It´s a Born Free Friday with Animal Man !

Yesterday I took some time off from working on the blog to watch some of the videos I posted ( yes, most often than not I only get to watch the videos after I post them ) and I thought that the tv show Manimal would be better suited in a post about Grant Morrison´s comic ANIMAL MAN.

The thing is that when Brian Bolland´s birthday came around last month I thought about doing an Animal Man themed post but I didn´t have enough material. Because I already did one in 2020 and I put all my best into that.

Anyway, if I have learned one thing in life it is that sometimes when you can´t do what you want to do you have to change your point of view and start thinkint outside of the box. So while I didn´t have enough material for a Brian Bolland exclusive ANIMAL MAN tribute he only did the covers.

Don´t get me wrong, his covers ARE spectacular and I bet in many cases the incentive to buy the issue. What is the main purpose of a cover - even if most comicbook publishers seem to have forgotten this lately. But that is the topic of a different post. Coming back to ANIMAL MAN, so after I decided to look for more interior pages I found a truck load of original art.

Which made me realize two things : firstably, Chaz Truog is the unsung MVP of the series. As I said in previous posts his art is not what brought me to the series and I will always wonder how the book would have been with - let´s say a different artist because I don´t want to say better one.

Okay, there are obviously some artist´s whose craftmanship is above the level of other artists and then there are what you would call " artist´s artists " who are on such a high level that they can make others rethink their entire way of approaching comicbook art with just one short story.

So while I don´t want to deny that at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preferences. I mean, without a doubt Jack Kirby was one of the best comicbook artits ever but when I started out reading comics I didn´t like his art. So yes, I would have preferred to have one of my favorites on ANIMAL MAN but I have to give Chaz Truog props because even if he just shows up and does the work he does all the heavy lifting.

The second thing I realized is that I have to get me some ANIMAL MAN as soon as possible because I don´t remember any of this. Now I do know the broad strokes of the stories but with the thousands - probably more like millions - of issues I read during my 40 plus years of comicbook reading I can´t recall every tiny tidbit. And this stuff is dope. Since the upcoming omnibus is piced very high I probably will get the Deluxe Editions but those are easier to read and not as hefty as an omnibus. Anyway, that´s enough of an introduction as I have to heed the call of the wild. Enjoy !

ANIMAL MAN was initially just supposed to be a four issue limited series so it´s no surprise that Grant Morrison really hit his stride with issue 5. What floored everybody was the fact that he immediately knocked it out of the park with " The Coyote Gospel ". It is considered by many afficionados to be not only his best single issue of this run but even more one of the best metatextual comicbooks ever written. And as great as the done in one is it´s just a sample in which direction Grant Morrison would take the title.

Speaking of limited series, we come to the impetus for this entire post Manimal or how it was called in Germany A Case For Professor Chase - which in german doesn´t even rhyme. Anyway, as beloved as the show became later worldwide when it first aired it didn´t have the success the tv execs expected so it was cut short and only lasted for eight episodes.

Fiction has always been fascinated with heroes who have animal powers.

For Buddy Baker a.k.a. Animal Man that means he can aquire the abilities of nearby animals while in Professor Chase´s case ( no pun intended ) he can transform into various animals. Which is nothing new since the power of animal transmogrification has been part of folklore for centuries, from vampires turning into wolves, bats or rats to lycanthropes and skinwalkers.

With Bravestarr we have a more conventional kind of animal powers as instead of controling animals or transforming into one the title character calls upon " spirit animals " enabling him to use the eyes of the hawk, the ears of the wolf, the strength of the bear and the speed of the puma.

While our previous examples of men with animal powers required special rituals or circumstances there are those who let themselves be inspired by animals to develop their fighting style. Probably the best known martial arts movie of that genre is Snake In The Eagle´s Shadow from 1978. I don´t know if it was the first martial arts movie that refrained from most of the typical brutality in favor of including comedy elements but I know that it became an instant cult classic in Germany and it also was the first Jackie Chan movie I saw. For Today´s audience the soundtrack by french musician Jean Michel Jarre may seem a bit weird but back in 1978 he was a big hit so naturally the producers wanted to combine two very successful things.

