DVD new releases Aug. 12, 2008

The Wire - The Complete Fifth Season
Buy New: $38.99

The Secret
Buy New: $17.99

South Park
Buy New: $29.99

DC Super Heroes
Buy New: $18.99

Brand Upon the Brain! - Criterion Collection
Buy New: $29.99

Tru Calling
Buy New: $41.99

Disney Princess and the Frog pics and teaser

Here are some stills from Disney's upcoming hand-painted animation feature "The Princess and the Frog." Check out the teaser here.

Looks like fun. And it'll be nice to see a non-CGI 'toon again.

Pop links

Deal alert: Amazon is offering the first four seasons of "The Wire" for $95.49. Pretty good price for the Best Show Ever.

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See the "American Band Stand" audience react to the then-way out promo films for the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" back in 1967.



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Stan Lee, Joe Kubert and Neal Adams have joined forces to create a comic telling the story of artist Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, 85, who wants her original works returned to her from a Polish Holocaust museum.

Babbitt...survived two years at the Auschwitz concentration camp by painting watercolor portraits for the infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele. Some of the artwork also survived, but it is in the possession of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland. Now 85 and living in California, Mrs. Babbitt wants the artwork back, but the museum has steadfastly refused to return it.

Now Mrs. Babbitt’s story has been captured in a six-page comic-book story illustrated by Mr. Adams...inked partly by Mr. Kubert...and featuring an introduction by Mr. Lee, a co-creator of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and many other Marvel heroes.

The text was written by Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which has championed Mrs. Babbitt’s cause. Mr. Medoff and Mr. Adams have offered the story to DC Comics and Marvel Entertainment in the hopes of getting it published, but no deal is yet in place.



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See a Steve Ditko-illustrated romance tale from 1953.

Pop links

Golden Age Comic Book Stories remembers the great Jack Kamen with a selection of the artist's stories, splash pages and covers.

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NPR takes a look at Brazilian psychedelia.

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Newsarama Jeff Trexler analyzes some 1930s and 40s correspondence between Superman co-creator and DC Comics, back when Siegel was first starting to fight for his rights to the character. Weird stuff that manages to paint an even more unsympathetic portrait of the DC regime back then.

...there’s a lot of amazing stuff here — the recurring savage criticism of Joe Shuster’s art; an early critique of Wayne Boring as an artist unsuitable for Superman; the hiring of Winsor McCay, Jr., as Superman ghost-artist-in-training; the insinuation that Superman was not significantly more popular than Zatara, Pep Morgan and Tex Thomson; and the prohibition on depictions of a flying Clark Kent are just a few of the historical moments in the mix.

Yet it is the sex stuff that really stands out, providing a rare insiders’ perspective on the comics writing culture of the past. One of the true highlights of the newly released correspondence is the black-and-white sketch of Lois Lane included in this post. The artist was Siegel’s and Shuster’s editor, Whitney Ellsworth, who was attempting to get the duo to make Lois Lane less curvaceous.

Shuster’s Lois was so “unpleasantly sexy” that her pulchritude made her seem a bit too heavy–a problem for which Ellsworth and Murray Boltinoff had an easy solution:

[W]hy it is necessary to shade Lois’ breasts and the underside of her tummy with vertical pen-lines we can’t understand. She looks pregnant. Murray suggests that you arrange for her to have an abortion or the baby and get it over with so that her figure can return to something a little more like the tasty dish she is supposed to be.

...The criticism did not stop with Lois, however. Another alleged problem with Shuster’s artwork is that it made Superman look gay — or in the period slang of Ellsworth’s January 22, 1940, letter, “lah-de-dah” with a “nice fat bottom.”

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Pappy presents one of Ogen Whitney's Herbie tales.



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Check out a rare, 1969 radio broadcast by the Bonzo Dog Band.

10 comic book covers by Jack Kamen

A prolific comics artist from the 1940s and '50s, Jack Kamen passed away Aug. 5. He's likely best known for his work on EC Comics horror tales and his earlier stint on various jungle girl strips.

More trivia: Kamen's son, Dean, is the inventor of the Segway personal transport vehicle.

Comic book historian Mark Evanier has more details about the elder Kamen's career here.

