Month: November 2022 (Page 2 of 5)

It’s Thanksgiving Day and hardly anybody is going to be reading the blog until tomorrow, so today, instead of suggesting material things you can buy, The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide presents five things that folks local to Charleston, WV, can do on Friday and Saturday.

Black Friday Artwalk
Downtown Charleston

From 5 PM to 8 PM Friday, Charleston’s downtown galleries and art-friendly spaces will play host to artists selling their wares. Art makes a great gift, and this is a great way to support the local scene.

Highlights include Jake Fertig’s work at Stray Dog Antiques; The work of Appalachian Gothic at WV Market; Blacklight ArtWalk at Aronfield will have art by folks at Hole in the Wall and live music by Emmalea Deal; There will also be Holly Jolly Brawley set up in the Brawley Walkway and downtown stores will stay open late so you can shop local, support the local scene and keep your holiday dollars in the community.

Record Store Day
Budget Tapes & Records and Sullivan’s Records

A great place to find gifts for the music lover on your list is this year’s Black Friday Record Store Day, the national movement to get people into records shops by offering hundreds of exclusive releases on one day each year, has expanded to a second day in recent years with a smaller, but still impressive slate of exclusive limited edition vinyl releases on Black Friday.

Locally, Budget Tapes and Records (3708 MacCorkle Ave SE, in Kanawha City) and Sullivan’s Records (1588-A Washington Street East on Charleston’s Historic East End) are participating, with special vinyl releases from Ringo Starr, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Ultravox and dozens of other great artists, and new and unreleased music from history’s greatest musicians. You can find a full list of available records HERE. Sullivan’s opens at 8 AM and Budget opens at 9:30.

Black Friday & Small Business Saturday at Eclectic Goods Market

The area’s newest cool shopping destination, located in the teeming Metropolis of Dunbar, will be open Friday and Saturday with tons of discounts and specials. This very large antique and artisan mall will be open 11 AM to 6 PM both days, and they’re promising all kinds of holiday shopping specials as vendors will have discounts up to 50% off and are stocked up on loads of new inventory.

Among the weekends specials there will be:  Gift card giveaways up to $100 (Saturday only);  Gift Wrapping prices starting at $3;  Free kids craft kits;  Curated gifts under $20.

Eclectic Goods Market is located at 1401 Charles Ave, Dunbar, WV. If you’re old enough to remember, it’s the former location of FAD Furniture.

Scarpelli & Kehde’s MARY: A Rock Opera
Elk City Playhouse

Mark Scarpelli and Dan Kehde’s rock opera, MARY,a Charleston tradition, opens this coming Friday. This is the first production of the show following the death of its composer, Mark Scarpelli, earlier this year, and while it’s bittersweet, it is good to see the tradition carry on.

Let me repeat myself from a few days ago and remind you that, to get in the mood for this production by Charleston Youth Arts Company, you can sample a Radio Free Charleston playlist of clips from previous  productions in Sunday Evening Video from a few days ago. This year MARY happens at the Elk City Playhouse at 218 W Washington St, Charleston, on the city’s historic West Side.

MARY: A Rock Opera returns for its 26th season on Friday, November 25th and runs through December 4th. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. The story follows Mary, the young girl destined to be the mother of Jesus, through the 9 months prior to the birth of Christ. MARY paints a poignant picture of an ordinary girl thrown into the ultimate of extraordinary circumstances.

Seating is limited, so we suggest you purchase tickets ahead of time HERE.

Live Music at The Shop (Dunbar) Sam’s Uptown Cafe (Charleston)

John Inghram Band and The Settlement will be at The Shop Friday, November 25th 2022. Doors open at 8 PM and the show begins at 9 PM. Admission is $12 at the door.

Born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, John Inghram was steeped in the historic music of the region. His mother’s side of the family were church musicians, and he was exposed to bluegrass, country, gospel, and old-time music as a kid. On his self-titled debut album, John Inghram, the accomplished bass player seizes the present moment to step into the spotlight as a front man. With a collection of 60’s and 70’s psychedelic rock tunes, Inghram sets modern experiences to vintage sounds, allowing his listeners to feel time as circular in nature, hitting on the right now with both nostalgia and innovation.

The Settlement is a funk-fusion jam band from Huntington, WV. Cleverly combining rowdy rock riffs, complex jazz harmonies, funky bass lines, dreamy pop melodies, jammin’ reggae grooves and a multitude of diverse world music influences, the eclectic ensemble truly offers something for everyone. Each member has their own unique flavor and contributes to the bands’ vast array of sounds. Each set is different from the last, offering an original live performance that thrives on energy, improvisation, communication and creativity.

Both bands are heard often on Radio Free Charleston, on The AIR.

BYZANTINE’s CD RELEASE show happens at Sam’s Uptown Cafe Friday night. Join BYZANTINE and POTTERA (Pantera Tribute Band) for the official release of BYZANTINE’S new EP, BLACK SEA CODEX. This show is sponsored by Blackened Whiskey. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door. The show is general admission and doors open at 8 PM.

There are also VIP tickets that allow fans to hang out with the band at the merch booth, get pics and autographs along with finger foods and complimentary beverages until showtime.

BYZANTINE are internationally acclaimed Metal Gods, based here in Charleston, and getting the chance to see them in an intimate setting is a rare treat. They are also heard frequently on Radio Free Charleston.

That is our Thanksgiving Day sort of gift guide entry. Check back tomorrow for new radio shows and another edition of The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide. And Happy Thanksgiving from PopCult!

