Day Ten of The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide is devoted to games of the not-video variety. I’ll be including one or two links so you can order these online, but if you can find them locally, try to do that. We’ve got gift ideas for game-players for a wide range of ages and interests so let’s roll the dice…

El The Chicago Transit Adventure Board Game
$45 from Transit Tees
Also available from other retailers
Suitable for ages 13 and up. 2 – 8 players.

Welcome to Chicago! There’s lots to do in The Windy City, and you have a full itinerary. Make your way around the city using the famous elevated “El” trains to visit places of interest and return to the State/Lake station before anyone else.

Strategize your optimal route by utilizing trains and buses, but be prepared for detour. Keep an eye out for stations undergoing renovation, and be sure to carry enough Transit Tokens to pay for your fare! And of course, you’re not the only person riding the trains. Other travelers might just throw your plans for a Loop! Pack your bag, gather your friends, and set out on your Chicago Transit Adventure!

Contents:

1 20″ x 30″ Game Board Map of Chicago’s famous Elevated Train System
8 Painted and Screen Printed Wooden Train Pawns to match the 8 train lines
32 Screen Printed Wooden Transit Tokens
12 Fluorescent Acrylic Station Renovation Markers
67 Destination Cards with places to visit around Chicago
28 Condition Cards that will help or hinder your trip
2 Six-Sided Dice

Designed by Transit Tees in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. El The Chicago Transit Adventure Board Game would make a great gift for the person on your shopping list who loves The Windy City, or just likes the idea of having access to cool public transit.

The Blockbuster Game: The Movie Board Game for Adults and Teenagers…
Under $20 from many retailers
12 Years and Up for 4 or more players

The golden age of video rentals is back! Introducing a brand new fun family game for anyone that has ever seen a movie – and just like all great blockbusters, this one’s a double bill! This is a game for adults and teenagers alike, but for best results, you’ll want to split up into two mixed teams.

In round one, each team will choose one of their members to go head-to-head in a quick-fire buzzer battle. From ‘Famous trilogies to ‘Movies with a zombie in it’, these two players must think quick, shout out a movie and slap the buzzer to put pressure on their opponent. The first player to run out of ideas loses the round (and gives their opponents a serious advantage in round two). We like to call round two ‘Movie charades with a twist’.

The player that won the buzzer battle picks up six movie cards, gives the hardest three to their opponent and keeps the rest for themselves. When ready, they’ll get 30 seconds to get their team to shout out the movies by using three tricky techniques – acting out the film, making up a quote and describing them with just one word.

Get them right quick enough and you’ll have a chance to steal from your opponents. Take it too slow and they might get a chance to steal from you. It’s an all-out race to collect a film from every genre and be crowned the new Blockbuster big-shots.

With 200 classic movies, 60 category cards and a replica of a Blockbuster parking lot, you’ll want to clear a space on your top 10 family party games – this is one that’s sure to bring the entertainment home again and again. Requires two AA batteries (not included).

With The Blockbuster Game, you get…

260 cards, 1 electronic timer, 1 game board, 1 Blockbuster sign, instructions

A great gift for the movie-loving trivia game buff on your shopping list.

Top Trumps Match Game – DC Comics Originals
Under $20 from many online retailers
For ages 6 and up

This game is great fun for fans of DC Comics of all ages (it’s illustrated with beautiful JL Garcia-Lopez artwork), despite the unfortunate company name.

Join the DC heroes and villains as they battle to see who can get 5 in a row. With iconic characters like Superman, Batman and The Joker, there’s loads of cubes and lots of characters. Take it in turns to push through the cubes. The aim is to get 5 of the same DC character lined up horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

The game’s not over yet, can your opponent super Top Trump you in the final moment? If they match their Top Trumps card with the winning DC character, they WIN the game! This game is great for memory development and comes in a handy all in one unit that you can take anywhere – from Gotham City to Metropolis!

Be the first to match five of your favorite characters in a row – horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Can you match Superman or Batman before your opponent?

Can your opponent steal the game? Turn over the Top Trumps card to reveal if they can take the match and win the game.

Play with 15 of your favorite characters from Superman, Batman, Darksied and the Joker. Game is for 2 players.

Easy to set up and pack away, Top Trumps Match comes in a handy self-contained plastic case – play anytime, anywhere.

Ravensburger Horrified: Universal Monsters Strategy Board Game
Available online for under $25
For ages 10 and up.

This is the perfect gift for the Universal Monsters fan who also likes board games on your shopping list.

What’s your game plan when your village is attacked by The Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula and other monsters? This Horrified Board Game is exactly that. You along with your team of heroes have to join forces to defeat them. But the victory doesn’t come easy. Every monster has its own set of strengths and you need to come up with a strategy. You can adjust the level of difficulty by going against a new team of monsters.

