Pop Culture Chronicles

Tarzan

Tarzan has been in the comics for about as long as comics have been around. Some of the earlier comic book stories were reprints of newspaper strips. Titles like Tip Top Comics (1936), Comics on Parade (1938), Large Feature Comic (1939), and Sparkler Comics (1941) featured Tarzan stories.

The most popular Tarzan series spanned at least three publishers running from 1939-1979. Dell published the Tarzan title from 1939-1947 for 131 issues. Issues 132-206 appeared under the Gold Key label from 1948-1972. DC Comics continued the numbering with 207-259 (1972-1977). Then Marvel secured the rights to Tarzan with renumbering starting in 1977, running for 29 issues and three annuals. 

The Tarzan comic series often complimented the Tarzan movie series which was produced during many of the same years. In addition to various stand-alone Tarzan movies, the movie series starred the following actors in the lead role: 

- Johnny Weissmuller [12 movies] (1932-1948)

- Lex Barker [5 movies] (1949-1953)

- Gordon Scott [6 movies] (1955-1960)

- Jock Mahoney [2 movies] (1962-1963)

- Mike Henry [2 movies] (1967-1968)

- Ron Ely [2 movies] (1970) 

Several of these actors appeared as Tarzan on photo covers of the comics. The Dell series featured Lex Barker on the covers from issues 13-54 and Gordon Scott from issues 80-110. Gold Key featured Ron Ely on at least four covers (162, 165, 168, 171). To my knowledge, Johnny Weissmuller, the most popular Tarzan never appeared on a comic cover. Some fan sites have mistakenly listed him as pictured on Dell covers, but these pictures are actually of Lex Barker who bore some resemblance to Weissmuller.  

The Tarzan comics have boasted such artistic talent as Hal Foster, Jesse Marsh, Joe Kubert, and John Buscema. The 80s were slow years for Tarzan in both movies and comics, with highlights including the 1984 Greystoke movie and Marvel's accompanying adaptation. A seven issue mini-series was published by Malibu Comics in 1992-93. The mid-nineties through early 2000s found Dark Horse with the licensing to Tarzan including comics series and an excellent mini-series in which Tarzan teamed with Batman in an Elsesworlds story set in 1939.

Tarzan has mostly been absent from the movies with exceptions including the live action feature Tarzan and the Lost City starring Casper Van Dien and Disney's animated 1999 feature which brought Tarzan back into vogue (though its TV and video sequels were quite bad).

Dynamite Entertainment published a 15-issue Tarzan series titled Lord of the Jungle in 2012-13. Tarzan may now have a new lease on life in the movies with a new Tarzan feature scheduled for release in 2016. It stars Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan and Margot Robbie as Jane. I'm hoping this movie will breath new life into Tarzan while being grounded in the source material. Perhaps this will launch a new franchise.  

Remembering James Garner

Here are some photos of the statue of James Garner as Bret Maverick taken during our family trip to Garner's hometown of Norman, Oklahoma. One of the saddest things about 2014 was the death of Garner in August. He was one of the few actors who made the smooth and seamless transition back and forth from television to movies and vice versa. His likeness also appeared in comics based on the Maverick TV series. 

Maverick was Garner's first TV show before he found box office success in such films as The Great Escape, Support Your Local Sheriff, and Murphy's Romance, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. Garner and Julie Andrews were the romantic leads together in three films: The Americanization of Emily, Victor/Victoria, and the made-for-TV One Special Night. 

The early seventies found Garner in the short-lived western series Nichols, co-starring a young Margot Kidder who went on to Superman fame as Lois Lane. Garner is best remembered by subsequent generations for his Rockford Files TV series in which he played a private eye for six seasons. He revived his role as Bret Maverick in the 1977 New Maverick TV movie and for one season of the early 80s Bret Maverick series. He starred as Captain Woodrow Call in the Lonesome Dove sequel Streets of Laredo, and reprised his role as Jim Rockford for several Rockford Files TV-movies in the 90s. 