Another hero with animal powers who appears in Morrison´s ANIMAL MAN is B´wana Beast whom you might have seen on Justice League Unlimited.

He also was in the intro to one of my favorite super hero cartoon shows ever. My brothers never could get over the way Batman´s chin looks but I had a lot of fun with the series as it manages the delicte balancing act of not taking anything too serious while at the same time staying true to the characters, going in bold directions, fleshing out characters, giving them real depth and last but not least including a lot of DC Comics history from the Golden Age to the Bronze Age. It´s also not afraid to do a musical episode and those of you who have seen the episode with the Music Meister will back me up : it is one of the best episodes. And what´s even better, various countries have done their own versions of the songs so if you buy it on DVD or BlueRay you can enjoy the episode multiple times. 

Coming back to B´wana Beast, he does have confusing powers : on one side he has an elixir that gives him enhanced strength, speed, hunting and tracking ablilties, on the other sidehe possesses a helmet that let´s him communicate with animals plus merge up to four different species to form a chimera. Thankfully Comic Tropes Chris is here to sort it all out for us.

For some reason DC Comics seem to have the monopoly on super heroes with animal powers while Marvel Comics has more super heroes who take on the traits of a specific animal like the Black Panther or Spider - Man and his animal themed rogues villain. On the DC Comics side we have heroes like Congorilla or - the best known ones because of their appearances on cartoons and tv shows - Changeling a.k.a. Beast Boy and Vixen. The last one is best known for her association with the infamous Justice League Detroit. I thought about getting the omnibus of this era of the Justice League of America because I don´t know anything about it but at first it was too expensive, then I had to move to Spain and now it´s out of print.

Speaking about DC Comics´ Vixen, longtime followers of the blog may already know this from my CASTING THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA - ONCE YOU HAD BLACK special or my tribute posts to cult siren Beyonce.

I cast her as Mari McCabe which went against the new JLA comic from that time since Ed Benes obviously based her appearance on Halle Berry.

And knowing what a big fan I am of Halle Berry you might think it obvious that I would do the same. But they do that with a lot of female black characters in comics and I don´t want to cast Halle in five different roles.

And I don´t use the term " black " to provoke. It´s just that " afro - american " sounds more like some pc nonsense to make it sound not as offensive while people have the same stereotypes in their minds.

Technical speaking Mari is " afro - african " since she was born in Afrika where there are also white people. And she doesn´t even wear an afro.

So, for playing the afro - african - american Justice Leaguer who is also a model I went with somebody who is hot, has starred in a few movies and is no stranger to the world of fashion. She even designs her own clothes.

So the bootylicious Beyonce got the role of Vixen in my fantasy casting for a JUSTICE LEAGUE movie, and boy she does bring out the animal in men.

By the way, somebody ought to tell the guys at DC that Vixen is not really a good name for a woman in Germany as it sounds like wichsen, the german word for spanking the monkey....to keep the animal terminology.

These sections seem to be my only chance to catch up because I am living under a rock out here. Not under a literal rock but more where happenings in the real world are concerned. So for those who may find themselves in a similar situation it looks like Beyonce made some pretty hot commercials for german sports outfitter Adidas. I have no idea if this is a recent thing.

Longtime readers know that Halle Berry is one of my all time wet sex fantasies so not only does she appear in my Justice League of America movie casting she had even four solo posts . But of course it was only a question of time before I added some new ones so in 2018 I wrote four more : the first one about Halle Berry in her best movies , the second one on Halle Berry´s comic book movies , part three about my dream comic book movie casting with Halle Berry and the unexpected bonus round .