Today The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide offers up five gift ideas, which have no unifying theme other than they are all books. Every book on this list is available in a physical format, so you’ll have something to wrap and stick under the tree.  For the readers on your shopping list, here you go…

TALES OF THE STARCHILDREN
by Thomas Wheeler
Independently published
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8364123015
$17.00

First up today we have a sequel to the first novel from my friend and fellow pop culture journalist, Thomas Wheeler. Thomas is well-known for his expertise with toys such as the Real American Hero: GI Joe and Masters of the Universe. Tales of The StarChildren continues the adventures of the young denizens of the future.

This would be the perfect gift for fans of old-school science fiction and adventure. It’s a throwback to the golden age of science fiction, with echoes of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Isaac Asimov and Jules Verne, but with an modern setting.

Here’s what the Amazon blurb says:

Months after saving the world, the StarChildren face new adventures, including the arrival of some long-lost friends who bring news of the future from which the StarChildren arrived. But what is the mysterious news, and what impact will it have on the entire population of StarChildren?

Described as “Star Trek meets Jonny Quest”, the first StarChildren novel introduced readers to a remarkable band of youngsters from dozens of worlds in a future time. Now the sequel carries on their amazing science-fiction adventures!

Available directly from Amazon. You can also find his original StarChildren novel there.

Memories of Marx Toys: Glen Dale
by Gary Rider and Roseanna Dakan Keller
Independently published
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8801403045
$25 (Paperback)
$34.99 (Hardcover)

Anyone interested in toy manufacturing, Northern West Virginia history or post-war industrial America should seek out Memories of Marx Toys: Glen Dale. It’s a great gift for folks who are curious about any of those topics.

Gary Rider and Roseanna Dakan Keller have crafted an exhaustive history of the Marx Toys Glen Dale, West Virginia plant, pre-dating Marx toys and going all the way to the days of the Marx Toy Museum. They do this by weaving deep research with a stirring oral history provided by dozens of Marx Factory employees and their families. The book is also generously illustrated with photos and images from the factory.

Memories of Marx Toys: Glen Dale is a fascinating look at how toys were made in the days before OSHA, before outsourcing to other countries, and before Marx Toys themselves shut down operations.  We learn how life was for an every day worker at the factory, including some downright frightening tales of dangerous incidents at the plant and the aftermath of chemical exposure. However, the overwhelming aura of this book is that of a fond rememberance of a factory that provided employment for hundreds, if not thousands of households in the Glen Dale/Moundsville area for decades.

The book winds up with a profile of Francis Turner and a history of The Marx Toy Museum, which is one of my favorite places in the world. It follows the opening of the museum, the closing and even the visit by American Pickers a few years ago. I think Francis deserves a book of his own someday, but this is a great start and taught me a lot of new facts about my friend.

While Memories of Marx Toys: Glen Dale is obviously a must-have book for any fan or collector of Marx Toys, it will also appeal to anybody who would like a well-crafted story about a small factory town and the people who lived there.

You can order Memories of Marx Toys: Glen Dale from Amazon in Hardback or Paperback editions. You might also be able to order it from your local bookseller using the ISBN number above.

It’s All in the Mind : Inside the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, Vol. 2
by Robert R Hieronimus and Laura E Cortner
Hieronimus & Co., Inc.
ISBN-13 9781736049808
$32.49 Available from the author

Over twenty years ago I discovered the most comprehensive book ever about the making of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. Now the author has returned with a new volume loaded with more insider stories on how favorite scenes were made, on-set hijinks, the Swinging 60s. Why the Yellow Submarine makes us feel so GOOD, interpretation of symbolism and the subconscious. Full-color, 203 illustrations.

This new book details the merry and wildly creative tribe who produced The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, the ground-breaking, one-of-a-kind visual adventure, first released in 1968. Get to know the formerly undiscovered artists and the technical wizardry behind your favorite scenes. Discover symbolic interpretations and subconscious messages of peace and love, plus in-studio hijinks by frustrated animators that were hidden in the movie.

How does Yellow Submarine inspire such wonderful feelings of peace and love? This book lifts the veil of the animation screen to see behind The Beatles and detail that one magical year, during the Summer of Love in Swinging London, when a band of young artist-fans fell into the groove and brought their heroes to animated life. Part two of the internationally acclaimed Inside the Yellow Submarine: The Making of the Beatles Animated Classic by Dr. Robert R. Hieronimus and Laura E. Cortner.

This is, of course, the perfect gift for any Beatles fan or anybody interested in Yellow Submarine. You can order the deluxe paperback from the author, or other booksellers, but be warned that the version on Amazon is a cheaper printing, with no color graphics.

Shudder’s Creepshow: From Script to Scream
by Dennis L. Prince
Titan Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1803363066
$49.99

Shudder’s Creepshow: From Script to Scream is the official behind-the-scenes book featuring the spine-tingling stories and tantalizing talent behind the Creepshow series. This is the inside look at Greg Nicotero’s television continuation of Stephen King and George Romero’s Creepshow franchise.

Shudder’s Creepshow: From Script to Scream, produced by AMC Networks Publishing and Creepshow showrunner and executive producer Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), is a coffee-table book which brings fans behind-the-scenes of the acclaimed Creepshow series with deep dives into its riveting origins, gripping development, provocative production, sinister special effects, and much more.

The book features a foreword by legendary storyteller and Creepshow co-creator, Stephen King, and an afterword by horror aficionado Kirk Hammett, Metallica’s lead guitarist. Based on the hit anthology series from Nicotero, Cartel Entertainment, Striker Entertainment, and in partnership with Titan Books, the book is written by Dennis L. Prince, designed by John J. Hill, and co-produced by Julia Hobgood.

The series has been heralded as “an irresistibly macabre package,” (Slant Magazine) and “an undeniable love letter to all generations of horror fans,” (CBR), and over three seasons, has been one of the most watched programs on Shudder.