Garner's later films include Space Cowboys (with Clint Eastwood who had guest-starred on Maverick), The Notebook, The Ultimate Gift (with former Catwoman Lee Meriwether), and a Maverick reboot. He played ongoing characters in later seasons of TV's Chicago Hope and in Eight Simple Rules.

In his personal life, Garner was a Korean War hero. He was politically active fighting for the rights of the underprivileged, but he did not (mis)use his celebrity to sway political elections. His longevity in show business is paralleled by his marriage to the same woman for nearly 58 years. He is also remembered for the kindness he showed to fans. 

Garner is my favorite actor of all time. With him gone I'm not even sure that anyone else would qualify as my favorite current male actor. Garner played his parts so naturally that it never seemed like he was acting. His characters were often quick-witted, intelligent, soft-hearted, always trying but never succeeding to evade trouble.

We'll miss Garner but he fortunately left a legacy of work including DVD collections of the complete series of Maverick, the The Rockford Files, Nichols, and Bret Maverick. 

Vintage TV Westerns

As a huge fan of vintage westerns, I have a goal. My goal is to view at least one episode of every TV western series ever made and to own at least one episode of each in my private collection. So I have some boxed sets of Gunsmoke, Wanted:Dead or Alive, and Big Valley DVDs in addition to some VHS episodes of Maverick and some DVD compilations with public domain episodes of stuff like Bonanza and the Rifleman. I grew up watching all the above mentioned shows, mostly when they were already cancelled and in syndication.  

But I also knew that lots of other westerns had been produced in the 50s and 60s. Why weren't these syndicated and why had I never saw them? Now many of these can be seen on DVD sets collecting various episodes of these shows. One such set is Mill Creek Entertainment's 150 Ultimate TV Westerns. Now I know why this stuff wasn't being re-run during my youth. It just wasn't that good. 

But in keeping with my goal of viewing and collecting every TV western in existence, my family and I are viewing and rating these shows and the results will be posted here. So the first reviews are published here:

 Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. This character, a Canadian Mountie in the 1800s, began on radio in 1938 and then switched to TV in 1955 running for three seasons on CBS. A comic book series ran from 1952 to 1959 with the first four issues as a part of Dell's Four Color series. Once Sergeant Preston came to TV, photo covers from the series became the norm. The highlight of this show is the dog, Yukon King, Preston's lead sled dog with whom he shares a close relationship and who assists him in catching bad guys. The plots are mildly entertaining. Sound-stages and stock footage of sled dogs are common. Originally filmed in color its brilliance has unfortunately faded.

Northwest Passage. Fictionalized account of historic figure Major Robert Rogers, whose volunteers known as Roger's Rangers fought for the British during the French-Indian War. Rogers was located in what is now New York and endeavored to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. The series was based on a novel, made into a movie in 1940. The series cast included Buddy Ebsen as one of the rangers. I've viewed one episode which guest starred Pernell Roberts of Bonanza fame. While the original color has faded in quality the plot was intelligent. The series lasted only one season (1958-59) due to the stiff competition of Maverick on another network.

  Cisco Kid. I did grow up with this series since it has remained in syndication. That could be due to the fact that it was the first TV series filmed in color which has continued to hold up decently. The title character, originally a bad guy,  was created for a short story by O. Henry entitled "The Caballero's Way" in 1907.  The story became a movie in 1914.

The Kid is portrayed as a good guy in the 1928 film, In Old Arizona. A series of seven movies were released from 1939 to 1941, with Caesar Romero playing the Kid in later installments. A second movie series ran from 1945-1950 which starred Duncan Renaldo playing the lead in most, but Gilbert Roland as the Kid in six movies during 1946-47.

Renaldo would play the Kid on the syndicated TV series from 1950-1956. Joined by his comedic sidekick Pancho, the Kid brought law and order to the old west. The stories are about the caliber of the Lone Ranger, though somewhat inferior. The show was obviously intended to appeal to children.  

