Continuing with our trip to days of births past we come to August the 9th as Bob McLeod turned 68. He is not a super popular artist but recently he had a spike of interest thanks to the movie about THE NEW MUTANTS, a team of teen mutant super heroes he co - created with Chris Claremont.
Although from what I have seen so far it will be more based on the classic Demon Bear Saga by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz. Fun fact for my readers abroad : apparently the guys from Panini didn´t find the title scary enough so instead of Dämonenbär it is being published as Höllenbiest ( Beast From Hell ) in Germany. Whatever. At least there will be more people who will be exposed to this glorious series although I can only hope this doesn´t turn into a fiasko like the recent The Dark Phoenix Saga adaption.
But I already shared my thoughts about that in this post so let´s stay with the topic of this post. When I said that more people will be exposed to the series I of course meant that there are already some who at least are familiar with one character that originated in the NEW MUTANT series - and one who first appeared in the UNCANNY X - MEN book : Legion and the Shadowking. They are the main protagonists of the Legion tv series which for me is one of the best comicbook adaptions. Granted, the story is not the same as in the source material but the way they worked with non linear storytelling and the overall style of the show does a pretty good job of transmitting what must be going on in the head of a person with multiple personalities. As well as bringing across Bill Sienkiewicz´ art style.
Speaking of Bill Sienkiewicz´ art I have been planning to do a post on that ever since I wrote the first part on the MARVEL VISIONARIES - CHRIS CLAREMONT hardcover back in 2015. I don´t know if these books are still available or if they are if you can still get them as cheap as I bought mine.
With the way anything connected to the Marvel cinematic universe is priced now they might not be as affordable but you may find them at some comic book store for a small penny. Plus I really like the format so even if getting them is not an option anymore I hope to continue pimping them. Of course only if the gods of time and the internet ( sounds like a cheesy tv show or the best comicbook ever ) and my laptop are willing.
Speaking of getting comics at a reasonable price and coming back to Bob McLeod, one positive side effect of the NEW MUTANTS movie being made is that Disney finally decided to include Marvel´s best series about teen super heroes ever in their Epic Collection line now that the previous NEW MUTANTS CLASSIC trades are officially out of print. Starting with volume one which includes the graphic novel that started it all back when Marvel did all those great graphic novels like X - MEN : GOD LOVES, MEN KILL or THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL. And I would be tempted to get the new Epic Collections - if I hadn´t already completed my NEW MUTANT CLASSIC collection. Which was only a few years ago. I had found some of them at amazon at a bargain price and one day while I was rearranging my comic collection I decided to get the volumes I was missing. I know, I already had most of these issues in the single format but there were some issues missing and it would be nice to have them with good printing quality.
And yes, I said it. NEW MUTANTS is Marvels best series about teen super heroes. Forget RUNAWAYS, move over YOUNG AVENGERS, in the words of one of the greatest philosophers of our time NEW MUTANTS is the best teen super hero series there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be. Yes, I have to agree with the guys from the SIDEBAR comic podcast that Chris Claremont´s writing sometimes comes off as grown up words coming out teens mouth while Marv Wolfman had more realistic teenage dialogue in THE NEW TEEN TITANS. But most of the members in NEW MUTANTS had to grow up faster thanks to the problems of their sudden mutation so they were not exactly kids anymore. And back then he was still at the height of his power so the writing is second to none.
I remember that back when I was buying my american comic books through the foreign press newsstand in Stuttgart there was an issue ( penciled by Butch Guice ) in which a young student committed suicide because he is afraid to be outed as a mutant. Kitty Pryde gave a very passionate anti prejudice speech at his memorial that really moved me.
I just hope they never do this in the movies or a tv show because they would probably turn it into a SJW propaganda rant. Speaking of which, I am really dreadful how they depict the various members in the movie.
Back in the 80s NEW MUTANTS was doing real diversity and not what Hollywood is trying to sell us as diversity now ( plus they had more girls on the team than boys ). They were all real characters without the political correct tropes that are indispensable now. Roberto DaCosta for example was a big fan of real football - or like it is called in America soccer - but also of Magnum. Who was neither brazilian nor had dark skin. Still Thomas Magnum was one of the biggest stars on tv so Roberto wanted to be like him. Which would be totally unacceptable to Today´s SJW - programmed audience. I mean how could they dare that a brazilian character could identify with a white caucasian male who was also older ? Whitewashing !
