It´s a Giant - Size Thursday with Gil Kane !

I should try to get some rest since I haven´t slept since Sunday but as it´s Gil Kane´s birthday I am waiting with it until the main part is on the blog.

Since this is a special occasion I decided to go with Gil Kane´s GIANT - SIZE covers but of course I have omitted a few since that would be an unusually long post and also because I didn´t like some of them. There, I said it. Anyway, there are only a few post left to do with all the covers I have pre - selected but of course there is a lot of other Gil Kane stuff still to post. So don´t worry that I´ll run out of material of this comic master. 

According to blogger this is my 850th post and this is really not how I had envisioned it. What I had in mind was another special Best Of The Best post but things don´t always work out the way we planned it. So now that this post has lain unfinished for over a week let´s wrap things up.

Today´s first celebrity birthday is Diora " Double Dee " Baird who turns 34.

I have to admit that so far I haven´t seen any of her movies but I know of her - mostly because of her impressive 37E double airbags - which was the main reason that I cast her as the REAL Batgirl, the original Barbara Gordon Batgirl in my first Casting the Justice League of America movie post .

Since this is a Marvel themed post it´s only fitting that our next candidate is Paul Rudd who celebrates his 48th birthday since he plays the Scott Lang Ant Man. He also played Desmond Fellows on Veronica Mars with bikini 34D siren Charisma Carpenter best known as Cordelia on ANGEL.

One of these days I´ll have to get the first season of Veronica Mars to find out how it all started since I came in at the tailend of that season - as usual. Besides Veronica Mars Charisma Carpenter was also in episode 11 of season 5 of Burn Notice where she showed she still can deliver the goods.

In Germany only the first three seasons of Burn Notice have come out on DVD and right now I´m halfway through season 2. I´m not sure if I should wait any longer to see if they will do the rest someday or just get them through imports. Now that I´m invested I want to know how it plays out and there is even a spin off with Bruce Campbell´s character Sam. In any case Charisma´s funbags alone are worth the price of admission . Daimn !

We are staying with incredibly hot women a bit longer as famous soft sex / erotic movie / b - movie cult siren Mia Zottoli turns 49. So far I haven´t managed to do a full post on her and it looks like this won´t change soon.

The month of April really has a lot of hot sexbombs that celebrate their birthday that month and with Krista Allen, Mia Zottoli and Nikki Fritz ( who celebrates her birthday Tomorrow ) this was always an extra busy time for me checking all the links back when I had my old boob blog.

This is almost like the trifecta of erotic actresses but not quite as my top three erotic actresses are Nikki Fritz, Mia Zottoli and Shauna OBrien - in that particular order. Too bad nobody ever made a movie with all three.

Back to our cult siren of the day, since I still hope to give Mia Zottoli a solo post at some point I´m not going to put everything from my old post here. If you watch b - movies you have probably seen her in some movies and if you watch erotic movies chances are very high you have seen her take her clothes off. She had some breast surgery early in her career from which she benefitted greatly as you can see in her best best movies which are The Mummy´s Kiss, Fast Lane to Las Vegas and Sinful Temptations.

Especially the last one is my favorite Mia Zottoli movie not only because she´s in her best physical condition in this one but also because it has a lot of nude scenes with her in such a relatively short film. So check out her movies - if you haven´t yet - and for Mia Zottoli : many happy returns, as always good luck, stay strong, healthy and thanks for the mammaries !

Speaking of that part of the female anatomy Mark Strickson celebrates his 58th birthday who had the luck of playing Turlough on Doctor Who at the same time that Janet Fielding returned as Tegan in her boob tube outfit.

But Mark even managed to top that by getting his hands on possibly the hottest Doctor Who companion ever - Peri played by Nicola Bryant.



Which brings us directly to our next video. While I usually would look for a video or a trailer with Turlough I think it might be more interesting for my readers to see a few bits of original footage from other actors who were considered for the role of the space hopping timelord but turned it down.



