THE LATEST POSTS:
These past seven days, we took a look at New Year's comic covers, discovered EMERGENCY! all over again, discussed Jim Shooter's impact, ranked detective shows from Banacek to Vegas, answered some questions about comic text pages and favorite movies, admired feline comic themes, and compared Indiana Jones and James Bond. If any of that interests you, drop on down to our most recent posts or hop on over to the sidebar for a laundry list of options.
COMING SOON (or in other words, the Bombastic BITBA Checklist):
Monday: Red and Marti review an issue of Marvel Two-In-One with the ever lovin' blue-eyed Thing and one of his gruff pals. It's Clobberin' Time (in This & That)!
Tuesday: It is an open forum with another round of Follow the Leader. Get your big head through the door and join in on the conversation!
Wednesday: Red leads a Panel Discussion around Amazing art and a Spectacular hero!
Thursday: Chew the Fat or perhaps more correctly this week "oil up" because we will be discussing a variety of mechanical friends (and they may not be the usual suspects)!
Friday: Martinex has a little fun ranking and filing a wide array of rural entertainment!
Saturday: Let's go exploring, hunting, and collecting with Redartz in an Adventure in Comics!
All that is coming this week (but wait there is more), start getting ready for some villainous comparisons, a trip to the past, and an Inaugural cover extravaganza later in January!
RECOMMENDATIONS (in a Guilty Pleasures pattern):
Television: Earlier this week we discussed detective shows, but one that I don't think we mentioned was the 2015 six-episode BBC series River. Stellan Skarsgard gives a truly supreme performance as a man overcome by life as he attempts to solve a crime that affected those close to his heart. I am being vague because I don't want to give much away, but this is now one of my top television viewing experiences and carries a high recommendation. It tackles so many difficult issues and is not lazy about it. The entire cast is excellent, particularly those that play Police Investigator River's partners, and you will be blown away by the handling of a concept that we have seen many times before. The series is currently available on Netflix. Five Bronze Medallions.
We've mentioned it before but you might want to check out Black Mirror also on Netflix if you like The Twilight Zone, sci-fi, future technology, and odd happenings. It gets a qualified recommendation as some episodes are much better than others. This is an anthology program with a futurist twist from across the Atlantic. Sometimes humorous, sometimes quite alarming... we would recommend later seasons over the first. It can be hit or miss in concept and execution, but when it is good it is really good. Three and a half Bronze Medallions
(More) Modern Comics: If you dare to step out of the Bronze Age for a bit, you might like some super-hero offerings from Marvel in the 21st century. It was recently mentioned in a comment that Young Avengers was a good read; we agree. It is worth checking out as it is a traditional comic in many ways and the art and storyline is quite good. Likewise, Avengers Academy had some nice tales with new teen characters mingled with some aged experts and mentors. Three and a half Bronze Medallions for both.
Food: If you are in the northern suburbs of Chicago, check out a little restaurant called Drumstix Market. The chicken and waffles (if you like that sort of thing) are out of this world! If you are not in Chicago... come visit! It's a great city (in the Spring and Summer - ha)! If you have never had chicken and waffles - it is exactly what it sounds like it might be. Delicious.
Old Movies: Here is a laundry list of movies worth seeing, take your pick for a rainy evening: 12 Angry Men, Network (both great Sidney Lumet films) Compulsion, Rope, (both fictionalizations of the Leopold-Loeb murders) After Hours, Something Wild (both twists on 80's romance and urban life by great directors). Watch them and rate them.
A New Blog: For Bronze Age fans everywhere, there's a new blog to visit, hosted by our pal and frequent commenter from 'up North', Mike Wilson! It is: https://eruditegorilla.com , stop by and give him a look! You'll find the link in the "Similar Species" list in our sidebar.
That's it for this Sunday - feel free to make recommendations in the Sunday comments for blogs, books, movies, entertainment, food, and fun!
We hope you will come back tomorrow!
13 comments:
Hey, thanks for the plug, guys! Yeah, I'm taking the plunge into blogging. For those of you wondering, the subject matter is very "Bronze Age; I'm reviewing a dozen or so DC comics, month-by-month, starting in January 1977 (that's every Monday and Friday); Wednesdays are TV show reviews (starting with every episode of Lost Girl).
I've got a few reviews up already (tomorrow is JLA 138 and Superboy & the Legion 223), so anyone who's interested, stop by and check 'em out ... and don't be shy about commenting!
Thanks again for the support, Martinex1 and Redartz ... and a special thanks to Doug and Karen for letting me hone my technique on BAB :)
Mike Wilson
Wow... totally aside the wonderful news above, I'm posting again before Edo??? I guess I should say something relevant for it to count. But all I can think of is I've never had waffles and chicken 🍗 😲
Just biding my time, Charlie, don't get too cocky...
Cool about the new blog, Mike! I, too, aspire to be an erudite gorilla, but as it stands, I think I'll have to settle for being a somewhat articulate gibbon.
