Pop links: Kirby photo montages, No-go on Lennon brothers gig, McCartney on Colbert

Via The Comics Reporter: Bully takes a look at some of those cool photo montages Jack Kirby did in Marvel Comics in the 1960s.

Photobucket
(This one is my new desktop pattern)

----

Julian Lennon says, rumors to the contrary, he and his half-brother Sean will not be performing together at a UN fundraiser.

The speculation about the duo performance started on Thursday when Fox News columnist Roger Friedman reported that the two would take the stage at the UN Millennium Goal Awards on February 26. The brothers have never performed together in public.

However, the junior Lennon has lashed out at Friedman on his MySpace blog saying that the "news today about Sean & I playing together at the UN Awards came directly out of Roger Friedman's ass!"

"Do they ever tell the truth at FOX?" he added.


-----

Happy birthday friend-0f-this-blog Fred Hembeck!

\Photobucket

-----

Here's Paul McCartney on "The Colbert Report."

Pulp Picture Parade: Famous Fantastic Mysteries covers

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Consumer heads up: DC Library of Classics book meeting with fan disapproval

This is disappointing news. According to folks over at the DC Archives Message Board, the reprint quality in DC Comics' "Superman - Kryptonite Nevermore," the first entry in their new "Classic Library" hardcover line is very poor--and they've posted a few scans to demonstrate.

I don't know if DC was trying to emulate the look and feel of the original comics as they did with their recent line of Jack Kirby Fourth World books, but these examples look especially bad. While some folks weren't crazy about the pulpish paper in the Kirby books, I think the art and colors in them looked quite good. But this stuff in the Superman book looks bad. Several folks who picked up the book, which came out today have remarked about the faded color and yellow tinge to the art.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

I wasn't sure I wanted this book anyhow, but was looking forward to a few of the upcoming reprints, especially the Batman Annuals collection and the promised reprint of the Captain Marvel Monster Society of Evil storyline. I hope DC works out the kinks by the time those are published.

Deal alert: Get Smart complete series for $68

Today only, Amazon is offering the "Get Smart" complete series DVD set for $67.99, regularly $199.95.

Pop links: Lennon sons to perform, Kind of Blue remembered, Matt Baker covers,

John Lennon's sons Sean and Julian are expected to perform together at a Feb. 26 United Nations event.

-----

NPR features a behind-the-scenes look at Miles Davis' classic Kind of Blue LP.

----

Here's a look at some covers by the great comics artist Matt Baker.

Photobucket

Pop links: New Hembeck, Macca on Colbert, post-apocalyptic TV pilot gets nod, National Geographic music,

Should be fun: Paul McCartney is set to appear on "The Colbert Report" tonight. You'll probably be able to catch it online later on.

-----

"Day One," a post-apocalyptic future drama created by "Heroes" and "Lost" producer Jesse Alexander has been ordered by NBC.

-----

The National Geographic is launching a world music label.

-----

Fred Hembeck, who has a birthday coming up later this week, has posted some excellent comic book cover re-dos.

Photobucket

-----

Speaking of comic book covers, it seems like everybody's trying to cash in on rampant Obamania what with the recent sold-out and sold-out-again-a-couple-more-times Amazing Spider-Man comic (although, it should be noted Image's Savage Dragon had the first Obama comic book cover). But this has got to be the weirdest, most random, most desperate attempt yet, from Moonstone's Captain Action #5, out in May:

Photobucket

?????!!!

Star Trek movie Barbies!

Here's a look at Barie-ized figures from the upcoming Star Trek movie:

Photobucket

You can pre-order them here.

Batman: Brave and the Bold Jan. 30 pics: Aquaman! Atom! Stretchy guys!

Here's info and some pics from this week's ep of the new Batman 'toon:

Journey to the Center of the Bat!
January 30th, 2009
This week Batman’s life hangs in the balance when he is poisoned by Chemo, who is under the control of the evil Brain. The Atom races to the rescue with Aquaman by shrinking down and entering Batman’s bloodstream. While Aquaman and the Atom battle the infection deep inside Batman’s body, Batman struggles to end Chemo’s rampage and defeat the Brain! This week’s teaser features Elongated Man and Plastic Man teaming up to derail a bank heist and capture the criminal Baby Face.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Hear the BBC's Beatles on the roof documentary

"I Hope We Passed the Audition," a radio documentary about the Beatles' famed/infamous last live performance atop their Apple Corps. headquarters 40 years ago is now available via the BBC's on-demand service. Check it out here!

Don't forget Lost tonight!

Get up to speed for tonight's episode of "Lost" at the Lost Season 5 blog. Then go back there tomorrow for a roundup of observations/speculation about the show.

New comics Jan. 28, 2009

Here's what looks good to me this week. Click the title links to pre-order discounted books from Amazon.

Photobucket
1966 LIVE ACTION TV SERIES BATMOBILE REPLICA Not a comic, but a die-cast replica of the TV Batmobile! Way too spendy for me, though.

Photobucket
BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #1 I don't have cable and haven't seen the new Batman 'toon that sparked this all-ages comic. However, I really like the looks of it--a Batman that's not mean, dark and constipated all the time! I mean, he even smiles on occasion. Plus, his cape is blue, not black!