Horrifed comes with 1 game board, 7 sculpted miniatures, 75 cards, 3 dice, fabric bag, 17 paper movers and Bases, 6 placards and instructions.

Horrified is a cooperative board game for ages 10 and up where you defend the town against Frankenstein, Dracula, the bride of Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Mummy, the invisible Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. How cool is that?

Easy to understand instructions – high quality, easy-to-understand instructions make it simple to start playing right away.

With an estimated 60 minute play time, for 1-5 players, Horrified’s innovative style is easy-to-learn w/ varying levels of difficulty Facing the unique monsters requires different strategies, which creates a different experience every time.

And if Horrified is a hit with your giftee, early next year you can seek out the second edition, which replaces the Universal Monsters with America’s most famous Cryptids, including West Virginia’s own Mothman!

Rogue Art History: The Trivia Game
Around $25 from online retailers (This is a pre-order, due to be released November 23)
For ages 14-up.

Rogue Art History is a fun and easy-to-set-up game for ages 14 and up, where players answer trivia questions about art history and collect artwork along the way.

Be the first to collect five artworks and prove, officially, that you know your stuff. Players who answer trivia correctly exchange their Trivia Cards for Artwork Cards. Get enough Artwork Cards and you win the game!

Players can also use “Rogue Scholar” Cards to help them answer questions, protect their artwork from getting stolen, and sabotage other players. Trivia questions are multiple choice, and the difficulty level varies (ranging, for example, from “What body part did Van Gogh cut off?” to “How many pet chow chows did Georgia O’Keeffe own during her lifetime?”).

Funny, and at times playfully irreverent and a little absurd, this game dispels the myth that art and art history are only for stuffy intellectuals. It’s welcoming for all players, from those PhD holders to curious high schoolers just starting to learn about the classics. For four to six players.

Play Rogue Art History on its own or combined with the National Portrait Gallery set for more art and 96 more trivia questions. It’s due out the same day, and has the same rules.

The PopCulteer
November 12, 2021

We take another brief break from The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide to tell you about what to expect on our sister internet station Friday afternoon, plus we are taking baby steps toward bringing back Stuff To Do.

Friday afternoon we offer up a new episode of MIRRORBALL and encore a recent Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player at the top right column of this blog.

At 2 PM, Mel Larch uncorks a new MIRRORBALL! The AIR’s showcase of classic Disco music presents a solid hour of some of the best club hits of the classic disco era. It’s a great show, and I’m just going to drop the playlist right here…

MIRRORBALL 037
Musique “Keep On Jumpin'”
Sylvester “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
The Real Thing “Can You Feel The Force”
The Three Degrees “Givin’ Up, Givin’ In”
Patsy Gallant “From New York To L.A.”
Odyssey “Native New Yorker”
Trammps “Disco Party”
Ritchie Family “The Best Disco In Town”
Jimmy Horne “Spank”
Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 “Blame It On The Boogie”
Liquid Gold “Dance Yourself Dizzy”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays Saturday at  8 PM, Sunday at 11 PM, Tuesday at 1 PM and Wednesday at 7 PM, exclusively on The AIR.  This week’s new MIRRORBALL will kick off a Disco Marathon Saturday night until Midnight.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen graces us with an encore of an episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat devoted to 12″ dance remixes of classic New Wave hits.

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon, Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR.

You can also hear select episodes of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat as part of the Sunday morning and afternoon Haversham showcases, which begin at 9 AM with Psychedelic Shack, and include double shots of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat and Prognosis.

Stuff To Do

Aside from what I’m posting below, there are tons of things in and around Charleston to keep you busy this lovely autumn weekend.  I have not been confident in suggesting anything that happens indoors because I’m still freaked out over the pandemic, but we are seeing a slight improvement, so here are the first indoor ideas for Stuff To Do in several weeks.

You should know the drill by now. The pandemic is still not over.  Even though it’s getting slightly better, but it’s still really bad. If you are fully vaccinated and ready to do your best to stay safe, you should go check this stuff out.

So use your common sense and stay safe…and support the local scene.

That’s what’s on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back because we have a fresh post every day and Friday afternoon will see our latest five-item entry in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide. Today we’re doing Board Games!

Books are terrific gifts for kids, and in today’s 2021 PopCult Gift Guide we’re going to suggest five children’s books, lushly-illustrated, for the 2 to 10 year-old reader on your holiday shopping list.
As always, I implore you to buy your books from a local independent bookstore, but in case that isn’t possible, there are links to buy these books online in the titles.

