Sunday, July 31, 2022

Thor - The Soul Shroud Saga : the beginning

As I - once again - have to split off material in the bonus section into two parts I needed to come up with a new topic for a post. But as usual I´m only using an old one because I thought which better time than this to start my postponed SOUL SHROUD SAGA series starring Eric Masterson ?


Longtime readers already know this but since it may be new to first time visitors : I am a big fan of Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. Especially when they work together like in their THOR run that followed on the heels of Walter Simonson´s epic revitalization of the title. Because they came in right after one of the best THOR runs ever a lot of people skipped their issues and dimiss them which may be one reason why I like it so much.


I know it borders on sacrilege but for me it is a guilty pleasure that I would rate even above the Walter Simonson THOR run . And in fact when I had to get rid of my whole comicbook collection I had no problem selling my two Artist´s Editions of Walter Simonon´s THOR but I just couldn´t get with the idea to sell all of my issues of the Tom DeFalco / Ron Frenz THOR run.


Epecially since I had just managed to fill all the gaps a few months prior. In the end I had to sell those issues - as I sold all my issues of THE MIGHTY THOR - but I kept all the Epic Collections from that run and the complete run of THUNDERSTRIKE. Speaking of which, Thunderstrike will not be appearing in this series although it is about Eric Materson. I had the hope that we would get to see Thunderstrike in the Thor movies and then I hoped we didn´t since I only liked the first Thor movie but now they have essentially turned Thor into Thunderstrike but are still calling him Thor.


The only good thing that came from all of this is a new interest in Eric Masterson by the few initiated who know where the inspiration for the new Disney princess Thor we see on the big screen nowadays comes from.


Before we head into the pool I want to include a few links for those new blog visitors who might want to check out my older posts starting with Tom DeFalco whose FANTASTIC FOUR run with the late Paul Ryan ( who has a lengthy FLASH FRIDAY series on the blog ) I really enjoyed. So much that I prepared a ton of stuff about it but like so many other series I never got around to start it. He also wrote the MC2 titles like AVENGERS NEXT, JUGGERNAUT 2, AMERICAN DREAMER, FANTASTIC FIVE, Wolverine and Psylocke´s daughter WILD THING, LAST HERO STANDING and LAST PLANET STANDING but I never did a spotlight post on them. There is however another MC2 title, the best known one SPIDERGIRL and I did indeed write two posts on the book in 2017 since he teamed up with Ron Frenz again.

Speaking of Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz teaming up on spider - books they also did a lengthy run on AMAZING SPIDER - MAN back when I started to get into reading american comicbooks and was still buying all my issues at the international press newsstand in Stuttgart. So I wrote two tribute posts to that and especially in homage to the platin blonde mercenary Silver Sable who for me is one of the most criminally underused female characters in Spider - Man history. Thankfully she had a big part in the Assassin Nation Plot storyline during Todd McFarlane´s run on the title .

Which brings us to their collaboration on THOR and Eric Masterson, about whom I wrote three posts. The first one way back in 2014 in which we covered everything from THOR 383 - which was the first issue of Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz and a SECRET WARS tie in - up to Thor´s battle with the Celestials and Captain America ( Back then wearing the red and white costume that would become the U.S. Agent´s uniform and going by the name The Captain. And you can read about his fights with Iron Man in my Bob Layton Iron Man spotlight posts ) lifting Mjolnir for the first time.


I wrote my second Eric Masterson post in 2015 in which we continued our journey making a jump to THOR 430 covering the broad strokes of THE SOUL SHROUD SAGA. My readers had to wait for my third Eric Masterson post until 2017 but for that they were rewarded with the full issue 433 which is the first outing of Eric Masterson as the official new Thor. Which we will be skipping especially since it has no big impact in the SOULD SHROUD SAGA storyline. There is also my Mark Texeira GHOST RIDER tribute post from 2014 in which I wrote about how I had stopped reading THOR and started again because of THOR issue 430 which was the second part of a story that guest - starred Ghost Rider and led right into THE SOUL SHROUD SAGA ( and from which I will be copy / pasting just a few things ).


