Pop Focus: Doc Savage - the movie

There are so many cool things about Doc Savage, where do you start? Here's a brief checklist:
  • He's super strong
  • And super smart.
  • He's got his own crew - "The Fabulous Five" - who are all really good at different stuff and who will follow him anywhere.
  • He lives on the top of the Empire State Building.
  • And owns a submarine, a blimp, a helicopter and a superfast car.
  • He designed a "super machine pistol" that fires "mercy bullets" that don't kill bad guys, just knock them out so they can be sent to a sanitarium upstate to be rehabilitated.
  • He had a Fortress of Solitude decades before Superman knew it was cool.
And in 1975, he had a movie. I never saw it, though I was a huge Doc fan, having been introduced to Marvel Comics' black-and-white Doc Savage magazine the same year. The movie never came to my town and never seemed to turn up on TV. I had to make-do with my Marvel mags and the Bantam paperback reprints of Doc's pulp adventures. Thankfully, those were around everywhere.

My Dad told me he'd read some Doc pulps as a kid, but my search for any remaining copies in my grandfather's attic was in vain. It wasn't until years later that I saw any of the real pulps in person.

Now, of course, everything is available anytime, everywhere. Doc's novels have been republished as two-fers by Nostalgia Ventures and Sanctum Books and Will Murphy is writing a series of new Doc books published by Altus Press. There's also continued talk of a new Doc movie, possibly starring Christopher Hemsworth, who'd be great.

The first film is available on DVD and streaming on Amazon Prime, but I still haven't watched it. Maybe I know that grown-up me will disappoint child-me by finding it ludicrous. Someday.

In the meantime, here's an array of pics from the film and other Doc-focused memorabilia.




The Doc Savage pulps were a key inspiration for Superman, Batman and other Golden Age comics heroes

Doc Savage creator Lester Dent a.k.a. Kenneth Robeson
The first Doc Savage pulp adventure, adapted for the 1975 movie
The Bantam paperback version of Man of Bronze
Former TV Tarzan Ron Ely as Doc Savage in the 1975 film



Doc Savage and his Fabulous Five









Doc art by Jim Steranko, a super-Savage fan


Steranko's Super Graphics publishing house created a Doc fan club, the Brotherhood of Bronze, in the 1970s

I loved the Doc black-and-white mag published by Marvel

Vintage movie poster: Children of the Damned


Pop culture roundup: Jack Kirby; Beach Boys; monster comics

Mum's the word on the legal settlement between Marvel Comics and the Estate of cartoonist Jack Kirby, but rumor has it Kirby's family will receive something in the neighborhood of "eight figures" to keep ownership of the characters Kirby co-created out of court.
Possibly, worried he may have said too much, my very well-connected source defined the settlement as “eight figures. Mid eight figures.” Which leads me to believe we could be looking from anywhere between $30 million to $50 million, either way the largest single sum settlement that any comic book creator’s estate has ever received for such a legal settlement in history.
The deal also ensures that Jack Kirby will receive full named credit on upcoming movies based, or partly based, on his work.
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Just who the heck is on the LP cover of the Beach Boys' Friends album anyway? That's the important topic of debate over at the Steve Hoffman music forum. I say that's definitely Paul McCartney, prominently on the left in gree. And there's a good chance the green fellow on the right is Donovan. But how about the rest? And why?

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Check out the Longbox Graveyard's Monster Comics Gallery!

Fab Friday: Vintage Beatles pics









Cute: Disney Robin Hood and Jungle Book figures from Funko POP


More here.

Today's best picture ever: Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin


Vintage movie poster: The Black Castle


New comics Oct. 15, 2014

Click the links to order discounted items from Amazon.

Batman '66 Vol. 2
Back to the Swingin' '60s as DC Comics reimagines the classic Batman TV series in comics form.  These all-new stories portray The Caped Crusader, The Boy Wonder and their fiendish rogues gallery just the way viewers remember them.

In this volume, one of Batman's deadliest foes—King Tut returns to Gotham City to assert his royal status and challenge the Dynamic Duo with his most far reaching plan yet to rule the modern Thebes known as Gotham City!

Collects issues #6-10.

Batman '66 Vol. 1
CAN the Caped Crusader unravel the Riddler's latest ruse?

WILL Catwoman, that feline queen of crime, sink her claws into our heroes?

HAVE the Dynamic Duo met their match in the Antarctic Alliance of the Penguin and Mr. Freeze?

WHO will get the last laugh when Batman and Robin are forced to team up with the Clown Prince of Crime himself—the Joker?

The answers await you on each pulse-pounding page of BATMAN '66 VOL. 1, an all-new collection of spine-tingling, swashbuckling stories in the style of the classic Batman TV series!

Written by Jeff Parker and illustrated by a gallery of great—including Jonathan Case, Ty Templeton, Joe Quinones, Sandy Jarrell, Ruben Procopio and Colleen Coover—each action-packed adventure captures the high-spirited hijinx that have made Batman and the Boy Wonder the world's gold standard for daring do-gooders!

Collects issues #1-5.

Marvel Masterworks: Ms. Marvel Volume 1
The year was 1977, and Marvel was set to debut its latest and greatest new super heroine. NASA Security Chief Carol Danvers' life had long been intertwined with the alien Kree's interventions on Earth. But now it was time for this new woman in a new era to take on a new persona all her own - Ms. Marvel! As editor of Woman magazine, Danvers must contend with the Marvel Universe's biggest blowhard, J. Jonah Jameson, while discovering her identity and origins as a super hero.

COLLECTING: Ms. Marvel (1977) 1-14

Thor Epic Collection: The God of Thunder
Pull up a seat to the beginning of one of the greatest tales of modern myth - the epic saga of the Mighty Thor! While vacationing in Norway, Dr. Donald Blake discovered a strange, gnarled cane. Upon striking it, a shower of lightning rained down and the hobbled doctor found himself transformed into Thor, God of Thunder! In these pages you'll journey across the Rainbow Bridge to Eternal Asgard, and meet Lord Odin, Heimdall, Balder, and Thor's evil half-brother, Loki, for the first ti me. And to top it off , the mythological origins of Asgard are revealed in fan-favorite backup features!

COLLECTING: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1952) 83-109 (THOR EPIC COLLECTION VOL. 1)

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: "The Seven Cities Of Gold" (Vol. 14)  (The Carl Barks Library)
Collects further Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge/Donald Duck stories — including the one that inspired Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Uncle Scrooge takes Donald and the nephews on a perilous trek in search of the fabled seven cities of gold! This is the Scrooge story famous for providing Steven Spielberg and George Lucas with inspiration for parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Speaking of gold and movies, James Bond fans might recognize in “The Mysterious Stone Ray” a gimmick that was later used in Goldfinger — Uncle Scrooge’s pores fill with gold dust from his money bin. It makes him ill so he goes on vacation, which turns into a rescue mission for a sailor stranded on an island with some very mysterious baddies. Also, Scrooge decides to run for Treasurer of Duckburg, but it seems the only way to get votes is to spend a lot of money. (Sound familiar?) And you know what Uncle Scrooge thinks of that! Carl Barks delivers another superb collection of clever plot twists, laughout- loud comedy, and all-around cartooning brilliance. Full color