The Haunted Mansion Little Golden Book
by Lauren Clauss (Author), Glen Brogan (Illustrator)
Golden/Disney
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0736441773
$5.99

Recommended for ages 2 – 5, but perfect for Disney fans of all ages, and as a bonus, illustrated by Charleston’s own Glen Brogan (who also turned up in Monday’s Gift Guide post), we have The Little Golden Book of The Haunted Masion, so kids can experience Disney Parks’ famous Haunted Mansion ride like never before.

It’s easy to get into the Haunted Mansion… but can you find your way out? Join the Ghost Host and search your way through all the creep-tastic rooms of Disney Parks’ Haunted Mansion-from the ominous Séance Room, to the ghoulish party in Grand Hall, to the attic that holds many scary secrets.

Perfect for Disney and Little Golden Book fans of all ages, this spooky story is also great for members of the Future Goths of America. The book was released in time for Disney World’s 50th anniversary last summer, and is a great stocking stuffer.

Grandude’s Green Submarine
by Paul McCartney (Author), Kathryn Durst (Illustrator)
Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593372432
$18.99

I know that yesterday was our second Beatles Day in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide, but Sir Paul has been working overtime, and just published his second Grandude storybook, illustrated by Kathryn Durst, which is not only a great gift for young readers aged 4 to 6, but is also nice for Beatlemaniacs of all ages, since it is Paul McCartney, and he is writing about an adventure in a brightly-colored submarine.

Celebrate the fun that grandparents and grandkids can get up to in this action-packed undersea adventure—a companion picture book to Paul McCartney’s #1 New York Times bestseller Hey Grandude.

Grandude’s inventions are the stuff of legend, and his new green submarine doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it flies as well as submerges! Grandude whisks the grandkids off on another adventure, but he and the Chillers soon find themselves in a pickle. Suddenly, it’s Nandude to the rescue! Nandude is an explorer as courageous as Grandude, with an amazing accordion-ship to boot!

Between Grandude’s magic compass and Nandude’s magical music, everyone arrives home safely. But not before enjoying a parade, dancing rainforest animals, and a narrow escape from a grabby octopus. This tale is perfect for little explorers and Paul McCartney fans alike! Artist Kathryn Durst returns with glorious, humor-filled illustrations that are as beautiful as ever.

Change Sings
by Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long
Viking Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780593203224
$18.99

In this stirring, much-anticipated picture book by presidential inaugural poet and activist Amanda Gorman, anything is possible when our voices join together. As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes—big or small—in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves.

As a young girl totes her guitar past a mural of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and sings her anthem of change. She meets another child, and together, they clean up a litter-ridden playground.

Throughout the book, the girl uses her strength and smarts to make a difference. She gives a bone to a dog, builds a ramp for a wheelchair user, shares a meal with a homeless child, and gathers a band of music lovers.

The poem’s rhythm is beautifully depicted through rich illustrations and is an ode to the ripple effect of good one person can create. This is a lyrical picture book debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman and #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long

Change Sings is a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference. Recommended for children ages 4 to 8.

I Am Odd, I Am New
Benjamin Giroux, illustrated by Roz MacLean
Schiffer Publishing
ISBN13: 9780764362415
$16.99

Through the eyes of 10-year-old Benjamin Giroux, being odd is different, and different is a good thing. This is what the then fifth-grader hoped to convey in his poem, beginning every few sentences with “I am,” about what it is like to live with autism.

Inspired by a school assignment, Benjamin’s raw and emotional words poured out onto the page, but when he feared they were not any good, his parents shared the poem with friends and family. Little did they know that it would go viral and end up inspiring thousands of strangers who identified with him to share their support.

Now for the first time, Benjamin’s iconic poem “I Am Odd, I Am New,” comes to life in this lovingly illustrated picture book with a foreword written by the National Autism Association. So whether you know the poem, or it is new to you, discover how Benjamin’s honesty will reassure children of all ages that it’s okay to be different.

Recommended for readers aged 5 to 9.

Hi Weirdo! – The New Children’s Book by Aiden and Mitch O’Connell
$15.00   Available at Mitch’s Etsy Store, Shipping next week.

I have to confess, this is a last-minute entry. It just went live while I was proof-reading today’s PopCult Gift Guide, and I just had to include it here. It bumped a Dinosaur Encylopedia that will probably show up next week.

Mitch is an old friend from my comic book days, and he was also in Monday’s Gift Guide Post. Now, along with his many accomplishments, which include providing illustrations for everything from major magazines and newspapers to comic books to record albums, tattoo designs and Tiajuana Bibles, he can add, “Children’s Book Illustrator.”

