Starting out as a Jack Kirby clone Jim Steranko quickly found his own voice and impressed readers and comic creators alike with his elaborate page layouts, first on CAPTAIN AMERICA but even more so chronicling the adventures of Marvel´s foremost super spy in STRANGE TALES. When you hear people talk about trippy 60s comic pop art this is what they mean.
Now I won´t even try to sum up Steranko´s illustrious career in one post although I don´t think that he only did twenty comicbooks like some guy on the internet proclaimed. And while he did not do as much work as other comicbook artists ( try collecting all the stuff somebody like John Byrne or Jack Kirby did ) he did more than some people realize. Which brings us to the title of the post. This is already my third Jim Steranko post and my first one was just my personal selection of Jim Steranko art while my second post had a lot of cover homages. Jim Steranko always had his won blend of comic art, pop art and fine art and created some striking cover images that just lend themselves to be reverenced again and again.
At the moment I am reading the second Epic Collection of MASTER OF KUNG FU, FIGHT WITHOUT PITY and you can see a lot of Jim Steranko´s influences from the drawing style to panel design and page layout in Paul Gulacy´s art. So while compiling the art for this post I found a lot of cover homages - most of them for his cover of NICK FURY AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. 4 - and it´s always better to have a theme going when you write a post.
And this is where the double feature part of the post title comes in.
Remember when I said that Jim Steranko had worked on more series than people knew ? Well, he also worked on the early issues of UNCANNY X - MEN, although back then it was basically just the adjective - less X - MEN.
As usual I came across some original art from issues 50 and 51 while looking for the homage covers so I wanted to share them with all of my readers.
I always like to give out some reading recommendations and there is a lot of Jim Steranko´s work available in the MARVEL ESSENTIALS, MARVEL MASTERWORKS or various omnibus books like the S.H.I.E.L.D. omnibus so if you want to stock up your Steranko library it should be no problem.
Since I last wrote a Jim Steranko post there has even been an ARTIST`S EDITION so if you want to shelf out that kind of moolah it´s money well spent. At the moment I am not going to get any new stuff by Jim Steranko since I am depleted financially because of constant bad timing. Regular followers of the blog may remember that when I was in Spain a few weeks ago I could not buy any comics because of the street riots in Barcelona.
So when I got home to Germany I found three of those spanish minivan books for a really reasonable price at amazon. I should probably explain the term minivan books. They are hardcovers but they don´t have the page count of an omnibus book - unless that omnibus book is around 700 pages - and they are not oversized. They are just a few inches bigger than a regular comic so because they are both shorter and smaller I don´t want to call them omnibus books. On the other side they are bigger than those so - called minibus editions I have seen which are basically thicker trades.
I have mentioned once or twice before that Panini Germany is cornholing the german readers because while these books are just a bit thinner than an omnibus they have the price point of an Epic Collection and below.
That´s right, Panini Germany is making us bleed through the nose for our comics while the spanish comic fans get much cheaper books. For instance I bought the first CONAN : THE MARVEL YEARS omnibus in spanish as a birthday present because while it was identically in content to the US edition it only cost half as much. And the three spanish books I bought were DAREDEVIL : LA PRISION VIVIENTE for 26 EUROS ( regular price 40 EUROS ) which has 530 pages of Gene Colan crazyness from issue 28 to 47 and annual 1, EL ASOMBROSO SPIDERMAN : ESCARAMUZA BAJO LAS CALLES for 33 EUROS ( regular price 40 EUROS ) which has almost 700 pages of Ross Andru goodness from AMAZING SPIDER - MAN 151 to 181 with annual 11 and NOVA 12 and last but not least EL PODEROSO THOR DE TOM DEFALCO Y RON FRENZ also for 33 EUROS ( regular price 42 EUROS ) which has exactly 700 pages of asgardian awesomeness from THE MIGHTY THOR 383 to 409.
