Month: November 2020 (Page 6 of 10)

The PopCulteer
November 13, 2020

We are a little more than halfway through The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide. It’s gratifying that PopCult has hit new records in daily readership this week, particularly because we were apparently forgotten in the new redesign of the Gazette-Mail website, and at the moment there are no links to our blog anywhere at the newspaper.

So that means that all our traffic is coming from social media and regular visiters who have us bookmarked, so that’s a bit of a nice feeling.

Nice feelings are much appreciated, since your PopCulteer spent about fifteen hours yesterday dealing with urgent technical issues on multiple fronts. It was sort of like I had Friday The 13th a day early, just to get it out of the way.

That means that today’s entries in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide may be delayed a bit, but they will all go live by this afternoon. So don’t panic.

A reminder about the gift guide this year: I am doing my best to offer online ordering options for every gift suggestion. Normally I would urge everybody to go out and support your local brick-and-mortar store, but as an immuno-compromised person, I do not feel comfortable shopping in person, and I am loathe to suggest that my readers do something that I won’t do myself.

So, you won’t find any restaurant recommendations this year, and I won’t be telling you all to “shop local” as I have in previous years. Shopping and eating with locally-owned businesses is still a lofty and desirable goal, but not during a pandemic when the number of new cases nationwide is reaching new heights every day.

I am recommending some websites where you can find all sorts of cool things to order. Rather than single out one item, I decided to share some of my go-to places for great gift ideas with you folks. I’m also limiting my individual picks to things that cost under a hundred bucks. Things are tight for many of us in 2020, so I’m trying to be less extravagant with my choices for the gift guide.

That should explain why I’m not recommending the new 26 CD reissue of King Crimson’s first album.

Please remember that we have a sister internet station, The AIR. We’re bringing you independently produced music and talk programming (mostly music) and if you can produce a complete show on your own, and get it to us, we would like to expand our offerings in the new year, so leave a comment on this post and I will get in touch with you, or look me up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

You can check out our embedded player at the bottom of this post.

Check PopCult for three or four entries in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide every day until Thanksgiving. We will post our master list on what would have been Black Friday, which should give you plenty of time to order presents for holiday gift giving.

I hope you’ll come back later today for some comics, book and website suggestions. You’ll see a tiny preview of today’s choices in this post.

Today’s final entry in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is a local business that made the transition to being an online store after the pandemic forced them to give up their brick-and-mortar location back in the spring.

Oddbird Gift Emporium still offers a collection of quirky, fun gifts for the home, office, beauty, baby, garden and everywhere in between. Only now, they’ll ship them directly to you.

Oddbird Gift Emporium has a good number of items made right here in the Mountain State. Oddbird also carries some fun clothing lines and has some cool gift cards and holiday ornaments.

Aside from the clothing and ornamets, Oddbird Gift Emporium is loaded with cool housewares, knicknacks, cooking items, custom-made soaps and candles and more. You’ll also find art prints, pottery, dinnerware, mugs and tons of other neat things. They even sell some specialty teas now.

Oddbird Gift Emporium is hoping to return to the world of brick-and-mortar once the pandemic is over, but for now you can visit them online for snarky, hilarious and slightly offensive goods. For the time being, you can shop at their webstore, or keep up with them on Facebook and Instagram. Reach out on social media to see if they have stuff that isn’t on the website yet.

Today’s first entry in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is a terrific collection of old-school supehero comics from DC Comics’ Golden and Silver Age archives. I first told you about this cool hardcover back in April. It’s the perfect gift for the comics cfan who longs for the days when comics were more fun and less gritty than they are today.

