Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: April 2021 (Page 2 of 4)

Let’s All Go To Superman Land!

The PopCult Comix Bookshelf

The Amazing World of Superman (Tabloid Edition)
edited by E. Nelson Bridwell and Sol Harrison
DC Comics
ISBN-13 : 978-1779509185
$19.99

In the early 1970s, the town of Metropolis, Illinois, attempted to boost their economy by building a huge “Superman Land” amusement park. This ill-fated venture stalled and crashed due to the financial realities of the time (they blamed the oil crisis, but they’d never lined up any serious funding).

When the project was still alive, DC Comics published a special and unusual tabloid-sized comic book that acted as a program for the town’s 1973 Superman Day. This annual event is still held every June (barring pandemics) and in 1973 they went all-out with the mayor dressed as Superman and potential investors coming to town to survey the crowds and this tie-in, which was pretty darned cool.

Produced by DC Comics (then National Periodical Publications) this 64-page The Amazing World of Superman giant was printed on different, whiter, paper than DC used for their comics and weighed in at a slightly larger size (and proportion) than DC’s then-new “Limited Collectors Edition” comics, plus it was printed in black-and-white instead of color.

This new hardback edition reprints the book, pretty much as it was in 1973, with no real “DVD extras.”

Much of the book was filled with some pretty great articles for the time, including a step-by-step look at how comics were made–from writing and drawing to printing–and a look back at the 1966 Superman Broadway Play. It’s great to have this stuff back in print.

There were also some features reprinted from comics, including a classic story drawn by Wayne Boring in 1955 that speculated about a Superman Land amusement park, and a few pages drawn by Bob Brown that show Superboy’s secret lab in Smallville, but the star attraction was a brand-new 15-page origin story for The Man of Steel, created especially for this publication.

“The Origin of Superman” was written by E. Nelson Bridwell and drawn by the then-top Superman art team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. DC’s then-publisher, Carmine Infantino is sometimes credited with the plot and layouts. It’s widely considered the definitive take on Superman’s origin story (at least pre-Crisis), and it’s cool to see it reprinted here in it’s original format and art size, with wash-toned black and white art.

At twenty bucks, this is a pretty nice package. It even includes the full-color “pull-out” poster map of Krypton (drawn by Sal Amendola) that came with the original book, although it’s inserted loose here, making life easier for everyone involved.

If you don’t have the original printing, this is a bargain, costing less than half as much as reading copies sell for on the secondary market.

However, it’s not perfect. The comic stories were all originally printed with gray tones, since the book was in black and white, and it looks like those original wash tones are either missing, or have degenerated over the past 48 years. This book likes like they scanned it from a printed copy, and the tones and screened photos are pretty muddy in places. That’s a bit disappointing.

Even the color cover looks like it was scanned from a printed copy. It doesn’t render the book unreadable, but it is very disappointing.

Also, there is NO historical context. Reading this book you would never know that the Superman Days celebration in Metropolis still happens almost every year. The only clue to the fate of Superman Land is a mention of it not happening due to the oil crisis, and that’s not even inside the book. It’s on a loose card with the UPC code that’s shrink-wrapped on the back of the book.

This is a 64-page black and white book, printed in China. It would not have broken the bank to hire someone to write an essay about the theme park, or insert a page with credits for the originally uncredited Origin of Superman story. They could have at least included the PR blurb inside the book.

A bit more than a year after this book was published, DC released their first Superman issue of the Limited Collectors Edition tabloid-size comic, and it included the new origin story–this time in color, with the artwork widened by DC’s production artists and credits attached, and that particular book also had a few pages of concept art for the amusement park, by none other than Neal Adams.

That would have made a great addition to this book, since so much of The Amazing World of Superman is about the proposed theme park. The information behind the plans not coming to fruition would have made for a fascinating background story.

Lately DC Comics has been hitting it out of the park with their selection of cool gems from their library to reprint in deluxe editions, but they have done a really crappy job of packaging this material with any meaningful essays or extras to give the reader the proper historical context.

With The Amazing World of Superman, it’s nice, but I still have my mint-condition copy that I ordered from DC Comics for three bucks back when I was 11 years old, and there’s nothing new in here at all, except for the questionable reproduction. If you don’t already have this in your collection, and you’re a big fan of Superman, you pretty much need this. Otherwise the only reason to get it is to have it in hardback.

I’m happy DC published this new edition of The Amazing World of Superman.  I just wish that the execution had been better.

Stop And Take The Time To Smell The Neuroses

Today at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR you can tune in to Radio Free Charleston for a rerun. It’s a good one and you can read about it HERE, but yesterday as your PopCulteer sat down to assemble this week’s show…I just hit a wall.

