master where he co starred with Lee Van Cleef. Here is a tribute to the master.
No longer among us is Anthony - James Ryan whose name might not sound familiar but he was the producer of Russ Meyer movies like Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers, Cherry, Harry and Raquel, Vixens, Supervixens and writer of Black Snake and Up ! He also was the Handyman in Eve and the Handyman and Crazy Redskin in Naked Girls of The Wild West.
Speaking of famous birthdays : one of the great artists is M C Escher whose drawings of impossible objects are known around the globe.
Originally I wanted to honor Igor Stravinsky´s anniversary with a video but I couldn´t find a good video of his part in the Fantasia movie. And I already have a music video with Paulina Rubio anyway. Last but not least we return to comic birthdays with the great Wally Wood and it should be no surprise to longtime readers of this blog but in my opinion his greatest achievement in comics was pumping up Power Girl´s boob in each issue of All Star Comics to see how far he could get until the Comics Code Authority complained creating what would be Power Girl´s character defining feature for generations to come until the NEW 52 train wreck.
Now you probably expected to find a Power Girl video but I am aware that Wally Wood has done everything from the famous EC comics to Mad where he did the Superduperman parody, to Marvel comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, the Warren magazines and an armlong list of various DC comics. One of his most famous works is 22 Panels That Always Work which has been an indispensable resource for comic artists around the world.
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Nothing is obscene providing it is done in bad taste.
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