And I really had to control myself not to make an all X - MEN post. I thought I had recently done one, or at least last year but after checking my old posts I have come to the conclusion that I didn´t make a Jim Lee birthday post last year. The last one I did was in 2016 and it had stuff from various comic book series Jim Lee had worked on. You can go and check that one out before reading this one which saves me the trouble of having to explain again that since I am not a big fan of the NEW 52 you won´t find any JUSTICE LEAGUE or SUICIDE SQUAD stuff in this post. But I do want to start with some DC stuff because people forget that there is actually some good DC reading material out there drawn by Jim Lee.
Apropos Catwoman, one of the worst ( or best depending on how much you get aroused by a leather clad Halle Berry ) renditions of Selina Kyle on the big screen was handled by Halle Berry and you may have seen various posts about her appear and vanish from this blog over the last few days.
As usual I wanted to do one re - post of last year´s Halle Berry´s birthday posts and since the posts are not shown in the proper text ratio in the preview version I had to publish them to see if everything was okay. And yes, I said posts, plural because at first I just wanted to do one long post.
Then - as is always the case when I write about sexbombs like Halle Berry - it got very long. Not too long to post it but I decided to split it into two posts since that also means two video sections and you know there are never enough posts to include all the videos I bookmark. Well, after splitting the post into two the second part was almost twice as long as the new first part so I did a little spin - off post. So now there will be three new ( well, there will be some old stuff but each part will include some new stuff like pictures, animated GIFs and videos ) posts of which I have already finished the first one and the main part of the second one.
And they will all go back on the blog on Halle Berry´s next birthday this month ( unless something goes wrong ) so there will be plenty of stuff for Halle Berry fans. As for those that come here strictly for the comics since I am writing them in advance they don´t have a negative effect on my regular posting ratio so in this regard everything will be business as usual.
Coming back to Jim Lee, we are now making the switch to the Marvel side with HEROES REBORN which is testament to the fact that he was involved in let´s say unfortunate reboots in the past and be gracious. From all of the various attempts by the iMAGE guys to get some old Marvel properties their moxie back Jim Lee´s FANTASTIC FOUR was one of the interesting ones - at least art wise. I think what made that project fail in the end was that they just re - iMAGE - ined ( sorry for the pun, I couldn´t resist ) the books without looking what lay at the core of the heroes. And so you just got some cheap Marvel hero knockoffs and a lot of potential got wasted.
We are even going further back with a series Jim Lee was born to draw : PUNISHER WAR ZONE. Before he was let loose on the x - books Jim Lee chronicled the ongoing war of Frank Castle but we are not straying too far from the x - universe since we start off with a meeting - or better clashing - of everyone´s favorite psychotic ex - marine and one sawed off canadian runt who is the best at what he does. And don´t you ever forget it, bub.
It may be hard to believe for Today´s comic readers who grew up with artists who have problems doing a monthly title but back then Jim Lee was not only cranking up books of impeccable quality but doing so rapid fire. A while ago I bought the ACTS OF VENGEANCE : CROSSOVERS omnibus ( not because it´s one of my favorite crossovers but because it was cheap and contains two of the best issues from Ann Nocenti´s DAREDEVIL run with John Romita Jr. ) and besides the famous story in UNCANNY X - MEN 256 to 258 which introduced the sexy asian nija Psylocke he also drew issue 12 of PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL. Now I am not sure what the actual timeline here is and if he had some time between finishing up on one book and starting on the other but all four issues came out within three months. So if you are a Jim Lee fan you get a lot of bang for your buck.
Speaking of Marvel´s mind reading mutant massita Psylocke, Jim Lee also drew probably the most iconic page ever in adjective less X - MEN issue 8.
And she was not the only female who looked her best under Jim Lee. The bosses at Marvel took full advantage of the plethora of hot babes within the ranks of the X - Men and while you may argue about the quality of some of the stories you can´t deny Jim Lee´s knack for drawing the female form. From X - Men members like my beloved Storm or Rogue to enemies like Deathbird the x - universe looked hot, sexy and exciting.
So that´s my Jim Lee post for this year and hopefully I can do a full Jim Lee X - Men post before his next anniversary. And who knows ? There even might be some interesting DC books to write about although I am a bit skeptical after I heard that his next project will be the new SUPERMAN book by Brian Michael Bendis who has vowed to bring SJW values to DC Comics even if it kills - them. And DC Comics was doing so good .... sigh.