I’ll tell you about it right after you go click on that embedded player at the top of the right column of this blog.  Are you tuned in now?

Good.

Anyway, last week was a very stressful one, work-wise, and I’ve been spending 12 hours a day in front of the computer for some time, so yesterday when it came time to put together RFC I just said “screw it,” slotted in replays of programs on The AIR until Friday and knocked off to do some experimental cooking.

Last night I just chopped some random veggies and tossed them in a skillet and kept adding stuff until it tasted good.

After a dinner which was emmensely enjoyed by me and Mrs. PopCulteer, I Googled the ingredients and discovered that I sort of made Peperonata. It’s a traditional Italian dish with sautéed peppers and onions. Since I’m one of those people who never measures anything and improvises constantly, it was a bit of a surprise to learn that I came close to making a real dish.

Traditionally, Peperonata is onions, peppers, maybe tomatoes, garlic, oregano and olive oil. What I made last night was finely-chopped onions and bell peppers, canned diced tomatoes (drained), dried roasted garlic, olive oil, white wine vinegar, and spices.

It came together pretty well and was both hearty and a little sweet.

And I felt better doing that than I would have been had I forced myself to do a radio show (or three) this week. RFCv5 will return next week with episode 50, which I will record later this week. I also plan to do a new Swing Shift and Beatles Blast next week. This week I plan to slow down a bit and maybe catch up on TV.

New programming will return on The AIR this Friday, with Sydney’s Big Electric Cat and Mel Larch’s MIRRORBALL.

Tomorrow I’ll review a hardcover comic book reprint. Thursday I’ll do something else fun and not too taxing. This week’s slacking is a sanity-preserving move, so bear with me, and listen to The AIR. Our reruns are better than anybody else’s new programs!

Monday Morning Art: Summer Girl

This week I have a pastel drawing that started out life as a pencil doodle I did on notebook paper while I was on the phone. It’s based on an old pin-up pose, but I think I didn’t quite get the neck right. I was happy enough with it to use a lightbox to ink it onto better paper, and then I colored it with pastel crayons.

I like the way it came out, and it was a nice workout for the fingers. As I have been doing with pastel drawings lately, I put a sheet of plastic between it and the scanner, and then color-corrected the scan to make it look more like the original.

If you want to see it bigger, just click on the image.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a new episode of  Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by a new edition of Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.

At 2 PM, Nigel Pye’s new Psychedelic Shack includes the following songs:

Soft Boys “Strange”
Jobriath “Ooh La La”
Jefferson Airplane “Comin’ Back To Me”
Cream “Sunshine of Your Love”
Greta Van Fleet “Heat Above”
Neal Morse “Pleasant Valley Sunday”
Pilot ” Magic”
Stevie Wonder “Superstition”
Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation “Mutiny”
The Hollies “Bus Stop”
Redbone “The Witch Queen of New Orleans”
Steve Miller Band “In My First Mind”
Fanny “Love For Sale”

Psychedelic Shack can now be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday at 9 AM as part of our Sunday Haversham Recording Institute collection.

At 3 PM, Herman Linte offers up a new Prognosis, with the following songs:

YES “The Gift Of Love”
Jethro Tull “Crossfire”
Mike Oldfield “Sentinel”
Maggie Reilly “Everytime We Touch”
J Crist “Don’t Talk To Me”
Gideon’s Mob “The Wind And The Willows”
Also Eden “1949”
Steve Thorn “Crimes and Reasons”
Neal Morse “Carry On My Wayward Son”
Peter Gabriel “I Have The Touch (live)”
Roger Waters with Eric Clapton “Wish You Were Here (live)”
Soft Machine “Hazard Profiles Pt. 1 (live)”
Curved Air “Time Games (live)”
UK “Carrying No Cross (live)”
Camel “Excerpts from The Snow Goose (live)”
3.2 “Killer of Hope”

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

Sunday Evening Video: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and the Raiders

Today is the 226th anniversary of the famed Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Since we don’t have video of the actual Midnight Ride (YouTube keeps taking it down), instead, here’s Paul Revere and the Raiders, live in Las Vegas in 1986.

You will hear the band perform hits and covers like “We’re An American Band,” “Kicks,” “Good Thing,” “Gimmie Some Lovin'” and more.  In the future, when history is entirely web-based, it will be believed that these are the songs that Revere sang while warning about the British Invasion, driving around in a car designed by George Barris.

Many Cool Things, Crammed Into One Post

The PopCulteer
April 16, 2021

We have a ton of cool stuff to tell you about this week. You might’ve noticed that PopCult has been a bit skimpy of late. The reason is I had a paying gig that proved to be more challenging than expected, and had to take time away from blogging to take care of it.

On a related note, there was a glitch in the download of the files for this week’s new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, and I didn’t catch it until it was too late to get a replacement downloaded, re-encoded, uploaded and scheduled, so we’ll bring that one to you next week, and let Sydney get ahead on future episodes of our New Wave music showcase on The AIR. You can catch an encore of a recent episode Friday at 3 PM, at the website, or on the handy little player embedded at the top of the column on the right.

Now, onto the many cool things…

Cartoon Cartoons Returns

This one gives me flashbacks to my days writing Animated Discussions with Mel Larch for The Charleston Gazette. It was announced yesterday that Cartoon Network and WarnerMedia are reviving the Cartoon Cartoons program. Back in the mid-1990s this was a series of short cartoons made for Cartoon Network that were meant to work as pilots for potential animated series. They gathered up a bunch of then-unknown animators, and brought in a few veterans, and the project launched some modern animation classics like Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Courage The Cowardly Dog and others.

Now the project is being revived, with plans to run the cartoons on Cartoon Network and on HBO Max. The new Cartoon Cartoons will be curated by a council of animation veterans who will sift through applications and decide which projects to greenlight.

Acording to Variety, the Cartoon Cartoons Creative Council will consist of a group of experienced, artist-driven producers, including: Looney Tunes Cartoons showrunner Pete Browngardt, We Bare Bears director and writer Manny Hernandez, Animaniacs series director Katie Rice, and Woman World graphic novelist Aminder Dhaliwal.

This could produce a whole new generation of talented animators and pump new life into cartoons for a new generation. I’m really looking forward to this.

Ultraman Flies Into Trading Cards

For his 55th anniversary, Ultraman, Japan’s Kaiju-fighting superhero, will debut in his first American trading card set, courtesy of our buddy Richard Parks and his RRParks card company.

This project is live on Kickstarter, and still has two weeks to run, which is pretty wild when you realize that they are already at more than FORTY TIMES their original funding goal.

I’m just going to quote liberally from Richard’s Kickstarter page here..

This first series covers ULTRA Q and ULTRAMAN from the 1960s. That’s the focus of this series. Later series will cover Ultra Seven, Return of Ultraman, Ultraman Ace, Ultraman Taro, Ultraman Leo and Ultraman 80.  And I have no doubt that later series will have a ‘call back’ to Ultraman and Ultra Q.

Ultraman Series One is being planned with TWO different packaging styles to satisfy as many different types of collectors as possible. There will be the traditional PACK style, which will come in a 36-pack box. There will also be a ‘tuck box’ (Deluxe Pack) style packaging where 8 tuck boxes are in a CASE. In both situations, there will be randomly inserted special cards … AND in both cases, collation will be designed so complete base and subsets are possible in a full box of packs OR a full box of tuck boxes.

Backers and collectors who have pledged on my previous Kickstarter campaigns (and this is my 30th Kickstarter — all previous ones were successfully funded and delivered) know that I always make it possible for backers to get MASTER SETS. Master Sets are ONLY ever available during a Kickstarter. So if you have ANY idea of collecting Ultraman Trading Cards, NOW would be the time to come aboard — not only will you get the biggest bang for your buck AND the largest possible collection but you won’t have to try and piece together a complete set later on.

This series will include:

67 Card Base Set covering ALL episodes of Ultra Q and Ultraman

90 Card KAIJU Puzzle Back Set featuring ALL the monsters and aliens for Ultra Q and Ultraman

45 Ultra Q and Ultraman Sketch Card Artist Gallery Promo Cards

18 Ultraman Anaglyph 3D cards (and yes, I include the 3D glasses in all boxes)

11 Limited Edition Macarie Portrait Cards of Ultra Q and Ultraman

12 Limited Edition Stoinich Portrait Cards of Ultra Q and Ultraman

9 Different Metal Box Toppers

9 Different FULL MOTION Lenticular Cards

10 different RETRO STYLE Ultraman ‘Opening Credits’ Stickers

Genuine ORIGINAL ART Sketch Cards by the hobby’s LEADING Sketch Card Artists

An official DIY Sketch Card Blank (so you can draw your own monster on the card

and become PART of the card series YOURSELF!

AUTOGRAPH CARDS! Yes, we were able to get THREE of the original cast members to do a limited number of autograph cards. Fuji, Hayata and Ultraman himself! MUCH appreciation goes to Tsuburaya and The Licensing Group who helped facilitate this!

