Video find: Mary Tyler Moore and friends perform Paul McCartney's "With a Little Luck"


Vintage pic: Superman creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel

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Pop Picks: The Beach Boys "1967: Sunshine Tomorrow"

This updated edition of the Beach Boys' underrated gem, Wild Honey, couldn't have arrived at a better time of year. It exudes laid-back, sunny fun.

The original album, presented here for the first time in true stereo, was mostly recorded at Brian Wilson's home with the Beach Boys, for the first time in many years, functioning as a real band.  There's a rocking, soulful-but-relaxed vibe to the whole affair. What the LP lacks in studio polish, it makes up for in gentle R&B flavored tunes and, of course, fantastic harmonies.

Carl Wilson steps out front for many of the lead vocals. I wouldn't call his vocal stylings blue-eyed soul, but he does give the songs an upbeat, credible energy that's informed by the mid-60s pop-R&B music in the air at this time. His cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made to Love Her," for example, works just fine.

So does all the rest of the album. Track-by-track, this is a very strong package - perhaps the most consistently great album the group would ever make, although several very good releases followed in its wake.

Like the opening track and the Stevie Wonder cover, most of Wild Honey has a soulful, up-tempo feel. Only on a couple of tracks, the ethereal "Let the Wind Blow," and the goofy closer, "Mama Says," do we glance back at the experimentation and whimsy of Smile/Smiley Smile.

"Darlin'," another up-tempo number sung by Carl, is the most-fleshed out track, featuring Brian-arranged horn parts that demonstrate - despite all the stories of him being in creative retreat at this time - still at the top of his game.

Brian himself takes a strong, soulful lead vocal on "Here Comes the Night." He is still in great form here. His gentle lead and the "bah-bah-bah" backing vocals on "I'd Love Just Once to See You," meanwhile, sets the template for the "sunshine pop" sound that would emerge during the last years of the Sixties. The tune also has a funny, unexpected punchline, demonstrating the group's mischievous side.

Listeners mainly familiar with the Beach Boys through Pet Sounds should check out Wild Honey. Odds are they'll like it quite a bit. There's not a bad track on it.

Longtime fans, on the other hand, will enjoy the many extras in this new package. Along with being a great album, Wild Honey is also very short, and the rest of CD 1 and all of CD 2 in this release are packed with session outtakes and live rarities, most notably, tracks for the abandoned "live" album, Lei'd in Hawaii. Bootleg collectors have heard most of this material before, but it's nice to have it officially released in excellent sound.

The band originally planned to issue a live concert set recorded in Hawaii as a follow-up to the Smiley Smile album, but opted to record studio versions when the live tapes proved poor in quality. The intention was to "fake it" by over-dubbing live audience sounds over the newly recorded studio tracks.

So, here we have new, stripped-down studio recordings of Brian and the rest doing "Help Me, Rhonda," "California Girls," "Surfer Girl" and "Good Vibrations," among other classic tunes. Heard without dubbed over applause and cheers, they sound a bit bare. But the performances are interesting and the singing is very good. The standouts are Brian's cover of the Boxtops' "The Letter" and Bruce Johnson's lead on the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends."

But that's not all, this new set also includes several bona fide live recordings dating from 1967 shows in the Mid-West, along with studio outtakes from both Wild Honey and Smiley Smile. The studio stuff is great. There are some complete alternative takes, instrumental backing tracks and a fair number of fragments. It's not something I'll return to a lot, but I love being able to hear all these isolated elements and layers that show Brian's brilliance as a vocal and instrumental arranger at work. There's never been anyone like him, before or since.

The live stuff, on the other hand, is as bit of a disappointment. The recordings are very, very good. It's the performances that spoil them. The band, particularly Mike Love with his laconic and dismissive  stage patter, don't seem into it, despite playing and singing fairly well. What might've been a batch of great live recordings, including tunes from Wild Honey, is spoiled as a result.

Still, this is a packed release, with much great listening on both disks. The new remix/remaster of the central album is very easy on the ears - not harsh or overly loud. Purists may insist on the original mono, but I can imagine listening to this new version a lot. The new stereo mix, without all the outtakes in this package, is also coming out on vinyl soon and may be worth a listen, too.


Gallery: Ditko after Spidey

In 1966, Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, left Marvel Comics under still cloudy circumstances.

Legend has it that he departed because he and Stan Lee disagreed over the true identity of Spider-Man's nemesis, the Green Goblin. But Ditko, himself denied this, saying:
"Stan never knew what he was getting in my Spider-Man stories and covers until after [production manager] Sol Brodsky took the material from me ... so there couldn't have been any disagreement or agreement, no exchanges ... no problems between us concerning the Green Goblin or anything else from before issue #25 to my final issues."
Ditko's successor on Spidey, artist John Romita said that Stan and Steve:
" ... ended up not being able to work together because they disagreed on almost everything, cultural, social, historically, everything, they disagreed on character."
Stan Lee informed fans of the departure this way, in one of his Bullpen Bulletin items:
"Steve recently told us he was leaving for personal reasons. After all these years, we're sorry to see him go, and we wish the talented guy success with his future endeavors."
What we do know, is that Ditko immediately started doing superhero work at Charlton after his departure from Marvel, illustrating the adventures of Blue Beetle, the Question and Captain Atom.