And that´s just to give you an idea. When I was last at NORMA COMICS in Barcelona they had a few bookshelves stacked with literally hundreds of these books. Anyway, since I not only found some of these books on amazon - which is pretty rare in itself - but also at a lower price than I would have paid in the store I jumped at the opportunity. Which was great for my comic collection but also bad for my wallet. To make matters worse I finally broke down and got the second ARTIST`S EDITION of Walter Simonson´s THOR right before I came upon a 75 percent off amazon sale.
I found it by accident while checking out if the bargain price for the KIRBY IS MIGHTY ! king - size hardcover I had put in my Vince Coletta post was still right and then I saw that the KIRBY RETURNS ! king - size hardcover was at 23 bucks ( which is not that much for a giant sized book with a regular price of 95 EUROS ). So I got that as well as two Epic Collections which I already planned on buying plus four omnibus books. I hope I can do a post about this in the future but let me say that if I had bought these books at regular price I would have had to spend more than 690 EUROS.
In any case this unscheduled rant has gone long enough so it´s time to get to what you are really here for : the celebrity birthday / pop culture trivia / babe of the day section. But we are not continuing where we left off since I already covered the celebrity birthdays from November the 1st up until November the 4th in last year´s Markie Post tribute and I don´t have anything to add to what I already wrote. There are however a few cult sirens of choice from Yesterday I just HAVE to address like Markie Post.
But we are kicking things off with another ultimate sexbomb, colombian tv host, actress and model Ximena Cordoba a.k.a. the weather girl with the best booty on tv who turned 40. Currently she is very successful and constantly adding new stuff to her portfolio like a photoshoot for SoHo ( not So Hoe ) magazine which included some very hot and very tasteful nude pictures. Naturally I am only posting one that is safe for work here.
For her it is probably raining men every day ( raise your hands if you got that 80s pop culture reference ) because not only does she have some of the longest legs I have ever seen butt her latina booty drives men crazy.
Selecting a video for Ximena Cordoba is always a challenging task because some of the ones I have bookmarked get deleted on YouTube which in turn affects some of the ones I have already posted and then I have to replace them so that in turn brings the number of videos down even more. In any case it makes going over the few ones left that quicker and for this year I have selected a compilation of Ximena´s best moments on television.
As someone whose comes from a country where the weather forecast is most often than not done by a hot massita like Ximena Cordoba I always feel let down whenever I see the weather section in Germany done by some dude. I mean, sure, they can hire the best guy to give them the most accurate weather predictions but that doesn´t mean he also has to present it. With all the sexy weather girls who strut their stuff on tv all over the world I always get the impression Germany is not even trying.
Now you are probably asking yourself how I am going to top this awesome accumulation of sexbombs. Well, how about with megabusty Petra Verkaik, Playmate of December 1989 a.k.a the most published woman in PLAYBOY´s entire history who celebrated her 53rd birthday on the 4th of November.
Petra who was also voted Playboy Lingerie Readers´ Choice Model of the Year 1997 not only could have easily starred in a Russ Meyer movie with her - all natural - 37HH ( !!! ) bust she DID actually star in a movie with Kevin Bacon. But her biggest claims to fame are her Lara Croft video that was all the rage on the internet and serving as a blueprint for John Byrne´s version of Jennifer Walters a.k.a. the Sensational She - Hulk.
Which was the last good version of the comic we got. Back then She Hulk was a fun character who was having real relationships and real sex but it was not always so emphasized like it was in later versions. There were some instances where it was a big part of the story like in the famous issue where a sleezeball managed to get some nude pictures of She Hulk while she was sunbathing topless and printed them in his adult magazine.
Or when John Byrne put the graphic in graphic novel when a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. goons kidnapped her and forced her to strip by putting a gun to her boyfriend, Wyatt Wingfoot´s head. But that was just the realistic part of the story about what happens when a bunch of horny secret agent rogues get hold of an ultimate sexbomb like She Hulk with giant melons.