Printing Plates! Yep, own a UNIQUE piece of trading card history — a unique, genuine printing plate used in the production of these cards.

39 BONUS mini cards to be clipped out, printed front and back right on the box.

Progressive Proofs — during the printing process, four different plates are used to result in FULL COLOR. But what about what cards look like without ALL the plates to produce full color? These unusual parallel cards are being planned for this series and will be available to Kickstarter backers.

How can any red-blooded American fan of Japanese hero Ultraman pass this up? This has been a big year for Ultraman, with two excellent mini-series from Marvel Comics and the beginning of a way-cool action figure line from MEGO. You have two weeks left to jump over to Kickstarter and get in on the Ultraman trading card action. Richard produces some of the most astounding card sets in the business, and they don’t often wind up on the secondary market. If you love Ultraman, you’ll want to get in on this.

I Am Not A Number. I’m An Action Figure!

This may be hard to believe, but there have never been officially-licensed action figures made of Patrick McGoohan’s classic Science Fiction/Spy epic, The Prisoner.  That’s about the change. Bleeding Cool reports that a Kickstarter campaign is about to launch that will see “Number Six” finally realized as a four-inch action figure.

I don’t know the relevant details yet, like the price of the figures involved, but even though this is not my favorite scale of action figure to collect, I am definitely interested. The Prisoner ranks near the top of my all-time major influences. You can find more information and photos at the Bleeding Cool link above.

And you know, with that, I’m going to call this PopCulteer a wrap. Check back for fresh content every day, and hopefully we’ll have more reviews and cool stuff here next week.

Stuff To Do Returns

Okay, this is an outdoor show. I trust the organizers to enforce all the recommended COVID protocols, and it’s Mountain Stage, for God’s sake! How can I not tell my readers about this, even if I can’t go myself?

For more information on tickets and how to attend, visit the Mountain Stage website.  It’s going to be one heck of a show.

Toy Ventures Magazine Of The Third Kind

It seems like only yesterday that I was telling you about a new magazine devoted to vintage toys, and now Plaid Stallions has released the third issue of Toy Ventures. I’ve had mine for a few days but just did get the chance to crack it open, and it is an absolute treat.

The cover feature is about Action Man’s early 1980s space nemesis, Captain Zargon. This was a UK toy that I didn’t find out about until I was an adult, and it’s cool to get more details on this alien menace that’s fun for kids of all ages.

We are also treated to articles on Japanese Evel Knievel toys, Space: 1999 figures from Palitoy,  MEGO’s overseas partner, a comprehensive guide to the artwork used on MEGO superhero packaging, plus a heavily-illustrated guide to Lincoln International’s 1970s Monster figures. Rounding out the issue is an interview with John “Toyzilla” Marshall, a longtime writer who covered toys and pop culture and who was no small influence on yours truly.

Brian Heiler has done another amazing job on this issue, and you can order Toy Ventures #3, and find bundles of it with previous issues HERE, or you can snag it from eBay, if you are so inclined. While supplies last, a free iron-on transfer of Captain Zargon will be included at no extra charge! Hurry, becuase supplies are running low.

It is so great to have a new magazine devoted to vintage toys. I can’t wait until the next issue.

A Double-Dip Into The Radio Free Charleston Archives

Your PopCulteer is neck-deep in paying work at the moment, so we’re presenting a special episode of RFC this week that isn’t too labor-intensive. You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.

This week I have repackaged three of the latter-day, one-hour episodes of Radio Free Charleston Volume Four into one three-hour powerhouse episode of RFC V5. These shows, which aired in August and October, 2019, all feature live recordings of bands that were made for the RFC video show between 2009 and 2012. They’ve been off the servers for well over a year, but if you want to be picky about it, there are video versions of these shows floating around YouTube, thanks to a brief experiment with posting the radio programs there.

With all of our other music specialty shows in reruns today, I wanted to give you something new-ish. Tune in at 10 AM and 10 PM for this collection of live, local music.

Hour one brings you audio taken from raw video of two bands, Ovada and Mother Nang. recorded live at The Empty Glass in Charleston, WV.

Ovada was recorded in May, 2009, while Mother Nang was recorded one year later, in May, 2010. This is raw audio taken from one camera angle that we shot for the RFC video show. These files were thought lost in a hard drive crash years ago, but we recentl;y discovered a treasure trove of them tucked away on a backup disc. Much of this music has not been heard since it was recorded.

The audio quality is a little rough, and I left in the between-song banter, to give you an idea of what it was like to actually be there.