DCs Wanted: The Worlds Most Dangerous Super-Villains
by various writers and artists
DC Comics
ISBN-13: 978-1779501738
$39.99 (discounted at Amazon)

Wanted: The Worlds Most Dangerous Super-Villains collects all nine issues of the 1970s comic of the same name, which was one of the many reprint titles cooked up around that time when DC and Marvel were cranking out as many comics as possible in an effort to grab market share and crowd each other (and any smaller publishers) off the newsstands. Right before a paper shortage caused prices to rise and smaller publishers to fail, DC and Marvel were attempting to glut each other out of business.

DC created several themed all-reprint comics when they reverted to 32 page comics that sold for 20 cents (that is a long story that I don’t have room to tell you here), and Wanted was their all-villain book, published alongside other reprint titles like Secret Origins and Strange Sports Stories. These books were edited and curated by E. Nelson Bridwell, DC’s secret weapon when it came to his vast knowledge of comic book history and his impeccable taste in choosing which stories to reprint. Bridwell does not get enough credit for stoking the flames of comics fandom and instilling a love for Golden Age comics in a generation of comics creators and historians.

With Wanted, Bridwell didn’t take the easy route and just put Batman or Superman in every issue. He plumbed the depths of DC, reintroducing members of DC’s rogue’s gallery that hadn’t been seen in decades, and exposing a new generation to the formative works of such comics greats as Joe Kubert, Mort Meskin, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Carmine Infantion and more.

While the book did cover-feature a few heavy-hitters in its original run–Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and The Flash are on some of the covers–more than equal time was given to more obscure DC heroes like Starman, Doctor Fate, The Vigilante, Wildcat and Hourman. They even cover-featured two really obscure characters that DC had purchased from Quality Comics, Doll Man and Kid Eternity.

Some of the Villains are pretty obscure, too. We do see Batman fight The Joker and The Penguin, but those two are teamed up in one single story. We also see the Caped Crusader take on The Signalman, who at that point had only appeared twice since the one story reprinted here. Other Villains showcased in this book include The Prankster, Soloman Grundy, Clock King, The Mist, The Dummy and Mister Who (not to be confused any doctors who came later). This book will educate newer readers of the scope of colorful evil-doers in the DC Universe.

As I pointed out, the stories are drawn by a murderer’s row of iconic comic book artists. In addition to the artists listed above, we also get to see work by Gil Kane, H.G. Peter, Jack Burnley and Lee Elias and stories written by Robert Kanigher, Gardner Fox, Alfred Bester, William Woolfolk, Jerry Siegel, John Broome, Bill Finger, Ed Herron and more. Plus they included the beautiful split-scene covers for the original series by Nick Cardy and Murphy Anderson.

Like I said, I love this book. They even give us a hypothetical tenth issue with an all-female villain line-up. I don’t have this entire series in my collection, and it’s fantastic to finally have them all in one volume. I should mention that it’s also a collection of short-form stories. Most in this book run between seven and 13 pages, and they manage to cram in more plot than a year’s worth of today’s comics. In terms of pure comics glee, this book is a home run.

I can whole-heartedly recommend Wanted: The Worlds Most Dangerous Super-Villains for anybody who loves classic superhero comics with colorful villains, crisp storytelling and great art. It’s not a perfect collection, but it’s a lot of fun.

Also of note is that, while you can order this from any bookseller using the ISBN code, Amazon has it for significantly less than the suggested price.

Cotswold Collectibles

Our final pick in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide on Veteran’s Day is for a website where you can get just about everything you need to pay tribute to our fighting forces in 1/6 Scale.

Full disclosure: I’m friends with some of the folks who work here. Who wouldn’t be? I buy tons of their GI Joe-compatible figures, toys and equipment every year. Cotswold Collectibles carries a great assortment of vintage GI Joe and Action Man items, ranging from the 1960s to the revival toys in the 1990s and beyond, and they also make their own Elite Brigade items that bring back the glory days of The Adventure Team and also veer into the military side of things.