Here's a look at his Charlton covers from that period. These issues are collected in DC Comics' "Action Heroes Archives," published back in 2004.


Pop Artifact: Superman "Action Comics" promo flier

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Video: Mattel Battlestar Galactica Action figures Commercial


Clip from "She Makes Comics" - new documentary on women in comic books

Details:
SHE MAKES COMICS traces the fascinating history of women in the comics industry. Despite popular assumptions about the comics world, women have been writing, drawing, and reading comics since the medium’s beginnings in the late 19th century. And today, there are scores of women involved in comics and its vibrant fan culture.

AVAILABLE ON VOD AND ITUNES: July 11, 2017


New music releases July 7, 2017: Spider-Man - Homecoming Soundtrack; Dusty Springfield; Chris Bell; Public Service Broadcasting

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Joan Lee passes

It was sad to hear of Joan Lee's passing, at age 93, today. Joan was married to Marvel Universe co-creator, Stan Lee, for 69 years, which is more amazing than Spider-Man.

You can read more about her here.




Pop Culture Roundup: Disney; Comic-Con; Stan Lee; Joe Sinnott

Via Boing Boing: A "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" maintenance checklist from Walt Disney World.


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When is a comicon not a comicon? When it's Comic-Con, apparently. Mile High Comics, one of the nation's oldest and largest comics retailers, this week announced it won't have a display at this year's event in San Diego.
"To explain, San Diego has grown far beyond its original premise, morphing from what was originally a wonderful annual gathering of the comics world, into a world-renown pop culture and media festival," said Mile High founder Chuck Rozanski. "As such, it has seen rapidly escalating costs, and also a dramatic change in the demographics of its attendees. Neither of those changes worked to our advantage."
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Stan Lee recalls trolling Marvel's "Distinquished Competition" back in the day.
"It never occurred to them that we take the work a little more seriously and maybe we have a little bit more of a sense of humor," he said. "And maybe people don't like things that are a little bit stuffy. They like things that are whimsical or humorous."
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 New York Times profiles veteran Marvel Comics inker Joe Sinnott.




Rolling Stones broadcast collection coming?

A new Rolling Stones album is timed to come out at the same time as a new book looking at the band's 1960s radio and TV broadcast appearances.

No info, yet, on what they album will include, but it seems safe to predict it will be a compilation of 1960s broadcast recordings, perhaps the equivalent of the Beatles' two compilations of BBC live-in-the-studio recordings.

Here's a report from the NME. And here are details on the book, which is out Sept. 8. You can order it now from Amazon.
The Rolling Stones: On Air in the Sixties by Richard Havers
This new official book tells the story, for the first time, of the Stones through their many radio and TV appearances as they rose to fame in the sixties.
From their first TV appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars!, buttoned up in matching hounds-tooth suits at manager Andrew Loog Oldham's insistence, to the louche rockers who appeared on stage for the televised free concert in London's Hyde Park in 1969, this book looks back at their career-defining broadcasts, remembering the music, the clothes, the fans, the rivals and friends, and the world at large around them, divided by generation between broad-sheet moral panic and hysterical teen riots.
Featuring previously unseen facsimile documents from the BBC and commercial TV and radio archives and many stunning unseen images, this is history as it happened, in context, immediate and vivid, offering new insights and a fresh unexplored perspective on the story of one of the greatest great rock 'n' roll bands the world has ever seen.


Pop Artifacts: Dick Tracy buttons

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Coming up: First-ever release of John Williams' "Jaws" score coming to vinyl

Mondo is releasing, for the first time, John Williams' score to "Jaws." Even the 1975 official release was a re-recording of the score used in the film. You can order it here.

Details:
One of the finest achievements in film music and quite possibly the most iconic score of all time, John Williams’ score to JAWS is absolutely essential for soundtrack collectors. While the Grammy-winning 1975 MCA album was a re-recording, our 2XLP set presents the entire Academy Award-winning score as composed and recorded for the actual film in its first-ever vinyl release. Album co-producer Mike Matessino restored, edited and mixed the music from the original studio elements for the best possible quality, approved by the composer himself.
 

Composed and Conducted by John Williams. Artwork by Phantom City Creative. Music Restored, Mixed, Edited & Mastered by Mike Mattesino. Additional Engineering for Vinyl by James Plotkin. Liner Notes by Mike Mattesino. Pressed on 2X 180 Gram Colored Vinyl. Featuring audio never before available on vinyl. Expected to ship Late October 2017. $35

New comics June 5, 2017: Wonder Woman; Spider-Man; Captain America; Doctor Strange, more

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WB Dubay's the Rook Archives Vol. 2


Wonder Woman Golden Age Omnibus 2


Captain America Epic Collection: Bucky Reborn


Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme Omnibus Vol. 1


Spectacular Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 1