There are also two Ron Frenz posts with the nice pictures he posts on facebook and the second one is an all - Thor post that includes original art from his THOR issues. Last but not least I also did two posts about the work he did for Marvel Comics Distinguished Competition namely the famous Zap Superman and the SUPERMAN RED SUPERMAN BLUE storyline.

Now Eric Masterson was a callback to the original Thor series - as you might say was the entire THOR run by Tom DeFalco - in that at first you had two different personas trading places with each other like Rick Jones and Captain Marvel before or even Billy Batson and the original Captain Marvel from Fawcett Comics. Both were separate individuals and when one appeared the other vanished. Like it had been the case with Doctor Donald Blake and Thor in the earliest issues of THOR . The original part came when Thor disappeared to parts unknown ( this mystery unfolded in the what I like to call THE SOUL SHROUD SAGA as nobody else has cared to put a name on it ) and Eric Masterson had to fill in for Thor full time. This was really the first time somebody from Midgard had to learn the ropes of wielding the power of Thor while struggling with trying to lead a normal life. Which in the case of Eric Masterson meant working as an architect and having a semi normal relationship with his son while sharing custody with his ex - wife and her new husband who was a rich football player.


It was really the first time we saw a mere mortal struggling with having to live up to the standards of a god ( even when Donald Blake had no idea that he was the original Thor he was on autopilot when he became the god of thunder ) so it´s no wonder I got hooked. Plus, he went back to the bearded look Simonson brought into the comics. I was so disappointed when the clean shaven girly man Thor made a comeback and Eric stayed true to the beard through his short lived career from replacement Thor to Thunderstrike. Which I also followed religiously. Even though Eric had not to wrestle with having to fill Thor´s boots anymore now he had to find a place for himself in the world and prove to the hero community that he was a hero in his own rights and not only a cheap Thor knockoff whom the Avengers would call when Thor was busy. The story sure had potential but the writers never got the right handle on him and finally decided to take the easy way out and kill him off. With all the reality changing / bending / melding all - new, all - different Marvel NOW stuff I was hoping they would bring Thunderstrike back but I guess it´s too much to expect that even one single good thing comes out of all of this crap rehashing old stories.


Coming back to THE SOUL SHROUD SAGA, the story began in THOR issue 432 and was finally resolved in issue 457, 25 issues later. So it went on for two years. No, wait, even longer than that because technically speaking the story already started in issue 429. Okay, if you really want to get anal about it the story really starts in issue 441 but that´s too complicated.


I COULD begin at the real beginning of the story but I don´t think this would make much sense to my readers. Also since I would be going in reverse I would have a countdown, starting with seven and then going down to one or zero. Or I could go in the order in which the issues came out but then I have a lot of " this will be important later on " in this.


As it is we will include the big clash between Thor and Loki that sets the whole thing off ( so to speak but not really ) but we will start a few issues earlier with something we didn´t know was important then and finally go on forward to the real beginning. I know I am kind of vague but I am trying not to spoil too much for those who don´t know the SOUL SHROUD SAGA.

HOW SUBZERO GOT HIS LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE BACK or HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE MIGHTY THOR ( AGAIN )

Now I don´t know why I stopped reading THOR and I´m not sure which issue was my last one since I have gotten some of the missing issues.


Maybe it was the whole " been there, done that " feeling I got from the book which was further emphasized by the new look Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott were going for which greatly emulated the classic Jack Kirby look.


Maybe I had the feeling the book was going nowhere which may have been an error on my part because after the big climax of issue 400 things were supposed to be quieter and building up to something. Maybe I decided to cut down my pull list for monetary reasons and THOR was just one of the books that landed easily on the chopping block or it might have been that the comic shop skipped some issues - which happened a lot.


Whatever the reason somewhere between Thor and Hercules´ fights against Doctor Doom, the Wrecker and his Wrecking Crew, the Juggernaut, the Black Galaxy Saga, the introduction of the New Warriors, the guest starring of Excalibur and the return of the Juggernaut who became ruler of the alien planet Thor had exiled him to I fell off the THOR bandwagon.


Until issue 430 which guest starred the Ghost Rider in a story called " The god, the ghost and the guilty ! ". When Howard Mackie reintroduced the Ghost Rider - or rather the NEW Ghost Rider - one of the main mysteries surrounding this spirit of vengeance was if and in which way he was connected to his predecessor or the underworld and its ruler Mephisto.


Ghost Rider had already made an appearance in issue 429 but since he wasn´t on the cover I jumped into the story with issue 430. I had hoped to learn something new about the Ghost Rider and while as always you just got another small hint that didn´t really reveal anything a subplot was going on that indeed had started long ago and would have more important ramifications down the road. And especially for Loki. In the issue Loki paid Mephisto a visit and readers saw the mysterious soul shroud for the first time ( although it was not quite finished at this point ) and learned of its mystic ability to capture the sould of a dead asgardian. Loki struck some kind of bargain with Mephisto and at the end of the issue the finished soul shroud was revealed to us with the face of the mighty Thor on it.


The next issue was drawn by Herb Trimpe and I really didn´t dig the art which is why we are skipping it. The story is just your run of the mill Thor versus Ulik brawl while Loki drains the Wrecker´s asgardian power, killing him in the process. I have never been a big fan of trying to humanize villains because I think that the basic make up of a person decides if they become a hero or a villain. Let´s face it : both heroes and villains have the same origin stories but their own nature decides if they turn their tragedy into something positive or not. So I don´t want to know what Freddy Kruger or Jason did before they became the psychos we all love to hate.

THOR issue 432 was the big 350th appearance of Thor and to celebrate that Loki and Thor faced of in a final duel to the death. In what was their final confrontation ( or so I thought at that time ) Loki was unusually brutal and determined, even going so far as to trying to kill Eric´s son Kevin afterwards - whom he took hostage to entice Thor to fight - but instead Loki ended up slaying Eric´s friend and love interest Susan Austin.


Loki is ready to be taken back to Asgard and take his punishment but Thor can´t take it anymore. Loki has crossed the final line so he has no choice and does what he is never allowed : take the life of another asgardian.


Although Thor´s action was justified Odin´s decree stays true so Thor is whisked away to Asgard to be judged and Loki is dead for good. Or is he ?


I don´t want to say too much ( especially since this will be explored in future posts about Thor ) but there are still many unexpected twists and turns waiting for us not the least one the surprise ending of this issue.

As you might have noticed I have included quite a few links in the post ( I don´t know why I keep doing this since it takes a lot of time and I don´t even know if anybody actually uses them ) but I want to add two more : first up, my former link partner CRIVENS ! COMICS & STUFF ! has a Thor Annual cover gallery and the SUPERGIRL COMIC BOX COMMENTARY blog has two posts on the Strange Visitor storyline in which Professor Hamilton recycled Superman´s Zap Superman containment suit for somebody else.

We start Today´s entertainment section with a musical overture to get you in the right mood, AC / DC´s Thunderstruck which for me was always the Eric Masterson Thor / Thunderstrike theme song. But as blog regulars know I like to put a twist on things so instead of the original version here is an interpretation by a two cello band - aptly called 2 Cellos - which will be the greatest thing you see Today. I think the group is from the Ukraine and if you like this - who doesn´t ? - you need to check out their videos.


IF I HAD A HAMMER or THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SUPER - THOR !

Since I couldn´t find a video with Eric Masterson - at least one that does not treat him like a big joke - here is one about another THOR run that has been on my To Do list : the THOR run by Dan Jurgens and John Romita Jr .

As longtime followers know I´m a huge fan of John Romita Jr. - especially his DAREDEVIL run with Ann Nocenti and Al Williamson ( I would give my left nut for an Artist´s Edition of this ) - and the omnibus with the first 35 issues of this series is one of the few omnibus books I rebought after having to sell my entire comicbook collection solely on the strength of John Romita Jr.´s art who really knocks it out of the park issue after issue.

