Chew the Fat: King Size Annual Edition!

Redartz:  It's the height of summertime, and for any true Bronze ager, that means Annuals! Or, if you prefer, King-Size Specials, or Summer Specials. Featuring...

Pin-Ups!

 

 Special Features!

 Extra length Stories!

 The summer just wasn't complete without a goodly array of giant size comics for whiling away those hazy afternoons. And while Marvel had the monopoly on the Annuals during our Bronze age, DC did put some out on the spinners (and actually had some all-reprint annuals in the Silver Age). And perennial teen Archie sported an Annual edition each year, albeit one that changed format to a digest after 1975. 

Anyway, they always were lots of fun, with generally special stories and often extra features. Guest stars were frequent. Different artists were used at times, as were unusual writers (Steve Gerber on the Iron Man Annual below was one of my favorite examples of this). Obviously the Summer Specials had a lot of appeal. Hence their longevity (some still have appeared in recent years; with varying degrees of success, imho). 

No doubt you all have your personal faves, and I'm sure you'll share them with us shortly. A couple that top my list:

Spider-Man Annual 15 (fooled you, bet you thought I was going to name ASM Annual 1). A truly great story by Denny O'Neal , Frank Miller and Klaus Janson; with the Punisher and my number one Spidey villain: Doc Ock. And the book rounds out with some of those special features as mentioned above; a fine Summer package.

X-Men Annual 7- Another great issue, with an incredibly fun tale starring the Impossible Man. Terrific art by Michael Golden, some amusing guest appearances, and one of the greatest appearances of 'Galactus' ever.

So as not to hog the conversation, I'll leave further Annual assessments up to you. But to stoke the memory, here's an appropriately King-Size assemblage of Annual covers. Enjoy!

Short Cuts: Dipping Into the Cookie Jar...

Redartz: This week, our subject is both short and sweet: cookies! Or, for our UK contingent, biscuits (correct me if I'm wrong here, guys and gals). Anything and everything about those wonderful little round edibles. Which are your favorites? Which do you avoid at any cost? Home-baked or store bought? Any recommended recipes? What cookie commercials do you remember? It's all fair game, from the bag to the crumbs. 

My  personal favorite: chocolate chip cookies, no contest. Preferably home baked and fresh from the oven, with a glass of cold milk ( I've always told  my wife, if for some reason I'm ever on death row and they ask me for my final meal choice, it will include a big plate of warm chocolate chip cookies and cold milk). Of course, I'll never turn down a bag of Chips Ahoy!, or even some Oreos (particularly fond of the chocolate Oreos). 

To put you in the munchie mood, here's a few vintage cookie ads you might recall... 

Chips Ahoy!

Oreos

Keebler

Fig Newtons

Oh, and for the benefit of our UK contingent, here's what I see when I hear 'biscuits'...

Bon Apetit!

Two Questions: Comics That You Miss, and Experiences That You Didn't Miss!

Redartz:  Hi folks. This week's twin topic was partially inspired by a conversation on Facebook, one which seemed worthy of some expanded discussion at the hands of BitBA assembled. What was that question, you may ask?  Well, the original topic asked if anyone wished for all the comics they had ever bought to somehow be reacquired and resting upon their shelves. To narrow that down a bit, 

1. What single book /collectible do you most regret parting with, whether by choice, chance or necessity?

As for the second question, I wanted to sort of flip/flop the idea, as it seems sad to dwell on regrets. So, (and for this question we are expanding the answer field to any and all life experiences!), for your further consideration: 

2.  Name a single experience , looking back over your life to this point, that you are particularly pleased/proud/glad to have lived through? And yes, as likely you also would posit, parenthood /spousehood may come to mind first. So we'll assume those experiences as a given, and look for something a bit more.......unique. As an example, see my answer below.

My answers: 

1.  Over my collecting career, at various times I've been proud possessor of many key books. But if allowed to 'repossess' just one of them, it would be Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1. And I have it in the ASM Omnibus, so it's readable at any time, but that single giant remains the most perfect comics package ever, imho.

2. There are numerous (sixty years gives you a lot of time, if you're fortunate, to do a bunch of stuff). But to pick one, it would be my experience on the musical stage. You see, although I can be a bit talkative, in 'real life' I'm somewhat introverted. Less so now, but as a youth extremely so. In college a girlfriend was very active in the theater, and one summer she finally persuaded me to join her in performing in a local summer stock musical production of "Camelot". This was no small leap of faith for me, as I generally shunned any spotlight, and was rather shy. Looking back, perhaps that's why she hounded me into giving it a try. So, after a few weeks of awkward rehearsals and loads of practice, young Redartz could be seen in the chorus, as a knight, singing and dancing in tights and cape. And you know what? She was right, it turned out to be a lot of fun. I'm still a lousy dancer and my singing voice is atrocious, but she helped me grow a bit out of myself, and for that I'll always be grateful. Oh, and I can still recite  the lyrics to "The Lusty Month of May"...

So there you are, two tiny slices of personal history. Fair is fair, now. Your turn, let's all hear what tidbits you have to share!

Chew the Fat: Spectacular Film Soundracks!

Redartz:  We all love a good movie. We all love good music. So it only seems logical that we'd all love a good movie soundtrack. 

I certainly do; and the past week has put a couple of them onto my radar. I recently acquired the soundtrack cd of John Williams' "Jurassic Park", and was gifted the lp of Prince' "Purple Rain" (which certainly qualifies, as it was all film music). Both are favorites of mine. 
John Williams, of course, has many film scores on his lengthy resume. Quite likely some of them will be named as favorites among you all. But of all his works, my personal picks are "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park"; largely for the same reason. In both cases the musical score melds so effectively with the action onscreen that they are practically inseparable. Everyone recognizes the classic intro to "Jaws", just a few of those low notes will bring to mind the impending doom of that young swimmer. Well, William's work on JP is equally evocative. 

As for Prince: his talent needs no explanation from this unworthy one. But "Purple Rain" worked so beautifully as a whole; it seemed like a music video in full movie form. And each song was ...perfect. One of the best , if not the best, musical films of the 80's. And it still sounds excellent today. 












 

I could go on, and probably will as the conversation gets going. I will just mention one more, one less familiar to many than the two discussed above. Mike Oldfield did the soundtrack for the film "The Killing Fields". Most folks will recognize him from "The Exorcist", which utilized his composition "Tubular Bells". The music he created for "Fields" is remarkable. Wide ranging in approach, from powerful symphonic elements to delicate pan flute to bizarre electronica, it stunned me upon my first viewing of the film. So much so that I went immediately out to the record store and picked up the soundtrack lp. Which is saying something; a movie ticket and a record album cost a good bit of money to a humble art student at the time.

Okay, you know where this is all leading to. What film scores gave you the shivers? Which stand out and which are essentially forgettable? Which composers did/do you favor? What soundtracks really 'made' the movie, and which ones nearly sank it? The curtains are rising and the orchestra is warming up; have at it!