This is pretty much the coolest action figure shopping site on the planet. It’s a clearing house for all things 1/6 scale, but they’ve also branched out into 1/12 scale and MEGO-sized figures and accesories, and they carry a wide variety of stuff to suit any budget. Just this year, Cotswold Collectibles began carrying the World Peacekeepers line of 12″ military figures that used to turn up every holiday season at Big Lots. These fully-articulated, high-detail figures are now available from Cotswold, who are also carrying some of the extensive vehicle and diorama sets, which haven’t been sold in the US for over fifteen years.

If you want to find high-quality photos of their most recent offerings, check out their website and their Facebook Page.

In recent years Cotswold Collectibles has also reached out to import terrific new 1/6 scale items from Spain, Brazil and France and they also offer a great selection of products from Dragon Models, Sideshow Toys, Hot Toys, Threezero and many other top 1/6 high-end companies. If you have a collector of the original 12-inch GI Joe action figure on your holiday shopping list, you need to shop at Cotswold Collectibles.

Next up in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide, we have the perfect gift for the comics fan in your life who longs for something a little more swashbuckling than the adventures of men and women running around in tights.

Pirates: A Treasure of Comics to Plunder, Arrr!
edited by Ed Catto and Craig Yoe
Yoe Books/ Clover Press, LLC
ISBN-13: 978-1951038045
$12.99

Pirates: A Treasure of Comics to Plunder, Arrr! is a slim, inexpensive collection of great Pirate comic book stories from the 1940s and 50s, curated by Ed Catto (of Captain Action Enterprises fame) and Craig Yoe (of Yoe Books fame). It’s loaded with fun stories and some terrific art. This is the good kind of comic book piracy!

Pirate stories, as a comic book genre, were never a dominant form, largely disappearing from comics until Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created Tales of the Black Freighter as a comic-within-a-comic in Watchmen, in 1985. The idea behind that was that, in a world where superheroes are real, the comic book publishers there would turn toward other types of adventure stories to fill their pages, and Pirates ruled the comics world for decades.

But in our universe there were some great Pirate comics produced during the Golden Age of comics, and this is a great sampler of four-color swashbuckling adventures on the high seas.

The art on display here is practically a “who’s who” of great artists. We get full stories with art by Reed Crandall, Will Eisner, R.H. Webb (Who drew Sheena of the Jungle and other great features), Norm Saunders (Seen at left. Saunders painted the original Mars Attacks trading cards, as well as the 1966 Batman cards) and a very young Frank Frazetta, who has two stories printed here…one in his recognizable style, and one Pirate funny animal story drawn in an animated cartoon style that may shock the heck out of die-hard Frazetta fans.

In additon to the full stories, we are also treated to a cover gallery with work by Wallace Wood, George Woodbridge, Carl Burgos and others, some of it reproduced from the original art.

Or should I say, “Arrrrrrt?”

A nice touch is that the indicia/credits page is written entirely in Pirate speak.

This is a fun collection of great adventure stories, and is a wonderful addition to any Golden Age bookshelf in your library. Pirates: A Treasure of Comics to Plunder, Arrr! can be ordered from any bookseller by using the ISBN code, or if you hurry, you can pick up a hardcover limited edition with with an alternate cover by Howard Pyle directly from Clover Press. The standard edition can be found at Amazon.

Our first Wednesday pick for The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide takes a cue from our sister internet radio station, The AIR, and gives you two picks suggested by Mel Larch, the host of Curtain Call, The AIR’s weekly showcase for showtunes.

First up we have the just-released DVD of The SpongeBob Squarepants Musical. I raved about this show when I saw in on Broadway in 2018, and last year Nickelodeon filmed it for broadcast. Now you can get a DVD of that recording, along with some bonus sing-a-long material and enjoy it over and over. This is a great gift for any fan of SpongeBob Squarepants, and it’s also great for fans of musical theatre, because it’s one of the best shows of the last half-century.