We continue with cult sci fi franchises although we make the journey from Great Britain to Amerika as Billy Dee Williams turns 80. The charismatic actor who played Harvey Dent in the Michael Keaton Batman movies was also in a Defenders series and a Nighthawks series - which naturally had nothing to do with the Marvel characters of the same name - but he is of course best known as Lando Calrissian in the original Star Wars movies.

I have finally managed to get the third hardcover omnibus of Marvel´s original Star Wars series but so far I haven´t had the time to start reading them. Maybe when the course I´m doing for the jobcenter is over I can get to it so there might be more Star Wars comics content on the blog. 

We continue with Ingo Insterburg, one of the founding members of the german comedy quartett Insterburg & Co who has achieved the ripe age of 83 Today. To people of my generation you don´t have to explain who he is : besides being part of the german kabarett bedrock he has appeared in four movies and written several books. He is famous for playing countless instruments among them many strange ones he invented himself often made out of kitchen appliances like a saxophone he built out of a waste water tube. Since this is the second year in a row that he has graced this section and this is my last Insterburg & Co video he won´t return in 2018.



So far I haven´t had a lot of videos for the birthday candidates - and it was especially frustrating to try and find a video for Mia Zottoli or the other hot sexbombs from my alltime favorites like Nikki Fritz or Shauna O´Brien as an alternative - so I am including a few videos that are not specific to any particular theme or that have been bookmarked for ages. One of those is Kaliman - El Hombre Increible. I don´t know when I will get the chance to write about Kaliman again - especially since I really don´t know that much about Mexico´s most famous hero - and the best part about the film is getting to hear the main villain swear in german.



Apropos german, I´m always trying to include more videos for my german readers so here is a review of Chris Ware´s Jimmy Corrigan by literary critic Denis Scheck which is one of the books on my to read bucket list.



I wanted to end the post with a video about Gil Kane so here is DC Nation´s Sword Of The Atom. Sadly they didn´t even try to emulate Gil Kane´s art style and I could not find a video on YouTube with the full cartoon so you will have to go through the various chapters one by one.



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Trapped at his six - inch height, lost in the amazon jungle, believed dead by the outside world, Ray Palmer has found a new existence as Atom.

In honor of C. C. Beck : Captain Marvel Day

Today we pay homage to the main artist on the adventures of Captain Marvel who has captivated, enchanted and inspired whole generations going as far as doing their own version of the world´s mightiest mortal.

Although to tell the truth, I didn´t know any of this and the first Captain Marvel I read about was an alien in a green and white costume and his name was Captain Mar - Vell. He was drawn by the great Gene Colan ( at first ) and appeared as the backup story in Williams Verlag´s DIE RÄCHER.

Now the first time I encountered the real Captain Marvel ... was not in SUPERMAN 276 because the guy on the cover was a Captain Marvel knockoff by the name of Captain Thunder. The stories about why this issue was made are conflicting with some people saying it was a test to see if readers were interested in Captain Marvel without really making this a Captain Marvel story ( so that if this didn´t work out they could say it was not the REAL Captain Marvel ) while others say this was Elliot S Maggin´s attempt to integrate Captain Marvel in the DC universe proper.

I don´t think I knew very much about Captain Marvel when I read this story so for a long time I thought this was how Captain Marvel was. I learned many years later that the name of his secret identity was Billy Batson, not Willie Fawcett, that he changes into the world´s mightiest mortal by shouting the name of the wizard " Shazam ! " and not by rubbing the symbol on his belt buckle ( which looks perverted ) and shouting " Thunder ! " and that he has the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the Stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury instead of the power of the tornado, the speed of the hare, the bravery of Uncas, the wisdom of nature, the toughness of the diamond, the flight of the eagle and the tenacity of the ram. Oh boy.

As a little side note : while this was the first and last appearance of the DC Captain Thunder ( unless he has appeared in CONVERGENCE which I wouldn´t put past DC ) there was another Captain Thunder later on in a sadly shortlived series by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas and E. R. Cruz from Hero Comics. Which my readers may recall me mentioning in this post .