As I - once again - have no links for this post we directly jump into the entertainment section and since it has been a few days since our last post there are a few anniversaries we missed. Starting our celebrity birthday list is Marisa Miller who turned 40 on August the 6th. I thought she was the one who played the Baroness in the first G. I. Joe movie but that was the other hot model with Miller as her last name apparently. Sienna Miller.
Marissa DID star in a comic book movie though, Dark Horse´s R.I.P.D. which I have managed to see since I last mentioned it and I have to say they really squandered a lot of potential for nude scenes and didn´t make very much with such an incredible sexbomb like Marissa Miller in the cast.
Lisa Boyle celebrated her 54th birthday on the same day and I have to call foul on her imdb entry that states she is best known for her roles in Bad Boys, Face / Off, Lost Highway or The Nutty Professor. Man, I didn´t even know she was in those movies. No, if you know Lisa Boyle it´s either from her pictures in PLAYBOY and the over 25 Playboy magazine Special Editions where she was often paired with Patricia Ford, her roles in such erotic classics like Friend Of The Family, Midnight Tease, Dreammaster - The Erotic Invader and I Like To Play Games Too showing everything she got or her recurring role on 80s / 90s cult sitcom Married With Children.
She played Fawn, one of Kelly´s bosom buddies - with a huge emphasis on the bosom part - and constantly outshone Christina Applegate like in this scene from the episode Spring Break - Part 1 from season 10 where she really pushed her 35Cs so tightly together in her tiny red bikini top when she´s leaning forward that I totally forgot that Christina was in the shot.
But it´s not all about babes, boobs and bikinis here as we continue with two birthdays from August the 9th with have to do with comic books and which I actually covered before. Strangely enough both of them have worked on Marvel´s mutant books. The first is Rick Leonardi and I already did a post on the series he worked on so I won´t bore you with the list but among the plethora of books are New Mutants and Uncanny X - Men.
He also was the regular artist on the first Cloak & Dagger series and when I see ( which is not that much because I had to cave after 30 minutes of episode one ) into what Disney turned the book I have to vomit. But my favorite series by Rick Leonardi is Spider - Man 2099 and I can only implore any readers out there who either have only read the new version or are even vaguely interested in the character OR have never heard of him to seek out the original comic books. I think the complete series has been reprinted in trade but no matter if you have to get the back issues from the dollar bins ( and you should not have to pay more for these issues ) read. This. Book. People will tell you how wonderful Peter David´s run on Incredible Hulk is - and it is impressive - or how amazing his X - Factor series is - and it is one of his best works - but if you have not read Spider - Man 2099 you have not read his finest endeavor. If you have read my last post on Rick Leonardi you know that my first encounters with him were not that satisfactory for me as I was not that thrilled to see Marc Silvestri substituted by him but he made this book his own. There are just artists who come on certain titles and define the look and feel of a book and this is what Rick Leonardi did on Spider - Man 2099. They even had some high caliber guest artists like Kelly Jones and they still didn´t look as good as his art. So do yourself a favor and seek out the original Spider - Man 2099.
The other comic creator who celebrated an anniversary on the 9th of August is Bob McLeod and you can find some of the books he worked on in this post but like Rick Leonardi he worked on his share of x - titles especially New Mutants where he co - created most of the characters.
Which brings me to my second reading recommendation. I know that because of the new tv series everybody is talking about Runaways and there are others who think Young Avengers is Marvel´s best foray into teen super heroes but before those and other series they were hitting it out of the ball park with New Mutants. To paraphrase Remo Williams : Runaways, Young Avengers - they are but shadows. New Mutants is the sun. If you think you know Marvel teen heroes and you haven´t read New Mutants think again and this series has also been collected in trades.
One other thing Rick Leonardi and Bob McLeod have in common is that they are currently not working in comics which tells you everything you need to know about the current state of the american comic industry.
Yesterday sci fi cult siren Claudia Christian turned 53. Her biggest claim to fame is a little sci fi movie from 1997 called The Hidden. The film is still shown on tv because of her raunchy striptease ( with which she secured herself a spot on my Top 10 Best Movie Striptease list with stripper stars like Salma Hayek , Demi Moore , JaMILF Lee Curtis , Elizabeth Berkley , Halle Berry and Erika Eleniak ) . Despite her obvious stipper skills Claudia Christian is best known from another sci fi show, Babylon 5 by comic writer J. Michael Strazynski where she plays Commander Susan Ivanova. Although I doubt she wore anything as skimpy as these outfits on it.