A comic book series published by Dell ran for 41 issues from 1950 to 1958. The last five issues had photo covers. An earlier Cisco Kid Comics one-shot was released in 1944 by Bernard Bailey / Swappers Quarterly. A TV movie with Jimmy Smits in the lead role aired on TNT in 1994.  

Batman: Year One

I collected a good number of the Batman titles from 1983 through 2003. I stopped reading, however, in about 1987. So now I'm catching up. Here are some of my impressions:

Batman: Year One - (Batman # 404-407, 1987). This story by Frank Miller with art by David Mazzuchelli redefined the Batman mythos. Here is the definitive post-crisis origin tale confirming Batman as the Dark Knight, distancing him further from the campy 1960s TV series and the 1950s sci-fi era. It's fairly consistent with Dennis O'Neil's run as Batman writer in the 70s and O'Neil just happened to be serving as editor during Miller's four-parter.

I can see where this story influenced the movie Batman Begins. We have police lieutenant James Gordon, before he was Commissioner, a good cop fighting corruption in a big city police department. Bruce Wayne has just returned after twelve years abroad preparing himself as the supreme crime-fighter and vigilante of Gotham. Also, like the movie, the police surround Batman in an abandoned building where he uses special technology to summon the bat population.

The gritty realism is what I've always liked about Batman since the O'Neil days. I prefer to see him fighting gangsters as opposed to members of his rogues gallery. In this story a highly trained, yet inexperienced Batman struggles his way through. The human element comes through in Gordon's relationship with his wife and his detective partner.  

This story, since reprinted in hardcover and various trade paperback editions, is one of the best Batman stories ever. I felt as if I was watching a movie while reading this truly suspenseful comic. I love Batman in any incarnation, but the Dark Avenger of the Night is how he was meant to be from the start. 

Now here is some good news. Batman: Year One is going to be a made-for-DVD animated movie released later this year.    

Captain America Adventure Serial

I just bought a VHS of the old Captain America adventure serial for $1.00 at a garage sale. I watched the first episode last night. I had seen several episodes as a child when our local PBS affiliate would air old adventure serials on Saturday nights. I didn't remember much about it though.

Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Timely (now Marvel) comics in 1940. Weakling Steve Rogers volunteers for an experimental super serum which transforms him into the powerful and muscular Captain America. He spends the war fighting Nazis. The first issue of Captain America Comics, while dated 1941, was actually published one year before America entered World War II. Cap was retired by Marvel when super heroes went out of vogue, but he was revived in the 60s when Rogers, who had been in suspended animation, was thawed out. 

The serial was the first time a Marvel/Timely superhero had appeared in any medium outside the comics. It is good for nostalgia and maybe one of the best serials of its era. But it is glaringly inconsistent with the comic version. Absent from the movie is Cap's trademark shield. Instead he carries a gun, which seems very odd. The origin story and alter ego is also changed. Cap is a district attorney named Grant Gardner in the serial. While the serial was released during the war (1944) Cap strangely enough doesn't fight any Nazis. 

Of course the forthcoming Captain America: The First Avenger will be more true to the comic origin. Other live action versions have included two 1979 and 1980 TV movies starring Reb Brown. The 1990 movie was the most faithful to the comics in many respects, but was panned by critics. I still haven't got around to that one, but I am looking forward to the latest movie incarnation of Captain America.      

A Very Brady Blog Post

Recently Watching A Very Brady Christmas with my daughter caused me to wonder how many Brady reunions there have been since the cancellation of the original series. My research has revealed that there have been three spin-off series from the original: a variety show, a sit-com, and a drama. The original series is available in its entirety on DVD.

The first reunion was the Brady Variety Hour in 1977 which lasted only nine episodes. The second reunion was to be a TV movie entitled The Brady Girls Get Married in 1981. The movie was re-edited into the first three episodes of a new sit-com called The Brady Brides which told of Marcia and Jan's married life. The series ran 10 episodes. 

The TV movie A Very Brady Christmas aired in 1988. The high ratings led to yet another spin-off series called The Bradys which was more dramatic than comedic. It ran six episodes which have since been re-edited into three TV movies. 