Mother Nang, of course, is Spencer Elliott, Brian Young, Jay Lukens and Deron Sodaro, and while they don’t perform together regularly these days, they remain friends and a reunion is always possible.  Ovada, on the other hand was led by the late Joseph Hale. When we recorded them, Joseph as billing himself as “Joseph Hellmouth,” and he was backed up by our old friend John Radcliff, plus Joe Rita and Cliff Boyd. It’s cool to help keep Joseph’s music alive.

Hour two is the first half of a pair of episodes devoted to a 2012 concert, put on by Wood Boys Music. This hour goes back into our video vaults for the first of two hours that bring you highlights of the Tribute To The Troops II show, held at Saint Albans City Park back in the summer of 2012. Some of these songs were heard on a three-part series on the RFC video show, while others are being heard here for the first time. This week we bring you performances by HARRAH, Deck of Fools, The Under Social, Remains Unnamed, Candace Weaver, Breedlove,
Point of Jerus and Johnny Compton.

Hour three dives back into our video vaults for the second of two hours that bring you highlights of the Tribute To The Troops II benefit show.  Some of these songs were also heard on a three-part series on the RFC video show, while others are being heard here for the first time. This hour we bring you performances by Everpulse and Point of Jerus. For some reason we had audio recordings of two entire sets by these bands, so we gave them the last hour of our live music retrospective.

I did not take the time to go back and re-edit the announcing for the original shows, so there may be topical on nonsensible references. Just ignore most of what I say and enjoy the music…which, to be fair, is probably good advice for every episode of Radio Free Charleston.

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Thursday at 3 PM, Friday at 9 AM and 7 PM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, and the next Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

 

Psychedelic Shack Joins Prognosis On Mondays

We are changing things up with the Monday schedule on The AIR this week.  Psychedelic Shack, which has been sharing its Tuesday timeslot with NOISE BRIGADE for over a year now, returns to weekly status and moves to Monday as the lead-in to Prognosis. The Monday Marathon moves to a nighttime spot, and we’re switching stuff around all over the place. You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.

With our Haversham Recording Institute shows back in production in London,  we have decided to move Nigel Pye’s Psychedelic Shack to Monday at 2 PM, right before Herman Linte’s Prognosis.  The shows compliment each other well, and Nigel has even guest-hosted Prognosis in the past.

Starting today, We’ll have our usual replay of last Friday’s new Big Electric Cat at 7 AM. That will be followed a replay of MIRRORBALL at 9 AM, Curtain Call at 10 AM and Radio Free Charleston at 11 AM.

Then at 2 PM we debut a new episode of Nigel Pye’s Psychedelic Shack, bringing you the trippiest music on the planet. This showcase of psychedelc music moves to Mondays going forward. In the old Tuesday Timeslot, Steven Allen Adams’ NOISE BRIGADE will now alternate weeks with classic episodes of Dexter Checkers’ Ska Madness. Nigel has a pretty wild show for us this week, just look…

Psychedelic Shack 041

Dukes of Stratosphear “25 O’Clock”
Josefus “Dead Man”
T2 “No More White Horses”
Room “Cemetery Junction”
Fun Of It “Bluesy Death”
Redbone “Chant: 13th Hour”
Troyka “Early6 Morning:

Psychedelic Shack can now be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with a lot of replays throughout the week. We haven’t settled on exactly when, but we will keep you posted.

Stick around, because we have Herman Linte and Prognosis with an ALL NEW episode at 3 PM. This is a killer show, just check out the playlist…

Prognosis 069

Steven Wilson “Eminent Sleaze”
Transatlantic “The World We Used To Know”
Guranfoe “Night’s First Light”
Evership “Isle of the Broken Trees”
John Frusciante “Pleasure Explanation”
Marc Almond “The Stars We Are”
Jethro Tull “Black Satin Dancer”
Liquid Tension Experiment “Key to the Imagination”
Simon Collins “I Will Be Waiting”
Tears For Fears “Power”
Panoply “Five Steps To Nowhere”
Touch “Swan Song”
Rick Wakeman “The Prisoner”
Pallas “Ark of Infinity”
Moana “Smoke That Mirrors”
Steve Hillage “Water Trip”

Due to the lockdown in the UK, the Haversham Recording Institute programs has been in rerun mode Since February, and it’s a treat to have them back..

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, Saturday at 10 AM and a double-shot of classic episodes Sunday at 2 PM.

And if you enjoyed The Monday Marathon, stick around because at 7 PM it kicks off with 12 full hours of Beatles Blast, to celebrate its new evening and overnight timeslot. The Haversham overnight marathon will now move to Sunday morning and afternoons.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 PopCult

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