Mitch explains…

I finally got around to drawing a children’s book!
Luckily, my 7 year old son Aiden had a great idea, so we went to town!
It’s a 28 page, Little Golden Book sized, heavy stock, full color trip through a town full of weird, wild and wacky characters!
What will happen?
What do they look like?
What life lessons will be learned?
Get the book and find out!

As for age-appropriateness, it’s written by 7-year-old. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s the perfect gift for Weirdos of all ages!

Today is the second Beatle-centric day in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide. We have another batch of gift ideas for the Beatle-obsessed person on your holiday gift list. Last week four out of five of our Beatle-y selections were for the actual music of the Lads from Liverpool. This week we reverse that, with one music gift idea, two books and two collectibles.

The Beatles: Get Back
by The Beatles (Author), John Harris (Editor), Ethan Russell & Linda McCartney (Photographers), Hanif Kureishi (Introduction), Peter Jackson (Foreword)
Callaway Arts & Entertainment
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0935112962
$60.00 (heavilydiscounted at most retailers)

Any Beatles fan will want this companion coffee-table book to Peter Jackson’s six-hour re-edit of the Beatles’ Let It Be footage. Get Back will debut on Disney+ later this month, and thus far, no Blu Ray or DVD release has been officially announced, but this book is the next best thing.

The most anticipated book in more than a decade by the legendary band, The Beatles: Get Back is the official account of the creation of their final album, Let It Be, told in The Beatles’ own words, illustrated with hundreds of previously unpublished images, including photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney. Half a century after the 1970 Let It Be album and film, this milestone book coincides with the global release of Peter Jackson’s documentary feature film, The Beatles: Get Back.

The book opens in January 1969, the beginning of The Beatles’ last year as a band. The BEATLES (The White Album) is at number one in the charts and the foursome gather in London for a new project. Over 21 days, first at Twickenham Film Studios and then at their own brand-new Apple Studios, with cameras and tape recorders documenting every day’s work and conversations, the band rehearse a huge number of songs, culminating in their final concert, which famously takes place on the rooftop of their own office building, bringing central London to a halt.

The Beatles: Get Back tells the story of those sessions through transcripts of the band’s candid conversations. Drawing on over 120 hours of sound recordings, leading music writer John Harris edits the richly captivating text to give us a fly-on-the-wall experience of being there in the studios. These sessions come vividly to life through hundreds of unpublished, extraordinary images by two photographers who had special access to their sessions―Ethan A. Russell and Linda Eastman (who married Paul McCartney two months later). Also included are many unseen high-resolution film-frames, selected from the 55 hours of restored footage from which Peter Jackson’s documentary is also drawn.

Legend has it that these sessions were a grim time for a band falling apart. However, as acclaimed novelist Hanif Kureishi writes in his introduction, “In fact this was a productive time for them, when they created some of their best work. And it is here that we have the privilege of witnessing their early drafts, the mistakes, the drift and digressions, the boredom, the excitement, joyous jamming and sudden breakthroughs that led to the work we now know and admire.” Half a century after their final performance, this book completes the story of the creative genius, timeless music, and inspiring legacy of The Beatles.

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine (Beatles Album Series)
by Bruce Spizer
498 Productions, LLC
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0983295785
$29.99, available from most booksellers

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine is the latest installment in the Beatles Album Series by Beatles historian Bruce Spizer. The book covers the songs and projects undertaken by the Beatles shortly after completion of their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in April 1967.

In the following ten months, the group wrote and recorded the song “All You Need Is Love” for the Our World TV program that was broadcast by satellite throughout the world, wrote the songs for and filmed the TV spectacular Magical Mystery Tour, wrote the songs for their feature length cartoon film Yellow Submarine, and recorded the songs “Lady Madonna” and “Across The Universe” before heading to India to study transcendental meditation in mid-February 1968.

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine covers these remarkable achievements from the British, American, and Canadian perspectives, and includes chapters on the packaging of the albums and the writing and recording of the songs. It also has chapters on how the Beatles influenced our world, the friendly rivalry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Beatles Saturday morning cartoons, dozens of fan recollections, and more. The book has over 150 images.

John Lennon Vinyl Stamp Collecting Book
USPS
$32.95 plus tax

This is a very cool collectible item produced by The United States Postal Service. Designed to look like a classic vinyl album, this package includes four new John Lennon Forever Stamps with accompanying mounts; a round book (shaped like a record) with images and text; all housed in an old-school vinyl sleeve, with interactive flaps featuring the photo used on the stamps.

The interactive flaps recall Lennon’s original pressing of the Walls and Bridges album, and in what I’m sure is not a coincidence, the photo used on these stamps was taken at the same photo session as those used on that album.