The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage! cast includes Ethan Slater as SpongeBob SquarePants, Gavin Lee as Squidward Q. Tentacles, Danny Skinner as Patrick Star, Brian Ray Norris as Eugene Krabs, Wesley Taylor as Sheldon Plankton, Christina Sajous as Sandy Cheeks and Tom Kenny as ‘Patchy the Pirate’. The ensemble includes Kyle Hamilton, Katie Lee Hill, Curtis Holbrook, Jesse JP Johnson, L’ogan J’ones, Jai’len Josey, Kelvin Moon Loh, Lauralyn McClelland, Vasthy Mompoint, Bryonha Marie Parham, Oneika Phillips, Jon Rua, JC Schuster, Abby C. Smith, Robert Taylor Jr., and Allan Washington.

Joining the cast is veteran SpongeBob SquarePants voice actor Tom Kenny as “Patchy the Pirate,” performing the original Sara Bareilles song “Poor Pirates.” Following a critically lauded run on Broadway, The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage! was filmed for television in front of a live audience at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in the U.K., capturing all-new depths of theatrical innovation, where the power of optimism really can save the world.

Named Best Musical by the Drama Desk Awards and Outer Critics Circle, and earned 12 Tony Award nominations – the most nominated musical of the 2017-2018 theatre season – winning for Best Scenic Design of a Musical (David Zinn).

Acclaimed Steppenwolf director Tina Landau and the groundbreaking designers behind Fun Home, Hedwig, and Spring Awakening have brilliantly reimagined Bikini Bottom for the Broadway stage, on tour, and now for television, bringing the spirit of SpongeBob to life with humanity, heart, and pure theatricality. With an original score from some of the biggest names in pop and rock, The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage! explodes with energy.

This one-of-a-kind television musical event features original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady Antebellum, Cyndi Lauper, Rob Hyman, John Legend, Panic! At The Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants, and T.I. (Clifford Harris, Jr.), Domani Harris, and Darwin Quinn, and additional songs by David Bowie, and by Tom Kenny and Andy Paley. Additional lyrics by Jonathan Coulton. Additional music by Tom Kitt. Along with “The SpongeBob Theme Song” by Derek Drymon, Mark Harrison, Stephen Hillenburg, and Blaise Smith.

The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage! DVD includes an exclusive extended sing-along version of the musical, as well as a bonus photo gallery. The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage! sells for about ten bucks, and is available from almost any store or website that sells DVDS. You can hear highlights of The SpongeBob Squarepants Musical Wednesday at 3 PM EST on Curtain Call, On The AIR.

At 4 PM EST on The AIR, you can hear an episode of Curtain Call that presents highlights of the 2019 Tony Award Winner for best Musical, Hadestown. A new book collects the lyrics and offers insight into the writing process of the show’s creator, Anaïs Mitchell.

Working on a Song: The Lyrics of HADESTOWN
by Anaïs Mitchell
Plume
ISBN-13 : 978-0593182574
$16.00 (discounted at Amazon)

Anaïs Mitchell is a singer-songwriter who comes from the world of narrative folksong, poetry, and balladry. Among her recorded works are six full-length albums including the original studio album of Hadestown (2010, featuring Justin Vernon and Ani DiFranco); Young Man in America (2012); and Bonny Light Horseman (2020, with folk band Bonny Light Horseman). Mitchell has headlined concerts around the world. Awards include a Tony Award for Best Score for Hadestown. Her albums have been featured in year-end best lists including NPR, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, and Sunday Times. Hadestown is Mitchell’s first musical.

This is an illuminating book of lyrics and stories from Hadestown—the winner of eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical—from its author, songwriter Anaïs Mitchell with a foreword by Steve Earle.

On Broadway, this fresh take on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has become a modern classic. Heralded as “The best new musical of the season,” by The Wall Street Journal, and “Sumptuous. Gorgeous. As good as it gets,” by The New York Times, the show was a breakout hit, with its poignant social commentary, and spellbinding music and lyrics.