They also made her undergo various physical exams and it is pretty clear that they took turns putting her body to the test after several full cavity searches. I mean although SJWs have done their best to turn her into an unattractive men hating propaganda tool for their war where she almost looks like her cousin she IS supposed to have the body of Petra Verkaik.
The current writers at Marvel just don´t get the character of She Hulk and when somebody tells me they are doing an okay series I quickly remind them that under John Byrne´s penmanship it was one of their bestsellers.
Yes, the art on the book has not always been as good as it could´ve been over the years but that´s Marvel´s own fault because if you ask any artist which female Marvel character he would like to draw She Hulk is always in the top five. And all the writers keep changing her constantly : she went from a woman who enjoys sex to a hussy who has sex with the Juggernaut and then into a nun who denies her wild sex orgy with the Juggernaut.
If writers proclaim in interviews that She Hulk looks like a prostitute ( I am always surprised what big experts where hookers are concerned Marvel´s writers are ) and that she was only created to have sex with Hulk - who is her cousin mind you - I get the impression that maybe Marvel should not hire so many hillbillies for whom it is natural that guys have sex with their relatives to write their books. In the last She Hulk series I read she looked like she was made out of legos and Dan Slott didn´t understand her either.
Because that man has some deep problems. He tried to convince the readers that Jennifer Walters is mentally ill because she prefers to be the She Hulk instead of Jennifer Walters. And let me ask you : if you had the chance to be a better stronger more attractive version of yourself with no negative side effects - like Bruce Banner has when he is the Hulk - would you really stay like you are ? And then he comes up with a crazy story that somebody else used She Hulk´s body to have sex with the Juggernaut .
And dont get me started on the can of bs where he turned longstanding Avengers member Starfox into a sexual predator. I mean, I have enjoyed a few of his stories but recently I was looking for a good pre - SWJs - turning - Squirrel - Girl - into - a - chubby - dyke picture when I came across some issues of his first Great Lakes Avengers series and I was appalled by the amount of verbal abuse he heaps on other comic companies, his readers ( which are the people who pay his bills ), his employers and comic writers in general. Which means he hates himself since he is a comic book writer.
Coming back to Petra Verkaik, writing this section always reminds me of things and sometimes younger readers can learn a thing or two. Like that - coming back to SJWs - before she was remodeled to her new politically correct look Lara Croft used to be megastacked to the point where her boobs could easily put the lead actress in a Russ Meyer movie to shame.
Which is one of the reasons why Petra Verkaik´s Lara Croft video made such a big splash on the internet. Lara Croft had giant gazongas in the video games but we hadn´t seen something similar in real life and the plot of the video - a goon ( or maybe more than one goon because Lara could probably overpower one easily but if there were more than one she had to give in to their demands ) gets the drop on Lara and makes her strip - is what we all dreamed about. Come on, just like we would all make She - Hulk undress who would not seize the chance to get Lara Croft naked ?
Besides over a dozen PLAYBOY videos and her appearance on Married with Children buxom Petra Verkaik starred in rather obscure movies like Pyrates, Speedway a.k.a. The Last Road or Love Potion Number Nine.
Wow, that´s two posts in a row that I have mentioned brabusting Lara Croft. Maybe my subconsciousness is trying to tell me something. Anyway, since I could not find a good video for Jim Steranko ( there are a few about the ARTIST´S EDITION of NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. but I already included such a video in one of my previous Jim Steranko posts and I don´t want to repeat myself ) here is one with John Byrne spilling the beans on his FANTASTIC FOUR, SHE HULK and SUPERMAN. A lot of people comment that I am always writing about the same artists who used to do good work but are not relevant Today. Now besides the fact that I digress I keep writing about them because they are still part of my daily reading diet, in fact one of the omnibus editions I just bought at amazon for 28 EUROS is the second volume of the MARVEL UNIVERSE BY JOHN BYRNE so don´t be surprised if I talk about that in an upcoming post.
