My last Brian Bolland post was in 2017 and initially I wanted to do another tribute post with art from different books he provided covers for but as longtime readers of the blog know I like to do theme posts and thankfully I have enough material for one of the best comic series I have ever read.
And how that happened is a story unto itself. Now I probably must have told it somewhere else but I could only find references to my comicbook readings during my summer vacations in Spain in the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY : MY SECRET ORIGIN post so I´ll try to do a quick summary of it.
As I have mentioned in a lot of posts we spent every summer vacation during my school years in Torredembarra and back then comic shops were not a thing. Neither in Spain nor in Germany or Amerika. So you bought your comicbooks at newsstands, Mom and Pop stores or stationary stores.
Which in Spain were more likely to have something like MORTADELO Y FILEMON or some other classic spanish tebeo by Francisco Ibáñez .
Of course they didn´t have only MORTADELO, PULGARCITO or TBO, there also were some superhero comics and since Germany was always a few years ( in some cases entire decades ) behind with what was published in Spain I read my first issues of certain Marvel Comics series as PATRULLA - X , CABALLERO LUNA, LOS DEFENSORES, LA MASA or HOMBRE DE HIERRO .
Now there were three shops where I could get my superhero fix but I remember one shop in particular ( which has either gone away completely since then or has become an entirely different shop ) that didn´t get their comics very often. So they usually had one big stack of comicbooks and throughout the four or five weeks of summer vacation ( that really was a long time ago when the summer vacations seemed to last forever ) and I slowly worked my way through it. During the first week I would get stuff like SUPERMAN, BATMAN, SPIDER - MAN or THE X - MEN but after that I would buy stuff that I was not so familiar with like SECRET ORIGINS.
Or in this case ANIMAL MAN. Okay, time for a short interlude. For those readers who are not comicbook collectors or at least don´t collect floppies when I say that I would buy issues of SUPERMAN or BATMAN then I am talking about issues I didn´t already own in the german version or in the american version. Which since I was reading a lot of series were not that many. So even if I found an issue of SUPERMAN in that shop the chances were high that I had already read it. Now I have always been a bookworm so I needed a lot of reading material to tide me over the summer vacation and when I had already gone through every issue of the series I usually consumed anything that could keep my mind entertained was fair game.
I can´t say that I was particularly impressed by the interior art but the cover by Brian Bolland looked very nice even if what was happening on that cover - some unknown hero was fighting three red robots in the background while in the foreground there was an old guy in a costume who couldn´t care less - didn´t look like your usual superhero magazine.
So I bought it out of curiosity and whatever I felt may have been lacking in the art department - and I´m not trying to dis Chas Truog - was more than made up for by Grant Morrison´s story. After that I found another issue where apparently this Animal Man ( who was not billed as EL HOMBRE ANIMAL for some reason ) fought Hawkwoman and I think my third issue was the famous Coyote Gospel story and that was it for me. From then on ANIMAL MAN was the series I looked for first whenever I returned to Spain and later I grabbed every issue I could find at german comic conventions.
I don´t think that I own the complete Grant Morrison ANIMAL MAN run - and I have missed my opportunity to get the omnibus at a reasonable price - but I have most of the issues either in english or spanish. Anyway, that´s enough of an introduction since I have decided to do a second Brian Bolland post this month and the next one will be all about one of the greatest fantasy space opera comicbooks ever created : CAMELOT 3000.
One of the reasons why Camelot 3000 has gotten a lot of headlines in the last few years is also one of the biggest misconceptions about the series as you can see in Corinna Lawson´s article In 1982 CAMELOT 3000 Broke Barriers with Its Portrayal of a Trans Character on BARNES & NOBLES .
The SJW crowd is always fast to appropriate comic characters and stories and claim it´s all about them - like UNCANNY X - MEN for instance which used to be about being different but now they try to convince everybody that it´s only about being gay or lesbian ( because white caucasian males can´t feel that they are different because they are the guys who are responsible for everything that´s bad ) and if you disagree you are a racist and probably a Nazi too - and if you see the character of Sir Tristan only as a trans character you are making things way too easy for yourself.
Especially since I am not sure if Tristan really qualifies as a trans character.
Now I am not saying that gender and sexuality are not issues here but I think that rather than making a statement for trans people - which I don´t know if that was already a thing in 1982 - the writer wanted to make a statement about gender roles and the barriers we put up for ourselves.
I´m not an expert but for me a trans person is somebody who has the feeling that he was born with the wrong gender and wants to change that. Or somebody who is comfortable being both or has evolved beyond those concepts. Which is not the case with Tristan. Tristan was born as a man and he is completely okay with that. What´s more, when he is then reincarnated with the body of a woman ( which also happened to the main character in the MANTRA series by Malibu Comics although so far I haven´t seen that being appropriated by the LGTB crowd so far ) he still thinks of himself as a man which is why he is so upset. So instead of a person just having the feeling of being born with the wrong gender - or at least not with the gender that person is most comfortable with - we have a person who´s gender has been changed and he´s not okay with that.