Speaking of bad representation of 80s coolness and Magnum, I watched quite a few episodes of the reimagined series and without factoring in nostalgia ( of which one is always accused when one just dares to say the original was better than the new version ) it is not as good as the original.
Of which I have also seen quite a lot of episodes since it is currently in reruns at some german tv stations. Don´t get me wrong, the new series is not bad even if I knew from the start that they were going to turn Higgins into a woman. And of course a british woman which is the only stereotype that is allowed on american tv because all people from England are snobs.
Anyway, making Higgins a woman would not have been a bad idea per se.
The only problem with having a female character instead of a male is that nowadays you can´t depict any female in a way that even suggests she has negative traits. So while in the original series Higgins was one of Magnum´s main foils and a real heel sometimes you know right from the start that the new female Higgins will be a good person and help Magnum whenever he really needs it. Which kills a lot of the tension. In the original series Higgins was always exchanging blows with Magnum and whenever Magnum needed his help it would come at a great cost - either monetarily or personally. And it would be a big thing if Higgings would offer his help without demanding any compensation. In the new series you have the new Higgins being practically Magnum´s chauffeur. Another thing that is not as good as in the original series are Magnum himself and his friends.
They had much more edges and bickered more amongst themselves. Which is another no - go with Today´s SJW audiences. You can´t have friends not being on the same side. Also Magnum´s past as a soldier gets revealed way too fast. In the original show you just learned that over time and the episodes that dealt with Magnum´s war time experiences were special because of that. In the series it comes up right of the bat and is one of the big topics of the show. Hell, it´s the whole reason why all of them came to Hawaii in the first way. So while it is not a bad series it´s not as good as the original. Oh, I almost forgot, in the new series Magnum is way too good at anything. Because again you can´t have a hero who fails at anything. In the original Magnum screwed up a lot more and when he got into a fight you were not sure he would win and more often than not he was beat up pretty badly. Which made you fear for him more. With the new guy you never have the idea he might get injured or seriously hurt.
Wow, that current tv show review came out of nowhere. Coming back to Bob McLeod besides Marvel´s merry mutant menagerie and your friendly neighborhood webspinner he also worked over at DC providing inks on such series like LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES and he is best known for his contribution to John Byrne´s revamped Superman . I really have managed to include more stuff about this topic in my recent posts ( like with the Robert Davi movie rummage table spin - off which features the part of my JUSTICE LEAGUE movie casting with natural born stripper Elizabeth Berkley and Lindsay Lohan so we will skip it in this post ) so I wont write about it here but there´s more from this era of his career in my spotlight post on Bob McLeod which I wrote back in 2016 . The post also has more celebrity birthdays from the 9th of August which includes Rick Leonardi.
He shares some common ground with Bob McLeod as he not only worked on the X - Men books, NEW MUTANTS and Spider - Man ( primarily on the SPIDER - MAN 2099 and it is a shame that Miguel O´Hara only appeared in a post credit scene in SPIDER - MAN : INTO THE SPIDERVERSE ) and he also worked at DC. One of the main series he is know for is CLOAK & DAGGER and while the LEGION tv show is one of the best I have seen the CLOAK & DAGGER series is so bad that I didn´t make it through the first episode.
It´s just so loaded with SJW tropes and this cliche Hollywood is currently spreading that it´s okay to steal if you are poor. How did that start ? It´s really offensive how they imply that you have to become a criminal if you don´t have a lot of financial resources. Like it´s impossible to be a decent person if you are poor. Anyway, the original CLOAK & DAGGER comicbook has a premise that is very easy to turn into an entertaining tv show but I guess if you just try hard enough you can even f - word that up. Not that the comicbook has been one of Marvel´s biggest sellers. For some reason it never caught on with readers and was always one of the also - rans.
I did an extensive spotlight post on Rick Leonardi in 2016 to which I really don´t have that much to add right now. The post has the birthdays for August the 10th since it was a belated birthday post which includes mega sexbomb Claudia Christian who celebrated her 54th birthday. Whom I just mentioned in a recent post because she appeared on the science fiction show BABYLON 5 as Commander Susan Ivanova but she really put the FICK - tion in science fiction with her fantastic striptease in The Hidden which secured Claudia a top spot in my Top Ten Best Movie Striptease list.
Speaking of perfect stripper bodies, since a lot of this post is about Magnum P. I. one of the first persons I think about when I hear " Hawaii " is fitness guru Kiana Tom who owes her exotic look to her mixed heritage of chinese, hawaiian and irish. She surely had no need of plastic surgery to make men drool on Flex Appeal, which is what she is best known for.