Reuniting the entirety of such a large cast proved challenging, with the original Jan missing from the variety hour, the original Cindy missing from the Christmas movie, and the original Marcia missing from the drama. Each were replaced with other actors. The Brady Girls Get Married (which became the first three episodes of "The Brady Brides") was the only reunion that featured the entire original cast.  

The most successful Brady series outside of the original was actually a cartoon called "The Brady Kids" airing from 1972-1974, lasting 22 episodes. Since the series there have been two theatrical films which spoofed the original series, both featuring all new actors. The Brady Bunch Movie and A Very Brady Sequel were released in 1995 and 1996 respectively. A third movie was released to DVD in 2002 called The Brady Bunch in the White House.

As is obvious from the picture on this post, the Bradys also had their day in comics when Dell published two issues, complete with photo covers, in 1970. A promotional comic, Brady Bunch Kite Fun Book appeared in 1976.

It has been noted that the original series and reunions have put the Bradys on all three networks at various times. This feat isn't unique to the Bradys, however, since James Garner has played the role of Bret Maverick on all three networks as well. The original Maverick series aired on ABC, the New Maverick/Young Maverick on CBS, and the Bret Maverick series on NBC.             

Jonah Hex / Josh Brolin

I love the western genre, I love comics, and I'm a fan of Josh Brolin. So imagine my thrill at seeing the movie poster for Jonah Hex for the first time. Refusing to pay for overpriced movie tickets, I typically wait for DVD. So last night I finally got around to seeing the movie. We were warned by many critics, so expectations were low, but the movie was even worse than I thought. 

An ex-Confederate soldier, Jonah Hex, turns traitor to his cause. So a superior officer disfigures him and kills his family. The remainder of the film is a revenge plot as Jonah tracks the man who killed his family. In fact, the U.S. government has hired him to do so since the ex-Confederate general is now terrorizing the land to keep his "cause" alive though the war is long over. Jonah's "love" interest is a prostitute and his dog was rescued from perpetraitors of animal cruelty. So far that sounds really good and a plot like that could really be developed into a great story. But it was a missed opportunity. 

The movie is mainly a long string of people and things being blown up, burned up, and shot up. The climactic fight scene is hard to follow since it's actually two fight scenes interspersed. One of those fight scenes is also interspersed with a dream sequence. The two fight scenes and dream sequence are interspersed with a bombing attack on Washington D. C. The camera switches from one thing to another at rapid speed and you feel like you're on a tilt-a-whirl. What a jumbled up mess! 

Even bad films sometimes have redeeming traits. It may be the cinematography, the character development, or the art direction. Well, not this one. It's just all-over bad. Nor was it very true to the comics in which Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti have managed to tell some straight-forward western tales without all the voodoo, necromancy, and James-Bondesque weaponry of the film. Will Hollywood ever learn that faithful adaptations of good characters are much better? That is why Batman Begins and Spiderman are my favorite comic movies of all time. 

The good news, however, is that Josh Brolin will be going west again in the near future. He is no stranger to westerns having done a superb job as James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickock on the three-year run of Young Riders. He also played historical figure Jedidiah Smith on Steven Spielberg's Into the West TV mini-series. 

Brolin's latest project, again with Spielberg at the helm, premieres in theatres on Christmas Day. It's a remake of True Grit with Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn. Just the previews send a chill of anticipation up my spine. I think Brolin's the bad guy and some are saying that Bridges won't fill the shoes of a character made famous by John Wayne. But as far as I'm concerned Rooster Cogburn is a fictional character and not the Duke himself. So I'm willing to give Bridges a chance. I may even buy an overpriced movie ticket. Maybe. 

As far as Jonah Hex, read the comic and don't waste time on the movie. Not even a great cast ensemble could save this one from the recycle bin.

My rating: D             

    

Return of Barnabas Collins

You just can't keep a good vampire down! The Dark Shadows TV series has spawned many multi-media spin-offs including movies, comics, board games, novels, and audio plays on cd. In a post entitled Retro Revival in the Fall of 08, I expressed eager anticipation at the coming of Kolchak Tales Annual # 1 with guest-star Barnabas Collins.  