Shudder’s Creepshow: From Script to Scream is the perfect gift for any fan of the show, or for folks who have an interest in horror filmmaking.  Available from any bookseller, using the ISBN code.

The Kinks: Every Album Every Song (On Track)
by Martin Hutchnson
Sonicbond Publishing
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1789521726
$21.95

The Kinks don’t get a lot of ink. While libraries full of books have been written about The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors and other major rock bands of yesteryear, there haven’t been a great deal of books written about The Kinks.

Hailing from Muswell Hill in London, The Kinks were one of the top British bands of the sixties, with over twenty hit singles including a trio of number ones (including the famous paean to their home city ‘Waterloo Sunset’). They had over a dozen top ten’s, thanks to the clever and sometimes sardonic songwriting of Ray Davies, who dominated the band and deservedly went on to be knighted.

When the seventies came along, they recorded a number of critically acclaimed concept albums, and their live shows became more theatrical with the band shifting focus to become pioneers of arena rock in America. Following a resurgence of commercial popularity in the late seventies and early eighties, the band continued to record interesting and lyrically insightful albums.

They last performed together in 1996. The combination of Ray’s songs and the musicianship of the band – including his brother Dave Davies, with whom Ray had a rather tempestuous relationship, has resulted in The Kinks being named as a major influence for many bands. This book examines all the tracks released by The Kinks, both singles and albums, and provides a valuable insight into one of music’s greatest groups.

The Kinks: Every Album Every Song (On Track) is the ideal gift for any fan of The Kinks, but it’s also a really good introduction to the band for the non-fan, and would be welcome in any music lover’s pop music library.

You might be able to order this from any bookseller, but it’s an import and Amazon has it in stock now.

That is today’s entry in The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide. Tomorrow we’ll be telling you about some local, Charleston, West Virgina retail events scheduled for Black Friday.

Wednesday afternoon The AIR brings you a special new episodes of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast.  You can tune in at the website, or if you’re on a laptop or desktop, you could just stay right here and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM Beatles Blast Dives headfirst into the new Super Deluxe Edition of The Beatles’ Revolver album, with an hour of new mixes, previously unheard demos and rehearsals and all sorts of cool studio outtakes.

Revolver is considered the band’s best album by huge chunk of Beatles fandom, and it’s amazing how they were able to use audio technology invented for The Beatles Get Back project to isolate the voices and instruments on the original four-track recordings to create a bold new mix. The bonus cuts are revelatory, showing how the band wrote their songs and tracing the evolution of different tracks.

This week’s show gives you a taste of this must-have boxed set of Beatles’ rarities.

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

At 3 PM on Curtain Call, Mel Larch salutes  25 years of Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway. Naysayers didn’t see how an animated film about talking and singing animals could be translated to the stage but Julie Taymor devised a way to do it that works so well that the play is still running on The Great White Way and touring all over the world.

With additional songs by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer fleshing out the songs written for the movie by Elton John and Tim Rice, and innovative puppets helping represent the animals, The Lion King has proven to be a timeless classic of the stage.

In this episode of Curtain Call, Mel assembles a mixtape from the Original Soundtrack Album, the Original Broadway Cast album and even the Mexican Cast Album to  pay tribute to the many successful iterations of this beloved musical.

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evening starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Also on The AIR, Wednesday at 11 PM,  The Comedy Vault revisits its fifth episode, as our comedy showcase takes the rest of 2022 off.. The Comedy Vault can be heard every Wednesday at 11 PM, with the featured episodes replayed a couple of weeks later, Monday at 8 PM. New episodes begin again in January.

Today we’re going to recommend some graphic novels, or collections of comics, in The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide.

Captain Action: The Classic Collection
by Gil Kane, Jim Shooter, Wallace Wood
forward by Mark Waid
IDW Publishing
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1684058907
$29.99 (discounted at Amazon)

Captain Action was a 12″ action figure that could be dressed up as a variety of superheroes, using outfits (each sold separately). Thanks to the less-sophisticated licensing deals of the day, Ideal Toys was able to offer outfits for the Captain featuring heroes from DC Comics, Marvel, King Features Syndicate and more. It was a great gimmick and the toy line did good business until the 1960s superhero boom went bust after a couple of years.

However, during that time DC Comics picked up the license to produced a comic book based on Captain Action. It lasted five bizarre and intriguing issues, and those make up the bulk of this book.

Captain Action: The Classic Collection collects the entire five-issue run of the comic book, complete with covers and bonus material.

Since the character was pretty much a blank slate, much of his mythos had to be created out of thin air by the writer of his first two issues, a teenaged Jim Shooter (later to be a controversial editor at Marvel and Valiant Comics). Shooter, under the guidance of editors Mort Weisinger and Julie Schwartz, came up with his secret identity (Clive Arno), his job (Archeology Professor with a Museum named after him) and a source of super powers (magic coins imbued with the power of the gods).  The series featured spectacular art, with the first drawn solo by the legendary Wally Wood, and the second with Wood’s inks over the equally legendary Gil Kane.

After the first two issues, which told the origin of Captain Action and gave us a great Silver age super hero action story, Shooter was gone. With the third issue, Kane took over as both the writer and penciller (and he even inked the fourth issue himself). It was at this point that the series took a turn toward the psychotronic.

With Gil Kane in charge (under the editing of Julie Schwartz), Captain Action became one of the first truly psychedelic superhero comics. Dr. Evil was introduced, but instead of simply being his “enemy from Alpha Centuri,” as the toy was identified, Dr. Evil in the comics was an alturistic scientist mutated by an accident who becomes a god-like blue-skinned alien with an exposed brain and telepathic powers…who now hates humanity.

