Pop Culture Safari!: 06/01/2012

Vintage Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams photos

Pop culture roundup: Beach Boys; Marvel goes pink; Jack Kirby; Alex Toth; remembering Don Grady, more!

This Beach Boys reunion could stretch beyond the group's 50th anniversary to yield more studio recordings and performances, Billboard reports.

Songwriter/producer/mastermind Brian Wilson initiated the group's new studio recording and has more songs in the can. There's plans for a second single off the current LP (which hit #3 on the charts), a live album and video, TV specials and more.

And it sounds like the Mike Love version of the group may do some dates without Wilson and Al Jardine.

-----

Marvel Comics will go pink in October, offering several variant covers that month with a pink-tinge as a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen For the Cure breast cancer charity.

“Marvel is proud to partner with Susan G. Komen For the Cure to support their unparalleled efforts to raise awareness about the risk of breast cancer to both women and men,” said Dan Buckley, Publisher & President of the Print, Animation & Digital Divisions, Marvel Worldwide, Inc. “We’re in a unique position to educate all our fans and increase awareness of the ways to fight—and reduce-- this risk of this disease by utilizing our comics and online presence.”

The following comic books, on-sale in October, will feature special Susan G. Komen variant covers:

· Avengers #31
· Captain America #18
· Captain Marvel #5
· Fantastic Four #611
· Invincible Iron Man #526
· Mighty Thor #21
· Uncanny X-Men #20
· Wolverine #315

-----

Check out this huge gallery of Jack Kirby double-page comics spreads!

-----

A four-page Space Ghost comic illustrated by the 'toon series' designer Alex Toth? Cool!

----

Don Grady, the eldest of TV's "My Three Sons," has passed away at 68. Grady was also a former Mousketeer and a talented musician, serving as the lead singer for the great sunshine pop band, The Yellow Balloon in the late 1960s. Read more about him here.

Vintage Lone Ranger lobby cards and stills

BBC Radio this week - stream music documentaries, drama, comedy and more

Click the links to stream the following programs.

20th Century Boy - The Marc Bolan Story

Paul Sexton looks at glam rock star Marc Bolan's life, music and legacy.

Jerseybeat: the Four Seasons Story

How an underachieving bunch of singers from New Jersey rose to international stardom

Anthony Hope - The Prisoner of Zenda
Swashbuckling adventure set in fictional Ruritania in the 1890s. Starring Douglas Hodge

Dashiell Hammett - Secret Agent X-9
Dashiell Hammett's thriller stars Stuart Milligan and Connie Booth

Doctor Who
Time-travelling adventure series

The Goon Show
Classic material from one of the all-time radio comedy greats

Scots Gothic: A Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe in Ayrshire
Billy Kay discovers whether Poe's imagination was born from a childhood visit to Scotland.

Stories of Ray Bradbury
Short stories from the celebrated science fiction writer. Read by Sean Barrett

Terry Pratchett - Mort
Dramatistaion of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel in which Death takes an apprentice

Terry Pratchett - Night Watch
Captain Vimes confronts his past - literally. Comic fantasy starring Ben Onwukwe

The Psychedelic Spy
Andrew Rissik's thriller, starring James Aubry and Gerald Harper