It was all I hoped it would be: a suspenseful story which accurately captured the mood of both the Night Stalker and Dark Shadows TV series. Both Kolchak and Barnabas were portrayed in perfect character and the artist's renditions of these characters looked like the actors who played them on television. The cover art was awesome!

My aforementioned post was mistaken when I assumed that this was the only appearance of Barnabas in comics since the 70s. It was, however, the only appearance of Barnabas in actor Jonathan Frid's likeness since the 70s. There was a four-issue comic mini-series in 1992 and 93 which coincided with the short-lived Dark Shadows revival series featuring Ben Cross as Barnabas. 

At any rate, in addition to the recent return of Barnabas Collins in 2009's Kolchak Annual, where else might the aristocratic vampire be showing up in the near future? First, Hermes Press will be reprinting the entire Dark Shadows comic book series originally published by Gold Key from 1969-1976. These volumes willl be in hardcover archives format and will hopefully be released next month. 

Second, Johnny Depp has signed on to play Barnabas Collins in a big screen version of Dark Shadows. Depp says it's a dream come true given his love for the character and for the original series. I personally cannot wait to see one of my favorite actors playing one of my favorite characters.  

Third, the entire Dark Shadows TV series is available from Netflix with some seasons in streaming video and others in DVD format. The entire revival series is also on DVD. So if you're looking for a Dark Shadows fix, help is on the way.

Waiting for Some Marvel Collected Editions

Here are some past, current, and upcoming comic book series which I either have skipped, or probably will skip, in favor of waiting for the reprints in either trade or hardcover format:

Marvel

Black Widow and Marvel Girls Black Widow combines super heroics with intrigue and espionage. I find the combination appealing. I hear that Scarlet Johansson will be playing her in Iron Man II. No argument from me.   

Black Widow: Deadly Origin

Black Widow: Web of Intrigue

Further Adventures of Indiana Jones Omnibus, Volume 3 Reprints of the old series.

Models, Inc. What can I say? When I was a small child, adults would sometimes bring me home a comic from the supermarket. They would grab one at random and sometimes it would just happen to be Millie the Model. How cool that she is taking her place in the mainstream Marvel universe.  

Star Wars Omnibus: Boba Fett My son will enjoy these 496 pages of Boba.  

Thor The run by J. Michael Straczynski, a writer I learned to appreciate because of his work on The Twelve. 

Comic Collection Essentials, Part Two

Okay, I'm back--still determined to post more regularly, but still catching up.

I was talking about comic collecting. So here are a few more essentials that I think a serious collection needs:

6) A Sampling of Various Genres including war, western, horror, and funny animals in addition to super heroes, sci-fi, and fantasy. I just realized that the photo here is of the only war comic I still own (not counting nazi-fighting super heroes).

7) A Few Disney Comics featuring the likes of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and others. Boom Studios is currently doing a lot of Pixar characters.

8) Samplings from the Various Classic Companies including Marvel, DC, Dell, Gold Key, Charlton, Harvey, and Archie. Most of my boxes are DC, but I have about five boxes of Marvel, and one box which collectively houses exhibits from the other aforementioned publishers. IMO, Dynamite Entertainment is the best new publisher we've seen in a long while. My collection of their stuff is growing. 

9) At least a few comics with Celebrity Photo Covers. This was a big thing in the 50s-60s (and to a lesser extent in the 70s) when every popular TV series or movie became a comic. My collection includes Maverick, Hogan's Heroes, the Monkees, Bonanza, Merlin Jones, Davy Crockett, and others (click on photos for larger image).  

10) Related to the above category, Comics Based on Classic TV series. I have Adam-12, the A-Team, Dark Shadows, and others.

11) A Few Movie Adaptations. My collection includes some of the Marvel Super Specials from the 80s like James Bond, the Muppets, and Krull. I also have the Marvel Special Edition of Close Encounters and the original Return of the Jedi mini-series. 

More later