As for Dan Jurgens´ writing, as I have already explained at length in a plethora of posts ( like the first part of Erik Larsen´s three part story during this run ) while I liked him on the SUPERMAN books he does not have a grip on Thor - or the fact that Superman and Thor are not the same character so what works for one does not necessarily work on the other - and I am not the only one who refers to this as Superman with a hammer.

Besides that he re - uses a lot of characters and ideas from previous runs.

Which granted, a lot of writers did even Tom DeFalco and I really enjoyed his run but with Dan Jurgens it feels very uninspired in a lot of instances.

We also have a return to Thor having a secret identity which I really hoped would be a thing of the past after Walter Simonson made a good argument that there really is no good reason for Thor to still have a secret identity.


At least Dan Jurgens puts his own twist on the idea and after a mortal who has to deal with the life of a god ( because dammit, anybody who is a bit cultured knows that Thor is a god and not a demi - god or whatever whishy washy SJW let´s - not - offend - anybody bs Disney is selling now ) we now have a god who has to deal with the life of a mortal. Aside from these minor quibbles it is a pretty decent storyline - otherwise I would not have spent the money to buy it again - and a lot of later writers like Jason Aaron - who has gotten a lot of praise for his " inspired " THOR run - have taken inspiration from these stories : from an unknown, unheard of pantheon of gods who attack Asgard to a killer of gods, Mjolnir disobeying Thor and having a mind of his own to a new female version of Thor. All of those new ideas were already in there and executed much better to boot.


WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE THAT´S AMORA !

Now I had a really long part here casting all natural 34E ( !!! ) - 24 - 34 bikini beach body par excellence Hannah Palmer as Amora, the Enchantress but as always things got out of hand and I had to turn it into a spin - off post .


So I´m not even going to mention who else I think would be good for the role and instead I´m turning la tortilla around - as they say here in Spain - and want to know : who do YOU think would make a great Enchantress in a Thor movie ( and I´m talking about a real Thor movie here not the crap Disney is trying to sell us ) ? Please let me know in the comments below.


Staying on the subject of ultimate beach hardbodies who would have no problem portraying an asgardian sex goddes in a Thor movie, the raven haired living blow up sex doll from the preview picture of our next video would be the perfect candidate for playing Sif who spit polished the real hammer of Thor and dicktamed alien warrior Beta Ray Bill who has the face of a goat but the schlong of a stallion ( why do you think she left Thor to be with him ). I didn´t know they made sexbombs like this anymore. She looks like the human equivalent of a breed mare. OMG swimwear indeed !


As promised we continue our feature on the natural born strippers of The Grind from my spotlight on Irv Novick which I had to split into two parts because my browser kept crashing. So please check that out - especially if you have no idea what Mtv´s The Grind is - before continuing. Thank you.


FEELINGS OF DEJA VU : WELCOME TO THE DAILY GRIND - PART TWO !

Coming back to The Grind the whole reason of the exercise is to feature the special dancers whom I mentioned earlier and I want to start with the following sexbomb which I have dubbed " Curly Sis " because she has curly hair like Curly Sue in the movie that had just come out at that time and because she was the sister of one of the male dancers of the show which led to a lot of trouble down the way. But we will come to that stuff later.


Anyway, like with a lot of these dicktaming dancers who did not have an overdeveloped anatomy they only caught my attention when they really showed off their best stripper moves or their incredible flexibility. And some of these girls could spread their legs like the best fillipino hookers.


With Curly Sis it happened in a beach episode and despite what you might expect she was not wearing a bikini. Much rather she was wearing jeans shorts that had the zipper open and were very low with the slip pulled up high ( as they used to wear them back then which is something I drew in my comics long before it became a trend in real life ) and a tight fitting blue shirt - that not only showed the perfect shape of her boobs quite nicely but it was also so short that you could see the lower part of her naked breasts every time the camera guy filmed her from below. And they must have gotten a heterosexual camera guy because he did that quite a lot. Sadly I could not find any clips with her from that particular episode.