Halle Berry did a remarkable sexy dance ( not a striptease as she didn´t take her clothes off ) in The Last Boy Scout , teased us in Catwoman and finally delivered in Password : Swordfish and completely redeemed herself in Monster´s Ball where she milked Thornton´s rock hard Billy Bob totally dry in front of the entire crew. Which nobody really got to see since they censored it more than three times - about which I wrote a special post .

Longtime followers of the blog might have expected me to include a music video with Beyonce but this one was a no brainer with the topic of this.

Now I don´t know if Serpent Of The Nile from 1953 has anything to do with animals besides the title but it does star Perry Mason Raymond Burr, Commander Krang Michael Ansara ( who also provided the voice for Mister Freeze on Batman - The Animated Series ) and Catwoman Julie Newmar as an exotic dancer clad only in gold paint and an early 1950s style gold bikini.

There are however plenty of animals in this animated feature film based on Kenneth Grahame´s The Wind In The Willows. There are actually quite a few of these - including one by Walt Disney which I sadly could not find in good quality - and if I can I will put some of them in my upcoming posts.

Apropos The Wind In The Willows, there also was a stop motion tv series.

Closing things out, one of my favorite cartoon shows growing up was Grisu the dragon and this is what taught us about diversity. Nowadays the SJWs put it in everything, especially cartoons but back then you could not talk about these things so they got their message across more subtle. For those who have never seen the show it´s about a little dragon called Grisu whose most burning desire is to become a firefighter. Of course everybody around him never tires of telling him that it is impossible for a dragon to become a firefighter but Grisu doesn´t let that deter him from his dream.

There are a few episodes where he even achieves his goal but one of Grisu´s biggest problems is that he breathes fire whenever he is happy.

Like I said this is one of my favorite cartoons because it tells us that we have to follow our dreams even if everybody tell us that it is impossible.

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Der Dachs lässt schön grüßen, möchte aber auf keinen Fall gestört werden.

It´s Halle Berry Day, all day long, baby !

Today one of my top three sexual fantasies celebrates her 52nd birthday which gives me another excuse to re - post her cult siren entry - again.

 
I already did a shorter re - post of the original Halle Berry birthday post in 2016 but last year things got out of hand and I had to split it into two . 

Now the reason why I am doing yet another re - post is that since my last post on Halle Berry I mentioned her once or twice in the entertainment section and I wanted to put this new material in a new post that is easier to find. Because with all the stuff I sometimes have to cram into that part of the post I can´t always put the appropriate tags on the posts. So there may be some stuff about Halle Berry in those parts but because it is not necessarily new - or because other things are more important - there is no Halle Berry tag on the post. Which makes it sometimes impossible to find.

Anyway, another reason for this re - post is that because I can´t always count on the tags I went over all of my old posts, all the way back to last year´s Halle Berry birthday posts and there was not that much about her in all those posts. I know that I promised that I would dial down the babe factor considerably ( which may not look like it with the recent posts about wet t - shirt cult siren Leslie Easterbrook , sci fi sex vulcan Jolene Blalock or the umpteenth post about my number two sex fantasy Yaya Han or other big breasted cosplay sexbombs ) but it seems I succeeded more than I wanted. So in the spirit of keeping things diverse here is a new post about Halle Berry to keep the balance with all the other cult sirens and sexbombs who were mentioned frequently over the last year. 

THE BREAST HALLE THERE IS - MY FIRST, MY LAST, MY EVERYTHING

But as one of our times biggest cult sirens Halle Berry really deserved a special post. A Bond Girl winning an Academy Award ? You must be joking !

But it happened as Halle Berry won for her heartwrenching performance in Monster’s Ball. Not to mention for baring everything in the name of art.

History was made that night, even as people found her acceptance speech as either pretentious fluff or sincere plea. But why should we care ? Well, being a Bond Girl makes you almost immediately a cult siren. And if you are a silver screen sexbomb playing a weather - manipulating mutant with white hair in a super hero movie franchise, how could you go wrong ?