In this book, Anaïs Mitchell takes readers inside her more than decade’s-long process of building the musical from the ground up—detailing her inspiration, breaking down the lyrics, and opening up the process of creation that gave birth to Hadestown. Fans and newcomers alike will love this deeply thoughtful, revealing look at how the songs from “the underground” evolved, and became the songs we sing again and again.

There’s also a small section of color photos and an introduction by Steve Earle.

This is a great gift for anyone who is already a fan of the show, and it’ll also be a treat for fans of Musical Theatre and Greek Mythology. You should be able to order this from any bookseller using the ISBN code.

Today’s final entry in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is a terrific comic book adventure that is perfect for kids or adult. Any fan of Superman, or anybody who likes seeing racists get beat up, will enjoy this great collection of stories.

Superman Smashes The Klan
writen by Gene Luen Yang , art by Gurihiru
DC Comics
ISBN-13: 978-1779504210
$16.99 (discounted at Amazon)

First off, Superman Smashes The Klan is a terrific Superman adventure. It presents the iconic, original superhero at his best, fighting bigotry and injustice and other anti-American ideals in an engrossing and entertaining story. Secondly, the story frames this adventure in a nuanced and intricate tale that explores the immigrant experience in post-World War II America. Lastly, it makes it clear that The Klan are the bad guys, something that cannot be repeated often enough or loud enough these days when White Supremecists seemingly have allies in very high places.

Written by American Born Chinese author and MacArthur Fellowship recipient Gene Luen Yang, with art by the Japanese art duo known as Gurihiro, Superman Smashes The Klan is a very timely story, executed in a near-perfect style. While totally appropriate for younger readers, the story has enough complexity and characterization to satisfy any adult reader.

Based on a summer 1946 story arc from The Adventures of Superman radio show, this is the story of Superman coming to the aid of a Chinese-American family that has just moved to Metropolis, and finds themselves under attack by The Klan of the Fiery Cross.

That radio story was created in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League, and is credited with doing serious harm to the KKK’s recruitment efforts. The Klan even tried to organize a boycott of Kellogg’s, the radio show’s sponsor, which failed, proving that boycotts only work when they’re justifed and moral.

Yang keeps the 1946 setting, but updates and expands the story to address additional themes of the immigrant experience, and manages to very effectively tie them to Superman’s Kryptonian origins, which Clark Kent confronts for the first time in this (non-canon) story. He re-centers the story with a focus on the Lee family, and adds a daughter, Roberta (Lin-Shan) who is really the star here.

In this story Superman’s confidante on the Metropolis Police Force, Inspector Henderson, is depicted as African-American. In the regular comics he has been race-flipped before, but here it’s particular effective and greatly adds more layers of depth to the story.

This story does not only show the racism of the Klan, but also touches on the sensitive relations within the Asian community and between Asians and Blacks. It even addresses the concept of “passing,” in ways that are particularly touching. That it does so without clubbing the reader over the head with it is a testament to the talents of the storytellers.

Being that this is a stand-alone tale not set in any established continuity frees Yang from having to deal with any of the heavy baggage that 80-plus years of Superman adventures bring with them. This an old-school, liberal plea for tolerance and acceptance, the kind that bigots and demagogues despise.

A major subplot involves Superman discovering his roots for the first time, which is a new take on a story that’s been often told, and then retold before. This fresh take is really well-done.

In addition to a great script, the art by Gurihiru is perfectly suited to the story, combining the look of the Max Fleischer animated shorts with Superman: The Animated Series, and a hint of Manga, to create a slick, clean, yet detailed world that makes perfect sense.

Originally published beginning last year, this three-issue series was recently collected into one volume, and it’s a great 220-page story that can be read without any prior exposure to the Superman mythos. The end of the book contains a great essay by Yang that gives the background of the original radio story, the history of The Klan and his own experience as an Asian-American.