But from that episode on forward I paid more attention to Curly Sis who often was paired with this ravishing redhead which I dubbed " the human suction pump " because you just can see that she is an expert at milking dicks by the way that she moves her body. As we all know flat chested girls compensate what they lack in boobs with their oral skills and sheer enthusiasmn and like the saying goes you can sleep with a blonde, you can sleep with a brunette and you can sleep with a girl with black hair but you will never sleep with a redhead because they are all cum - crazy nympho sluts who will slam - fuck your brains out six ways to Sunday all night long.


NOW HERE´S MY SCANDAL : GIVE ME MY SISTER I CAN´T RESIST HER !

In any case, coming back to Curly Sis, on The Grind they had showcases for some of the regular dancers where they could show the more raunchy routines and they also did interviews with them. Which is the reason why I know that one of the dancers was her brother. She talked a lot about that and also about the fact that she loved to dance with him because it gave her an edge over the other girls : since he was her brother she could use her most erotic stripper moves on him without him getting a boner.


The only problem with that was that somehow her brother didn´t get that memo since he very clearly got very aroused when his unsuspecting sister rubbed her porn star body all over his hard dick like a seasoned stripper.


There were a few episodes where he was caught drooling all over her mouth watering puppies and when he became aware that he was being filmed while staring at his sister´s terrific teenage titties he just grinned into the camera like saying " Yes, I´m checking out my sister´s big boobies while all you can do is watch me. What are you going to do about it ? "  and started to fondle Sis´ breasts when she wasn´t paying attention.


SPLISH SPLASH I WAS TAKING A BATH - SOAPING UP MY SISTER´S TITS !

Now at the beginning Curly Sis probably had no idea that her booming teenage body had such an effect on her horny brother because in the same interview she also said that she and her brother were the best of buddies and that they did almost everything together which included showering - only to save water ( which naturally was her brother´s idea ).


She then went on to explain that they always showered together after a hot dance workout since it was the best way for her brother to calm down and that he always went to great lengths to make sure she was all clean.


Although lately he took that very seriously and spent exceptionally long soaping up her breasts. Curly Sis also said that her brother was very goofy and that one night he got so drunk that he mistook her for his girlfriend, ripped her clothes off and dragged her to his bedroom where he gagged her and handcuffed her to the bed before he started to drill her until morning when he realized his mistake. At this point the girl doing the interview turned red like a tomato while Curly Sis said that he almost wore his dick out but that thankfully this only happened half a dozen times.


HE AIN´T HORNY HE´S MY BROTHER : THE SISTER´S TAMING BEGINS !

Now up to this point you might chalk all of this to Curly Sis´ naiivitee but she must have gotten an idea that she was grooming her own brother to become her rapist when his attempts to put her torrid teenage body to the test became less subtle and he started to try to dicktame sister in the worst way quite openly. It was an open secret that there were spots where the cameras did not reach or only went to seldomly where the dancers who got worked up went to in order to have sexual intercourse.


And as the show went on you could see that with growing frequency Curly Sis´ brother had his hands all over her booming boobies and under her shirt as soon as the show started and when she tried to dance with somebody else he intervened and dragged her to one of these hot spots.


Then you would not see them for the rest of the show and when they finally would emerge again Curly Sis´s outfit would be all ripped to shreds and torn up with her hair fluffed and she would be trying to cover up her boobs while her brother was wearing a huge grin and his face would have various red hand prints where she smacked him repeatedly while trying in vain to stop him from using her like his new cheap blow up sex doll.

THE SEXUAL TRAINING CONTINUES : BREAKING IN MY BUSTY SISTER !

He finally broke her defenses in an episode at the beachhouse in Miami where she was wearing a very short shirt that didn´t cover anything with a transparent bikini top under it and a g - string. As had become the norm he navigated her to a make out spot where he immediatelly started to squeeze her boobs. Then the camera moved away and the next time it moved back he already had his hands under her bikini top. Now to clarify things : they were only filmed in passing and during short periods and if I hadn´t made a habit of watching these shows numerous times and in slow motion I probably would have missed it. The next time we saw them her brother had used her bikini top to tie her hands behind her back and was fondling her naked breasts under her short shirt covering her nipples with his hands. We had another break and then her shirt was also gone and she was sitting on his lap while he was motorboating her juicy juggs. Then she was going up and down on his lap while spreading her legs wide open and he grabbed her thighs and rammed her down with growing enthusiasmn ( which we only saw from behind ). After that she lay on her back like a butterfly while he went crazy between her wide spread legs and it all ended with Curly Sis on her hand and knees while her brother took her doggy - style. I guess after that he started dicktaming her in earnest.


Now it was quite difficult to reduce the number of videos to just five so I concentrated on the ones that I used to make the GIFs of sexy Curly Sis.


GIVING HEAD, MAX HEADROOM THAT IS ( WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ? )

Staying with music television but making the jump from Mtv to british tv station Channel Four we come to a computer generated character who was conceived to host a music program but became so popular that he " headed " a made for tv movie and the resulting tv series. So let´s head 20 minutes into the future as Ayer Nomas Leo Gonzales tells us all about it.


But not every tv show is as successful as Max Headroom and since I know how much my faithful readers enjoy a good top ten list I present Watch Mojo´s ginchy list of Top Ten Marvel Tv Shows You Didn´t Know Existed.


Now I sadly knew about all of these shows and the only one I have never heard of is Marvel Disc Wars : The Avengers. There are some I have been trying very hard to forget like Hulk And The Agents Of S.M.A.S.H. - which if you abbreviate the whole title becomes H.A.T.A.O.S.M.A.S.H. which makes no sense at all much like the show - that made The Avengers : United They Stand look like highbrow and action packed entertainment.


And there are others like Night Man which technically only was a Marvel tv show after Marvel bought Malibu Comics ( mainly to get their computer coloring departement so that they could compete with iMage Comics ).


Plus Powers was first published by iMage Comics ( one of the worst tv shows in which you don´t care about anybody because all are horrible and the only likeable character - spoiler - doesn´t make it past season one ).

GOING TO A LAND DOWN UNDER WHERE WOMEN BLOW LIKE THUNDER !

We have another unexpected YouTube find with a full episode of the hit sitcom Just Shoot Me ! with the undeservedly underrated wet 39E - 25 - 35 sex dream Laura San Giacomo who sadly never did porn although she clearly has the necessary bust for it.  You might have seen her in the small screen adaption of Stephen King´s The Stand or in Quigley Down Under.

Or how it is called back in Germany Quigley The Australian ( Quigley der Australier ) which not only makes no sense - like most german titles for foreign films - it is completely wrong as Tom Selleck doesn´t play an autralian but an american cowboy who travels TO Australia for a job.

Coming back to the important questions about Laure San Giacomo, there is a heated debate going on regarding the size of her ridiculously large breasts, as they have never been fully revealed. Which is the reason why the measurements I posted are a mix of the highest numbers I could find.

The noticeable sagginess in San Giacomo's chest suggests that they are natural. Also, due to her relatively short height, they appear to take up most of her upper torso. They also appear to be getting bigger with time.


Just like mega MILF Rosie Perez titanic tetorras. When fully clothed, she was noticeably smaller in her early movies and it has been speculated she does use a minimizer brassiere to reduce the size of their appearance.

Producers who cast San Giacomo were not blind to this. She had a few strategic topless teasing in movies. Also, during the six year run of her sitcom Just Shoot Me!, not only was she often wearing tight sweaters, but it was not rare ( especially in later seasons ) for other characters to refer to her large breasts. Many situations on the show involved her breasts ( her character was even tricked to wear a see - through dress in public once, her nude body then shown to the viewers in pixelization ).

In 1999, it was reported in a National Enquirer gossip column that Just Shoot Me ! producers wanted 100 % all natural Busenwunder San Giacomo to wear a tighter bra to prevent her breasts from jiggling around so much.


The underrated living blow up sex doll template with the overdeveloped breasts never did porn although Laura clearly has the necessary superior physical attributes. Her mammoth 39E melons put other actresses busts to shame and even got top porn stars envious since Laura´s magnificent mammaries are all natural. Laura would have been one of the greats if she hadn´t dressed like a nun. She still couldn´t hide her XXL double airbags.


Which brings us to Today´s episode of Just Shoot Me ! There are a few full episodes on this channel but sadly not the one with the see - through dress which probably is not as exciting as it sounds since her breast parts have been pixelated anyway. So I picked one of the episodes where you can see Laura San Giacomo´s bonerinducing sweater puppies. In fact, it´s the episode I used to make the animated GIFs I used above and I know that she deserves some new ones but at the moment I just don´t have the time for it. Maybe I can do it once things have returned to normal.


I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT SO I CAN SEE THE RIGHT LIGHT !

Coming back to the topic of science fiction we have They Live, one of John Carpenter´s most underrated movies which gets lost whenever his works are being discussed. Lately though this overlooked cineastic gem has had a bit of a resurgence of interest based on its intriguing premise.


What brought me to this film was the one - two - punch of director John Carpenter and " Rowdy " Roddy Piper. Because everybody knows these wrestlers can act. So in the same spirit I am re - posting Roddy Piper´s appearance on Joe Bob Brigg´s Monstervision´s episode on They Live.


Since we already have two videos with Roddy Piper - and it has been a while since I posted a wrestling video - I am going for the hattrick with an episode of WWF Wrestling. Ah, the golden days before somebody had the bright idea to change a wrestling federation into sports entertainment.


WE TRASHED THIS CITY, WE TRASHED THIS CITY WITH ROCK AND ROLL

Apropos one - two - punches, whenever I have the opportunity I try to include an actual episode of the show when I post a video on a cartoon.

Because those in - depth examinations are fine but I think they are a poor substitute for the real thing. And sometimes I get to learn something new like there actually is a Godzilla cartoon show that was based on the Roland Emmerich movie. At least that´s what I am guessing based on the logo.


Now I never understood why Roland Emmerich´s version of everybody´s favorite Tokyo destroying kaiju monster got such a negative reception as it has a good story, decent special effects and great actors like Mathew Broderick and Jean Reno. On the other hand I am not a Godzilla purist so as long as I get a giant lizard monster decimating entire cities I´m happy.


ELKE SOMMER´S TITS MAY APPEAR BIGGER THAN THEY REALLY ARE !

We continue our exploration of german game shows with an episode of The Pyramid which I´m sure was a format they copied from US tv.

At least I know there are some episodes where the late real life 42C - 22 - 36 80s Power Girl Markie Post showed some incredible sweater puppies.


The host for the german version of The Pyramid was Dieter Thomas Heck, best known for hosting Die Deutsche Hitparade for fifteen years and his rapid fire non stop talking - something that has been copied or parodied by a plethora of people. We also have two celebrity guests on the show, singer Volker Lechtenbrink and well endowed blonde actress Elke Sommer.


Elke Sommer really was the personification of the german Fräuleinwunder with her stunning all natural 36C - 22 - 36 measurements and a living screen goddess. Especially Elke Sommer´s deep cleavage in Karl May´s Winnetou movie Unter Geiern left a lasting impression on little Subzero and also one scene where Elke was wearing a shirt and a skirt. And to distract one of the bad guys she unbuttoned her shirt up to her navel and you could see a good portion of her tits which in my memory were bigger than her head.


Blog regulars might be aware that I had a different movie here but just when I had all but given up on finding a Winnetou movie I came across this one. Okay, it´s not the one with Elke Sommer and it has a weird format but since all of the Winnetou movies I have posted previously have been deleted I can´t pass up the opportunity to post one and in good quality to boot. Plus we get the iconic dynamic duo of Pierre Brice and Lex Barker.


Likewise I had originally included a different spanish film but I didn´t want to have two western movies in one post so I decided to change it.

Man, Today´s pop culture section is just one long trip down memory lane ( but I guess that´s what most of you are here for ) because up next we have Sandra a.k.a. Sandra Cretu a.k.a. Sandra Ann Lauter giving one of her breast performances ever where she is just oozing sex appeal. Boy, I miss the times when women wore lingerie instead of real clothing. Something went really wrong with our society when that stopped being acceptable.