This earned Kiana Tom her very own cult siren entry which I reposted in 2016 and again in 2017 . I also cast her as the female post CRISIS Dr. Light in my first CASTING THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA MOVIE ( THE HOLLYWOOD EDITION ) post and I also mentioned Kiana in my second alternates post as part of a lesbian double dildo fourway sex orgy with porn star Miko Lee , fetish model Akira Lane and cosplay icon Yaya Han .
So far I had written six posts on Yaya - two of them are pretty safe but the other four are absolutely not safe for work - and I keep mentioning her on various JLA casting posts and any other posts involving asian sexbombs like Kiana Tom, Ava Cadell, Akira Lane, Miko Lee, Gail Kim or Minka and I swear the completely NSFW BIG YAYA HAN POST is still in the pipeline. In the meantime I have made two new posts about Yaya which showcase a part of her incredible anatomy that I have ignored too often - her legs.
Coming back to hawaiian heartbreaker and PLAYBOY centerfold Kiana Tom, as an actress her most famous part was in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER 2 or UNIVERSAL SOLDIER - THE RETURN how it is sometimes called where her short bit part at the beginning is the only redeeming value of the flick.
In the scene Jean Claude Van Damme and Kiana Tom´s character Maggie are running an exercise run against the universal soldiers. They are separated and Kiana Tom is captured by wrestler Goldberg. Now I don´t know where the logic is here as he´s supposed to be some kind of cyborg but he does what any healthy man would do in his situation. Namely tie the helpless Kiana Tom whose shirt reveals a really huge bulge to a tree.
But it gets even better as Goldberg ( named Romeo in the movie which might explain why he tries to get it on with Kiana ) rips open her shirt !
Now that´s what I call entertainment : we´re only six minutes into the movie and we already see Kiana´s bra - clad melons exposed ( sadly she doesn´t go bra - less although she definitely has the hardbody to pull it off, but since she doesn´t show more skin it is the erotic highlight ). It is just a quick glimpse, but you can see that Kiana really doesn´t have much to be ashamed of because those perfect heavenly hangers look amazing !
The only thing that brings this down is that some sources claim that Kiana used a boob double for the scene. Which is hard to believe since it really isn´t necessary. Dammit, Kiana´s body is banging and if you check out the frames just before her pigeons fly loose you can see her big bust ready to explode. So the only reason why they would have used a double would be that she was too erotic and they shot somebody with a smaller chest. I´m no expert on chest sizes especially when it comes to american chest sizes but I like to believe that we get to see the real Kiana. And if not then I stick to the theory that Kiana´s at least as gifted as her body double or that Kiana´s chest is even bigger because otherwise it makes no sense.
In any case I´d like to get more information on who was her body double for the scene since she must also be a pretty hot number. Back to the scene, there isn’t a whole lot of skin here, but the bra busting moment might have you doing some serious Van Dammage to your man region !
Which makes it even less understandable that she didn´t do a nude scene in Universal Soldier 2. It´s not like Kiana has any problems with nudity since she not only posed naked for PLAYBOY, no, she also confessed that she is such a perfectionist that she had to wait until the right time in her career where she felt her body was in the best shape it has ever been in.
Too many actresses or female celebrities get the urge to do nude pictures when they are older or they want to show that they are still hot but most of them didn´t think of doing naked photos in their younger years and so their new pictures are useless because we have nothing to compare it to.
But Kiana did it right, she made it at her physical prime and her pictorial is awesome ! It´s no wonder her issue completely sold out in one month.
As for her role in the film, Maggie is hardly used ( no pun intended ) and many reviewer bemoan that she didn´t get naked. I don´t know where the producers are coming from as they fumbled one of the biggest pulls of the movie when they decide not to make her a bigger part of the movie.
Really guys, which producer in his right mind passes up an opportunity to get a body like this naked ? Let´s just be realistic here. If a hot exotic sexbomb like Kiana Tom with a pornstar hardbody that just won´t quit was my co - worker I´d definitely spend all my free time slam-banging the living daylights out of her until I had tamed Kiana to be my obedient sex slave.
So for those who can´t get enough of Kiana Tom you might want to check the infamous Bodyshaping Bikini Workout ( part 1 / part 2 / part 3 ) that YouTube already took down once as long as you still can. Probably because besides Kiana Tom you also get the no less stunning Kimiko Tanaka who is an exotic mix of american indian and japanese. So you get two exotic sexbombs wearing tiny bikinis for the price of one which must have lead to countless guys getting the mother of all nosebleeds because of oppai overload. Plus in the second part Carla Dunlap substitutes Kiana Tom.