Captain Action is very much a work of its time, and when Kane took over writing the book, the influences of Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, and a culture that was experimenting with all kinds of ways to expand your mind were in the air. Kane’s stories are cosmically aware, yet are still filled with superhero action and great comic book melodrama.

Highly recommend for the toy collector/comic book fan on your holiday shopping list.

Fantastic Four: Full Circle
by Alex Ross
Harry N. Abrams/Marvel Arts
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1419761676
$24.99 (discounted at Amazon)

Fantastic Four: Full Circle is a stunning valentine to Jack Kirby and his brilliant late-1960s run on Marvel’s Fantastic Four. With dialogue and editing by Stan Lee, Kirby told epic superhero tales of cosmic adventure that set the standard for the Marvel Universe.  Alex Ross has long been established as a master of telling dynamic superhero stories with a photorealistic style. Full Circle is the first time that he’s handled both the writing and the art solo, with no collaborators.

This is the first “Marvel Arts” book, a joint venture of Abrams Arts and Marvel, and it gets the imprint off to a strong start. Ross jumps right in, unburdoned by decades of complicated continuity, and tells a direct sequel to a couple of Kirby/Lee FF stories from the 1960s.

The end result is a spectacularly-illustrated 64 page story that reads like a lost classic Fantastic Four Annual from thecomic’s peak period. The artwork of Alex Ross is pure eye candy, and he shows off the strength of his layouts here as well. He perfectly recreates the fast pace of the classic comics and crams tons of action into a very short space.

Ross did not paint the art here. It’s drawn traditionally and colored by Ross with Josh Johnson in wild day-glo hues, with digital effects to lend the art the hand-separated dot-pattern look of old school comics. It’s got just the right touch of nostalgia, without turning it into a gimmick.  Another really nice touch is a fold-out dustcover that retells the origin of The Fantastic Four, just to bring new readers up to speed.

The story itself is an adventure in the Negative Zone, which spins out of dangling storylines left over from the Kirby days. It is everything a fan could want in a Fantastic Four story set in the Negative Zone.

Ironically, despite its setting in the Negative Zone, the story is overwhelmingly upbeat and positive. Thematically it would fit right in with the treasury-sized specials that Ross did with Paul Dini at DC over twenty years ago.

Fantastic Four: Full Circle is a must-have gift for any fan of classic Marvel comics.

The Spider: Crime Unlimited
written by Jerry Siegel, Donne Avenell
art by Aldo Marculeta. Giorgio Trevisan
Rebellion Publishing
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1786184658
$24.18

From British comics of the 1960s comes The Spider. The Spider was the most accomplished criminal in the world, to the point where he got bored hanging out with other criminal masterminds and started fighting crime alongside the police. Because he was the smartest man in the world, nobody every really trusted him, but when it came to foiling epic plots to dominate the Earth, he was the go-to savior of the planet.

The character is a bit sinister-looking. He had a large nose, pointed ears and a widow’s peak. That he usually wore a black bodysuit makes him bear an uncanny resemblance to the Golden Age depiction of Captain Marvel’s strongest foe, Black Adam. However he didn’t have that kind of superpowers. He was sort of like a Bond villain who would switch sides and help the good guys. It’s also worth noting that while The Spider’s adventures span the globe, he is based in New York City, which was a bit unusual for a British comic of the day.

This hardcover reprint volume collects two long adventures of The Spider from 1967, and there’s a lot of note here.  The first story is written by none other than Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of Superman, who found himself begging for work after DC Comics (then National Periodical Publications) blacklisted him for trying to reclaim ownership of his creation. Somehow he found himself writing for the top publisher of comics in Britain, and his work here is among his best.

Although the pacing and structure of the comic book is very much in line with UK comics aimed at kids, the ideas at work here are more subtle and sophisticated than one might expect. The dialogue is state-of-the-art 1960’s spy/action jargon, but the plot of this story, which opens with The Spider robbing a retirement trophy from the police commissioner, veers into the morality of mind control as a professor attempts to create a ray that will turn evil people good, and that experiment backfires, turning the professor evil instead, while giving him super powers.

The Spider: Crime Unlimited is a great introduction to one of the more unusual British comic book characters of the 1960s. I highly recommend it for fans of the period, fans of the spy/crime genre or just anybody who likes good comics. You ought to be able to order it from your favorite comic book shop or bookseller, or through Amazon.

Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection
by GILBERT HERNANDEZ, JAIME HERNANDEZ, MARIO HERNANDEZ
Fantagraphics
ISBN-13 9781683965541
$400.00

This is the most expensive non-regrigerator gift suggestion in this years PopCult Gift Guide, but it’s worth every penny. In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Fantagraphics’ flagship series, this prestigious box set presents bound facsimiles of the original fifty issues of the Love and Rockets comics magazines.

Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez are now recognized as two of the greatest cartoonists in the history of the medium — award-winning, world-renowned, critically acclaimed. But in 1982 when the first issue of Love and Rockets came out, they (occasionally working with their brother, Mario) were two young, struggling, unknown cartoonists who were bucking the dominant comic book trend of costumed characters and adolescent content with intimate, complex, humane, novelistic stories told in comics form. Love and Rockets has appeared in a variety of formats over the years and continues to this day, but the original 50-issue run represents a milestone in comics history. Fantagraphics is celebrating and honoring the 40th anniversary of Love and Rockets and the debut of the Hernandez’s’ first published comics with a gigantic eight-volume slipcase reprinting each issue in a facsimile edition.