If you enjoy great Superhero adventures without a ton of continuity issues, but with a clear and important underlying theme, then Superman Smashes The Klan is the book for you. Available anywhere books or comics are sold.

Our next pick in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is the biography of John Entwistle, the original bass player for The Who. This is perfect for any fan of The Who, any bass player, or anybody who just enjoys a good life story.

The Ox: The Authorized Biography of The Who’s John Entwistle
by Paul Rees
Hachette Books
ISBN-13: 978-0306922855
$30.00

The Who are, of course, one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Their concept album TOMMY defined the Rock Opera genre, and their greatest hits include some of the most recognizable songs of our times.

Of the four men who made up the band, Pete Townshend, the flamboyant guitarist and main songwriter and Roger Daltry, the lead singer and face of the band have both written autobiographies. The short, tragic life of drummer Keith Moon has been detailed in several books, some of which have been optioned for the big screen. The band as a whole have had their history told in the pages of more than a few books.

But John Entwistle, the late bass player for the band who many consider to be the glue that held The Who together, remained a bit of an enigma, until now. Paul Rees, with the participation and support of Entwistle’s family and friends, plus access to Entwistle’s partially-completed autobiography, has crafted an in-depth look at the life of a complex and troubled man who made amazing music while living life as large as possible to soothe some deep wounds.

We see many sides of John Entwistle, the sickly wartime child of a broken marriage, the geeky fan of Mad Magazine, the immaculate musican, the heavy drinker who never seemed to get drunk, the collector, the control freak who had to stand in the background and ultimately a man who succumbed to his demons, albeit on a much more leisurely schedule than his bandmate, Moon.

Rees tells the story in a very British voice, completely appropriate here, and allows Entwistle to speak directly through large excerpts of his unfinished autobiograhy. This is enhanced with interviews of family members, friends and fellow musicians to create a oral history of the life of John Entwistle. It’s warts-and-all, as we see Entwistle at his most romantic and generous, but also at his most excessive and spiteful.

If I have any real criticism of the book, it’s that it’s too short. The Ox: The Authorized Biography of The Who’s John Entwistle clocks in at over 300 pages, but you get the impression that there was enough material here for a book more than twice as long. Commercial considerations require the book to be kept to a manageable size, and the brisk presentation employed by Rees keeps the story of Entwistle’s life moving at an engrossing, almost breakneck, pace, but I could see myself readily buying a subsequent volume, or volumes, that cover each period of Entwistle’s life in greater detail.

The Ox: The Authorized Biography of The Who’s John Entwistle is a remarkable oral history of the life of one of the most overlooked, yet essential, elements in some of the greatest rock music ever recorded. You can order it from any bookseller using the ISBN code above, or just get it from Amazon.

American Science & Surplus

We’re kicking off today’s 2020 PopCult Gift Guide posts with a website recommendation, so you can shop for your loved (or liked) ones from the safety of your home.

American Science & Surplus has been around for decades and publishes one of the most entertaining catalogs on the face of the Earth. They sell surplus items that include electronic components, gadgets, tools, toys, military pouches, cooking supplies, art supplies, pop culture oddities, educational materials and anything else they can get their hands on, cheap.

This is a great place to find gifts for the science enthusiast on your shopping list. They sell all kinds of motors and lights that can be used for home robotics. They also have military suplus gear that can be repurposed into all sorts of things. And where else can you find a three-foot-long test tube, listed in their catalog as “Test Tooooooooooobe?”

Your PopCulteer and his lovely wife made a pilgrammage to their store in Chicago a couple of years ago, and it was a life-changing experience. We don’t recommend that this year, since you’d have to quarantine for two weeks after arriving in the Windy City, but their website is the next-best thing, in terms of finding offbeat, unusual, extremely useful stuff that you didn’t know you needed.

The American Science & Surplus website is the first stop for gag gifts, or “different” ideas for the “different” people on your holiday shopping list. Seriously, they have tons of cool stuff. Just go look at their site.