As I said, I am not expert in this field but for me just saying that Sir Tristan is trans gender doesn´t feel right. Anyway, we will talk more about this in the upcoming CAMELOT 3000 posts and for those who haven´t already had enough spoilers - or those who have already read the series but want to fresh up their memory - here is a video about the brilliant maxi series.
Before we come to the bonus section with it´s bevy of cult sirens and other pop culture related tidbits I have to include my old link partner CRIVENS ! COMICS & STUFF who has the story behind the cover for The Sensational She - Hulk 14 which was supposed to be by Brian Bolland but ended up being penciled by Mark Texeira and inked by Harry Candelario.
As my regular readers are already tired of hearing I am way behind with my posts so we kick off the bonus section for this post with the celebrity birthdays for March the 23rd and model / actress Karen McDougal who celebrated her 49th birthday. Believe it or not the brunette sexbomb taught pre - Kindergarten before winning a swimsuit competition which launched her career as a glamour, promotional and swimsuit model.
In high school Karen was a cheerleader going by the nickname of Barbie which might have had more to do with her 34D - 24 - 34 measurements than her wholesome sweetness like they told her. They are also largely responsible for her becoming first Playmate Of The Month in December 1997 and subsequently Playmate Of The Year 1998. I pity the generation who has to grow up with a PLAYBOY without nudie pictures and I´m glad I got to see Karen´s pictures. She´s one of the hottest women to ever be featured inside Hugh Hefner´s famous mag in fact the readers of PLAYBOY voted her as the No 2 Sexiest Playmate Of The 1990s. She also pursued an acting career during which she appeared on Charlie´s Angels, the movie Joe Dirt and as Shelly in an episode of Anger Management in 2013.
Pretty boy Richard Grieco turned 55 and I remember that when he was on 21 Jump Street everybody thought he would have the biggest career but Johnny Depp ended up with that destiny while Richard had the short lived spin - off series Booker which probably nobody remembers anymore.
On a comic book related note he did the voice of Ghost Rider in the Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk cartoon and Tony Dracon on Gargoyles.
He also played Loki in Almighty Thor and if that doesn´t sound familiar don´t worry it was not a Marvel production. Besides guest - starring as Steve Botando on Veronica Mars his greatest claims to fame were If Looks Could Kill in which he gets mistaken for a spy and skin flick Mutual Needs with midnight movie veteran Rochelle Swanson although he didn´t have sex with her. At least on screen. According to insiders Richard ravished Rochelle´s 30DD - 23 - 33 pornstar body in his hotel suite as soon as the cameras went off, trying to dicktame her to become his new blow up sex doll. But even though he relentlessly drilled her in every orifice all night Rochelle was an even bigger nympho sex freak and made him squirt until he was dry. For the rest of the shooting she used him as her sex slave.
Now as you might have noticed from the preview picture that I have chosen the episode from Booker which guest stars another ultimate redhead sexbomb, Marcia Cross, best known as Bree Van De Kamp on Desperate Housewives ( where I still have to watch the last two seasons ) and who just celebrated her 58th birthday on the 25th of this month.
Now the reason why I did this is that I can´t find the material I really want to put up on the blog. Because of the worldwide success of Desperate Housewives all I could find with Marcia is the scene where she is wearing red lingerie while I am looking for something from her Melrose Place days.
On the show Marcia played Dr. Kimberly Shaw who during the course of the storyline had various psychological problems and there was an episode where she worked on a radio station and because she was in one of her full nympho blow up sex doll phases her work attire ( for the upper part of her body ) was a black jacket with a black bra and nothing else. There was a guy she was trying to dicktame or at least get hard enough to cut a diamond so she was leaning over until her perfect puppies almost popped out of her tiny bra and no disrespect to Desperate Housewives Marcia Cross but Melrose Place Marcia Cross had her beat. I mean her body was in it´s prime and Marcia was just born to embody a nymphomanic sex freak.
Speaking of Desperate Housewives and ultimate sexbombs the main reason why I watched the show was of course rack - tastic Teri Hatcher and who could ever forget the famous " I´m not a stripper ! " scene ?
You know, I always found it very strange that this incident never had any repercussions in the show. Here we have a megahot MILF like Susan Meyers being mistaken for a stripper because she is pregnant and her boobs are so blown up that all the horny students think she got implants.
And when she tells them that she´s not a stripper and that her breasts are so big because of her pregnancy - that´s it ? It´s a bit hard to swallow ( no pun intended ) that not even one of them comes to visit Susan after that.