Their organic body of work is available in a series of scrupulously and logically organized graphic novels, but here Fantagraphics honors the original quarterly format by presenting the comics as they appeared between 1981 and 1996, recreating not only the reading experience of tens of thousands of fans, but of a particularly fecund period in comics history when a new generation of cartoonists was exploding the idea of what comics could be. Painstakingly recreated in issue-by-issue facsimile, this boxed set includes every cover, comics page, and letter column (even advertising!) in seven hardcover volumes. An eighth volume densely collates selected essays, reviews, and profiles that appeared in the popular (and unpopular) press between 1981 and 1996, along with over 100 pages of additional, rarely-seen comics from the period by all three Brothers, plus dozens of book and magazine covers – a virtual history of the growth of Love and Rockets and the simultaneous rise of the literary comics movement of which they were exemplars and trailblazers.

Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection is part of the Love and Rockets series. Recommended for the comics fan on your holiday shopping list that you love enough to drop four hundred bucks on.

Groo Meets Tarzan
by Sergio Aragones with Mark Evanier and Thomas Yeates
Dark Horse
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1506722375
$19.99 (discounted at Amazon)

Groo The Wanderer, the hapless barbarian created by Sergio Aragones for a benefit comic forty years ago, has proven to be one of the most durable independent comic characters ever since, appearing in books published by Pacific Comics, Eclipse, image, Marvel’s Epic imprint and Dark Horse Comics.  Aided and abeted by Mark Evanier, Aragones has told his tales of the clueless harbinger of destruction at a steady pace for decades now.

In Groo Meets Tarzan, jungle adventure, time travel and wizardry come into play as the bumbling barbarian encounters the cunning lord of the jungle. Will Groo wind up destroying the jungle itself or teaming up with Tarzan to fight slavers?

With cartoonist Sergio lost and running from hungry lions in Chula Vista’s Jungle Safari Land and script writer Mark doing panels all day at Comic-Con International, how will this comic get finished? Legendary Tarzan artist Thomas Yeates swings in to help! Plus—the legendary Rufferto backup strips from the comic series and an introduction by Mark Evanier are also included! The confident lord of the jungle meets the dangerous master of cheese dip!

This book collects Groo Meets Tarzan comics #1 to #4, and is a great gift for fans of Aragones’ work in MAD Magazine, fans of Groo, fans of Tarzan or just any comics reader with a healthy sense of humor.

Available from any bookseller, or from Amazon, at a discount.

There you have five gift suggestions for today. Check back tomorrow as The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide brings you a day filled with totally randome gift ideas.

It’s Tuesday on The AIR  and that means it’s Radio Free Charleston time, and we also have a new edition of The Swing Shift for you enjoy. You simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

We have three full hours of music, much of it new, local and not, at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesday.   This week our latest Radio Free Charleston has killer new tunes from loads of artists, and I’m going to tell you all about them now.

We open the show and also our second hour with tracks from the new Payback’s A Bitch album, This Is My Life. What’s cool about this (other than it’s the first PaB album in years) is that this is a punk rock operetta in four acts (plus and overture and an epilogue) written and performed by Thom Copher.  It tells the story of The Hooligans, a London-based punk band contemporary to The Clash, The Sex Pistols and The Ramones, who released a couple of singles in 1976, and didn’t quite find the acclaim of that the other bands of the day did. It celebrates the raw energy of punk rock and combines it with the surreal aspect of surviving your dreams and wondering what the hell happened.  We’ll be hearing more tracks from this project in the coming weeks.

Folowing that, we have a preview track from a Chicago-area team up between the progressive pop band, Tautologic,  and the traditional Cletic band, Character Fleadh (that’s pronounced “Flaw” which makes the pun work–thanks to Ethan from Tautologic for saving me from mangling that word).  This preview track from an album due next March features world-renowned Irish accordionist John Williams.

Also from our Chicago pipeline, we have a track from Daniel Gunderson, who has been performing in various venues for the last 40 years, across a variety of instruments and musical styles. He has mostly played in bands (and often as a backup instrumentalist) but has now stepped out on his own as a solo performer.  Ravenslake Music has just released his solo debut studio album. The album Remember, a collection of Gunderson originals and covers of tunes by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and The Rolling Stones,

Another cool band making their RFC debut is The Routes, who, on their album The Twang Machine, perform surf-guitar covers of songs by Kraftwerk. They turn  up in our first and third hours because, well, you know…”surf-guitar covers of songs by Kraftwerk.”

Throughout the show we continue our mix of local, independent and major-label artists, just to keep you on your toes.  This week chunks of the show veer a little country, then a little New Wave-y, then we sort of go all over the map.

Check out the playlist below to see all the goodies we have in store. Live links will take you to the artist’s page…

RFC V5 109

hour one
Payback’s a Bitch “This Is My Life”
Logical Fleadh “Merry Blacksmith-Swinging On The Gate”
Tyler Childers “Jubilee (Jubilee Version)”
Daniel Gunderson “Gravel From The Dirt”
Annie Neely “Patchwork Quilt”
Paul Callicoat “The Hills Beyond”
Heavy Set Paw Paws “(Pressin’) The Leather”
The Routes “Pocket Calculator”
Frenchy And The Punk “Blood”
Nervous Twitch “It’s Going To Be OK”
The Company Stores “A New Leaf”
Madness with Paul Weller “Audition/The Harder They Come”
J Marinelli “Everything Begins”
Carl Perkins “Gone, Gone, Gone”
The Paranoid Style  “Doug Yule”
Stark Raven “Radio”

hour two
Payback’s A Bitch “Johnny and Jenny”
Buni Muni “Old School
Erasure “Rock Me Gently”
Danny Elfman “We Belong (Squarepusher Remix)”
David Synn “Conception of Aries”
The Smashing Pumpkins “The Good In Goodbye”
Yoko Oginome “Nudist”
Bane Star “Perfectly Designed”
Aurora “Cure For Me”
Animal Hospital “Paralarva”
Spencer Elliott SE3 “Insignificant”
Agile Thumb “In One Ear (Out The Other)”
Mike Batt & Friends “Stel Me, Free Me, Shake Me, Save Me”

hour three
The Routes “Autobahn”
Fitz & The Tantrums “Heaven”
Novelty Island “Elizabeth”
The Lickerish Quartet “New Days”
Jordan Andrew Jefferson “Crybaby”
Emmalea Deal “Sugar and Champagne”
Joseph Hale “Church of Paranoia”
Mediogres “Chef’s Kiss”
Christine and the Queens “Tu sais ce qu’il me faut”
Bobby McFerrin “Sunshine of Your Love”
Three’s Company Blues “Pray For The Thunder”
John Entwistle “Left For Dead”
Speedsuit “Riddle”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 3 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight,  and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

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.

After RFC, stick around for encores of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM we have a new hour of The Swing Shift that’s loaded with a combination of unexpected surprises and Swing Music standards.  Check out this playlist…

The Swing Shft 134

Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown “I Want You For My Girlfriend”
Tyler Pedersen “Striden on Europa (Mellotron version)”
David Campbell “Birth of The Blues”
Minor Swing “Scooterville”
Sugarpie And The Candymen “Otherside”
Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good”
Duke Ellington “I’ve Got The World On A String”
Jelly Roll Morton “Kansas City Stomp”
Phil Harris “Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy”
Louis Jordan “Choo Choo Ch-Boogie”
Amos Milburn “Down The Road Apiece”
Quincy Jones Big Band “Happy Faces”
Nat King Cole “But She’s My Buddy’s Chick”
Pink Turtle “Billie Jean”
Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne “Stewball”
Glenn Miller “Sweet Potato Piper”

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursday and Sunday evenings.

Last week we told you about retro board games, but today in The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide we’re going to recommend NEW board games for the gamer on your holiday shopping list.

You Lying Sack
by Exploding Kittens and Penn Jillette
$19.99
Available exclusively from Exploding Kittens

You Lying Sack is an honest-to-goodness game about lying. It is a first-of-its kind collaboration with Penn Jillette of the legendary magic-duo Penn & Teller. To play, reach into the Lying Sack, grab something, then look into each player’s eye and lie to them. Or don’t. They must decide: are you lying about what’s in your hand? Will you outsmart your opponents? Or will you get caught?

As we have seen, lying is an essential talent needed to advance in conservative politics, so a young kid might hone the skills with this game that they can use to run the country into the ground in the future!

It’s a fun game, for ages seven and up, and for two to five players. Average gametime is around fifteen minutes.

Target: Rats | The Board Game
by Transit Tees
$45 This is a pre-order that will ship on November 30th, in plenty of time for Christmas
Available from the Transit Tees website

In every alley in the city of Chicago, you can find a bright yellow poster with a mean-looking rat under a red cross hair, warning you of how dangerous rats are and to alert you that exterminators have planted rat poison in the area. Printed in bold red letters on the poster is the slogan, “IF RATS CAN’T FEED, RATS CAN’T BREED.”

In this game, you will be playing as the head of a family of rats trying your best to survive in this hostile environment. You must lead your family to victory by scavenging for food to feed your rats, then breeding to produce more rats, and establishing new nests to grow your territory. Finally, you must become Da Big Cheese to control Rat City at the heart of the underground. But beware! In the big city, a rat can meet danger around every corner!

Suitable for ages ten and up, and for two to four players. Average gametime is 60 to 90 miinutes.

Contents:
1 20″ x 20″ Game Board
48 Painted and Screen Printed Wooden Rat Pawns
1 Painted and Screen Printed Wooden Exterminator Pawn
8 Painted and Screen Printed Wooden Dumpsters
1 Painted and Screen Printed Wooden Deep Dish Pizza
4 Painted and Screen Printed Wooden Sewer Covers
16 Chipboard Nest Markers
79 Cards full of Prizes and Perils that a city rat might encounter
8 Custom Six-sided Dice

This is a great way to turn a problem into a fun way to pass the time, and if you scroll down the page you order from, you’ll find lots of Rat-related merchandise.
Not recommended for the rat-hater on your shopping list.

GO GO GARGOYLE! THE GAME
by Archie McPhee
$24.95
Available from Archie McPhee

The Horrible Horseman has defeated the gargoyles that defended Crowning Castle and thrown everything into chaos. A new batch of baby gargoyles has been birthed from the fire demon to retake the castle and protect it from future attacks.

These gargoyles have got to save the kingdom! This simple game takes you through a magical kingdom full of ghosts, cryptids and grumpy wizards. Includes a fantastic detail-filled game board, four 1-1/8″ tall gargoyle tokens and 54 standard-sized, 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″ illustrated cards.

It’s a game about brave little gargoyles. A game board, cards and mini-gargoyles are included.

Race to the castle to defeat Horrible Horseman, battle monsters, traverse the catacombs and mediate a divorce.

Recommended for ages eight and up, and for two to four players.

Horrified: American Monsters Strategy Board Game
by Ravensburger Games
$31.99
Available from Target

This is a new edition of a game I recommend last year. This time, instead of fighting the Universal Monsters, players work together to save the town from classic cryptids monsters: Bigfoot, Mothman, the Chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, the Ozark Howler, and the Banshee of the Badlands.

That’s right, Point Pleasant’s own harbinger of doom is one of the characters in this game.

Each unique monster requires different strategies and tactics to be defeated. Adjust the difficulty by facing different groups of monsters, each represented by a sculpted miniature. Will you be victorious against American’s legendary cryptids?

Recommended for ages ten and up, and one to five players. Playing Time can range from 45 minutes to two hours, depending on how you play.

Game Contents: 1 Game Board, 6 Monster Mats, 6 Monster Figures, 7 Investigator ID Tiles, 7 Investigator Standees, 13 Citizen Standees, 22 Bases, 60 Item Tokens, 45 Monster Tokens, 1 Terror Marker, 1 Frenzy Marker, 30 Monster Cards, 20 Perk Cards, 5 Reference Cards, Item Bag, 3 Dice, Rules

Space Explorers
by 25th Century Games
$25
Available from Amazon

The conquest of space was one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. In 1957, the first satellite – named sputnik 1- was launched into orbit. Just four years later, Yuri gagarin was the first human in space, aboard the spaceship vostok 1.This game is dedicated to the early space explorers: all the outstanding people who worked to make space travel possible. As Yuri gagarin said at the moment of his launch: “let’s go!”

In this game you are the head of a research & development hub in a space research center, competing with other such hubs in the spirit of the Golden age of astronautics. Your goal is to complete large- scale space projects by gathering The best and brightest minds humanity has to offer.You score progress points by recruiting specialists and completing projects. The game ends when all available projects are completed, or you have recruited 12 specialists to your hub. The player who made the most progress Is the winner!

Specialists are assigned to the divisions according to their skills. The more specialists you have in a division, the easier It is to recruit new ones to that division.

All specialists have unique abilities. Only the ability of the top card in each stack is Active. Therefore, by adding a new specialist, you often get a new ability but lose the other one. Think carefully what is more important for you at that moment in the game!

Recommended for teens and up, this game features absolutely gorgeous graphics that capture the retro-space program feel of the Apollo era.

That’s our new board game recommendations for this year. Tomorrow The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide will recommend more graphic novels!

This week’s art is a quick pastel crayon expressionistic imaginary city scene.  Parts of it are inspired by photos I took in Chicago, New York and Columbus, but since I wasn’t going for a high-detail depiction of anything, it doesn’t really matter.  This was a small piece done to limber up my fingers and present a non-specific sunny day in an urban setting.

Because it’s been so bleak and dreary here, this was my little bit of escapism.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a new episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM 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 elsewhere on this page.

Since I’m still waiting on these shows and their accompanying playlists as of Sunday evening, I have no way to tell you what’s going to be in these shows.

On Psychedelic Shack, Nigel Pye offers up an hour-long mixtape of Psychedelic Music, which is how he do.

Psychedelic Shack can 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.

On a classic Prognosis, Herman Linte presents another mysterious new program.

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.

Tonight at 8 PM you can hear an hour of classic musical comedy from Noel Coward on The Comedy Vault. Wednesday evening at 10 PM, we’ll have another rerun this week because somebody is busy writing a gift guide.

Then, at 9 PM we bring you an overnight marathon of Psychedelic Shack, with a fun selection of random episodes from the last five years.

And check back around noon. That’s when we plan to post Day Six of The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide! Today we have five new board games to suggest.

Mark Scarpelli and Dan Kehde’s rock opera, MARY,a Charleston tradition, opens this coming Friday. This is the first production of the show following the death of its composer, Mark Scarpelli, earlier this year, and while it’s bittersweet, it is good to see the tradition carry on.

To get you in the mood for this production by Charleston Youth Arts Company, you can sample a Radio Free Charleston playlist of clips from previous  productions in the video at the top of this post. This year MARY happens at the Elk City Playhouse at 218 W Washington St, Charleston, on the city’s historic West Side.

I’m going to quote from their event page for the rest of this post, but if you haven’t seen MARY: A Rock Opera, you really should…

Scarpelli & Kehde’s annual production of MARY: A Rock Opera returns for its 26th season on Friday, November 25th and runs through December 4th. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors.

The story follows Mary, the young girl destined to be the mother of Jesus, through the 9 months prior to the birth of Christ. MARY paints a poignant picture of an ordinary girl thrown into the ultimate of extraordinary circumstances.

The cast features Maddie Wright as Mary, Maddy Solange as Gabriel, Maddy Stull as Elizabeth, Blaize Hurlbutt as Joseph, Mattie Connelly as Herod, and Justin James and David McMahon split the role of Zechariah.

Our angels this year are Erin Martin, Kayla Skidmore, Sophia Mallory, Sara Jo Bender, Erin Cazad, Beaux Reynolds, Katie Marberry, and Julia Carriger.

Seating is limited, so we suggest you purchase tickets ahead of time HERE.

From January 2008 comes the thirty-fourth episode of Radio Free Charleston, “Lucha Mask Shirt (Show Without Words #1) which featured music from Charleston’s Blues legend Raymond Wallace, WV’s Latin Stars Duo Divertido, and Parkersburg’s master of the 12-string Josh Buskirk. This episode was online briefly as part of the RFC Archives MySpace page, but went down with that ship, and is now available again for the first time in well over five years.

In addition to the music, we also had fresh animation from RFC Big Shot Frank Panucci and a special visit from the then Commander in Chief. Best of all, this episode of RFC featureed NO VOCALS! The music is all instrumental, as is the animation, and even the President doesn’t have much to say.

Of course there were the host segments to contend with. I hosted the show with duct tape over my mouth. There are subtitles for my mumbling. We even recorded a special version of the theme song, and non-verbal jingles for this show. A lot of effort went into this as an afterthought.

We remembered to record them while we were shooting the host bits on the fifth floor of the Quarrier street parking building at the Charleston Town Center, and the new jingles and theme were recorded in the car while RFC Big Shot Melanie Larch and I were warming up between segments. It was very, very cold  when we shot these.