Halle Berry was born on August 14th 1966, the union of an african - american father, Jerome, and a white mother, Judith. She has an older sister, Heidi. Her name comes from the Halle Building in Cleveland, her home town, which housed a big department store and is the fictional setting of the store in The Drew Carey Show ! The parents divorced when Halle was four, so she was raised by her Mom, with whom she’s still close to this day. As a teenager, she trained to be a cheerleader and began appearing in beauty pageants, winning at the age of 17 the Miss Teen All - American Pageant, representing the state of Ohio. In 1986, she was the first runner - up in the Miss USA Pageant and first black American in the Miss World Competition. Consequently, Halle began to dream of a career in the entertainment business. What was a girl to do ? Become a model.

In 1989, her professional acting debut was made for the tv series Living Dolls, a sitcom about a teen model agency that lasted only one season.

She was already perceived as an actress that remained in character during the entire shoot. Work was soon found in the popular tv show Knots Landing. 1991 was an even more important year. After appearing in a R. Kelly and Public Announcement’s music video, she made her movie debut in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, playing a crack addict. The same year, she also convincingly played a stripper in The Last Boy Scout, starring Bruce Willis.

In 1992, Halle made a great partner to Eddie Murphy in the comedy Boomerang. This was followed by a prestigious television miniseries Queen about author Alex Haley’s mother, narrating her arduous experiences with slavery. This role won her great acclaim when it was aired in February 1993. Halle was then seen in the role of Sharon Stone ( no, not the actress ) in the live - action adaptation of The Flintstones in 1994. With this amusing role, she got my attention for the first time.

Is it just me or does she look absolutely hot in EVERY movie she´s in ?

Another hit miniseries followed, this time as Queen of Sheba in Solomon and Sheba, for which Halle Berry was nominated for an Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television movie, Miniseries or Drama Special.

In 1995, she returned to crack addiction for Losing Isaiah and the role was an omen for things to come. Her next projects were a bit on the easier side with Executive Decision where she plays a stewardess, Girl 6 where she plays herself and the comedy B*A*P*S for which, at least, she wore a colorful wardrobe. Believe it or not, she was nominated as Best Actress for this film at the Acapulco Black Film Festival ! Was this a sign that meaty roles for black actresses were not that many in Hollywood ?

She starred in a little more successful comedy in 1998, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, telling the story of singer Frankie Lymon and his three wives ( played by Halle, Lela Rochon and Vivica A. Fox ). Next came a tv movie produced by all - powerful Oprah Winfrey, The Wedding. But the main project in 1998 was being offered a role in Bulworth, a political satire directed by and starring Warren Beatty. Beatty as a hip’- hoppin’ soul brother ? You better believe it and Halle again won great reviews. In fact, she began associating herself with more high - profile movie projects.

In 1999, Halle Berry became engaged to singer Eric Benét, who already had an eight year old daughter. An important part came along, that of doomed entertainer Dorothy Dandridge in a TV movie. Dorothy Dandridge was virtually the only black female star in American movies of the fifties, a fact that was inspiring for Halle Berry. In fact, Dandridge was once nominated as Best Actress at the Academy Awards, but didn’t win. Halle discovered that she and Dorothy were both born in the same Cleveland hospital.

Introducing Dorothy Dandridge was a huge success and Halle Berry’s performance hailed as a tour de force. She won the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries from the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie / Miniseries / Dramatic Special from the Image Awards, the Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television from the Golden Satellite Awards, the Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for TV from the Golden Globes Award and the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie from the Emmy Awards. And she won many more fans through the movie.

Soon after, Halle allegedly complained about the lack of quality roles for african - american actresses, as she was supposedly dismayed at playing a super hero in some action film. The role of Storm in the X - Men movie was soon shrouded in criticism, as Halle’s white wig for the character of Ororo Munroe didn’t seem to find approval among the rabid comic book fans. But her screen presence was formidable and the huge critical and box - office success of the film buried any harsh words of the past.

