Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Chew the Fat: Second Chances, Afterthoughts, and Updates...

 


Redartz:  You know how sometimes, in the middle of a conversation, you draw a blank? There's something you want to say, but you just can't quite put it all together; and by the time it comes to you, the conversation has moved on. Well, this week the discussion has you and your belated comment completely in center stage.Or, it may simply be that there has been new information, new experience, new stories to tell since a given topic was addressed. As we generally live week-to-week, it can be challenging to go back and add a thought to something weeks or months past. Whatever the reason, this time around we are opening up the forum for a review of the year's topics to this point; to give you the chance to add that update; insert that late comment, put the exclamation on that previous point.  

An update to a recent post is what prompted this little interlude: a few weeks ago we discussed the Disney Ducks and specifically Uncle Scrooge. I mentioned that I was starting Don Rosa's "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck"; since then I've completed that volume. It was so impressive, it became necessary to give you some updated thoughts. And here they are:


First off, it's a beautiful presentation package. Two huge volumes in a nice slipcase. Quality stock pages with fantastic color reproduction.  Fantagraphics built this collection to last. The first volume features Don Rosa's original 12 part series of "Life and Times". The second volume is filled with additional stories and background related to but not actually part of the series. It's a bin of comics riches well worth diving into and burrowing through...



Secondly,  the stories are phenomenal. I just finished volume 1 and am amazed at the detail Rosa included. I'm no expert on Carl Barks' entire library.  But its apparent that Rosa has touched on many elements, major and trivial, that I recall from Barks' original tales. The characterizations are full and engaging, the guest appearances wide ranging. And the artwork? Spectacular,  again a wealth of richness. One can easily see why this tale won the Eisner Award. It's one of the most enjoyable comic novels I've ever read. Can't wait to start on Volume 2! Oh, here's a sample page from the first volume...


For any of you who might be interested,  this book gets my highest recommendation!


Now that you have my update,  the opportunity falls to you. And to make it a bit easier for you, here's a lighting list of all the topics we have dealt with this year so far: 

Gil Kane, Fred Hembeck, Popeye, Classic Films, Modelling kits, Eclectic Music, Snow, the Fantastic Four, Close shaves, DC's Adventure Comics, the Best Comics of the Bronze Age, Cars in Pop Culture, B/W Science Fiction, Situation Comedies, Bicycling, Comic Book Oddities, Homecomings, Barry Smith, Live Concert Albums, Unexpected Finds, Yearbooks, Reruns, the Disney Ducks, Summertime, Progressive Rock, Marvel on Video, Fast Food and Joe Kubert. Whew... 

Ok, we've laid out the spread for you. It's a veritable banquet; so now's the time to remedy all those instances of  " Wish I'd said that"... 

13 comments:

Colin Jones said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Colin Jones said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Wilson said...

I haven't been doing much lately (there's a bit of a heat wave in Saskatchewan at the moment), but I'm looking forward to the second season of Stargirl a week from today; I enjoyed all the cool JSA stuff in the first season, and the first two episodes are written by Geoff Johns and James Robinson so they should be pretty good.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Fast Food:

Our town of Crown Point got McDonald's in the mid-1970s.

A friend of my younger brother's, named "Fred." had been awarded a full scholarship to Indiana University for swimming. During his senior year of high school, Fred decided it'd be funny to kidnap the Ronal McDonald and hold it ransom, for a joke.

Fred got arrested and lost his scholarship.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Reruns:

Charlie has been watching a bit of "Charlie's Angels" on the rerun channel. It's amusing.

Also, been watching a bit of "Mission Impossible." It really does not work well for me because the plots are simply too complex for 45 minutes and thus a lot of "comic book like" miracles seem to happen for our good guys, lol. Though, I do dig the cold war feel to the show. Life was a lot simpler when the commies were the only real bad guys.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Summer / vacations

I guess this is more targeted to Red in the particular...

REd, I was visiting my daughter in St Louis this weekend. We toured the Cahokia Mounds. I highly recommend it. It's a great few hours!

Points of interest:

It was bigger than either Paris or London during it's height, around 1000 - 1200 AD with between 10,000 - 30,000 Natives.

They were primarily agriculture based which was unusual.

Like the Mayans at roughly the same time, they simply disappeared. No known reason. (It was a relief to know white folks didn't kill them off.)

They had something referred to as "woodhenge" which were logs as big as telephone poles sunk into the ground to plot the months of the year! (I was kind of bugged by the term woodhenge, I mean isn't there a non-Euro name that could be applied to the natives? That said, the Celts disappeared too, so....)

Edo Bosnar said...

