Month: December 2022 (Page 4 of 4)

The PopCulteer
December 2, 2022

We have reached the first Friday of December, and this afternoon we offer up a special new episode of MIRRORBALL on The AIR. The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM, Mel Larch uncorks a new MIRRORBALL! The AIR’s showcase of classic Disco music presents a collection songs produced and composed by Giorgio Moroder.

Moroder changed the landscape of Disco music with his sonic creations like Donna Summer’s hypnotic “I Feel Love.” Widely regarded as a founding father of disco and also an electronic music trailblazer, Moroder made his mark as an influential Italian producer, songwriter, performer and DJ.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Moroder has worked with some of the most famous names in music including Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Cher, Janet Jackson and David Bowie. He is heavily noted for being the key player in the Queen of Disco Donna Summer‘s rise to fame throughout the 1970s, collaborating with her on her biggest hits including “Love To Love You Baby,” “Hot Stuff” and “I Feel Love.” In 1997, Moroder and Summer won the Grammy Award for “Best Dance Recording” for the song “Carry On.”

Giorgio Moroder’s music charted success everywhere the disco craze touched down but he is also responsible for some of the most classic film scores to date including Scarface and Midnight Express, as well as timeless soundtrack numbers like Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” (Top Gun), Irene Cara’s “Flashdance,” Blondie’s “Call Me” (American Gigolo), as well as compositions on films such as The NeverEnding Story, Superman III, Rambo III and Beverly Hills Cop II. From these, Moroder has accumulated three Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, four Grammys and more than 100 gold and platinum records. Giorgio Moroder was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2004.

We’ll hear the Disco classics created by Mororder and his Munich Machine cohorts, Pete Bellotte and Keith Forsey, and chances are we’ll continue this theme with the next episode of MIRRORBALL in a couple of weeks.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 064

Giorgio Moroder “The Chase”
Donna Summer “Virgin Mary”
Trax “Watch Out For The Boogie Man”
Dino Solera “Classically Elise”
Giorgio Moroder “I Want To Funk With You Tonight”
Marsha Hunt “The Other Side of Midnight”
Giorgio Moroder “Utopia”
Speed Limit “Love Fever”
Giorgio Moroder “Let The Music Play”
Munich Machine “Party Light”

You can hear MIRRORBALL almost every Friday at 2 PM, with replays Saturday at 9 PM and Sunday at 11 PM exclusively on The AIR. Next week things will be a bit different because of our big December programming stunt!

The AIR’s Big December Programming Stunt

Starting Monday, December 5, at 7 AM, The AIR will kick into “Best of 2022” mode, as we present eight days of marathons featuring the best episodes of our music specialty shows from the first eleven months of this year. Check out this schedule:

From Monday at 7 AM until Wednesday at 1 PM it’s our flagship show, Radio Free Charleston.

Wednesday at 1 PM until Midnight we have Mel Larch’s Curtain Call.

Thursday, Midnight to Midnight, Herman Linte graces us with our prog-rock show, Prognosis.

Friday all day it’s me with The Swing Shift, making things Swing for you hipsters.

All Day Saturday MIRRORBALL changes the dance style as Mel Larch brings you 24 hours of classic Disco music.

Sunday Sydney’s Big Electric Cat brings New Wave Music to the forefront, courtesy of Sydney Fileen.

Monday, December 12, wraps up our Marathons with Nigel Pye’s Psychedelic Shack, from 7 AM to 9 PM, and then yours truly returns with ten hours of Beatles Blast.

And then Monday, December 13, me mother’s birthday, no less,  The AIR returns to normal for a week before we get all Christmas-y.

And with that, we wrap up this week’s PopCulteer. Speaking of wrapping things up, later today sees the final installment of The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide, as we go out with five super-cool gift ideas. In this space next week we’ll bring you the master list of every gift idea we brought you. We’ll also have all our regular weekly features.

It’s the next-to-last day of The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide and today I’m going to recommend gift ideas based on one of the most holiday appropriate icons of pop culture.

Today our gifts are all based on EC Comics!

I didn’t say which holiday, now did I?

You may have a horror fanatic on your shopping list who would love to experience and celebrate the comics that arguably shaped everything from modern horror comics and movies to anthology TV shows and even horror-movie hosts. With their mix of shock, gore and humor, the EC horror comics set the tone for the “Monster kids” of the 1960s to take over movies and TV.

And there was much more to EC Comics than just the horror comics. They also offered up Science Fiction books and shocking thrillers, in addition to being the publisher of MAD Magazine.

The original comics are like a “who’s who” of comic book creators, with artists like Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, Bernie Kreigstein, Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, Graham Ingels, Al Williamson, Harvey Kurtzman and more. Writers included Al Feldstein, Ray Bradbury, Jack Oleck and others. While fun and humorous at times, it’s amazing that these comics were published at the tail end of comic’s Golden Age. They really are a sign of where comics could go in the future.

The HBO Series Tales From The Crypt is an adaption of an EC Comic book, and the Creepshow movies and television series are directly inspired by these classics.

Today’s picks look at a very affordable recent series of EC Comics Archives from Dark Horse, plus some cool licensed products for the die-hard fan.

EC HORROR Collections

EC Comics published a trio of classic horror anthologies, Tales From The Crypt, The Vault Of Horror and The Haunt Of Fear, and each book had a “host” who introduced stories. This was where we met The Cryptkeeper, The Vault Keeper and The Old Witch.

The cool thing was that each book included stories introduced by all three hosts. In their home book, the host would take the first and last story, and turn over the second and third stories to the other two. They would crack corny jokes about the stories and insult and make fun of the other hosts and their stories.

The stories are exceptionally well-crafted, with brilliant art, and the formula worked well enough that it carried over to the HBO adaptation, an animated cartoon series, and almost every horror or sci-fi anthology on TV from The Twilight Zone to Night Gallery, Tales From The Darkside, Creepshow and many, many others.

As part of their affordable paperback EC Archives collections, Dark Horse has published two volumes each of Tales From The Crypt, Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear. Each book costs less than twenty bucks, and the production is awesome.

The books are printed larger than they were originally. Now they’re the size of magazines, which is easy for aging eyes. Marie Severin’s original color guides were followed to digitally re-color the artwork, and each volume contains six full issues, reprinted complete with the original letters pages and covers. Some volumes have introductions by prominent fans.

These are basically paperback versions of the hardcover EC Archives, which retail for fifty bucks each or more.

You ought to be able to order these from any bookseller or comic book shop, but for the sake of convenience, Amazon has Tales From The Crypt HERE and HERE; Haunt Of Fear HERE and HERE; and Vault of Horror HERE and HERE.

EC Science Fiction Collections

Occasionally overlooked because the Horror comics got so much attention (not all of it welcome), the EC Science Fiction comics were no less revolutionary, with amazing art and stories.

These are absolute gems that belong in the library of any comic book or science fiction fan.

So far, Dark Horse has only released the first volume of Weird Science (The John Hughes movie and TV series had little resemblence to the comic, but at least they did pay for the rights to the name) as a low-priced paperback, but that will change as Incredible Science Fiction is due out just after Christmas, and the first volume of Weird Fantasy is scheduled for January.

For now, you can order volume one of Weird Science HERE.

EC Crime and Thriller Collections

Not content with just horror and science fiction, EC also gave us pulp-style crime and thrillers with Shock SuspenStories.

There have been two paperback volumes so far, the first of which has a foreward by Steven Spielberg. You can order it HERE.

This high-quality trade reprints the first six complete issues of the pulp-comic classic Shock SuspenStories! Featuing the titanic artistic talents of Al Feldstein, Jack Kamen, Jack Davis, Joe Orlando, Graham Ingles, and Wally Wood.

The second volume, which reprints issues #7-#12 can be ordered HERE.

These are suprisingly sophisticated stories, recommended for fans of Film Noir and Mickey Spillane.

EC Comics Plush Throws
From Retro-A-Go-Go
$45 each

These are a pre-order item, but they are supposed to ship next week, so you have plenty of time to get them for Christmas.

The folks at Retro-A-Go-Go have licensed classic EC comic book covers for a series of deluxe plush throws.

These are huge blankets, with a generous 50″ width by 77″ length. Made from ultra-soft, lightweight polyester microfiber. The front of the blanket is printed edge-to-edge with vibrant and fade-resistant colors. The back is lined with fuzzy, warm, white fleece. Machine washable.

You can warm up with horror or science fiction to keep you warm. There are four designs, but one is already sold out. The remaining styles offer up a classic cover from Weird Science, a classic cover from Tales From The Crypt, and a montage of classic science fction covers.

The artwork is beautiful, and these are perfect for folks who are into cool weird stuff to snuggle with.

EC Comics T-Shirts and Socks
from Fright-Rags

The Horror Clothiers at Fright-Rags have licensed EC Comic’s iconic Horror Hosts for a trio of shirts, and not stopping there, they have also produced a pair of socks featuring all three ghoulish storytellers.

You have your choice of The Cryptkeeper on a red shirt; The Old Witch on a green shirt; The Vault Keeper on a blue shirt, or all three hosts with classic panels from the comics on a pair of socks.

These are all high-quality garments, featuring art recreated by Kyle Crawford.

This is as close as you can get to giving socks and underwear to a horror fan without causing them to attack you with a meat cleaver!

Tomorrow we wrap up The 2022 PopCult Gift Guide with a collection of REALLY COOL STUFF!