Eventually the real Captain Marvel was introduced to the DC universe alongside the entire Marvel family where he most often was treated as the poor man´s version of Superman when he was so much more. Here´s an issue that enforces the argument from DC´s lawsuit against Fawcett Comics that Captain Marvel is just Superman with another dress which led to them acquiring the rights for the Shazam ! character in the first place.

Shazam also teamed up with the All - Star Squadron and the association with DC´s legacy characters would later be carried on as he became a member of the Justice Society of America. He was one of their big guns.

After CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS Captain Marvel was one of the key players the LEGENDS miniseries by Len Wein, John Ostrander and John Byrne ( which was just reprinted this month as the series celebrates its 30th anniversary ). The purpose of the series was to establish the new status quo and integrate Captain Marvel into the new Justice League.

The reason for bringing in Captain Marvel was so nobody would feel the absence of Superman but he was used mostly for comedic relief and nobody took him seriously. Once again his potential was squandered.

That changed dramatically when Jerry Ordway helmed the brilliant THE POWER OF SHAZAM ! series. While he only did the art on a few issues and resigned himself to writing duties on the rest this was a wonderful series that incorporated all the wonderful things of the original comics. And he launched the book with a fully painted hardcover graphic novel that is an absolute must read even if you never heard of Captain Marvel or Shazam.

Sadly the series only lasted 48 issues ( way to shoot it in the kneecap before issue 50 came around, DC ) and Captain Marvel went back to being a background character in Justice League of America one more time.

There were a few exceptions like KINGDOM COME where a writer used Captain Marvel brilliantly but the rivalry with Superman mostly fell in favor of Superman. And although I´m a big Superman fan this never made sense to me because Captain Marvel is as powerful as Superman but doesn´t have his vulnerability to kryptonite or magic. In the real world Captain Marvel would be like the improved version of Superman.

One last highlight was Jeff Smith´s four part prestige format mini series THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL which really recaptured the spirit of sheer youthful innocence of the characters. There were a few series aimed at kids that followed but I never read any of them so I can´t tell you if they equaled this in quality. I would say you can´t go wrong with Jeff Smith but so far I haven´t felt any inclination to check out his RASL series. I guess I have to wait until he tackles a subject I find interesting.

Since Captain Marvel has a huge fan following they have made him one of the big players in the NEW 52 but as usual they had to write the character " edgy " and " realistic " which means they couldn´t come up with good ideas and wrote him as the typical snot nosed spoiled brat that is for some strange reason so omnipresent in entertainment Today. I don´t know but somebody who always only watches out for himself is hardly what I call a hero. Now some people may say that just because you have powers doesn´t mean you have to be a hero. Which basically makes you a villain and I don´t want to read about villains. Which is something DC seems to have realized at last since they are backpaddling wildly from their previous dark and gritty universe with the REBIRTH relaunch now.

At least the art by Gary Frank is spectacular even if he will probably not be on any new series involving the Marvel Family. Thankfully all the back up material from JUSTICE LEAGUE has been collected in one hardcover.

Chronological speaking DC COMICS ANNUAL 3 should be further above but it´s the last story with Shazam I read as part of the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN - GIL KANE hardcover. I didn´t want to deprive my readers of the great art in this special where the Marvel Family not teams up with one Superman but the Supermen of two worlds to defeat the evil Dr. Sivana who has gained the powers of Captain Marvel and keeps going up in rank from Captain Sivana to Major Sivana through the entire story.

And last but not least : since I mentioned Marvel Comics Captain Marvel by Gene Colan he DID get his chance to draw the Shazam Captain Marvel in this comission, inked by Tom Palmer where he takes on Dracula.

Sadly I can´t go into the complete history of Captain Marvel but why should I when iFANBOY already did that ? Which brings us to the links of all the people who made the post possible. First of I want to thank the websites which provided the pages from Superman 276 which are the DIRTY RIVER tumblr and THE BREVOORT HISTORY OF COMICS tumblr .