In 2001, Swordfish was unleashed on the big screens, starring John Travolta and Halle’s co - star in X - Men, Hugh Jackman. This movie got mixed reviews, but everyone talked about it, mainly for Halle Berry’s magnificent topless scene, of which there’s still a rumor that she was paid a few dollars more to perform. If that´s true I really have to thank whoever had the deep pockets to make Halle pop out her big puppies.

Then out of the blue came Monster’s Ball and a strong female role, which was passed down by Vanessa L. Williams and Angela Bassett, mainly for reason of on - screen nudity. Halle finally agreed to play Leticia, a young woman trying to make ends meet when her husband is electrocuted on Death Row. Leticia begins an unexpected relationship with a racist prison guard who served at her hubby’s death sentence. This movie was considered one of the best of the year and Halle’s work masterful.

Then came the night of the Oscars and the events couldn’t have been better scripted, with Sydney Poitier being honored and Denzel Washington named as Best Actor. I was personally rooting for Halle, not for the lack of " black " recognition, but just for the simple fact that she gave the best performance of the nominees. Halle Berry had already won at the Screen Actors Guild Award, the National Board of Review and the Berlin International Film Festival. So, she was the first african american actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress, Hattie McDaniel having won for Best Supporting Actress in 1939 for Gone with the Wind as Mammy.

Halle Berry became a Bond Girl in 2002 for the 20th episode of 007’s adventures, Die Another Day. She gave homage to the first ever Bond Girl, Ursula Andress, wearing similar swimwear. The shoot was not without danger, however, as one of her eyes received shrapnel during an action scene and she nearly choked to death on a fig, being rescued by Pierce Brosnan ( who suffered an knee injury ). Much was made of Halle’s nomination for Monster’s Ball, as she learned the news on location while working on Die Another Day. It was also announced that her significant other, Eric Benét, was having wild orgies while Halle was away. So if that´s true it´s his own fault that she broke up with him soon afterwards because with whom do you cheat on the sexiest woman on the planet ?

The success of Die Another Day led to a rumor that Halle’s character Jinx would have her own action movie franchise, which if realized, would be a first for the Bond series. And, yes, I know that Kim Basinger won an Oscar too, but her 007 movie, Never Say Never Again, is not officially part of the " legitimate " Bond series. Reprising her role of Storm in X - Men 2, Halle clashed with returning director Bryan Singer during some turmoil between himself and the producers. She allegedly told him to " kiss her black ass ".

Halle doesn´t have such a big chest size like when she was at the Things We Lost In The Fire premiere where her blue dress made the news.

But she still looks totally awesome for a woman who has had two kids.

With some of the women in my cast I would need to pick them from a certain time in their career but with Halle that doesn´t matter and you would most definitely see her in my Justice League movie in some role.

Okay, that picture is more than one year old but have you seen her rack - tastic appearance on the Jay Leno show in 2013 ? Man, at 46 she made all them eyes pop with her sexed up see through top. Nice puppies, Halle !

Even the yellow press was all worked up about her appearance on The Tonight Show with headlines going from HALLE BERRY FLAUNTS MAJOR CLEAVAGE to HALLE BERRY´S CLEAVAGE STOLE THE SHOW to HALLE BERRY´S CLEAVAGE PROVES DISTRACTING FOR JAY LENO to JAY LENO CAN´T HELP BUT STARE AT HALLE BERRY´S CLEAVAGE and finally JAY LENO CAN´S STOP STARING AT HALLE BERRY´S HUGE CLEAVAGE. Some quotes :

Halle Berry certainly isn’t shy. The buxom movie star managed to attract a lot of attention when she stopped by The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - although she didn’t have to say a word ! Instead, she let her plunging mini dress do ALL the talking, while her exposed chest certainly stole the spotlight - in fact, Jay Leno‘s gaze kept wandering down Halle’s killer porn cleavage and sideboob. The 62 - year - old host looked like he was having a hard time ( and getting harder by the minute ) concentrating and couldn’t help stealing glances at Halle’s ample assets - and who could blame him ?