I also have some blog/website recommendations: the Classic Comic Forum (http://classiccomics.boards.net/), where you can really get lost - seriously, tons of discussions of the type of stuff most of us here love reading. And ditto for the Atomic Junk Shop (http://atomicjunkshop.com/) - which I may have mentioned before. Personally, I think both deserve a spot on the similar species roll.
As for movie recommendations for a lazy Sunday afternoon - which I am *not* having as I'm working today - I always enjoy stuff like Midnight Run (with De Niro and Grodin) and the brilliant caper flick Quick Change (starring Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Jason Robards and Randy Quaid).
Great 'added value' post chaps. Esp. the news about Mike's blog - will definitely be following that in the coming weeks.
Enjoy the well-deserved day off!
Man, why do my comments keep getting eaten here?
I think I fixed it Edo. The computer gods thought your post was spam - we told them otherwise. The post should be there now. Cheers and thanks for the recommendations.
Thanks Martinex! Still working - have to get something done by tomorrow morning, but I just remembered another suggestion for pleasant Sunday afternoon or evening watching (as I'm hoping I'll be able to squeeze in an episode before crashing): the animated Star Trek. These may not be to everyone's taste, but I find these cerebral Saturday morning cartoons quite restful.
Hey Guys:
Been doing some lurking and reading. Things have been really going great, guys. Keep on keeping on!!!
If it's not too late for movie recommendations, I'd like to throw out W. C. Fields' The Bank Dick. It's the story of a guy trying his hardest not to work and failing!
Also, The Long Riders. The story of the Cole-Younger Gang starring the Quaids, the Keaches, the Carradines and the Guests. The movie takes you up to the Gang's robbery of the bank in Northfield, Minnesota.
Mike Wilson: All the best in your endeavor. Wait! Canada? Would that be endeavour? Another blog for lurking!!!
In addition to all that dang life stuff we all put up with, I'm trying to scan 5 to 10 comics a day. Forget the editing. That may happen in my next life.......
(Stan’s Soapbox
Well, it happened again. There I was, making a soul-stirring speech at good ol’ James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia recently, when one of the frantic Marvelites in the madly-cheering audience reminded me of a promise I’d forgotten a decade ago! He said that I’d promised, in the late sixties, to do a column entitled “What is a Bigot?” – and then he pointed an accusing finger and sonorously intoned, “And we’re still waiting for it”! Wow, and with my laughable little memory I can hardly remember what I said an hour ago so I’m assuming the forthright flamekeeper was correct, and herewith and forthwith shall that so-grievous oversight be summarily remedied!
From where I sit, bigotry is one of the many stains upon the human escutcheon which must be eradicated before we can truthfully call ourselves civilized. It comes in many forms and shapes, but it’s most easily recognized in the form of cruel and mindless generalizations: such as when you hear some yo-yo say “All Italians are like this”, or “All Germans are like that”, or “All women are so-and-so” or “All blacks, or Catholics, or Jews, or rednecks or whatever are like this”! Well, they may not be aware of it, but the turkeys that talk that way – and it’s always done in a disparaging, put-down manner, of course – are bigots, plain and simple! Anyone with an I.Q. slightly above a cretin’s has to know that all of any type of humans are never always the same. There are good people and bad people, and all categories in between – and you’ll find ‘em amongst all races, all religions, all sizes, shapes, and sexes. You wanna dislike someone? Be my guest, it’s a free country. But do it because he or she has personally given you a reason to feel that way, not because of skin color, or religion, or foreign ancestry, or the shape of their toenails, or any other moronic, mixed-up, mindless motive! Because, if you justify your hatred by smearing everyone in any given group with the same brush, then you’re a bigot, Charlie!
Okay, that’s it. Never Let it be said I don’t keep my word when I promise to write about something – even if it happens to take ten years to get around to it!
Excelsior!
Stan 10/1978).
PS: Cigarette Vending Machines, History's first Killer Robot!!!
Hey, The Prowler, this exact Soapbox column did as much to shape me as To Kill a Mockingbird later on. Thanks for posting!
Prowl- hey, good to 'see' you! Seconding Colin with thanks for your posting of that Soapbox. That's a great message at any time, but very appropriate for our world today.
And you're scanning 5-10 comics a day!?! Jeez, doing just one taxes my facilities. Then you add editing, transferring the files to the tablet, and properly arranging the pages- no small task...
Edo- you make some excellent suggestions; I could spend an obscene amount of time perusing those blogs. They are now on the list...
Thanks for all the warm words, everyone, and thanks again to Martinex1 and Redartz for letting me shill here.
Mike Wilson
Hi, friends --
I just saw this post and the news about Mike W. I've checked the new blog, love it, and have tweeted out a post to the BAB followers. Can't keep it a secret!
Be well, everyone.
Doug
Post a Comment