Tuesday, September 13, 2016

The swords and arrows of outrageous Mike

Because finishing my last post has taken much longer than expected I´m running late to wish comic book creator Mike Grell a happy 69th birthday.


Now as usual I thought I had this one covered because I already made a folder where I dumped all my Mike Grell pictures but the best laid plans of mice and men make you realize you don´t have as good material as you thought and there is always one series you never bothered reading.


But that´s what keeps making these posts so interesting for me and you don´t want me to get bored writing these posts, now do you ? As always I tried to include all of the series Mike Grell worked on but I´m sure I have forgotten one or the other and if you want scold me for overlooking YOUR favorite series in the comments section. I also tried to give each series equal screen time on the post but as always I favored my special series.


As I had to look for some of the pieces online there are quite a few people to thank starting with THINKING IN PANELS which provided a Green Arrow page, be sure to check out the great article DC´s Post Crisis Rebirth : Mike Grell´s Green Arrow on NOTHING BUT COMICS and you can see most of Mike Grell´s covers for Green Arrow on DAVE`S COMIC HEROES BLOG .

Furthermore the black and white Warlord double page spread was found on the ALCHETRON entry for Mike Grell, I might have forgotten to post this link to DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND which has All Men Are Mine from Warlord 14 ( I´m not sure if this is the latest installment since it has been months since I have had time to check out my blog partners ) and the cover to Mike Grell´s James Bond graphic novel Permission To Die which is sadly out of print was found on C. J. Bunce´s retro review on BORG. The final black and white art piece of Captain America´s funeral was found at El domador de lo Fantastico´s article Mike Grell La Barba Cazadora at MULDERCOMICS , you can find some preview pages of Mike Grell´s work on X - Men Forever on THE OFFICIAL MIKE GRELL HOMEPAGE where you can find anything you need about Mike and if you have a hankering for the Legion of Super - Heroes SCANS DAILY has the final pages of the Reflecto Saga. You know, looking back the art doesn´t look as good as I remember it but the story still made a big impression on me since it was one of the most successful bait & switch uses. I´d still like to see it reprinted in hardcover or even in trade to read it again. Sadly the Legion reprints start with The Great Darkness Saga and it´s one of my biggest regrets that I didn´t buy the deluxe hardcover when I had the chance.


Because it is totally worth it and on the following story The Curse I DID get the hardcover. DC´s release of Legion of Super - Heroes collections has been kind of erratic at best and it´s a clear sign of how badly they treat Legion fans by the fact that ALL characters who celebrated their 50th or 75th anniversary this year got a nice thick hardcover even Lois Lane or Lex Luthor while all the Legion got was a 200 page trade that didn´t include the best tales from Legion lore. And it´s not like there is a lack of those.


Another thing that bugs me is that so far there seem to be no plans to release the Keith Giffen run - which is hailed as one of the best run in the entire Legion of Super - Heroes history by comic readers and critics alike - except as a continuation of the second volume. Now I have just read An Eye For An Eye and my next Legion purchase will be The More Things Change but if they continue putting them out at the current rate I don´t think I will live long enough to see that. Even if I didn´t have any health problems. The way DC has turned into a spiteful, moneygrubbing, selfish corporation that ignores fans and takes a dump on DC history to sell you soulless, meaningless drivel with uninteresting art you might think they would leap at a chance to make a lot of dough but apparently they are much too busy with their overpriced series about villains. It´s a wonder they finally managed to put out the much clamored after Suicide Squad trade paperbacks and I doubt that would have happened at all without the big blockbuster movie they are trying to pimp. Now I haven´t seen the movie yet so I won´t make any comments about the quality as it might be good but nevertheless the decision to release the Suicide Squad trades has more to do with cashing in on a movie than doing what comic readers and fans - who are the guys who have plucked down their hard earned money to keep this company afloat let´s not forget that - would like.  


On to more pleasant things, Today´s entertainment block starts with actress Yunoka Doyle who celebrates her 38th birthday and whom I have mentioned in my CASTING THE JUSTICE LEAGUE MOVIE REDUX post. She played the role of Ashley Bank´s " bosom buddy " Keesha on the hit show The Fresh Prince Of Bel - Air with a big emphasis on the " bosom " part.    


Of course a big part of that show´s success and continued appeal around the world ( there are probably only a few people on the face of the planet who can´t recite the lyrics to the title song in their sleep ) is Tatyana Ali who grew from a cute little girl into an incredible sexbomb over the course of that series and who got to show her musical skills.


Much to the chagrin of the show´s producers she really bOObed all out in later movie appearances like The Clown at Midnight or Fall Into Darkness .


Frank Marshall turns 70 who has produced a lot of films that have had a big impact on pop culture like the Indiana Jones movies, Poltergeist, Twilight Zone, the Gremlins movies, Young Sherlock Holmes, the Back To The Future movies, the Feivel movies, Innerspace, Arachnophobia, The Sixth Sense, the Jason Bourne movies, Seabisquit and last but not least Who Framed Roger Rabbit ? which created one of the sexiest toons in history.


He also produced the english versions of the Studio Ghibli movies The Wind Rises, The Tale Of The Princess Kayuga, From Up On Poppy Hill, The Secret World Of Arriety and Ponyo. Right now I am getting all the Studio Ghibli movies I have missed out on so I certainly appreciate that much.



Jacqueline Bisset celebrates her 72nd birthday who has appeared in Bullit, Class and The Deep where her wet t - shirt was the main draw for people to watch that movie. I have even seen a movie poster with only her in the wet t - shirt but I´m not sure if that´s a genuine movie poster or a fake. 


I mentioned the Feivel movies before because Don Bluth has his 79th anniversary Today. He was Disney when Disney had stopped being Disney ( I know this sounds weird but it also makes total sense ) and the first movie which I saw and where I was aware that this was by Don Bluth was The Secret of Nihm. Although my all time favorite Don Bluth movie is Anastasia which I have finally bought on DVD. I will probably get the Blue Ray sooner or later because this really demands a high quality resolution.

So it should not surprise longtime readers that I´m using this opportunity to post another video with latin masssita Thalia who really looks much better in the blue dress from the movie. She did the songs Una Vez En Diciembre and Viaje Tiempo Atras for the spanish language version which is one of the resons why haven´t gotten it because you can´t access the spanish language version on the german Blue Ray. Back to Thalia I think I have already posted the first two parts of her appearance on this show.



And just so you don´t think I´m just using this section to post videos and GIFs of hot women ( okay, which I kind of DO but I also like to hide some interesting stuff among these videos for all those who read this instead of skipping it ) since I couldn´t find a good video from Anastasia and I already posted the trailer here is a mix from various Don Bluth movies.



We are staying with movies as Today is also the anniversary of Richard Kiel´s birth who is best known as the extra large Bond antagonist from The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. He also appeared in Cannonball Run II and episodes of The Fall Guy and the Superboy tv series. Did you know that there were plans to make a Superboy tv series in 1961 ?



We have two more movie related candidates in the Dearly Departed section of Today´s birthdays with Roald Dahl who wrote the screenplay for another James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice and whose books Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Fabric, Fantastic Mister Fox, The Witches or Matilda have been adapted into various movies as well as Daniel Defoe whose Robinson Crusoe is part of the human collective unconsciousness.



To close out the post here is a video with some original art pages from Jon Sable, another great series by Mike Grell. I have already recommended this but if you can get them at a reasonable price go for the omnibus trades because once you have started reading this you will not be able to stop.



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