Of course I have to mention one of my all time tv crushes Markie Post who turned 69 ( and I´m not even trying to make any puns about that number ) on the 4th of November but since I just put her full length feature in my latest Richard Corben birthday post I am trying to keep it shorter than usual. Longtime readers know that while Markie Post was practically in everything that was on tv in the 70s and 80s she became one of my ultimate sex phantasies on the show The Fall Guy which every male that was alive in the 80s remembers - and we will get to the reason why.
THERE`S SOMETHING ABOUT HEATHER THOMAS - AND HER BLUE BIKINI
But The Fall Guy didn´t just have 80s Power Girl Markie Post they also put blonde bombshell Heather Thomas in the show right from the beginning.
She played stunt body double ( and what a body it was ) Jody and her job was to keep the male viewers hooked by providing eye candy. She was in all episodes except for an episode in the first season. Yes, fan service is not as new as some people might want you to think and Heather Thomas mainly got the part because of her absolutely amazing bikini figure. OMG !
Like most growing teenagers I watched that show religiously but the biggest part of its appeal for me were sexbombs like Heather Thomas and Markie Post who didn´t appear as often in a bikini as I would have liked.
Well, Heather Thomas did since that was her main purpose on the show but Markie Post´s appearances in bikinis on The Fall Guy were very few.
I AM SUFFERING FROM ( MARKIE ) POST TRAUMATIC SEX SYNDROME !
Markie Post played bail bonds contractor Terri Michaels ( who replaced previous bail bonds contractor Samantha Jack played by Jo Ann Pflug ) beginning with Season 2 and at the beginning she played a minor role.
But Markie Post knew that she was destined to super stardom, so when the opportunity arose that one of the producers of the show who was a bit smitten with Markie appeared on the set she managed to set up a few meetings - just to discuss her role of course. Even though he claimed to be happily married the business meetings turned into private meetings which were then relocated to a secret no - tell motel where Markie used her relentless body and her natural ability to spread her legs better than a fillipino hooker to give the lucky guy who was hung like a horse a Kama Sutra crash course with more than the twenty two positions in a one night stand including some sexual practices that are illegal in fourteen states.
After Markie had successfully dicktamed the guy six ways to Sunday during these weekend long squirt marathons he was only too eager to convince the rest of the guys in charge what a complete waste it would be to have somebody like Markie on the cast without letting her " show off what her Mama gave her " like they say Today and the rest is 80s tv history. So Markie got more involved in the stories where she stole the scene from Heather Thomas as soon as she donned a bikini ( mainly in season three ).
Coming back to Heather Thomas, thanks to her absolutely stunning 37 ( ! ) - 23 - 32 measurements and the exposure in The Fall Guy she became a famous pin up model with posters on every hormone driven boy's bedroom wall who even managed to replace Raquel Welch on the number one spot !
80s Power Girl Markie Post is probably the best known cult siren on the blog because not only have I done many re - posts of her original post .
I also keep mentioning her in other posts and her original post is in the Top Ten Posts widget that appears on every post. Since I have done so many different versions it is not so tragic that I did not do a re - post last year even though I did the last version of her cult siren entry in 2016 .
Now while I have run out of episodes of The Fall Guy there is something else connected with Markie Post I want to include. You see Markie is not actually in it but it stars Richard Moll who - before a gazillion voice acting gigs on apparently every cartoon show there is ( I´m not kidding, if you have a few hours time just go over his imdb page ) - was one of the cast members of Night Court alongside Harry Anderson, John Laroquette and Markie Post. Markie played public defender Christine Sullivan who was always covered up except for a few occassions like the famous episode 17 from season 4 called Christine´s Friend where Markie wore a dress with a plunging cleavage more than worthy of Power Girl´s magical boob window.