While not essential for making this post the following links might be interesting for my readers : SHAZAMCAST, Earth´s Mightiest Captain Marvel Podcast has an episode on Superman 276, over at FLASHBACK UNIVERSE Captain Thunder makes Jim Shelley´s list of the Top 10 Most Powerful Pre - Crisis Superman Foes and COHENCENTRIC : LEONARD COHEN CONSIDERED has the post Leonard Cohen : Comic Book Fan, Captain Thunder Aspirant . Thanks, guys, for all the hard work.

Today´s spring chicken in the birthday section is buxom 34E bombshell Samantha Saint who is only 29. The green - eyed stunner who began her career in the adult entertainment industry as a glamor model for Suze Randall and Holly Randall started performing in hardcore movies in 2011 and was nominated for an AVN Award for Best New Starlet in 2012. Samantha was the Pet of the Month in October 2012 and enjoys outdoor activities like camping, mountain climbing, and white water rafting.

I don´t know much about Kanye West not even if he´s still together with Kim Kardashian since I never watched Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I´m only taking his 39th birthday as an excuse to post this picture of Kim.

Lexa Doig who turns 43 on the other hand was the only reason to suffer through Andromeda. Is it just me or is Kevin Sorbo unbearably dull on every tv show. Lexa was also on the sci fi shows Tek War, The 4400, Stargate SG1 ( she´s married to Michael Shanks ), Eureka, V, Primeval : New World and Continuum. She also had a small role on Smallville. 

SIMPLY RED frontman Mick Hucknall celebrates his 56th birthday on this day which gives me the opportunity to post another video from The Voice.



Scott Adams who does the brilliant Dilbert cartoon has his 59th birthday and there is an more than hour long video on YouTube but I chose this one which is much shorter. If you have watched this and still want more you can find the other video easily. Anyway, the best parts are always the ones with Dilbert´s boss and you can see that Scott knows how bosses think.



And we are staying with the great humorists of the 20th century as Jürgen von der Lippe celebrates his 68th anniversary. To people of my generation he´s the guy from Gebrüder Blattschuß who had big solo success in the german charts with such mega hits like Guten Morgen liebe Sorgen or Sie müssen nur den Nippel durch die Lasche ziehen. Today´s tv audience knows him better from his gigs hosting such game shows like Extreme Activity on which german über MILF Verona Pooth was a constant guest.

Here she is on a team with rock centerfold Jeanette Biedermann and Britt Hagedorn who is the only one who was naked in the german PLAYBOY although the other two don´t have to hide their light under a bushel.

Especially singing Busenwunder Jeanette Biedermann has shown her porn star qualities pretty openly in countless gentlemen´s magazine spreads, music videos not apt for viewing before midnight or television movies.

Back to Extreme Activity, Verona was without any question so often on the show because she guaranteed a high rating with the male viewers and I guess her audience friendly cleaveged corsage served its purpose here.



Speaking of guaranteeing a high rating among male viewers, Colin Baker who celebrates his 73th birthday " inherited " the stunning Nicola Bryant as a companion from the previous Doctor, Peter Davison who was eclipsed in his tragic regeneration scene by Nicola Bryant´s supple cleavage.



Colin Baker was not as popular as Doctor Who as his predecessor so a knockout like Nicola on the show who could divert the audience´s attention away from his garish outfit and unnerving personality was definitely a plus. I guess it´s one of the reasons why she wore so much spandex. In any way, Nicola sure did what she was supposed to do even if she had nothing more to do then breathe hard in some of the scenes.

But since it´s Colin Baker who celebrates his birthday and not Nicola here is the next part of Stripped for Action which takes a look at all the Doctor Who comics. What I can´t understand is how any man with a functioning libido could exchange a sexbomb like Perry for a penguin. A shapeshifter - I can definitely see the possibilities if she can look like every woman you have ever lusted after from Janet Jackson to Yaya Han - but a penguin ?

And since this posts celebrates Captain Marvel here is a trailer ( of course it´s made by a fan and looking better than anything Hollywood produces ) from one of the few awesome stories where they tapped his full potential.



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