You probably expected something else for Chris Hemsworth´s 35 birthday Today but I have to say, with the latest releases of Marvel movies the Thor from the Incredible Hulk tv series with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno is much closer to the comic book version than what´s actually on the big screen.
I mean IF they want to use Thunderstrike so badly why not just make a Thunderstrike movie instead of totally f - wording Thor up until he is kind of like Thunderstrike ? The answer : Thunderstrike doesn´t sell as good as Thor. I mean, before the avalanche of Marvel movies how many muggles knew Thor ? Then you can imagine how many knew Thunderstrike because he is not that well known to most comic fans. Anyway, I am kind of on the ledge with Chris Hemsworth because as an actor he is naturally more interested in what is a challenge for an actor - say portraying a macho character like Thor as a Disney princess - than really staying in character.
So while he did a good version of Thor in the first and only Thor movie ( the second one was just awful as they could have adapted any story about the Asgardians going up against other gods from a dozen of stories that were all better and the third movie didn´t even have Thor in it ) and the first two Avengers movies I can´t approve of his following Thor versions.
Another reason why I chose to include The Best TV Show That Never Were is that it has a lot of shows like Daredevil or Bates Motel that in the end made it on tv although in slightly different form. It also features some pilots for comic book tv shows that have become legendary like the Generation X train wreck that got released on video cassette. I don´t know if it is available on DVD or BlueRay but we will see which one is better - this or the upcoming New Mutants movie. After the excellent trailer I thought this was a no - brainer but after I have seen how badly they f - worded up Cloak & Dagger with their SJW BS I have my doubts.
And Cloak & Dagger is such an easily adaptable comic book that you really have to put a big effort into ruining it but those guys at Marvel really brought their a - game to destroy that franchise. Good going, you guys.
Since I mentioned Marvel´s Incredible Hulk I also want to pay tribute to the one, true immortal Hulk long before Disney used this title for their current destruction of the jade giant, namely Terry Gene Bollea who turns 65. I had a few wrestling shows to choose from but instead I went with the classic Hulk Hogan theme. Hulk almost single handedly made wrestling a part of the american culture and turned it into the multi billion dollar industry it is Today. Recently I am getting back into wrestling but it is only a shallow imitation of its former glory especially for someone like me who lived its glory days. Hulk Hogan made wrestling exciting and even decades later all true wrestling fans get shivers when they hear Real American.
This post addendum is really full of stuff about the real comic book stories and their adaptions - or better defacement - in tv and movies and I was saving this for a John Byrne special DEATH IN COMICS : DAYS OF FUTURE PAST post because so many super heroes bite the dust in this seminal story - on and off panel. Okay, if you only count the members of the X - Men then the number is not that high but when you keep in mind that most of the super heroes like the Fantastic Four or the Avengers and all villains have been wiped out the story racks up a much higher death toll.
One of the reasons why I still want to write that post is that nowadays - as usual - most people only know the movie version which is not only a gross misinterpretation but it is not even the tip of the iceberg compare to the original comic book story. And while what you will read on most websites about the story is not true ( Chris Claremont and John Byrne did not put a bow on their collaboration on UNCANNY X - MEN with this story, there was a two part story with Wolverine and Nightcrawler teaming up with Alpha Flight against Wendigo and a Kitty Pryde Christmas story after DAYS OF FUTURE PAST ) it was a first step into a dark and gritty future for the X - Men. What set it apart from a lot of the stuff that followed is that it was not an alternate future in which everybody dies - and therefore easily brushed off - from the get go it was said : this is what our world is heading towards. This is not a possible future, this will be your future.
There were a few changes and inconsistencies when Rachel Summers was introduced like how could this future be when in it Jean Grey was still alive and she had a daughter with Scott Summers instead of a sister but those were all small things that didn´t prevent this future to manifest.
Since this is a birthday post for Jim Lee I wanted to at least include one video with him and the chance to post one where you see comic artists draw are very few. I had a bookmark for just the Jim Lee part but that video got deleted so here you also have Todd Mc Farlane, Rob Liefeld and Whilce Portaccio as a bonus. If you want to see more videos of Jim Lee drawing there are a few where you can see him at work and despite my dislike of the stories he is currently working on he still is a master artist.
Longtime readers know that I like to throw my audience the occasional curve ball so instead of another episode from Jim Lee´s WildC.A.T.S. here is another cartoon I´ve somehow missed during my childhood : Blackstar.
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Go Joes !
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