Tagged: 1979
Comic Cover of the Week: ENTER ‘SQUATCH!
To this day one of my all time favorite Marvel comics characters is most definitely Sasquatch, known mainly as a member of Canada’s greatest super hero team: Alpha Flight. However over the years he’s had several great tussles with The Incredible Hulk, one of my favorites is this 1979 Hulk annual, where we get to see the two of them go toe to toe. I’ve always loved how HUGE they made him, as a kid I just could not get enough of him and the Alpha Flight. This particular comic was one I got in the 1980s and the cover always blew me away. The giant tree being used as a weapon was a truly nice touch and it wouldn’t be the first time these two met in the wilderness! Looking at this more closely today again brought me back to a time when comic books felt very special in a day and age when they feel mostly disposable. These books (especially the annuals) had some real weight to them and I’ll always appreciate these older back issues and the wonder they filled me with. A great cover by Al Milgrom a true comic book icon…
And as I mentioned earlier the size of Sasquatch in the comics, here Hulk penciller Sal Buscema really brings the beastly gentle giant to life. What a great full panel!
This issue was loosely made into an animated episode too of the Incredible Hulk in the 1990s-check out a clip fellow ‘Squatch fans!
Comic Cover of the Week: Shang-Chi Meets H.P. Lovecraft!
There are certain comic book covers that just pop right off the page at you when you see ’em & Master of Kung Fu #75 is one ’em! This cool cover way back from 1979 shows again just how damn good of an artist the master Mike Zeck is! This one shows Shang-Chi doing battle with a giant fish man that looks straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft story. I love the simplicity of some covers and this one gets straight to the point with an amazing underwater struggle facing the Master of Kung Fu. There are some truly jaw dropping covers in the Master of Kung Fu comic book back catalogue & Zeck’s done a great deal of them, ah those good ol’ days…
Best of VHS Box Art: Prophecy!!
Have I ever mentioned how much I love monster movies? Well being a huge fan of the creature feature I thought I’d showcase one of my personal favorites. Prophecy from 1979 is a damn good movie that still holds up quite well even in 2016. It’s a monster movie with a message, don’t pollute the rivers cuz if you do you just might end up with a wildly mutated pissed off monster grizzly bear in your forests! Yeah John Frankenheimer does a wonderful job bringing this twister creature feature to life and the box/ poster art is one of my favorites check it:
It really doesn’t get too much better than this as far as awesome cover art goes and also having a movie that’s actually as cool as it’s poster art in this era can at time be a difficult task. As a kid this cover always stuck with me from way back in the video store days. If you haven’t seen this one then make sure this Halloween you track it down, you won’t be disappointed!
Comic Book Cover of the Week: PLASTIC MAN Vs. Monster Sewer Sludge?!
I had thoughts this morning for some reason about the 1979 Plastic Man cartoon! It made me wanna feature a cool old classic Plastic Man cover. This one from 1966 sees Plastic Man caught down in the sewers battling a creature created from meat by products and sludge?! Yep! Yuck! Plastic Man had some weird ass stories and villains back in the day and this cover is one of the coolest from that era wonderfully drawn by Ramona Fradon.
While we’re on topic lets take a peek back at that Plastic Man Cartoon!
And let’s not forget there was an elastic Plastic Man action figure too:
also here’s Robert Smith from The Cure as Plastic Man for the hell of it:
Also Plastic Man on the Superfriends! Whatta team up!
and some live action Plastic Man!
Vintage Monster Toys: Gre-Gory The Vampire Bat – He’s FUN!
Toys back in the 1970’s were pretty fantastic, they had a particular look & feel to them that the toys of today just can’t match! I’m sure there are some pretty bad ass toys out these days, but back in the 70’s it was pretty random. A toy was created pretty much for the hell of it often times, as just something cool a kid might dig. Thus bringing us to today’s showcased toy- ‘Gre-Gory the Big Bad Vampire Bat”. He wasn’t part of a popular movie franchise, he wasn’t in a cartoon or a comic book-nope he was just a cool ass vampire bat made for the kids!