This is a fun and unexpected crossover collectible, just perfect for the Beatles or Lennon fan on your shopping list who also dabbles in stamp collecting.

You can order this directly from the Post Office.

Hornby Magical Mystery Tour Bus
$35, available from The Beatles Official Store

The Beatles released the Magical Mystery Tour album in 1967 to accompany the film of the same name which was first shown in the UK on Boxing Day that year.

The record proved a huge success, it had multiple weeks at number one in the charts in multiple countries and was nominated for “Album of the Year” at the 1968 Grammy Awards.

The re-release of this replica of the Bedford VAL used in the film is meticulously detailed and will appeal to both die-cast and Beatles collectors alike. It took a long time for somebody to finally make a toy version of this bus, and it’s really cool that Hornby/Corgi finally got around to re-releasing it at an affordable price.

A great gift idea for the Fab Four loving die-cast collector on your list.

McCartney III Imagined
Available in a variety of formats (and prices) from any music retalier
Colored vinyl special editions available from PaulMcCartney.com

Hailed upon its release last year as “vital and comfortable taking new chances” (Rolling Stone) and “cheery, resilient, forever looking forward” (The New Yorker), Paul McCartney’s McCartney III, which topped album charts across the world, has been radically remixed and covered, and has blossomed into a whole new work of art.

Personally curated by Paul, McCartney III Imagined features an A-List assortment of friends, fans, and brand new acquaintances, each covering and/or reimagining their favorite McCartney III moments in their own signature styles.

The result is a kaleidoscopic reinterpretation of an album Rolling Stone accurately tagged “an inspiration to us all”—one was a no-brainer for inclusion in last year’s PopCult Gift Guide.

Note that the only way to get the Idris Elba remix is to buy a physical copy.

Tracklist:
1. Find My Way (feat. Beck) – 4:53
2. The Kiss of Venus (Dominic Fike) – 2:23
3. Pretty Boys (feat. Khruangbin) – 5:48
4. Women And Wives (St. Vincent Remix) – 3:00
5. Deep Down (Blood Orange Remix) – 4:24
6. Seize The Day (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) – 3:29
7. Slidin’ (EOB Remix) – 2:39
8. Long Tailed Winter Bird (Damon Albarn Remix) – 4:10
9. Lavatory Lil (Josh Homme) – 2:53
10. When Winter Comes (Anderson .Paak Remix) – 2:21
11. Deep Deep Feeling (3D RDN Remix) – 11:23
12. Long Tailed Winter Bird (Idris Elba Remix)* – 2:44
*Physical exclusive

It’s a great gift idea fr the McCartney fan on your list who also appreciates new artists.

Today we have different gift ideas for the fan of The Man of Steel on your holiday shopping list. These are all different interpretations of the last Kryptonian from over the years in comics, TV shows, animation and action figure form. If you have a Superman-loving collector on your list, you know what to do…

Smallville: Complete Series – 20th Anniversary Edition
$154.99 (discounted at many online retailers)

This is a big-ticket item, but if you know somebody who was a big fan of the Smallville TV show, this may very well be worth it.

Twenty years out from its debut, this box set collects all ten seasons of what remains one of the best live-action treatments of the Superman mythos. This fresh take on The Man of Steel focused on his life in Smallville, before he moved to the “big city” of Metropolis. In the comics, he was already operating as Superboy when he lived here, but this series shows him developing his powers and discovering his origin, and the shocker, if you didn’t already know it, is that he doesn’t don the blue suit and red cape until the last ten minutes of the final episode.

Tom Welling heads a stellar cast that includes Annette O’Toole, John Schnieder, Kristen Kruek, Michael Rosenbaum and loads of guest stars (including Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder).

This box includes all 217 episodes of Smallville, plus tons of extras and bonus features.

This is the story of what led Clark Kent to become the Man of Steel. While we don’t see Superman fully-formed, we do see Clark Kent go up against Lex Luthor, Brainiac, General Zod and other criminals from The Phantom Zone. Along the way Clark encounters Green Arrow and Aquaman, his cousin, who in the comics is Supergirl, The Justice Society of America and even prepared for the threat of Darkseid.

It’s a great, different take on Superman, in his early days, and rumor has it an animated revival may be in the works with many of the original actors and producers involved.

Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore
by Dennis O’Neil, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson
DC Comics
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1779507525
$29.99

From 50 years ago, this is the first attempt at a major revamp of Superman, and it’s by the classic creative team of writer, Dennis O’Neil and artists Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.  In this series of stories, Kryptonite was wiped off the face of the Earth, but as a result, Superman’s powers were also greatly reduced, and he had to deal with his newfound limitations.