She was one of the biggest pop stars in Germany during the 80s and 90s ( she sold over 30 million records worldwide ) and she started her career as lead singer of the pop trio Arabesque before she was discovered by music producer Michel Cretu who launched her solo career. He married her later and strangely enough he celebrates his birthday on the same day as her.

Sandra and Michel had twins but they separated in 2008. In 2010 Sandra married Olaf Menges and they separated in 2014. The sexiest dimples in pop music was one of my big teenage crushes and I remember that one of my first music video tapes I bought was a collection of her greatest hits.


Another big thing during my misspent youth was the Incredible Hulk tv show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. I know Today´s audience is used to tons of CGI and think the computer generated Hulk is the greatest thing ever but I don´t know. Maybe it is pure nostalgia but I prefer a real dude with real mucles and green body paint over a bunch of pixels any time of the day. It just has a different quality when you have a real person that can smash things. Plus they had Thor - although a different version of Thor - in the show so it does fit in with the topic of the main part of the post.

Usually I can´t include videos from these cult tv shows as they are hard to come by but just the other day I found a truckload of them in german ( so you can look forward to those appearing in my next posts ) and I haven´t had time to watch them all yet so I picked the video with three episodes.


Staying on the subject of the Hulk, he has taken on all comers in his long and illustrious comic carer even the Dark Knight Detective himself in one of the first crosovers between DC Comics and Marvel Comics written by Len Wein , penciled by José Luis García - López and inks by Dick Giordano.


Speaking about heavy hitters, when I was a kid comics were still regarded as juvenile reading material and if you were interested in them as an adult there was something wrong with you. Of course there were exceptions for those that were considered classics like Asterix und Obelix, Lucky Luke, Donald Duck ( which has a huge and very serious fanbase in Germany ) or Tim und Struppi by Hergé about which I wrote a special post in 2016 .


SLAVES TO DAMASKUS - OR WAS THAT BABYLON ? WHO KNOWS ?

One of the reasons why Hergés Tintin became so popular was that his adventures took him all over the world. So in the spirit of globetrotting excitement I am presenting Die Sklavinnen von Damaskus as the movie actually took place in Babylon but for some reason the location of the story was changed to Damaskus in the german version. That´s the reason why the original title is The Hero Of Babylon while the US title is more descriptive with The Beast Of Babylon Against The Son Of Hercules. Now I don´t know if the hero in this movie really is the son of Hercules or if they tried to attract a larger audience - like the germans put Django on every western or every crazy scientist is called Frankenstein in japanese movies.


We are staying in exotic countries with 38B - 24 - 35 Miss Madrid 1972 Norma Duval who was a stripper at both famous gentlemen´s variete / burlesque clubs Le Lido and Les Folies Bergere before turning actress in various skin flicks with nude scenes during the 80s. Norma later started a very successful career on the small screen as a dancer, presenter and host.


Now the next video is what Bob Ross used to call lucky accidents because the video with Norma Duval is a bit short so I wanted to add an episode of Un, Dos, Tres A Leer Otra Vez and since I THOUGHT I had already posted the episode about The Arabian Nights I picked the one about Sandokan.


Well, as it turns out I either never did post that episode or I did and just can´t find it. What I did find was the first episode from the tv series Sandokan, The Tigre Of Malaisia with Kabir Bedi with the spanish dubbing.


Which is a stroke of luck since there are few episodes in german left and most of them are of very poor picture quality. I don´t know if the series is available in english as I have not come across any english episodes. Now I already posted the english dubbed version of this episode in my Ann Nocenti DAREDEVIL birthday post in 2019 but I am including the spanish version here to prove that there was actually a cartoon where they were all humans before they did the new anthrophomorphic cartoon show.

And that wraps up Today´s post. It only took me two months, six days and cutting off two big chunks to put a bow on it but I guess that´s the price one has to pay for being a perfectionist. Only seven more posts to go, yay.

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Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.

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