Photobucket
DC LIBRARY SUPERMAN KRYPTONITE NEVERMORE The first entry in DC's new line of hardcovers reprinting favorite comics and storylines of the past. I'm interested to see how they look.

Photobucket
SHOWCASE PRESENTS HOUSE OF MYSTERY VOL. 3 Another big slab of spooky fun.

Photobucket
MARVEL MASTERWORKS GOLDEN AGE CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 3 Continuing Cap's 1940s adventures.

IDW to collect Alex Raymond's Rip Kirby

From the press release:

Following the Eisner-award winning Terry and the Pirates, IDW’s Library of American Comics will present Alex Raymond’s modernist classic Rip Kirby in a definitive five-volume archival hardcover series.

Edited and designed by Dean Mullaney, Rip Kirby will contain every daily from the strip’s inception in 1946 through Alex Raymond’s tragic death in 1956. “It’s going to look gorgeous,” Mullaney says. “We are reproducing the strips from pristine syndicate proofs that will allow readers to see, for the first time, the full luxurious detail of Raymond’s brushwork.”

Rip Kirby was the first hip and cool detective in newspaper comics. Created by Alex Raymond when he was deactivated from the Marines after World War II, it was a fresh approach to the genre, a departure from the prevailing hard-boiled style of detective fiction. Rip Kirby was urbane and cerebral, and used scientific methods as often as he used his fists when solving crimes and mysteries. But there was still plenty of action — Kirby was an All-American athlete and decorated war hero.

Co-written with Ward Greene, Rip Kirby often addressed contemporary issues, including trafficking in black market babies and the attempt to limit the proliferation of atomic and biological weapons. The supporting cast was comprised of Rip’s valet and assistant, Desmond, and plenty of breathtaking women, particularly Rip’s girlfriend, Honey Dorian, and the raven-haired and aptly-named Pagan Lee. Highly conscious of the fashions of the day, Raymond brought post-war and early-50s chic and fashion to the comics page, dressing his female characters in ultra-chic clothes obviously inspired by Dior’s “New Look.”

The strip also signified a grand departure, both thematically and artistically, from Raymond’s first major creation, Flash Gordon. With Rip Kirby, Raymond wedded his incomparable brushwork to a sweeping approach to storytelling and camera movement that was missing in the more static Flash. He promulgated a new art style — one of cinematic photo-realism — that influenced such artists to follow as Stan Drake, Leonard Starr, Al Williamson, and Neal Adams.

Biographical and historic essays will be written by Brian Walker, author of the best-selling Comics Before 1945 and Comics After 1945. The first volume will have an introduction by Raymond biographer and authority Tom Roberts.

Photobucket

New Wally Wood blog

Our pal Booksteve has started a new blog dedicated to the great comic book artist Wally Wood. Check it out here!

Photobucket

Pulp picture parade: Famous Fantastic Mysteries covers

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Pop links--All-Beatles edition: Macca levitates, Gladwell's goofy Beatles theories, Beatle amp found in shed

Paul McCartney will play a benefit for director/meditation enthusiast David Lynch's Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and Peace, which is hoping to promote world peace by teaching children how to, um, fly.

Followers...believe that enlightenment and world peace can be achieved if just one per cent of the population practise yogic flying, which they claim is a type of consciousness-driven levitation.

"Every child should have one class period a day to dive within himself and experience the field of silence-bliss – the enormous reservoir of energy and intelligence which is deep within all of us," Lynch wrote on his website.


-----

Here's the New Musical Express on why Malcolm Gladwell is out to lunch when it comes to his theories about the Beatles and success.

-----

I've said it before, how come I never find anything cool in my shed? Here's the latest Beatles-related shed discovery courtesy of the Liverpool Echo:

AN AMPLIFIER discovered in a Liverpool shed was almost certainly used by The Beatles.

It was found a few streets away from George Harrison’s old home in Woolton.

A relative of Beatles memorabilia collector Stan Cargill was asked to clear the shed. To his amazement, the amp was a Vox AC30, as used by The Beatles to get their distinctive sound.

New CDs mark Buddy Holly anniversary

The airplane crash that killed rock'n'roll pioneer Buddy Holly took place 50 years ago Feb. 3, but Universal Music is marking the anniversary a week early with the release of two, long-, long-awaited compilations of the singers work today.

Yes, finally the Holly estate and Universal have patched things up enough to get more of his work back in print.

The three-CD "Memorial Collection" boasts all of Holly's hits -- including "That'll Be The Day," "Not Fade Away," "Peggy Sue" and "Rave On"-- as well as seven recordings previously unreleased in the United States.

The two-CD "Down The Line - Rarities" features home recordings dating back to when Holly was 14, widely bootlegged undubbed versions, alternate takes and informal solo tapes.

Some of the recordings -- such as "Think It Over" and "Fool's Paradise" -- have been stripped of overdubs that were added by Norman Petty, arguably the No. 1 villain in the Buddy Holly story.


I don't think this is the complete set many fans have been clamoring for (and which many of us own, courtesy of Internet bootleg label Purple Chick), but it's plenty to keep 'em happy, and a great improvement--in terms of the number of songs available--over what's been available since the advent of CDs. I think this is the first time many of these songs have been in print since MCA's big "complete" vinyl set from back in the 70s (which I've also got). So, good on Universal, at long last.



Here's Buddy and the Crickets on the "Arthur Murray Dance Party" in 1957.