Here’s how DC describes it…

Kryptonite. The very word has become synonymous with hidden vulnerability—a modern-day Achilles’ heel. The fragmentary remains of Superman’s doomed home planet, this glowing green mineral has bedeviled the World’s Greatest Hero since he first arrived on Earth.

But what would happen if this deadly threat was completely eradicated?

That was the question posed in 1971, when legendary comics editor Julius Schwartz took over the Superman family of titles at DC Comics. In response, an up-and-coming young writer named Dennis O’Neil joined with acclaimed artists Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson to deliver what would become a milestone in the history of American comics: the saga of “Kryptonite Nevermore”!

Over the course of nine issues in the monthly Superman series, this supercharged creative team turned decades of continuity on their head and transformed the Last Son of Krypton from an impossibly strong galaxy-faring adventurer into a more reasonable powered, relatable guardian of Earth. Now, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its original publication, DC Comics is proud to present an all-new hardcover edition collecting this historic story line in its entirety—featuring newly restored color on every page as well as insightful essays from O’Neil and former DC presiden and publisher Paul Levitz.

Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore is a tremendous collection of stories with fantastic art by the team many consider to be the definitive Superman illustrators. There have been many attempts to rebbot or revamp The Man of Steel since this, but none of them have been so consistently good.

Superman Action Figures by MEGO

Speaking of definitive, the idea of MEGO making a Superman action figure pretty much defined what kids were playing with in the mid-1970s.

Now with MEGO revived, and deals with DC Comics in place, you can Once again purchase Superman MEGO figures in the classic 8-inch, or the new 14-inch sizes.

And there are several different versions from which to choose. You can buy the classic 8″ Superman in his tradtional suit, the 14″ “New 52” Superman who runs around with no pants, or if you are lucky and/or patient, there’s a new 8″ Henry Cavill Superman reportedly turning up at Target stores, along with a new traditionally-suited 14″ Superman due in before Christmas.

You should know your Superman fan well enough to know which MEGO figures will best suit them. Prices range from fifteen to forty bucks, and there are several reliable MEGO dealers to be found on Facebook.

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. It’d be a great gift for any fan that doesn’t have the original printing.

Superman: The Complete Animated Series
Remastered for Blu-Ray
$69.99 (discounted at Amazon)

Even better than Smallville for die-hard Superman fans, Superman: The Animated Series is beloved, and even if you know somebody who watches it every day with HBO Max, they’d probably love having this new Blu-Ray edition.  And we go to the blurb…

The creative team behind the Emmy Award-winning Batman: The Animated Series chronicles the adventures of Superman, the legendary Super Hero. As the planet Krypton is destroyed, its leader, Jor-El, secures his infant son, Kal-El, in a rocket that will transport him to Earth. There, a young Clark Kent (voiced by TIM DALY) discovers the truth about his interplanetary heritage. Upon reaching adulthood, he assumes the identity of Superman, the Man of Steel, in the city of Metropolis, battling the forces of villainy and continuing his quest for “Truth, Justice and the American way.” Fly with Superman in this complete collection of adventures.

There is some epic storytelling here, including late in the series, a very faithful take on The New Gods and Darkseid, that includes a touching tribute to Jack Kirby.

This is probably one of the top five animated adventure shows of all time, and it’s a great way to enjoy the story of Superman.

Tuesday on The AIR  your blogger and radio show host once again dives into the vast RFC Archives and comes up with a “new” patchwork edition of Radio Free Charleston. Real-life intrusions combined with  PopCult Gift Guide  to wipe out the time I’d set aside to record new shows this week.

This week I decided to go back to June, 2018, and stitch together three consecutive episodes of Radio Free Charleston Volume 4, which happen to be loaded with great music. To hear all this cool local music you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and  listen to the cool embedded player over at the top of the right column.

At 10 AM and 10 PM you can hear this all-local compilation of RFC volume 4, episodes 80, 81 and 82.   These are killer shows, and as a special treat, the second and third hours are made up entirely of music recorded for the RFC video show, so nobody else has these songs in their archives.

These shows haven’t been heard in more than two years, so I thought it was a good idea to bring them back and plop them into the RFC V5 rotation. I do apologize for not having live links for the bands in the playlist this week. Time constraints prevented it.

Check out the playlist:

RFC V5 069

hour one
Three’s Company Blues “Burns Like Whiskey”
The Stars Revolt “Be Careful What You Wish For”
Adam Cox and Independent State “The City”
Anthony Thaxton “That Song”
Tom Rader “Castanets”
Speedsuit “Riddle”
Sheldon Vance “Keep On Talking”
Stonebeard/Deck of Fools “Full Moon Rose”
Poor Man’s Gravy “All For You”
In The Company of Wolves “Forgot To Wait”
Johnny Compton “Parasite”
Bobaflex “Long Time Coming”
Farnsworth “Now That You’re Gone”
John Radcliff “Muse”
Kerry Hughes “Loaded, Corroded, Scapegoated”

hour two
Mel Larch “Siren Song of the Catfish”
The Clementines “Soundscape #1”
InFormation “Angry All The Time”
Barrelhouse Bonnie and Ko “Memphis In May”
Doctor Senator “Awkward Social Situation”
Synergy Collective “Awry”
A Place Of Solace “Thirty Seconds”
The Coal Men “Outside Looking In”
Lonely Town “Lonely Town”
Marcie Bullock w/ Steve Himes “Just So You Know”
T.J. King “Bad Things, Good People”
The Button Flies “Butch Bottom”
Hellblinki “Bella Ciao”

hour three
Brain Trauma “Rock It”
Underdog Blues Revue “What You Say”
Lady D “Rockstone Blues”
Diablo Blues Band “The Price of a Broken Heart”
Mark Bates and The Vacancies “Michelle”
Dog Soldier “The Christmas Song”
Casi Null “Blue Haze”
Civil State “Three On A Third”
Jonathan Glen Wood “I Forget To Forget About You”
Quick and Dirty “Super Ninja” “Quick and Dirty Instrumental” “Wrong Again”

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  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can 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 NOISE BRIGADE at 2 PM. At 3 PM we have two recent episodes of The Swing Shift.

The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide continues later on Tuesday.

Today in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide we are going to recommend some prints, posters and other wall hangings which will make great gift ideas for the folks on your holiday shopping list. All of these are online only, and there will be a secondary link to their online store, just in case you want to see what else they have to offer.

New River Gorge by Glen Brogan

$40 plus shipping from Hero Complex Gallery

See more of Glen’s art at HCG

This cool travel-style poster of West Virginia’s New River Gorge (the newest of our National Parks) is perfect for any fan of Glen’s, and any fan of West Virginia’s natural beauty, who wants a cool souvenir of the gorge, done up in a wonderful style. The fine art Gliclee measures 16″ by 20″ and is limited to 255 copies, so you might want to hurry on over to order it.

Glen Brogan is the type of artist that makes his fellow artists want to give up and pack it in. Glen is a friend, and I’ve been recommending his art in The PopCult Gift Guide for years.

With a sleek style and a strong appreciation of the coolest elements of pop culture, Glen has made a name for himself with exhibits in New York and Los Angeles and work commissioned by Disney, King Features Syndicate, Marvel Comics and many more top companies.

BATFIGHT! by Mitch O’Connell

$50 plus shipping from Mitch’s Etsy Store.

See more of Mitch’s art in books, clothing, prints and more HERE.

This print grabbed my eye, and as soon as I can find a spare wall, I’m getting one for myself. It’s perfect for any fan of the 1966 Batman TV Show, old-school professional wrestling or just the amazing art of Mitch O’Connell.

Mitch is a legend in the world of pop culture illustration. He’s been pubished in Newsweek, Time, Rolling Stone, New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, GQ and Playboy. His newspaper work includes pieces done for The New York Times, Village Voice, Chicago Tribune and dozens more. He’s been featured in the world of rock ’n’ roll on album covers and posters for groups from The Ramones to Weezer to No Doubt to Moby. And I’m not even going to mention examples of his advertising campaigns, fine art works, tattoo designs and all the other cool stuf he does.

Here’s what Mitch says about this piece:

I put 70s wrestling, ’60s Batman and a Catfight in a blender, and this is what happened!

A hand signed 18 by 24″ hand pulled screenprint limited to an edition of only 50 using the brightest in DayGlo Water Based Fluorescent Paint. Photos are unable to capture the retina melting goodness!

Seriously casting Ric Flair as The Joker is a stroke of genius!

Gill Creep Mini Monster

$20 plus shipping from Retro A Go-Go

Find more cool gift ideas at Retro A Go-Go

I don’t often talk about it, but I’m a big fan of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, or as he is sometimes known, “The Gill Man.” Retro A Go-Go has released this cool “Mini Monster,” which features a vacu-formed Gill Creep head that bears a strong resemblance to the famed Creature of lore.

Along with the head, you get a jointed cardboard body. The head is about seven inches tall, and the body makes him over 18 inches tall, and it’s posable. So you can fit him into a tight space with his body, or just display the head.

Here’s the description:

Rising from the lagoon, crawling out of the sickening seaweed, is Gill Creep. Add life and color to any boring wall of your choice. The yellow & bright lime green will make such a horrid scene! He looks like he radiates and glows. How toxic was the black water we’ll just never know!

Each Mini Monster Box Contains:

• 7″ Tall Ready-to-Hang Vac-tastic Plastic Mini Wall Decor Mask

• 18″ Tall Ready-to-Hang Jointed Retro Figure. Each dressed in costume and ready to decorate any wall, window or door.

• As always comes packaged in an amazing Retro Window Box designed to display your monsters in or out of the box.

This is the perfect gift for any monster-loving fan (with empty wall space) on your holiday shopping list.

Nexus “Valley of the Living Rocks” Print by Steve Rude

$24.95 plus shipping from Steve Rude (who will sign it for an additional five bucks)

Check out Steve’s other prints, books, original art and more HERE.

Steve Rude is a master comic artist of whom I have been a fan for four decades. This print depicts his signature co-creation, Nexus, in a cool action pose, fighting giant rock monsters. Rude’s art manages to embody the influence of both Jack Kirby and Russ Manning, while remaining wholly original.

This particular oil painting was done for the badge art for 2008 Dragon Con. It’s printed 11″ by 17″ here, and can be signed and personalized for a small additional fee. It will be shipped rolled in a tube to prevent creasing.

This is the perfect gift for any fan of Rude or Nexus, or just anybody who thinks a superhero fighting giant rock monsters would be a cool thing to have hanging on their wall.

Pee Wee Herman’s 35th Anniversary Big Adventure Bundle

$65 from the Pee Wee Herman Store

Available separately from The Pee Wee Store HERE

A must-have item for any fan of Pee Wee Herman, this collects some cool commemorative items for Pee Wee’s big-screen debut, and two of those items are loverly things to hang upon your wall.

This bundle includes items produced for the Pee Wee’s Big Adventure 35th Anniversary Tour, which was cut short due to the pandemic.  These exclusive items were only available to a limited number of fans at each show, however, due to the tour cancellation, these are being offered only on the Official Pee-wee Store! Extremely limited run of these items is now available.

This package includes a very cool poster inspired by the movie, and an extremely cool pennant, plus a set of 14 postcards featuring stills from the movie that, if you wish, could also be hung on your walls.

Is this a great gift idea or what? Only the most evil people on the planet don’t love Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, so you really can’t go wrong with this gift!

This week’s art is left over from yesterday. It’s a digital painting of the dancing robots of Boston Dynamics. I wanted to create a feature image for yesterday’s Sunday Evening Video, and I decided to do a screen-grab from one of the videos, and do a digital painting over it, in as close to the style of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as was possible without taking the time to properly research his style.

Hey, it was a throw-away graphic for a post header. Toulouse-Lautrec painted dancing girls. I figured I’d cop his style a bit and apply it to dancing robots.

However, I did a second, totally-different painting, along the same lines, as a teaser for the post on Instagram, and I really liked it, so I decided to use it for today’s Monday Morning Art, since I hadn’t posted it here.

Waste-not, want not, and less work for me.

If you want to see it a bit bigger, just click on it.

Later today we will be back with Day Six of The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide, and I believe today we are recommending wall decor.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of  Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by a recent 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.

We gave the Haversham folks another week off because they asked for it and it’s not like we’re paying them or anything. I think the shows from our British correspondents might be roughly bi-weekly for the remainder of the year.

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. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday at 9 AM as part of our Sunday Haversham Recording Institute collection.

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.

At 8 PM, we bring you eleven hours of The Comedy Vault, just for the heck of it.

These videos have all gone viral before, and you’ve probably seen them several times already, but they’re worth a second look, and in case you haven’t seen them, you need to. Tonight we present the dancing robots of Boston Dynamics…

Above you see an episode of The RFC MINI SHOW that I originally posted back in November, 2015. However, the footage was shot sometime in 1990, at The Empty Glass, back before one of their redesigns that saw the stage move around a few times before settling in its current location.

The band is FNG…I think. The last time I ran into Rick Stiles, he told me that it wasn’t FNG, but that it included four of the five members of FNG, so I remain cornfused.

I tell the story behind this episode of the show in the original production notes, but the short version is, I was not close friends with these guys back in the day, but became friendlier with them after the cancellation of the original broadcast version of Radio Free Charleston.  The night I recorded the band, it was made up of Rick Stiles on guitar, Kevin Lancaster on vocals, Anton Robertson on guitar and Joe McComas on drums, plus a bass player who remains unidentifed.

Kevin, Anton and Joe are no longer with us, so they couldn’t help identify the bass player. It’s all a bit tragic, because there is raw punk energy here, even in the low-fi standard def video.