On the subject of fast food, when I read over some of the other comments, I realized that something I said in my first comment was incorrect: i.e., I said that for a while Dairy Queen was the only fast food place in the nearby town, but then remembered that there was also an A&W - which we hardly ever went to, despite the good root beer. I also recall that the manager, or franchise holder, was the father of one of the girls in my class at school. The place shut down after a few years though.

Oh, and an update to the reruns conversation: I've started watching the Librarians about two weeks ago - I'd seen the first two Librarian movies a while back, and caught a few random episodes of the show on occasion, but now I'm watching all the way through (I've just started the second season). It's a really fun show.

Anonymous said...

I don’t think I have much to add to any of the recent conversations here — at the moment anyway — but I hope sean swings by and gives us that mini-tutorial on French Prog Rock that he hinted at a few weeks ago…

b.t.

Redartz said...

Mike W- Yes, "Stargirl" was a pretty enjoyable entry into the CW universe. Looking forward to the next season too!

Charlie- OUCH! Man, that's a hefty price to pay for a dumb teenage stunt. Life's lessons sometimes hit pretty hard...
And the Cahokia Mounds sound inviting. Growing up we had a state park nearby that also featured ancient moundbuilders; appropriately named Mounds State Park. Walked those trails countless times.

Edo- okay, another recommendation for the Librarian. Going to have to check it out. Oh, and I sort of had you in mind when I started this post; your comment about having "Life and Times" but not having read it yet. May I state unequivocally that you will enjoy it!

Anonymous said...

First of all, a point of order - Charlie, the Celts have not disappeared.

Ok, now thats out of the way, lets revisit the subject of art rock. Put down your freedom fries my American friends and light up a gauloise jazz cigarette, heres a frogprog top 5 - because you demanded it!
Well, b.t. and Charlie did, so the rest of you can complain to them for bringing up stuff like this (trigger warning: early 70s French tv clips) -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AkHYWDP4Ww

and this -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR-S-Uf-gos

Actually, its late at the end of a long day for me so it'll have to be the first part of a top 5, with the rest tomorrow. Or possibly Sunday.

1. "Electronique Guerilla" (1974) - Heldon
With a name taken from a book by their pal sci-fi writer Norman Spinrad, Heldon sound like a sort of cut price Fripp & Eno. Pretty dated now, but it has a period charm.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS0WuJrp_4I

2. "Docteur Faust" (1972) - Igor Wakhevitch
Young Igor made this amazing concept album - with a sleeve by Philippe Druillet - and then did the music for an opera with Salvador Dali a couple of years later, before settling into a career as the sort of French avant-garde composer no-one listens to.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIVPVCKSeiw

Btw, all two and a half hours of his and Dali's "Etre Dieu" can be heard at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hYmsc9S55U

To be continued

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...


Sean - All I can say to that first link of Zao is this...

When Red talked about Prog Rock, this is EXACLTY what I thought he had in mind!

Like when I was growing up in Gary as a kid and my old man would put on something called "progressive jazz" that the cool / hip black musicians were playing in Chicago and presumably elsewhere in the USA.

In a way it's the same... not a song with 3 verses and 3 refrains and fade out. It just goes where it goes... dig it or not.

Thanks for the research buddy! I'll check out the other links today / tomorrow!

How do you find this stuff! You're my hero!

And let's not forget:

"When the world bends around, when the structures of a civilization falter, it is good to return to that which in history does not flex, but on the contrary recovers courage, gathers the separated, pacifies without bruising. It’s worth recalling that the genius of creation is also moving in an history devoted to the destruction." Which is the first youtube remark!

Anonymous said...

Part deux.
Hang onto your beret Charlie - as you seem the only one interested at this point (; - heres the rest of the Brexit defying list that taste forgot.
(Sorry I took my time... I did actually try posting a long comment late on Saturday but it got lost as my wi-fi coverage gave out for a bit)

3. "Comme A La Radio" (1970) - Brigitte Fontaine
Not rock music at all I suppose, as Fontaine's stuff comes out of chanson - which you don't find in English-speaking culture - but it is part of the same post-68 cultural milieu. And anyway, its my list, and I like it.
(Charlie, you may be interested as for this album she used cool/hip jazzbos the Art Ensemble of Chicago - who were in Paris at the time - as her backing group ;)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgTdI4S3hns

4. "Le Roi Des Mouches Et La Confiture De Rose" (1972) - Jean-Claude Vannier
Recorded while producer/arranger Vannier also worked on Serge Gainsbourg's "Histoire De Melody Nelson"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=83_iacgAQuU

5. "Mekanik Destructiv Kommando" (1973) - Magma
Ultimate sci-fi concept album - so prog its actually the third part of a trilogy - from band who worked on Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune. Completely preposterous, but kind of impressive too...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoZIXPvHPoY

Anonymous said...

Oops, forgot to sign off there.

-sean

You Might Also Like --

Here are some related posts: