New music releases May 12, 2017: Todd Rundgren; Neil Young; Mary Hopkin, more

Click the links to order items from Amazon.


Mary Hopkin / Recollections


Neil Young / Official Release Series Discs 5-8


Neil Young / Official Release Series Discs 8.5-12


Paul Weller / A Kind Revolution


Todd Rundgren / White Knight


American Epic: The Collection


Dion / Kickin' Child

Pop Culture Roundup: G.I. Joe; Groot; Peter Blake; John Cleese

The man credited with creating the G.I. Joe action figure has died.
Stanley Weston, a former soldier who got into the advertising business after his draft service in the Army, saw the opportunity to pitch a boy-oriented doll line to Hasbro in the wake of Mattel’s groundbreaking success with Barbie in the early 1960s. Drawing on his own history in national service, Weston came to the toymaker with the idea for G.I.Joe, a line of military-based dolls with more poseability than Mattel’s Barbie and Ken dolls, to better use the troves of weaponry and other tools they would come bundled with.



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The history of Groot, from Marvel monster to adorable movie character.


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John Cleese is appearing in  series for five podcasts from BBC Radio 4.


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See a series of alphabet prints by pop artist Peter Blake, creator of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper LP cover.

Pop picks: "Batman & Bill"

Batfans and, I think, maybe even non-comics fans will be intrigued by this new documentary, streaming on Hulu. It's a tale of injustice and eventual retribution, mixed with mystery.

We learn the story via Marc Tyler Nobleman, an author of children's book and a comics fan, who started researching the life of Bill Finger, the uncredited co-creator of Batman.

Most of us interested in comic book history know about Bill Finger, yet the rest of the world certainly doesn't. And even those of us who know the gist of Finger's story, don't know the full details. In fact, nobody did, until Nobleman revealed them in his book, "Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman," and now in this film.

Nobleman compellingly leads us through all of his discoveries and we get background and perspective from a number of comic greats along the way: including famed writer/editor Roy Thomas and the late Batman artists Jerry Robinson and Carmine Infantino. Batman nut and movie producer Michael Uslan also chimes in. And there are interviews with other folks, too, but revealing their identities would spoil the slow reveal of this film. Nobleman truly did crack a mystery or two.

Without revealing too much, we learn much about Finger's life and his ill treatment by Bob Kane, DC Comics and history. While it could've been condensed a bit - it gets a little repetitive at point, this is an excellent film and an important document of pop culture history.



Video find: XTC performs "Love on a Farmboy's Wages"

Always on of my favorite XTC tunes.

Gallery: Vintage TWA travel posters






Eisner 100: Early Spirt comics

Here's a batch of Will Eisner covers for the early comic book reprints of his newspaper strip.