I mean, in the real world word would get around about this hot MILF who crashed the party and was mistaken for a hooker because of her perfectly rounded boobies. You can bet the guys would be lining up to bring over her daughter´s homework although they would conveniently come over when her daughter and husband are not home. Especially the blond guy at the party who says " That´s hot. " looks like he just got a huge erection.
He would molest her until she agreed to give him a blowjob which would turn into a deepthroat session which would turn into a double breasted boner massage which would turn into having one time only sex. Which would turn into one more but this time really the last love making night.
Which would turn into wild uninhibited sex every Wednesday night. Which then would turn into every other night which would turn into every night until he has successfully tamed her to be his obedient blow up sex doll.
Teri played the BEST Lois Lane on tv so far and was the first actress who made it believable that Superman would choose her over the ultimate sex bombs in the Justice League of America like Big Barda or Wonder Woman.
While there were a lot of hot women on the show Teri clearly was the main attraction showing off her bouncing boobies in a lot of sexy outfits.
Check out my last post on cult siren Teri Hatcher to read more about her comic book connections like her appearance in Tales From The Crypt or Tango & Cash where she showed her incredible body and dancing skills.
Speaking of midnight movies, Serena Grandi, famous sex symbol of italian cinema in the 1980s and 1990s celebrated her 62nd birthday. She had wild success in many erotic movies with famous director Tinto Brass because of her voluptuous body and 40D - 24 - 40 measurements and most often the plot of the movie was that she is too much woman to handle and tries out various horny candidates which leaves them satisfied but her frustrated.
Besides her nude roles she is known to horror fans from Le Foto Di Gioa, called Das Unheimliche Auge in german and better known as Delirium in the english language. In the movie she uncharacteristically doesn´t take her clothes off but the movie was still a success because Sabrina Salerno, the italian pop queen with the built in bouncing action had a nude scene.
Serena also played Euryale in the second Hercules movie with Lou Ferrigno because they needed to fill the cleavages Sybil Danning had left empty.
What wikipedia won´t tell you is that Serena also was in Stormtroopers II based on the comic by Bonvi which strangely enough was very popular in Germany and during my time in the military everybody was reading this.
Now I had written in an earlier post that it´s a german comic series but it actually comes from Italy and they did two live action movies, one in 1976 and the second one in 1982 which is the one with Serena Grandi. I could only find episodes in italian because since Star Wars came out you can just forget searching for this on google, all you get are stormtroopers.
We are staying in that time period as Teresa Ganzel turns 60 who is best known as the blonde knockout in The Toy from 1982 where she co starred with Richard Pryor. Who gets to wear a Spider - Man costume in that film.
Bursting with bosomness and a sly, kittenish sense of humor Teresa often played ditzy, busty blonde bimbos and became famous as a recurring cast member of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, having replaced the late Carol Wayne as the Matinee Lady in the popular Tea Time Movie skits.
You might remember that I mentioned Carol Wayne in Mike Zeck´s birthday post and if you missed that you absolutely HAVE to google Carol Wayne.
The blonde bombshell with the mega inflated body of a living blow up sex doll predestined for the adult industry ( her exact body measures are not known but it is assumed that they were around 39DD - 24 - 35 ) made dreams come true when she did a nude PLAYBOY pictorial in February 1984.
With a curvaceous body that must have been the envy of most porn stars of that time she had many fans who followed her guest appearances on such television shows like I Spy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. , The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. or The Fall Guy. She had roles in the movies Gunn, The Party and Heartbreakers in which she had a nude scene. Carol appeared in many sketches on The Red Skelton Show but she gained her greatest fame for her 100 plus appearances as the Matinee Lady between 1971 and 1984. In Love American Style she played a secretary that constantly distracts her boss with her big gazongas . She would´ve made one hell of a Power Girl !
So both Carol Wayne and Teresa Ganzel got famous through appearances on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and I found a clip with both.
You can find the rest of the celebrity birthdays from March the 23rd in my ROAD TO FLASH FRIDAY PART 1 : GREEN LANTERN post which brings us to our really short video section since I have already managed to check off most categories. But since we talked a little bit about gender roles here is the first episode of Ranma 1 / 2 the ultimate gender swap comedy anime by Rumiko Tamahshi. I read a lot of issues because it was on my brother´s pull list and it´s one of the more relatable series because the reason for most of Ranma´s fights is that he does not want to marry somebody.
There is no special reason why I chose this last video but because of the quarantine lockdown I am trying to include longer videos and Suzanne Vega is one of my favorite artists. Also these videos never last long.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest / best of the best
For the animal shall not be measured by man.
No comments:
Post a Comment