The cool thing about this bat that made it a must have for all the cool kids was that you could see it’s inner organs through a see through plastic chest piece, but that ain’t all-it had a button you pressed on it’s back that pumped blood through them!
1979-80 was a cool time to be a toy vampire bat-you could use gregory to terrorize your GI Joe’s or attack Ken & barbie on their honeymoon! Gre-Gory is a classic toy monster that should never be forgotten!!
Check out this rad video! Get the scoop on Gre-Gory!
Truly STRANGE Celebrity Comic Book Appearances!! Part 1!
I am going to do a little research here to find out the most bizarre celebrity appearances in comic books over the years-believe me there are some weird ones! This first week will focus on the legendary comic book appearance of Alice Cooper that took place in 1979 in Marvel Premiere #50!!
This is a pretty fun comic book altogether with some great artwork and zany story that follows our hero Alice as he tries to escape from the mental ward where he’s basically abused by “The Doctor” the story’s villain. It seems ol’ Alice just can’t catch a break here as he’s foiled again and again.
The comic book adventure is titled “From the Inside” and is based on the album of the same name. This wasn’t the last appearance of Alice in a Marvel Comic book he actually returned again in 1994 for a 3 part mini series written by Neil Gaiman called The Last Temptation which accompanied his album of the same name. So Alice is a certified Marvel character! Check them out!
It’s 1987: Trick or Treat! How about a Comic Book Instead?!
Way back in 1987 Marvel had an idea-let’s give kids comic books instead of candy on Halloween! Yeah back in those days people were super freaked out that Halloween candy was poisoned or that it had razor blades and needle s stuck in it. Whoever started that rumor has gotta be a major party pooper-I mean did anyone ever really get harmed by Halloween candy?! Well Marvel had the solution and one that really should have stuck-mini comic books instead! Hell I’d take an Incredible Hulk comic over a Baby Ruth any day!!! Check this out:
Well along with my mini comics I’ll gladly take one of these Hulk Trick or Treat candy or in this case comic book carriers from 1979!!
More Monsters Like 1979’s Prophecy Please!
I will admit, yes, I do love horror movies! However not the kind that could actually happen to us in real life or torture porn like “Saw” or “Hostel” in the least bit. No when I say I like horror movies what I’m really saying is I love monster movies! Ever since I was a little kid I have been obsessed with monsters-and still even as an adult (in age at least) I will still admit that I am still obsessed with monsters! The problem is today is that a good monster movie is really hard to come by-and most these days are stuffed to the brim with wretched looking CG. There have been a few exceptions like “Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer”, “Splinter” and “Feast”. However in 2011 I feel it’s important to remind people like myself about some of the lesser known gems that must been seen for the first time or re watched in the monster genre.
Today’s gem is 1979’s monster movie bonanza “Prophecy”! If you call yourself a monster fanatic and you never seen this I’ll come over this evening while you’re sleeping an egg your house! Continue reading
KRUSHER! Better than Stretch Monster??!
Ok after my plea from my blog earlier today for someone to reveal to me and in a way reunite me with one of my all time favorite toys as a kid I got a speedy response from my friend TJ! It turns out that I was on the right track as I tried to remember the name of one of the coolest late 70’s toy monsters, Krusher!! I was searching for Crusher instead but now have found some rad images of him and a strange Youtube video as well. First off here’s what he looked like on the cover of the box he came in! What a bad ass huh?? You could deflate him and krush him up into a ball-then inflate him usuing his nifty belt!
So I thought maybe there would be a cool old school commercial up on Youtube but instead I first found this weird video of this guy playing with Krusher while Olivia Newton John’s hit song “Physical” plays in the background. Continue reading
1979: The Year of the BEST action Figure EVER!
These new developments of the Alien prequel have gotten me so excited I began to have visions of an action figure only a couple lucky friends of mine had back in the day. Yes this was the 1979 Alien action figure! They actually made action figures for kids back in the 70’s for movies that were rated R!
You couldn’t go see the movie but you could make your Alien action figure feast on Barbie or Ken seven days a week!! Continue reading
Universal Dork 