Pop Culture Safari!

X-Men: First Class trailer

Brian Wilson finishing up an album of Disney tunes

We knew this was on the way after Brian Wilson's Gershwin album: a collection of classic Disney film songs.

Not too many details yet, but Brian just tweeted the following:

Another week in the studio for the Disney album. Finished up all my lead vocals. Great to be in a place where I can pick and choose. Wanted to do something special for my kids that they'd be into.

Can't wait to hear it!

Dark Horse to re-publish controversial 1940s Crime Does Not Pay series

It was one of the comic series that helped bring use the Comics Code: Crime Does Not Pay, Lev Gleason Publications' ultra (for the time and, heck, even now) violent anthology title. Now Dark Horse has compiled some of the title's best stories in a new book.

Details from the press release:

Gangsters, kidnappers, maniacal killers, and thugs of all stripes had their lurid stories recounted in Crime Does Not Pay! Each issue featured thrilling, brutal tales and disturbing, despicable characters. Crime Does Not Pay enthralled a nation and was the most popular comic book of its time, with their Uncle Creepy-esque host, “Mr. Crime,” as well as the sensationalized deeds of real life gangsters. See why this series was both revered and reviled in this unique “best of” primer!

“With 'CRIME' ten times larger than companion words in the logo, no one should have been surprised that the gangsters, kidnapers and common thugs seemed to be glorified in the four-color panels,” said co-editor Denis Kitchen. “But when the villain typically fried in the electric chair in the final panel the climax simultaneously provided beady-eyed readers with both an extra thrill and a moral: Crime Does Not Pay! This was cheap pulpy thrills at its finest, and certainly contributed to my own youthful corruption. These tawdry tales are long overdue for renewed scrutiny.”

Dark Horse’s special edition of Crime Does Not Pay features a selection of stories from across the series’ entire run, as well as an all-new cover in true Crime style by Pete Poplaski and an essay by cartoonist, historian and co-editor Denis Kitchen. Look for this essential collection on shelves July 27 for $19.99.

Twomorrows celebrates Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's wonder years

Issue 58 of Twomorrows Publishing's wonderful Jack Kirby Collector mag will be a special, square-bound paperback titled "Stan Lee and Jack Kirby: The Wonder Years," which focuses on that duo's creation of the Marvel Comics Universe.

Details:

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Fantastic Four #1 with this special squarebound edition (#58) of The Jack Kirby Collector, about the two pop-culture visionaries who created the Fantastic Four, and a decade in comics that was more tumultuous and awe-inspiring than any before or since. Calling on his years of research, plus new interviews conducted just for this book (with Stan Lee, Flo Steinberg, Mark Evanier, Joe Sinnott, and others), regular Jack Kirby Collector magazine contributor Mark Alexander traces both Lee and Kirby's history at Marvel Comics, and the remarkable series of events and career choices that led them to converge in 1961 to conceive the Fantastic Four. It also documents the evolution of the FF throughout the 1960s, with previously unknown details about Lee and Kirby's working relationship, and their eventual parting of ways in 1970. With a wealth of of historical information and amazing Kirby artwork, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby: THE WONDER YEARS beautifully examines the first decade of the FF, and the events that put into motion the 1960s era that came to be known as the Marvel Age of Comics!

The book/mag will be out this November. You can pre-order it here.

50 years ago: Beatles perform at Liverpool's Cavern Club for the first time

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first lunchtime performance at Liverpool's Cavern Club. The BBC speaks to Alex McKechnie, who was there:

"I never heard them singing one of their own songs because they were just a straight covers band at that time, as was everybody else in Liverpool.

"The standard songs that they sang - them and the other bands in Liverpool - were [by] Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly. The sound that I very clearly remember the Beatles playing in the Cavern was a Chuck Berry riff.
Paul McCartney at The Cavern The band honed their sound and stage show in the tiny underground venue

"As well as doing the stock standards, the Beatles were a bit different because they were better at playing complicated chords. The Beatles were a bit more adventurous.

"It wasn't just the music and the singing, it was their lack of respect for the audience. At the Cavern for those first few gigs, they were quite irreverent to the audience and other people. They were sort of the first punk band. The Beatles were a law unto themselves on the stage.

Details on upcoming Paul McCartney Archives releases

An expanded version of Band on the Run late last year was just the first in a series of expanded remasters of Paul McCartney's solo catalog. Up next -- no release day, yet -- are double-CD editions of Macca's "recorded at home" albums McCartney from 1970 and McCartney II from 1980.

Here's a look at both collections from Wog Blog:

McCartney:
- 2CD version, the second disc containing rare unedited audio documents.
- 2CD + 1DVD version, also including a 100 pages book.

McCartney II :
- 2CD version, the second disc containing rare unedited audio documents.
- 3CD + 1DVD version, also including a 100 pages book.

Jack Kirby's granddaughter on Antiques Roadshow

Jack "King" Kirby's grandaugher (unfortunately, she isn't identified by name) bring some of her late grandfather's original artwork and own comic book stash for appraisal on the "Antiques Roadshow." Frankly, I think the estimated value of the items is way, way, way low.

Watch the full episode. See more Antiques Roadshow.

Critics dislike Spider-Man musical

The New York Times surveys what various theatrical critics have to say about Broadway's "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," and it ain't good.

Some of the negative reviews were really, really negative — the critics from The Times and The Washington Post wrote that “Spider-Man” is one of the worst musicals in history — and there were no raves. Perhaps the closest thing to a positive notice was from New York magazine’s critic, Scott Brown, who described the musical as “unpredictably entertaining” and noted that “even in the depths of ‘Spider-Man’s’ certifiably insane second act, I was riveted.”