It's no secret that Halle Berry oozes sex appeal. The Bond girl can leave men in a dribbling state of awe simply by flashing her smile -- so you can imagine the effect she had on Jay Leno after showing up in one of the lowest necklines we've ever seen. For her appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" last night, the 46 year old donned a skimpy physics - defying, cleavage - bearing dress by Reem Acra with silver trim and an incredibly low neckline . The sheer mesh bust line was on the low side, but it also featured a slit down the middle all the way to her belly button !

Needless to say, Jay had a tough time focusing on the topic at hand ( I don´t know, but it seems to me that Jay did an admirable job because anybody else would have been staring at her boobs all the time since it looked like her ripe melons could pop out of her top at any moment ).

There’s no denying that Halle is in amazing shape and looks better than stars half her age - and she loves to show it off every chance she gets !

The silver trimming along the middle cutout and top of the frock only added to the alluring appeal of the seriously sexy get - up. Black patent pumps and earrings completed the ensemble - although it was definitely her killer cleavage that was the best ( or should I say breast ) accessory !

Halle Berry, appearing as a guest on Monday’s edition of The Tonight Show, had host Jay Leno in a trance in her extremely low - cut strapless dress with generous amounts of cleavage. Jay clearly doesn’t mind Halle’s provocative style, complimenting the star on the plunging Versace gown she wore to the 85th Annual Academy Awards last month, adding, “ I like this dress better .” constantly staring at the Oscar winner´s chest. Her black and silver mini just might be her sexiest " fuck me " dress ever.

I thought about cutting the part of Halle Berry´s mega sexy appearance on the Tonight Show above but decided to leave it in the post because I could not find any clips besides a short one in poor quality I already posted. There are also no download links which is strange since you can find some for her appearance on the show in 2009 . So until further notice the animated GIF and the pictures in this post is the best you can find from this watershed moment in late night television entertainment. 

So that´s all for this part that has been supplied by the ever faithful CULT SIRENS website and you might want to go over there and read Halle´s full entry as I had to redact it to fit the post. Also a bigger - I mean longer - biography of sexbomb Halle Berry can be found here. And as a reminder click here for the second part but prepare some tissues because if you don´t cream your pants before the end of the post I´m not doing my job.

Because this is my fourth Halle Berry birthday post I already covered most of Today´s celebrity birthdays before but that gives me the chance to include some new ones like ex Disney princess with benefits Mila Kunis. 

She turns 35 and I have to admit that I haven´t followed her career. But for years I have been carrying this video through my bookmarks on the odd chance that I mention her and always missed the opportunity to post it.



Speaking of which, apart from my Beyonce posts I have not written much about Vixen and since it seems that it will be a while before I can afford the Justice League Detroit omnibus and therefore write about that topic - or before Beyonce´s next birthday comes around - I am including her origin here since Ed Benes at least based Vixen´s look on Halle Berry.



Usually I use the cult siren posts to put the more risky music videos on the blog - or at least I try to - but it seems I have either run out of good ones, eliminated them or they are all reserved for other cult siren posts. So I am including one that I have not bookmarked with a specific topic in mind.



I am not sure if this video from Food Wars ! is too risky for my normal posts but it could be NSFW because of the tentacle stuff. At the moment two animes are trending ( three if you count PRISON SCHOOL ), Attack on Titan and Food Wars and Attack on Titan really doesn´t look like a show that would interest me. Giant monsters, eating people in the most gruesome and graphic way ? Yeah, that sounds like a fun show. I think I much prefer a show where people eat food instead of titans who eat people. I think Food Wars is for all those people who thought old people were joking when they said that at their age eating is more like sex than real sex.



We couldn´t end this post - or better said the first part of this post - without a Halle Berry video but there is still more to come in part two.



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Greetings, programs !