Anyway, Richard Moll played Nostradamus " Bull " Shannon on Night Court and he is the antagonist in House which is a cult classic horror film. I know that Halloween is over but if you haven´t seen it or never heard of the movie you must check it out, it´s one of the best horror flicks I´ve seen.
Speaking of blonde sexbombs, cult siren Elke Sommer celebrates her 79th birthday Today and you can find a an interview on CLASSIC FILM AND TV CAFÈ and a review of Deadlier Than The Male on DOUBLE O SECTION .
Since she had starred in the Karl May western Unter Geiern ( see the plunging cleavage outfit above ) I originally wanted to include another Winnetou movie but those videos have also been deleted from YouTube.
This brings us finally to the end of the celebrity birthdays for now and if you want to know who else celebrated an anniversary you can find more of them from November the 4th and 5th in the Jim Steranko birthday post from 2017 and just for November the 5th in the one from 2016 . Speaking of Jim Steranko, you can´t have a post about Steranko´s work on NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. without mentioning Marvel´s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. which I think is a bit underappreciated compared to the other Marvel tv shows. For me their greatest accomplishment has been turning from a tv show where everybody was just asking when the next big name super hero or super villain was going to make a guest appearance into a tv show where people are more interested about what happens to their favorite S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Regular followers of the blog are probably not surprised that I use this opportunity to include a video with Ming - Na Wen who plays Melinda May. Who not only is an incredibly hot asian but apparently she doesn´t age either. There are a few con appearances by Ming - Na I have bookmarked but I´m saving them for her next birthday since they are more about her and not so much the tv show. There also is another clip from the show with Gregg Clark but I am also going to hang onto that one for a while because it is my favorite scene with Coulson.
Speaking of incredible sexbombs our next video features Angie Griffin who is one of the few cosplayers who can give 40D blow up sex doll Yaya Han a run for her money with her giant - sized 41E ( ! ) double airbags. With the whole Marvel spy thing it would be only logical to choose one with Angie dressed up as Black Widow. And while she has done a few of them where she even puts Scarlett Johansson to shame I already included a video with her as the Black Widow in my last Bob Layton / David Micheline IRON MAN tribute post . So while we are still in the post - Halloween phase I want to include a video with the best version of a female Ghostbuster of all times.
There, I said it. I´m trying to forget the miserable failure of Ghostbusters - Feminism Rules but I only want to point out that you know you produced a stinker when the porn version looks more interesting that your brand new 100 % SJW approved remake. In my opinion their biggest mistake was not to make the team all female but give them all the same personality.
Well, that and they should have gone with a cast of ultimate Hollywood hardbodies and let somebody with the abilities of an Andy Sidaris, Jim Wynorsky or Russ Meyer direct it. Speaking of Russ Meyer, I chose this video for two reasons and with that I am not trying to make a lewd pun. But besides enjoying it for the obvious reasons you can also follow the instructions and get a nice snack for re - watching the original movie.
Apropos original versions, Todays cartoon video has the real Ghostbusters going up against Dracula - which is a weird job for them because Dracula is not exactly a ghost except if it was the ghost of Dracula which it isn´t - in a Halloween special. By the way if you are wondering where these guys who look nothing like the Ghostbusters from the movie go off calling themselves Ghostbusters there is a video that explains the whole thing but I don´t want to put too many videos into this post. But for those who want to know I also explained it in this post where you can also watch the first episode of the original Ghostbusters live action tv show by Filmation.
I am ending the post with Ray Parker Jr´s iconic song that was featured in an episode of Teens React - Do They Know 80s Music ? and what made me laugh out loud was when one of the teens said : " Wait, there is actually an entire song of this ? I thought there is only the part you hear in the movie. " Everybody was saying how iconic the movie was and even those who had never seen it knew of it. Man, 80s movies and 80s music was the best ( and let´s throw 80s comicbooks also in ) and if this doesn´t make you completely hyped to re - watch Ghostbusters I don´t know what will.
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