Speaking of flexible fitness hasians who look like they just stepped out of the pages of PLAYBOY magazine ( hint, hint ), it has been some time since I posted a new video with Jenny Babas. I know the amount of sexy babes often is much higher than the pop culture related stuff in this section but besides being hotter than hell Jenny is also very funny and here is a video about the problems of going to the gym when you are such an irresistible sexbomb like Jenny. There are many more of these videos on her channel ( especially her videos about the problems short people face ar hilarious - I can totally relate ) so you might want to check it out since there is much more to Jenny Babas than just videos showcasing her awesome physique.
Coming back to comicbooks here is Bob McLeod spilling the beans on the creation of the New Mutants with Chris Claremont and much more stuff.
In my youth there was a show that I watched much more than Magnum P. I. called Houston Knights starring Michael Paré as Joey LaFiamma, one of the lead characters. It was a typical cop show with two uneasy partners, one coming from a different cultural backdrop which in this case was Michael Paré´s character who transferred from Chicago after killing a mobster from a powerful Mafia family and a contract is put on his head.
He is partnered with Levon Lundy ( played by Michael Beck ), the grandson of a Texas Ranger so there was a lot of friction right from the start. The show was called Los Caballeros De Houston in spain - which is where I first saw it - but for some reason it only had two seasons. Still it became a cherished routine during my summer vacations in Spain and I have been a fan of Michael Paré ever since even if his career didn´t take off after it.
Still he has been in some pretty amazing movies, three of them having to do with music. I am not talking about Streets On Fire ( which also co - stars Green Goblin Willem DaFoe ) Today but Eddie & The Cruisers : Eddie Lives ! As you might have guessed it´s a sequel to the not less magnificent Eddie & The Cruisers. I would recommend these two to everybody who likes good music even if they are a bit hard to find, especially in Germany.
I have not seen the movies at amazon or any other DVD / BlueRay store. You should definitely check them out though because even if Michael Paré doesn´t sing himself the songs - at least in the second movie - are performed by John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band. And even if you know that Michael Paré is only lip syncing he does a damn fine job at it.
When the movie was first released it got a lot of negative reviews and tanked at the box office but like it´s predecessor it has become a favorite cult classic since ( what a shocker ). Even if the movie critics didn´t like Michael Paré´s performance I think it´s awesome, especially the thing he does with the guitar when he´s on stage that I haven´t seen any other guitarist do - be it in movies or in real life. One of the reasons why it has garnered such a huge fan following over the years - at least I. M. H. O. - is that besides the main story ( which movie critics found too complicated and convoluted but what can you expect from people who needed ten years to understand the first MATRIX movie ? ) it also is about what it takes to be a good musician and make music that stays with people. As Michael Paré shows in this little bonus clip. Ah, I´m spoiling my readers.
Time for more videos with blonde XXL Busenwunder Oana Andoni from romanian tv station Pro Tv. In previous posts I wrote that 41 is probably her cup size, 41DD or 41E in the least, but the way her boobs have been growing in the last weeks it must be at least a 43 or 44EE, an F or even a G. In her case the term melons is right on spot. OMG ! I don´t think she got some porn implants like Yaya Han so either she is pregnant again or she is auditioning for a Russ Meyer kind of movie role. Just check out the first animated GIF I made of Aona Andoni where her boobs are already huge.
And this is Oana Andoni now. I swear, I have not altered these pictures.
Now most of these videos are rather short so I am including a batch of five as usual. I could spend my summer vacation between those titanic tits !
I know that we technically already covered the movie section but it´s rare to find a Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movie on YouTube and Vier Fäuste gegen Rio ( Four Fists against Rio ) is one of their best. And I am sorry for my non german speaking readers but you have to watch it in the german dubbing. I once watched My Name Is Nobody in the spanish version and half of the jokes were missing. This is one of the few instances where a movie franchise has benefit greatly from the german synchronisation.
And if you want the full cinema experience you can watch this animated short before it. I know that it is promoting cigarette consuming but these commercials always ran in the publicity block before the main full feature.
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
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Showing posts with label Bob McLeod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob McLeod. Show all posts
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Superhero Saturday with Jim Lee´s X - Men
Okay, not just with the X - MEN but the great majority of the pictures in this post on Jim Lee´s 54th birthday are from Marvel´s merry mutants.
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.
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
Go Joes !
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.
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
Go Joes !
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