The “Show Without Words” became an irregular feature of Radio Free Charleston, with three more wordless episodes in the ensuing years. This one was the first. We sort of got the hang of it later. You can read the original production notes HERE.

While people seem to have moved on from physical formats of video, you can’t wrap a stream, so today The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide will recommend five boxed sets of Blu Ray or DVD collections for you to wrap and put under the tree for the luddite on your holiday shopping list.

Links below the titles will take you to the online retailer who had the best price as I write this.

The Ultimate Richard Pryor Collection: Uncensored
DVD
$31.89

From his groundbreaking stand-up to television appearances, blockbuster films and beyond, Richard Pryor always told the whole, hilarious truth. A once-in-a-generation innovator, changing the game and inspiring everyone who came after him, Richard’s intimate storytelling made the world feel like we knew him and loved him.

Richard Pryor lived his life out loud, sharing the pain of the lowest lows and dazzling us from the highest heights. There’s simply never been a comedian like Richard: totally genius, outrageously funny and perfectly human.

This six-DVD boxed set includes Richard’s full-length concert films—Live & Smokin’ and Live in Concert, plus his groundbreaking 1977 NBC TV special including guests John Belushi and Maya Angelou and all four innovative and controversial episodes of The Richard Pryor Show, featuring Robin Williams,Sandra Bernhard, Tim Reid, Marsha Warfield, and more.

You’ll also get rare footage from Richard’s final shows at the Comedy Store and the hilarious documentary short I Ain’t Dead Yet, #*%$#@! as well as never-before-released footage from Richard’s infamous first film, Uncle Tom’s Fairy Tales.

Perfect for the fan of edgy comedy on your shopping list.

Batman: The Complete Animated Series
DVD or Blu Ray
$44.96/$53.99

I’m pretty sure I’ve recommended this before, but in the wake of the death of Kevin Conroy (Batman’s voice), and since this is now available in a much less-expensive package, I’m going to recommend it again.

Batman: The Complete Animated Series includes all 109 episodes (Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures) of the critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning series that redefined the Dark Knight with its thematic sophistication, aesthetics, voice acting, and orchestral score.

All of the episodes feature the 2018 remastering and are now all here in this stunning Blu-ray or DVD boxed set that’s spread over 10 discs, which also includes Also includes 2 Bonus Discs of Animated Films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero.

Any fan of Batman of any age will appreciate this collection, considered by many to be the definitive version of The Caped Crusader. And in honor of Mr. Conroy, it just might bring a tear to their eye, too.

The Outer Limits Season One
Blu Ray
$54.95

This seven-disc set collects the first season of The Outer Limits. While The Twilight Zone gets all the love (and revivals), this 1963 science fiction anthology series had just as many memorable moments, and some amazing names that turned up in its cast. Plus it had just as iconic an opening as Rod Serling’s show did.

“There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture.” Here are the classic tales of awe and mystery from the first season of ABC’s sci-fi anthology series that aired from 1963-65.

You’ll see guest stars as Cliff Robertson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Culp, Sally Kellerman, Donald Pleasence, Martin Sheen, Chita Rivera, and many others.

This collection includes 32 episodes on 7 discs, for a total 27 1/4 hrs running time. You’ll also get subtitles and commentary tracks.

This is perfect for the fan of classic science fiction on your shopping list.

Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection
Blu Ray
$49.99

Originally released two years ago, this collection of classic Bugs Bunny cartoons is perfect for the fan of classic animation on your holiday shopping list. This deluxe collection, which has three BD discs and a glittering Funko Pop of Bugs that doesn’t reall look like him is now under fifty bucks, and wrapped, it makes a nice gift to put under the tree.

Bugs Bunny first hopped onto the screen in 1940 and he’s been a pop-culture icon ever since. More than eight generations have enjoyed the timeless antics of the carrot-munching wise guy who always outsmarts his rivals. Cartoons, movies, TV, comics, music, sports and more – this wascally wabbit has done it all. Clever pranks and one-liners are here, along with interviews with today’s most renowned animators, historians and superstars. Enjoy the full range of his silly and smart-alecky personality with 60 theatrical shorts restored and remastered to their original 4×3 aspect ratio on Blu-ray for the first time.

Over a third of these cartoons have never been on DVD or Blu Ray ever before. Another 10 of them were on sets before but were never fully restored like they are here. The rest have the formatting fixed to the correct original aspect ratio of the original theatricalreleases.

It’s a great set, and there’s no guarantee that HBOMax will continue to include these once they get merged with Discovery + next year, so this set might be your best bet for Bugs.

Ultraman Nexus: Complete Series & Ultraman: Next
DVD
$22.99

This 6 DVD set is the perfect gift for the fan of Kaiju-battling superheroes. In Japanese, with English subtitles, this set includes 37 episodes of the 2004 reboot of this beloved franchise, Ultraman: Nexus, and also the theatrical movie, Ultraman: Next, which acted as a prequel to the series.

In an era of global instability, how would people react to a mysterious alien that battles deadly monsters on Earth? Would a suspicious human race be capable of viewing Ultraman as a friend or foe?

Kazuki Komon joins the Night Raiders, a secret group that fight murderous monsters called Space Beasts. Komon’s life is changed after Ultraman saves his life, but is shocked to find that the Night Raiders view Ultraman as a threat. Ultraman the Next: Will Maki prevail or will the reptilian beast destroy him? And even if Maki does win, can he retain his humanity and avoid ending up becoming a dangerous monster just like the reptilian creature?

This collection includes over 900 minutes of  primo Ultraman Content on 6 discs.

And we are now at the halfway point of The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide. We will resume on Monday, but I haven’t decided what our theme will be that day, so you’ll just have to check back and see. And don’t forget PopCult‘s regular weekend features, either.