Here's a look at some of Kamen's comic book covers. I found the scans at the Great Comic Book Database:

Man from U.N.C.L.E. memorabilia

Continuing with a sporadic stream of recent posts of all things U.N.C.L.E.:


Man from U.N.C.L.E. action figure/doll


Card game


Girl from U.N.C.L.E. garter holster. What parents wouldn't want their daughters playing with this?!!






lunch box




model




shooting arcade


record


coloring book


puzzle


plastic figures. I had one of these! I colored it with markers...


gun


puzzle 2


puzzle 3


record 2


gun 2

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series
Buy New: $139.99

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Book
Author: Jon Heitland; Buy New: $19.95

Pop links

Jon's Random Acts of Geekery presents "The Genius of George Pal."

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NPR interviews one of fave recent musical artists, UK roots R&B guy James Hunter, who has a new record out. Seriously, if you love Sam Cooke and that early 60s soul sound, you're gonna love his stuff.

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Current Doctor Who actor David Tennant is getting good reviews in a UK production of "Hamlet."

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Pappy shares an old Ghost Patrol story. Nice Carmine Infantino art.



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Slay Monstrobot helpfully points out that you can now get nearly every dang Star Trek comic published by every publisher on DVD. Legally even.

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Amazon has a video up of Brian Wilson performing a tune from his upcoming album, That Lucky Old Sun. Not so crazy about the tune itself, a collaboration with Van Dyke Parks I guess, but Brian sounds great. The new LP, has earned rave reviews in the UK music mags.

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Imagine bumping into Paul McCartney at the Circle K. Some folks in Illinois don't have to.

On Saturday afternoon, a group of Springfield guys stopped at the Circle K on their way to St. Louis for the Cardinals-Phillies game. While in the parking lot, they saw someone walk by who looked just like McCartney.

“We were getting in the car as he was walking in,” says C.J. Lowder. “I said, ‘Man, that looks like Paul McCartney.’”

The Bronco parked on the side of the gas station, not in the front. The man who looked like Sir Paul didn’t buy anything inside, but used the station, just off Interstate 55, for a “pit stop.” Nobody at the gas station even noticed him, Lowder said.

“Josh (Lowder, C.J.’s brother) said ‘Hey, Paul!’ and he said, ‘What’s up?’ with this real thick English accent, and I knew it was him,” C.J. Lowder said.

Roy Orbison box set on the way

The Soul of Rock and Roll, a four-CD survey of Roy Orbison's recording career will be out Sept. 23, Billboard reports.

The collection boasts 107 tunes, including 12 previously unreleased recordings, ranging from Orbison's Sun Records days through his glorious hit years on the Monument label and through his 80s resurgence.

No track list as of yet. The box will have liner notes contributes by Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Neil Diamond, Tom Waits, Dolly Parton, Tom Petty and others.

The Soul of Rock and Roll
Buy New: $59.98

Beatles tape that's mostly not the Beatles sells for $23,000

A tape that features John Lennon and Paul McCartney joking and cracking up during a recording session for "I'll Follow the Sun" has sold at auction for $23,000, The Associated Press reports.

But, as mentioned here the other day, most of the music on the tape isn't the Beatles. And the recording comes from a BBC radio recording session, not the sessions for Beatles For Sale.

Beatles bootleg expert Doug Sulpy, whose words and ears we very much trust, recently posted this info on his message board:

I've received samples of all the tracks, and done an A/B with the available BBC material.

1. Don't Put Me Down Like This - Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers
2-5. I Feel Fine / She's a Woman / Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby / Honey Don't
- as aired.
6. I'll Follow The Sun (breakdown) - After the line "...I was the one" there's an errant guitar note, causing them to break into laughter, as John exclaims: "I never did anything, I didn't!"
7. I'll Follow The Sun (chat) - this is the sample on the news report.
8. I'll Follow The Sun - Evidently not the "final" version. Perhaps a little faster tempo? No mistakes, and almost indistinguishable from the aired take.
9-10. I'll Follow The Sun / I'm a Loser - as aired.
11-14. Too Much Monkey Business / Nitty Gritty -> Somethings Got A Hold On Me / I Shall Not Be Moved - The Hollies

So, really, it seems the only thing new here is the breakdown(s) and alternate take of "I'll Follow The Sun." Given that all the chat seems centered around that song, I wonder if most of the tape is simply the show, as aired, with the early takes of "I'll Follow The Sun" preserved because they were left unerased at the end of the first side of the tape.

I hope whoever is paying the big bucks for this thing is a Hollies fan...